Weber - Symphony No. 2 In C Major

Carl Maria von Weber is mostly remembered in the classical music world as an opera composer. He wrote his first opera at fourteen and had his first success in opera in 1803 when he was seventeen years old.  Three years later he was working at the Breslau Opera as music director. He tried to reform the opera but the intrigues, drama and resistance were so great that he resigned. While he was at Breslau, he met with an unfortunate accident when he drank from a wine bottle that his father had stored engraver's acid in. It took him two months to recuperate and his pleasant singing voice was ruined.

He wrote his only two symphonies when he was twenty years old with the intention of having them performed by the small court orchestra of Duke Eugen Friedrich Heinrich von Württemberg-Öls, where Weber was Kapellmeister. Weber's time at court was also full of intrigues and troubles as he racked up huge debts. His father was charged with embezzling a large amount of the Duke's funds, and both Weber and his father were arrested and put in prison. Later both were released and banished from the Duke's lands.

Both symphonies are in C major. Symphony No. 2 was written in a week's time in January of 1807, and like the first symphony it has a prominent part for oboe, the instrument the Duke liked to play. The symphony is in four movements:

I. Allegro -  The orchestra enters with loud chords that are answered by the woodwinds. This happens twice before the oboe plays the first theme of the movement.  Other lesser themes are played and lead up to the second primary theme being played by solo horn. A solo bassoon takes up this theme. The first theme returns and is expanded slightly, and then the exposition is repeated. At the end of the repeat, the horns mark the beginning of the development by playing a figure from the first theme, followed by the trumpets. A solo flute then plays the first them in a minor key. The drama increases in the development until it reaches a climax. Quietly the orchestra leads to the recapitulation. The usual modulation of themes to the home key follows, with the second theme this time being brought in by the oboe. A short coda beings the movement to a close.

II Adagio, ma non troppo - The horns begin the second movement with a short fanfare. The theme of the movement begins with a solo viola and is continued with the oboe. The theme is expanded until the horns begin a more elaborate repeat of the theme which develops as an operatic aria, no big surprise coming from a natural dramatic opera composer as Weber was. The movement is short, and ends quietly.

III Menuetto. Allegro -  Although labeled a minuet, this movement is in C minor and has the characteristics of a scherzo with its off the beat accents. A contrasting trio section in the major for accompanied oboe uses rests to maintain the off the beat feeling. The beginning of the movement is repeated, and this very short movement (under two minutes usually) ends.

IV Finale. Scherzo Presto - Labeled a scherzo, this movement begins with a short ascending figure in the orchestra followed by silence. The full orchestra a rhythmic theme that is continually being interrupted by rests. The second theme is for oboe and plays straight through without the interrupting rests. There is a third theme for horn in the minor before the quirky first theme returns, this time it plays for a time before asilence interrupts its progress. After the silence, the music builds up to a final climax followed by a silence that may seem like the end of the movement, but the figure that began the movement returns for one more swift and quiet appearance before this also very short movement truly ends.

Whether Weber's talent was to ever respond to the form of the symphony was never to be known as he died from tuberculosis at the age of 39. He had a great sense of melody and orchestral color, valuable assets for a composer of operas, and it may have been a genuine lack of interest instead of a lack of talent for the instrumental genre of the symphony.  His handling of sonata form in the two symphonies is not outstanding. But his lack of mastery of the form may be why the symphonies, especially the second one, are so quirky, in a good way.

Weber - Concertino For Horn In E Minor

Carl Maria von Weber was an early Romantic composer that had a tremendous influence on other musicians in the 19th century.  He was primarily an opera composer, but he wrote works in other forms as well,  particularly solo concertos for piano and other instruments.

Weber wrote a total of 15 concertos, with 7 for wind instruments, some of which are still in the repertoire and are studied by wind instrument students. One of his more curious solo concertos is the Concertino For Horn In E Minor. Weber was fond of the horn and used it to good effect in his operas, but as with many composers he consulted experienced horn players when he was writing the concertino in 1806. He revised the concertino for a different player in 1816.

