Ralph Vaughn-Williams was born yesterday in 1872 in England. His music is impressionistic, although very different from the "Father" of impressionism, Debussy. I think that in all of his music there is a deep nostalgic twinge - a longing for beauty and for things to be at peace. He knew what England was like before World War I and how it was changed after, and I'm sure this had an influence on his works.
There are two works I'd like to highlight in particular. The first is Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis - this piece for strings is featured in the 2003 film, Master and Commander (one of my favorite movies). It brings me to tears when I hear it, especially thinking about where it is used in the movie. As someone has commented on the youtube posting - "This music is in sync with the action on the screen...of a sailor overboard who must be cut loose...and abandoned in the middle of the Pacific to save the 'Surprise' from sinking...as the spar to which he clings becomes a sea anchor. Both the horror and the beauty and the immensity of the act of cutting him lose into oblivion is brilliantly expressed in this music..."
Perhaps is his most famous (and for good reason) is The Lark Ascending, a piece for violin and orchestra. This piece makes me cry... hard... every time I hear it. I don't know if there exists another piece of music more clean, pure, beautiful, nostalgic, soothing, uplifting (OK, so I probably have said this about 20 other pieces this past year... but c'mon - listen to it and you'll understand!). Here is the last 7 minutes of the piece, set to scenery of rural England. The wikipedia article says - "The composition is intended to convey the lyrical and almost eternally English beauty of the scene in which a skylark rises into the heavens above some sunny down and attains such height that it becomes barely visible to those on the ground below."
Showing posts with label Impressionism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Impressionism. Show all posts
Monday, October 13, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
French Impressionism
Claude Debussy was born today in 1862 in France. Debussy was rather ahead of his time. His music sort of bridges the gap between romantic and contemporary styles. His music is the prototype of the impressionistic period, although he didn't particularly like that label.
I used to adore Debussy's music, listened to it all the time, and played through it a lot. I'm slightly bored with it now, and I think Ravel has much more depth. Debussy's music is very refreshing, though - a wash of colors.
As usual, although he wrote a lot of music, I am mostly familiar with his piano compositions. I particularly enjoy the following:
- Suite Bergamesque - contains his most famous work, "Claire de lune"
- Children's Corner - dedicated to his 3-yr-old daughter, these are delightful little pieces. Includes his famous "Golliwog's Cake-Walk", a sort of rag-time sounding piece that sarcastically quotes Wagner's Tristan and Isolde theme in the middle.
- Estampes - 3 beautiful pieces, each depicting a different country/ethnicity. The first is Pagodes, depicting Javanese music.
- Images - 2 sets of 3 pieces each: includes the famous "Reflections in the Water", a wonderful little picture of all sorts of water - deep, still, pools leading into gurgling streams followed by a majestic waterfall, finally ending again with quiet pools. Also includes "Goldfish" - more water, with lots of splashing around. These pieces are a great example of his impressionistic style.
- Preludes - some of his most popular piano pieces, these have been compared to Chopin's preludes. Two of the most famous are "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair" and "The Sunken Cathedral". The last prelude, "Fireworks" is an example of one of how far he travelled from the romantic period into truly modern music. It is full of sparks and poppers, both small and large displays of fireworks.
I used to adore Debussy's music, listened to it all the time, and played through it a lot. I'm slightly bored with it now, and I think Ravel has much more depth. Debussy's music is very refreshing, though - a wash of colors.
As usual, although he wrote a lot of music, I am mostly familiar with his piano compositions. I particularly enjoy the following:
- Suite Bergamesque - contains his most famous work, "Claire de lune"
- Children's Corner - dedicated to his 3-yr-old daughter, these are delightful little pieces. Includes his famous "Golliwog's Cake-Walk", a sort of rag-time sounding piece that sarcastically quotes Wagner's Tristan and Isolde theme in the middle.
- Estampes - 3 beautiful pieces, each depicting a different country/ethnicity. The first is Pagodes, depicting Javanese music.
