Given that You-Tube has removed a distressing number of the pieces in each of the three programs, these essays are an attempt to cobble together a mixed bag of works from all three musical periods, although not necessarily by the same performers. This is actually not an implausible way to construct an evening of music for a paying audience which may have varying tastes and preferences.
Early/Baroque
Vivaldi:
The name of Antonio Lucio Vivaldi is practically synonymous with the Baroque. 1The group of concerti of which The Four Seasons is a part appeared in 1725. These pieces were explicitly descriptive (Baroque Composers and Musicians: Antonio Vivaldi 2010), which gives the listener permission to read all sorts of things in to them.
Spring was missing fro YouTube. Summer, parts 1and 2 only, was available to hear. This performance by Nigel Kennedy with an unidentified, goofily accessorized, high energy ensemble is wonderfully eccentric, but the music is lovingly presented. The first video (or Summer 1) and the second features a moderately temperate, and lilting melodic phrase, answered by a frenetic and imperious sawing away on the strings. In Summer 2, the large guitar-like instrument which is clearly ancient in design, sings the melody, with a wild response from the rest of the orchestra. This brings to mind the avid, urgent reproductive energy of summertime; the eruption of millions of mayflies, tadpoles, or butterflies. The lighting in the contemporary venue is clear and sharp for this segment of the performance.
This mood contrasts with the only portion of Autumn which is available on YouTube, the second portion. The lighting is set to a ruddy glow, like the light of a leaf pile set ablaze.
Slow and elegiac, the music communicates regret, natural dissolution, decay, and finality, in spite of the major key. This is followed by an up-tempo, highly recognizable section mimicking the whirling autumn winds. The slower tempo returns, with much vibrato on the strings, evoking the last dropping leaves.
The energy and complete commitment to the music on the part of the violinist, as well as the rest of the ensemble, are evident, despite their goofball sunglasses.
Bach
The Brandenburg Concerto number 5 in G Major, by Johann Sebastian Bach, is immensely complex. The score moves so swiftly, and the notes are so dense on the staff, that it baffles amateur analysis. The result is perceived as a dancing melody set against a complexly textured background of whatever instruments are not carrying the “tune”. The flute does yeoman’s work elaborating on the melodic idea. Bach was a devotee of Vivaldi, and used the earlier artist’s concerto grosso format to structure his own concerti2. He alternated concertini (soloist or small group performance) with tutti, to establish a theme, the ritornello, and then provide variations on it, with the solo instrument(s) playing in between in what can sound almost improvised fashion (Traupman-Carr 2003). The term for such a theme introduced and then elaborated and varied is the wonderfully onomatopoeiac German word fortspinnungtypus, or spinning out of a tune (Traupman-Carr 2003).
The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, led by its two concert-masters Gottfried von der Goltz and Petra Müllejans, performs, in this video, in a magnificently columned space. The largely youthful musicians stand, and play apparently authentic instruments, such as the flute 3. Far from treating Bach as sacred, ancient or mathematically abstract, this ensemble swings the Brandenburg! Dance tunes are patently audible in the first and third movements, and to some degree in the middle movement. The middle movement is labeled affetuoso, which seems in this case to mean affected , in the way that a Jane Austen heroine might be affected; moved powerfully by some story or event. The tempo slows to a stately minuet, pavanne, or funeral march, but not all that sad sounding.
These three movements demonstrate Bach’s endless capacity to vary and elaborate a very simple motif without losing it 4.
Classical/Romantic
Mozart:
The Magic Flute – Overture
James Levine, know as an operatic conductor, shows by expression and body language that he is clearly comfortable directing the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in this early Classical operatic piece. The Magic Flute, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s last opera, premiered in 1791. It may be difficult for the modern listener to discern the philosophical, political, and mystical themes 5 which are persistently attributed to this opera, in the nonsensical tale6 and exquisite music, but at least they do not detract from its charm and whimsy. Fortunately it is easy to enjoy it with zero understanding of the deeper messages it is said to contain.
The Magic Flute Overture begins with several assertive chords, backed by the kettle drum, followed by the strings dominating the expression of a sweetly gentle melodic statement, enhanced by the woodwinds. This sets a mood of anticipation for the musical fireworks which follow.
Then a lively, dancing melody, with much use of staccato strings, is proposed. The lower strings take up the tune. This is answered by the winds, elaborated, and resolved with a flourish of the tympani. There is a furiously active variation on the theme, with a big finish. Another smooth and grave outpouring from the winds is followed by a resurgence of the lively, staccato melody, punctuated by the kettle drum. It seems to change from major to minor here, at least for a brief period. The winds and the strings call and respond a short piece of the melody to one another, and the mood is slightly more serious and premonitory, perhaps foreshadowing something dangerous in the upcoming opera. A brief, simple 1-2-3-4 motif, with just enough dissonance to suggest a question, leads the whole orchestra, kettle drums ablaze, into the final chords.
