The full title of Liszt's work is A Symphony to Dante's Divine Comedy. Liszt began sketching themes for this work as early as 1840. He worked on fragments of it until he laid it aside. In 1855 he took up the work again and completed almost all of it by the end of 1856. Liszt played the piano version of the work to Wagner, who praised it but suggested some changes.
Liszt had originally conceived the work in three movements, Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise. Wagner talked Liszt out of writing a symphonic work that portrayed paradise, as he thought no composer could do paradise justice. Liszt agreed, and retained the first two movements and added a Magnificat in place of the Paradise movement. The first performance was held in Dresden in 1857 with Liszt conducting, and it was a disaster. Lack of rehearsal was the cause, but Liszt didn't give up on the work and conducted it again in 1858.
The work has not been one of Liszt's most popular. It is an innovative work, as most of Liszt's compositions, and makes use of different forms, musical scales and harmonies. Along with his Faust Symphony(finished in 1854) these two works are more like groups of related tone poems than symphonies, at least in structure. The Faust Symphony to me is a more balanced work, the three sections having much more in common with each other in material and length. The Dante Symphony's strongest movement to me is the first one, Inferno. The second movement is also very good, but the very short Magnificat that follows it tends to throw the last two thirds of the work out of balance to my ear. That doesn't mean the Magnificat isn't good, it most certainly is and is very innovative in Liszt's use of the whole tone scale. Perhaps if Liszt had kept to his original plan for a Paradise movement the work many have been even better.
Inferno begins with a depiction of the gates of hell itself with a slow introduction for brass. Liszt repeats the motif 4 times, each time slightly varied and the first three lines and the ninth line written on the gates of hell are written over the notes in the score:
Through me is the way to the sorrowful city, Through me is the way to eternal sorrow, Through me is the way among the lost people. Abandon all hope you who enter here.
There is a chant recited by the trumpets and horns, the tempo quickens and the music makes a rapid descent that depicts Dante and Virgil descending into hell. As Dante goes through the circles of hell, the music evolves into waves of noise, violence and borderline hysteria, probably one reason why this work is none too popular; Liszt's depiction of hell gets pretty noisy in places. After the second circle of hell, Liszt takers part of a previously heard motif and relates the story of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo, two lovers that were contemporaries of Dante, who wrote their story into his Divine Comedy. The pair were murdered by Francesca's husband (who was also Paolo's brother) before they could repent of their sin, thus they are doomed to hell for eternity, clutching each other in their misery. Francesca tells Dante the tale before they are swept along the torrents of hell with the other lost souls, and Dante faints. Liszt's music depicts the heartache and passion of the story in music that is in vivid contrast to what has gone before.
After what amounts to the lengthy interlude of the telling of the story of Francesca da Rimini, Dante and Virgil resume their journey and the music returns to the inquietude of the beginning. Snatches of music that has been heard before return, in a twisted recapitulation of the beginning. It isn't until these are heard that we realize Liszt has used his own version of sonata form for this movement. The music picks up momentum as it hurtles through the circles of hell until the final horrible vision of Satan himself is seen chewing on the bodies of the damned. The music builds into a loud, shrill climax, then with five chords the bottom falls out and the music ends.
I first hear this symphony more than thirty years ago, and Inferno has been one of my favorite pieces ever since, and it made me a ‘fan’ of Liszt. It was my introduction to Liszt besides the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 I heard Bugs Bunny play in the old cartoons. The power of the piece, the sheer visceral reaction from the loudness of the beginning and end coupled with the tenderness of the middle Francesca da Rimini section still sends chills up the back of my neck. And I do admit that it is the Inferno movement I listen to the most. The other two movements seem anti-climatic to me. I do better to listen to them without the first part
.
Respighi was a musicologist as well as a composer, and he used the music of the past as inspiration for some of his compositions. The Birds is a suite of pieces that are based on various 18th century composers. It is an attempt to depict (somewhat stylized) bird songs of the Dove, Hen, Nightingale and Cuckoo. The composer uses the woodwind section of the orchestra for the bird imitations to good effect. Respighi conducted the premiere of the work in Brazil in 1928.
The Birds consists of 5 movements -
I. Prelude - This prelude acts as a mini-overture for the rest of the work. The first-heard melody in the prelude is based on an opera aria by the Italian composer Bernardo Pasquini (1637-1710) , who was not only a composer but a virtuoso keyboardist, perhaps the greatest keyboard player of his generation. He wrote operas, cantatas, many works for voice, and music for keyboard. He was an outstanding teacher and may have taught Domenico Scarlatti. He may have been the first composer to write three-movement sonatas for keyboard. After this melody, there is a medley of the bird songs that comprise the rest of the work, and the Pasquini melody returns again to finish the prelude.
II. The Dove -This movement is based on the music of French composer and lutenist Jacques de Gallot (ca.1625-1700). A solo oboe plays gently with the accompaniment of harp and strings. Trills in the strings imitate the flutter of wings while the melody is given to clarinet, then the solo violin.
III. The Hen - This is based on the music of the French harpsichordist, composer and theorist Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764). Rameau's music is seldom heard in the concert hall, but he was one of the great musicians of the Baroque era and the history of music in general. It was Rameau who codified what had been going on for a hundred years in music, basing music on harmony instead of counterpoint. He was the culmination of the Baroque era in France, much like J.S. Bach was in Germany. The music starts with the clucking of a hen and before it is over the entire hen house is a stir.
IV. The Nightingale -The only thing known about the next melody is that it originated in England in the 18th century. Respighi orchestrates the gentle melody with the appropriate winds, and even has the solo horn gently sing the melody.