- Images - 2 sets of 3 pieces each: includes the famous "Reflections in the Water", a wonderful little picture of all sorts of water - deep, still, pools leading into gurgling streams followed by a majestic waterfall, finally ending again with quiet pools. Also includes "Goldfish" - more water, with lots of splashing around. These pieces are a great example of his impressionistic style.
- Preludes - some of his most popular piano pieces, these have been compared to Chopin's preludes. Two of the most famous are "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair" and "The Sunken Cathedral". The last prelude, "Fireworks" is an example of one of how far he travelled from the romantic period into truly modern music. It is full of sparks and poppers, both small and large displays of fireworks.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
The Greatest Jazz Pianist
I know I've focused on the lives of classical composers up to this point, but I can't pass up the opportunity to highlight someone with just as much talent and musicianship as those I've previously blogged about.
The great American jazz pianist Bill Evans was born on this date in 1929 in New Jersey. Even though I'm such a die-hard classical music fan, I've gotten into jazz as a result of Bill Evans, and I've learned parts of his pieces by ear because the sounds and rhythms he produced so intrigue me.
From the wikipedia article: "In addition to introducing a new freedom of interplay within the piano trio, Evans began (in performances such as "My Foolish Heart" from the Vanguard sessions) to explore extremely slow ballad tempos and quiet volume levels which had previously been virtually unknown in jazz. His chordal voicings became more impressionistic, reminiscent of classical composers such as Debussy, Ravel, Scriabin, and Satie..."
Perhaps that's why I like his music so much - I love the music of these composers! Here's a lovely performance of the above-mentioned "My Foolish Heart" from 1965. He sure plays and looks like a serious musician - no flamboyance here, just pure music.
The first music I heard of Bill Evans was his solo album "Alone". It is amazing stuff. Here's the opening number on that album, "Here's That Rainy Day", and here is another number, "On A Clear Day".
Here are some other highlights, from the Bill Evans Trio:
Waltz for Debby, George Gershwin's Summertime, and Nardis.
Bill Evans was also an educator, and he had some interesting ideas about composing, improvising, and performing, as viewed here, an excerpt from the film, "The Universal Mind of Bill Evans". Evans makes the case that improvisational jazz is really a compositional form - a looking back to the days of Bach, Mozart, Chopin, etc., in which composers and performers were one and the same, and composing 1 minute of music often took place in 1 minute, not in days or months (Bach was the ultimate improviser, and many of his compositions sound like improvisatory material). Interesting thoughts.
Tragically, Evans struggled with an addiction to heroin probably since the 1950's, which he seemed to overcome, only later to get hooked on cocaine. Drugs undoubtedly contributed to his early death in 1980. Here is an amazing performance of In Your Own Sweet Way one year prior to his death, with his last trio. He sure looks different here!
I hope you've enjoyed this detour into the world of jazz, highlighting one of it's most talented composers/performers.
The great American jazz pianist Bill Evans was born on this date in 1929 in New Jersey. Even though I'm such a die-hard classical music fan, I've gotten into jazz as a result of Bill Evans, and I've learned parts of his pieces by ear because the sounds and rhythms he produced so intrigue me.
From the wikipedia article: "In addition to introducing a new freedom of interplay within the piano trio, Evans began (in performances such as "My Foolish Heart" from the Vanguard sessions) to explore extremely slow ballad tempos and quiet volume levels which had previously been virtually unknown in jazz. His chordal voicings became more impressionistic, reminiscent of classical composers such as Debussy, Ravel, Scriabin, and Satie..."
Perhaps that's why I like his music so much - I love the music of these composers! Here's a lovely performance of the above-mentioned "My Foolish Heart" from 1965. He sure plays and looks like a serious musician - no flamboyance here, just pure music.
The first music I heard of Bill Evans was his solo album "Alone". It is amazing stuff. Here's the opening number on that album, "Here's That Rainy Day", and here is another number, "On A Clear Day".
