Martha Argerich (born June 5, 1941) is an Argentinian concert pianist. Her aversion to the press and publicity has resulted in her remaining out of the limelight for most of her career. Nevertheless she is widely recognized as one of the greatest modern-day pianists.
The Scherzo No. 3 by Frédéric Chopin begins in the key of C-sharp minor, then moves to D-flat major, and returns to C-sharp minor, concluding in C-sharp major. It was completed in 1839. The composition opens with an almost Lisztian introduction, leading to a subject in octaves of pent-up energy. The key changes to D-flat major, with a choralelike subject, interspersed with delicate falling arpeggios. Louis Kentner thinks of it as “a Wagnerian melody of astonishing beauty, recalling the sound of tubas, harps and all the apocalyptic orchestra of Valhalla.” This is the most terse, ironic, and tightly constructed of the four scherzos, with an almost Beethovenian grandeur. The finger-bursting coda rises to emotional HEIGHTs, bringing the score to a rhetorical ending.
This piece begins with an introduction similar to Chopin’s second scherzo. It then progresses into the fierce main theme. This is particularly difficult, due to the unusual technique needed to accurately and quickly execute the running octave patterns. The scherzo then moves into a transition section that leads back to the main theme. The following,Singing style (Cantabile), section is in D-flat major. The main theme and its sequences begin with strong chords that hold the melody followed by a downward flutter of notes. There follows a brief section consisting of a series of arpeggios. The elements of this lyrical section repeat themselves a few times and the piece then moves back into the main theme.
Das Wunder der Heliane (German for The Miracle of Heliane), Op.20 is an opera in three acts by Erich Wolfgang Korngold with a libretto by Hans Müller-Einigen, after Hans Kaltneker. It was first performed at the Hamburg State Opera on 7 October 1927. A suite for violin and piano based on the music from the aria “Ich ging zu ihm” is in print at Schott publishing.
Ludwig van Beethoven began concentrated work on his Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92, in 1811, while he was staying in the Bohemian spa town of Teplice in the hope of improving his health. It was completed in 1812, and was dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries.
The work was premiered in Vienna on December 8, 1813 at a charity concert for soldiers wounded in the Battle of Hanau, with Beethoven himself conducting and double featured with the patriotic Wellington’s Victory symphony. The orchestra was led by Beethoven’s friend, Ignaz Schuppanzigh, and included some of the finest musicians of the day: violinist Louis Spohr, Johann Hummel, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Antonio Salieri, Anton Romberg, and the Italian double bass virtuoso, Domenico Dragonetti, whom Beethoven himself described as playing “with great fire and expressive power”. It is also said that the Italian Guitar Virtuoso Mauro Giuliani played Cello at the premier. The piece was very well received, and the second movement, the allegretto, had to be encored. Spohr made particular mention of Beethoven’s antics on the rostrum (”as a sforzando occurred, he tore his arms with a great vehemence asunder … at the entrance of a forte he jumped in the air”), and the concert would inevitably be repeated due to its immense success.
The Seventh Symphony is in four movements:
I. Poco sostenuto — Vivace
II. Allegretto
III. Presto — Assai meno presto (trio)
IV. Allegro con brio
Performance time lasts approximately 34 minutes.
After a long, expanded introduction in Poco sostenuto, the first movement is in sonata form and is dominated by lively dance-like rhythms.
The slow second movement in A minor has a tempo marking of Allegretto (”a little lively”), making it slow only in comparison to the other three movements. This movement was encored at the premiere and has remained popular since. The ostinato (repeated rhythmic figure) of a quarter note, two eighth notes and two quarter notes is heard repeatedly.
The third movement is a scherzo and trio. Here, the trio (based on an Austrian pilgrims’ hymn, yet another example of applying poetry to music) is played twice rather than once. This expansion of the usual A-B-A structure of ternary form into A-B-A-B-A was quite common in other works of Beethoven of this period, such as his Fourth Symphony and String Quartet Op. 59 No. 2.
The last movement is in sonata form. Donald Francis Tovey, writing in his Essays in Musical Analysis, commented on this movement’s “Bacchic fury”. The coda contains an example, rare in Beethoven’s music, of the dynamic marking ƒƒƒ (called fortississimo in Italian).
The work is known for its use of rhythmic devices. It is also tonally subtle, making use of the tensions between the key centres of A, C and F. The second movement is in A minor with episodes in A major, and the scherzo is in F major.
Critics and listeners have often felt stirred or inspired by the Seventh Symphony. For instance, one program-note author writes:
… the final movement zips along at an irrepressible pace that threatens to sweep the entire orchestra off its feet and around the theater, caught up in the sheer joy of performing one of the most perfect symphonies ever written.
