During the Eighteenth Century a notable change took place in the construction of the Allemande, which was frequently developed to a considerable length and published separately under the title of Sonata. Very fine Sonatas answering more or less closely to this description have been bequeathed to us by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Domenico Scarlatti, whose well-known Sonata in A would probably become one of the most popular pianoforte pieces, which almost insuperable difficulty deters even highly accomplished Virtuosi from attempting to play it. In Emanuel Bach's Sonatas the Allegro is generally followed by a short Adagio and this by a Rondo. Many other writers have left us Sonatas in two or three distinct movements. But for the perfect ideal of the so-called "Sonata-Form" we are indebted to the genius of Haydn, the originality of whose invention has justly earned for him the title of "The Father of Modern Instrumental Music".
Haydn’s role in the design and the developing of classical Sonata and influence of his principles is widely recognized.
In its complete form, Haydn's ideal design comprised four distinct movements. The first of these was a well-developed Allegro – sometimes prefaced, especially in Orchestral Compositions, by an introductory Adagio, or Largo. In its main features, this Allegro was constructed very much upon the principle of the old Allemande; but with one important difference. After modulating to the Key of the Dominant, the first part of the movement, instead of proceeding at once to a Perfect Cadence, introduced a Second Subject in the new key, which Second Subject re-appeared near the close of the second part, transposed to the key in which the movement originally started. The Allegro was followed by a Slow Movement – either Andante, or Adagio – the form of which was less rigidly defined.
The third movement was a Minuet consisting of two Strains, followed by a Trio consisting of two more, after which the Minuet was repeated, in the manner of a Da Capo, The Finale was a Rondo, generally of lighter and more playful character than the Allegro, and differing from it also in that after each of its clauses, the original Subject was repeated in full in the original key.
A work composed upon this regular and now generally received plan, for one or two Solo Instruments, is called par excellence, a Sonata. When the resources of a full Orchestra are called into play, the composition is entitled a Symphony. When a Solo Instrument is accompanied by the full Orchestra, it is called a Concerto. When the first Movement only is employed, it is called an Overture, and in that form is used as the Instrumental Prelude to an Opera, an Oratorio, or other grand choral work. Not only do we trace the influence of the Sonata-Form in all the great instrumental works produced by Haydn himself, but we find it openly adopted by every one of his successors, and forming the basis of every Overture, Quartett, Sonata, Symphony, or other similar composition that has ever been given to the world.
Not that the really great writers have slavishly followed the lead even of Haydn. They have not indeed disdained to learn from him: but each has added to his teaching some good thing of his own. Mozart, in his Jupiter Symphony substituted for the Rondo a magnificent Orchestral Fugue. Beethoven enriched the Allegro with a well-developed Coda; and quickened the Tempo of the Minuet to so great an extent, that its old name being no longer applicable, he thought it necessary to call it a Scherzo. But the main outlines of the design have been followed by all composers of Classicism.
The Fugue was an instrumental form, diligently cultivated in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, a movement, founded upon a given Subject, repeated sometimes in one part, sometimes in another, and enriched with all the clever contrapuntal devices the ingenuity of its composer could suggest.
The Fugue was successfully introduced by Lulli into nearly all the Overtures to his once celebrated Operas, and employed with infinitely greater effect by Handel and Bach, who used it freely in their choral, as well as their instrumental compositions, and brought it to a state of perfection which has never since been equaled. Bach's Wohltemperirte Klavier contains Forty-eight Preludes and Fugues of inimitable beauty: while, among Handel's Overtures and Choruses, we find innumerable specimens of the style which have always been regarded as his grandest and most sublime conceptions. Corelli has also left us some fine instrumental examples.
Beethoven's life was аs somber as Haydn's was bright and genial. In spite of his fitful outbursts of uncontrollable gaiety, it is impossible to believe that he was a happy man. The last years of his life were embittered, not only by a gradually increasing deafness, which deprived him of his only solace, but, still more, by the ingratitude of a worthless nephew, upon whom he lavished a wealth of affection which might have melted a heart of stone. He died, during a terrific thunderstorm, on the 26th of March 1827. Even in Vienna his greatness was acknowledged then and with reason for it is not to be expected that the present centuries will "see his like again".