This all suggests and sets the scene for a swift-moving story of magic and enchantment.
Piano Concerto in A Major
It appears that a portion of the other Mozart piece, the A Major Piano Concerto, K. 488, number 23, may be missing from the YouTube video. Featuring Zoltán Kocsis on piano, with the Virtuosi di Praga under the baton of the 70 year old Jirí Behlohlávek, it was performed at the Waldstein Palace, in Prague, August 29,1990, complete with baronial fireplace.
The available portions of the 1786 concerto begin with a largely cheerful and lilting melody. However, the Lenten purpose of this piece hints at why there is a note of seriousness that underlies its arpeggios. (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 2010).
The piano and the rest of the small orchestra toss the melodic line back and forth. The piano does a great deal of what might be termed virtuosic work; with repeated exceedingly fast runs up and down the keyboard, for example. This may have been a reflection of the talent and virtuosity of the composer himself. This piece is a wonderful piece for showing off such mad skills.
Mussorgsky:
Modest Mussorgsky’s 1886 tribute to his friend, the architect and painter, Victor Hartmann, titled Pictures at an Exhibition, takes the form of a promenade through a fictitious art gallery, interspersed with overtly and frankly programmatic explorations of the images and ideas in 10 paintings on display. The piano version performed by Evgeny Kissin and dated February 21, 20077 was actually the original, less widely heard version8. The Kissin performance, however, reminds the listener why this piano piece warrants as many different treatments as musicians are willing to lavish on it. Beloved for decades by improvisational dance instructors for the varying color, tempi, and rhythms which it displays, and the wide range of movement which it can inspire, this piece is a roller coaster of mood and evoked situations.
While the Kissin performance does not assist the listener in identifying all the 10 named parts which we are supposed to perceive in the piece, several parts are quite obvious. The first painting, Gnomus, concerning a gnome with uneven legs, is as clear as if the little creature were waddling across the stage on some deeply ambiguous errand. The technique Mussorsgky employed has been described as using sudden changes in every musical parameter possible, with no repetition of any phrase exactly the same way (Schartmann 2008), and the two hands out of synchrony with each other.
The second thematic portion is the old castle, Il Veccho Castillo, with a plaintive love song sung outside. The castle is portrayed by the repeating low chords that mimic the permanence of the ancient stones. The song is played on higher notes, and states a clear melodic phrase.
The next recognizable painting is perhaps the ballet of the chicks, with its rapid fire call and response in dissonant tones representing the sound of chickens9.
The tale of the witch Baba Yaga, and her house set on fowl legs, is also instantly recognizable, with its odd rhythmic disruptions, and foreboding key and dissonances. The wind that sweeps through the woods whenever the witch’s house walks to find her prey10 is portrayed as well by sweeping runs up and down the keyboard.
This is followed most clearly by the grand and solemn theme for the Great Gate of Kiev, which Hartmann designed. It lends itself to a slow march, with grand gestures and comfortingly resolving chords.
The following painting is of the Market at Limoges, wherein the extremely fast alternation of the hands on the chords portrays the hurly and burly of commerce. This lively part contrasts violently with the next; the Catacombae11, which features dissonant chords played slowly and portentously.
Despite the disruption of having to jump from video to video, this is a moving performance of a complex and influential piece of music. One can hear the echoes of this music in every science fiction series or movie over the last 50 years.
20th Century
Respighi
The Pines of Rome was removed from YouTube, but several other recordings were substitutable. Ottorino Respighi is squarely in the 20th century, but his use of harmony, as opposed to the dissonance favored by many of his contemporaries, links him to earlier composers. The Pines of Rome is programmatic, and, since he was composing under the Mussolini regime, in 1923 or so, probably political and polemical as well. It celebrates the beauties of Rome, and links the modern city to the ancient one.
It opens with a wind fanfare, and we are introduced to the sound of birds’ dawn songs (expressed by the woodwinds), a dance tune accompanied by what sounds like a tambourine (perhaps a tarantella?), the sound of conversational hubbub, the upward swoosh and clatter of dove’s wings, a military trumpet call, and more and different dancing, introduced by a woodwind solo (perhaps an oboe). Dissonance increases as the tempo speeds up.
