tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17277603224301100492024-03-11T23:50:34.511-05:00Musical MusingsThoughts and impressions on composers, musicians and their musicAlan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.comBlogger608125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-74441001153621492742024-02-24T10:35:00.000-06:002024-02-24T10:35:07.640-06:00Schubert - Piano Sonata No. 21 In B-flat Major, D. 960<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFtWThy0CUIJc-T57NSTprDaFy-LzHLzZAHqvrSVsk7_MqN7hdgJO2orzE9zeDM4EFTdQwBMlEgYw7mMonQbtbL4NSLRlX5o2JMcay1v4u5zMoek6PGz7idEfOTwe4OC2DMERyDEBblII/s1600/schubert+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFtWThy0CUIJc-T57NSTprDaFy-LzHLzZAHqvrSVsk7_MqN7hdgJO2orzE9zeDM4EFTdQwBMlEgYw7mMonQbtbL4NSLRlX5o2JMcay1v4u5zMoek6PGz7idEfOTwe4OC2DMERyDEBblII/s1600/schubert+cropped.jpg" width="238" /></a></div>
The last three piano sonatas of Franz Schubert were written during the last months of his life. Schubert had been suffering from the effects of syphilis for some time, but he coped with the symptoms and even put on a concert of his own works in March of 1828 that was a success with the public and critics. Music publishers were beginning to show more interest in his works, and for a very short time Schubert was free from financial worries. <br />
<br />
Despite his illness, Schubert continued to compose one work after the other. Starting in the spring of 1828 he composed many works, among them a Mass, various piano pieces, many songs that were printed posthumously in a collection titled <i>Schwanengesang</i>, as well as the three final piano sonatas. In September of 1828 his health took a turn for the worse and his doctor advised him move out of the city, so he moved into his brother Ferdinand's house which was in the suburbs of Vienna. Up until the very last weeks of his life Schubert continued to compose until he no longer was able. Schubert finished his last piano sonata on September 26, 1828. He died November 19, 1828. He was but 31 years old.<br />
<br />
The last three piano sonatas were not published until ten years after Schubert's death. Schubert's piano sonatas were neglected during most of the 19th century. His other music came to be revered, but the common opinion about his piano sonatas were that they were inferior to his other works. Even Robert Schumann, to whom the publisher of the last sonatas dedicated the works, was of this opinion:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Whether they were written from his sickbed or not, I have been unable to determine. The
music would suggest that they were. And yet it is possible that one imagines things when
the portentous designation, ‘last works,’ crowds one’s fantasy with thoughts of
impending death. Be that as may, these sonatas strike me as differing conspicuously from
his others, particularly in a much greater simplicity of invention, in a voluntary
renunciation of brilliant novelty—an area in which he otherwise made heavy demands
upon himself—and in the spinning out of certain general musical ideas instead of adding
new threads to them from phrase to phrase, as was otherwise his custom. It is as though
there could be no ending, nor any embarrassment about what should come next. Even
musically and melodically it ripples along from page to page, interrupted here and there
by single more abrupt impulses—which quickly subside</i>.
</blockquote>
An exception to this 19th century opinion was Brahms, who was fond of the sonatas and studied them intensely. The sonatas continued to be neglected until early in the 20th century when a handful of pianists like Artur Schnabel championed the works and played them in recitals. The last piano sonata is in 4 movements:<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">I. Molto moderato - </span> </b>No doubt one of the reasons for the negative attitudes about this piano sonata is the inordinate length of the first movement. This first movement averages about twenty minutes if the exposition repeat is taken, which is as long as many complete sonatas. Because of the length of this movement some pianists do not take the exposition repeat, thus shortening the work. The exposition repeat became somewhat of an option with later composers, but with Schubert it is essential. There are many things that differentiate the later sonatas from the earlier ones, one of which is the long, lyrical themes that take time to unfold, which contribute to the length of movements. The first theme of this movement begins with a theme that is calm and lyrical. This theme is interrupted by a trill on G-flat, a most unusual interruption that sounds foreign harmonically, almost sinister. The theme resumes after this intrusion and is then slightly developed by means of a key change to G-flat. Schubert modulates back to the tonal center of B-flat for the rest of the theme. Schubert then introduces what amounts to a long transition to the second main theme of the movement. He begins this transition material in the key of F-sharp minor, moves the home key and then the second theme makes its appearance in the key of F major. More transition material appears before the music of the first ending of the exposition appears, music that is unique and not heard again in the movement. The exposition is repeated verbatim, except for new transition material that leads to the development section. The development section is extensive and modulates quite often to many different keys. The development section comes to an end with the repeat of the mysterious trill on G-flat. The recapitulation repeats the exposition material with the obligatory changes in key to the home key of B-flat major. A short coda brings back the first theme along with the trill on G-flat and the movement ends in B-flat major. <br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="color: orange;">II. Andante sustenuto - </span> </b>Schubert has more harmonic surprises in the second movement. It begins in C-sharp minor, a key that played a role in the development section of the previous movement. The theme is a sad one that is intensified by the accompaniment that covers the bottom, middle and top of the keyboard. A contrasting middle section begins in A major and does its share of harmonic roaming. The first theme returns with some slight alterations. The mood is still sad, but the alterations in the accompaniment have given it an added tension. The theme modulates and finally comes to rest in C-sharp major and the movement ends quietly.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="color: orange;">III. Scherzo: Allegro vivace con delicatezza </span>- </b>The scherzo is in B-flat major and lightens up the mood of two preceding brooding movements. The trio section is in B-flat minor and Schubert creates rhythmic instability by tying notes over the bar line and accenting notes in the left hand, sometimes on the beat, sometimes off the beat. The scherzo is repeated and with a very short coda it comes to a close.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="color: orange;">IV. Allegro ma non troppo – Presto -</span> </b>A movement in sonata form with three main themes. The first is in B-flat major and begins with an octave on G. This is repeated each time the first subject is played. The second theme is more mobile and in F major. The third theme begins with a sharp double forte outburst in F minor. After the third theme is played through, material from the first theme leads directly to the development as the exposition is not repeated. The development section deals with the first theme only. The three themes are repeated in the recapitulation, and the work ends with a coda that is marked <i>presto. <!-- Place this tag where you want the su badge to render -->
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</script>Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-22449318635016691482024-01-29T09:56:00.000-06:002024-01-29T09:56:28.121-06:00Berlioz - Grande Messe Des Morts (Requiem) Opus 5<div style="text-align: justify;">The political climate in the second decade of the 19th century in France was precarious at best. Napoleon had been exiled to Elba in 1814 after his abdication as Emperor, and the house of Bourbon was restored to power with <i>King Louis XVIII</i>, younger brother of <i>King Louis XVI</i> (who had been executed during the French Revolution of 1789-1799).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6LiFnsuv9d1Jt-0qiDiPf4ttyq9fIFBnEo1lOFGhOpOW-iuHjv49dubRfOI5rkKOJ1dYeyribx7coBOzSbi7mi_1u2nuKnPFskdh7gOYU3ENF9Jt_hKK-rImtX_5lD55s1ULUR6kD41c/s1600/220px-Berlioz_young.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6LiFnsuv9d1Jt-0qiDiPf4ttyq9fIFBnEo1lOFGhOpOW-iuHjv49dubRfOI5rkKOJ1dYeyribx7coBOzSbi7mi_1u2nuKnPFskdh7gOYU3ENF9Jt_hKK-rImtX_5lD55s1ULUR6kD41c/s1600/220px-Berlioz_young.jpg" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">But with Napoleon's escape from Elba and return to France in February of 1815, the new King had to go into hiding. Napoleon ruled for a period called The Hundred Days before he was defeated for good. <i>King XVIII</i> came out of hiding and ruled until 1824 when he died. Yet another Bourbon brother then came into power, <i>Charles X</i>. He was to rule until 1830 when the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Revolution" target="_blank">July Revolution</a> forced him to abdicate. Yet another monarch was brought into power, this time a cousin of the Bourbon family, Louis Philippe I. His reign was known as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Monarchy" target="_blank">July Monarchy</a> and lasted until 1848, when he also became another member of French royalty that was forced to abdicate on France's long and convoluted evolution to a more democratic form of government.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was in 1837 during the reign of <i>Louis Philippe I</i> when the Minister Of The Interior <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrien_de_Gasparin" target="_blank">Adrien de Gasparin</a> approached Hector Berlioz with a request to compose a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem" target="_blank">Requiem Mass</a> in honor of those who died in the 1830 Revolution, but after Berlioz had composed the work and hired copyists, an official informed him that the ceremony was to be held without music (possibly at the instigation of one of Berlioz's enemies). For the next few months Berlioz pestered and complained to the authorities until the news came that the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_conquest_of_Algeria" target="_blank">Battle Of Constantine</a> in Algiers had been won by the French, but that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles-Marie_Denys_de_Damr%C3%A9mont" target="_blank">General Damrémont</a> had been killed in the battle. Plans were then changed once again, and the Requiem was to be performed at a memorial concert in the church of Les Invalides for the General and soldiers that died in the battle.</div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUIou27PJx7rxmW7S2NeR9mVv1xvF6mVAheACq15UzOPb4w5505abAF7bwO-oNJJDMoKMnT9w7zcpulo0V9wWE51EAhqt9Cg22D_fcC5V3MV2FZGYUwTd0Hbsdo-WT6jR0u0IWfdqkO68/s1600/InvalidesLarge.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUIou27PJx7rxmW7S2NeR9mVv1xvF6mVAheACq15UzOPb4w5505abAF7bwO-oNJJDMoKMnT9w7zcpulo0V9wWE51EAhqt9Cg22D_fcC5V3MV2FZGYUwTd0Hbsdo-WT6jR0u0IWfdqkO68/w191-h227/InvalidesLarge.jpg" width="191" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Dome of <i>Les Invalides</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Berlioz's <i>Requiem</i> reflects the contemporary improvements of intonation and mechanics of the woodwind and brass. Older versions of these instruments could be notoriously difficult to keep in tune and play. Berlioz uses a huge complement of instruments and makes great demands of the entire ensemble. Berlioz had already shown his proclivity for using large forces in his <a href="http://muswrite.blogspot.com/2011/11/berlioz-symphonie-fantastique.html" target="_blank">Symphonie Fantastique</a> of 1830, but he went even further with the orchestration of his <i>Requiem</i>. In the score he called for over 100 stringed instruments alone. All the other sections of the orchestra show the same use of large forces, especially the brass. Twenty brass instruments are called for, <i>plus </i>another 38 brass instruments divided into 4 brass choirs, with one placed on the four corners of the stage. In the premiere of the work, over 400 singers and instrumentalists participated, but Berlioz encouraged the use of even more performers if they could be utilized and suggested that all parts should be adjusted accordingly. Berlioz made two revisions to the work over the years, the final one in 1867.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The church of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Invalides" target="_blank">Les Invalides</a>, where the premiere was given is part of a complex of buildings relating to the military history of France. The acoustics of the large dome of the church had an influence on the <i>Requiem</i>. Berlioz was always concerned with orchestral color and his imagination would run the range of delicate and soft to incredibly robust and loud. The dome of the church was to be Berlioz's soundboard for his musical forces. The premiere of the work was met with success, but for most of Berlioz's career he remained on the periphery of French musical life, although his works were more appreciated in other countries.</div>
<br />
The <i>Requiem</i> is in ten sections:<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">1) Requiem et Kyrie</span></b><o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: justify;">Berlioz was not a particularly religious man, so his Requiem is not what could be called pious, but it certainly is dramatic. He begins with a stark theme played in unison. The choir enters with a short fugal section, and then the key turns to major for a brief respite. The fugal texture resumes with interludes of differing moods. The music changes mood and grows quiet, until the <i>Kyrie</i> enters in a hush. The subdued dynamics are maintained until a crescendo brings the music to a climax. After a dissonance, the choir ends their singing and the orchestra ends the movement in quiet poignancy.</div>
<br />
<i>Grant them eternal rest, O Lord,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>and may perpetual light shine on them<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>You, O God, are praised in Zion<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>and unto You shall the vow be<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>performed in Jerusalem. Hear my<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>prayer, unto You shall all flesh come.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Hear my prayer,<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>all flesh comes to you.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Lord have mercy.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Christ have mercy.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Lord have mercy.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="color: orange;"><b>2) Dies Irae - </b></span><o:p></o:p><b style="color: orange;">Tuba Mirum</b></div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: justify;">The ancient <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dies_Irae" target="_blank">dies irae</a> </i>is sung in counterpoint by the choir and is interrupted twice by the orchestra as it plays an upward sweeping chromatic scale. After each orchestral interruption. the choir becomes more dramatic, until another orchestra interruption brings on the <i>tuba mirum</i>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All four of the brass choirs, joining in one by one, blare out in a tremendous wall of sound that must have shook the church of <i>Les Invalides</i>, but then Berlioz summons the choir as well as 16 timpani, 4 tam-tams, and two bass drums in a section that no recording can do justice to. After this tremendous barrage of sound, the choir continues the text that is set to eerie, otherworldly themes. The fanfares of the beginning of the section return as well as the massed percussion as the choir roars out the remaining text. The music grows quiet as the choir continues in muffled tones. The movement ends as the first movement did, quietly.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In his <i>Memoirs</i>, Berlioz described the playing of the <i>tuba mirum</i> section at the premiere, and the steps Berlioz himself took to ensure that it came off properly:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcUVeJnDC9n09E1CTutD9sdG6V2B09FqgWwj4ogtS03MczW-Y6iEPgwe_fQ-2f1VGeHeEG51favim_2TaAeAp0IXrXCAp9EQp_rXH2wBAjnJ_RI8s452dQSn9419XZLE0Vf-PYZ0bfceI/s1600/habeneck.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcUVeJnDC9n09E1CTutD9sdG6V2B09FqgWwj4ogtS03MczW-Y6iEPgwe_fQ-2f1VGeHeEG51favim_2TaAeAp0IXrXCAp9EQp_rXH2wBAjnJ_RI8s452dQSn9419XZLE0Vf-PYZ0bfceI/s1600/habeneck.jpg" width="131" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">François Habeneck</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Because of my habitual suspicion, I had posted myself behind [conductor François] Habeneck. With my back to his, I was watching the group of timpani players, which he could not see, as the moment approached when they were to take part in the general mêlée. There </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">are perhaps a thousand bars in my Requiem. At precisely the point I have been speaking of, when the tempo broadens and the brass instruments launch their awesome fanfare, in the one bar where the role of the conductor is absolutely indispensable, Habeneck lowered his baton, quietly pulled out his snuff box and started to take a pinch of snuff. I was still looking in his direction. Immediately I pivoted on my heels, rushed in front of him, stretched out my arms and indicated the four main beats of the new tempo. The orchestras followed me, everything went off as planned, I continued to conduct to the end of the piece, and the effect I had dreamed of was achieved. When at the last words of the chorus Habeneck saw that the Tuba mirum was saved: "What a cold sweat I had, "he said, "without you we were lost!" Yes, I know very well," I replied, looking straight at him. I did not add a word … Did he do it on purpose?… "</span></div></blockquote>
<i>Day of wrath, that day</i></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>the earth will dissolve in ashes,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>as witness David and the Sibyl.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>What dread there will be,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>when the Judge shall come<o:p></o:p></i></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>to strictly judge all things.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>A trumpet, spreading a wondrous sound</i></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Through the graves of all lands,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Will drive mankind before the throne.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Death and Nature shall be astonished<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>When all creation rises again<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>To answer to the Judge.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>A book that is written in will be brought forth<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>In which is contained everything that is,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Out of which the world shall be judged.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>When the judge takes his seat<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Whatever is hidden will reveal itself.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Nothing will remain unavenged.</i><o:p></o:p><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<br />
<i></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange;"><b>3) Quid Sum Miser</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A short movement that conjures up the after effects of Judgement Day by including fragments of the <i>dies irae </i>that sound in the orchestra as the choir sings the text.<br />
<br />
<i>What then shall I say, wretch that I am,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>What advocate will entreat to speak for me,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>When even the righteous may hardly be secure?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Remember, blessed Jesu,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>That I am the cause of Your pilgrimage.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Do not forsake me on that day.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>I pray in supplication on my knees.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>My heart contrite as the dust,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Take care of my end.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="color: orange;"><b>4) Rex Tremendae</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The music begins by sounding majestic, and then changes to pleading. This alternation of moods runs throughout the movement. The movement ends with one last plea for saving from the abyss.<br />
<br />
<i>King of awful majesty.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Who freely saves the redeemed,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Save me, O fount of goodness.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Remember, blessed Jesu,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>That I am the cause of Your pilgrimage.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Do not forsake me on that day.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>When the accursed have been confounded (Jesu)<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>And given over to the bitter flames.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Call me...<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>And from the bottomless pit.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Deliver me from the lion's mouth.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Lest I fall into darkness<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>And the black abyss swallow me up.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">5) Quaerens Me</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This movement is performed by the choir without orchestra. A middle section is in multiple part counterpoint. The music ends gently.<br />
<br />