One of Beethoven's most talented contemporaries was Franz Schubert. He like Beethoven wrote not for popularity, but in obedience to the dictates of an inward Voice which would not be silenced. Though his Compositions were so little prized during his life-time, that not one tenth part of them were ever either published or performed, their number is almost incredible. For long time his name was known, even in Germany, only by his matchless Songs. That he became better understood is due entirely to the generous ardor of Robert Schumann, who was the first to rescue his greater works from the oblivion to which they were rapidly drifting. Once brought to light, it is not likely that they will ever again be forgotten. Now many compositions of Franz Schubert are very popular and favourite all over the world.
Franz Joseph Haydn was born at Rohrau in Austria on the night of the 31st of March 1732, and received his first instruction in Music from a distant relative named Frankh, to whose care his father committed him, when he was only six years old. Frankh lived at Hamburg, where two years later the clear treble voice accidentally attracted the attention of Georg von Reutter, the then Kapellmeister of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, who at once admitted him into the Cathedral Choir, and retained him there until the year 1748, when his voice having lost its youthful freshness, he was left to shift for himself as best he could.
Haydn's portrait by Ludwig Guttenbrunn
Though thrown by this misfortune entirely on his own resources, and compelled to starve, in a miserable garret in the Kohlmarkt, he continued his studies with unvarying assiduity; and after receiving the best instruction he could get for nothing (including some lessons from Porpora) obtained a few pupils, made some kind friends, and patiently awaited better times. These came at last. In 1759 he was appointed Musikdirektor to Count Morzin, and in 1701 he obtained a similar, though far more important and influential post in the establishment of Prinz Paul Anton Esterhazy.
Haydn was now well provided for, and devoted the whole of his time to the production of the delightful works which have made his name so deservedly famous. After the death of his kind patron, he remained in the service of his brother, Prinz Nikolaus, whose celebrated diamond suit obtained for him the title of "the Magnificent".
Prinz Nikolaus was a still more liberal patron of art than his brother; and to him Haydn owed the pleasantest of lives, with innumerable opportunities for bringing out his talents to the greatest possible advantage. The Prince died in 1700; and in the following year Haydn visited London for the first time and composed the first six of his Grand Symphonies for Salomon's Concerts. On the 8th of July 1791 the University of Oxford conferred upon him the Degree of Doctor of Music.
In 1704 he came a second time to London; and during that and the following year he produced six new Symphonies to complete his engagement with Salomon. He returned to Vienna in August 1705 and again re-constituted the Esterhazy Orchestra for Prinz Anton, the successor of Prinz Nikolaus. He composed his greatest work The Creation in 1708; and The Seasons in the following year.
This was his last great effort. During the latter years of his life, the infirmities of age increased upon him rapidly. On the 26th of May 1800 he was carried to his pianoforte, and solemnly sang the "Emperor's Hymn" three times with the best voice he could command; and at one o'clock on the morning of the 31st his spirit passed away.
Haydn's life was, on the whole, an exceptionally happy one; though its brightness was marred by the evil tempers of a heartless and unsympathetic wife. The fact, that of Symphonies alone he left behind him no less than a hundred and twenty-five, will serve to give some idea of the fecundity of his genius.
Francois Frederic Chopin was born at Zelazowa Wola, in Poland, on the 1st of March, 1809. He himself used to say that his life was "an episode, without beginning, and with a sorrowful end." Into the history of that miserable episode, and of the well-known novelist who figured as its heroine, we need not enter. All that now concerns us is his wonderful power as Pianist and Composer. In both branches of Art he was irresistible. In both he soared into an atmosphere of Romance, impenetrably closed to minds of coarser mould. Schumann truly characterized him as "the boldest and proudest Poet-Spirit of the age"; and well described the wonderful individuality of his conceptions in the clever little epigram", Chopin looks at many things; but, always through the same spectacles." His works are very numerous, and full of freshness and beauty. He died, in Paris, on the 17th of October, 1849. Free sheet music of Frederic Chopin.
It is impossible to discuss the views of Richard Wagner, in common with those of any other leading spirit of the age. He claims to stand, alone - and alone he must stand, or fall. He boldly asserts, that the whole aim and end of the Opera has, hitherto, been totally, and most lamentably misunderstood. That our greatest Composers - not even excepting Cimarosa, Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, or Cherubini - have, from the very outset, worked upon principles essentially erroneous; and, by reason of the errors of those principles, have, one and all, failed to produce a really perfect work. On the strength of this assertion, he has been accused of holding the Music of Mozart, and Beethoven, in contempt - but, in this matter, he has been very unfairly treated. He condemns these, and other great writers, not as Musicians, but as Dramatists. His theory is that the Musical Drama depends, for its perfect success, upon the united action of three Sister Arts - Poetry, Music, and Scenic Effect. That the great Composers we have mentioned, in common with all others who have hitherto considered the subject, have sacrificed the Poetry, and the Scenic Effect, for the sake of the Music. That to this fatal cause we must attribute their most deplorable failure - for, that they have failed, utterly, he unhesitatingly assures us. And, that, so long as Operas continue to be written upon the system he condemns, so long will they continue to fail.
