Johannes Brahms himself directed the debut of his Variations on a Theme by Haydn with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Bavaria in 1873, making our experience of attending a performance by the same ensemble in Carnegie Hall more than 140 years later all the more special. The program directed by Latvian Andris Nelsons also included, besides the aforesaid work, Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No.90 in C Minor, Johannes Brahm’s Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op.90 and Johann Strauss’s waltz Seid Umschlungen, Millionen (“Be Embraced, You Millions”) –which was actually dedicated to Brahms- as a surprise encore. Also known as Saint Anthony Variations, Brahms composed his Variations during a summer stay in Lake Starnberg near Münich during a time where he had finally, after the premiere of A German Requiem in 1868, achieved recognition throughout Europe. He based his work on a theme in Chorale Saint Antoni originally attributed to Haydn, although in the nineteenth century this was questioned and the piece remains unattributed to this day. Brahms composed two versions of this work –one for two pianos, the other for orchestra- both of which consist on a theme on B-flat major, eight variations and a finale in passacaglia form.
The night started with Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No.90 in C Major, a piece in sonata form composed for one flute, timpani, viola, cello, bass and two oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets and violins. The first movement –the Adagio- introduces, the listener to the piece by a sharp contrast between forte and an eight descending notes in piano. We are then presented –in a piano violin- the essential element of the first theme. Then, the music picks up a faster pace and energy until it reaches a dialogue between the oboes and the ba...
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... first is grandiose and passionate whilst the second is tender and pleasant. The second one has a pastoral feel to it and brings the woodwinds to the forefront with its simple melody. The third in minor mode is quite melancholic due to the cello’s texture taking charge of the melody. Finally, the fourth movement has a more mysterious and dramatic character, -reminiscent at moments of military campaigns- to finally close with a calmer attitude and a pianissimo by the whole orchestra. The whole piece is powerful and strong, full of vivacity. It takes the listener from the gloomy voice of the contrabassoon to a bright entrance of the strings. It is also a work full of sweet nuances, owners of absolute tranquility. Brahms truly spinning in develops the textures of the different instrumental families, which fills this symphony with rich sounds, making it truly memorable.
Beethoven's Symphony No.3 also known as the Eroica consists of four parts, namely, allegro con brio, adagio assai, scherzo and allegro, which is the standard structure of a symphony. In this work, the analysis focuses on the first movement so as to show how Beethoven enriched symphony. The first movement has a distinctive sonority and texture. It is considerably long as it takes about 14 minutes (it may depend on the version). Some complete symphonies from the classical period are about the same length as this first movement, so Beethoven's work set aside from the traditional symphony. It tells other composers that there is no such thing as a standard length of symphony's movement. In order to understand the first movement, one needs to consider the historical framework. Beethoven composed his 3rd symphony at the beginning of the XIX century when Europe underwent through a lot of political changes. The absolutism was coming to an end, so freedom was in everyone's heart. Beethoven manages to convey particular feelings and emotions t...
“You gotta play this piece like an English military band would,” said Jules during band one day while rehearsing the first movement of Gustav Holst’s Second Suite in F. “1. March” begins with four notes played by the low brass which is then echoed by the upper woodwinds. The trumpets have a noble melody which broadens when the entire ensemble joins in. Next, the piece lightens up with an upper woodwind melody. Later on there is a euphonium solo, and following that is a grand theme with an extremely distinguished style. After, there is a change in style and time signature. One simple theme repeats with different dynamics and instrumentations every repetition. The Wind Ensemble played this piece at the Winter Band Concert on December 11, 2013. This work, though easy looking at first glance, was genuinely difficult to put together. It had few layers, so mistakes or intonation problems were extremely noticeable. Furthermore, the style of the piece was extremely intricate and hard to master. Therefore, “1. March” had positives and negatives regarding intonation, balance and blend, articulation, style, and dynamics throughout the entire ensemble and the low instrument section.