Composer and music author Antony Hopkins says of the symphony:
The Seventh Symphony perhaps more than any of the others gives us a feeling of true spontaneity; the notes seem to fly off the page as we are borne along on a floodtide of inspired invention. Beethoven himself spoke of it fondly as “one of my best works”. Who are we to dispute his judgment?
Another admirer, Richard Wagner, referring to the lively rhythms which permeate the work, called it the “apotheosis of the dance”.
On the other hand, admiration for the work has not been universal. Carl Maria von Weber considered the chromatic bass line in the coda of the first movement evidence that Beethoven was “ripe for the madhouse” and the 20th century conductor Thomas Beecham was similarly uncharitable, saying “What can you do with it? It’s like a lot of yaks jumping about.”
Franz Peter Schubert (January 31, 1797 – November 19, 1828) was an Austrian composer. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies (including the famous “Unfinished Symphony”), liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music. He is particularly noted for his original melodic and harmonic writing.
Schubert was born into a musical family, and received formal musical training through much of his childhood. While Schubert had a close circle of friends and associates who admired his work (amongst them the prominent singer Johann Michael Vogl), wide appreciation of his music during his lifetime was limited at best. He was never able to secure adequate permanent employment, and for most of his career he relied on the support of friends and family. He made some money from published works, and occasionally gave private musical instruction.
He died at the age of thirty-one after a brief unconfirmed illness. Interest in Schubert’s work increased dramatically in the decades following his death. Composers like Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn discovered, collected, and championed his works in the 19th century, as did musicologist Sir George Grove. Franz Schubert is now widely considered to be one of the greatest composers in the Western tradition.
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (commonly known by its French title, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune) is a musical composition for orchestra by Claude Debussy, approximately 10 minutes in duration. It was first performed in Paris on December 22, 1894 conducted by Gustave Doret.
The composition was inspired by the poem L’Après-midi d’un faune by Stéphane Mallarmé, and later formed the basis for a ballet choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky. It is one of Debussy’s most famous works and is considered a turning point in the history of music; composer-conductor Pierre Boulez even dates the awakening of modern music from this score, observing that “the flute of the faun brought new breath to the art of music.” It is a work that barely grasps onto tonality and harmonic function.
About his composition Debussy wrote:
“ The music of this prelude is a very free illustration of Mallarmé’s beautiful poem. By no means does it claim to be a synthesis of it. Rather there is a succession of scenes through which pass the desires and dreams of the faun in the heat of the afternoon. Then, tired of pursuing the timorous flight of nymphs and naiads, he succumbs to intoxicating sleep, in which he can finally realize his dreams of possession in universal Nature.”
The opening flute solo is one the most famous passages in musical modernism, consisting of a chromatic descent to a tritone below the original pitch, and the subsequent ascent.
The work is scored for three flutes, two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two harps, two crotales and strings. Notable is the absence of trumpets, trombones, and timpani.
Although it is tempting to call this piece a tone poem, there is very little musical literalism in the piece; instead, the languorous melody and shimmering orchestration as a whole evoke the eroticism of Mallarmé’s poem.
“ [This prelude] was [Debussy's] musical response to the poem of Stephane Mallarmé’ (1842-1898), in which a faun playing his pan-pipes alone in the woods becomes aroused by passing nymphs and naiads, pursues them unsuccessfully, then wearily abandons himself to a sleep filled with visions. Though called a “prelude,” the work is nevertheless complete – an evocation of the feelings of the poem as a whole.”
The work is called a prelude because Debussy intended to write a suite of three movements – Prelude, Interlude, and Final Paraphrase – but the latter two were never composed.
The Prélude at first listening seems improvisational and almost free-form; however, closer observation will demonstrate that the piece consists of a complex organization of musical cells, motifs carefully developed and traded between members of the orchestra. A close analysis of the piece yields a deep appreciation of the ultimate compositional economy of Debussy’s craft.
The main musical themes are introduced by woodwinds, with delicate but harmonically advanced underpinnings of muted horns, strings and harp. Recurring tools in Debussy’s compositional arsenal make appearances in this piece: Bracing whole-tone scale runs, harmonic fluidity without lengthy modulations between central keys, tritones in both melody and harmony. The development of the slow main theme moves fluidly between 9/8, 6/8 and 12/8 meters. Debussy explores voicings and shading in his orchestration brilliantly, allowing the main melodic cell to move from solo flute to oboe, back to solo flute, then two unison flutes (yielding a completely different atmosphere to the melody), then clarinet, etc. Even the accompaniment explores alternate voicings; the flute duo’s soaring, exotic melodic cells ride lush rolling strings with violas carrying the soprano part over alto violins (the tone of a viola in its upper register being especially sumptuous). And, in the first minute of the piece, Debussy mischievously throws in a bar of complete silence, giving the listener the opportunity to explore the musical quality of negative space within a gentle flowing river of sound.