<i>Seeking me You did sit down weary<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>You did redeem me, suffering death on the cross.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Let no such toil be in vain.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Just and avenging Judge.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Grant remission<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Before the day of reckoning.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>I groan like a guilty man.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Spare a suppliant, O God.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>My prayers are not worthy,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>But You in Your merciful goodness grant<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>That I burn not in everlasting fire.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>You who did absolve Mary Magdalen<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>And hearken to the thief,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>To me also has given hope.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Place me among Your sheep<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>And separate me from the goats.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Setting me on your right hand.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange;"><b>6) Lacrymosa</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A restless rhythmic pulse begins the movement, and the texture of the music grows in density, passion and volume until the 4 brass choirs join in (for the last time in the work) near the end of the movement for a climax that fades to silence to end the movement.<br />
<br />
<i>Mournful that day<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>When from the dust shall rise<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Guilty man to be judged<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Merciful Jesu, Lord<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Grant them eternal rest.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange;"><b>7) Domine Jesu Christe</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: justify;">The chorus sings a three-note motive throughout the movement that consists of but two different notes- A, B-flat, A. Berlioz added a subtitle to this movement in the second edition of the <i>Requiem</i> -<i>Choeur des âmes
du purgatoire</i> (chorus of the souls in purgatory) which was removed from the third edition. The orchestra plays various themes in counterpoint over the chorus' mournful chanting. This movement struck many of Berlioz's contemporaries with its form and the effect of the chorus' incessant chant. The movement winds down with the mood of the music changing as the choir finally changes their chant to a different theme. The three-note motive returns, except this time the notes are A, B natural, A, and are sung to an <i>amen</i>.</div>
<br />
<i>Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory,</i><br />
<i>deliver the souls of all the</i><br />
<i>faithful departed from the pains</i><br />
<i>of hell and from the bottomless pit.</i><br />
<i>And let St. Michael Your standard</i><br />
<i>bearer lead them into the holy</i><br />
<i>light which once You did promise</i><br />
<i>to Abraham and his seed,</i><br />
<i>Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange;"><b>8) Hostias</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: justify;">An example of Berlioz's feel for orchestral color is in the scoring of this short movement for male voices, flutes, trombones and strings. The ending of this movement has some of the most unique sounds heard in the orchestra as the trombones play very low notes that alternate with the high notes of the flute.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<i>We offer unto You</i><br />
<i>this sacrifice of prayer and praise.</i><br />
<i>Receive it for those souls</i><br />
<i>whom today we commemorate.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange;"><b>9) Sanctus</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This movement features a solo tenor that begins the movement and is answered by the female voices of the choir until the choir sings a fugue on <i>Hosanna. </i>The tenor returns along with the women's choir. The <i>Hosanna</i> fugue returns and ends the movement.<br />
<br />
<i>Holy, holy, holy, God of Hosts.</i><br />
<i>Heaven and earth are full</i><br />
<i>of Your glory. Hosanna in the highest.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange;"><b>10) Angus Dei</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: justify;">Woodwind chords that are repeated by the violas begin this movement. Berlioz brings back themes and orchestral effects heard in the other movements, with an extended repeat (with some variations) of much of the first movement. The movement ends with a series of peaceful <i>amens</i> from the choir and gentle taps from the timpani.</div>
<br />
<i>Lamb of God, who takes away the sins</i><br />
<i>of the world, grant them eternal rest.</i><br />
<i>You, O God, are praised in Zion</i><br />
<i>and unto You shall the vow be</i><br />
<i>performed in Jerusalem. Hear my</i><br />
<i>prayer, unto You shall all flesh come.</i><br />
<i>Grant the dead eternal rest,</i><br />
<i>O Lord, and may perpetual light shine</i><br />
<i>on them, with Your saints for ever,</i><br />
<i>Lord, because You are merciful.</i><br />
<i>Amen. </i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br /></i></div>
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</div>Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-72239086774959291092024-01-12T23:18:00.000-06:002024-01-12T23:18:17.230-06:00Mozart - Rondo For Piano In A Minor K. 511<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS3U9Zgh6Bxl0U4qDgbYWrQIYg-4oyI5h8i32T8h5H8h-xgbiMABguZLPFY31SRMTIIhflvVD_Y0dUH_5fLiGhAQMqyXvfYX-LG8WnFFkLsbSAmxBIh2DFCsA0YFR95P_i-S41iI6abB4/s1600/6a00e55355c0d18833014e87eee868970d.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS3U9Zgh6Bxl0U4qDgbYWrQIYg-4oyI5h8i32T8h5H8h-xgbiMABguZLPFY31SRMTIIhflvVD_Y0dUH_5fLiGhAQMqyXvfYX-LG8WnFFkLsbSAmxBIh2DFCsA0YFR95P_i-S41iI6abB4/s1600/6a00e55355c0d18833014e87eee868970d.jpg" width="245" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">As if Mozart's documented abilities as a musician were not enough, there have been all manner of astounding attributes and feats concocted about him through the years. For example, there has been much made of Mozart's methods of composing, that he made no sketches but composed works in his head and when he put pen to paper wrote them out complete. Modern research has discovered that Mozart indeed make sketches of works in progress. There is also evidence that he composed with the assistance of a keyboard, contrary to what has been written for years.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div><div style="text-align: justify;">But as myths continue to be perpetuated by some, the pendulum seldom stays exclusively on one side. Some now err on the opposite side by saying that Mozart was nothing but a slight musical talent, a hack that stole music from his contemporaries. There is enough existing proof to debunk such nonsense, but the opinion persists, specifically with an author that has written an article titled <i>Exploding The Myth Of Mozart. </i>I offer no link, nor do I deem it necessary to include the author's name. A quick Internet search will bring up the article, if anyone wants to see it for themselves. Evidently the same author has promised a book on the subject for quite a few years, but there is no sign it will ever be published. <i> </i>Extreme views, whether on the side of turning Mozart into a God or a dunce, do nothing but create confusion, lies and nonsense.</div>
<br /><div style="text-align: justify;">And in the end, does it matter? Whether he used a keyboard to compose or not, whether he worked out his compositions on paper or not doesn't matter. It is the legacy of his music that matters, and over 200 years after his death, Mozart's music is still being played and enjoyed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Musicologists suggest that <a href="<a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Mozart&amp;ref=nb_sb_noss_2&_encoding=UTF8&tag=muswrite-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=180c67be0dabb49f445d9f63e2cbd1e3&camp=1789&creative=9325">Mozart</a>" target="_blank">Mozart</a> was most famous during his life as an improviser. The art of improvisation in Mozart's time was used as a measurement of the abilities of a musician. Many of the composers of the 18th and 19th centuries were also masters of improvising at the keyboard. With Mozart's documented abilities in improvisation at the keyboard, it is no wonder that many of his compositions were for solo keyboard or included the keyboard in the ensemble. He was evidently a composer that thought musically through his fingers.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The <i>Rondo In A Minor</i> was the third and last Mozart wrote for solo piano. It was written in 1787, apparently not as a commissioned work. Mozart wrote many short stand alone pieces for keyboard throughout his life, but this rondo is rather long (about ten minutes) compared to others he wrote. Mozart made more instruction to the performer in the way of dynamic and phrasing marks than usual, so perhaps this piece was written for a student. The rondo is in a melancholy mood that is lightened by the major mode in the episode sections, and Mozart varies the rondo theme slightly each time it returns. It resembles the slower rondos of <a href="http://muswrite.blogspot.com/2011/09/cpe-bach-farewell-to-my-silberman.html" target="_blank">C.P.E. Bach</a> in its ornamentation and style, and Mozart does not resolve minor key to major key in the ending, but ends the piece in the hushed home key of A minor. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Mozart&ref=nb_sb_noss_2&_encoding=UTF8&tag=muswrite-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=180c67be0dabb49f445d9f63e2cbd1e3&camp=1789&creative=9325" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Mozart</span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
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Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-32278616318476556012023-12-08T13:08:00.001-06:002023-12-25T09:26:56.968-06:00Rachmaninoff - Symphonic Dances, Opus 45<script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-0212552151399515"
crossorigin="anonymous"></script><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik4uDP_anNF5ekv1NSHwBPRuDvcFafjhc7igf4wunNi_xtak_T_BbmxKFcSKmS5fiYVqghMLUGTjSmLi5iI2n7sHmuuoZE6x7tUFek-amzdwMw1axnUNbFLSICjr_Xy0H0bNNEbn3KrdA/s507/x_7a6b4649.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="507" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik4uDP_anNF5ekv1NSHwBPRuDvcFafjhc7igf4wunNi_xtak_T_BbmxKFcSKmS5fiYVqghMLUGTjSmLi5iI2n7sHmuuoZE6x7tUFek-amzdwMw1axnUNbFLSICjr_Xy0H0bNNEbn3KrdA/s320/x_7a6b4649.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Sergei Rachmaninoff completed his last major work, the <i>Symphonic Dances</i>, in 1940. It had a good reception at the time of its premiere in 1941 with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. But subsequent performances were received lukewarmly, and Ormandy showed no interest in recording the work. </div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It was the time of the modernists like Schoenberg and Stravinsky, who each in their own style changed the world of classical music for composers and audiences. Rachmaninoff's music looked backwards instead of forwards. Indeed, his previous composition, the Third Symphony, was akin to the Symphonic Dances as it reflected his past. Rachmaninoff himself knew this better than anyone else. Interviewed in 1939, he admitted:</p><p></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><i>I feel like a ghost wandering in a world grown alien. I cannot cast out the old way of writing and I cannot acquire the new. I have made an intense effort to feel the musical manner of today, but it will not come to me.</i></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">After leaving Russia at a time of great political and cultural upheaval in 1917, Rachmaninoff eventually made his way to the United States and relied on his incredible piano technique and conducting skills to make a living for himself and family. He grew to become financially well-off, so much so that he could afford another home in Lucerne, Switzerland, where he would spend time during the concert off season. It was there that he composed most of his later works. <i>Symphonic Dances</i> was the only major work that was composed in The United States. </p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">I. Non allegro -</span> </b>The music begins quietly with the ticking of strings and the commentary of solo woodwinds in turn. The music turns loud with drums punctuating a rhythmic drive that continues throughout the first section. A piano joins in as the rhythmic dance continues. instruments in turn enter and make their comments, almost like the music is a concerto for orchestra. The first section winds down as the oboe and clarinet herald the beginning of the middle section which is carried by a solo saxophone. The saxophone makes few appearances in the symphony orchestra, but Rachmaninoff's use of it makes a listener wonder why. The tone of the instrument blends nicely with the rest of the woodwinds. Rachmaninoff may have written in a less than modern style for the time, but there is no doubting his skill and talent for orchestration and melody. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The first section returns with brilliance as Rachmaninoff continues to showcase the differing timbres of the orchestral instruments. As the movement begins to wind down, a new theme is played by the strings and accompanied by piano, glockenspiel, and harp. This theme is a reworking of a theme from his <a href="https://muswrite.blogspot.com/2013/10/rachmaninoff-symphony-no-1.html" target="_blank">1st Symphony</a>, which was heard only once in 1897 in Russia. The work had a disastrous premiere, and Rachmaninoff abandoned it. After the reminiscence of the theme, the movement quietly ends with short snippets of the beginning. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">II. Andante con moto (Tempo di valse) -</span></b> It is indeed a waltz as Rachmaninoff designates, but it begins in 6/8 time rather than the usual 3/4 time of a waltz. Rachmaninoff visits the waltz form with ingenuity, a continuation of instrument spotlighting and nostalgia, with some eerie sounds thrown in, like the sounds of muted horns and trumpets. There is a solo for violin that leads the proceedings. There is an atmosphere of haunted dreaminess in the music. The pace quickens near the end, as the instruments (or dancers) scurry off the dance floor. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffa400;"><b>III. Lento assai - Allegro vivace -</b> </span> After the poor reception of his Third Symphony in 1936, Rachmaninoff vowed to cease composing. His career of concert pianist and conductor were taking up most of his time, and felt underappreciated as a composer. But it wasn't the first time that he had tried to give up composing. After the disaster of his First Symphony, he stopped composing for three years. And like so many years ago, the inner drive for creative work returned to him in 1940 when he wrote the <i>Symphonic Dances</i>. The final movement has the same basic A-B-A form as the other two, and it shares the brilliance in orchestration as well. A section from his setting of the Russian Orthodox All Night Vigil is used, along with what was a somewhat ubiquitous theme for Rachmaninoff, the Latin hymn <i>Dies irae. </i>The <i>Dies irae</i> theme was referenced in many of his compositions. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The movement begins with a reworking of snippets of the <i>Dies irae, </i>punctuated by bells and other percussion. The <i>Dies irae</i> continues with syncopations until a climax is reached. A different, more laid-back version of the theme is heard in low strings with the glissandos of harps. parts of the Russian Orthodox litany is also heard. The middle section is in contrast to the two turbulent outer sections, with parts of it vaguely similar to the <i>Dies irae</i> theme that are more tranquil. The final section brings back the <i>Dies irae</i> theme, but this time it is in competition with a Russian chant <i>Blessed Is The Lord. </i>The Russian chant wins out, and a new theme, <i>Allilyua, </i>taken from his 1915 work for chorus <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2NSfTXjEPI" target="_blank">All-Night Vigil</a>. </i>The work ends in a blaze of rhythmic percussion and full orchestra.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Rachmaninoff was 67 years old when he wrote <i>Symphonic Dances</i>, and his many years of extensive traveling, piano playing (piano players are prone to bad backs and arthritis), and cigarette smoking took a toll on his health. The concert season of 1939 was especially tiring for him, and he himself said after writing the work, <i>"It must have been my final spark"</i>. He was a deeply religious man, and at the end of the manuscript he wrote, "I thank thee, Lord." </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
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</script>Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-85351078613172750662023-10-21T14:53:00.000-05:002023-10-21T14:53:59.283-05:00Liszt - A Faust Symphony<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyDEWaarwTeN4KfBipXEp1HtHNdNKjptIT1NaCx_3ByDqMDthPg5HxfHXkdJZ4WrszTVTDJRQ_nofq4RFYy3-kWSzDYrA1ugz8wO20Mwm_MhsRn-LdRNrKc7sti78pmQkAuzxU_0ATUh0/s1600/liszt.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyDEWaarwTeN4KfBipXEp1HtHNdNKjptIT1NaCx_3ByDqMDthPg5HxfHXkdJZ4WrszTVTDJRQ_nofq4RFYy3-kWSzDYrA1ugz8wO20Mwm_MhsRn-LdRNrKc7sti78pmQkAuzxU_0ATUh0/s1600/liszt.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
When Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886) gave up the life of a traveling piano virtuoso to devote himself to composition in 1847 it was with the encouragement of the woman in his life, Princess <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolyne_zu_Sayn-Wittgenstein">Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein</a>. He spent one winter with the Princess before he accepted a long-standing offer to go to Wiemar as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapellmeister">Kapellmeister</a> at the court there. It was during his tenure there that he wrote many of his most well known compositions for orchestra.<br /></div><div>
<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvYEFZEWttl8-TDX0-86x65SqazLk2IS54jqiNJHlqz6wpxUTz5ruWi6znOr1QXb04v_RjYZuS9X8RVXBA0XRnHJwTLZ5XW6uYMz2wgXq86pA00KtuTLwz5E_JbHaIUSYfHVdMmGmkzBk/s1600/060724_Faust_VL.widec.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvYEFZEWttl8-TDX0-86x65SqazLk2IS54jqiNJHlqz6wpxUTz5ruWi6znOr1QXb04v_RjYZuS9X8RVXBA0XRnHJwTLZ5XW6uYMz2wgXq86pA00KtuTLwz5E_JbHaIUSYfHVdMmGmkzBk/s320/060724_Faust_VL.widec.jpg" width="239" /></a>While Liszt had a total command of the piano, he knew little about orchestration and instrumentation. He learned quickly, and became a master of the orchestra as well as the piano. He hired musicians that knew how to orchestrate and would have them orchestrate his piano versions of works. He would then use them as examples and then re-orchestrate the piece himself, using what he had learned. A Faust Symphony was the first work the Liszt orchestrated without any help, and even felt well versed enough to write out the 'Gretchen' movement of the work straight out into full score without a piano sketch. He completed the score in 1854. <br /></div><div>
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The legend of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faust">Faust</a> dealing with Mephistopheles for knowledge at the price of his soul, and of the love he had for Gretchen, attracted many Romantic era composers. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_Berlioz">Berlioz</a> wrote a cantata/opera on the theme, Wagner an Overture, and the popular opera by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Gounod">Gounod </a>. Liszt had sketched some ideas for a piece of his own based on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe">Goethe's</a> story as early as 1840 while he was still a traveling virtuoso. <br /></div><div>
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Liszt used a technique in this, as well as most of his other large works, called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thematic_transformation">thematic transformation</a> or metamorphosis. Simply put, it is basing an entire work on a theme or themes that appear at various times in the composition and are changed for dramatic effect. It is essentially a type of theme variation as used by many composers earlier, but it is done with more freedom and the altered theme no longer has a connection with the original, but has a life of its own. <br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcbmMHpFeO-YDmYGigAxBarAus3-iRafs59ZOBJatJ_XRIVd_ieqnuhUAus5M0cNOhQ_gDbPdhWggQuaww5VBIawdg1pDH2xFNH9L3FNwVIgQF-nd1_O-DZrCf_4Mm2HxBY7yX1n37hsk/s1600/faust+theme.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="107" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcbmMHpFeO-YDmYGigAxBarAus3-iRafs59ZOBJatJ_XRIVd_ieqnuhUAus5M0cNOhQ_gDbPdhWggQuaww5VBIawdg1pDH2xFNH9L3FNwVIgQF-nd1_O-DZrCf_4Mm2HxBY7yX1n37hsk/s400/faust+theme.jpg" width="400" /></a>The complete title for this work is <i>A Faust Symphony In Three Character Portraits (after Goethe) </i>. The three 'characters' Liszt portrays are Faust, Gretchen, and Mephistopheles. In the opening movement Liszt uses 4 primary themes to portray Faust. The very opening notes of the movement is the first Faust theme, stated in cellos and violas. The theme itself is tonally ambiguous as it uses all 12 notes of the chromatic scale. This ambiguity lends a great amount of flexibility to this theme within the movement, within the Gretchen movement where the love and purity of Gretchen transforms the themes into warm and tender music, and also in the Mephistopheles movement where Liszt turns the themes into the sarcastic, sardonic themes of Mephistopheles himself.<br /></div></div><div>
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In Liszt's musical telling of the tale, Faust is a combination of the other two characters. He has a warm loving side and a dark, satanic side that is willing to do anything for knowledge, including selling his soul to the devil. In some ways, the piece can be looked at as autobiographical. Liszt himself was a very complex personality. A great artist not above showboating for the crowd to please them, a pious and deeply religious man that lived the bohemian life, a man who late in life took minor orders in the Catholic church that also enjoyed the luxuries of good food, drink and cigars, an exceedingly generous man with so many others that could also be selfish and self-serving. The complexity of Liszt's personality mixed with his rare talent and genius make him one of the most interesting and original of the Romantic era composers.<br /></div><div>