V. The Cuckoo -Another melody from Pasquini, this one from a harpsichord piece. The woodwinds imitate the cuckoo, the melody from the prelude is heard once again to round off the piece and the work is finished.
Composers have always been the leading force in music as far as innovation of techniques and improvements in instruments. That is not to discount the role that interpretive musicians play, but it seems to me that the innovations created by composers in the music they write forces in music notation, harmony, melody, rhythm, instrumental technique and even in the instruments themselves. The piano is a good case in point.
The piano was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori, an Italian master harpsichord builder, in about 1700. The forerunner of the piano was the clavichord, an instrument that was capable of dynamic shading but wasn't sufficiently loud enough for concert use. The harpsichord was the instrument of choice in concert, and it could be made to play loud enough, but the variety of dynamics was also limited. Enter Cristofori's pianoforte, (soft and loud), but this too was too delicate in tone for concert use. It took many improvements in the original before the birth of the massive concert grand piano we all know today.
The piano of Beethoven's time was closer to the original of Cristofori's than the modern piano. There were different makers and each one had their strengths and weaknesses, but they were all similar in that except for the strings and tuning pins, they were entirely made of wood. The wooden frames of Beethoven's pianos could not withstand the string tension of a modern grand, thus they did not have the sonority, volume, or the durability. A strong player like Beethoven was forever breaking strings and hammers. That's not to say the instruments weren't expressive. Modern reproductions have shown how beautiful they could sound, but their voices were smaller. They could not be heard over a full orchestra, hence composition techniques resorted to a kind of 'call and answer' technique where the orchestra would state the main themes, then the piano would enter either solo or with a low volume accompaniment from the orchestra.
This compositional technique can be heard in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 at the very beginning. The first movement begins with a loud chord from the orchestra that is answered by a piano cadenza. This happens three times before the exposition of the movement actually begins, and parts of the cadenzas are heard throughout the movement. Beethoven had already placed a cadenza for the solo piano at the beginning of the 4th Piano Concerto , but in the 5th piano concerto the cadenzas are of a more dramatic nature. After the orchestral exposition the soloist has his say about them. The themes are explored further in the development section and when the traditional place for a cadenza appears during the recapitulation, Beethoven makes it clear that there is to be no extemporizing by the soloist by writing as much in the score. The entire first movement is dramatic and Beethoven at his most majestic. Beethoven also has the piano and orchestra play at the same time more frequently. The entire concerto is almost written for a piano that didn't exist in Beethoven's time, for the coming of the iron-framed piano and resultant higher string tension and brilliance (not to mention volume) was years in the future.
The second movement is a beautiful Adagio, in direct contrast to the heroic first movement. The second movement segues right into a rondo finale that is full of energy. The theme of the rondo is heard repeatedly and developed along the way until a short duet between piano and timpani leads to the ending flourishes of piano and orchestra.
Beethoven's music in general and this concerto in particular is a good example of how a composer's talent, insight, ingenuity and creativity can change their art in many ways. The piano was never the same after Beethoven. It couldn't be. Beethoven demanded so much from his instruments and players that they both had to evolve and learn new ways and methods to express the music that he wrote.
The modern orchestral horn had as its ancestor the valveless 'natural' horn that was used in the military and in hunting to signal the troops or hunters. The valveless horn has a limited range as changes in pitch can only be produced by lip pressure and inserting or removing the hand from the bell of the instrument. Inserting the hand in the bell of the instrument to change pitch was somewhat of a compromise as the tone quality of the instrument changed. The first uses of the horn in the orchestra took into account its limitations and the parts written for them were fairly elementary - the notes of the triad chords, mostly the tonic. The instrument could play in other keys, but that involved inserting or removing an extra length of tubing. These extra lengths of tubing were called 'crooks' and the composers that used the horn early on would write for the horn crooked in a specific key for an entire piece or movement, depending on the notes needed. Later on, composers would ask players to change the key of their horns within a movement, but this took time and had to be taken into consideration.
The valved horn was invented about 1815 and had advantages over the natural horn. It was a fully chromatic instrument, therefore crooks were no longer necessary and the hand in the bell technique was no longer used for pitch change. But as with all new things, it took time to be accepted. Despite the problems of the natural horn, some preferred its tone to the valved counterpart. Even in 1849 when Schumann wrote the Konzertstück For Four Horns And Orchestra it was not assured that orchestras used valved horns. Schumann himself wrote for a pair of valved horns and a pair of natural horns in the work, but four valved horns are usually used in a modern performance.
This work is seldom played, perhaps because it calls for four virtuoso horn players.
The work is in three movements with the 2nd and 3rd played without pause: I. Lebhaft (Lively) - The orchestra begins with two loud chords, and the horn quartet comes in and plays a fanfare. The horns seldom have a rest as they have a spirited dialogue with the orchestra. Schumann was fond of the horn and utilizes all the qualities of expressivity of the instrument in this movement, from tenderness to forcefulness.
II. Romanze -The soft and gentle chords of the horns are the feature if this short movement, which leads directly to...
III. Sehr lebhaft (Very lively) -A return to the mood of the first movement as Schumann has the soloist imitate each other until they come together in a fine statement of horn harmony. The dialogue continues until the finale, when the orchestra and the horns join together and close the work.
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621) was a Dutch organist and composer. His father was also an organist. The family moved to Amsterdam shortly after Jan's birth, and his father took the position of organist at the Oude Kirk (Old Church) there. Jan also was organist at the same church after the death of his father. Sweelinck was one of the first major keyboard players in Europe, and he helped establish the Northern German school of organ playing as exemplified by J.S. Bach.