Horn virtuosos of the day performed the work on the natural horn which consists of a tube over twenty feet long that had a bell at one end and a mouthpiece at the other.  Changes in pitch were accomplished with lip tension and by the insertion of a hand in the bell. Extra pieces of tubing called crooks had to be added or removed from the instrument to allow it to play in different keys, something that composers had to account for in their scores as any time a horn was to change the key in which it played there had to be sufficient time to change the crook.  Valves began to be used on horns around 1818 but it took some time for them to be accepted by older players and composers. Weber's concertino is now played on the modern valved horn, but it is still a very difficult piece to bring off. The concertino is in 4 sections:

I. Adagio - The orchestra begins by playing two chords, after which the soloist enters. This short section acts as an introduction to the work. The soloist plunges to the bottom of the instruments register that leads the music directly to the next section.

II. Andante con moto - The horn plays a theme that is also taken up by the orchestra. This section is a set of variations on this theme. The first variation is a slightly decorated version of the theme. After each variation by the horn the orchestra plays a short version. The second variation has the soloist making great leaps and arpeggios. The third variation increases the decoration of the theme with faster notes and more arpeggios.  The difficulties for the horn player increase yet again in the fourth variation. The orchestra leads directly to the next section.

III. Recitative - adagio - Weber treats the horn as a vocalist in one of his operas as it plays sad, sometimes dramatic material while the orchestra punctuates the soloist. Towards the end of the third section, the horn plays unaccompanied, at least by any other instrument. After some notes that are at the very bottom of the range of the horn, Weber instructs the soloist to hum a note as another note is played. This gives the effect of the horn playing a chord, a four-note chord is notated in the score. A note played on the horn is held while alternating notes are hummed into the instrument. A quiet timpani roll brings the strange sounds of a horn accompanying itself to a close and leads to the final section.

IV. Alla polacca -  The horn plays a polonaise, a Polish dance that was something of a craze of the times.  The horn and orchestra take turns the polonaise between short interludes of other themes. The horn part continues on its virtuosic way, until it plays a string of trills (notoriously difficult on the natural horn). With one last trill for the soloist. the orchestra brings Weber's tour de force for the horn to a close.

Along with a video of a soloist playing the piece on a modern horn, beneath it there is a video of the same concertino being played on a natural horn.

Weber - Konzertstück In F Minor For Piano And Orchestra

Carl Maria von Weber's works for the stage are considered to be the first German nationalist operas and as such they influenced composers of the next generation, especially in Germany. His early development of the lietmotif influenced Wagner to use the technique also. His orchestrations were studied by Berlioz and used them for examples in his Treatise On Instrumentation .   Liszt, Mendelssohn and Chopin were influenced by his works for piano and orchestra, and 20th century composer Igor Stravinsky admitted that Weber was a model for his Cappriccio For Piano And Orchestra, written over 100 years after Weber's death.

The Konzertstück In F Minor was especially influential, not only for Weber's use of the orchestra, musical content and form (it is in 4 sections played without break), but for its extra-musical content. Weber had composed two piano concertos and when he had begun writing his third he wrote the following in a letter to music critic Johann Rochlitz:

I have an F minor piano concerto planned. But as concertos in the minor without definite, evocative ideas seldom work with the public, I have instinctively inserted into the whole thing a kind of story whose thread will connect and define its character - moreover, one so detailed and at the same time dramatic that I found myself obliged to give it the following headings: Allegro, Parting. Adagio, Lament. Finale, Profoundest misery, consolation, reunion, jubilation.

 Weber was taken up with work on other compositions and didn't get back to the third concerto, which he had renamed Konzertstück, until 1821. In fact, on the morning of the premiere of his opera Der Freischütz he finished the  Konzertstück. It was premiered a week later to (in Weber's words) "monstrous acclaim", and the work has been a popular concert piece ever since.

