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, Nuit d'étoiles (Starry Night), written to the text of a poem by Théodore de Banville, a French poet and writer of the 19th century.
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.
Théodore de Banville
Starry Night Théodore de Banville
Starry night, under your veils,
under your night air and scents,
With a sad sighing lyre,
I dream of dead loves.
The serene melancholy bursts from
deep in my heart,
And I hear the soul of my love
Tremble in the deep woods.
I remember the fountain,
your blue eyes like the sky,
your breath like roses,
and your eyes like the stars.
Joseph Haydn worked as a hand to mouth free-lance composer after he was dismissed as a chorister when his voice broke in 1749. His circumstances became more secure when he was hired as Kappellmeister by Count Moritz, a member of the Austrian aristocracy, in 1756. This employment lasted until the Count's finances dried up in 1761 and he had to dismiss his musicians. By this time Haydn had made enough of a name for himself that Prince Paul Anton, the head of the wealthy Esterházy family, hired him as Assistant Kappellmeister. Haydn was hired as full Kappellmeister in 1766. Haydn remained as a full-time employee of the Esterházy family until 1790 when he was offered a salary and a pension, still in the employ of the family but with the freedom to travel and live where he chose.
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 Baryton, 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.
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 hisSturm und Drang symphonies, although Haydn never used the term himself. The nickname 'palindrome' comes from the 3rd movement minuet which is discussed below:
I. Allegro -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.
II. Un poco adagio cantabile -A set of 4 variations on a theme in invertible counterpoint, 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 Gradus ad Parnassum by Johann Joseph Fux.
III. Menuetto e trio, Menuetto al Roverso -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:
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 Mozart's.
IV. Presto assai -A fast-paced movement with a sprinkling of dissonance to good effect. A rousing finale to a unique symphony.
The English-born Henry Purcell is part of a group of composers that made their mark in music and died before the age of 40, as he died at the age of 36 in 1695. Purcell brought his gifts to music mainly through songs, anthems, incidental music for the theater and opera. His first known composition was dated 1670 when he was 11 years old, and he continued to compose up until the time of his death.
Music For The Funeral Of Queen Mary 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 Glorious Revolution and the couple were crowned in 1689 as King William III and Queen Mary II.
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.
Purcell wrote new music based on previously written compositions for the Funeral Music For Queen Mary. 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.
The performance of the work in the link below is comprised of seven parts:
1) The Queen's Funeral March, Sounded Before Her Chariot - 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.
2) Man That Is Born Of A Woman -The texts for the anthem is taken from the Common Book Of Prayer of the Church Of England
Man that is born of a woman
hath but a short time to live,
and is full of misery.
He cometh up,
and is cut down like a flower;
he fleeth as it were a shadow,
and ne'er continueth in one stay.
3) Canzona -A short interlude for instruments only. The canzona was developed from various other forms and was used in the 16th and 17th centuries.
4) In The Midst Of Life We Are In Death -
Queen Mary II
In the midst of life we are in death:
of whom may we seek for succour,
but of thee, O Lord,
who for our sins art justly displeased?
Yet, O Lord, O Lord most mighty,
O holy and most merciful Saviour,
deliver us not into the bitter pains
of eternal death.
5) Canzona - The previous short interlude is repeated.
6) Thou knowest, Lord
Thou knowest, Lord,
the secrets of our hearts;
shut not thy merciful ears
unto our pray'rs;
but spare us, Lord most holy,
O God most mighty.
O holy and most merciful Saviour,
thou most worthy Judge eternal,
suffer us not, at our last hour,
for any pains of death, to fall from thee. Amen.
7) The Queen's Funeral March -The peaceful amen just sung is brought into perspective with the repeat of the mournful march.
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 sturm und drang (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 No. 49 'La Passsione' and No. 44 'Trauer' 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.
Symphony No. 44 has 4 movements: I. Allegro con brio -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.
II. Menuetto: Allegretto,canon in diapason -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.
III. Adagio -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.
IV. Finale: Presto - 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.
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.
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.
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:
"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, slavery."
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 Gaelic Symphony was the first symphony written by a American woman composer and is in 4 movements:
I. Allegro moderato -The first movement is in sonata form with the first and second themes being taken from Beach's own song of 1892 Dark is the Night. 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 Connor O'Reilly of Clounish. 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.
II. Alla siciliana - Allegro vivace - Andante -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.
III. Lento con molto espressione -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.
IV. Allegro di molto - 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.
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 Gaelic Symphony
In 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.
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 Weep No More!, and her first large composition was a Piano Quartet 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.
Smith joined the Musical Society of
London in 1861, an organization of contemporary composers who as members gained the opportunity of hearing their works in performance. The Symphony In C Minor, written when she was 24, was played at one of these concerts in 1863. A review of the concert appeared in the Illustrated London News:
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.
Symphony In C Minor is scored for woodwinds in pairs, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani and strings. It is in four movements:
I. Grave - Allegro ma non troppo - 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.
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.
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:
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. II. Allegretto amorevole -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 amorevole, a term Mendelssohn used for music of a similar sentiment. III. Allegro ma non troppo - Poco meno mosso - 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. IV. Allegro maestoso - 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.
Smith was went on to compose many other works for orchestra, including another Symphony In A Minor. 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.
She was not only known in England, as her fame was such that in the United States the the New York Times ran a lengthy obituary when she died in 1884 of typhoid fever at the age of 45.
With 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.
Men perpetuated the status quo of male domination in music (as well as society in general).
Instrumentalists, conductors, composers and music publishers actively prevented almost all women from pursuing a career in music. Fanny Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn'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:
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.
The same was true of Clara Wieck-Schumann, wife of Robert Schumann. 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:
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?
Her husband Robert (who evidently supported her composing activities) gave the reasons why she never went farther as a composer:
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.
Late in the 19th century the male stranglehold on music began to lessen, at least as far as musical composition was concerned. Amy Mary Smith in England and Amy Beach 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.
She was descended from the noble Pejačević 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.
Her Symphony In F-sharp Minor 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 Arthur Nikisch performed it in concert. The symphony is a work in late Romantic style and is in four movements:
I. Andante maestoso - Allegro con moto - 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. II. Andante sostenuto -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. III. Scherzo: Molto allegro - 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. IV. Allegro appassionato - 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.
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.
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