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Liszt's <i>A Faust Symphony: </i> <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="780" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/84_pjz26mF8" width="960"></iframe></div>Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-24818400209217310662023-08-22T16:34:00.000-05:002023-08-22T16:34:18.261-05:00Alkan - Piano Trio In G Minor Opus 30 <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEishy1H3HgHgPaiuefDQZImOFO_rVh2hTG_fgXPvAce_Ulpln49lKA0wvcbMbJgxKH1rQoPS4NXBxSzMVsE9mlt2FvssIYFwma1wtCdSBTjZvN7gQ9_7eDiaX5K2v2h7cw7PNlxNRaAXZ8/s1600/alkan222.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEishy1H3HgHgPaiuefDQZImOFO_rVh2hTG_fgXPvAce_Ulpln49lKA0wvcbMbJgxKH1rQoPS4NXBxSzMVsE9mlt2FvssIYFwma1wtCdSBTjZvN7gQ9_7eDiaX5K2v2h7cw7PNlxNRaAXZ8/s1600/alkan222.jpg" /></a>Paris in 1837 attracted artists of all persuasions, not least of all some of the most well known names in classical music. <a href="http://muswrite.blogspot.com/search/label/liszt" target="_blank">Franz Liszt</a> and <a href="http://muswrite.blogspot.com/search/label/chopin" target="_blank">Frédéric Chopin</a> lived in the city, along with Charles Alkan. Alkan was a personal friend and neighbor of Chopin and the two composer/pianists spent much time together.<br />
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The majority of both composer's compositions are for piano solo or include the piano in ensemble. Each wrote a handful of chamber music pieces early on in their careers which included a piano trio each. Chopin's <i>Piano Trio In G Minor Opus 8</i> was published in 1829, Alkan's <i>Piano Trio In G Minor Opus 30</i> was published in 1841 but may have been written earlier. Both are written for the same combination of violin, cello and piano. <br />
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Alkan's <i>Piano Trio </i>is in 4 movements:<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">I. Assez largement (Rather widely) -</span></b> There is no doubt which instrument is the dominant one in Chopin's piano trio. Alkan also has the piano play a large role, but the two stringed instruments are closer to being active partners in music making. The first movement is in sonata form, but Alkan segues the sections almost imperceptibly. The piano begins the movement with a terse motive that the strings mimic after a few bars:<br />
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This plays out rather rapidly and leads to a short section of piano solo that leads into the second theme in B-flat major that is played by the violin with piano accompaniment:<br />
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This second theme is also taken up by the cello and the two stringed instruments have a short dialogue while the the piano plays a counter melody in the bass and continues to accompany in the right hand. Then piano and violin join in a staccato flurry of sixteenth notes as the cello plays a fragment of the first theme:<br />
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This short section concludes the exposition of the movement and leads seamlessly to the development section. The two themes are played against each other until the development section and recapitulation merge into a type of hybrid with no clear delineation. A short coda has all three instruments pound out the note of G in triple forte.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">II. Très vite (Very quickly) -</span> </b>A Beethovenian scherzo in G minor, the three instruments enter one at a time, all of them playing the note D, the piano in short staccatos, strings in pizzicato. The violin and piano join in a short motive while the cello plunks out an accompaniment:<br />
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Another eight bar phrase completes the section, which is repeated. The second part of the scherzo begins with the cello repeating the bare octave D's of the beginning while the piano plays running eighth notes. The violin takes turns with the cello playing octaves as the piano continues. The opening of the scherzo returns and is finished up by a short section with alternating octaves in the piano before the scherzo ends in a flurry. The trio section begins with the piano playing a short fugal section until the violin changes the mood with a melody in E-flat. The key changes to a short section in C minor until the scherzo is repeated. A short coda brings back the opening of the trio until a brilliant triple forte section is cut short by the quiet hint of a G minor chord.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">III. Lentement (Slowly) - </span></b>Written in G major, the movement begins with the violin playing in double stops along with the cello. The theme is introspective, and continues until the piano interrupts with a section in G minor that is more agitated. The piano goes silent again as the strings bring back the calm of the opening. The piano interrupts again, but not for as long. Slowly the three instruments start to blend together. The dialogue increases until the piano relents and joins in a chorale in tremolos with the strings. The transfiguration is complete, the piano grows calm and then quiet as the movement ends in a whisper in the strings.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">IV. Vite (Quickly) -</span> </b>The piano part is as a perpetuum mobile as flurries of sixteenth notes spill out from the keyboard through most of the movement. The strings carry motives through the thicket of the piano until the key shifts to G major and the strings join in the scurry of sixteenth notes.<!-- Place this tag where you want the su badge to render -->
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</script>Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-46999123912484825822023-07-14T04:04:00.001-05:002023-07-14T04:04:45.880-05:00Beethoven - String Trio In C Minor, Opus 9, No. 3<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhck-4x9P3mxMCE5PSoLr5zqUG41dSKLHefPr5gUx7ZANIvOD9dolP4oZjn_8LFpm3gJ7-NEu-NSUQ7czNdwjQiPbHMKe-K5erynly6wOlO3uqXTZFInoHsap_gb-KXWR7ahaz_ySRuHSc/s1600/6a00e0097e4e6888330154342da410970c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhck-4x9P3mxMCE5PSoLr5zqUG41dSKLHefPr5gUx7ZANIvOD9dolP4oZjn_8LFpm3gJ7-NEu-NSUQ7czNdwjQiPbHMKe-K5erynly6wOlO3uqXTZFInoHsap_gb-KXWR7ahaz_ySRuHSc/s320/6a00e0097e4e6888330154342da410970c.jpg" width="280" /></a>String trios for violin, viola and cello came about as a form roughly in the last half of the 18th century. They came from the earlier form of trio sonata for two or three solo instruments plus basso continuo. There were three parts to the earlier trio sonata, even if there were in actuality 3 soloists and continuo, as the continuo played the bass and harmonies and was always included. The continuo was most often a keyboard instrument, but the bass line itself was often doubled by a bass instrument such as the cello. The <i>trio</i> sonata designation came from there being three parts to the work, regardless if there were three, four or sometimes five performers. J.S. Bach and other Baroque composers wrote trio sonatas for organ where the right hand, left hand and pedals each have their own part.<br />
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The continuo was slowly done away with when music moved from counterpoint towards a melody with accompaniment. The first string trios were for two violins and cello, with a further development beginning with Haydn of violin, viola and cello.<br />
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Beethoven wrote a total of five string trios, all of them early in his career. The first two, Opus 3 and 8, are more in the style of the serenades of Mozart as they are in six and seven movements respectively. It is with the three trios of Opus 9 that Beethoven takes the form with more seriousness. The content of the works themselves and the fact they were written in 4 movements each show that Beethoven did not mean for them to be considered light entertainment as a serenade.<br />
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Beethoven wrote the trios of Opus 9 in 1797-1798 at a time when he was the toast of Vienna, mostly for his performances as a virtuoso pianist and improviser. He had been composing since he was still a child with a steady progression quality and artistry in his work. Most of his previous opus numbers involved the piano either as a solo instrument or with string soloists. There were a few other works for strings alone, but it was with the opus 9 trios that saw his ability to write for strings take on the qualities of a master. That they are seldom played anymore has nothing to do with the quality of the writing. Perhaps Beethoven himself considered these trios as a warm up to writing string quartets, a form that was viewed at the time (and still is) as the pinnacle of compositional artistry. After Beethoven wrote the six string quartets of opus 18, he never returned to the string trio.<br />
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While all three trios are worthy of listening, it is the third one in C minor that shows flashes of the Beethoven to come. The key of C minor is an important one in Beethoven's oeuvre, as some of his most dramatic and innovative music is written in that key.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">I. Allegro con spirito -</span></b> The first movement is in sonata form and Beethoven begins straight away with the three instruments playing a short motive in unison. The 1st theme is in C minor, and is repeated after the first hearing as the cello takes over the theme as the violin plays running 16th notes. The theme is cut short as the violin plays some syncopated chords that lead to the next theme. This 2nd theme is in E-flat major and is simply stated by the violin and cello, while the viola gives a feeling of tension with running staccato 16th notes. Roles are reversed in the repeating of the 2nd theme. There are other fragmentary themes played before the movement closes in the key of E-flat major. The movement is repeated. The development section begins with treatment of one of the lesser themes heard at the end of the exposition. Where the development section ends and the recapitulation begins is blurred by Beethoven's technique of bringing back the main themes of the movement in different instruments amid a bustle of activity. A coda ties up all the ends that Beethoven cares to, and the movement ends in C minor.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">II. Andante con espressione-</span> </b>As impassioned as the first movement is, so is the second movement soft and sweet. Beethoven writes in 4 parts in C major in many places in this movement, which gives the music a fullness that belies that there are but three instruments playing. The music sings throughout, and ends quietly in C major.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">III. Scherzo: Allegro molto e vivace-</span> </b>Beethoven returns to the home key for this tart and brisk scherzo. With sudden accents and bursts of sound, there is no trace of a minuet. A calm middle section in C major gives contrast. The scherzo returns and ends <i>pianissimo</i>.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">IV. Finale: Presto -</span></b> The tone of the scherzo and 1st movement continues with the finale written in sonata form. Scales, accents and extremes in dynamics give a hectic feel to the music. The trio ends quietly in the key of C major.
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<br />Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-86328808383618185462023-07-06T12:29:00.000-05:002023-07-06T12:29:53.613-05:00Litolff - Concerto Symphonique No. 2 In B Minor<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj24vo8gvz_4FtvamRjJA1ZB9YTWvm2DKcoBwrISp_mQ6envScvVnH2EeF5lJZeEICQQ9vtmcz3zCF9T301gZdac7mq5H_CEtaTre0t_pCzi-r-X9zdDsKhwBtMwJJSFIQAwtyYI9ZxqFE/s278/litolff+cropped2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="228" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj24vo8gvz_4FtvamRjJA1ZB9YTWvm2DKcoBwrISp_mQ6envScvVnH2EeF5lJZeEICQQ9vtmcz3zCF9T301gZdac7mq5H_CEtaTre0t_pCzi-r-X9zdDsKhwBtMwJJSFIQAwtyYI9ZxqFE/w262-h320/litolff+cropped2.jpg" width="262" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Henry Litolff was born in London, but by the time he was 17 he began to make his way around Europe as a pianist, conductor and composer. He composed and taught most of his life, and became friends with an assortment of who's-who of 19th century composers and musicians, among them <a href="https://muswrite.blogspot.com/search/label/liszt" target="_blank">Liszt</a> and <a href="https://muswrite.blogspot.com/search/label/berlioz" target="_blank">Berlioz</a>. His was a busy life, as he composed much, ran a music publishing firm until 1858 (his adopted son continued to run the business after Litolff divorced his mother), traveled Europe as a soloist, and married four times!</div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">His contribution to the piano concerto literature were 5 Concerto Symphonique, a hybrid of concerto and symphony in the writing for piano as well as orchestra. Neither entity is the sole star of these works, as the orchestra is an equal partner to the soloist. That takes nothing away from the brilliance of his writing for the piano; there is much flash and brilliance in these works for the soloist and orchestra, and Litolff must have been a virtuoso pianist, for most concertos were written by the composer to perform themselves. There are but 4 of these works in existence as the 1st is considered lost. The 2nd Concerto Symphonique was written in 1844.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffa400;"><b>I. Maestoso -</b> </span> Litolff begins the concerto with the typical double exposition of the time; the orchestra makes an extended statement of material before the soloist enters with their version. Low strings make the initial quiet statement of the first theme. The full orchestra and strings expands on the theme. The second theme is more lyrical in nature. After some ominous rumblings, the first theme returns with full orchestra in the major mode. A short transition ushers in the piano with a solo rendition of the first theme with an arpeggiated accompaniment in the left hand. The theme continues to be commented upon by the piano with a light accompaniment. The second theme enters with a solo cello accompanying the piano. Both themes are elaborated upon and the music moves effortlessly into the development section of the movement as the orchestra extends the themes until the piano returns with commentary over short motifs of the first theme. Orchestra and piano take turns until the piano begins the recapitulation with the first theme. The piano and cello return to their short duet as the second theme enters. Themes are restated and worked through, until the piano and orchestra have a dialogue in a short coda that shifts the first theme to the major mode again and the movement ends. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">II. Scherzo -</span> </b>While the first movement is traditional in form, if not in the method of writing for the orchestra and piano as equals, it is in the second movement where Litolff makes the innovation of adding a scherzo to a piano concerto. In <a href="https://muswrite.blogspot.com/2013/12/liszt-piano-concerto-no-1-in-e-flat.html" target="_blank">Liszt's 1st Piano Concerto</a>, which is played without pause, there are 4 distinct sections with one of them being a scherzo. Liszt may have been inspired by Litolff's Concerto Symphoniques to do the same. Bassoons and timpani begin the movement, with the piano playing off their utterances with brilliance. The trio is in a jocular mood, and very short. The scherzo is repeated, and ends with a flourish. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">III. Andante -</span></b> The third movement begins with muted strings, and has an improvisatory feel. The piano enters and plays a theme that takes its time unwinding amid the strings and horns punctuating the harmony. A middle section grows more agitated, but soon resumes a more quiet demeanor. Orchestra and piano slowly lead to a held chord that instead of resolving, leads directly to the final movement.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">IV. Rondo: Allegretto -</span> </b>Low strings play quietly, the piano responds with flourishes up the keyboard. After a few exchanges, the movement proper begins with the rondo theme. The soloist plays flashy runs and chromatic octaves between repeats of the rondo theme. One of the episodes has the piano play a theme, and the orchestra takes it up as the soloist changes from playing the theme to accompanying the orchestra. The brilliance of the piano gradually builds until a coda has thundering octaves in the piano while the orchestra takes the music to the end.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
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</script>Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-63852666549203052722023-04-17T21:03:00.002-05:002023-05-22T17:31:31.863-05:00Wagner - Overture to 'The Flying Dutchman'<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg31SxaA3O-7opjVqAQmFh4-gxMzK5JNAHIHyy7sePSWmecrXK6zO-yuSm46uoakNXG-yxnrVidgd3yhf-1E-7pJo0Axwwtu-5vCjAooRUcWqdCfy-DEDeCc42dEUQ9UTgvW2Xr7Dme3KZXhw4Y6kfR_ZyeMO_6XYKN4ux2ktacuY_9lx8QR4LDm6v/s340/1ec1fd1b23f48560958ca035e042f47d.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="236" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg31SxaA3O-7opjVqAQmFh4-gxMzK5JNAHIHyy7sePSWmecrXK6zO-yuSm46uoakNXG-yxnrVidgd3yhf-1E-7pJo0Axwwtu-5vCjAooRUcWqdCfy-DEDeCc42dEUQ9UTgvW2Xr7Dme3KZXhw4Y6kfR_ZyeMO_6XYKN4ux2ktacuY_9lx8QR4LDm6v/s320/1ec1fd1b23f48560958ca035e042f47d.jpg" width="222" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> In 1839, the young Richard Wagner was the conductor of the Court Theater in Riga, Latvia. In what turned out to be a recurring problem as a result of his extravagant lifestyle, he racked up huge debts. He hatched a plan to escape from his debts by taking his completed opera <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rienzi" target="_blank">Rienzi </a>to Paris for its premiere and make his fortune. This plan was initially halted when his passport was taken by the authorities on direction from his many creditors in Riga. </div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">He and his wife illegally crossed the Prussian border, and they found a captain of a ship that would take them to London. The trip should have taken about a week, but due to high winds and rough seas, the trip took over two weeks. His arrival in Paris turned out to be a disaster as well. His opera wasn't performed at the Paris Opera, and he had to rely on hand outs and the meager money he made writing articles for periodicals of the time. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">It was while he was in Paris that he had the idea to write a one act opera based on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Dutchman" target="_blank">Flying Dutchman legend</a>. Wagner wrote in his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiographic_Sketch_(Wagner)" target="_blank">Autobiographical Sketch</a> of 1842:</p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The voyage through the Norwegian reefs made a wonderful impression on my imagination; the legend of the Flying Dutchman, which the sailors verified, took on a distinctive, strange colouring that only my sea adventures could have given it.</i></span></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It was his hope that the short opera would be accepted by the Paris Opera for performance. His experience of the sea journey, especially when the ship had to take shelter in a Norwegian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fjord" target="_blank">fjord </a>from the rough seas, that inspired him. He based the libretto on a story written by the German author <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Heine" target="_blank">Heinrich Heine</a> that was based on the story. Heine's story was written as a satire, but Wagner made the story a serious tale of redemption through the love of a woman.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCeNn65R1RAgbKHpzjJsymC3ES-GzkP5mOKN3f22aIGTUeDpn0sMqsf7EbmEZ12yCevKtJhDmcrCxvfB8aJKb2uUif83mftTNw5QvBxRdf5MTmsLRSBETMHzsDxGerExD-ijvCrvbQoUJ0fO4jbiQmfyAwcqdK70Sei5J7E4juGi30AXzO1yMSoW9a/s1054/blank.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1054" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCeNn65R1RAgbKHpzjJsymC3ES-GzkP5mOKN3f22aIGTUeDpn0sMqsf7EbmEZ12yCevKtJhDmcrCxvfB8aJKb2uUif83mftTNw5QvBxRdf5MTmsLRSBETMHzsDxGerExD-ijvCrvbQoUJ0fO4jbiQmfyAwcqdK70Sei5J7E4juGi30AXzO1yMSoW9a/w400-h266/blank.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The legend of The Flying Dutchman went through many versions, with the first version in print being in 1790. In brief, the legend said that a ship that was trying to round the African continent couldn't find a pilot to guide it into port, and was thus lost, with it appearing in bad weather. The legend eventually took on the story of a sea captain that swore at the wind and said he would round the Cape even if it took until judgement day. Later writers introduced the theme that the ghost ship would try to offer letters addressed to long dead people to another ship, with the result that if they took the letters disaster followed. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wagner's entire opera takes around 2 hours to perform, rather economical for a work of his. Some of his later operas can take upwards of 4 hours or more to perform. The Overture to <i>The Flying Dutchman </i>takes about 11 minute to perform, and like many overtures to grand opera, it is a snapshot of the work. The overture begins with the turbulent sea. There is a momentary calmness afterwards, when a motif from the opera is played, after which the music gains in passion once more. all of the motifs and snippets of melody heard in the overture are taken from the opera. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It can be a challenge for all but the staunchest opera lovers to be able to enjoy the entire work, but the overture gives the more casual listener a chance to hear the passion and the beauty that Wagner put into it. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p></p>