He was one of the first organists to play fugues by giving the subject first, and have the other voices follow in succession. He also extended the use of the organ pedals and was one of the first to use the pedals for the voice in a fugue. He was also a very good teacher as many of his keyboard works were written for his students. His influence was widespread, as his music was known in England. He had earned the nickname 'The Orpheus Of Amsterdam' and the city fathers would bring guests from the surrounding area to hear him play.
He evidently spent his entire life in Amsterdam, but his expertise on organs was in high demand so he traveled inspecting and testing organs and giving advice on their construction. After the Calvinist Reformation of the church in Amsterdam, organ music was no longer allowed during church service. Sweelinck would give impromptu recitals on the organ an hour before and an hour after church services. These impromptu recitals were very popular, as Sweelinck would play the popular tunes of the day and then improvise variations on the tune.
Sweelinck left about 70 compositions for keyboard, and a glimpse of his powers as an improviser can be heard in these pieces. The Variations on Est-ce Mars is one such example. The tune is French and was well-known at the time. The first line of the song roughly translates to: "Is that Mars, the great god of battles, that I see?" The words may not mean much to modern ears, but Sweelinck shows his imagination and skill in the seven variations on the tune.
As with all music that is so old, there are performance practices of the time that we know little about, if anything at all. Without knowing how these pieces were actually performed, especially in a time where improvisation was much more prevalent, any modern performance may be but an approximation. Be that as it may, the music of Sweelinck and other composers of so long ago can still be listened to and appreciated, especially if a sensitive musician is playing the music. Music can be a powerful form of expression and can bridge the centuries.
Rossini wrote the opera Semiramide in 1823. The libretto was based on a tragedy by Voltaire which in turn was based on a Babylonian myth. It was the final Italian opera that Rossini wrote. After its completion he moved to Paris and his last operas were in French. Rossini was one of the fastest composers at that time, and composed the entire opera in a matter of 33 days. The opera's plot is a gruesome retelling of the Oedipus legend that is set in Babylon.
By the late 1800's the opera was almost unknown. There have been various revivals of it, but it is not performed very often. That can't be said for the overture to the opera, as it remains a popular selection for the concert hall. Unlike many other opera overtures of the time (including Rossini's) the overture uses tunes that are in the opera itself and therefore couldn't be used for a different opera. Strange as it may seem to us, the recycling of music happened a lot in the break-neck world of popular opera of the time. Works were written rapidly and many composers not only recycled their own music, but music of other composers as well. The goal was to keep feeding the opera-hungry audiences new operas and keep the money rolling in at the box office.
The overture begins with a small crescendo that leads to three chords in the full orchestra. A hymn-like melody played by the horns is next, which is one of the most imaginative aspects of this overture. The orchestra bursts in again, the hymn tune is taken up by the woodwinds with pizzicato accompaniment by the strings, and the horns join the woodwinds. A few booming chords that alternate with the woodwinds that lead to a tune that is played in the strings and winds. Another tune from the opera is heard in the winds, which leads to a 'Rossini' crescendo that morphs into a repeated figure in the violins that reaches the apex of the crescendo. Tunes are heard again, with the obligatory key changes and the orchestra slowly begins to build to another crescendo. A short coda, and the overture comes to a close.
Rossini was one of the most popular, if not the most popular opera composers of his day. Many of his operas may no longer be in the main stream repertoire, but the overtures to the operas remain crowd-pleasers. The visceral excitement of a Rossini crescendo, and his gift for melody assure Rossini a place in the concert hall of the future.
Richard Strauss was born into a very musical family. His father Franz Strauss was a virtuoso horn player and the principle horn of the Munich Court Opera. Franz Strauss personally gave his son a thorough musical education and Richard was talented enough to have written his first composition when he was six years old. He was also given private instruction by the assistant conductor of the Munich Court Orchestra and attended rehearsals of the orchestra on a regular basis.
Although Strauss heard his first Wagner opera when he was about ten years old, the elder Strauss was a musical conservative that detested 'modern' music. Richard was not allowed to study any new music, as his father's strictly classical tastes ran to Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn. A side note about the elder Strauss, as principle horn in the Munich Opera Orchestra, he played in many premiers of Wagner's works. Although he hated Wagner's music, he was the consummate professional and studied the horn parts of the operas and played them to Wagner's satisfaction and praise.
Richard Strauss's early compositions were chamber works, and it was during this same time that he began his orchestra conductor apprenticeship with Hans von Bulow who was very fond of him and recommended Richard to take over the head conductor job of the orchestra when von Bulow resigned.
Strauss was introduced to much of Wagner's music by Alexander Ritter, who was a composer and violinist, whom he met in 1885. Strauss came under the influence of Wagner's music and began a series of tone poems that showed Strauss a master of orchestration and effects.. His first successful tone poem was Don Juan, written in 1888. Strauss made up for lost time and wrote many tone poems, all of them brilliantly orchestrated for a virtuoso orchestra. Most of Strauss' tone poems were written before 1900, as he concentrated on opera after that.
Til Eulenspiegel is a mythical man of German and North country folklore. There have been attempts to link the legend with a real person, but there has been no conclusive evidence to date. Til Eulenspiegel is a prankster, practical joker and all-around trouble maker of medieval northern Europe. There were books written about Til's exploits, and it appears no one was immune to the jokester's pranks. From craftsmen to officials of the church and state, Til fooled them all. The literal translation of his name means 'owl mirror', and he is sometimes portrayed with both an owl and a mirror. But there is also an unexpurgated version of the legend, where the name is translated from a different dialect in German that means 'wipe the backside'. Tales of this Til are scatological and more for the adult reader than children.