A sinfonia (Italian for symphony) broadly refers to a number of instrumental works from the Baroque period, including symphonies, sonatas, canzonas, concerti, and Italian opera overtures. Even J.S. Bach titles his “three-part” inventions for harpsichord “Sinfonia”. Torelli’s Sinfonia in D (G.8) is a four-movement “concerto” for trumpet, strings and harpsichord continuo. Unlike a concerto grosso, where a main theme is presented and then reappears in fragments, the main themes of Sinfonia in D are developed rather freely. The second movement (Adagio) is a very short, slow, interlude without trumpet that introduces the third movement (Allegro). Hence, the program shows these two movements as “adagio-allegro” joined together.
One of the pieces the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra performed was Carnival Overture, op. 92, composed by Antonin Dvorak. The conductor at this concert was Christian Baldini and the main violinist was Shawyon Malek-Salehi. This piece was made in the Romantic era with an orchestra instrumentation. The genre for this piece is concert overture and has a sonata form in a similar formate to other sonata forms from the Romantic era, making it sound dramatic compared to the Classical era’s sonata era. The live performance was true to Dvorak’s original score, which took the traditional sonata form of the classical era and changed it to incorporate a common Romantic era sonata form. Although the live performance focused on the first violinist, it still maintained the dramatic atmosphere from the original piece by keeping the sonata form, rhythm, texture, and instrumentation.
Johannes Brahms, a great German composer and pianist of the Romantic period, composed symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, and voice and chorus. He is considered as both a traditionalist and an innovator and his music is firmly rooted in structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. He has contributed a lot to music by composing the master pieces such as Symphony no. 3. The Symphony no. 3 is written in F major. The symphony involves the instruments such as flute, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, contrabassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, timpani, and strings. The symphony consists of the four movements. The first one is the Allegro con brio which is written in F major, in sonata form. The three-note motto begins
Johannes Brahms, a striking individual of unmistakable character, is defined by his compositions as meticulous and enlightened. His comprehensive grasp on classical and baroque form, with his familiarity of counterpoint and musical development, allowed him to effortlessly traverse and cultivate upon the musical architecture laid out by the likes of Bach and Beethoven. Born in Hamburg in 1833, he was the son of Johann Jacob Brahms, who travelled from North Germany, in which the family name “Brahms(t)” propagated (Musgrave 4). His father being a musician by profession instigated Brahms into his own domain of music. With Brahms’ first instruments being the violin, cello and the natural horn (predecessor of the French horn), it was discovered that the genius possessed absolute pitch and had also developed a system of notation on his own even before formal introductions into music (Musgrave 9). His astonishing understanding of musical rudiments was further cemented at age seven by his first teacher Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel, with piano literature ranging from Bach to Schubert to Clementi (Musgrave 10). The young gifted talent quickly matured, with his compositions being sedulously characterized in craft similar to the seasoned taste of aged liquor. Following in the wake of Beethoven, his style of romanticism seemed restrained, and viewed as being confined to classical forms. With his preference towards absolute music, his works demonstrated “as [Ian] McEwan/ [Clive] Linley would have it, at the intersection of emotion and reason” and of “powerful intellect and of passionate expressivity” (Platt and Smith 4). However, being the headstrong romantic that he is, he manipulated the limiting factor into an area of expanse, in which he...
The silence hangs heavily in the air, creating a single moment where one can feel the weight of the absence of sound. But a lone D cuts through the stillness, a flicker of light amidst black oblivion. It is followed by eleven other notes, a simple melody, but one that will be the very core of one of the greatest musical masterpieces to ever be conceived. This twelve-note melody becomes entwined and enveloped in an intricate accretion of variations, counterpoints, and modified themes, all based on the original twelve-note motif. The entire collection of variations comprises what is considered to be Bach’s most ambitious undertaking, the Art of the Fugue, meant to serve as an intensive study of the fugue as an entity. Already a complex and multifaceted piece, Art of the Fugue gains a whole new level of depth and significance when placed inside its historical context, amidst the story of its creation and the demise of its creator. During the two hundred and fifty years of its existence, Art of the Fugue has acquired quite the reputation, as it has become enshrouded in a web of mystery and mystique. However, when we strip away these layers, the piece retains its magnitude, as the sheer mastery of the piece is enough to merit substantial renown and reverence.