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Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-89627531078203726112023-02-28T21:24:00.000-06:002023-02-28T21:24:56.476-06:00Beethoven - Coriolan Overture<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1NV4TEbR2PA22HxOrow8RHC9AxRtla5jHwF2wfzUdmFAIA85PQRhxADDv89-JeOys5T9LUvJjsyIDlB1IfPydQ1VZN14CN9ZxVrsLnzpkPuAjfrKFU_SoAFGcDHZ4eG9c25knusBZW5U/s373/9c433d991ac5b8460e3f829757338762.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="373" data-original-width="236" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1NV4TEbR2PA22HxOrow8RHC9AxRtla5jHwF2wfzUdmFAIA85PQRhxADDv89-JeOys5T9LUvJjsyIDlB1IfPydQ1VZN14CN9ZxVrsLnzpkPuAjfrKFU_SoAFGcDHZ4eG9c25knusBZW5U/s320/9c433d991ac5b8460e3f829757338762.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The plays of Shakespeare have inspired other playwrights and composers for many years. Shakespeare wrote a play entitled <i>Coriolanus, </i>which is based on the legendary Roman leader Caius Marcius Coriolanus. Evidently, a story good enough for Shakespeare was good enough for the early 19th century Viennese playwright Heinrich von Collin. His play was entitled <i>Coriolan, </i>and even though the play had good actors cast, the play itself was not very good. It opened in 1802 and closed shortly after that.</div></span></div>
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It was the play by the Viennese playwright that Beethoven wrote the overture for, not the Shakespeare version of the story. The story on which the overture is based:<br />
<br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The Roman General Coriolanus is banished from Rome after he throws a hissy fit over the citizens renouncing his bid to be elected counsel of Rome. In revenge, he goes over to the side of the enemies of Rome and plans to sack the city. He lays siege to the city and refuses to grant amnesty to his own people. In desperation, his wife and mother go to him and plead with him to spare his family. He settles in favor of his family which makes him a traitor to his allies, the enemies of Rome. In Shakespeare's play, Coriolanus' allies kill him while in the Collin play he commits suicide by falling on his sword.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimNgnGa8gpTkp2De9SawWDnAcP4-KdF90pYfdH6MLmd9WV5uokjqV7oVMpi3TMA945X_91U-Pl2ft37Fy2apnw6EdW512zrCf3nknFteg0_dO5F7TSW4Lat4kpDh7k3MBrlXXXWX2v0_U/s1600/A4361.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimNgnGa8gpTkp2De9SawWDnAcP4-KdF90pYfdH6MLmd9WV5uokjqV7oVMpi3TMA945X_91U-Pl2ft37Fy2apnw6EdW512zrCf3nknFteg0_dO5F7TSW4Lat4kpDh7k3MBrlXXXWX2v0_U/w330-h261/A4361.jpg" width="330" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">The overture is written in a very distilled sonata form, with the first theme representing the uncompromising rage of Coriolanus while the second theme represents the pleadings from Coriolanus' mother and wife. The pleadings are consumed by the repetition of the jagged rage of the first theme. The exposition continues to expound the moral dilemma Coriolanus is in, whether to continue to slay all of Rome, including his innocent family, or to spare them. When the main theme is heard at the beginning of the recapitulation, it is now beginning to waver in its resolve. The theme slowly crumbles away, the rage is gone, the heart of Coriolanus quits beating as the music dies with the dull thumps of pizzicato strings.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Beethoven wrote only one opera, <i>Fidelio</i>, and it cost him much in labor and time. He never again wrote for the opera theater, but that doesn't mean his music couldn't be dramatic. This overture shows that while Beethoven may not have been a natural composer for dramatic opera, he could write pure music that could convey drama without the use of any words. It was this kind of overture that lead to the symphonic poems of Liszt and others. It would not be a stretch at all to say that this overture could be called a symphonic poem, and it is a very good example of how Beethoven inspired the composers of the Romantic era.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The following video of Carlos Kleiber conducting the overture shows how orchestral conducting is just as much an art as a science. Kleiber translates the mood of the music through his actions, and the orchestra responds. The end of the work shows how much the audience was swept up by the music, for whether they were hypnotized, stunned or perhaps equal measures of both, the applause does not start until the music had long since stopped. That is the greatest tribute an audience can give a performer, prolonged silence before the applause begins.<!--Place this tag where you want the su badge to render-->
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</script>Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-58952052162668590272023-02-14T14:41:00.000-06:002023-02-14T14:41:13.074-06:00Mahler - Symphony No. 4 In G MajorGustav Mahler was best known in his lifetime as a leader of opera houses and as a conductor with a world wide reputation. During the opera and concert season he gave all he had to these endeavors, but during his summer vacation he gave all he had to composing. Mahler's first three symphonies grew progressively larger and longer, so the audience didn't know what to expect at the premiere of the 4th Symphony. What they got was a surprise.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-W0g2DP5ZJINRC58ltM8dQdFhOV0IlYFOpDJLoX5lWxM5C7FBo0ifAR4d1SREb96EM6QvApVPCK4GtEhZaXbtJkEdntCt9NSUR6z3ImpEjg4fWR8nF_83VMlqruWkXudr9zXUp0taJqo/s1600/mahler1898.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-W0g2DP5ZJINRC58ltM8dQdFhOV0IlYFOpDJLoX5lWxM5C7FBo0ifAR4d1SREb96EM6QvApVPCK4GtEhZaXbtJkEdntCt9NSUR6z3ImpEjg4fWR8nF_83VMlqruWkXudr9zXUp0taJqo/s1600/mahler1898.jpg" height="227" width="320" /></a>The 4th Symphony is written for smaller forces (at least by Mahler's standards). There are no trombones, no choirs, only one soprano soloist that sings in the 4th movement, and the entire symphony takes just under an hour, the shortest symphony Mahler wrote up to that point. Mahler's 4th can be called his Classical Symphony for its style, forces used and content.<br />
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But that doesn't mean the symphony is a trifle. Mahler was a man of incredible emotions that spilled over into his music and the 4th is no exception. The difference is that while there are moments of darkness, for the most part the symphony is in a sunny mood. Mahler began to sketch out the symphony in 1899 but after the summer vacation he put the work in his desk so he could focus on his work as the director of the Vienna Court opera. When he came back to it the next summer, he finished it in only three weeks.<br />
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Mahler conducted the premiere of the symphony in 1901 in Munich. It was not a success. The work was roundly booed. The style of the work as well as the thematic material and construction of the symphony gave both sides much to carp about. The anti-Mahler faction thought the composer was trying to pull a fast one by writing music that was different than his earlier works, as if h e were thumbing his nose at them. Some of the pro-Mahler faction that expected another blockbuster work complained about the naiveté of the music, as if he purposefully left his monumental style to write something more accessible for the audience and critics. But it was this roundly criticized work that became the most performed of all Mahler's symphonies.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">I. Bedächtig, nicht eilen (Slowly, not rushing) -</span> </b> Mahler opens the symphony with flutes, sleigh bells and clarinets:<br />
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This short section acts as a prelude that leads to the first theme, a rising figure heard in the violins that changes to a dotted rhythm. After the first theme plays out, a short transition leads to the second theme heard in the low strings. Another theme appears in the oboe and other woodwinds. The opening motive with sleigh bells signals the development section,which is initially taken up with the first theme. A section for solo violin continues the development section that constantly shifts themes and fragments of themes in and out, and transforms them to different themes. The lightness of orchestration belies the fact that this is very complex music. The music reaches a short climax with a trumpet solo and the sleigh bells return. Motives are played in counterpoint and lead up to another climax with trumpet solo. The recapitulation is not as extensive as the exposition and it leads to a short coda where the first theme gradually increases in tempo and volume until it comes to an end.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">II. In gemächlicher Bewegung, ohne Hast (Moving with leisure, no hurry) -</span> </b>A scherzo in the form of a ländler has a violin playing a solo with an altered tuning; Mahler instructs the soloist to tune all of the strings a full tone higher than usual. Mahler originally marked this movement with the words <i>Death strikes up the dance for us; she scrapes her fiddle bizarrely and leads us up to heaven, </i>but he eventually removed all descriptive headings from this movement as well as the others. The music maintains its leisurely dance pace throughout, complete with <i>string portamento</i>. The movement ends with a shimmering cadence for glockenspiel, triangle. harp and woodwinds.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">III. Ruhevoll, poco adagio (Peaceful, a little slow) -</span> </b> A languid theme slowly unwinds over a pizzicato accompaniment. A second theme of a more impassioned nature is played by the cor anglaise, with strings adding commentary. A set of variations on the first theme follows, with an interruption by the second theme amid the variations. A fragment of the first theme plays, and in a flash the music switches to E major and grows loud and noble as the theme for the final movement is announced. The music grows quiet and mysterious and ends in a hush.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">IV. Sehr behaglich (Very pleasantly) -</span> </b>Mahler returns once again to a poem from <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Des_Knaben_Wunderhorn" target="_blank">Des Knaben Wunderhorn</a></i>, a collection of old German poems that he drew inspiration from for many years. He used the text from the poem <i>Das himmlische Leben (</i>Life in Heaven), a song about being in<br />
Heaven and how the Saints slaughter animals and prepare meals there. As depicted in the poem, Heaven's not so heavenly for lams, ox and other animals. Mahler instructs the soprano to sing the song as a child, honestly and without parody. The song is interrupted three times by the motive first heard in the introduction to the first movement complete with sleigh bells, but this time played rapidly at a fast tempo and in a minor key. After the third interruption, the song returns to the gentleness of the opening of the movement. On the last two words of the line <i>and Saint Ursula herself has <b>to laugh</b>, </i>the soloist joins the violins in a glissando. The song continues, the cor anglaise and harp play a opening fragment of the movement and the music ends in a barely audible whisper. <br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">Life In Heaven from <i>Des Knaben Wunderhorn</i></span></b><br />
We enjoy heavenly pleasures
and<br />
therefore avoid earthly ones.<br />
No worldly tumult
is to be heard in heaven<br />
All live in greatest peace.<br />
We lead angelic lives,<br />
yet have a merry time of it besides.<br />
We dance and we spring,<br />
We skip and we sing.<br />
Saint Peter in heaven looks on.<br />
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John lets the lambkin out,<br />
and Herod the Butcher lies in wait for it.<br />
We lead a patient,<br />
an innocent, patient,<br />
dear little lamb to its death.<br />
Saint Luke slaughters the ox<br />
without any thought or concern.<br />
Wine doesn't cost a penny
in the heavenly cellars;<br />
The angels bake the bread.<br />
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Good greens of every sort
grow<br />
in the heavenly vegetable patch,<br />
good asparagus, string beans,<br />
and whatever we want.<br />
Whole dishfuls are set for us!<br />
Good apples, good pears and good grapes,<br />
and gardeners who allow everything!<br />
If you want roebuck or hare,<br />
on the public streets
they come running right up.<br />
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Should a fast day come along,<br />
all the fishes at once come swimming with joy.<br />
There goes Saint Peter running<br />
with his net and his bait<br />
to the heavenly pond.<br />
Saint Martha must be the cook.<br />
<br />
There is just no music on earth<br />
that can compare to ours.<br />
Even the eleven thousand virgins<br />
venture to dance,<br />
and Saint Ursula herself has to laugh.<br />
There is just no music on earth<br />
that can compare to ours.<br />
Cecilia and all her relations<br />
make excellent court musicians.<br />
The angelic voices
gladden our senses,<br />
so that all awaken for joy.<!-- Place this tag where you want the su badge to render -->
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</script>Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-57252169553317227222023-02-12T10:35:00.000-06:002023-02-12T10:35:07.128-06:00Schubert - Symphony No. 8 In B Minor 'Unfinished'<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikvG0VlpB3AJYSmoTK9PthqkURPgvGP6cbEjVURWoaGijOqAoxisRHFsSw9C2raaUgYcTTASl2UW4oEvVX4p1U1sQ1CFnmTs2AUR16J9H9My21io7IpK0NfCe7ayG3W_jwpV0D4A6xEAs/s1600/schubert+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikvG0VlpB3AJYSmoTK9PthqkURPgvGP6cbEjVURWoaGijOqAoxisRHFsSw9C2raaUgYcTTASl2UW4oEvVX4p1U1sQ1CFnmTs2AUR16J9H9My21io7IpK0NfCe7ayG3W_jwpV0D4A6xEAs/s1600/schubert+cropped.jpg" height="320" width="238" /></a>Franz Schubert's <i>Symphony No. 8 </i>may be the most famous unfinished work in the symphonic repertoire. The two completed movements of the symphony were completed in 1822, as well as a third movement scherzo in piano score with two pages in full score. There has been theories, rumors and downright guesswork as for the reasons the symphony remained unfinished, with none of them more than conjecture. Because of the depth of feeling and drama of the work it has been called the first Romantic era symphony by some.<br />
<br />
The history of the first performance of the work begins shortly after the two movements were completed in 1822. In 1823 Schubert was given an honorary diploma from the <i>Granz Music Society</i>, and in return the composer was going to dedicate a work to the society. Schubert sent the first two movements of the symphony to Anselm Hüttenbrenner, a prominent member of the group. There is no evidence that Schubert had any other contact with Hüttenbrenner or that he completed any of the other movements for the work. Indeed, Hüttenbrenner never let anyone else know he had the manuscript until 1865. Why Hüttenbrenner sat on the manuscript for so many years is not known. He finally showed the work to the conductor Johann von Herbeck, the conductor of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna. Herbeck premiered the two movements and tacked on a movement from an earlier Schubert symphony as a finale, in 1865 in Vienna. The work was a complete success despite the addition of the finale, and has been an audience favorite ever since.<br />
<br />
The six symphonies Schubert composed before the <i>Unfinished</i> don't resemble it in depth or drama, but Schubert could be a quite dramatic composer when he chose to be as can be heard in his lied <i><a href="http://muswrite.blogspot.com/2014/08/schubert-der-erlkonig-opus-1-d328.html" target="_blank">Der Erlkönig</a> </i>as well as music in other forms. One theory is that the composition of the symphony coincides with Schubert's diagnosis of syphilis. Considering such a diagnosis in those times was a sentence of suffering, perhaps madness, and certain death, may have been a reason for the dark tone of the music. The symphony is scored for pairs of woodwinds, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, strings and timpani.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWEPf8FF39UCz_-bllp9RQqGggTsfo2dTPidg0qVLqUsP7qZDWxHOqVMg8LfQotTr1tTDVM7-t79zztA9lxlY13MI1uRffT9ZF7psgU2l7tydsFvvXUX_KhzfacBUIS_DZQgASFDgrnLk/s1600/Johann_Ritter_von_Herbeck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWEPf8FF39UCz_-bllp9RQqGggTsfo2dTPidg0qVLqUsP7qZDWxHOqVMg8LfQotTr1tTDVM7-t79zztA9lxlY13MI1uRffT9ZF7psgU2l7tydsFvvXUX_KhzfacBUIS_DZQgASFDgrnLk/s1600/Johann_Ritter_von_Herbeck.jpg" height="320" width="224" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Johann von Herbeck</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">I. Allegro moderato -</span> </b>It may appear strange that the tempo indication of this movement is <i>allegro</i> <i>moderato, </i>for the music that begins the movement doesn't seem to fit. But Schubert's point in the tempo designation is to make sure that there should be at least some speed to the movement, otherwise the music would sound <i>too</i> heavy to the point of plodding. Of course just <i>how</i> moderately fast is subject to a conductor's interpretation. The work opens with the dark cellos and basses playing <i>pianissimo</i> in their lowest ranges. The actual first theme of the movement is carried in the woodwinds while the violins play an agitated accompaniment along with the lower strings. a four-bar transition played by the horns shifts the music from B minor to G major for the second subject that is heard in the cellos over a syncopated accompaniment. A theme group is played after the second theme until a variant of the second theme is played. Transition material leads to the repeat of the exposition. The development section begins with a short transition before the cellos and basses play the opening bars of the symphony again but this time in E minor. The rest of the development concentrates on the first theme and its parts and is punctuated with sforzandi and string tremolos. The syncopated accompaniment of the second theme does show up a few times also. The recapitulation is mostly the usual repetition of themes, only the second theme modulates to D major instead of B major, the parallel major to the home key of B minor. The music does modulate to B major until the first theme in B minor appears and is expanded into the ending of the emphatic final cadence.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">II. Andante con moto -</span> </b>Two bars of introduction lead to the E major first theme of the movement, first played by the strings. This theme has a contrasting section of marching staccato strings until it resumes. A second theme is played in C-sharp minor by the clarinet over a gently syncopated accompaniment by the strings. This theme also has a contrasting section of music played fortissimo before the theme begins again. All of this serves as the exposition. There is no development section, as the themes are repeated with modulations to other keys and variants. After this plays out, a new theme appears that is derived from the opening measures of the movement. The transition to the second theme that is played by the violins earlier is repeated and varied along with parts of the other themes, and the movement comes to a peaceful close in E major.<!-- Place this tag where you want the su badge to render -->
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</script>Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-31975944024086334162023-01-26T18:38:00.001-06:002023-01-26T18:38:31.575-06:00Mahler - Symphony No. 3The Third Symphony was first sketched out with the help of a program as Mahler wrote down headings for each of the movements he planned. As he did preliminary work on the symphony he changed the program numerous times before the music was completed. The original program for the symphony called for seven movements with the following titles:<br />
<br />
<i>1. Summer marches in.</i><br />
<i>2. What the flowers in the meadow tell me.</i><br />
<i>3. What the creatures in the forest tell me.</i><br />
<i>4. What man tells me.</i><br />
<i>5. What the angels tell me</i><br />
<i>6. What love tells me.</i><br />
<i>7. What the Child tells me.</i><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUt8gB4DadEVG1Ew5_COa3qRqgmAuDDb1XHb_E4CR6yB1gfqobe4nx0cgoW5z4bIlmaU-dYGh1zwTOkV3vz5jbqy24ZawS02X6g8TsH1e2BFzylLxJONyZhY-_Rqv4RUWdoQldCMVrmfs/s1600/mahler1898cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUt8gB4DadEVG1Ew5_COa3qRqgmAuDDb1XHb_E4CR6yB1gfqobe4nx0cgoW5z4bIlmaU-dYGh1zwTOkV3vz5jbqy24ZawS02X6g8TsH1e2BFzylLxJONyZhY-_Rqv4RUWdoQldCMVrmfs/s1600/mahler1898cropped.jpg" width="277" /></a>He worked on the symphony from 1893 to 1896, doing most of the work on it during the summer hiatus of the Hamburg Opera where he was chief conductor. At this time Mahler was passionately influenced by <i>Des Knaben Wunderhorn, </i>a collection of German folk poems. He set many of them to music, and used the songs in his early symphonies, sometimes with words and music and sometimes with only the music. The Third Symphony also includes some of these songs. The 7th movement was to be a setting of another <i>Wunderhorn</i> poem <i>Das himmlische Leben, </i>a poem he had set to music in 1892, but Mahler thought better of it and used the song in the final movement of his <a href="http://muswrite.blogspot.com/2014/10/mahler-symphony-no-4-in-g-major.html" target="_blank">4th Symphony</a>. Mahler <i> </i>dropped the entire program from the symphony before it was published and premiered. He made his feelings about titles and programs known in a letter to a fellow conductor and composer <a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Krug-Waldsee" target="_blank">Josef Krug-Waldsee</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Those titles were an attempt on my part to provide non-musicians with something to hold on to and with a signpost for the intellectual, or better, the expressive content of the various movements and for their relationships to each other and to the whole. That it didn’t work (as, in fact, it could never work) and that it led only to misinterpretations of the most horrendous sort became painfully clear all too quickly. It’s the same disaster that had overtaken me on previous and similar occasions, and now I have once and for all given up commenting, analyzing all such expediencies of whatever sort. These titles . . . will surely say something to you after you know the score. You will draw intimations from them about how I imagined the steady intensification of feeling, from the indistinct, unbending, elemental existence (of the forces of nature) to the tender formation of the human heart, which in turn points toward and reaches a region beyond itself (God). Please express that in your own words without quoting those extremely inadequate titles and that way you will have acted in my spirit. I am very grateful that you asked me [about the titles], for it is by no means inconsequential to me and for the future of my work how it is introduced into “public life.”