Strauss represents Til in the very opening of the work with a quirky melody for horn that reaches the very bottom of the register of the instrument. The work is in essence a rondo, and the horn tune is heard throughout the work. The clarinet also has a prominent part, but more for expressing the giggles of Til as he thinks up new ways to torment his victims. Much has been made of what the 'pranks' actually are that the orchestra relates, but there can be too much made of trying to define the actual events and actions. It is more a question of what kind of mood the orchestra is conveying, in my opinion. Whether teasing the pretty girls, tricking the local priest, mayor or blacksmith, the orchestra chuckles and chortles away as Til does his dirty work.
Towards the end of the piece, the tone painting becomes more distinct. Right in the middle of Til's most boisterous shenanigans the orchestra turns stern and foreboding as drum beat out a rhythm and the brass blare out accusations- Til has been caught and must pay the price for his tom foolery. The clarinet whimpers in between outbursts of the brass, and the clarinet finally shrieks its innocence as judgment comes down on Til's head, or rather his neck. A chord is heard in the brass, the music sweeps down low and the clarinet screams one last scream as Til is executed by the powers that be. The music fades away, Til's tune is softly heard once again before the orchestra rouses to full force and blares out the ending of the piece, as if to say Til may be dead, but his spirit lives on.
Variations on a theme are a standard form for many classical works, and most composers have used the form and all composers have used the variation technique within other works. The very core of sonata form is variation, as in the development section and the recapitulation when the themes are transposed into the home key of the piece.
The first examples of theme and variations can be traced back to the 14th century and the form was popular in the Baroque era of music. The chaconne, passacaglia and groundbass are all forms of the variation and theme format. They can even be called variations on the format themselves.
Some of the masterpieces of the form of theme and variations have been written for keyboard from a theme that is far from complicated. The Diabelli variations of Beethoven derive from a simple march, the famous set of variations that comprise Paganini's 24th Caprice for Solo Violin also uses a fairly simple tune that has the distinction of not only inspiring the composer of the tune to vary it, but many other composers as well. And of course the famous Goldberg Variations by Bach that inspired many to write their own set of variations.
Brahms wrote his Variations And Fugue On A Theme Of Handel in 1861 when he was 28 years old and dedicated the work to his dear friend Clara Schumann, the widow of Robert Schumann. Brahms was not only a composer, but he was a scholar, particularly of older music. He had written other sets of variations before, but the Handel Variations came after his study of Baroque forms. It is this duality of Brahms, the scholar of older music that was none the less a product of the Romantic era he lived, that makes his music so interesting. Some have called him ultra conservative, but the ultra modern composer Schoenberg always considered Brahms a progressive. So there is much more to Brahms than appears to the ear. Some of his progressiveness is of a technical nature, such as his odd number of bars in his phrases for example. These technical devices are hard to explain to non-musicians, but they can certainly be heard as something different by the attentive listener.
The basis of the variations is an aria from Handel's Harpsichord Suite No. 1 in B-flat Major, a tune that is varied by Handel himself in the suite. It is a two-part tune that Brahms composed 25 variations for. Brahms used some Baroque forms for some of the variations in accordance with his study of the era but he didn't restrict himself to these forms at all. There are some free form variations also, and Brahms manages to keep things together as a structure by having sub-divisions within the whole where some of the variations are 'related' to one another, while also managing to keep the intensity level moving forward to the crown of the work, the fugue. It is a testament to Brahms' skill as a composer that the fugue is never played without the variations. The fugue is a complicated, contrapuntal masterpiece in its own right, but it is an organic growth of what has preceded it. To divorce it from its parent variations would make the fugue, despite all of its wonders, unintelligible.
The 28-year old Brahms was still perfecting has mastery of the piano when he wrote this piece. He played them in public on occasion and it was the piece that he played for his first meeting with Richard Wagner. Evidently Wagner was impressed enough to tell Brahms that it was a good example of what could still be done with the old forms with someone who knew how to use them.
It wasn't the last time Brahms wrote a set of variations. He continued to use the form, it expand and deepen his expression of his musical ideas. Ahead lay the Paganini Variations and the chaconne of the 4th symphony, but the Handel Variations marked an important period in the development of Brahms.
When Zarathustra was thirty years old, he left his home and the lake of his home, and went into the mountains. There he enjoyed his spirit and solitude, and for ten years did not weary of it. At last his heart changed - and rising one morning with the rosy dawn, he went before the sun, and spoke thus unto it:
"Thou great star! What would be thy happiness if thou hadst not those for whom thou shinest!"
So the book Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen (Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None) by Friedrich Nietzsche begins. It is a book of philosophy set as a novel that has as its main character a mythical prophet named Zarathustra that is based on the ancient Persian prophet Zoroaster, the founder of one of the first monotheistic religions in the world, Zoroastrianism. But Nietzsche's Zarathustra is purely mythical and outside of the similarity of name has nothing to do with the actual prophet. Nietzsche's prophet is a teacher of changing morals, challenging mankind to overcome itself and become the 'superman'. The book delves into many philosophical issues and challenges, and as the above example shows, it is a lot to wade through, not only for the subject matter but the style in which it is written. Nietzsche wrote it in the style of scripture, perhaps partly to mock traditional scripture. In the book is also the first time Nietzsche used the phrase 'God Is Dead', which has lead to a lot of misuse and meanings that have little to do with the context in which it is used in the book.
Strauss himself said the following regarding the work:
"I did not intend to write philosophical music or to portray in music Nietzsche's great work. I meant to convey by means of music an idea of the development of the human race from its origin, through the various phases of its development, religious and scientific, up to Nietzsche's idea of the Superman. The whole symphonic poem is intended as a homage to Nietzsche's genius, which found its greatest expression in his book Thus Spake Zarathustra."