Reducing this theory to practice, he writes his own Libretti; arranges the minutest details of the Action, and Scenic Decorations, necessary to give full force to the situations they embody; and sets them to such Music, alone, as he believes will serve to bring these situations into still stronger relief. Against the recognized form of the Operatic Aria he wages implacable war: rejecting it, utterly, on the ground that it impedes the Action of the Drama, in order to afford the Singer time to display his power of vocalization. In place of it, he substitutes a species of Mezzo recitativo if one may be allowed to coin a word for the purpose of expressing one's meaning the more clearly - in which the characteristics of Melody, properly so called, are blended, in about equal proportions, with those of simple Recitation to musical notes. On this point, again, he has been cruelly misunderstood. Critics, examining his Scores without troubling themselves to analyze the principles upon which they are constructed, have declared him incapable of writing in a truly melodious vein. To fulminate such an accusation as this against the Composer of the Pilot's Song, in the Flying Dutchman, or the Bridal Scene, in Lohengrin-to say nothing of the March in Tannhäuser - is simply absurd.
Wagner abstains, as a general rule, from introducing pure Melody into his dramatic work, not because he cannot write it, but because it does not coincide with his preconceived ideas of aesthetic propriety. The measured Recitative – or, as he himself calls it, Melos – with which he supplies its place, he supports with Orchestral Accompaniments of the most varied and ingenious character; producing wonderfully beautiful, and often very startling effects, by means of combinations which no other Composer has ever either attempted, or imagined. His unlimited command over the resources of the Orchestra is, indeed, beyond all doubt, his strongest point. To this his Operas owe a large proportion of the effect they never fail to produce; and it is unquestionably to this great quality that he is mainly indebted for the high reputation he enjoys among Musicians who are far from sharing his peculiar views. Were his Part-writing as irreproachable as his Instrumentation, his reputation would stand still higher. But, unhappily, he constantly indulges in progressions which the ear can scarcely tolerate, and sets the teeth of his audience on edge with false relations which seem to have been selected for the mere sake of inflicting wanton torture.
The example of Wagner's everlasting melody in the Prelude for the Tristan and Isolde.
His method of writing for the Voice, too, is open to serious reprehension; not only because it is essentially "unvocal", but because it is so trying to the vocal organs as to threaten them with premature destruction.
It is scarcely necessary to say that Wagner's ideal conceptions were the result of no momentary inspiration. It was only after long years of patient thought that he was able to demonstrate, satisfactorily to himself, the principles we have endeavored to elucidate. In his early Opera, Rienzi, their effect is very faintly, if at all, perceptible. We find them more clearly expressed in Der Fliegende Hollander ("The Flying Dutchman"), and Tannhäuser: more strongly still, in Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, and Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg. But they only reach their full development in his last great work, Der Ring des Nibelungen - so-called Trilogy consisting of a Prologue, entitled Das Rheingold, and three subsequent divisions, respectively named Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung, each division being, in itself, a complete Opera, long enough to furnish an entire evening's entertainment.
This suite was written by Modest Mussorgsky in 1874 and was dedicated by Mussorgsky to the friend of him Victor Hartmann, who was an architect and artist. The exhibition of his works inspired Mussorgsky to create a suite "Pictures at an Exhibition", a kind of review after all what he had seen there.
The suite is opening by the piece "Promenade". The theme of this part based on the pentatonic reminds Russian folk choral music. The measure is variable - 5/4 and 6/4. The leitmotif of "Promenade" will come back from time to time between other parts of suite as illustration of the composer walking from work to work. The other friend of Modest Mussorgsky, a prominent critic Vladimir Stasov see here the reminiscence of the mood of the composer, who is "roving through the exhibition, now leisurely, now briskly in order to come close to a picture that had attracted his attention, and at times sadly, thinking of his departed friend."
