This exuberant, vibrantly colored Te Deum in C major features a grand orchestral arrangement for three trumpets and three trombones, but does not call for soloists. It was commissioned by the Empress Marie Thérèse, consort of the Holy Roman Emperor Franz II (not to be confused with Maria Theresa, who was Empress of Austria in her own right during Haydn's youth and for whom his Symphony No. 48 is named). Marie Thérèse was an enthusiastic admirer of Haydn's music and ardently promoted his compositions at the imperial court.
The Te Deum is in one continuous movement, lasting just under ten minutes, but it packs a big punch. Divided into three distinct sections, it begins with a jubilant Allegro, moves into a brief and subdued central Adagio in C minor - the only somber interlude in the composition - and concludes with an Allegro moderato. The final section crescendos into a breathtaking double fugue.
Listen to: Choeur de Chambre de Namur, La petite Bande, Sigiswald Kuijken
"Dixit Dominus" stands as Handel's masterful interpretation of Psalm 110: "The Lord Said." Composed by Handel at the young age of 22, following a two-year study tour in Italy, the piece represents a synthesis of insights gained from his exploration of Italian opera. It owes its vitality and emotional depth, characteristic of the Italian Baroque music of Handel's time, to his extensive knowledge of the works of Giacomo Carissimi and Arcangelo Corelli.
After his solo soprano and string composition "Laudate pueri" (HWV 236), "Dixit Dominus" is Handel's earliest surviving sacred work. In the same year, he composes two more psalm settings, "Laudate pueri" (HWV 237) and "Nisi Dominus" (HWV 238), as well as his first Italian opera, "Rodrigo," in October.
It is possible that Cardinal Carlo Colonna (1665-1739) commissioned Dixit Dominus. A performance on July 16-17, 1707, during the annual festival of the Carmelite Order at the Roman church of Santa Maria in Montesanto is likely. Handel may have conducted the music on one or both days of the festival.
This eight-movement composition, scored for five-part (SSATB) chorus and soloists in G minor, showcases Handel's prodigious talent. Demonstrating a remarkable command of counterpoint, harmonic and melodic invention, and powerful dramatic gestures, the work is a testament to Handel's precocious abilities at the age of 22.
Perhaps originally intended for a coronation, the text of "Dixit Dominus" found its place in the liturgy for Sunday vespers. Despite its current perception as bellicose, with lines such as "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool," in Handel's day it would have been joyfully interpreted as a prophecy of Christ's triumph over earthly adversaries and evil. Even so, it is an unapologetic setting of some of the Bible's harshest words!
The energetic opening chorus gives way to a simple and elegant alto solo (with solo cello accompaniment), followed in turn by a beautifully lyrical movement for soprano. The "Juravit Dominus" of the fourth movement stands out for its daring chromatic harmony and bold dissonances. The sixth and longest movement combines verses 5 and 6, revealing Corelli's influence in the instrumental introduction. A particularly noteworthy passage depicts a military victory through percussive chords in the seventh movement - not so much liturgical music as a veritable war chant! The Gloria reintroduces the cantus firmus we heard at the beginning of the piece, and the work concludes with an extended and superbly executed fugue (this Gloria is the ninth movement, but as general doxology it is not part of the psalm).
The Symphony of Psalms is one of the most deeply moving and genuinely spiritual pieces Stravinsky ever wrote. It is Stravinsky's third work that he called a "symphony," after the Symphony in E-flat (1905-07) and the Symphonies for Wind Instruments (1920). It was followed by the Symphony in C (1938-40) for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony in Three Movements (1942-45) for the New York Philharmonic. The Symphony of Psalms was preceded by the dramatic works Oedipus Rex and Apollo, which, although pagan in subject matter, resemble religious works in their grandeur and musical composition.
The Symphony of Psalms is a three-movement "symphony" for chorus and orchestra. The text is based on Latin psalms. It was composed at a time when Igor Stravinsky's style was moving toward neoclassicism. The piece was commissioned in 1930 by Serge Koussevitzky, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, for the orchestra's 50th anniversary.
Stravinsky was given a free hand to compose, although his publisher wanted a work without chorus, "...something popular". Stravinsky himself explained that by "popular" he did not mean something that would suit the general taste of the public, but something that would be universally admired. For him, this was Psalm 150 (the third movement), which, despite the publisher's request for an instrumental work, would become the starting point and main focus of his composition.
The style of this work is very neoclassical and religious. The word "symphony" in this work is not "symphony" in the classical sense, but rather "ensemble," which is closer to the meaning of the root word "symphony." Stravinsky said, "This is not a symphony in which the singing of psalms is included. On the contrary, it is the singing of the psalms that I have symphonized.
Stravinsky is very concerned with unity. The Psalms of David that he chose, in the Latin version of the Vulgate, are textually unified. The 39th Psalm is like a response to the 38th. The "Alleluia" with which the 150th begins is the "new canticle" of the 39th. In another sense, the symphony is unified in that its three movements are linked and must be sung and played without pause. The first psalm rises rapidly to its conclusion. With the first notes of the next psalm, it becomes clear that the entire first movement has been one great upbeat to the second. These two movements set texts of human repentance, sinfulness, and
longed-for salvation: the sinner's cry to be heard in the first
movement, the "new song" forged after the Lord has pulled the psalmist
"out of a terrible pit, out of the miry clay" in the second.
For
Stravinsky, Psalm 150, the third and final movement, is "a song to be danced, as David danced before
the ark. The final hymn of praise is to be imagined as coming from
heaven; the excitement is followed by the serenity of praise".
Movement 1, Prelude: Exaudi orationem meam, Domine The text is from Psalm 38 (39). It serves as a prelude to the second movement. The ostinato dominates the entire movement, which is punctuated by three chords in E minor.
2nd movement, double fugue: Expectans expectavi, Dominum Text from Psalm 39 (No. 40). Double fugue with orchestra and choir. At the end of "Et immisit in os meum canticum novum", the chorus changes to homophonic form to form the climax.
3rd movement, Allegro symphonique: Alleluia Text from Psalm 150. It consists of a slow section at each end and a middle section with an increase in tempo, with a complex orchestral interlude. The vocal part is extensively treated with cadenzas.
What is striking about the orchestration is the unusual concentration on certain sounds (flutes, trumpets, and pianos) and the complete omission of others (clarinets and high strings).
1. Violin Sonata Op 5 No 12 "La Folia" by Corelli (1700)
"La Folia" (Folly or Madness) is one of the oldest European musical themes, originating as a dance in the mid or late fifteenth century throughout the Iberian Peninsula. Over the course of three centuries, more than 150 composers have used it in their works. Jean-Baptiste Lully in 1672, Arcangelo Corelli in 1700, Marin Marais in 1701, Alessandro Scarlatti in 1710, Antonio Vivaldi in his Opus 1 no. 12 of 1705, Francesco Geminiani in his Concerto Grosso no. 12 (which was actually part of a collection of direct transcriptions of Corelli's violin sonatas), George Frideric Handel in the Sarabande of his Keyboard Suite in D Minor of 1727, and Johann Sebastian Bach in his Peasants' Cantata of 1742 are considered to have brilliantly emphasized this repeating theme and its variations, to name just a few. The flexibility of the theme to incorporate and adapt features of new musical styles is amazing, and may have been essential to its longevity. On top of that it fits to a variety of instruments on which it can be played in a most natural way.
Listen to: The Four Nations Ensemble, Olivier Brault violin
2. Goldberg Variations by Bach (1741)
The work consists of 30 variations, beginning with a single aria. After an hour of transforming the music with different time signatures, textures, and harmonies, the beautiful first aria returns - as the listener has then heard the melody transformed in countless ways, the simplicity of the original music is nothing short of mesmerizing.
The following legend has been attached to the Goldberg Variations. Count Hermann Karl von Keyserlinck was having trouble sleeping and asked Bach for some pleasant music to pass the time, to be played by Keyserlinck's harpsichord prodigy, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg. But Bach probably had himself in mind, rather than the thirteen-year-old pupil of his son Wilhelm Friedemann, when he composed what is considered to be the best constructed and most expressive set of variations of the Baroque era. The name "Goldberg Variations" did not come from Bach himself. He called it an "Aria with variations for emotional relief." The work was published as the fourth part of Bach's encyclopedic Clavier-Übung.