The book is divided into about eighty different chapter headings, with each chapter ending with the words 'Thus spoke Zarathustra, which explains the title of Strauss' work. He uses nine of the chapter headings in the score.
Einleitung, oder Sonnenaufgang (Introduction, or Sunrise) - Perhaps the most recognizable opening of any piece of classical music, it as been used in movies and by rock stars, which is quite a tribute to its power and attraction. Strauss' sunrise brings the new philosophy of Zarathustra with a low rumbling and then the first appearance of the 'World Riddle' motif of C-G-C, somewhat of a tonal ambiguity that is resolved but briefly when the third for the chord is heard shortly after, but then it is immediately flattened. The mystery has already begun. The sections ends in a grand splash of sound from the orchestra, and the three-note World Riddle motif is heard in various guises throughout the rest of the work.
Von den Hinterweltlern (Of those in Backwaters) - Various translations of this include 'Of those in the hinterlands'. Strauss divides the string section into ten groups that play a rich progression of harmonies that climaxes into a soaring motif for the violins. The beginning of this section quotes the Credo in unum Deum (I believe in one God) from the Catholic Mass. So are the ones in the backwaters, or hinterlands, the ones who are the traditionally religious?
Von der großen Sehnsucht (Of the Great Longing) - The great longing continues with the traditional religious theme as the organ quotes the Magnificat. Is the Great Longing the desire of the traditionally religious to be near to God and to use religion to try and solve the World Riddle?
Von den Freuden und Leidenschaften (Of Joys and Passions) - The joys and passions of Zarathustra's youth are pondered upon. What were they, how could they have been used more for the benefit of mankind that no satisfy a desire?
Das Grablied (The Song of the Grave) - With the coming of the dawn and a new philosophy, Zarathustra knows there is no longer any way or reason to go back to the way things were. Hence, they are buried in the grave.
Von der Wissenschaft (Of Science and Learning) - Strauss uses the learned fugue to represent science. His fugue subject is made up of all twelves notes of the scale and represents science's attempt to encompass, include and explain the World Riddle. Indeed, the three note motif is the first three notes of the subject.
Der Genesende (The Convalescent) - Science in interrupted by of all things, a dance tune. But science comes back aggressively, makes its case with a shout. After a brief pause the orchestra wanders until it finds the kernel of the dance tune already heard.
Das Tanzlied (The Dance Song) - The dance tune progresses into a full-fledged, romantic-era Viennese waltz.
Nachtwandlerlied (Song of the Night Wanderer) - Midnight is heard tolling, the work ends in the World Riddle being plucked out by the string basses, and the woodwinds in turn play a different motif. The work ends in a more sever tonal ambiguity than which it began, the ambiguity of the World Riddle in neither major or minor key, and the other motif in B Major. Is there any answer? Are there any answers? Or is true wisdom attained with the realization that there are no concrete answers to the World Riddle, and that the answer is in fact is no answer at all, but the acceptance of things that can't be changed and the striving to change the things that can be changed.
One of the most interesting interpretations of the work comes from an article written by Marin Alsop titled Alsop Sprach Zarathustra: Decoding Strauss' Tone Poem. A snippet from the article, I could not state it better myself
"Strauss takes Nietzsche's work and distills it into eight musical sections, with an introduction and epilogue. Through these sections, he wants to convey the essence of Nietzsche's philosophical approach to the world. Nietzsche wanted us, as human beings, to reconsider our value system and, rather than blindly believe in a monotheistic god or in the advancing scientific field, start to hold ourselves accountable for our own actions. Whether you ascribe to that philosophy or not has no bearing on the fact that this music, composed so painstakingly by Strauss, holds the power to profoundly move us."
Heinrich Schütz (1585 – 1672) was an important early German composer. He composed what is thought to be the first German opera that was performed in 1627, but he is most well known for his sacred works. He was also an organist. He studied in Denmark and in Italy with Monteverdi, the father of opera. Because of his study in Italy he became an important figure in bringing Italian music and its style to Germany. Johann Sebastian Bach studied Schütz's music and brought the Italian influence fostered by Schütz to its culmination.
Although he was considered one of the finest organists in Europe, he left very little music for the instrument, and very little music for instruments alone. The majority of his surviving music is for voices alone and in combination with instruments. He left no secular music of consequence.
One of Schütz's largest collections of music is the three volume set of Symphoniae sacrae, sacred symphonies comprised of music for voice and/or instruments. The first volume of the were printed in Venice in 1629 and consisted of 20 separate pieces. One of the pieces in this first volume is a motet written for bass voice, sackbuts and continuo 'Fili mi Absalon' ( My Son Absalom). The trombone is the modern equivalent of the sackbutt, with the older instrument being of a more delicate construction and a lighter, more flexible tone. It was made in four different sizes; alto, tenor, bass, double-bass and since it was a chromatic instrument it was most often used to double voices in choirs.
The words of this motet depict King David's lament over the death of his son Absalom. It is a story from the Bible, and in brief Absalom was the third son of David, King Of The Jews. Absalom staged an uprising against his father and lead his army against David's army in the battle of Ephraim Wood. Absalom was known for his head of long flowing hair, and when the mule he was riding went under a low-lying tree branch Absalom's hair got tangled in the branches and pulled him off the mule. He was discovered still alive and hanging in the tree by his hair by one of David's men who reported the incident back to his commander Joab. Joab went to Absalom and killed him with three spears and a group of swordsmen. When King David is given the news about the death of his son, he weeps openly and cries, "My son, Absalom, Absalom, my son. Oh, that I had died instead of you!"
Schütz opens the work with the instruments alone, the bass voice comes in with the lament in Latin 'Fili mi, Absalom'. The instruments then play another short interlude, then the bass enters in Latin 'Quis mihi tribuat, ut ego moriar pro te!' The work ends with the bass voice echoing David's sorrowful recognition that what is done is done.