Besides of "Promeande" and it’s theme the Suite consists of ten pieces-sketches describing the pictures of Hartmann: No.1 "Gnomus", No. 2 "Il vecchio castello", No. 3 "Tuileries" (Dispute d'enfants après jeux), No. 4 "Bydlo", No. 5 "Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks", No. 6 "Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuÿle", No. 7 "Limoges, le marché" (La grande nouvelle), No. 8 "Catacombae" (Sepulcrum romanum), No. 9 "The Hut on Hen’s Legs (Baba-Yaga)", No. 10 "The Bogatyr Gates (in the Capital in Kiev".
Here is a part of suite performed by the great Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter.
Initially written by Mussorgsky for the piano this suite was rearranged many times for the orchestra by Henry Wood, Leopold Stokowski, Walter Goehr and others. But the most famous is the orchestration of Maurice Ravel. Commissioned by Sergey Koussevitzky this version was first performed on 19th of October 1922. Maurice Ravel was a unique composer and also a prominent arranger this version has acquired a wide distinction and is one of the most famous nowadays.
Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra play “The Pictures at an exhibition” orchestrated by Maurice Ravel.
This year the great ballet diva Maya Plisetskaya and Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. This is alliance of two great persons, two big names in contemporary art. More than forty years ago Rodion Shchedrin wrote the ballet for Maya Plisetskaya named "Carmen Suite". This work is based on music of the opera "Carmen" written by George Bizet. The first performance of ballet "Carmen Suite" took place in 1967 in Moscow Bolshoi Theatre and at once caused argument in Soviet critique. Here is a scene from this great ballet.
The composer of The Seasons, Antonio Vivaldi, could die right after his birth. He was born the seven-month. Vivaldi was a priest but didn’t celebrate the mass, because of his very poor health. He became a violin teacher at an orphanage in Venice. During this time he wrote his numerous concertos for various instruments. Not many people know that he Vivaldi wrote more than 45 operas, but almost all of them are forgotten. The Four Seasons (Le quattro stagioni) is one of the most famous and popular classical music, I think. It is played in concert halls and on streets. More than 120 recordings of this work exist. God knows how many transcriptions of the Four Seasons there are in the world. Here you can see the forth part The Winter, good known by its great first part.
I admire people who rich an achievement in their profession in spite of various obstacles. The one of most popular tenors nowadays is Andrea Bocelli. His became total blindness in age of twelve. This tragedy didn’t stop his music study. In the same year he received the first prize in his first song competition. He graduated as a Doctor of Law at the University of Pisa. He even had been working as a court appointed lawyer till his career turned on the way of singing. Later he became a pupil of Italian tenor Franco Corelli. His firs major operatic role was Rodolfo in La bohème at the Teatro Comunale in Cagliari in 1998. Beautiful voice, attractive appearance and a lot of passion make his performances unforgettable.
I’ve found this recording of Aranjuez concerto of Joaquin Rodrigo, a famous Spanish composer, who also has lost the use of his eyes in his childhood. This famous music full of passion and sadness sounds very impressive in the interpretation of Andrea Bocelli.
I want return to the question about a repertoire for beginners again. There is a famous cycle of pieces op.39 of Russian composer Peter Tchaikovsky named "Album for the young". All pieces in this album are very short and were defined by Tchaikovsyi to be played by children themselves. The character of pieces varies from very sad as "Dolly's Funeral" to joyful "The little horseman". All pieces of "Album for the young" have program names. This is good for young pianists, because helps them to imagine stories what are this pieces about. Clear and beautiful melody and harmony structure make these pieces simple to interpret. The techniques used by Tchaikovsky in the "Album for the young" are also very various: double-notes, chords, singing legato, its combination with staccato, or total legato in both arms, and opposite – staccato in all voices. The most famous pieces as "French song" or "Neapolitan song" are well known to children and usually they enjoy playing these pieces.
Other cycle with a similar name "Children's Album" was written by other Russian composer Dmitri Capyrin in these latter days. The composition style of Dmitry Capyrin characterize by atonality and quite complicated contemporary musical language. But the structure of pieces and fraises is quite easy to understand. Dmitri Capyrin followed the tradition and gave the program names for all pieces. The subjects and characters of "Children’s Album" are vivid and clear: Sad Waltz, On Tiptoe, Breeze, Clouds, Attractions, on the Wings and so on. There are altogether 12 pieces. All pieces are quite short and occupy one or two pages.
All this make this cycle worth to your attention, the more so because we have so little contemporary piano music for beginners.
Schumann wrote very nice cycle of pieces named Album für die Jugend. I really enjoy playing them. One of this nice and pretty easy piano pieces is Number 13 “Mai, lieber Mai”.
.jpg)