Listen to: Jean Rondeau for All of Bach
3. Twelve Variations on "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman!" by Mozart (1782)
"Ah! vous dirai-je, maman" is a popular French children's song, although the origin of the melody is an anonymous pastoral (love) song dating from 1740, with children's lyrics added only later. Since its composition in the 18th century, the melody has been applied to numerous lyrics in several languages – the English song "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is one such example. It was adapted in Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Listen to: Alberto Lodoletti, piano
4. Andante and Variations in F minor by Haydn (1793)
Haydn's Variations in F minor (Hob. XVII:6), written in 1793, is one of the composer's last piano works, along with the three London sonatas. Arranged as a double set of variations, it is one of Haydn's most popular piano pieces, and its emotionally expressive character and virtuosic conclusion have made it a staple of the pianist's repertoire. Joseph Haydn uses two themes as the basis for the variations. This means that the work belongs to the type of double variations. The first theme is in the key of F minor and the second in the key of F major. At the beginning, Haydn presents the themes one after the other. He then varies them twice, alternating each time. The variations end with the first ending in F major, after which a large coda also in F major concludes the piece.
Listen to: Davide Scarabottolo
5. Diabelli Variations by Beethoven (1823)
The 33 Variations on a Waltz by A. Diabelli op. 120 in C major, completed in 1823, are Ludwig van Beethoven's last major piano work. With a playing time of approximately 45-60 minutes, the Diabelli Variations, dedicated to Antonie Brentano, mark the culmination of Beethoven's work on variations and are among his most important, extensive and complex contributions to this art form.
At the beginning of 1819, the Viennese music publisher and composer Anton Diabelli had a curious business idea: he invited a number of well-known contemporary composers from all over Austria and Bohemia to write a variation on a waltz theme of his own, which would then be published as an anthology by his music publishing company. Fifty musicians responded to Diabelli's call, including Carl Czerny, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Ignaz Moscheles, Conradin Kreutzer, Franz Xaver Mozart, Franz Schubert, and the young Franz Liszt.
Beethoven was also supposed to contribute a piece, but he was neither enthusiastic about the idea of the collaborative project nor about the compositional quality of the Diabelli theme. He told the publisher that he would be happy to work on the theme alone for 40 ducats. Diabelli even offered him twice as much if he wrote more than seven variations, but Beethoven did much more - in 1823, he delivered a complete cycle with "33 variations". Diabelli was so enthusiastic about Beethoven's work that he had his cycle of variations published separately.
Listen to: Daviid Korevaar
6. Le Festin d’Ésope (Aesop’s Feast) by Alkan (1857)
Le festin d'Ésope (Aesop's Feast) is the last étude in the series Douze études dans tous les tons mineurs (Twelve Studies in All Minor Keys), Op. 39, published in 1857. It is a work of twenty-five variations based on an original theme in E minor. The technical skills required in the variations are a summation of the preceding études. The work requires exceptional virtuosity, with extremely fast overlapping octaves, fast scales with left-hand accompaniment, enormous leaps, fast octave chords, tremolos, double octaves, and trills.
Regarding the title: according to legend, Xanthus asked his slave Aesop to prepare a feast with all kinds of food. At the feast, however, all the guests were served tongue, which, Aesop explained, contained every kind of human knowledge and emotion. This story itself can be interpreted as a parable of the variation form.
Listen to: Yeol Eum Son
7. Variations on a Theme by Haydn by Brahms (1873)
The opening of Brahms' Haydn Variation is an exact transcription from an Esterhaza manuscript of woodwind pieces attributed to Haydn (though not actually by him!). As the variation progresses, the "Haydn character" diminishes and the "Brahms character" increases. But the contrapuntal pastiche of earlier times remains with us to the end, with a typical Brahmsian delight in the Baroque rhythmic play known as the hemiola. The final movement is a Passacaglia. These highly innovative variations were Brahms's final training ground before the publication of his First Symphony, and their success in 1873 must have encouraged him to feel that he could finally risk the big step from the more sheltered works of the brilliant chamber composer into the arena of public music.
Listen to: Blomstedt | Concertgebouworkest
8. Symphonic Variations for orchestra by Dvořák (1877)
Antonín Dvořák's Symphonic Variations on the Theme "I am a Fiddler" for Orchestra, Op. 78, were written in 1877. They are played fairly frequently, much like Johannes Brahms's Variations on a Theme by Haydn and Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations. The work is said to have been a response to a friend's challenge to write variations on a theme that seemed impossible for that purpose. Dvořák chose the third of his series of three songs for unaccompanied male voices, which is in ternary form, with phrase lengths of 7, 6, and 7 bars. Far from being impossible as a subject for variations, the theme proved to be exceptionally well suited for this purpose.
Listen to: The Portland Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by David Hattner
9. Symphonic Variations by Parry (1897)
Hubert Parry's inventive set of 27 symphonic variations was much admired by Tovey, Joachim and Elgar. It is an effective orchestral tour de force, comparable to Brahms's Haydn Variations. The symphonic structure implied in the sonata-like divisions of tempo and key gave Parry the opportunity to explore and expand his technical resources. The result is a minor classic.
Argovia philharmonic, Douglas Bostock, conductor
10. “Enigma” Variations by Elgar (1899)
Variations on an Original Theme for Orchestra, Op. 36 (Enigma), better known as the Enigma Variations, is an orchestral work consisting of a musical theme and fourteen variations composed by Edward Elgar in 1898-1899. It is one of Elgar's best-known large-scale works, not only because of the music, but also because of the mystery surrounding it. Elgar dedicated the piece to "my friends depicted in it", a reference to the fact that each variation is a musical portrait of someone from his circle of friends (and including his dog!).
With this work, Elgar not only made his breakthrough as a composer, but also put British music back on the international map after several centuries.
The work consists of a theme followed by 14 variations. The variations are derived from melodic, harmonic and rhythmic elements of the theme. The last part is not actually a variation, but a finale in which Elgar repeated two variations: variation numbers 9 and 1, dedicated to his friend Jaeger and his wife Alice respectively. Elgar did this because he owed them both a great deal, both as an artist and as a person. This finale was also given a variation number because Elgar did not want to end with the unlucky number 13.
Elgar's musical portraits depict their subjects on two different levels, as was common in painted portraiture at the time. In addition to a general musical impression of the sitter's personality, several variations contain musical references to a specific character trait or event, such as Dorabella's stutter, Winifred Norbury's laugh, and the conversation during the walk with Jaeger.
Listen to: Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Stanislav Kochanovsky, conductor
11. Variations for Orchestra by Steinberg (1906)
Maximilian Steinberg's Variations for Large Orchestra, Op. 2, reflect the influence of the great composers whose works he studied in St. Petersburg: Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky, and Glazunov. Dating from 1905, the Variations are based on a popular theme from the Russian repertoire of the kind Glinka used in his Kamarinskaya. This type of piece was something of a rite of passage that even the young Shostakovich could not avoid. Steinberg's Variations show the composer's talent as well as his respect for the great composers, in his case especially his teacher Rimsky, to whom the work is dedicated. The sinuous melody has a special Russian charm. The work as a whole illustrates all the rules of the genre, with a gradual transformation of the theme, a varied use of orchestral color, rhythmic variations alternating with melodic ones, and a final peroration.
12. Variations on a Nursery Tune for piano and orchestra by Dohnányi (1914)
After a dramatic introduction, the theme – Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star – is introduced, followed by eleven variations on it, including a waltz and a more serious passacaglia.
Dohnányi alludes to many different works, or composers' distinctive compositional styles, in the piece. For instance, variation 8 suggests the march from the second movement of Tchaikovsky's "Little Russian" Symphony. Debussy is alluded to, with the ethereal harmonies of the 11th variation. Dohnányi pokes fun at nearly every composer his audience of 1914 would have been familiar with.
The work made Dohnányi famous, particularly in England and North America.
For another discussion of this piece, see my article "Best Piano Concertos from the Twentieth Century: Part One (1904-1932)".
Listen to: Filharmóniai Társaság conducted by Dénes István with Fejes Krisztina, piano
13. Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart by Reger (1914)
The Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart Op. 132 uses the theme from the 1st movement of Mozart's Sonata No. 11 in A major KV 331 and is one of Reger's best-known and most popular works. The theme goes through a total of 8 variations and ultimately forms the basis for the final fugue.
Composed between May and July 1914 in Berchtesgaden and Meiningen, it was premiered on January 8, 1915 in Wiesbaden by the municipal spa orchestra under the direction of the composer. The theme is presented first by the woodwinds, then by the strings and finally together. The fugue adopts the original key of A major and the original 6/8 time, starting in the strings. Flute and oboe present a second fugal theme, so that after the second fugue has been played, the movement develops into an increasingly intense double fugue as it progresses. The climax is the combination of both fugue themes with the resumption of the Mozart theme in the trumpets, which brings the work to a majestic end with a full orchestra.