Music that is as old as this does sound different to our ears. Compositional techniques were different, it was in the middle of the Baroque era when music was still 'horizontal' and not so much 'vertical'. Counterpoint was still the norm, with the working out of what was to become modern harmony still a long way into the future. But Schütz conveys the despondency and sadness of King David in this music written so long ago. It is a beautiful piece and reaches across the centuries to communicate a depth of feeling that is recognizable to the modern ear.
From radio stations playing 'golden oldies' to the museum-like quality of the classical music concert hall, the modern day musical world is as much to do with the music of the recent and distant past as of the present. Audiences of Bach's time would not have understood this trend, as music was a daily commodity. Every Sunday worship service saw the congregation expecting new music, opera goers expected new operas, concert hall listeners expected new compositions. The musical world of Bach's time was teeming with new music, or at the least previously heard music in the new 'clothes' of transcription and arrangement for other ensembles.
Bach, Handel and many other lesser composers recycled their own music and the music of others via transcriptions and arrangement. When the workday and responsibilities of a Kappelmeister such as Bach are looked at with choirs to train and rehearse, instrumentalists to train and rehearse, and music to be prepared for every church service in many different churches (with each demanding their own music), it is no wonder that even Bach himself had the inspiration to write new music worked right out of him.
Add to all of that, beginning in 1729 Bach was appointed director of the weekly Collegium Musicum concerts in Liepzig, which also demanded new or refurbished music for each concert. It was for these concerts that Bach reused some of his music, pouring them into new forms and instruments. The Harpsichord concerto No. 5 is one of those hybrid pieces. Bach used the outer movements of a violin concerto and a movement from an oboe concerto for the second movement. He also used the second movement melody in a cantata.
The concerto is in three movements: I. Allegro moderato - The first movement is in ritornello form and is full of rhythmic energy and seriousness. II. Largo - A cantabile song that almost seems endless. Bach seems to have been quite fond of this melody considering how many times he used it. III. Presto - The feelings and mood of the first movement return along with some echo effects between soloist and orchestra.
Bach may have reused his music, but his genius and creativity always added something to the original that makes the transcription worth hearing. In the keyboard transcriptions of his violin concertos and other works Bach gives a new independence to the left hand that used to be relegated with doubling the bass instrument and filling in the harmonies. For that and other innovations, Bach stands at the beginning of the formation of the standard keyboard concerto as practiced by Beethoven and Mozart. Bach was so skillful in his transcriptions that it can be very difficult to think that the music wasn't originally written for the instrument. Bach was a genius by most stretches of the imagination, but he was also a master craftsman.
Robert Schumann was a multi-talented man who was not only a fine composer and pianist, but a writer and poet as well. He began studying law but soon dropped it in favor of pursuing a career as a concert pianist. He used some sort of a contraption that spread his fingers that was supposed to give him more of a span and better finger strength and agility, but it did the opposite and gave him a permanent hand injury. At least that's how the story has come down. His teacher Friedrich Wieck told him he had the talent to become the greatest virtuoso in Europe, but modern scholarship has thrown doubt as to Schumann's actual desire to be a concert pianist. Whether the injury was real, imagined, or a story devised by Schumann to forgo the arduous training and devote his energies to composing instead, is open to conjecture.
Schumann's compositional output in the beginning was for the piano exclusively until about 1840. In his early works he composed pieces that were some of the first examples of program music, music that was inspired and influenced by literary or other outside forces. He also became a music critic and was instrumental in promoting the music of Chopin, Brahms and other composers.
Schumann eventually ventured into composing for orchestra, chamber music and voice. He wrote many songs, four symphonies and a few pieces for piano and orchestra, of which his only piano concerto, in A minor, is the most notable. This concerto influenced many composers, from Brahms to Grieg, and remains one of Schumann's most popular and well-written pieces. It was premiered in 1846 with his wife Clara as soloist and his friend (and dedicatee) Ferdinand Hiller conducting.
The work is in three movements: I. Allegro affetuoso -After a call to order by the orchestra and the piano, the first theme is heard in the oboe and winds. This theme (and pieces of it) is played through different guises throughout the movement. The piano plays a cadenza near the end and the movement draws to an exciting finish. II.Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso - This is the movement that in some ways foreshadows Brahms and influenced him greatly. Near the end of this gentle song there is a reference to the theme from the first movement, and the second movement segues directly into the last movement. III. Allegro vivace -The theme of this movement is first heard in the piano after a rushing run for the strings. It is one of Schumann's most successful pieces of music as it is full of variety and orchestral color.
Schumann is in many ways the ultimate Romantic. He did help usher in the Romantic era with his compositions and musical critiques. His life was one that was filled with mental brilliance offset by periods of mental imbalance and depression. He would compose at white-hot inspiration at times and have difficulty composing anything at others. His life was a life of excess, a life of fantasy, a life of creativity and ultimately a life that ended in an insane asylum when he was but 46 years old. But he left a legacy of fine compositions, of which the piano concerto is arguably the best of them all.
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.
As with most of his other symphonies, Bruckner rewrote the 8th on the advice of Hermann Levi, the conductor that was to premiere the work. The first version of the symphony was completed in 1888 and sent to Levi and after reading through it and giving his opinion, the conductor told Bruckner that he could not "make the symphony his own". After giving it some thought, Bruckner agreed and completed his revisions of the work in 1890.
The work was supposed to be premiered in Munich, but by the time the revisions were done Levi was unavailable and the conductor he recommended to take his place kept postponing the premiere, evidently due to lack of rehearsal time to adequately prepare the symphony. Bruckner then changed the premiere city to Vienna and Hans Richer finally conducted the premiere in 1892.