Here are some other highlights, from the Bill Evans Trio:
Waltz for Debby, George Gershwin's Summertime, and Nardis.
Bill Evans was also an educator, and he had some interesting ideas about composing, improvising, and performing, as viewed here, an excerpt from the film, "The Universal Mind of Bill Evans". Evans makes the case that improvisational jazz is really a compositional form - a looking back to the days of Bach, Mozart, Chopin, etc., in which composers and performers were one and the same, and composing 1 minute of music often took place in 1 minute, not in days or months (Bach was the ultimate improviser, and many of his compositions sound like improvisatory material). Interesting thoughts.
Tragically, Evans struggled with an addiction to heroin probably since the 1950's, which he seemed to overcome, only later to get hooked on cocaine. Drugs undoubtedly contributed to his early death in 1980. Here is an amazing performance of In Your Own Sweet Way one year prior to his death, with his last trio. He sure looks different here!
I hope you've enjoyed this detour into the world of jazz, highlighting one of it's most talented composers/performers.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Musical Poignancy and Melancholy
Maurice Ravel was born on this day in 1875 in France. His music is on the whole very poignant, sad and melancholy, yet rich, beautiful, and moving. Of the lesser known composers (i.e. less famous than Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Chopin, etc.) he is probably my favorite. Many of his works touch me very deeply and leave me with a feeling that is hard to describe. He is commonly compared with Debussy and the impressionistic style, but to me he has a more distinct and rich, fiery sound than Debussy.
Aside from writing a lot of terrific piano music, he was a master of orchestration. He was extremely skilled in knowing what instruments to use to get all sorts of interesting and exotic sounds. His most famous work is "Bolero". I read somewhere he rather despised this composition, and said that it was "orchestral tissue without music." It starts out really soft, repeating the same theme over and over, each time louder and louder, until the bombastic crash-like ending. Once you listen to it, you can't get the melody out of your head for days.
Ravel wrote two piano concertos, one for the left hand alone, and one for both hands. The Concerto in G Major (for both hands) is very jazzy, and mostly light-hearted and joking... except for the 2nd movement, an extremely wistful, nostalgic piece. It starts with piano alone for a few minutes, then adds orchestra, builds up to a climax, and then softly repeats the theme in orchestra with beautiful flowing piano accompaniment in the high register. A must listen! Listen to the 1st and 3rd movements, too, if you like.
His Concerto for the Left Hand is a one-movement piece written for a pianist friend of Ravel's who lost his right arm in World War I. Where Ravel's other concerto was light-hearted and full of humor, this piece is much darker, brooding, and melancholy, yet very powerful. There are many places in the orchestration that sound like Bolero to me. The piece begins with lots of low rumblings, including a bassoon solo in the very low register (and thus is hard to hear well on youtube unfortunately). The orchestra builds and suddenly cuts off, leaving a powerful piano cadenza, which climbs to a reintroduction of the theme with the full orchestra, and it goes on from there. Listen here to the 1st part and 2nd part. On the 1st part, listen especially to around 6:50, where the piano has an expressive, beautiful theme. The 2nd part starts right at the fast, rhythmic part of the piece, where there is a dancing theme in the piano, but eventually another theme started by the bassoon starts up (in a completely different time-signature!) and the two themes continue on and build together to a climax (crazy rhythms!). Listen again to around 6:45, where the piano repeats that expressive, beautiful theme (from part 1, 6:50) in a more flowery way. The pianist featured here is the legendary Leon Fleisher, a world-renown artist who had problems with his right hand curling up on him spontaneously. He refused to give up, and became a conductor and pianist for the left-hand literature (there's actually quite a few pieces for left hand alone). Then just a few years ago (he's now in his 80's), after trying every therapy known to man, he finally found something that works for him - botox injections! It seems he has a very rare neurological disorder called a focal dystonia in his right hand only, and botox seems to do the trick.
One of Ravel's finest chamber pieces is his Piano Trio. Listen here to the 1st movement and 3rd movement. This piece always brings me to tears. There is something nostalgic in it that touches me deeply. Especially the 3rd movment.