Listen to: hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Peter Eötvös:
14. Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for piano and orchestra by Rachmaninoff (1934)
Listen to: Anna Fedorova [piano] and the Philharmonie Südwestfalen, Gerard Oskamp [conductor]
15. Variations on a Theme by Hindemith by Walton (1963)
Variations on a Theme by Hindemith is an orchestral piece in eleven continuous sections, first performed in 1963. It is a tribute to Walton's friend and fellow composer Paul Hindemith. William Walton's friendship with Paul Hindemith dated from 1923 when the two had met at the Salzburg Festival. In 1929 Hindemith did Walton a great service when he played the solo part in the premiere of the latter's Viola Concerto, stepping in at short notice to replace the intended soloist, Lionel Tertis. From the mid-1950s Walton contemplated a work to salute his friend, and a suitable opportunity arose in 1962, with a commission from the Royal Philharmonic Society in London for an orchestral work to celebrate its 150th anniversary. Walton chose to write a set of variations on a theme from Hindemith's 1940 Cello Concerto, and dedicated the work to the Hindemiths – Paul and his wife, Gertrud. The theme is from the opening of the slow movement of the Hindemith Cello Concerto, a slow lyrical passage marked Ruhig bewegt. Unusually for a set of variations, the theme is not a short individual melody but 36 consecutive bars – "not a tune, nor even a theme, but a paragraph". Hindemith was delighted with the Variations, and called the work "a half-hour of sheer enjoyment", and Walton said to Benjamin Britten in 1964 that he thought the piece one of his best. The musical scholar Christopher Palmer has called the piece "perhaps the finest of all Walton's post-war orchestral works", the composer's biographer Michael Kennedy ranks it as one of Walton's finest works of any period of his career, and in 2017 the critic Robert Matthew-Walker called it "arguably Walton's most refined masterpiece."
See for another take on "Theme and Variations" music: 10 ESSENTIAL “THEME and VARIATIONS” Pieces for BEGINNERS by Dave Hurwitz of Classics Today:
[This article incorporates some text from the relevant English, Dutch and German Wikipedia articles, as well as from the liner notes of the relevant CDs]
Alan Hovhaness (1911 - 2000) was an American composer who wrote the large number of 467 compositions, including 67 symphonies, 22 concertos, 2 ballets and more than 100 works for chamber ensembles, and 7 operas.
Hovhaness, born Alan Vaness Chakmakjian, was the son of an Armenian chemistry teacher and a mother of Scottish descent. He began composing at an early age, reportedly from the age of four. He studied at the New England Conservatory in the 1930s; piano with Adelaide Proctor and Heinrich Gebhard, composition with Frederick Converse. In 1942 Hovhaness won a scholarship to study at Tanglewood, but left after a week of disappointment. Shortly thereafter, he came into contact with the Greek painter (he himself called him a spiritual teacher) Hermon di Giovanno, who advised him to return to his origins, in this case the liturgical music of Armenia. Because of his interest in Eastern music, philosophy and religion, Hovhaness became dissatisfied with his youth work, which he mostly destroyed. He organized an amateur orchestra and began to perform his new style of music, including such works as Celestial Fantasy, Three Armenian Rhapsodies, and the Saint Vartan Symphony.
After teaching composition at the Boston Conservatory from 1948 to 1951, he moved to New York, where he composed for radio, television, and the theater, including three scores for Martha Graham. In 1956, Leopold Stokowski, who had conducted the Symphony No. 1 "Exile" in 1942 and 1943, commissioned the Symphony No. 2 "Mysterious Mountain". Stokowski became a champion of Hovhaness and conducted many of his works in the following years.
[Hovhaness seen working on a manuscript, c. 1970-79]
During the summers of 1956 and 1959, Hovhaness taught composition at the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music, and fellow composer Howard Hanson conducted a number of his works. In 1959, Hovhaness received a Fulbright Research Scholar Grant to study music in Madras, India, where he also composed for South Indian instruments. In 1960 he went to Tokyo, where the Nippon Philharmonic performed his Symphony No. 3. In 1962, Hovhaness returned to Japan on a Rockefeller Fellowship to study the ancient Gagaku music. In Korea he studied similar ancient music.
In 1963, Andre Kostelanetz conducted many of Hovhaness' works and commissioned several, including Symphony No. 19 "Vishnu," And God Created Great Whales, and Rubaiyat. After serving as composer-in-residence with the Seattle Symphony in 1967, Hovhaness moved to Seattle in 1972 for the rest of his life. In 1983, the C.F. Peters Corporation commissioned Symphony No. 50, "Mount St. Helen's".
Alan Hovhaness has been married six times. With his first wife, Martha Mott Davis, he had his daughter and only child, Jean Nandi. His last wife, Hinako Fujihara, his muse and a coloratura soprano by profession, who lovingly cared for him until his death, was about 25 years younger. Believing atonal music to be unnatural, Hovhaness eschewed the serialism that prevailed in intellectual musical circles and instead followed his own path. Although his music often contained dissonance, it was always within the context of (often modal) tonality. Influenced by Sibelius early in his career, Hovhaness maintained long melodic lines and transparent harmonies in his music. By the 1940s, he had absorbed his Armenian musical heritage along with Renaissance and Baroque fugues, canons, and arias; medieval and Greek modes; Byzantine polyphony; and Indian, Japanese, and Korean classical music. These many influences never obscured his own voice. He did not ignore contemporary trends, using prepared and quarter-tone piano as well as contrasting rhythms. His early experiments with aleatoric music, which he called "oriental spirit murmur," foreshadowed John Cage's fascination with chance in music. But above all, Alan Hovhaness strove to communicate beauty through his music.
Hovhaness's work has many Asian influences, not because he is the son of an Armenian, but because of his travels to India, Japan, and South Korea. The composer was deeply interested in religion and mysticism. Hovhaness was a Buddhist, which is expressed in his work through mysterious yet serene melodic lines. Hovhaness was also influenced by medieval and Renaissance music, and sometimes applied Bach's formal theory, especially his polyphony.
Hovhaness himself says that his work is mainly inspired by nature, especially the mountains. Hovhaness was not an innovative pioneer like his contemporaries Stravinsky and Schoenberg. His music is melodious and lilting in nature and was appreciated by many during his lifetime. Hovhaness's work is relatively easy to perform. Like Olivier Messiaen, Hovhaness has tried to combine the mystical and the secular, the Eastern and the Western, the ancient and the modern in his very personal music.
Hovhaness' two most recorded works, and among the most rewarding, are his Symphony No. 2 "Mysterious Mountain" op. 132, with lush, sweeping melodies like an Oriental-tinged Sibelius, and Prayer of St. Gregory for trumpet and strings (or organ) op. 62.
Symphonies
Alan Hovhaness's catalog of symphonies is numbered up to 67, but 75 is closer to the mark if suppressed early works and an unnumbered chamber symphony are included. It was Hovhaness's longevity that allowed him the time to compose so many, the last 43 of which were written after his 60th birthday. There is a parallel here with the prolific English symphonist Havergal Brian, who composed some 28 of his 32 symphonies after the same birthday.
But if we look at the number of Hovhaness's symphonies as a percentage of his total surviving output (about 500 works), we see that he did not specialize in this genre any more than other 20th-century symphonists: 67 symphonies represent about 13% of his output; compare this, for example, with Miaskovsky's twenty-seven (26%). The difference is that Hovhaness had an irreverent attitude toward contemporary notions of the modern symphony - he almost never wrote in sonata form, but for him the term "symphony" simply encompassed any multi-movement or substantial orchestral piece. His symphonic movements are not inherently different from the other music he wrote. Further evidence of Hovhaness's somewhat loose conception of the term "symphony" is that many of his symphonies acquired their designation quite arbitrarily, several years after their composition, while others are clearly solo concertos in all but name (e.g., No. 36 for flute and strings). Still other works betray a genuinely symphonic conception and yet escape the designation "symphony," such as the admirably crafted Concerto No. 7 for Orchestra.
Hovhaness's most famous symphony, the Symphony No. 2, "Mysterious Mountain," is discussed in my article "Best Symphonies of the Twentieth Century, Part Three" on this blog so I will skip it here.
Symphony No 1 "Exile" (1936)
The earliest "official" Hovhaness symphony was premiered in England in 1939 by the BBC Orchestra under Leslie Howard. The conductor heaped praise on Hovhaness, declaring his First Symphony "powerful, virile and musically very solid. It was also the work that won the composer the admiration and support of Leopold Stokowski, who introduced the symphony to the American public in 1942 and later commissioned Symphony No. 2, "Mysterious Mountain.