Andris Nelsons continues with a couple more pieces from him and the symphony. The piece titled “The Pines of the Villa Borghese” was performed. The melody brought images of the wizard like sounds from the magical Harry Potter. The piano and clarinet players had a lot of attention on them from the cameras. The two instruments put together a very sophisticated texture and form.
Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to harken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused revery or meditation. But when the echoes had fully ceased, a light laughter at once pervaded the assembly; the musicians looked at each other and smiled as if at their own nervousness and folly, and made whispering vows, each to the other, that the next chiming of the clock should produce in them no similar emotion; and then, after the lapse of sixty minutes, (which embrace three thousand and six hundred seconds of the Time that flies,) there came yet another chiming of the clock, and then were the same disconcert and tremulousness and meditation as
Volondat, Pierre-Alain, perf. Variations OP 20. By Clara Schumann. Rec. 15 May 2010. Saphir Productions, 2008. Florida College's Classical Music Library. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
Chopin opens his Waltz on a troubled, searching theme. Full of hesitancies, sudden rushes, and wavering chromaticism, the pensive tune features rhythmic and melodic fragility. With regards to rhythm, unpredictable phrasing creates rhythmic dissonance with the steady left hand waltz pattern and forces the dancers into a posture of searching in order to stay in step with the meter. With regards to melody, the introspective tune centers around a restless cycle of stressed and unstressed pairs of measures, similar to a poem in iambic octameter. During the first and more stressed measure in each pair, the melody scrambles impulsively through several chromatic notes in search of a note on which to land, almost like a game of musical chairs. Then, during the second and less stressed measure in each pair, the melody stretches out onto one or two sustained notes, almost like a sigh. As the sixteen measure melody progresses, the stressed measures become increasingly more desperate and fling the melody further and harder until finally in a climax the melody jumps 17 half steps only to...
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, composed by the legendary Ludwig van Beethoven, is one of the most famous orchestral musical compositions done by the German-born composer. The symphony is broken down into four movements. The symphony has such a profound effect on so many people because of its use drama by introducing sudden and powerful chords which quickly grabs the audience’s attention as well as creating a variety of musical ideas through his use of excitement by way of fast and slow tempos. The first movement, Allegro con brio, which utilizes the Sonata form, contains an opening sequence or Exposition, which initially compels my attention during its first 6 seconds due to its powerful entry and introduction of the basic four-note motive (short-short-short-long) of the piece. The quick repetition in a lower step using strings in unison keeps me engaged due to its energy, as it sort of
Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. 11th . New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2013. 476-477. Print.
3. BWV in D major. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote four Orchestral Suites. This piece is the second of the five movements that compose his Orchestral suite No. 3. The date it was composed remains unsure, as there is strong evidence that the writing of the piece was done during his years at Köthen, even though the piece is said to have been composed and premiered some years later in Leipzig sometime between 1727 and 1730 by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, one of his students and himself. Johann Sebastian wrote out the main violin and continuo parts, C.P.E. Bach did the same with the trumpet, oboe, and timpani parts, and Johann Ludwig Krebs, his student, finished with the second viola and violin parts. Regardless the authors of the piece, Johann Sebastian Bach ended up getting all the credit for the piece. Air stands out as one of his most famous and successful pieces of the Baroque period, as well as of his life. The beginning of the piece is one of the most recognizable melodies of the Baroque
...chestral introduction with an imperfect cadence. A strong rhythmic ¾ allegro passage, with sequences and descending scales is played by the orchestra, with timpani and cymbals. The music modulates, and a short, quiet woodwind passage is then alternated with an orchestral passage with dotted rhythms, creating a `terraced dynamics' effect. Part B begins with a major clarinet melody accompanied by pizzicato strings. A minor flute sequence follows, and is followed by a repetition of the oboe melody. A string sequence is then played, imitated by the oboe. There is a crescendo, then the rhythmic orchestral melody returns, alternated with a short flute passage. There are suspensions, descending scales and a crescendo, followed by a strong rhythmic passage with the timpani playing on the beat. Imperfect cadences are played, before the piece finishes with a perfect cadence.