Moving on to Ravel's solo piano music, it's hard for me to narrow down what I want to link to. Here's a selection of some of my favorites:
- Sonatine, 1st movement, a piece with very beautiful harmonies and a wistful tone throughout. It is played here by Vlado Perlemuter, a French pianist who studied Ravel's piano works with Ravel himself after meeting the composer in 1925, thereafter becoming an expert in Ravel's music. Perlemuter died in 2002 at the age of 98.
- Pavane for a Dead Princess, one of his most famous piano pieces, is an extremely beautiful, slow, reflective piece. The title refers not to a funeral piece, but instead it is an elegant dance written in memory of the dance that a Spanish princess would do during a formal ceremony of reception at the royal court. Ravel was not in favor of playing this piece too slowly or plodding, and once told a pianist he heard play it that it was called "Pavane for Dead Princess" not "Dead Pavane for a Princess."
- Le Tombeau de Couperin, a wonderful little suite of pieces written (as the pianist states) to commemorate harpsichord composers in the 18th century (such as Francois Couperin). The pieces are full of interesting harmonies, beautiful melodies, and lush, jazz-like chords.
- Gaspard de la nuit is a suite of three piano pieces based on poems. I'm currently working on playing the first piece, Ondine. It is one of Ravel's most beautiful pieces, full of striking harmonies, flowery arpeggios, lush sounds, and a repeated chord motif in the right hand throughout. The 3rd piece in the set, Scarbo, is considered by some to be the most difficult piano piece ever written. It depicts a very active little dwarf-goblin who gets into mischief and scares people while they're sleeping. Scarbo is a little hard to listen to at first - although extremely impressive, it's very modern and dissonant (and downright frightening!), but Ondine is very beautiful and one of my favorites.
There are several other pieces Ravel wrote, including Jeux deau ("Water at play"), Miroirs, Valses nobles et sentimentales ("Noble and Sentimental Waltzes"), and the list goes on. He also orchestrated a wonderful piece by Mussorgsky called "Pictures at an Exhibition" but I'll discuss that on Mussorgsky's birthday (coming soon...).
Aside from writing a lot of terrific piano music, he was a master of orchestration. He was extremely skilled in knowing what instruments to use to get all sorts of interesting and exotic sounds. His most famous work is "Bolero". I read somewhere he rather despised this composition, and said that it was "orchestral tissue without music." It starts out really soft, repeating the same theme over and over, each time louder and louder, until the bombastic crash-like ending. Once you listen to it, you can't get the melody out of your head for days.
Ravel wrote two piano concertos, one for the left hand alone, and one for both hands. The Concerto in G Major (for both hands) is very jazzy, and mostly light-hearted and joking... except for the 2nd movement, an extremely wistful, nostalgic piece. It starts with piano alone for a few minutes, then adds orchestra, builds up to a climax, and then softly repeats the theme in orchestra with beautiful flowing piano accompaniment in the high register. A must listen! Listen to the 1st and 3rd movements, too, if you like.
His Concerto for the Left Hand is a one-movement piece written for a pianist friend of Ravel's who lost his right arm in World War I. Where Ravel's other concerto was light-hearted and full of humor, this piece is much darker, brooding, and melancholy, yet very powerful. There are many places in the orchestration that sound like Bolero to me. The piece begins with lots of low rumblings, including a bassoon solo in the very low register (and thus is hard to hear well on youtube unfortunately). The orchestra builds and suddenly cuts off, leaving a powerful piano cadenza, which climbs to a reintroduction of the theme with the full orchestra, and it goes on from there. Listen here to the 1st part and 2nd part. On the 1st part, listen especially to around 6:50, where the piano has an expressive, beautiful theme. The 2nd part starts right at the fast, rhythmic part of the piece, where there is a dancing theme in the piano, but eventually another theme started by the bassoon starts up (in a completely different time-signature!) and the two themes continue on and build together to a climax (crazy rhythms!). Listen again to around 6:45, where the piano repeats that expressive, beautiful theme (from part 1, 6:50) in a more flowery way. The pianist featured here is the legendary Leon Fleisher, a world-renown artist who had problems with his right hand curling up on him spontaneously. He refused to give up, and became a conductor and pianist for the left-hand literature (there's actually quite a few pieces for left hand alone). Then just a few years ago (he's now in his 80's), after trying every therapy known to man, he finally found something that works for him - botox injections! It seems he has a very rare neurological disorder called a focal dystonia in his right hand only, and botox seems to do the trick.