The "Exile" of the title alludes to the plight of the many Armenians (including Hovhaness's paternal family) who were either uprooted or killed before and after World War I, and moods of both anguish and heroism permeate the outer movements. Nevertheless, the work is dedicated to the English philosopher and writer Francis Bacon, the composer's literary hero.
The original titles of the three movements were Lament, Conflict and Triumph, reflecting the plight of the exiled Armenians. In 1970, the composer replaced the central "Conflict" movement with a new Grazioso movement and retitled the outer movements with non-programmatic tempo markings, somewhat diluting the symphony's original political connotations.
It is easy to hear Oriental influences in the rich melodic arcs, and a connection to ancient civilizations in the modal tonalities. That the composer's compassion and prayers for the liberation of the persecuted were intense is perhaps most dramatically characterized in the startling fanfares, fugues and chorale of the final movement.
A painting by the Greek mystic painter Hermon di Giovanno was Hovhaness' inspiration for this symphony. Such paintings adorned the walls of Hovhaness's apartments for most of his life. In the early 1940s, di Giovanno had introduced Hovhaness to the ancient worlds of Greece, Egypt, and India, and had encouraged the composer to further study his Armenian heritage. Hovhaness described di Giovanno as "my spiritual teacher who opened the door to the spiritual dimension. Perhaps this is the "Celestial Gate" of the title, rather than the title of a specific painting.
As Lou Harrison noted, Hovhaness was "one of the greatest melodists of the 20th century," and this symphony certainly exemplifies Hovhaness' gift for beautiful melodic writing. It is not surprising, then, that after Mysterious Mountain, Celestial Gate is the most frequently recorded symphony.
The symphony is in one movement and scored for chamber orchestra. After a brief introduction setting the mood of the work, one of the main features of the piece, an extended melody of great beauty, appears on the clarinet over a viola countermelody; the string accompaniment includes scalic pizzicato motifs that come to the fore in a later dance-like section. A number of solo instruments play this material at various times throughout the symphony. There is also a fugal development of the first phase of the theme. The work, which began in the depths of the lower strings and bassoon, ends with 'floating' high tessitura con sordini violin clusters, taking the listener from our mundane world to an ethereal world of serenity, even bliss. It is as if a new dimension is revealed to us as we finally pass through the heavenly gate.
The Vishnu Symphony is one of the most original orchestral works of the 20th century and deserves to be widely known. From the unsettling low brass growl of the opening, it is clear that this is a work of astonishing invention. It is certainly his boldest work in terms of exploring the limitless sonorities afforded by his 'senza misura' aleatoric technique, which had come a very long way from the hushed pizzicato murmurs of 1944's Lousadzak. Yet the composer's facility with what he called "controlled chaos" makes it sound completely at home in this adulatory hymn to the universe, where its purpose is to portray mystery, grandeur, and cosmic energy. The aspect of the Hindu god Vishnu with which this tone poem is primarily concerned is related to his most ancient character as a sun god, depicting him as "protector and preserver of life."
Originally conceived as a cosmic tone poem entitled "To Vishnu", the work is cast in one continuous movement as "an unfolding giant melody of adoration to the immensity and sublimity of limitless stellar universes". The form is completely free, consisting of a broad melodic line interrupted by preludes and interludes composed of a chaos of controlled sounds, never reaching aleatoric music. Its structure, according to its author, is inspired by the classical Japanese concept of Jo-Ha-Kyu, roughly translated as "beginning, pause, rapid", which essentially means that all actions or efforts should begin slowly, accelerate and then end quickly. https://youtu.be/AMFjiunPyq4?si=5LKIoaFQZvMCrCte
Concertos
Hovhaness wrote 22 concertos for various solo instruments. One of the most famous is his piano concerto, Lousadzak ("Coming of Light," 1944), but as I have already introduced that in my "Best Piano Concertos of the Twentieth Century Part Two," I will skip it here.
Concerto for Horn and String Orchestra "Artik" (1948)
Composed in 1948 for Hovhanes' students at the Boston Conservatory of Music. The concerto is named after a 7th-century octagonal Armenian church with a central dome and four semi-domes. It consists of eight short movements (I. Alleluia, II. Ballata, III. Laude, IV. Canzona: To a mountain range, V. Processional, VI. Canon, VII. Aria, VIII. Intonazione) and suggests the spiritual form of a mass with long melismatic melodic lines and motet-like responses. All melodies are original.
Prayer of Saint Gregory for trumpet and strings (1946)
The Prayer of St. Gregory op. 62b, an intermezzo from the opera Etchmiadzin with the trumpet's prayer over plaintive, hymn-like strings, is a moving spiritual piece that has already become a staple of the trumpet repertoire. It is a quietly sinuous trumpet psalm over a bed of strings - an oriental extension of the Tallis fantasia.
Listen to: David Krauss with Gerard Schwarz and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra:
Fantasy on Japanese Wood Prints, for xylophone and orchestra (1964)
This is one of the better known works resulting from Hovhaness's contact with Japan and its culture. A single-movement concerto for xylophone, Hovhaness uses Western instruments in unconventional ways to create impressions of traditional Japanese instrumental techniques. In addition, his melodies are heavily influenced by the modalities found in traditional Japanese music. Hovhaness did not attempt to create a direct musical equivalent of ukiyo-e prints, but rather intended this piece to be a reflection of the delicacy, charm, and vitality characteristic of Japanese printmaking, as well as a reflection of his own love for Japan.
Listen to Unites States Marine Band with SSgt Gerald Novak, xylophone soloist:
Mountains and Rivers Without End (1968)
A chamber symphony in all but name, and not part of the composer's numbered canon. The work was inspired by a Korean scroll, a landscape painting, and was certainly influenced by the composer's time (in the 1960s) under the tutelage of the Gagaku musician Masatoro Togi. The music is rich: dancing angels suggested by high singing violins and pizzicati, gliding horn, flute and English horn, rolling trombone roulades, bells, the Oriental ornithological serenade of flute and high woodwinds, a labyrinth of Messiaenian complexity, a paradisaical cloud of birdsong and impressionistic harp and horn parts. It all ends in pealing ecstasy.
And God Created Great Whales, for taped whale sounds and orchestra (1970)
One of Hovhaness's most famous works, mixing the taped sounds of the "song" of various whale species with a mystical score evoking the wash and depth of an imagined eastern sea. There are some conceptual parallels here with the taped birdsong in Einojuhani Rautavaara's Cantus Arcticus. This is a powerful amalgam and is made extremely moving by the counterpoint between the whale song and Hovhaness's inspired music. It contains one of Hovhaness's most inspired melodies towards the end.
Listen to: YOSA Philharmonic, Troy Peters, Music Director:
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam for speaker, accordion, and orchestra (1975)
In The Rubaiyat, a narrator intones stanzas from the Fitzgerald translation while the orchestra provides an oriental background that enhances the poems. Hovhaness, with his fascination for Eastern music and motifs, brings joy to a reading of Khayyam's poetry. An accordion is used in the orchestra, making truly beautiful and exotic sounds. You will never find a better contrast between what most people think of when they hear the words "accordion music" and what is heard here. Hovhaness does an admirable job of capturing the poetry's mixture of youthful exuberance coupled with the inevitability of mortality.
Among the highlights of Hovhaness's chamber music output is his String Quartet No. 1 "Jupiter" op. 8, an early and lush work. Interestingly, Hovhaness's quartets were written to be played in his home with his friends. Even in the quartets, Hovhaness' music inhabits a distinctive sound world, with strong, simple, modal harmonies mixed with elements from the composer's Armenian heritage and the Far East. But Hovhaness also loved the music of Bach, as evidenced by his heavy use of fugues here. In other words, Hovhaness' contrapuntal skills are very much on display in this first quartet. The opening "Prelude" and the second movement (an impressive quadruple fugue) were reworked for full orchestra in the 1950s into the popular Prelude and Quadruple Fugue. The prelude has a jaunty, interesting oriental-sounding melody, while the second movement is stylistically more strictly fugal, before a zigzagging theme builds to an urgent and busy conclusion. The slow 3rd movement is tenderly elegiac. The work concludes with a lively fugal finale that is also used in the second movement of the Mysterious Mountain Symphony.