Weber himself played the piece for his wife and Julius Benedict, a German composer and conductor. According to Benedict the composer gave a running commentary as he played the piece, which shall be quoted below:

Larghetto affetuoso -  Beginning in F minor, the sad and reflective music has a story Weber described as he played :
A lady sits alone on her balcony, gazing off in the distance. Her knight has gone on a Crusade to the Holy Land. Years have passed, battles have been fought; is he still alive? Will she ever see him again?

Allegro passionato -  In a state of panic (and still in the key of F minor), Weber described her state of mind:
Her excited imagination summons a vision of her noble husband lying wounded and forsaken on the battlefield. Could she not fly to his side and die with him? She falls back, unconscious. Then from the distance comes the sound of a trumpet (represented by a solo bassoon). There in the forest something flashes in the sunlight as it comes nearer and nearer.

Tempo di marcia -  The music has now changed to C major in a wave of celebration:
Knights and squires, with the Crusaders' cross and banners waving, are acclaimed by the crowd. And there her husband is among them! She sinks into his arms (represented by an octave glissando on the keyboard)

Presto giocoso - The solo piano erupts in rapid scales and figures, the music modulates to F major as the soloist plays brilliant passages, including two more grand glissandos as Weber concluded his story:
Happiness without end! The woods and waves sing a song of love, while a thousand voices proclaim its victory.

Weber's  Konzertstück is the quintessential early Romantic work for piano and orchestra. It is no surprise that Liszt played it many times in his career and even wrote his own version of the piano part. Liszt (as well as other composers) used the connected movement form of it for their own works for piano with and without orchestra.

Weber - Andante And Hungarian Rondo For Bassoon And Orchestra

 The bassoon, along with the cello and string bass, is a primary part of the bass register in the modern symphony orchestra. The modern bassoon has evolved from earlier keyless forms of bass double reed instruments called dulcians. It was during the 19th century when increased demands for range, volume control and tone quality caused instrument makers to improve the instrument.

The bassoon also has a place in chamber music, and solo concertos have been written for it. One of the most played works for bassoon and orchestra is Weber's Andante And Hungarian Rondo For Bassoon And Orchestra, especially in a version for piano and bassoon that many students of the bassoon have had to struggle through.  The first version of this work was written in 1809 for his brother, who played the viola. The basoonist Georg Friedrich Brandt asked Weber to arrange it for the bassoon in 1813. Weber didn't make very many changes in the work as he knew full well the capabilities of Brandt, one of the leading players of the day.   Weber must have enjoyed the challenge of concerto writing, for he wrote over a dozen for various instruments, many of them being for wind instruments.

The work is in two sections:
I. Andante - A theme and short set of variations. The theme is in the mood and tempo of a siciliana, a slow dance with origins in Italy in the early Baroque period. There are three variations on this theme. The two bassoons in the accompanying orchestra join in with the soloist in a trio of bassoon-ness. After the last variation where the baassoon chatters away as the orchestra plays the theme, a short bridge section leads directly to the second movement.

II.  Hungarian Rondo - The bassoon plays the 'Hungarian' tune to begin the rondo. As  'Turkish' music of roughly the same period was not actually turkish tunes,  'Hungarian' music was not actually hungarian tunes. Both kinds of music were ways composers introduced different exotic rhythms and instruments to their music. Weber's music may resemble a form of hungarian dance called Verbunkos, but the resemblance is slight and as with most examples of Hungarian-styled music of the time, owes as much to music of the Romani (Gypsy) people who lived in Hungary as anything else. The tune is a skipping, rather light-hearted tune that brings out the humorous side of the bassoon. As in the first movement, Weber has the bassoons of the orchestra join in with the soloist for more examples of bassoon-ness. The theme is interlaced between episodes of differing material with the bassoon always in the forefront. The bassoon goes off on a tear of triplets near the end and finishes up with a scurry of notes to end the work.