</i></blockquote>
The Third Symphony is the longest symphony Mahler composed, and is the longest symphony currently in the repertoire. It takes at least 90 minutes to play, with the first movement alone taking over 30 minutes. Couple that with the huge orchestra Mahler uses, the label of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalomania" target="_blank">megalomaniac</a> was being used by his critics to describe him.<br />
<br />
A group of movements was heard in concert as early as 1897 when movements 2,3 and 6 were played in Berlin. The premiere of the entire symphony was in 1902 and was conducted by Mahler. The orchestra calls for quadruple winds, eight horns, four trumpets, four trombones, tuba, two harps, a large percussion section plus two sets of timpani, alto soloist, women's choir, boys choir, and the usual strings. Mahler split the work into two main parts; the first movement constitutes the first part, the other five movements the second part:<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">PART ONE</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">I. Kräftig. Entschieden (Strong and decisive)</span> -</b> The first movement was written a year after the remaining 5 movements. Eight horns playing in unison announce the beginning of the symphony:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIFr63CKvpV52xR7vxwq5aEvFJoBtaFiFtFH5ICaENWA6qGsnJkCpUkljr-JhUiHap0gbvGPBidsXQIt-Awhr8DGRIyfcMQEB3T9-1-vf_ru8bwfwfgj2GS5TqM_Dj6CYaCQUgXK7tyT4/s1600/1st1st.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="62" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIFr63CKvpV52xR7vxwq5aEvFJoBtaFiFtFH5ICaENWA6qGsnJkCpUkljr-JhUiHap0gbvGPBidsXQIt-Awhr8DGRIyfcMQEB3T9-1-vf_ru8bwfwfgj2GS5TqM_Dj6CYaCQUgXK7tyT4/s1600/1st1st.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
The introductory theme continues and is punctuated by the orchestra. This introduction brings forth the first theme of movement proper, a slow march in the minor that expands for quite some time. It is solemn intone but is full of whoops and calls from the orchestra. A short drum solo acts as an introduction to a second theme in the major that is lighter in texture. This theme is interrupted by cat calls from the clarinets and a third theme (although at this first hearing it is short and more like a motive than a theme) rushes through the orchestra. The first theme returns and contains a prominent part for solo trombone. This theme grows in intensity until it slowly fades into a repeat of the second theme as well as the cat calls from the clarinets and the following third theme,which this time around is expanded into the fourth theme, another march that is in the major and begins subdued in volume but gradually grows and is punctuated by the snare drum. The new march grows in volume and density as it is played full on by the orchestra. The fourth theme runs its course and the music segues to what can be considered the development section in a very loose sonata form. The first march theme is developed and leads to another solo by the trombone, followed by a solo for cor anglais. The second theme makes an appearance and is developed, followed by a reference to the fourth theme march. Snippets of themes weave in and out as the music moves to a variant of the first theme march that expands. Snippets of other themes enter and leave as the music grows in intensity and speed until it dies away. This is interrupted by snare drums that play in the distance and as they fade away the introduction for eight horns reappears with slight variations, which signals the beginning of the recapitulation. The first theme is expanded until a very quiet section brings back the fourth theme march. This theme builds while a variant of the horn introduction is played in the background. This major variant of the horn theme (which was also heard briefly in the development section) comes to the fore as Mahler varies and expands it. Motives of themes are combined as the music builds to a climax. A variant of part of the first theme is heard and the orchestra gallops to a rousing ending in the major. When this symphony is given in concert, there is sometimes a short intermission taken at the end of the first movement.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">PART TWO</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">II. Tempo di Menuetto -</span> </b>Mahler writes music in the style of a minuet. More specifically, it is a minuet in the style of Mahler.The middle section has some stormy sections that scurry through the orchestra. But for the most part this movement serves as a few moments for the listener to catch their breath after the rough hewn character of the first movement. The movement ends gently with a violin solo.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="color: orange;">III. Comodo (Scherzando) (Comfortably, like a scherzo) - </span></b>This movement makes references to a <i>Wunderhorn</i> song Mahler wrote titled <i>Ablösung im Sommer (Relief In Summer). </i>The text of the song deals with a dead cuckoo and a nightingale. There's been many <a href="http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=4460" target="_blank">translations of the text </a> of the poem, but when Mahler set the words he also inserted lines that he wrote himself. As with so many aspects of this huge work, there have been many interpretations of the meaning of the song by itself and in the context of the symphony. Suffice to say that falls in with Mahler's original heading for the movement <i>What The Creatures In The Forest Tell Me </i>(especially the birds evidently)<i>. </i>One of the novel features of this movement is the sudden change of the mood as an offstage trumpet plays a theme over a very quiet accompaniment. Mahler instructs the soloist to play the instrument as a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_horn" target="_blank">posthorn</a>. Sometimes the solo is played on an actual posthorn, but more often it is played on a trumpet or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flugelhorn" target="_blank">flugelhorn</a>. The offstage trumpet interrupts the scherzo 3 times. In between the 2nd and third interruption, the scherzo gets particularly vigorous and loud, and to encourage the general raucousness Mahler writes the direction in the score <i>Grob! </i>(complete with exclamation point) which translates to roughly or crude. The third trumpet interruption is the longest and more complex, complete with bird song imitations. After an almost inaudible transition, the scherzo starts up but quickly gains power and volume as a tremendous climax thunders through the orchestra. this leads to a fragment of the scherzo returning in a loud, highly punctuated version, and amid another tremendous climax the movement ends.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="color: orange;">IV. Sehr langsam—Misterioso (Very slowly, mysteriously) -</span> </b>The previous movements have shown Mahler's love and understanding of nature, but with this movement the music depicts the darkness of night. The movement begins with strings alternating gently between notes with harps adding a hushed texture. The entire movement remains quiet, the accompaniment hardly moving harmonically as the alto soloist sings a simple melody to the words of the <i>Midnight Song </i>from <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thus_Spoke_Zarathustra" target="_blank">Friedrich Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathustra</a>. </i>Mahler gets a particularly novel effect for the oboe and cor anglaise by writing a slur over two notes with the direction <i>hinaufziehen, </i>literally meaning to pull or move up. There is general agreement that Mahler intended a glissando with this word:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY5bIc0JFQ9QzirrRWC-wPBgzS75utf1NmzrTfRNMVhoVZSH0LRHSqFpR4Oa_0hdnrdp6nnzeyCmUWydHBRfOEs7mpHF5u1iGywVqIXl-A_711Hw5ysALWkHuXDdaw6FImu0_dZ0p8c5w/s1600/4thoboe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY5bIc0JFQ9QzirrRWC-wPBgzS75utf1NmzrTfRNMVhoVZSH0LRHSqFpR4Oa_0hdnrdp6nnzeyCmUWydHBRfOEs7mpHF5u1iGywVqIXl-A_711Hw5ysALWkHuXDdaw6FImu0_dZ0p8c5w/s1600/4thoboe.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
This is not possible on the modern version of the oboe used by most players. But it was possible on the German made instrument used in the orchestras Mahler directed. Modern scholarship and technique have shown ways this directive can be accomplished, and while it may seem a minor detail, the sliding notes give a particularly earthy quality to the music, something Mahler evidently intended. The above musical example also shows the detail and care Mahler took in notating his scores.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra, <i>Midnight Song</i>:</span></b><br />
O Man! Take heed!<br />
What says the deep midnight?<br />
"I slept, I slept -,<br />
from a deep dream have I awoken: -<br />
the world is deep,<br />
and deeper than the day has thought.<br />
Deep is its pain -,<br />
joy - deeper still than heartache.<br />
Pain says: Pass away!<br />
But all joy
seeks eternity -,<br />
- seeks deep, deep eternity!"<br />
<br />
The movement ends in the same dark, quiet tones in which it began and leads directly to the next movement.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">V. Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck (Cheerful in tempo and cheeky in expression) -</span> </b>Another <i>Wunderhorn</i> text is used in the 5th movement, <i>Armer Kinder Bettlerlied</i> (Poor children's Begging song) written for women's choir, boy's choir and soloist. The movement begins with the boy's choir imitating bells.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">Des Knaben Wunderhorn: <i>Armer Kinder Bettlerlied</i></span></b><br />
Three angels sang a sweet song,<br />
with blessed joy it rang in heaven.<br />
They shouted too for joy<br />
that Peter was free from sin!<br />
And as Lord Jesus sat at the table<br />
with his twelve disciples and ate the evening meal,<br />
Lord Jesus said: "Why do you stand here?<br />
When I look at you, you are weeping!"<br />
"And should I not weep, kind God?<br />
I have violated the ten commandments!<br />
I wander and weep bitterly!<br />
O come and take pity on me!"<br />
"If you have violated the ten commandments,<br />
then fall on your knees and pray to God!<br />
Love only God for all time!<br />
So will you gain heavenly joy."<br />
The heavenly joy is a blessed city,<br />
the heavenly joy that has no end!<br />
The heavenly joy was granted to Peter<br />
through Jesus, and to all mankind for eternal bliss.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="color: orange;">VI. Langsam - Ruhevoll - Empfunden (Slowly, tranquil, deeply felt) -</span> </b>In length and complexity, the final movement resembles the first massive movement, but the character and tone of the finale is quite different. It is full of joy and pain as Mahler unwinds some of the most heartfelt music he ever wrote. The music ebbs and flows, echoes things heard before (in this symphony and in the <a href="http://muswrite.blogspot.com/2012/10/mahler-symphony-no-2-resurrection.html" target="_blank">2nd Symphony</a>). Ending a symphony with an adagio movement was not common. Mahler had done it in the 2nd Symphony, and as in that work the 3rd Symphony adagio is the culmination of the symphony. If this is what Mahler meant when he wrote out headings for the movements of this symphony, that this is what love told him, he takes the listener through his complex and deep emotions with this music. It takes its time as it describes in tones Mahler's depth of compassion and spirituality. The movement seems to suspend time, but the build up reaches an incredible ending the timpani, low strings, bassoon and contra bassoon play the notes D and A, the tonic and the dominant of D major. The trumpets play a noble motive while the rest of the brass and woodwind play chords, all over divided violins and violas that play shimmering tremolos. Mahler has one last request written in the score when the full orchestra reaches the huge final D major chord, <i>Nicht abressien, </i>don't cut it off. Let the final chord ring out to end one of the most stunning symphonies ever written.
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Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-84649218930924495512022-12-20T15:55:00.000-06:002022-12-20T15:55:37.204-06:00Handel - MessiahWhen <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Jennens" target="_blank">Charles Jennens</a> gave his libretto of <i>Messiah</i> to George Handel in 1741, he would have no idea that almost 300 years later the oratorio would still be performed and continue to be one of the most famous and popular works for chorus and soloists. Jennens came from a wealthy landowning family in England who was also a patron of the arts. He was a writer, Bible scholar, and had such a good knowledge of music that he complained about Handel's setting of the text:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Messiah<i> has disappointed me, being set in great haste, tho’ </i>[Handel]<i> said he would be a year about it, and make it the best of all his Compositions. I shall put no more Sacred Words into his hands, to be thus abus’d... ‘Tis still in his power by retouching the weak parts to make it fit for publick performance; and I have said a great deal to him on the Subject; but he is so lazy and so obstinate, that I much doubt the Effect.</i></blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjllt6OLkqLp76SMxzRmijQJaQSU78th4uC5l4bttyzY6e5t6LLrzBoqE6IMKtbZKYEcQLyzdPhgnK-UvQGYDHdPl8Uyc2iRn86LDMirR2_oVDGYZHrj6IbRF6HZa4gkagX8fkkN9KfnAQ/s1600/George_Frideric_Handel_by_Balthasar_Dennerflipped.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjllt6OLkqLp76SMxzRmijQJaQSU78th4uC5l4bttyzY6e5t6LLrzBoqE6IMKtbZKYEcQLyzdPhgnK-UvQGYDHdPl8Uyc2iRn86LDMirR2_oVDGYZHrj6IbRF6HZa4gkagX8fkkN9KfnAQ/s1600/George_Frideric_Handel_by_Balthasar_Dennerflipped.jpg" width="264" /></a>Eventually Handel (known for his stubbornness, which was probably intensified by Jenner's inflated ego) made some of the changes suggested by Jenner after the first English performance of the oratorio in 1743. The premiere of the work was given in Dublin, Ireland during the winter concert season of 1741-1742. The proceeds of the Dublin premiere were given to charity, a practice that continued with every performance of <i>Messiah</i> throughout Handel's lifetime. In England the proceeds were given to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundling_Hospital" target="_blank">The Foundling Hospital</a> in London, and Handel bequeathed a copy of his score to the hospital upon his death.<br />
<br />
The 250-plus pages of the score to <i>Messiah</i> were written in 24 days, quite a feat but not out of the ordinary for Handel and other Baroque era composers. Most music that was publicly performed at the time was new music, and the demand was high, so many composers wrote fast and reused their own music as well as the music of others. The scoring of the work was also done according to the practice of the times, with parts for violins, violas and cellos, figured bass, 4-part chorus and soloists. But additional instruments would double some of the parts at performances when they were available, and not every set piece was included in every performance, thus there can never be a definitive performance of <i>Messiah, </i>but recent musical scholarship has allowed for <i>accurate</i> performances within the musical traditions and practices of the time. <i> </i><br />
<br />
Messiah has been performed as a sacred piece as well as a work of the concert hall. Jennens and Handel most likely intended it for an evening's entertainment, as were most oratorios of the time. As a complete performance of <i>Messiah</i> can last two and a half hours, it certainly takes up a full evening. Hopefully the audience attending Messiah acted better than the typical opera audiences of the time that talked, yelled at each other, booed and cheered singers and kept up a general ruckus throughout the opera. Messiah is divided into three main parts:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;">PART ONE</span></b></div>
<b><span style="color: orange;">1) Sinfony</span></b><br />
As oratorios were in many ways unstaged operas, the convention of an overture was used. Here Handel calls it a Sinfony, and it is written in the style of a French overture. It begins with a slow section with double dotted notes in a minor key. The second section is a fugue in a slightly faster tempo. <br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">2) Tenor recitative</span></b><br />
<i>Messiah</i> is different from most oratorios as there are no assigned roles to the soloists, and no characters. The words of the King James Version of the Bible are used throught the work, and the first part begins with the foretelling of the coming of <i>Messiah</i> in the Old Testament, and then celebrates the birth of <i>Messiah </i>in the New Testament.<br />
<br />
<i>Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God:</i><br />
<i>speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her,</i><br />
<i>that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.</i><br />
<i>The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness:</i><br />
<i>prepare ye the way of the Lord,make straight in the desert</i><br />
<i>a highway for our God.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">3) Tenor air</span></b><br />
<i>Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill</i><br />
<i>made low; the crooked straight and the rough places plain.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">4) Chorus</span></b><br />
<i>And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,</i><br />
<i>and all flesh shall see it together;</i><br />
<i>for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">5) Bass recitative</span></b><br />
This selection for bass shows Handel's flair for emphasizing the text. He makes use of melisma, the technique of using many notes on one part or syllable of a word. The word shake is literally shaken by the soloist:<br />
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Handel makes continual use of tone painting to enhance the text, no doubt one of the many reasons why the oratorio remains so popular.<br />
<br />
<i>Thus saith the Lord of hosts; yet once in a little while, and I will shake the</i><br />
<i>heav'ns and the earth, the sea, the dry land, and I will shake all nations, and the desire</i><br />
<i>of all nations shall come.</i><br />
<i>The Lord whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple,</i><br />
<i>ev'n the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in, behold, he shall come,</i><br />
<i>saith the Lord of hosts.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">6) Alto recitative</span></b><br />
<i>But who may abide the day of his coming?</i><br />
<i>And who shall stand when he appeareth.</i><br />
<i>For he is like a refiner's fire.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">7) Chorus</span></b><br />
<i>And he shall purify the sons of Levi that they may</i><br />
<i>offer unto the Lord an offering of righteousness.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">8) Alto recitative</span></b><br />
<i>Behold, a virgin shall concieve and bear a son,</i><br />
<i>and shall call his name Emmanuel,</i><br />
<i>God with us.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">9) Alto air and chorus</span></b><br />
<i>O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain;</i><br />
<i>o thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem lift up thy voice with strength;</i><br />
<i>lift it up, be not afraid, say unto the cities of Judah; behold your God</i><br />
<i>Arise, shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen above thee.</i><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="color: orange;">10) Bass recitative</span></b><br />
<i>For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people;</i><br />
<i>but the Lord shall rise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee,</i><br />
<i>And the gentiles shall come to they light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">11) Bass air</span></b><br />
<i>The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light,</i><br />
<i>and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death,</i><br />
<i>upon them hath the light shined.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">12) Chorus</span></b><br />
<i>For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,</i><br />
<i>and the government shall be upon his shoulder;</i><br />
<i>and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God,</i><br />
<i>the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">13) Pastoral Symphony</span></b><br />
A short orchestral interlude that gives the feeling of sheep contentedly grazing, and begins the section of the birth of <i>Messiah</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">14a) Soprano recitative</span></b><br />
<i>There were sheperds, abiding in the field,</i><br />
<i>keeping watch over their flock by night.</i><br />
<span style="color: orange;"><b><br /></b>
<b>14b) Soprano recitative</b></span><br />
<i>And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone</i><br />
<i>round about them, and they were sore afraid.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">15) Soprano recitative</span></b><br />
<i>And the angel said unto them fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings</i><br />
<i>of great joy which shall be to all people; for unto you is born this day in the</i><br />
<i>city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">16) Soprano recitative</span></b><br />
<i>And suddenly there was with the angel a</i><br />
<i>multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying:</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">17) Chorus</span></b><br />
<i>Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, good will towards men.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">18) Soprano air</span></b><br />
<i>Rejoice greatly, o daughter of Zion, shout,</i><br />
<i>o daughter of Jerusalem, behold, thy king cometh unto thee.</i><br />
<i>He is the righteous Saviour, and he shall speak peace unto the heathen.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">19) Alto recitative</span></b><br />
<i>Thou shall see the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;</i><br />
<i>then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">20) Alto air</span></b><br />
<i>He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, and he shall gather the lambs with his arm</i><br />
<i>and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with young.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">21) Chorus</span></b><br />
<i>His yoke is easy and his burden is light.</i><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;">PART TWO</span></b></div>
The second part deals with the life, death and rising from the dead of<i> Messiah</i>.<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">22) Chorus</span></b><br />
<i>Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">23) Alto air</span></b><br />
<i>He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.</i><br />
<i>He gave his back to the smiters and his cheeks to them</i><br />
<i>that plucked off the hair, he hid not his face from shame and spitting.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">24) Chorus</span></b><br />
<i>Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;</i><br />
<i>he was wounded for our transgressions,</i><br />
<i>he was bruised for our iniquities,</i><br />
<i>the chastisement of our peace was upon him.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">25) Chorus</span></b><br />
<i>And with his striped we are healed.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">26) Chorus</span></b><br />
<i>All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way.</i><br />
<i>And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">27) Tenor recitative</span></b><br />
<i>All they that see him laugh him to scorn;</i><br />
<i>they shoot out their lips, and shake their heads saying:</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">28) Chorus</span></b><br />
<i>He trusted in God that he would deliver him:</i><br />
<i>let him deliver him, if he delight in him.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">29) Tenor recitative</span></b><br />
<i>Thy rebuke hath broken his heart, he is full of heaviness:</i><br />
<i>he looked for some to have pity on him, but there was no man,</i><br />
<i>neither found he any, to comfort him.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">30) Tenor air</span></b><br />
<i>Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto his sorrow.</i><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="color: orange;">31) Tenor recitative</span></b><br />
<i>He was cut off out of the land of the living,</i><br />
<i>for the transgressions of thy people was he stricken.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">32) Tenor air</span></b><br />
<i>But thou didst not leave his soul in hell</i><br />
<i>nor didst thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">33) Chorus</span></b><br />
<i>Lift up your heads, o ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors,</i><br />
<i>and the King of glory shall come in. </i><br />
<i>Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.</i><br />
<i>Lift up your heads, o ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors,</i><br />
<i>and the King of glory shall come in. </i><br />
<i>Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">34) Tenor recitative</span></b><br />
<i>Unto which of the angels said he at any time, thou art my Son,</i><br />
<i>this day I have begotten thee?</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">35) Chorus</span></b><br />
<i>Let all the angels of God worship him</i>.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">36) Bass air</span></b><br />
<i>Thou art gone up on high, thou hast led captivity captive,</i><br />
<i>and received gifts for men, yea even for thine enemies,</i><br />
<i>that the Lord God might dwell among them.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">37) Chorus</span></b><br />
<i>The Lord gave the word, great was the company of the preachers.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">38) Soprano air</span></b><br />
<i>How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace,</i><br />
<i>and bring glad tidings of good things.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">39) Chorus</span></b><br />
<i>Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the world.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">40) Bass air</span></b><br />
<i>Why do the nations so furiously rage together, and why do the people imagine a vain thing?</i><br />
<i>The kings of earth rise up, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and his Anointed.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">41) Chorus</span></b><br />
<i>Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yokes from them.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">42) Tenor recitative</span></b><br />
<i>He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn:</i><br />
<i>the Lord shall ave them in derision.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">43) Tenor air</span></b><br />
<i>Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron,</i><br />
<i>thou shalt dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">44) Chorus</span></b><br />
One of the most recognizable pieces of music ever written, the Hallelujah chorus is a supreme example of what Beethoven called Handel's genius as, "He created the greatest effect with the smallest of means."<br />
<br />
<i>Hallelujah, for the God omnipotent reigneth.</i><br />
<i>The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ;</i><br />
<i>and he shall reign for ever and ever.</i><br />
<i>King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.</i><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;">PART THREE</span></b></div>
The final part of the oratorio deals with the Christian promise for the believer on the second coming of Christ.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">45) Soprano air</span></b><br />
<i>I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth;</i><br />
<i>and though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.</i><br />
<i>For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">46) Chorus</span></b><br />
<i>Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.</i><br />
<i>For as in Adam we all die, even so in Christ shall all be made live.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">47) Bass recitative</span></b><br />
<i>Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed</i><br />
<i>in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">48) Bass air</span></b><br />
<i>The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.</i><br />
<i>For this corruptible must be put in incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">49) Alto recitative</span></b><br />
<i>Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,</i><br />
<i>death is swallowed up in victory.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">50) Duet, alto and tenor</span></b><br />
<i>O death, where is they sting? O grave, where is they victory?</i><br />
<i>The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">51) Chorus</span></b><br />
<i>But thanks be to God, who giveth us the</i><br />
<i>victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">52) Soprano air</span></b><br />
<i>If God be for us, who can be against us? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?</i><br />
<i>It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth?</i><br />
<i>It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is at the</i><br />
<i>right hand of God, who makes intercession for us.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">53) Chorus</span></b><br />
<i>Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by his blood,</i><br />
<i>to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, glory, and blessing.</i><br />
<i>Blessing and honour, glory and power be unto him that sitteth on the throne,</i><br />
<i>and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. Amen</i>.