Sonata for ryuteki and sho (flute and organ, 1968)
As the title suggests, this sonata is Japanese in inspiration, the result of Hovhaness's study of Japanese court music called gagaku (which itself originated in China in the 8th century). The ryuteki (literally "dragon flute") is a Japanese transverse flute (fue) made of bamboo. It is one of the three types of flutes used in gagaku. The sound of the ryuteki is said to represent dragons ascending into the sky. The sho is a free-reed instrument descended from the Chinese sheng of the Tang Dynasty, although the sho tends to be smaller than its contemporary sheng relatives. It consists of 17 slender bamboo pipes, each with a metal-free reed attached to its base. Two of the pipes are silent, although research suggests that they were used in some music during the Heian period. It is speculated that they were kept as part of the instrument to maintain the symmetrical shape. The sound of the instrument is said to imitate the call of a phoenix. Inspired by these exotic instruments, Hovhaness subjects their modern Western counterparts to a unique treatment: in the five short movements, the organ plays only chordal clusters in the upper register, while the flute is given melodic lines influenced by Japanese gagaku modes.
The Sonata "Fred the Cat" was written for music writer Jurgen Gothe, who commissioned the work after the death of his pet. Hovhaness happens to be another cat lover who has written other pieces influenced by cats. The sonata is a heartfelt work that again dissects the oriental accented and the hymn-like. The first movement, "Give a cat a twig and he takes a tree," is very lyrical and in ABA form. There are also many rhythmic ostinatos. The second movement, "Purr Dance," is a short and lively movement in AB form: Part A is in the style of Armenian dance music and Part B is a short jhala, Indian bell-like music. The third movement, "Fred the Cat and Distant Mountain," is also in AB form: the A section contains hymn-like material, and the B section is choral, with a bass part that moves in steps. The whole movement is religious in spirit. The final movement, "Fred the Cat flies to heaven," is in ABA form and features expressive melodic lines in the right hand against rhythmic ostinati in the left. All of the melodic phrases have a Far Eastern flavor. At the same time, this movement is reminiscent of sentimental folk art.
Bohuslav Martinu: "A cosmopolitan Czech modernist"
The Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959) had an international career
in France, the United States and finally Switzerland. He
wrote in a modernist and neoclassical style. Martinu was a prolific
composer, who produced nearly 400 works, including his oratorio "The Epic of Gilgamesh" (1955), his six symphonies, concertos (these number almost thirty: four violin concertos, eight compositions for solo piano, four cello concertos, one of each for harpsichord, viola, and oboe, five double concertos, two triple concertos, and two concertos for four solo instruments and orchestra), chamber music (including eight string quartets, three piano quintets, a piano quartet, a flute sonata, a clarinet sonatina) and many others. Blending influences from Eastern European folk music, the
neoclassicism of Les Six (a group of composers that included Poulenc,
Milhaud, and Honegger), impressionism, jazz, and the modernist styles of
Stravinsky and Bartok, Martinu developed a highly personal musical
language.
Martinu grew up in the bell tower of a church in Policka, Bohemia. At the age of 10, he composed his first string quartet, and at 16 he entered the Prague Conservatory, only to be expelled for “incorrigible negligence.” He eventually found work as a violinist with the Czech Philharmonic, and fell in love with Paris while on tour there in 1923. He relocated and established himself as a composer within the French musical scene, writing in a distinctive neoclassical style. He experimented with jazz, a Bartokian rhapsodic style, and neoclassic fun-and-games in the manner of Les Six. An outstanding work is the jazz ballet for six players "La Revue de Cuisine."
Later, he came more and more under the influence of Stravinsky, but unlike many others, he became less like Stravinsky and more like a Czech. Perhaps he saw the relationship of Russian folk music to Stravinsky's highly sophisticated musical approach and found his artistic salvation. But any Czech folk influences were subordinated to a neoclassical style. At this point we have such works as the Suites for String Orchestra, Inventions for Orchestra, the First Cello Concerto, the Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra, the Second Piano Concerto, and the Concertino for Piano Trio and Orchestra. The period culminates in the late 1930s with such powerful works as the opera Julietta, Tre Ricercari, and the unrelenting Double Concerto for two string orchestras, piano, and timpani - his magnum opus.
[Bohuslav Martinu at the piano working on his second symphony. U.S.A., New York, around 1942]
During World War II, Martinu fled to the United States, first traveling to Portugal before arriving in America in March 1941. Here Serge Koussevitzky encouraged the composer with a commission for his First Symphony, and Martinu was hired to teach composition during the summers at Tanglewood. His work opened up emotionally without losing its considerable craft. He became a major twentieth-century symphonist, writing four works in the genre during the war (he ended up with six). During this period, the work sings as never before. Outstanding works include the Symphony No. 4, the Violin Concerto No. 2, the Cello Concerto No. 2, the Lidice Memorial, the Piano Quartet, the Violin Sonata No. 3, and the Trio for Flute, Cello, and Piano. The post-war period saw a renewed interest in vocal music. It includes such pieces as "The Epic of Gilgamesh" and culminates in his opera based on Kazantzakis' "The Greek Passion". The two major orchestral works of this last phase are his Sixth Symphony and "Three Frescoes by Piero della Francesca."
Martinů worked quickly and was a versatile composer. His extensive and varied oeuvre shows some basic constants: There is always a close connection to Czech folk music - his compositions are often lively and dance-like. Martinu's rhythm is particularly differentiated, showing an attractive tension between regular and irregular elements as well as constant changes in time. The harmony is relatively traditional, but has its own characteristics - completely new connections and timbres emerge; however, the adherence to an extended tonality does not exclude sometimes harsh dissonances. Martinu prefers freer, rhapsodic forms to conventional ones; the basis of his music is not so much themes as motifs that undergo complex transformations. While he was initially influenced by Impressionism, his encounter with the music of Igor Stravinsky and the Groupe des Six in Paris had a lasting impact on his work. From this time on, he turned to neoclassicism and incorporated elements of jazz into his musical language.
Symphonies
In considering Martinu's symphonies, it should be kept in mind that all six date from Martinu's mature years, and also that the first five followed each other from year to year. There are useful short descriptions of all six works, describing the First as "epic, tragic and energetic", the Second as "lyrical, poetic and vivid", the Third as "dramatic and bohemian", the Fourth as "colorful and joyful", the Fifth as "visionary" and the Sixth as "a song of longing and hope". They are Martinu's most prominent works and, with the possible exception of the Second Violin Concerto and the neoclassical "La revue de cuisine," the most often performed. As a group of symphonies, they are among the best the 20th century has to offer; think Nielsen, Prokofiev, Sibelius, Milhaud, Langaard or Shostakovich.
Symphony No. 4 (1945)
The Fourth Symphony was composed in New York City from April 1945, and completed at Martinu's summer home at Cape Cod in June 1945. The work is in four movements and, according to the composer, grows out of a single motif. Here Martinu aligns himself more strongly with the Bohemian tradition of Smetana and Dvorak. The first movement alternates between lyrical and rhythmical material presented in variation. It shows the composer's rare capacity for thematic development. The music is animated by an inner light and confidence. The second movement, in 6/8 time is a Scherzo, marked by a rhythmically irregular Dvorakian leading melody. Here, too, there are many echoes of Martinu's homeland, and in the trio he writes an idyll in a small Czech village. The slow third movement is dominated by the strings with short passage-work for the woodwind. The dark-hued Largo is in a serious mood with complicated chromatism. The finale is an energetic reworking of earlier material and has hope return, to end with a shining hymn of joy and coda in C major. This symphony is the most joyous of the author's six compositions in this genre. The symphony was first played by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugen Ormandy on the last day of November 1945.
Listen to: hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Andrés Orozco-Estrada
Orchestral Music
La Bagarre (The Fight)
The young Martinu wrote works depicting a football match (Half-time), jazz-dancing kitchen utensils (La Revue de Cuisine - see below), and crowds celebrating Lindbergh's flight in La Bagarre (The Fight). These are strong orchestral works that could be compared to Honeger's Pacific 231 and Rugby.
Listen to: hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Andrés Orozco-Estrada
The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca
Cast in three movements, the 1955 work was inspired by the eponymous 15th-century Italian artist’s religious frescoes in Arezzo, which depict various manifestations of the power of the cross. Martinu had seen these frescoes in 1954. He was inspired particularly by "The Meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba" and by "Constantine's Dream." But he largely played down any specific programmatic correlations in the score. Frescoes is characteristic of the composer in its essentially tonal style yet spiked with a harmonic tartness and rhythmic instability.
Martinu composed the work in Nice in 1955, and it was first performed in Salzburg by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik on 26 August 1956. There are three movements: Andante poco moderato - Adagio - Poco allegro.