The symphony is in the usual 4 movements and begins with a reminiscence of Beethoven's 9th Symphony with tremolos in the high strings and the first theme stated in the low strings. There are three themes in the first movement, one of Bruckner's innovations to standard sonata form, and the second theme is stated by the full orchestra in the so-called Bruckner rhythm of two quarter notes followed by a quarter triplet. This movement is also notable because it ends quietly, and is the only example of this in any first movement of a Bruckner symphony. Bruckner himself alluded to the quietness of the ending as representing death.
The second movement is the Scherzo, which often times was the third movement in a Bruckner symphony. The opening kind of reminds me of Wagner's style in a way, but the further it goes the more Brucknerian it gets. It is also the longest scherzo of any Bruckner symphony.
The third movement is an expansive Adagio, is pure Bruckner, and has some exquisite writing for horns. the orchestration in general is lush. The orchestra builds to a shattering climax and then slowly winds down with the horns and strings singing together. This movement runs over twenty minutes usually but it is pure Bruckner as the music transcends time.
Bruckner uses recollections of the other themes in the symphony in the finale. I say recollections because he doesn't always give a direct quote of the theme but he uses the rhythm or a piece of the melody. This gives a kind of déjà vu effect to the movement, as the themes seem familiar but not quite recognizable. Bruckner does give a quote of the scherzo theme near the end of the movement, and it ends in a blaze of Brucknerian glory.
In the summer of 1890, Cesar Franck was riding in a cab when it was struck by a horse-drawn trolley. He suffered a fainting spell and a slight head injury, but he thought it wasn't serious enough to warrant treatment and went on his way. Soon it became difficult for him to walk and he had to give up his teaching at the Conservatoire and went on vacation to try and recuperate. He went back to the Conservatoire in the fall of 1890 but contracted an upper respiratory ailment that soon changed to pneumonia. He died November 8, 1890.
It was during this vacation that he completed the three Chorales For Organ. They are considered very important pieces in the organ repertoire, and bear the imprint of Francks later compositional style.
The Chorale No. 3 in A Minor begins as a toccata and has a contrasting second theme before it goes into a new theme played adagio. The finale of the piece hears the toccata return and the weaving in and out of the other themes heard in the piece.
Very seldom has there been a composer of the importance of Franck that has left such a relatively small output of compositions. Franck began his career as a virtuoso pianist and composer, but he ceased to compose anything of any import until the last twelve years of his life. With a handful of compositions, including the Three Chorales For Organ, Franck's place in music history is assured.
When his native Hungary went to the side of Nazi Germany as an ally, Béla Bartók left the country and came to New York. He was a fine pianist, and he and his wife made ends meet by giving concerts and working on translating old Hungarian books into English for Columbia University and also got a grant from the University to work on a large collection of Serbian and Croatian folk songs.
There was little interest in Bartók's compositions in the U.S. and he had difficulty composing. When his health turned bad with what was eventually diagnosed as leukemia, he no longer could make his living giving concerts and doing research and had to depend on his friends to support him. When Serge Koussevitzky commissioned Bartók for a piece for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, his inspiration returned and he composed the Concerto For Orchestra.
Bartók said that he called it a concerto for orchestra rather than a symphony because he treated the instruments in each section of the orchestra in a virtuosic way. It is cast in 5 movements:
I. Introduzione. Andante non troppo - Allegro vivace - Bartók was fond of writing what he called 'night music' as this movement begins with. It then goes through various fugal treatments of themes and it is cast in sonata form. II. Giuoco Delle Coppie. Allegretto scherzando - The so-called 'game of pairs' begins with the side drum tapping out a rhythm and then each section of the orchestra has 2 instruments play in different intervals, bassoons are a minor sixth apart, oboes are in minor thirds, clarinets in minor sevenths, flutes in fifths and muted trumpets in major seconds. III. Elegia. Andante non troppo - Another example of Bartók's 'night music', this movement is based on themes first heard in the first movement. IV. Intermezzo Interrotto. Allegretto - This movement has a melody that is interrupted by Bartók's parody of the march theme from the 7th Symphony 'Leningrad' of Shostakovich. This symphony had been secreted out of Russia on microfilm and a subsequent competition by conductors as to who would conduct the American premiere. The symphony was played over the radio when Bartók heard it. V. Finale. Presto - This is written in sonata form, and also has some fugal moments along with snippets of folk songs added for good measure.
The Concerto For Orchestra is Bartók's most popular composition but Bartók didn't live long enough to see how popular it became. It is written in a more traditional style than many of his other works. After writing a Sonata For Solo Violin and the Piano Concerto No. 3, Bartók succumbed to leukemia in 1945.
Franz Liszt was a complex man. He was a member of the musical and social avant-garde of his time, thus thought nothing of living with women and having children without being married, yet he was a very religious man of traditional Catholicism. How Liszt managed to account for his behavior within his strict religious views are a marvel. But there was always a priestly side to Liszt. Early in his life he had given serious thought to becoming a priest, only to cast aside the thought in favor of the life of a traveling piano virtuoso with everything that went with it. Liszt began drinking and smoking early in his life. No one really knows when his sexual exploits began, but if that was anything like the rest of his young life it started early too.