One of Ravel's finest chamber pieces is his Piano Trio. Listen here to the 1st movement and 3rd movement. This piece always brings me to tears. There is something nostalgic in it that touches me deeply. Especially the 3rd movment.
Moving on to Ravel's solo piano music, it's hard for me to narrow down what I want to link to. Here's a selection of some of my favorites:
- Sonatine, 1st movement, a piece with very beautiful harmonies and a wistful tone throughout. It is played here by Vlado Perlemuter, a French pianist who studied Ravel's piano works with Ravel himself after meeting the composer in 1925, thereafter becoming an expert in Ravel's music. Perlemuter died in 2002 at the age of 98.
- Pavane for a Dead Princess, one of his most famous piano pieces, is an extremely beautiful, slow, reflective piece. The title refers not to a funeral piece, but instead it is an elegant dance written in memory of the dance that a Spanish princess would do during a formal ceremony of reception at the royal court. Ravel was not in favor of playing this piece too slowly or plodding, and once told a pianist he heard play it that it was called "Pavane for Dead Princess" not "Dead Pavane for a Princess."
- Le Tombeau de Couperin, a wonderful little suite of pieces written (as the pianist states) to commemorate harpsichord composers in the 18th century (such as Francois Couperin). The pieces are full of interesting harmonies, beautiful melodies, and lush, jazz-like chords.
- Gaspard de la nuit is a suite of three piano pieces based on poems. I'm currently working on playing the first piece, Ondine. It is one of Ravel's most beautiful pieces, full of striking harmonies, flowery arpeggios, lush sounds, and a repeated chord motif in the right hand throughout. The 3rd piece in the set, Scarbo, is considered by some to be the most difficult piano piece ever written. It depicts a very active little dwarf-goblin who gets into mischief and scares people while they're sleeping. Scarbo is a little hard to listen to at first - although extremely impressive, it's very modern and dissonant (and downright frightening!), but Ondine is very beautiful and one of my favorites.
There are several other pieces Ravel wrote, including Jeux deau ("Water at play"), Miroirs, Valses nobles et sentimentales ("Noble and Sentimental Waltzes"), and the list goes on. He also orchestrated a wonderful piece by Mussorgsky called "Pictures at an Exhibition" but I'll discuss that on Mussorgsky's birthday (coming soon...).
Monday, January 7, 2008
Modern French music
Francis Poulenc was born today in 1899 in France. He was part of a group of French composers known as "Les Six", the name having been inspired by "The Five" Russian composers (see Jan 2 blog entry). The composers were Poulenc, Milhaud, Auric, Durey, Honegger, Tailleferre, and they were loosely associated with composers Satie and Cocteau as well. The music they wrote is seen as a reaction against Wagnerism and impressionism (mostly Debussy and Ravel), although I personally think Poulenc's music sounds impressionistic (at least the little of it I know).
I was introduced to Poulenc's music on hearing his wonderful little three-movement piano piece "Mouvements Perpetuals" and his lovely "Intermezzo in Ab Major", both pieces which I play now and love. Both have a light-hearted nature and are full of a wash of colors, yet also have deep feeling and introspection in places. Enjoy!
I was introduced to Poulenc's music on hearing his wonderful little three-movement piano piece "Mouvements Perpetuals" and his lovely "Intermezzo in Ab Major", both pieces which I play now and love. Both have a light-hearted nature and are full of a wash of colors, yet also have deep feeling and introspection in places. Enjoy!