[Detail from The History of the True Cross: the Queen of Sheba meeting with King Solomon]
The frescoes called "The Legend of the True Cross" form a sequence painted by Piero della Francesca in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo. It is his largest work, and generally considered one of his finest, and an early Renaissance masterpiece. Its theme, derived from the popular 13th century book on the lives of saints by Jacobus de Voragine, "The Golden Legend," is the triumph of the True Cross – the legend of the wood from the tree in the Garden of Eden becoming the Cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified, via a tree planted on the grave of Adam.They are believed to date from after 1447, when the Bacci family, commissioners of the frescoes, are recorded as having paid an unknown painter. The large paintings would have been finished around 1466.
Listen to The Orchestra Now conducted by Leon Botstein:
Concertos and other concertante works
A professional violinist himself, Martinu wrote nearly 30 concertos or concerto-like works (solo or in small groups as in a concerto grosso).
Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras, Piano, and Timpani
Written in Switzerland in 1938 and commissioned by Paul Sacher for the Basel Chamber Orchestra, this concerto is based on the concerto grosso, its three movements scored as 1. poco allegro, 2. largo, 3. allegro. Its outer movements are characterized by a mood of anxiety expressed through syncopated rhythms, while its largo centers on a defiant, declamatory statement.
After a vacation in Czechoslovakia, Martinu worked at the Vieux Moulin near Paris. In September, he accepted an invitation to the Sacher family estate in Schönenberg, near Basel, from where he observed the deteriorating situation in Europe and especially in his homeland. The cover of the manuscript score bears the dedication: "To my dear friend Paul Sacher, in memory of the quiet and anxious days I spent in Schönenberg among the deer and the threat of war". Martinu completed the last movement of the sketch on the day of the signing of the Munich Treaty. It was premiered by the Basel Chamber Orchestra conducted by Paul Sacher in Basel in February 1940. Martinu traveled from Paris to attend the Basel performance, despite the difficult international situation. The Swiss composer Arthur Honegger was among the audience at the premiere.
Another contemporary composition with similar instrumentation is Bela Bartok's Divertimento for String Orchestra, also commissioned by Paul Sacher for the Basel Chamber Orchestra in 1938.
Listen to François-Xavier Roth conducting l'Orchestre national de France with as pianist Cédric Tiberghien:
Cello Concerto No 1
Composed in 1930, this cello concerto was one of the first works of Martinu's neoclassical period. The Catalan cellist Gaspar Cassado premiered it in Berlin with a small chamber orchestra. In 1939, Martinu rewrote it for full symphony orchestra and dedicated this version to the French cellist Pierre Fournier. Martinu revisited the work in 1955, this time thinning out the orchestration (removing the piano and tuba but keeping the rest of the brass). This version was also dedicated to Fournier and is the one usually heard today.
The concerto opens with confident music that sounds like Dvorak in his American period. The dark second theme also has a Czech flavor, expressively sung by the cello in constant interaction with the woodwinds. All in all, this is a boldly angular movement.
The heart of the concerto is the beautiful central Andante moderato, with its broad, reflective theme introduced by the clarinet and extended by other woodwinds and solo trumpet, a theme characterized by rhythmic shifts from measure to measure. When the cello enters, the theme takes on a sense of great beauty and peace. The movement builds to an impassioned climax before fading away with quiet, noble restraint.
The frenetically energetic finale opens with a vigorous toccata-like section in which the soloist is in constant motion. There is a contrasting lyrical Andantino before the brilliant surge to the final cadence.
The First Cello Concerto remains one of Martinu's most popular and successful examples of the concerto form.
Listen to: Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra with Emanuel Pavon, cello, and Matija Fortuna, conductor:
Rhapsody Concerto for Viola and Orchestra
The Rhapsody Concerto for Viola and Orchestra was commissioned by the Ukrainian-born American violist Jascha Veissi (1898-1983) and written in New York City from March 15 to April 18, 1952.
With the Rhapsody Concerto, Martinu began his last major stylistic development toward neo-Romanticism. His ability to build long lyrical passages that end in a powerful catharsis reaches its first peak here. The work has only two movements. The first, Moderato, begins in B flat major, Martinu's favorite key in his late works. After a large orchestral introduction, the viola enters with a lyrical cantabile melody. Although Martinu provides the soloist with opportunities for virtuosic display, the main character of the work is lyrical and serene. In the second movement, Martinu introduces a simple but strong melody in F major, marked molto tranquillo. After a fast middle section, Martinu returns to this melody in a moving coda. (Based on the liner notes by Ales Brezina of the Hyperion CD Martinu, The Complete Music for Violin and Orchestra 3)
Listen to: Tapiola Sinfonietta, Jonathan Bloxham, conductor and Timothy Ridout, viola:
Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra (1953)
Bohuslav Martinů was a violinist himself, yet the piano color in many of his symphonic scores is his actual signature. The two instruments are assigned solo roles in the Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra (1953), commissioned by Benno and Sylvia Rabinof, who duly premiered it in May 1954. Written concurrently with Symphony No. 6 (Fantaisies symphoniques), the remarkable work bears the typical features of its author's later work, combining restless expanses with simple intimate melodies and arching from its dramatic opening to the catharsis of its conclusion. Unfortunately, it is hardly ever performed nowadays – it is one of my favorite Martinu pieces. It's accessible, tuneful and has interesting textures with the violin and piano.
Conductor Petr Popelka of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra has invited some excellent Czech musicians to perform – the Czech Philharmonic's youngest ever concertmaster Josef Špaček and the highly sought-after pianist Miroslav Sekera:
Chamber Music
Trio for flute, cello and piano (1944)
It was in New England, in the summer of 1944, that the three movements of the Trio came to life - written in just 5 days. It has been called a refreshingly effervescent affirmation of Martinu's Czech roots. It is a radiant gem of bright sound and cheerful mood. The first movement is a buoyant dance-like structure in modified sonata form; the slow movement is a lyrical 6/4 Adagio opened by the piano, after which the flute and then the cello go their separate ways; while the final movement, introduced by a somber cadenza for the flute, is another dance-oriented movement.
Listen to: Elizabeth Kleiber, Flute, Luis Tovar, Cello and Deborah Emery, Piano
Sonata for violin and piano No. 3 (1944)
This is one of Martinu's most dramatic and darkest duo works. This is not surprising; the sonata dates from 1944, when Martinu had exiled himself to the United States and Europe was still struggling amid the turbulence of WWII. The first movement (Poco Allegro) reveals the piano's restlessness and tension in the very first bars. The adagio is close to Dvorak with its combination of tenderness and nostalgia. In the Scherzo "homeland sounds" are masked by "New World sounds" - Gershwin rhythms and Czech dances in symbiosis. The final movement (lento, poco allegro, allegro vivo) teems with contrasting drama and lyricism, and features a Dvorak-like nostalgia, evoking Martinu's Czech roots. This sonata - which is almost like a symphony - has long been a staple of violinists’ repertoires worldwide.
Listen to Ludmila Pavlová - violin & Alena Grešlová - piano
Nonet (1959)
Scored for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello, and double bass Martinu's Nonet No. 2 was composed in 1959, the last year of his life. It was commissioned for the 35th anniversary of the Czech Nonet Ensemble, which premiered it at the Salzburg Festival, and published posthumously in the fall of that year. In three short and contrasting movements, the nine different instrumental voices interact with each other like nine people talking at a party. Everything is solo and no one is doubled. The first movement is buoyant and lively - it is full of color and texture and life. There is also a distinct "neoclassical" "Stravinsky" influence without being derivative. The second movement gives way to melancholy, led by the strings - worlds away from the first movement. The finale is perhaps the most varied, full-bodied of the three, with the most variation in its little five minutes of music. The last part of the movement brings a spirited coda and a quiet ending. Very rich and satisfying music that makes a compelling case for this composer.
Listen to Round Top Festival Institute
See my article "Best Cello Sonatas" on this blog for a discussion of Martinu's Third Cello Sonata.
Choral Works and Songs
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh is a three-part oratorio for soloists, mixed chorus and orchestra, written in 1954/55. Its premiere in Basel on January 24, 1958, and its performance at the Vienna Festival in 1959 were among the composer's greatest successes. Martinu wrote the English text of his work himself, focusing on philosophical questions. Neither the heroic deeds of Gilgamesh and Enkidu nor the description of the Flood are taken from the original text.
Compositionally, the work is characterized by great contrasts between the individual parts: there are sonically intoxicating scenes with a large cast as well as striking dialogues. The small second interval plays a crucial role as a motif throughout the work. It first represents the people's fear of the ruler, and later the ruler's fear of death. The chorus and soloists take on changing roles throughout the piece, and all participants participate equally in the narrative process.