<br />
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Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-63409570762808897752022-11-30T18:48:00.000-06:002022-11-30T18:48:16.794-06:00Debussy - Nuit d'étoiles (Starry Night)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYtXM7F25oBW1Wx74UTBvxMy3Wh1oYL9i0XvFt4xbNfVPNEh8KZdvvoM-gf_H2e6Y_gcGj06Mu8Cbdu_p42OkgymEifXWA1VL9P5Us-9F-iuu3PTbb85sGYOcej5WNocKlcvUPBqAXl3g/s1600/Claude_Debussy_ca_1908%252C_foto_av_F%25C3%25A9lix_Nadar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYtXM7F25oBW1Wx74UTBvxMy3Wh1oYL9i0XvFt4xbNfVPNEh8KZdvvoM-gf_H2e6Y_gcGj06Mu8Cbdu_p42OkgymEifXWA1VL9P5Us-9F-iuu3PTbb85sGYOcej5WNocKlcvUPBqAXl3g/s320/Claude_Debussy_ca_1908%252C_foto_av_F%25C3%25A9lix_Nadar.jpg" width="236"></a></div>
Claude Debussy is most well known for his works written for piano solo. But he wrote around 55 songs for voice and piano throughout his career as well. His first published work was in fact a song, <i>Nuit d'étoiles </i>(Starry Night), written to the text of a poem by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9odore_de_Banville" target="_blank">Théodore de Banville</a>, a French poet and writer of the 19th century.<br />
<br />
Debussy wrote the song in 1880 when he was 18 years old. The song is a very good representation of Debussy's early works as well as how nature and literature inspired the young composer. The original poem has 4 stanzas, but Debussy chose to omit the third one. The piano accompaniment imitates the lyre mentioned in the first stanza while the voice tells the story of lost love.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi_YLkkV-4wbDSdcwOYDUZE_IOdAo3fuH8GXeQRaWTGovgaEBcx-FnmBMOjY3mDZWOAZNcgwSC8uZ93685G7BTR6IBekSSakbCFEU3dJG_DsLzVbHIOEL8TQPD9w4t6mtn71lcwtmNJ8Y/s1600/220px-F%25C3%25A9lix_Nadar_1820-1910_Portrait_de_Th%25C3%25A9odore_de_Banville.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi_YLkkV-4wbDSdcwOYDUZE_IOdAo3fuH8GXeQRaWTGovgaEBcx-FnmBMOjY3mDZWOAZNcgwSC8uZ93685G7BTR6IBekSSakbCFEU3dJG_DsLzVbHIOEL8TQPD9w4t6mtn71lcwtmNJ8Y/s320/220px-F%25C3%25A9lix_Nadar_1820-1910_Portrait_de_Th%25C3%25A9odore_de_Banville.jpg" width="252"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #252525; line-height: 17.3185615539551px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Théodore de Banville</span></span></td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: orange;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="color: orange;">Starry Night </span></b><br />
<i>Théodore de Banville</i><br />
Starry night, under your veils,<br />
under your night air and scents,<br />
With a sad sighing lyre,<br />
I dream of dead loves.<br />
<br />
The serene melancholy bursts from<br />
deep in my heart,<br />
And I hear the soul of my love<br />
Tremble in the deep woods.<br />
<br />
I remember the fountain,<br />
your blue eyes like the sky,<br />
your breath like roses,<br />
and your eyes like the stars.<br />
<br />
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Haydn's duties as Kappellmeister were many. He must have been a very well-organized and disciplined person, as he was responsible for anything that pertained to music. Among his responsibilities were the hiring, training and firing of musicians, upkeep and maintenance of the musical instruments, acquiring and maintaining the musical library, the staging of operas, rehearsing and conducting the orchestra as well as playing the organ and keyboard. And on top of all that, he was also expected to compose music. Operas, symphonies, concertos, chamber music (including 175 chamber compositions for various instrument combinations that included the Prince's instrument of choice, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baryton" target="_blank">Baryton</a>, a type of bowed gamba with an extra set of plucked strings). While he was highly respected, he was still considered a member of the servant staff and wore a livery uniform. By contemporary accounts, Haydn's temperament was mild. He was humble by nature, subservient to his employers and had a good sense of humor. He was fair with the musicians in his charge which led them to respect him. The only recorded flaw in his character was greed. After he was allowed to accept commissions for compositions from other patrons besides the Esterházy family, his concern was to make as much money as he could the best way that he could. But looked at a different way, Haydn may not have been greedy so much as wanting to build up financial security after he had suffered from poverty in his earlier years.<br />
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His 47th Symphony in G Major was written about 1772, a time when his imagination and craftsmanship worked together to create a symphonic style that was to set the standard for symphonic composition. The symphony is in 4 movements and is considered one if his<i> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturm_und_Drang#Haydn" target="_blank">Sturm und Drang</a></i> symphonies, although Haydn never used the term himself. The nickname 'palindrome' comes from the 3rd movement minuet which is discussed below:<div><br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">I. Allegro -</span> </b>The first theme resembles a march and is announced by the dotted rhythms of the horns. The second subject by contrast is free from the dotted rhythm and flows more readily. The exposition is repeated. The development section has the march theme dominate, and by the use of key changes it grows more passionate and tense. The second theme is commented on and leads to the recapitulation. Here Haydn throws the listener a curve, for instead of the first theme appearing in the major key of the beginning, it appears in a minor key. The second theme is played in the home key and as was customary in this era, the section is repeated.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">II. Un poco adagio cantabile -</span> </b>A set of 4 variations on a theme in <a href="http://www.music.ucsb.edu/faculty/rothfarb/courses/103/invertible-cpt.html" target="_blank">invertible counterpoint</a>, an example of Haydn's mastery of counterpoint that he learned by studying the music of C.P.E. Bach and working his way through the counterpoint exercises of <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradus_ad_Parnassum" target="_blank">Gradus ad Parnassum</a></i> by Johann Joseph Fux.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">III. Menuetto e trio, <i>Menuetto al Roverso</i> -</span> </b>The movement that gives this symphony its nickname. A palindrome is a word, phrase, or number that reads the same backward or forward. In this case, it is music that is played forwards, then backwards. The minuet is in two parts, and Haydn directs the musicians to play each part twice to the double bar, then twice in reverse. The trio is directed to do the same:<br />
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Haydn pulls off a piece of subtle musical trickery, kind of an inside joke that wouldn't be detected by the casual listener. Through the use of accents and the melodies themselves, Haydn accomplishes his inside joke while making the music make sense. This movement was supposedly a favorite of <a href="http://muswrite.blogspot.com/search/label/mozart" target="_blank">Mozart</a>'s.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">IV. Presto assai -</span> </b>A fast-paced movement with a sprinkling of dissonance to good effect. A rousing finale to a unique symphony.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTwB5NeDJljbE96EmFkkyCgnk9lkQSau23WOIzVj32M3AOiiawYkP8PYkySHH9GtQI3VbBbvM_g80o1x6xGuFunBa_RvpEe6RSVY1S3VCCtRl9DEDwpdeWXxIXxgfbKt-UAxyESG4lf2o/s1600/Henry_Purcell_by_John_Closterman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTwB5NeDJljbE96EmFkkyCgnk9lkQSau23WOIzVj32M3AOiiawYkP8PYkySHH9GtQI3VbBbvM_g80o1x6xGuFunBa_RvpEe6RSVY1S3VCCtRl9DEDwpdeWXxIXxgfbKt-UAxyESG4lf2o/s1600/Henry_Purcell_by_John_Closterman.jpg" width="293"></a><i>Music For The Funeral Of Queen Mary</i> was written upon the death of Queen Mary, the daughter of James II, King Of England. She had been married to William Of Orange of the Netherlands in 1677 as a way to patch up differences between the two countries. After James II had tried to return England to Catholicism, William and Mary (both Protestants) were invited to invade England by the members of parliament that were against King James II. The result was that in 1688 William sailed to England in over 400 ships and with 14,000 troops. He marched on London and gathered more and more local support the farther he went. The peaceful change of rule came to be known as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_Revolution" target="_blank">Glorious Revolution</a> and the couple were crowned in 1689 as King William III and Queen Mary II.<br />
<br />
William III made most of the decisions for the country as King, but when her husband was out of the country fighting the ongoing war with France, she proved herself an intelligent and capable ruler. She was a very popular ruler, and when she died in 1694 of smallpox, her husband and the nation went into mourning. Her funeral was the first of any royal that was attended by both House of Parliament. She was buried in Westminster Abbey.<br />
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Purcell wrote new music based on previously written compositions for the <i>Funeral Music For Queen Mary</i>. Purcell wrote the work for the usual four voiced choir of soprano, alto, tenor and bass; 4 flatt trumpets (in essence a slide trumpet that could play in minor keys), organ and basso continuo. Modern performances include timpani, which may or may not have been used when the music was played at the funeral.<br />
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The performance of the work in the link below is comprised of seven parts:<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">1) The Queen's Funeral March, Sounded Before Her Chariot - </span> </b>The most well known part of the funeral music. The four trumpets play the march the first time quietly with the timpani adding muffled accents. The march is repeated at a higher volume, along with sparse ornaments in the trumpets.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">2) Man That Is Born Of A Woman -</span> </b>The texts for the anthem is taken from the Common Book Of Prayer of the Church Of England<br />
Man that is born of a woman<br />
hath but a short time to live,<br />
and is full of misery.
He cometh up,<br />
and is cut down like a flower;<br />
he fleeth as it were a shadow,<br />
and ne'er continueth in one stay.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">3) Canzona -</span> </b>A short interlude for instruments only. The canzona was developed from various other forms and was used in the 16th and 17th centuries.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">4) In The Midst Of Life We Are In Death -</span></b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitbOwURDBSIb8AiSkEdVg3WT69wwzJwuRNlTd4OZL0WzSUOmWSRYgj8B8dw3ihDd219fchKLM2INHeYPjb5dEbqz6o3-4dmVTsDeBQyPgsNBhR05OsLJ5XMZuVHR2DoDno7jqmvxPyuTs/s1600/220px-Mary_II_after_William_Wissing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitbOwURDBSIb8AiSkEdVg3WT69wwzJwuRNlTd4OZL0WzSUOmWSRYgj8B8dw3ihDd219fchKLM2INHeYPjb5dEbqz6o3-4dmVTsDeBQyPgsNBhR05OsLJ5XMZuVHR2DoDno7jqmvxPyuTs/s1600/220px-Mary_II_after_William_Wissing.jpg"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queen Mary II</td></tr>
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In the midst of life we are in death:<br />
of whom may we seek for succour,
but of thee, O Lord,<br />
who for our sins art justly displeased?<br />
Yet, O Lord, O Lord most mighty,<br />
O holy and most merciful Saviour,<br />
deliver us not into the bitter pains<br />
of eternal death.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">5) Canzona</span> - </b>The previous short interlude is repeated.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">6) Thou knowest, Lord</span></b><br />
Thou knowest, Lord,<br />
the secrets of our hearts;<br />
shut not thy merciful ears<br />
unto our pray'rs;
but spare us, Lord most holy,<br />
O God most mighty.<br />
O holy and most merciful Saviour,<br />
thou most worthy Judge eternal,<br />
suffer us not, at our last hour,<br />
for any pains of death, to fall from thee. Amen.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">7) </span></b><b><span style="color: orange;">The Queen's Funeral March -</span> </b>The peaceful <i>amen</i> just sung is brought into perspective with the repeat of the mournful march.<!-- Place this tag where you want the su badge to render -->
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Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 44 was written in 1772, and the nickname of the symphony translates to 'mourning'. The symphony was written in Haydn's <i>sturm und drang</i> (storm and stress) period. He had been in the employ as Kapellmeister of the royal Esterhazy family since 1766, and some of the symphonies he wrote between 1766 and 1772 show how much Haydn was experimenting (with the full consent of his royal patron). The two minor key symphonies of this time <a href="http://muswrite.blogspot.com/2011/10/joseph-haydn-symphony-49-la-passione.html"><i>No. 49 'La Passsione'</i></a> and <i>No. 44 'Trauer'</i> are especially expressive, dramatic and different. Haydn wrote a total of seven minor key symphonies in seven years in a time when minor keys were seldom used as the home key for a symphony. They are evidence that Haydn had a stormier side to his musical nature, at least in his younger days.<br />
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Symphony No. 44 has 4 movements:<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">I. Allegro con brio -</span> </b>The movement begins with a 4-note motif that is heard throughout the movement in various keys and guises. Haydn was very adept at constructing an entire movement from a short motif, and it is one part of his style that Beethoven his student must have admired as he used the same technique in some of his music.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;"> II. Menuetto: Allegretto,canon in diapason -</span> </b>Here Haydn reverses the order of the inner movements and balances the first and third movement's emotions and moods with a minuet. But it is not a typical minuet of the time. First off, it is in the same key as the opening movement. In fact, the first, second and third movements of the symphony have the same home key of E minor. Haydn also writes the minuet in canon; the first measure is heard in the higher strings, the lower strings enter one bar later while the upper strings continue. The low strings remain one bar behind, even lagging two bars behind in one section, until the trio which is very short.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;"> III. Adagio -</span> </b>If tradition is to believed, Haydn himself gave the symphony the nickname 'mourning', in no small part because of this movement. Haydn must have had a real liking for this music, as later in life he requested that it be played at his funeral. The key is E major, the melody is played in muted violins and is not a funeral dirge by any means. It is gentle, graceful music that perhaps reflects Haydn's deeply Catholic religious views about death.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;"> IV. Finale: Presto </span>- </b>The theme of this movement is first heard in unison from the orchestra and careens through the entire movement at a fast pace. The drama stated in the first movement is intensified in this very rapid Haydn finale until the music finally halts with two loud chords. <su:badge layout="1"></su:badge>
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</script>Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-48140004730653301862022-07-10T22:05:00.000-05:002022-07-10T22:05:57.862-05:00Mrs. H.H.A. Beach - 'Gaelic' Symphony In E Minor<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQOdUuC40iZ5Hy0TnpF7d2IXTFdZquhI2z6vEUbYZCfvYB6JqUY_2tJ8o5hUDHFPmPlvqQAx92XjzcDWDxrZyjOtqBDpxr3hBhQOTyknT1sMKDtpZK7m8AWf2F53AIevjVGDjfSv242qU/s1600/amy-beach-03.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQOdUuC40iZ5Hy0TnpF7d2IXTFdZquhI2z6vEUbYZCfvYB6JqUY_2tJ8o5hUDHFPmPlvqQAx92XjzcDWDxrZyjOtqBDpxr3hBhQOTyknT1sMKDtpZK7m8AWf2F53AIevjVGDjfSv242qU/s400/amy-beach-03.jpg" width="266" /></a>For most of the history of music, composing was essentially an exclusive male endeavor. Women could be performers, but mostly in drawing rooms and parlors. The thought of a woman writing anything more serious than piano tunes and songs for the parlor was thought to be unfeminine. There were women composers throughout history nonetheless, but in a world dominated by men, few had the opportunity to have their music performed or published. In the last quarter of the 19th century a woman composer of serious art music came on the scene in the United States. She was born Amy Marcy Cheney in 1867 and she was a music child prodigy. By the age of four she could play hymns at the piano from memory after hearing them only once, and wrote her first compositions. She also taught herself to read at the same age, and at age six she began formal piano lessons with her mother. A year later she was playing in public music by Beethoven, Chopin, and her own compositions. She made her professional debut in Boston in 1883 and also played as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra the same year.<br />
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She married prominent Boston surgeon Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach in 1885 at age 19. She acquiesced to her husband's request to severely limit her concert appearances, but he encouraged her to compose. After her marriage she was known (at her insistence) as Mrs. H.H.A Beach. After the successful performance of her Mass In E-flat Major in 1892 she was accepted as an American composer of the first rank. After her husband's death in 1910, she resumed her concert pianist career by touring Europe and was acclaimed there as a performer and composer. <br />
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Beach wrote the Gaelic Symphony in 1894-1896 and the work was influenced by Antonín Dvořák's 9th Symphony 'From The New World', although Beach rejected the notion that American composers needed to use African American and Native American folks songs for inspiration. She had this to say about Dvořák's symphony:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The symphony as a whole made a far better impression on me than
at its first performance last year. It is interesting throughout, the
machinery of it admirably managed, the orchestral and harmonic
coloring done by a master. It seems to me light in calibre,
however, and to represent only the peaceful, sunny side of the negro
character and life. Not for a moment does it suggest their suffering,
heartbreaks, <i>slavery</i>."</blockquote>
Beach chose Irish folk tunes as the basis for her symphony. Although not all of the themes used in her symphony are true Irish folk tunes, her original themes are based on and influenced by Irish tunes. The symphony was premiered in 1896 and played four more times by the Boston orchestra and was also played in other cities across the country. The <i>Gaelic Symphony</i> was the first symphony written by a American woman composer and is in 4 movements: <br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">I. Allegro moderato -</span> </b>The first movement is in sonata form with the first and second themes being taken from Beach's own song of 1892 <i>Dark is the Night. </i>The first theme is in the tempo of a march. The second theme is more lyrical. The final theme of the exposition is an Irish jig called <i>Connor O'Reilly of Clounish</i>. The development section uses the first two themes only. The recapitulation is ushered in by a solo clarinet. The recapitulation uses the same themes in the same order as the beginning. Beach wraps up the first movement with an impressive summing up of the main themes in the coda.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">II. Alla siciliana - Allegro vivace - Andante -</span> </b>An Irish tune is heard on the oboe in a gently rocking tempo, after which the music increases in tempo written in 2/4 time instead of the usual 3/4 time of a scherzo. After the ever-moving scherzo section, the music returns to the opening mood and pace. This movement is a reverse scherzo, the fast-moving scherzo sections and trio sections trade places. After the second playing of the andante, the scherzo reappears briefly to end the movement.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: orange;">III. Lento con molto espressione -</span> </b>This movement is in sonata form and uses two Irish songs. The first is played by solo cello and violin, the second by brass and the orchestra. Both themes are developed at length. The recapitulation recalls the themes, the first in the bass clarinet, cello and violin, the second by strings and woodwind. The movement ends with the bass clarinet and strings.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">IV. Allegro di molto -</span> </b> The last movement is also in sonata form and consists of two themes that are based on Beach's original themes from the first movement. The first a spirited dance, the second played in the low strings is more lyrical. The development section uses both themes played in different keys. The recapitulation has the first theme repeated in E minor while the second theme is repeated in E major. The brass section ends the symphony on a note of triumph.<br />