Everything stops, and portentous string chords introduce (perhaps) the Catacombs with which Rome is honeycombed. A huge, slightly dissonant sound, perhaps of a giant gong, intrudes into the solemn music, but this may actually be made by the lowest keys on a piano. Then a less subterranean melodic line appears, to be interrupted by the deep vibrations of the base strings, and that gong tone.
It has been pointed out that Respighi used archaic scales to suggest ancient.music, and this is apparent here. Especially in the last movement, titled The Pines of the Appian Way, the unusual intervals evoke the heroism of the Classical world. This last section has the cadence of a steady march, the clash of spear on shield, and the blare of war trumpets. The Appian Way is famous for being the superbly maintained road the legions used to march out and conquer, and return to glory and acclaim, and also the place where Saul of Tarsus experienced his vision and became St. Paul (Appian Way 2010).
There are other “scenes” which are apparently embedded in the music, such as a vision by Christian pilgrims as they approach the city, and the martyrdom of early Christians by being thrown to the lions, but I was not able to discern them unequivocally (Duperron 2010).
ORFF
The assigned performance of Carmina Burana was removed from YouTube, so another performance, with Christian Theilemann, was substituted. This was combined with another YouTube performance which had the Latin lyrics, and another with an English translation to get a sense of the meaning of the music. The lyrics are derived from poetry which would have been described as scurrilous and blasphemous at the time, cautiously attributed to monks or other residents of a German monastery. This particular chorus reviles Fate in vivid and indeed blasphemous terms, and calls on everyone to join the speaker in his complaint.
The melody is very simple and repetitive, but there is something new added every time it comes around again. The emphasis at the end of every line of poetry, the sense of the singers hissing or spitting out the words between clenched teeth and tortured lips, the increasing tempo and sense of a growing number of singers participating, which culminates in a frenzy of orchestral runs up and down the scale, all contribute to a sense of desperation, but also defiance 12. The keys and intervals which Orff uses give the impression of antiquity and alienness. Many naïve listeners may be forgiven for inferring that the whole piece is from the medieval period.
Works Cited
Appian Way. 2010. Web.
Baroque Composers and Musicians: Antonio Vivaldi.2010. Web.
Duperron, Jean-Yves. Otttorini Respighi-Pines of Rome. 2010. Web.
Schartmann, Andrew. Maurice Ravel’s Pictures: Enhancing Mussorgsky’s Most Treasured Compositional Philosophy. 2008. Web.
Traupman-Carr, Carol. Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in G major, BWV 1050. 2003. Web.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. 2010. Web.
Footnotes
- His life history is marvelously improbable. Sent into the priesthood for reasons of education and opportunity rather than a deep spiritual vocation, he found his way to be appointed as music teacher and composer in residence at an institution for female bastards of the wealthy and powerful. He even managed to live elsewhere for much of his career, and achieved the feat of telecommuting several hundred years before the invention of the phone, the telegraph, or the internet, by sending compositions back to the Ospedale twice a year to fulfill his contract (Baroque Composers and Musicians: Antonio Vivaldi 2010).
- One wonders, given Vivaldi’s position as instructor to a bunch of cosseted, isolated, and insular young ladies (Baroque Composers and Musicians: Antonio Vivaldi 2010), whether his technique of handing the role of most visible carrier of the melody from one instrument and section to the next might have been a way of reducing competition and jealousy among his young musical charges.
- so deftly handled by Karl Kaiser.
- This capacity is why Bach is believed by some to be too brilliant to be a mere human, and therefore is jokingly assumed to be some sort of alien or time traveler.
- The reputation of the work is that it includes references to Masonic ritual, Theosophy, the Illuminati, and republican revolutionary values (Oderburg 2010). Its date, right in the midst of the violent overthrow of the French monarchy and ancien regime, certainly makes it a timely vehicle for hidden revolutionary meaning.
- It is the fanciful story of a bird-catcher, Papageno, with the name of a parrot, who finds himself involved in a semi-spiritual quest, along with the young nobleman Tamino, and some lovely ladies. There are some wonderfully kooky characters, such as the Queen of the Night and her messengers, the dubious Sarastro, the serpent, and eccentric and vivid settings such as mountains and the three temples of wisdom, reason, and nature.
- This took place in the Ancient Theatre of Orange (?) which is hardly visible in the video.
- The form with which the public is most familiar with is a 1922 Maurice Ravel orchestration of the work, which is considered to be an enhancement of the original material (Schartmann 2008).
- It was clearly an inspiration for Pick A Little, Talk A Little, from The Music Man.
- (usually listed as children in Russian story books).
- subterranean tombs, often of ancient Christians.
- This is a piece of music which inspires dance, whether the several balletic treatments which have been produced since the piece’s first appearance in the 1960’s or modern dance versions.