Listen to a recording by the Czech TV:
Stage Works
La revue de cuisine (Suite from the Jazz Ballet)
A one-act ballet for sextet: clarinet (B♭), bassoon, trumpet, violin, cello and piano, composed in 1927. The dancers play a variety of cooking utensils that swagger through a naive episode of kitchen life. The marriage of Pot and Lid is threatened by the suave Twirling Stick. Pot succumbs to his flattery. Dishcloth makes eyes at Lid, but is challenged to a duel by Broom. Pot, however, is tired of Twirling Stick and longs for Lid's caresses, but Lid is nowhere to be found. Suddenly, a giant foot appears from the wings and kicks him back onto the stage. Pot and Lid kiss and make up, and flirting again, Twirling Stick leaves with Dishcloth.
The music contains complex time signatures. Other jazz influences can be seen in the instrumentation: the piano with its rich harmony and dissonance, the muted trumpet reminiscent of the jazz bands of the era, and the repeated use of pizzicato in the cello part reminiscent of the use of the double bass in jazz.
The Suite is in four movements: Prologue, Tango, Charleston, and Finale.
Music in the key of E minor is often said to have a plaintive, sad, and mystical character. Charpentier describes this tone as "languid and sad." Mattheson states that it "produces a very thoughtful and sad state." More than that, it suitable for funeral music - although the story that Haydn asked for the slow movement of this symphony No. 44 in E minor to be played at his funeral, is apocryphal. But indeed, the slow movement from the E minor piano trio by Shostakovitch was played at his public funeral service held in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory!
E minor is a minor scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F♯, G,
A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative major is G
major and its parallel major is E major.
The key of E minor is one of the easiest minor keys to play on the violin as the E string is the highest open string. Since it is also the lowest open string on the guitar, it is
one of the preferred keys in guitar music, as well - therefore, it is a frequently
used key in popular music.
In classical music, E minor is not exactly a popular key, especially in the 18th century (when minor keys were anyway rare), but the small number of works written in this key includes a surprising number of famous works. The number increases in the 19th / early 20th centuries. with concertos by Mendelssohn, Chopin and Elgar, and symphonies by Brahms, Dvorak and Tchaikovsky.
Characteristic works in E minor
Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 44 in E minor "Trauer" (1772)
This symphony has the nickname "Trauer" ("Mourning") because Haydn is said to have asked for its serene slow movement in E major to be played at his funeral - that doesn't seem to be a true story, but the movement was actually played at a memorial concert in Berlin in 1809. The work is typical of Haydn's Sturm und Drang ("storm and stress") period, with a powerfully brooding minor-mode insistence. Highly typical and yet fiercely original are the jagged unison opening, the subdued tension of the violin theme, and the outburst of imitative writing between first and second violins. The symphony has significant traits in common with Mozart's E minor violin sonata (see below). The construction of the work is tight and forceful. Though there is contrasting material in the opening movement, it does not sound like a second subject, so that the movement seems to be monothematic. The second movement is an ascetic minuet written as a canon at the octave; this is offset by a trio in E major in which tranquil violin thirds are eerily joined by a horn at the top of its register. The slow movement, with muted violins, flowing accompaniment and restless triplets, is an example of stasis conveyed by ceaseless activity. The intensity of the symphony boils over in the Finale, and here, too, a unison theme provides the material for the whole of the movement. It is quite contrapuntal, and ends in E minor rather than finishing in a major key as was usual in most other minor key works of the time. (Partly based on the liner notes by Nicholas Kenyon in the Archiv CD of this symphony).
This famous symphony explains why Haydn's minor works of the 'Sturm und Drang' period are of such high importance. The whole work is concise and concentrated - not one note is too many - and it maintains its mood of serious suffering with remarkable continuity. The symphony is also unusual in that the minuet precedes the slow movement. This basic pattern is found only in five other Haydn symphonies, all but one of which were composed early.
John Eliot Gardiner Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Violin Sonata No. 21 in E minor K. 304/300c (1778)
Composed in 1778 while Mozart was in Paris, during the same period that Mozart's mother, Anna Maria Mozart, died, and his love relationship with Aloysia Weber ended badly, something which is reflected in the sonata's mood. Both
the austere character of its opening movement and the haunting
nostalgia of its minuet-style finale make it quite different from other works by Mozart. The opening is a powerful unison of piano and violin playing in bare octaves. The harmonization of the theme occurs at the start of the recapitulation and is intensely chromatic. The sotto voce minuet theme of the second movement, with its descending bass line, carries an infinite feeling of melancholy. Even so, the theme is surpassed in expressive intensity by the movement’s major-mode middle section. Also the halting phrases of the coda seem stricken with grief.
Rebecca Raimondi violin, Alessandro Viale piano Ardorè Duo
Ludwig van Beethoven, String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2 (1808)
This work is the second of three of Beethoven's "Rasumovsky" cycle of string quartets, a product of his "middle" period. Written in 1806, six years after the composer’s initial Op. 18 set, the Op. 59 String Quartets contain groundbreaking music. Formal boundaries are stretched and the four voices of the string quartet engage in a drama which reaches symphonic heights. Earlier chamber works were written for the entertainment of aristocratic amateur musicians. With this music, the string quartet moved decisively into the concert hall. Commissioned by Count Andreas Razumovsky, the Russian ambassador to Vienna, the Op. 59 trilogy was written for one of the first professional string quartets, led by the violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh. The string quartet is set in a restless, tumultuous E minor. According to Carl Czerny, the second movement of the quartet occurred to Beethoven as he contemplated the starry sky and thought of the music of the spheres; it has a hymnlike quality. The scherzo movement of the quartet, the third movement (allegretto), uses a Russian folk song in a humorous and even sarcastic way. The final rondo is characterized by a dance-like theme that is almost entirely unaffected by sonata form. It has a "floating tonality," vacillating between the introductory C major chord and the E minor tonic, settling on the home key of E minor only after 50 measures.
The Dover Quartet includes: Joel Link, violin Bryan Lee, violin Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola Camden Shaw, cello
Felix Mendelssohn, Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (1844)
The most popular of all violin concertos. Mendelssohn originally proposed the idea of the violin concerto to the violinist Ferdinand David, a close friend and then concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Although conceived in 1838, the work took another six years to complete and was not premiered until 1845. During this time, Mendelssohn maintained a regular correspondence with David, who gave him many suggestions.
Its unusual structural features - the absence of an initial orchestral tutti, and the linking of the movements (the first and second by a single bassoon note, the second and third by a quasi recitative) were copied by Schumann, Bruch and others. Mendelssohn also composed and wrote out the cadenza section, which until then had often been left to the player's discretion. Its appeal lies in its violinistic brilliance, its charm, the melodic sweetness of the tender andante, and the seemingly spontaneous ebullience of the finale.
Julia Fischer, violin; Vasily Petrenko, conductor; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Frédéric Chopin, Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 (1830)
The piano concerto in E minor is dedicated to Friedrich Kalkbrenner, a celebrated pianist and composer in Chopin's day. The concerto had its premiere on October 11, 1830 in Warsaw, where Chopin himself played the soloist role as a 20-year-old composer and pianist. It was one of the last concerts Chopin gave in Poland before leaving for France.
Apart from the usual orchestral introduction, the concerto has a thinly instrumented orchestration, with the piano solo almost always in the foreground and the orchestra providing supportive accompaniment. In the concerto, one hardly sees the "titanic rivalry" or dialogue, as in the concertos of Ludwig van Beethoven, but rather the listener hears a poetically narrative and virtuoso pianist carried by a meticulously accompanying, serving orchestra. Chopin modeled his concertos after the works of Jan Ladislav Dussek and Johann Nepomuk Hummel, whose style he knew well.
Olga Scheps with the Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio, conductor Agnieszka Duczmal.
Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 4 in E minor Op. 98 (1884)
A mournful, tragic color is heard in the opening movement of Brahms' Fourth Symphony. From the start, the first movement feels the tow of strong passacaglia forms. The music is powerfully organic and continuously unfolding. Its sadness is enticing, its ending triumphant. The Andante moderato carries that feeling forward with some of the most heart-warming music Brahms ever wrote, while the dance movement turns to jubilation. One might indeed be forgiven to think this third movement to be a finale. And its finality reveals a special purpose: it allows much of the work of the symphony to be resolved before the last extraordinary movement begins. As a result, Brahms can relax, and glory in his Passacaglia with its conscious devotion to the Bach Chaconne (30 eight bar variations), its archaic power, its defiant optimism. And even this intellectual music is dramatic - if we must live with tragedy, it seems to say, we can at least defy it, overcome it with sheer mastery and an affirmative use of the musical tradition. This is the only one of Brahms' four symphonies to end in a minor key. It has been praised as "one of the greatest orchestral works since Beethoven.”
hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Andrés Orozco-Estrada
Antonín Dvořák, Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" in E minor Op 95 (1893)
When Antonín Dvořák set foot on American soil in 1892 to accept the appointment as director of the National Conservatory of Music of America, he was already a world-renowned composer. With the 9th Symphony, written during his three-year stay in America, Dvořák created probably his most popular symphonic work. Although Dvořák had taken on the task as conductor and teacher of raising a young generation of musicians who would develop a national American musical style, his 9th Symphony is by no means American music, although some influences are evident in the harmonic and rhythmic idiosyncrasies of the symphony. For example, the English horn melody of the 2nd movement is based on the semitone-less five-note scale of the pentatonic, which was common in Native American music. (More important, however, is the major role Longfellow's poetry about Hiawatha - that is, the chief who founded the Iroquois Confederacy of Indians - plays in the symphony, see below). Rhythmically, the syncopations typical of spirituals also stand out (1st and 3rd main themes of the 1st movement). In addition, however, the Bohemian musician is unmistakably evident with his tonal language rooted in native folk music, as in the cozy Ländler of the Scherzo Trio.
The themes of the corner movements are short and concise and cyclically subordinate to the above-mentioned basic conception: The 1st main theme of the 1st movement appears in all the following movements. In the finale, the main themes of the 2nd and 3rd movements are also worked in a suggestive manner.
1st movement: Adagio - Allegro molto The first movement begins with a wistful, slow introduction. The Allegro, which gradually develops through a unison of strings and hard timpani beats, is filled with rousing momentum. The main theme rises in the horns and is immediately taken up by the entire orchestra. A second theme first appears in the woodwinds before it is heightened and rhythmically altered. Of the same character, a secondary theme appears in the flute, which seeks to unite the two themes. Both themes are developed in detail. The coda bursts in with elemental force and ends the movement in thunderous E minor.
2nd movement: Largo The second movement was described by the composer as a dirge inspired by a scene from Longfellow's poem "Hiawatha". In painful melancholy, the English horn sings the main melody with which this movement begins and ends in sublime calm. A new thought emerges and is effectively accompanied by string tremolos. This somewhat faster theme, also chant-like, is finally cleverly joined with the dirge melody. A little later, a serene flute melody reminiscent of birdsong triggers a change in mood that is immediately interrupted by the main theme of the first movement bursting forth. The cor anglais again carries the main theme of the largo, with which the dirge fades away.
3rd movement: Scherzo, molto vivace The Scherzo begins with a rhythmically striking theme that prepares the Indians' festive dance for Hiawatha's wedding. Again, a scene from Longfellow's epic is musically recreated. Yet the music is in reality is Bohemian and folk-like. The scherzo has a lyrical middle section and is thus more intricately constructed than Dvořák's other scherzos, resembling a formal model also used by Anton Bruckner. Between the scherzo and the trio, the main theme of the first movement echoes quietly and ominously in the low strings. The trio section consists of a graceful waltz melody that is typically Czech in its erratic rhythm. Shortly before the end, the main theme of the first movement reasserts itself with all its might.
4th movement: Allegro con fuoco The last movement is filled with a dynamic that Dvořák had probably only achieved before in his 7th Symphony. The full orchestra delivers the march-like, energetic main theme, which announces pathetically the "New World." The second theme in the clarinets, on the other hand, expresses Dvořák's longing for his fatherland. No sooner does it fade away than the action comes to a head, and the first theme continues to assert itself. It is subsequently reworked in a variety of ways; in this process, motives from the first three movements appear again and again. An orchestral tutti then blasts out the main theme almost violently, a process that almost brings the musical action to a halt and is continued by the second theme. Once again, the main theme breaks its stride, leading the movement to an all-consuming climax, which, after a final pause, is followed by the triumphant coda. The movement ends with a few chords, the last of which is sustained by the winds, resulting in a slow fade instead of an abrupt ending.
Edward Elgar, Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 (1919)
Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto, his last notable work, is a cornerstone of the solo cello repertoire. Elgar composed it in the aftermath of the First World War, when his music had already gone out of fashion with the concert-going public. In contrast with Elgar's earlier Violin Concerto, which is lyrical and passionate, the Cello Concerto is for the most part contemplative and elegiac - as suits the key of E minor.
The October 1919 premiere was a debacle because Elgar and the performers had been deprived of adequate rehearsal time. The work did not achieve wide popularity until the 1960s, when a recording by Jacqueline du Pré caught the public imagination and became a classical best-seller.
1st movement Adagio - Moderato 4/4 time → 9/8 time in E minor. Free sonata form. The concerto opens with a tragic cadenza by the solo cello in E minor with many heavy notes, an unusual beginning for a cello concerto. This cadenza is an important element that dominates the entire movement and serves as a kind of circular theme. The main theme is derived and developed from this cadenza.
Second movement Lento - Allegro molto 4/4 time G major The second movement opens with a fast crescendo with pizzicato chords in the cello. Then, the solo cello plays what will be the main motive of the Allegro molto section.
Since the first and second movements are connected by an attacca, the conclusion of this movement also marks the end of the first movement.
Third movement Adagio in 3/8 time in B flat major This adagio has a traditional song form, which is unusual for this piece where a pessimistic atmosphere dominates. However, it does not shake off the pathetic atmosphere of the previous movement.
Fourth movement Allegro - Moderato - Allegro, ma non troppo 2/4 time in E minor This finale integrates the elements of the previous movements, and is a very contrasting movement in two-part form. The first half is structured like a rondo form, with a light theme dominating. In the second half, the speed is slowed down, and the theme of the third movement is repeated in the last part of the movement. The very short coda begins with a reproduction of the opening of the first movement and ends violently with the main theme of the rondo and a final chord in E minor.
Listen to Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Truls Mørk:
Dmitri Shostakovich, Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67 (1942-43)
Shostakovich began writing the trio during the December of 1943. Several days before completing the piece's first movement, Shostakovich's good friend Ivan Sollertinsky, a Russian polymath and avid musician, died at age 41. Sollertinsky's death affected Shostakovich deeply, and he decided to dedicate the trio to his friend's memory. In the following months Shostakovich suffered from periods of depression and struggled to compose, at one point writing "it seems to me that I will never be able to compose another note again". He only finished writing the work later that year, completing the second movement by 4 August 1944 and the fourth by 13 August. The work received its premiere in Leningrad on 14 November 1944, with the composer at the piano alongside Dmitri Tsyganov and Sergei Shirinsky, members of the Beethoven Quartet.
1. Andante — Moderato The first movement, in E minor, begins with a haunting passage in the cello, which plays exclusively harmonics. It is joined by the violin and then the piano, all three instruments playing in canon. This slow first section of the movement undergoes development before the music moves into the faster Moderato section, which is in sonata form. The melodic and rhythmic features of this section's first and second themes are in essence based upon motifs introduced in the opening, and are played alongside an rhythmic "eighth-note pulsation", an accompaniment which returns in the piece's fourth movement. The movement comes to a head in the climactic recapitulation, before it recedes in the final bars, closing quietly. Throughout the movement, G major, the relative major key, serves, in a conventional manner, as the key of the second theme of the Moderato; however, the keys of B-flat major and B-flat minor, a tritone from the tonic, also play a particularly notable role in the movement's modulations.
2. Allegro con brio The second movement, in F-sharp major, is a frenzied, sardonic scherzo which moves relentlessly through dissonant figurations, never resting. The movement's trio section, in G major, is a "giddy waltz". Sollertinsky's sister considered the movement to be "an amazingly exact portrait" of her brother, whom she said Shostakovich "understood like no one else".
3. Largo The third movement, in B-flat minor, is a lugubrious passacaglia, based around a repeating eight-bar theme of sustained semibreve chords in the piano, tonally unstable in character. Against this background, the violin and cello, playing in canon, trade off dark, slow, and somber melodic lines. The movement ends with an attacca marking, continuing into the next movement without a pause. In 1975, after Shostakovich's death, this movement was played at his public funeral service held in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, as thousands passed his coffin.
4. Allegretto — Adagio The piece's fourth and final movement begins in E major and transitions to E minor. Staccato repeated notes begin this "Dance of Death" movement, which introduces a Jewish-style melody, and revisits the thematic content of the previous three movements. It ends in a tortured E major chord, almost inaudibly. Ian MacDonald says in his book The New Shostakovich that the movement was inspired by the composer's horror at reports that SS guards in Nazi death camps had forced Jews to dance by their own graves.
Martha Argerich, Edgar Moreau, Renaud Capuçon
[Incorporates technical sections of the relevant public domain articles from either the Japanese, Dutch, German or English Wikipedia]