All of the travel, cavorting, drinking and such finally caught up with Liszt and he retired from the concert platform in 1847 at the age of 35. He had by this time left the mother of his three children, Countess Marie d'Agoult for another royal lady Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein,the wife of a Russian Prince. Both Liszt and the Princess wanted to marry, but the Princess' husband (not to mention the Pope himself) would not grant her a divorce. The two never did marry, and while Liszt remained involved with her until her death, they no longer lived together after 1863 when Liszt began living in a small apartment near Rome. When Liszt's son died in 1859 and his youngest daughter died in 1862, it had a profound affect on Liszt. He declared to his friends that he would live a solitary existence from then on. He took minor orders and was occasionally called the Abbé Liszt. From then on, he divided his time between Rome, Budapest and Wiemar and composed, taught and participated in music festivals.
It was about this same time that Liszt wrote St. Francis of Assisi Preaching To The Birds for piano. The piece was one of a pair of what Liszt called Legends. This piece hears the piano in imitation of birdsong with chains of trills and tremolos until St. Francis himself begins to preach to them and the birds that are in the trees silence their singing and listen to him and the birds on the ground walk up to the saint and circle him to listen. According to the legend, St. Francis preaches to the birds that they have much to be thankful to God for and that they should sing their praises to Him every day.
The music is one of Liszt's greatest works. Gone is the Liszt of technical fireworks and brilliant passage work. Replacing it is a Liszt that has the technique serve the musical idea with the result being a gentle, spiritual piece of musical story telling.
The pianist playing the piece in the video is Wilhelm Kempff, not the first name a music lover might think of in the music of Liszt. But Kempff plays with the gentleness and poetry this piece needs.
Chamber music by its very nature is a more intimate form of music. While in modern times it is played in concert halls, it was originally meant for more private performance in homes and smaller recital halls. In the 19th century before recordings, music making in the home was a form of entertainment shared by many. The string quartet was a popular form of chamber music, and many composers tried their hand at it sooner or later.
While Haydn didn't necessarily invent the string quartet, he certainly helped codify it as a form. Mozart took his lead from Haydn and contributed his genius to the quartet also. These were the two composers that loomed over Beethoven when he was composing his first set of six quartets, Opus 18. As was Beethoven's way, he seldom stayed very long in any niche with his compositions. That's not to say he had no style, but that it could be broad and encompass quite different ideas. The String Quartet No. 11 is one of his giant-step compositions that is quite different from his other string quartets in form and feeling.
Beethoven always showed his originality, even in his first quartets, but he also worked hard to have them conform somewhat to the form as devised by Haydn. He managed to straddle the two extremes of originality and conformity with his first six quartets. His next three quartets, the so-called Rasumovsky Quartets of opus 59 show his development in his craft and the gap between creative originality and tradition grew wider. His next quartet, No. 10 nicknamed 'The Harp' because the strings play pizzacato a lot in the first movement follows the trend. The 11th got its nickname from the tempo indication of the third movement, allegro assai vivace ma serioso. The overall feeling of the quartet is indeed serious, and there are some surprises along the way.
The 11th was composed in 1810 but did not have its first performance until 1814. The first movement opens with the four strings playing the first theme loudly in unison, somewhat of a surprise as to the suddenness of the beginning and the downright harshness of it. The second theme is sweeter in nature in the beginning, but there also outbursts within it. An experienced listener who is hearing this quartet for the first time would be expecting to hear the exposition repeated as the style of the times dictated, but Beethoven has no repeat signs and the music jumps right into the development and recapitulation. The first movement is very short, usually less than five minutes, which in itself is a break from the traditional long first movements. Beethoven boiled down the contents of the first movement to the essence of expression.
The second movement is in song form and leads into the third movement, a scherzo of the most 'serious' kind. The finale goes through a gentle beginning, a spirited rondo movement proper and ends up with all things, a fast, upbeat, short coda that ends the work. This rather 'happy' musics appearance in an otherwise quite serious work can be interpreted in a number of ways. Perhaps Beethoven felt the need to lighten the mood before the end of the quartet, or perhaps he was just playing with the emotions of the listener as he used to do when he improvised on the piano by playing something heavy and then something light at the end.
This quartet is like a conversation between four people, a spirited conversation to be sure, but a conversation and not an argument. What the subject matter of the conversation is in words is anybodies guess. But that conversational quality of chamber music in general and the string quartet in particular, is what's so attractive about it. This quartet with its condensed first movement, surprises that run throughout and the way it ends keeps it somewhat of an enigma. But that too makes it attractive to the ear. And when regard is given for the quartets that come after this one, the great late quartets of Beethoven, we realize that we have heard only the beginning of his genius in the form.
Joseph Haydn began his career as a composer just as the Baroque era of music was winding down. He was one of the composers of the time that was exploring different techniques and sounds for musical expression. In his years as a composer there was a steady increase in complexity and richness in his music. His two trips to London, England enriched his technique even further. The set of twelve symphonies he wrote for his London visits are the culmination of his symphonic style. Indeed, Haydn wrote no more symphonies after his 104th, the last in the London series. Maybe Haydn himself realized that he had reached as far as he could go in the form.
But the London symphonies are not merely more difficult and rich. They are surely that, but they are also more accessible to the listener. Haydn not only could compose learned and valid 'classical' music, but music that was popular. The Symphony 103 is a good example.
The symphony earns its nickname from the drum roll for timpani that opens the introduction to the first movement. It is slow and solemn, and after a few bars leads into the first theme which is the opposite of the introduction as the tempo quickens and the mood lightens. The music of the introduction appears once again near the end of the movement and is whisked off by the first theme and horns. The second movement is in variation form. There are two contrasting themes, the first in C minor, the second in C major, so this is actually a double variation. Each tune is heard in succession in variations. The third movement is a Minuet with a heavy accent on the first beat which gives it more of an impression of a peasant dance than a refined, courtly dance. The last movement begins with a call from the horns, a pause, and the music proper begins. The horn call motif is heard throughout the movement, and it comes to a close.
.jpg)