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While Beach received solid training as a pianist, she only had one year of instruction in harmony and counterpoint and no formal training in orchestration at all. As a composer she was self-taught, a fact that is made all the more amazing after hearing her <i>Gaelic Symphony </i>
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</script>Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-50172210458040410522022-06-22T14:31:00.000-05:002022-06-22T14:31:38.235-05:00Alice Mary Smith - Symphony In C MinorIn the 19th century, the only types of music considered suitable by the musical establishment (a male-exclusive entity) for women to write were short piano pieces and songs for the drawing room. Larger scale chamber music and orchestral music was considered un-lady like and were rarely performed. But with the help and encouragement of her teachers William Sterndale Bennett and George McFarren (both devoted to Felix Mendelssohn's music), Alice Mary Smith went on to write not only piano pieces and songs, but chamber music and large scale works for orchestra.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha8q95dZoTe4WDtUFuLwEgxprjsuQrNMVTfXYHwL-OqdxkFOW8rrjQosU9fxyTXfXnx1JaCCTD7m8twdZpzBirQtaPz38nsMqnyq_VFty_GCxeIhXrY-bqDbeIpg8rR5ioQcOj5iuNVxE/s1600/title.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha8q95dZoTe4WDtUFuLwEgxprjsuQrNMVTfXYHwL-OqdxkFOW8rrjQosU9fxyTXfXnx1JaCCTD7m8twdZpzBirQtaPz38nsMqnyq_VFty_GCxeIhXrY-bqDbeIpg8rR5ioQcOj5iuNVxE/s1600/title.jpg" height="320" width="221" /></a>Born in London in 1839 to a well to do family, Smith showed a talent for music early on. Her family was financially able to have her study music privately with the above mentioned teachers. Her first work to be published was a song titled <i>Weep No More!, </i>and her first large composition was a <i>Piano Quartet</i> performed in 1861. She continued to compose and was elected Female Professional Associate of the Philharmonic Society. She was married to Frederick Meadows White in 1867 and did not compose any major works for a few years as she concentrated on her two daughters. Her husband was an amateur musician that encouraged her to begin composing again, which she did in 1869.<br />
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Smith joined the <i>Musical Society of
London</i> in 1861, an organization of contemporary composers who as members gained the opportunity of hearing their works in performance. The <i>Symphony In C Minor</i>, written when she was 24, was played at one of these concerts in 1863. A review of the concert appeared in the <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illustrated_London_News" target="_blank">Illustrated London News</a></i>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>On the same evening, at the Hanover-square Rooms, the Musical society of London had a trial-performance of new orchestral compositions by members of the society. Several symphonies and overtures were performed by a full and excellent orchestra, which did them every justice. Amongst the most remarkable was a symphony in C minor by Miss Alice Mary Smith and a symphony in A minor by Mr. John Francis Barnett, both admirable compositions, which did honour to the talents of their authors. Miss Smith's symphony especially, coming from the pen of a young lady, was striking proof of the sound studies and high attainments of the female votaries of the art in this country. We trust that these symphonies will be brought before the public in the course of the ensuing season.</i> </blockquote>
<i>Symphony In C Minor</i> is scored for woodwinds in pairs, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani and strings. It is in four movements:<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">I. Grave - Allegro ma non troppo -</span></b> With Smith having been taught by two advocates of Mendelssohn's music, Smith used Mendelssohn's symphonies as models The movement begins with a melancholy introduction that is followed by a tempo increase and a 4-bar lead in to the first theme played by the violas.<br />
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This short motive in C minor is passed up through the strings before it is expanded. Other instruments take it up until a section of transition brings forth the second theme in E-flat major played in the 1st violins.<br />
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This motive is repeated and expanded before it leads directly to yet another theme, a motive played by the horns and answered by the woodwinds:<br />
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This theme is also expanded and repeated until it leads directly to the first theme appearing briefly in the major until the opening lead-in of the movement heralds the repeat of the exposition. The development section begins with the first theme and Smith goes through many key changes as certain fragments of the theme are emphasized. The second theme also goes through a working out that is invaded by segments of the first theme. A section of transition brings the recapitulation of the themes. The first theme returns in the coda and leads to a tempo increase and the emphatic end of the movement.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="color: orange;">II. Allegretto amorevole -</span> </b>The second movement does away with trumpets and timpani, in music similar to the piano works of the genteel Victorian salon. Smith uses the tempo modifier <i>amorevole</i>, a term Mendelssohn used for music of a similar sentiment. <br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="color: orange;">III. Allegro ma non troppo - Poco meno mosso - </span></b> Smith uses no repeats in this short scherzo-like movement. The quality of the writing for woodwinds in this movement as well as the other three show that Smith had a good feel for orchestra color.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="color: orange;">IV. Allegro maestoso - </span></b>A rondo with the main theme in C major. There are fleeting moments of drama, and about in the middle of the movement a solo for oboe that returns to a theme in the first movement. The strings enter and play a pizzicato accompaniment to the cadenza-like section, there is a partial close and the main theme returns. A coda wraps up the movement in good Mendelssohnian tradition.<br />
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Smith was went on to compose many other works for orchestra, including another <i>Symphony In A Minor. </i>In 1883 she was elected as an honorary member of the Royal Academy Of Music, an award that was only bestowed on the most distinguished and accomplished composers. She went on to compose the most orchestral works of any English female composer in the 19th century.<br />
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She was not only known in England, as her fame was such that in the United States the the <i>New York Times</i> ran a lengthy obituary when she died in 1884 of typhoid fever at the age of 45.<!-- Place this tag where you want the su badge to render -->
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<br />Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-49815368774597247012022-05-20T12:47:00.000-05:002022-05-20T12:47:27.492-05:00Pejačević- Symphony In F-sharp MinorWith very few exceptions, the world of professional classical music was closed to women until the 20th century. Whether instrumentalist, conductor or composer, serious music was considered an exclusive male domain. The only music related occupation open to women was teaching. Women of the upper middle class were taught a musical instrument, usually the piano or violin, more as an avocation or social grace. <br />
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Men perpetuated the status quo of male domination in music (as well as society in general). <br />
Instrumentalists, conductors, composers and music publishers actively prevented almost all women from pursuing a career in music. Fanny Mendelssohn, <a href="http://muswrite.blogspot.com/search/label/mendelssohn" target="_blank">Felix Mendelssohn</a>'s older sister was a fine pianist and musician as well as a composer, but her father discouraged her from composition. Brother Felix privately encouraged her, but his public statements were different:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>From my knowledge of Fanny I should say that she has neither inclination nor vocation for authorship. She is too much all that a woman ought to be for this. She regulates her house, and neither thinks of the public nor of the musical world, nor even of music at all, until her first duties are fulfilled. Publishing would only disturb her in these, and I cannot say that I approve of it.</i></blockquote>
The same was true of Clara Wieck-Schumann, wife of <a href="http://muswrite.blogspot.com/search/label/schumann" target="_blank">Robert Schumann</a>. She was one of the most brilliant pianists of the 19th century, and after her husband's death she continued to concertize to provide for her large family. She was also a composer, but after her husband died she gave it up saying:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>I once believed that I possessed creative talent, but I have given up this idea; a woman must not desire to compose — there has never yet been one able to do it. Should I expect to be the one?</i></blockquote>
Her husband Robert (who evidently supported her composing activities) gave the reasons why she never went farther as a composer:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Clara has composed a series of small pieces, which show a musical and tender ingenuity such as she has never attained before. But to have children, and a husband who is always living in the realm of imagination, does not go together with composing. She cannot work at it regularly, and I am often disturbed to think how many profound ideas are lost because she cannot work them out.</i></blockquote>
Late in the 19th century the male stranglehold on music began to lessen, at least as far as musical composition was concerned. <a href="http://muswrite.blogspot.com/search/label/alice%20mary%20smith" target="_blank">Amy Mary Smith</a> in England and <a href="http://muswrite.blogspot.com/search/label/beach" target="_blank">Amy Beach</a> in America are two examples of women who overcame gender bias as composers. A woman composer of the early 20th century was the Croatian Dora Pejačević.<br />
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She was descended from the noble <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Peja%C4%8Devi%C4%87" target="_blank">Pejačević</a> family of Croatia on her father's side. Her mother was an Hungarian Countess who was a fine pianist and Dora received her first lessons in piano from her. Dora was a woman of learning and culture, she could speak and read several languages. Although Pejačević was a member of the aristocracy, she seemed to be down to earth and had more of an affinity for common people than the aristocrats of her own class. World War One affected her greatly as she saw all the suffering and pain it caused, which turned her into a socialist. She spent most of her life dedicated to her art, but her loneliness caused her to marry in 1921. She died from complications from childbirth in 1923.<br />
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Her <i>Symphony In F-sharp Minor</i> is the only symphony she wrote and she worked on it from 1916- 1917 and revised it in 1920. The premiere of the work was given in 1920 in Dresden and was such a success that the great conductor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Nikisch" target="_blank">Arthur Nikisch</a> performed it in concert. The symphony is a work in late Romantic style and is in four movements:<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">I. Andante maestoso - Allegro con moto -</span></b> The movement is in a type of very loose sonata form, with one main theme and many differing short motives. It begins with a dramatic introduction that is punctuated by the brass. A short motive is gently begun by the woodwinds and the violins continue it as it unwinds. The main theme has slightly more energy to it while still remaining lyrical. A second theme is chromatic and lyrical. Chromatic motives pile up until the first theme returns in an extended form, and it is then that the listener finds themselves in the development section of the first movement. Motives interrupt the first theme's chromatic journey. Themes already heard enter and leave, with the first theme always returning. The short introduction returns and signals the end of the movement in the entire orchestra.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="color: orange;">II. Andante sostenuto -</span> </b>A solo oboe begins by playing the main theme of the movement. Other winds join in while the low strings accompany. A bass clarinet adds to the texture before the strings give their version of the theme. The theme is developed as it continues until a counter melody is heard in the oboe as the strings play a fragment of the theme. In the middle of the movement another theme that is first heard in the low strings is played and developed chromatically. This theme goes through a chromatically intense climax before it winds down with hints of the first theme until the first theme returns in the bass clarinet. The first theme then continues its journey as it ebbs and flows back to where it began in the solo oboe. A short coda ends the movement.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">III. Scherzo: Molto allegro -</span></b> The chromaticism continues with the scherzo. The pace slows as a solo cello introduces a very short section (presumably the trio) before the scherzo resumes. Another short section of smooth lyricism interrupts until the chugging scherzo returns a final time. A short coda picks up the pace and ends the movement with a snicker.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="color: orange;">IV. Allegro appassionato - </span> </b>The finale begins with a rugged theme that is punctuated by cymbal crashes and brass. Just before the beginning of the second theme there is a motive played by full orchestra that must have sounded quite modern to the audiences of 1920. The second theme is more lyrical and is carried in the strings. After the second theme of the movement the theme from the second movement makes an appearance. The themes are then repeated with slight variations. The development concentrates on the theme from the second movement. The first theme returns and takes the music to a coda that ends the work in a minor key.<br />
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It is no wonder that Arthur Nikisch wanted to conduct Pejačević's symphony. She had an excellent sense of orchestral color as well as a good rhythmic and melodic gift. The structure of the symphony is loose and almost rhapsodic with its piling up of motives and themes, but she handled the material with such deftness and feel for instrumental color that the seams do not show, which makes for a very effective and enjoyable symphony.<!-- Place this tag where you want the su badge to render -->
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Like many composers in the 19th century, Brahms made his reputation by playing his own and other composers pieces on the piano. From what I've read, he was not the most brilliant of pianists as far as technique, but he was very musical. In his later years he hated to practice and played the premiere of his 2nd Piano Concerto after hardly touching a piano in years. He admitted he had better things to do than practice the piano three hours a day.<br />
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He played his own compositions to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Schumann">Robert </a>and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Schumann">Clara Schumann</a> in their home when he was 20 years old. Robert Schumann was not only a composer, but was an influential critic and writer. Brahms had been on concert tour with a Hungarian violinist as an accompanist when <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Joachim">Joseph Joachim</a> heard him, introduced him to <a href="http://muswrite.blogspot.com/search/label/liszt">Liszt</a> and gave him a letter of introduction to the Schumanns. Schumann wrote about him in an article titled '<i>New Paths' </i>in a music journal and hailed him as a genius.<br />
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Brahms continued to compose and be involved in the musical life of Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Vienna. His compositions were met with mixed results, his first piano concerto was roundly criticized and hissed at the first performance. It wasn't until he composed his <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_German_Requiem_(Brahms)">German Requiem</a></i> in 1868 that Brahms got his European reputation as a great composer.<br />
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A contemporary of Brahms said that he played the piano like a composer. If his playing style is reflected in his music for solo piano, he was not a brilliant technician. his piano music is not full of scales running up and down the keyboard, but rather much of his music is dense with thick chords, with the melody embedded sometimes in an inner voice, sometimes an outer voice. This aspect of his music makes it difficult to play in its own way. Brahms piano music is not so much difficult because of technical glitter, but of musical substance and balance. Brahms had a tendency to write music in phrases made up of odd numbers of measures. Instead of 4-bar phrases Brahms many times writes 5-bar phrases. Couple this with the aforementioned thick chordal structure, and you've unlocked some of the reasons why Brahms music can sound not quite conventional, but not quite radical either. Brahms indeed found his own voice.<br />
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The Rhapsody For Piano in G minor is one of two that Brahms wrote in 1879 at the height of his popularity. It is in many ways typical Brahms. A lot going on, danger of the melody being swamped by all the inner workings, first theme threading through the accompaniment, the Brahmsian dilemma of keeping everything in balance. But Brahms leads the way for the pianist, as long as they remain alert and pay attention. Even the ritard at the end of the piece is worked out by Brahms, as the final six bars hold the melody in tied whole notes while the accompaniment is marked 'quasi ritard' and notated thus, with the eighth note accompaniment turning into quarter note triplets, and then to quarter notes thus creating Brahms' 'quasi ritard':<br />
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</script>Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-31124265432443814892022-04-10T12:55:00.000-05:002022-04-10T12:55:30.855-05:00Schumann - Piano Quintet In E-flat Major<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Before 1842, Robert Schumann had written only one piece for chamber ensemble, a piano quartet in 1829, but that all changed in the year that as been called his chamber music year. After studying the chamber works of the masters, he wrote three string quartets, a piano quartet, a piece for piano trio and a piano quintet.<br />
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Schumann wrote the quintet in a few weeks during the summer of 1842. He dedicated the work to his wife Clara and she was to play the piano part in a private performance of the work in December of 1842. Illness prevented her participation, but Felix Mendelssohn took her place and in a feat of pure musicianship sight-read the piano part. Mendelssohn had some helpful suggestions for the piece after the performance, and Schumann revised the work accordingly.<br />