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, S.244/2, is the second in a set of 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies by composer Franz Liszt, and is by far the most famous of the set. Few other piano solos have achieved such widespread popularity, offering the pianist the opportunity to reveal exceptional skill as a virtuoso, while providing the listener with an immediate and irresistible musical appeal. It is considered one of the most technically demanding works in the solo piano repertoire.
In both the original piano solo form and in the orchestrated version this composition has enjoyed widespread use in animated cartoons. Its themes have also served as the basis of several popular songs.
The Hungarian-born composer and pianist Franz Liszt was strongly influenced by the music heard in his youth, particularly Hungarian folk music, with its unique gypsy scale, rhythmic spontaneity and direct, seductive expression. These elements would eventually play a significant role in Liszt’s compositions. Although this prolific composer’s works are highly varied in style, a relatively large part of his output is nationalistic in character, the Hungarian Rhapsodies being an ideal example.
Composed in 1847 and dedicated to Count László Teleki, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 was first published as a piano solo in 1851 by Senff and Ricordi. Its immediate success and popularity on the concert stage soon led to an orchestrated version, arranged by the composer in collaboration with Franz Doppler, and published by Schuberth. In addition to the orchestral version, the composer arranged a piano duet version in 1874, published by Schuberth the following year.
By the late 19th century and early 20th century, the excruciating technical challenges of the piano solo version led to its acceptance as the “unofficial standard” by which every notable pianist would “prove his salt”, usually as a smashing finale. It had become an expected staple of virtually every performance of the greatest pianists of the time. Offering an outstanding contrast to the serious and dramatic lassan, the following friska holds enormous appeal for audiences, with its simple alternating tonic and dominant harmonization, its energetic, toe-tapping rhythms, and breath-taking “pianistics”.
Most unusual in this composition is the composer’s invitation for the performer to improvise an original Cadenza, although most pianists choose to decline the invitation. Other pianists have arranged their own versions of the Rhapsody with changes beyond that of simply adding a cadenza, most notably Vladimir Horowitz in 1953.
The piece consists of two distinct sections.
The first is the Lassan, with its brief but dramatic introduction. Although beginning on the C-sharp major triad, C-sharp minor is soon established as the home key. From this point on, the composer modulates freely, particularly to the tonic major and the relative major. The mood of the Lassan is generally dark and sombre, although marked by playful and capricious contrasts.
The second section is the Friska. It opens quietly in the key of F-sharp minor, but on its dominant chord, C sharp major, recalling a theme from the Lassan. The alternating dominant and tonic harmonies quickly increase in volume, the tempo gaining momentum as the outburst of the Friska’s main theme (in F sharp major) is approached. At this point, the Friska begins its journey of ever-increasing energy and pianistic bravura, still underpinned by alternating tonic and dominant harmonies. Modulations are limited almost exclusively to the dominant (C sharp major) and the lowered mediant (A major). Before the final whirlwind of sound, a moment of calm prevails in the key of F sharp minor, recalling another of the Lassan’s themes, and is followed by the instruction, Cadenza ad lib. Finally, in the key of F-sharp major, an overwhelming crescendo of prestissimo octaves, ascending then descending almost the entire range of the keyboard, brings the Rhapsody to an impressive conclusion.
Liszt planned his choice of keys in a remarkably symmetrical fashion. Although the Lassan’s principal key is C sharp minor (with the appropriate key signature used throughout) the work opens on the tonic major chord, C sharp major. However, by bar 6, the minor tonality is established. This device provides a contrast which intensifies the generally dark and sombre character of the Lassan. This procedure is directly reversed in the Friska. Although the principal key of the Friska is F sharp major, Liszt chooses to begin in the tonic minor key, F sharp minor, which is sustained until bar 51. For practical reasons of notation (i.e., the prolongation of the tonic minor key), Liszt chooses the key signature of F sharp minor, until the arrival of the main theme in F sharp Major. This time, the use of the more serious minor tonality is used as a contrast to the arrival of the playful and jubilant main theme of the Friska.
Title on autograph score: Concerto 3zo a tre Violini, tre Viole, è tre Violoncelli col Basso per il Cembalo.