Weber - Clarinet Concerto In F Minor

Many composers have written concertos for solo instrument and orchestra with a specific soloist in mind. Sometimes the performer was the composer themselves.  In the beginning of the Romantic era it was the norm for musicians to enter the music scene of the times with their own compositions.  All of the great composer/performers from Beethoven to Brahms and many others were soloists in their own works.

Composers also wrote for performers for instruments besides their own. Such was the case with Weber's Clarinet Concerto in F Minor.  It was written in 1811, a time of transition for the clarinet. Improvements were made to make it more chromatic and flexible, and one of the most well-known of the virtuosos of the improved instrument was Heinrich Bärmann. He played in the court orchestra of Munich from 1807 until he retired in 1834. His son was also a virtuoso on the instrument.  Bärmann exploited the improvements on the instrument and was known for his tone and wide dynamic range.

The concerto is in the traditional three movements:
I. Allegro - The work begins with the cellos and double basses stating the main theme with accompaniment

Heinrich Bärmann

by the violas and violins. After the initial statement of the theme, the full orchestra blurts out a double-forte chord, and the theme is played by the violins. The orchestra sets the stage for the entrance of the clarinet with hushed sounds. The clarinet enters with a different melody. Weber's writing for soloist is in turn brilliant and plaintive, with the orchestra being more than an accompaniment. Changes of key ensue as the main theme is once again stated by the low strings, the clarinet finally utters a sad song as the movement quietly winds down and dies away. Weber's flair for orchestration is evident in this first movement, as well as the entire work. The instruments are as if they were singers in a dramatic scene of an opera.
II. Adagio ma non troppo -  Weber uses three horns in this movement, and has them alone play with the clarinet through some sections. The movement moves from minor agitation to solemn dignity as the clarinet sings its way through the movement.
III. Rondo; Allegretto - The clarinet shows the agility it can have in the hands of a master performer as it dances the lively tune of the finale.

The clarinet is a unique member of the orchestra. It is a single-reed instrument with a cylindrical bore (the bassoon and oboe are double reed instruments with a conical bore.) In the hands of a good musician it can have one of the widest dynamic ranges of any instrument. It has three distinct registers or tone qualities, from the rich, deep and breathy chalumeau register(from the ancestor of the clarinet the chalumeau ) to the bright and clear clarion register (a type of early trumpet with a bright sound)to the brilliant and sometimes piercing altissimo register(Italian for very high).  Weber uses all of these registers and qualities of the instrument in his concerto and it is one of the gems of the repertoire.

 

Weber - Symphony No. 1 In C Major

Carl Maria von Weber is more well known for being a composer of operas, but he did indeed write two symphonies.  The first symphony was written in 1806-1807, shortly after the premiere of Beethoven's 3rd Symphony, 'Eroica'. Beethoven set the symphonic world upside down with the Eroica, and his 4th Symphony followed close behind.  The two symphonies of Weber, while interesting and tuneful, were written rather true to form in the classical style. They were overshadowed in the beginning by the developments of Beethoven and were pretty much neglected until their revival in the 20th century.

Weber had just begun a visit to the music-loving Duke of Württemberg-Öls, whose palace was in a forest and boasted a small orchestra that the Duke liked to play the oboe in. Weber wrote both of his symphonies for this small orchestra which consisted of one flute, two oboes,  two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings, with no clarinets.

The first movement is in sonata form, and shows how much Weber already understood the orchestra. His gift for melody shines throughout the movement. But it is with the second movement Andante that shows Weber's flair for the dramatic, even when writing for instruments alone. It is a short movement (as all the movements of the symphony are, the entire symphony takes only about 25 minutes) but it has a darkness of instrumental color that makes it the most unique movement in the symphony. The third movement is a Scherzo with a prominent oboe part. The finale is a high-spirited movement in sonata form that brings the symphony to a rousing finish.

Weber's first symphony is not the best music he ever wrote. Weber himself acknowledged as much in a letter to a friend when he expressed how he could have worked things out better in the symphony. But it is still a very enjoyable piece of music and has flashes of the talent that was to make Weber one of the founders of the Romantic movement in music.