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The Piano Quintet is one of Schumann's greatest works and was very influential in changing the way composers wrote for the combination of string quartet and piano. The work has music of chamber music intimacy along with music that is more symphonic. The quintet is in 4 movements:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0jkt7rqIRkc8eQ1gbe9YWTP83860F44KYRaJe11e25RpY-mrfHWt3VfxVrWUbECwylDyGGlW4V3df4Uk3aXis_LODS_Y1bwbsy63InNuWUcnDBwHBgQ8GNGj_BkrVP_B_ZCpSF6si6Hk/s1600/clara+framed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0jkt7rqIRkc8eQ1gbe9YWTP83860F44KYRaJe11e25RpY-mrfHWt3VfxVrWUbECwylDyGGlW4V3df4Uk3aXis_LODS_Y1bwbsy63InNuWUcnDBwHBgQ8GNGj_BkrVP_B_ZCpSF6si6Hk/s1600/clara+framed.jpg" width="242" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clara Schumann</td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: orange;">I. Allegro brillante -</span> </b> All five instruments present the driving, robust first theme. The second theme is played by piano alone, and then taken up by the violin and cello. The exposition is repeated. The development section begins with section of transition for piano and cello. The first theme dominates the development section and the reappearance of it in its original form signals the start of the recapitulation. After the second theme the movement draws to a spirited close with parts of the first theme.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">II. In modo d'una marcia. Un poco largamente -</span> </b>Perhaps the most well known movement of the quintet is this funeral march in C minor. It begins with 2 bars of introduction from the solo piano, after which the first violin plays the lugubrious melody. The second violin takes up the next part of the theme, with the first violin resuming the melody until the viola takes it up. The second part of the march is repeated and ends quietly. A section of contrast begins in C major with the new theme played as a duet between cello and violin. As with the funeral march, this lyrical theme's second part is repeated. The funeral march is played through again, and after a short transition another section interrupts the march with highly agitated music in F minor that has the piano playing in staccato triplet eighth notes with biting notes in the strings. The second part of this section is also repeated. The funeral march theme returns in the viola with an increased agitation in the accompaniment. The lyrical theme returns, this time in F major. Once more the funeral march plays out, and the movement ends with the piano silent as the strings play a C major chord in harmonics.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">III. Scherzo: Molto vivace - </span></b> Scampering scales cavort in the scherzo until the first of two trios is reached. The trio is a duet in canon for violin and viola. The scherzo takes flight until the second trio is reached. This trio is full of nervous energy as the instruments play four-note motives throughout. The scherzo returns for one more repeat and a coda brings the scherzo to an end.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">IV. Allegro ma non troppo -</span> </b>Schumann begins the finale in the key of G minor and gradually makes his way back to the home key of E-flat major. But Schumann goes even further afield with the second subject as it is in the key of E major. Towards the end of this movement Schumann brings unity to the work by a stroke of contrapuntal prestidigitation as he brings back the first theme of the first movement as the subject of a fugue that uses the first theme of the last movement as a counter subject, in essence a double fugue. All of this complexity gives the five instruments a very large, almost orchestral sound. The work ends in a brilliant fortissimo E-flat major chord. <!-- Place this tag where you want the su badge to render -->
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</script>Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-46185894645783176642022-03-22T18:34:00.000-05:002022-03-22T18:34:45.829-05:00Schubert - String Quintet In C Major D. 956<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFCEjOlaORt6gGGBwx7eWvlB3GEd7IzA51lOltzt5VGEyTEYZVejb5Di6iwmtLEDTVQ54yI6FqsGn-RpmPAOuW9JxVzqXj2sspE33Stzwp_dtJppVCtXFWVb34ECW2FgmrA34V5VyA1TU/s1600/schubert1cropped.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFCEjOlaORt6gGGBwx7eWvlB3GEd7IzA51lOltzt5VGEyTEYZVejb5Di6iwmtLEDTVQ54yI6FqsGn-RpmPAOuW9JxVzqXj2sspE33Stzwp_dtJppVCtXFWVb34ECW2FgmrA34V5VyA1TU/s320/schubert1cropped.jpg" width="269" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">Schubert's String Quintet In C Major adds a second cello to a standard string quartet setting instead of a second viola as Mozart and Beethoven did in their string quintets. No one knows why Schubert chose an extra cello for his quintet, but the result is music that uses the added depth and sonority of the second cello to good advantage.</div>
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Schubert composed the quintet in 1828, and wrote to a publisher offering it along with other works. In the letter Schubert says that rehearsals for the quintet were to begin in a few days, but it isn't certain if this ever happened. The music publisher refused the quintet, and it lay forgotten until it was rediscovered and had its first known public performance in 1850. It was published three years later in 1853, and came to be regarded by Schumann and a young Brahms to be one of the finest chamber music work ever written.</div>
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<div><div style="text-align: justify;">The quintet is like the other handful of masterpieces Schubert wrote in his last months of life that expanded the form and content of music. It is in 4 movements:</div>
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<b><span style="color: orange;">I. Allegro ma non troppo - </span></b> This is an example of Schubert's expanded first movement settings as it takes roughly a third of the playing time of the entire work. With a wealth of thematic material and a rich harmonic language, this movement alone takes about 19 minutes to play. It starts with a dynamic swell that begins on the chord of C major but at the crest of the swell the chord changes to what can be defined as a C diminished seventh, a minor chord.<br />
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A short section leads to a different tonally ambiguous chord exchange, and now the music reveals that this is not an introduction, but a thematic group that continues in kaleidoscopic harmonies until a second theme in E-flat is stated by the cellos:<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This theme moves to the higher strings and is repeated. A section in G major brings the music back to the second theme and the exposition is repeated. The development section alternates between the serene and the dramatic as the music spotlights sections of themes in a dizzying array of major and minor keys. Schubert manages to segue from one to the other effortlessly until the recapitulation brings the music back to the beginning chords. Key changes continue as Schubert blends themes and keys as a painter blends colors and shadows. The coda gives a sense of continuing the themes even farther as the opening chords are heard again along with a modulation, but it is actually a summing up as Schubert winds down the movement and the music ends firmly in C major.</div>
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<b><span style="color: orange;">II. Adagio -</span> </b>The second movement is in E major, and begins with a tender theme played by second violin and viola. The first violin plays an accompanying figure as the one cello adds harmonic depth to the theme while the second cello plays a pizzicato accompaniment:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_vWIvwhHUGvQRc5deidUVfPblSFMXZnsFAKw2X_um_bbpwCunSoQspQXZPZ4l8CkT8rQKCDhSCMYsLpEaPwH23ykQJKES-s_TOUCtwzizPj6RkZ5NGkaiwLylqHgMFXlDrS2o2Tl50cM/s1600/ex2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_vWIvwhHUGvQRc5deidUVfPblSFMXZnsFAKw2X_um_bbpwCunSoQspQXZPZ4l8CkT8rQKCDhSCMYsLpEaPwH23ykQJKES-s_TOUCtwzizPj6RkZ5NGkaiwLylqHgMFXlDrS2o2Tl50cM/s640/ex2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The instruments blend together as the music gently and slowly flows on its way, getting even more quiet as it goes, until a crescendo of trills leads to an agitated middle section in F minor. A quiet section coaxes the tender theme back for a replaying, but this time with a varied accompaniment which adds a slight nervous edge to it. Near the end, the trilled crescendo that lead to the agitated middle section makes a brief appearance in the first violin, but as quickly as it came it retreats as the music comes to an end in E major.</div>
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<b><span style="color: orange;">III. Scherzo: Presto – Trio: Andante sostenuto -</span> </b> Schubert returns to the home key of C major as he increases the loudness and sonority of the five instruments by playing 9-note chords at <i>fortissimo </i>in this boisterous scherzo:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUHYRdVTrLR5k_OvgRbeuBIscArFUa2SdJYGaICXSFSLB1DtmSzR61-YcmxNf4UzQS5C3GJbOJ8IniaJWtTsxgQrdYRgom7L47Lf1aHNQTVq8RU7DNNrRmgSBet0juOMSs2-H0bRygj4I/s1600/ex3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUHYRdVTrLR5k_OvgRbeuBIscArFUa2SdJYGaICXSFSLB1DtmSzR61-YcmxNf4UzQS5C3GJbOJ8IniaJWtTsxgQrdYRgom7L47Lf1aHNQTVq8RU7DNNrRmgSBet0juOMSs2-H0bRygj4I/s640/ex3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The trio section generally is in contrast to the scherzo itself, but Schubert makes an extreme contrast, first of all with the key change from C major to D-flat major, a key that is quite remote from the home key. The tempo also slows as the mysterious music of the trio quietly hesitates its way to a repeat of the scherzo.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: orange;">IV. Allegretto -</span> </b>Schubert's first theme of this movement is reminiscent of the dance music he was fond of. The movement is in the form of a rondo with elements of sonata form as well, a hybrid of the two forms. The key has returned to C major (although the theme begins in shadows of C minor), and the violin plays the theme as the other instruments give an accompaniment:</div>
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The second theme is a graceful tune in G major played by the first violin and first cello:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVE4tSqE9c6YTf47te76DudAlSZoegYKygpX6M_kkVvU4FzAqTkvou8CZh9OpDoHl69A-f5v8GLp5OKnqY3mSJ_AEsREcQ9nNSVN2UOPjBwO1aiPBQXYp60opqyno-XmKfZluJ8xgeCok/s1600/ex42.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVE4tSqE9c6YTf47te76DudAlSZoegYKygpX6M_kkVvU4FzAqTkvou8CZh9OpDoHl69A-f5v8GLp5OKnqY3mSJ_AEsREcQ9nNSVN2UOPjBwO1aiPBQXYp60opqyno-XmKfZluJ8xgeCok/s640/ex42.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Schubert's melodic gifts were second to none, so along with these two themes there are other tunes and parts of tunes that appear. After Schubert has ran his course with these themes, he builds up excitement by increasing the tempo in the coda. With a triple forte passage, Schubert leads to the final notes, a D-flat grace note before the final unison C, thus ends a work that constantly moves from profound beauty to despair and back again with an intensity that was the beginning of the Romantic era in music.</div>
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r />Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1727760322430110049.post-32817648493883456592022-02-24T19:10:00.000-06:002022-02-24T19:10:06.465-06:00Brahms - Piano Quartet No. 3 In C Minor, Opus 60 'Werther'<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6LJIN_NLm6LDgzIHeGZ9YKdgyDHX2677HUwEwxApMS9jcI204V4kf4XfcElqTj72z8NCsZmQauaQTisMWvXkxyQAnxPQOl8WbmHtnGZPMiwejKLqEe3ckw5jBmczQSnlCJScZW3T0IQw/s1600/johannes_brahms_1833e280931897_ca_1875.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6LJIN_NLm6LDgzIHeGZ9YKdgyDHX2677HUwEwxApMS9jcI204V4kf4XfcElqTj72z8NCsZmQauaQTisMWvXkxyQAnxPQOl8WbmHtnGZPMiwejKLqEe3ckw5jBmczQSnlCJScZW3T0IQw/s320/johannes_brahms_1833e280931897_ca_1875.jpg" width="201" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1853 when Johannes Brahms was 19, he made a concert tour as accompanist to the violinist Eduard Reményi. On the tour he met Franz Liszt (where tradition has it that he fell asleep while Liszt played the piano) and Joseph Joachim, violinist and composer. Joachim became a good friend and gave Brahms a letter of introduction to Robert Schumann. Later in 1853 Brahms traveled to Düsseldorf and proceeded to impress and enchant both Robert Schumann and his wife Clara.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Brahms stayed with the Schumann's for a few days, and Robert was so impressed with the music he heard from the young composer that he wrote an article for the <i>Neue Zeitschrift für Musik</i> (New Journal of Music) announcing Brahms to the musical world. The article titled <i>Neue Bahnen</i> (New Paths) begins with Schumann writing briefly about new and upcoming composers until he reveals the name of Brahms:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9n02Bve7t2BRMu83RIq6rkwttbzMj0yZm391Jhci2oTjPWT2x_icXOK5yvUuJx9YR5NXrDiywj-mkTN63oqD4sEYdKkRdlSBuCinSzCuI3FxK2cETHf15UcuTGQ0Cr8KrSAtqe_RXsME/s1600/url-1.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9n02Bve7t2BRMu83RIq6rkwttbzMj0yZm391Jhci2oTjPWT2x_icXOK5yvUuJx9YR5NXrDiywj-mkTN63oqD4sEYdKkRdlSBuCinSzCuI3FxK2cETHf15UcuTGQ0Cr8KrSAtqe_RXsME/w205-h269/url-1.jpeg" width="205" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert and Clara Schumann</td></tr>
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<i><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>...I thought of the paths of these chosen ones that pursued the art of music with the greatest participation, there must suddenly appear one who would be appointed to utter the highest expression of time ideally, one who did not bring us the championship gradually, but, like Minerva, would spring from the head of Zeus fully formed. And he has come, a young blood, at whose cradle Graces and Heroes stood guard. His name is Johannes Brahms... His appearance announced to us: this is an anointed one. Sitting at the piano he revealed wonderful regions. We were drawn into ever widening circles, which made an orchestra of wailing and loud cheering voices from the piano. There were sonatas, more like veiled symphonies; songs whose poetry you without knowing the words would understand, although a deep singing melody passed through all; single piano pieces, partly demonic, partly of the most graceful form; then sonatas for Violin and piano; Quartets for strings; and each so different from the others... May the highest Genius strengthen his genius!</i></div></i></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">High praise that did as much harm as good, for it put undue pressure on a 20-year old composer that</div><div style="text-align: justify;">was still finding his way. Brahms was self-critical by nature, and this passing of the mantle made him even more so.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When Schumann attempted suicide in early 1854, he voluntarily had himself put into a mental hospital for Clara and his children's sake. Brahms lived in the Schumann household intermittently from that time until Schumann's death in 1856. During this time he wrote two piano quartets, <a href="http://muswrite.blogspot.com/2013/10/brahms-piano-quartet-no-1.html" target="_blank">No. 1 In G minor opus 25</a>, and No. 2 In A Major opus 26. He also drafted a third piano quartet in C-sharp minor, but this one wasn't to achieve its final form until almost twenty years later.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs4-SwFcAC5zxrgleGP1jH2oI7j47xlm6IoDfoEjrkh_hZiy2jeEUjSQPvcckZH8OdNB41ZJYqCbS4GvcJ302iu5K4DORCjNrQiHRDAQFYoh2PJkze6GbB4gWyMkJDOPbkp90YUZF7lxU/s1600/werther2.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs4-SwFcAC5zxrgleGP1jH2oI7j47xlm6IoDfoEjrkh_hZiy2jeEUjSQPvcckZH8OdNB41ZJYqCbS4GvcJ302iu5K4DORCjNrQiHRDAQFYoh2PJkze6GbB4gWyMkJDOPbkp90YUZF7lxU/s320/werther2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Young Werther</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">After revising and rewriting, the third piano quartet was finally completed in 1874. The home key of the work was dropped to C minor from C-sharp minor with the quartet becoming one of Brahms most dramatic chamber works. The nickname '<i>Werther</i>' came from Brahms acquaintance with Goethe's novel <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sorrows_of_Young_Werther" target="_blank">The Sorrows of Young Werther</a> </i>that deals with a young man that falls in love with a woman that is already married, and so Werther commits suicide. The parallels in Brahms' life in 1855 when the work was begun are evident, for he fell in love with Clara Schumann at the time. There is no clue whether this love remained platonic or became intimate, but Brahms well remembered the feelings he had in 1855 when he told his publisher his idea for a cover page for the printed score of the piano quartet:</div>
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<i>On the cover you must have a picture, namely a head with a pistol to it. Now you can form some conception of the music! I’ll send you my photograph for the purpose.</i></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"> Brahms remained somewhat dissatisfied with the work as it didn't have its premiere until 1875, a year after it was published. It is in 4 movements:</div>
<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: orange;">I. Allegro non troppo - </span></b>Brahms was labeled as a musical conservative by the followers of the 'New Music' of Liszt and Wagner for a number of reasons, not least of all for his keeping with tradition by writing in the traditional forms of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. The writing of chamber music especially was considered old fashioned. But Brahms was did not slavishly keep to an academic model of these forms. He utilized sonata form in the broadest sense of the term, and was innovative in ways to use it. It is never an easy task to technically make your way through a major work of Brahms. The relationships of themes are often blurred as themes appear different that are actually closely related. And his use of modulation between keys is far from conservative. The first movement of this quartet is a good example of how he used all of these elements within a traditional form to suit his musical expression. This movement was one of the original two movement he wrote in 1855 for the quartet. It begins with octaves by the piano which are answered by a sighing figure. The piano again plays bare octaves, and is answered with a slight variant of the sighing theme. A short development leads to a downward figure that brings in the first theme. The second theme is first heard in the solo piano, after which there are 4 variations, each eight measures long like the theme. A variant of the first theme brings the exposition to a close. After a short section based on previous material, what appears to be a new theme in B major is loudly stated:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL3Scmn7DwoULePnd3ba44aBjERGjQJ2afKCEfw0-dOkrKltilCGaCgz7FxoEvsKo_fEhY9KmNLKrZ7bxhJ4eGplkeypFjncnzPRN9HLywU8OlS4ZYIHDtFd785VnDx1hyphenhyphenoOfNQ9lwgyE/s1600/ex1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL3Scmn7DwoULePnd3ba44aBjERGjQJ2afKCEfw0-dOkrKltilCGaCgz7FxoEvsKo_fEhY9KmNLKrZ7bxhJ4eGplkeypFjncnzPRN9HLywU8OlS4ZYIHDtFd785VnDx1hyphenhyphenoOfNQ9lwgyE/s320/ex1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This theme is stated again in a different key and leads to the working out of the second theme which goes through a short series of variations once again. The sighing motives from the beginning of the work return signalling the recapitulation, this time the opening theme is heard in the key of E minor. The second theme is now heard in the key of G major and goes through a small number of variations for the third time. The first theme is then developed until it ends in C major. A short coda repeats the figures with slight variations that opened the movement, and the music ends quietly.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: orange;">II. Scherzo: Allegro -</span> </b>This movement was perhaps composed in the 1860's, between the initial composition of the work and the final version. It is in C minor, the same key as the first movement. The music is terse and coarse as the scherzo plays through until a quasi-trio section begins with a new theme but continues in the same mood. The scherzo returns and is slightly shortened. A short coda brings the movement to a close with a <a href="http://dictionary.onmusic.org/terms/2600-picardy_third" target="_blank">Picardy Third,</a> a term for the closing of a work in a minor mode with a major chord:</div>
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<b><span style="color: orange;">III. Andante -</span> </b>This movement along with the first movement is part of the music of the draft written in 1855. It is in E major, a key of four sharps that is somewhat far removed from the home key of C minor with 3 flats. It is the only movement of the quartet not in C minor. It begins with a long, sweet melody for the cello (an instrument that Brahms studied briefly in his youth) with piano accompaniment:<br />
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The piano's role in this movement is one of gentle support as the strings sing a song of tender calm, a possible love song for Clara Schumann.<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;">IV. Finale: Allegro comodo -</span> </b>The final movement returns to C minor and the piano plays a restless theme under the theme played by the violin:<br />
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The second theme is derived from the piano accompaniment of the opening theme of the movement and is played by violin and viola. The exposition is repeated. After the development works through themes and relationships of fragments, the recapitulation replays the violin theme of the beginning in all three stringed instruments with broken octaves in the piano. Themes are expanded until a coda is heralded by the piano playing thick chords in an outline of the second theme. The piano resumes its initial figure in a hushed tone along with the strings until two loud C major chords end the work.
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Alan Beggerowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09319550956740738799noreply@blogger.com0