1.Allegro
2.Adagio
3.Allegro
Instrumentation: three violins, three violas, three cellos, and basso continuo (including harpsichord)
The second movement consists of a single measure with the two chords that make up a so-called ‘Phrygian cadence’ and—although there is no direct evidence to support it—it was likely that these chords are meant to surround or follow a cadenza improvised by a harpsichord or violin player. Modern performance approaches run a gamut from simply playing the cadence with minimal ornamentation (treating it as a sort of “musical semicolon”), to inserting movements from other works, to cadenzas varying in length from under a minute to over two minutes. Notably, Wendy Carlos’s three electronic performances (from Switched-On Bach, Switched-On Brandenburgs, and Switched-On Bach 2000) have second movements that are completely different from each other.
Occasionally, the third movement from Bach’s “Sonata for Violin and Continuo in G , BWV. 1021″ (marked Largo) is substituted for the second movement as it contains an identical ‘Phrygian cadence’ as the closing chords. The Adagio from the Violin Sonata in G, BWV 1019a, has also been used. It has a flourish of different notes.
The outer movements use the ritornello form found in many instrumental and vocal works of the time. The first movement can also be found in reworked form as the sinfonia of the cantata BWV 174, “Ich liebe den Höchsten von ganzem Gemüte”, with the addition of three oboes and two horns.
Aria and Scherzo by Emma Lou Diemer performed by Jessie Rember and Dr. Cindy Lindeen-Martin on November 13, 2009 at Augustana Lutheran Church in Denver, Colorado.
Emma Lou Diemer (born November 24, 1927 in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American composer.
She received both her B.M. and her M.M from the Yale School of Music in 1949 and 1950, respectively. She then went on to study composition in Brussels, Belgium on a Fulbright Scholarship from 1952 to 1953, ultimately returning to the United States to receive her Ph.D from the Eastman School of Music in 1960. Diemer has written many works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, keyboard, voice, chorus (women’s, men’s), electronic media.
She was professor of theory and composition at the University of Maryland 1965-70, and joined the faculty of the University of California in 1971. She is professor emeritus, 1991-present. While at UCSB she helped to establish the computer/electronic music program. She was composer-in-residence with the Santa Barbara Symphony 1990-92.
The symhony premiered 4 of her works: Concerto for Piano in One Movement (which received a Kennedy Center Friedheim award in 1992), Santa Barbara Overture, Homage to Tchaikovsky, Chumash Dance Celebration.
It also performed her Concerto for Marimba in One Movement, which was commissioned by the Women’s Philharmonic of San Francisco. Other notable works: SONGS FOR THE EARTH, commissioned by the San Francisco Choral Society, performed in Davies Hall, 2005. The work is for chorus and orchestra, with texts by Emily Dickinson, Mary Oliver, Dorothy Diemer Hendry, Omar Khayyam, and Hildegard von Bingen; MASS for chorus, 2 pianos, percussion. Almost all of Diemer’s works are published. She has received awards from the Eastman School of Music, Yale School of Music, the National Endowment for the Arts, ASCAP (annually since 1962), the American Guild of Organists (1995 Composer of the Year), Mu Phi Epsilon, and received an honorary doctorate in 1999 from the University of Central Missouri.
Diemer is a keyboard performer and over the years has given concerts of her own organ works at Washington National Cathedral, The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, Grace Cathedral and St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco, and others. Her publications include many collections and single works for organ as well as many for solo piano, piano 4 hands, and two pianos. Her major chamber works include a piano quartet, string quartet, two piano trios, and sonatas and suites for flute, violin, cello, and piano as well as settings of the psalms for trumpet and organ, trombone and organ, percussion and organ, flute and organ. Her choral works are numerous, with many for mixed chorus and a number for women’s chorus and men’s chorus.
She has written several hymns, several of which appear in church hymnals. Her songs number in the dozens, using texts by many contemporary and early poets including Walt Whitman, Amy Lowell, Sara Teasdale, Alice Meynell, Thomas Campion, Shakespeare, John Donne, her sister Dorothy Diemer Hendry, Emily Dickinson, Robert Lowell, and many others.
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was a composer who was born in Austria and from 1933 lived in the United States.
His early work, under the influence of Wagner, Brahms and Mahler, was romantic as in Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night)(1899).
He later developed an atonality of composition, as in Pierrot Lunaire (1912), and from 1921 he established a dodecaphonic (twelve tone) serial method of composition, as in Suite for Piano (1923).
His work influenced composers such as Berg and Webern.
Gerald Raphael Finzi (14 July 1901 – 27 September 1956) was a British composer. Finzi is best-known as a song-writer, but also wrote in other genres. Large-scale compositions by Finzi include the cantata Dies natalis for solo voice and string orchestra, and his two orchestral concertos for cello and clarinet.