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Music to end the world
Two very different composers from the romantic era of music were born today. Max Bruch was born in 1838 in Germany. He is considered part of the more conservative tradition of German Romantic Classicism (along with Brahms) instead of the more radical experimentalists of the time, which included Liszt, Wagner, and Berlioz.
Bruch's most famous work is his Violin Concerto #1 in G minor, which is part of the standard violin repertoire. Listen to the 1st and 2nd movements here and here and 3rd movement here. It's quite an enjoyable piece of music, rightly deserving it's popularity.
Alexander Scriabin was also born today in 1872 in Russia. He studied piano with the same teacher as Rachmaninoff (who was 2 years younger), and wrote lots of piano music. In his early days, he injured himself playing Balakirev's Islamey (see previous blog entry). Scriabin had some very interesting beliefs that affected his music. He started out sort of Chopinesque in his style, but gradually his music became atonal. He had very grandiose mystical beliefs, and began work on a large orchestral/multi-media work called Mysterium that he planned on performing at the Himalayas that would bring about the end of our world. Fortunately for us who hadn't been born yet, he never completed the piece and the world didn't end.
Scriabin had a "Mystic chord" that he employed in some of his later compositions, made up of C F# Bb E A D, usually in inversions. He also associated the notes on a keyboard with colors.
A lot of his piano music (particularly the early stuff) is very interesting and beautiful. His many preludes, etudes, and 10 sonatas are very popular among pianists today, and some of them are quite difficult and are standard repertoire in competitions. Here are a few samples from his earlier period: Etude in D# minor, Op. 8 No. 12, probably his most popular piece (and quite difficult!), Etude Op. 2, No. 1, another very popular piece, Nocturne for the left hand, Op. 9 No. 2, a very beautiful piece that you wouldn't know was for the left hand alone if you weren't watching, and finally, his Sonata No. 2, Op. 19, 2nd movement.
From his middle period: Etude Op. 42, No. 5, another popular piece. It is still very romantic, and tonal, though perhaps edgier than the previous pieces. Also written during this time is the 4th piano sonata, Op. 30, a very jazzy and generally happy piece, though definitely pushing the limits of tonality more than before.
Finally, from his last period, one of his last piano works, "Vers la flamme" (Toward the flame), Op. 72. This is a rather disturbing piece, as are a lot of his later works. The name says it all - it starts out slow and cool, but gets hotter and hotter as it progresses, until by the end, the heat is actually quite uncomfortable. Listen to it here with pianist Vladimir Horowitz, one of the few to give this piece the proper fire. Horowitz is one of Scriabin's greatest intepreters and also interacted with him during his lifetime. Apparently Scriabin told Horowitz that this piece also could be called "Toward the Sun".
Bruch's most famous work is his Violin Concerto #1 in G minor, which is part of the standard violin repertoire. Listen to the 1st and 2nd movements here and here and 3rd movement here. It's quite an enjoyable piece of music, rightly deserving it's popularity.
Alexander Scriabin was also born today in 1872 in Russia. He studied piano with the same teacher as Rachmaninoff (who was 2 years younger), and wrote lots of piano music. In his early days, he injured himself playing Balakirev's Islamey (see previous blog entry). Scriabin had some very interesting beliefs that affected his music. He started out sort of Chopinesque in his style, but gradually his music became atonal. He had very grandiose mystical beliefs, and began work on a large orchestral/multi-media work called Mysterium that he planned on performing at the Himalayas that would bring about the end of our world. Fortunately for us who hadn't been born yet, he never completed the piece and the world didn't end.
Scriabin had a "Mystic chord" that he employed in some of his later compositions, made up of C F# Bb E A D, usually in inversions. He also associated the notes on a keyboard with colors.
A lot of his piano music (particularly the early stuff) is very interesting and beautiful. His many preludes, etudes, and 10 sonatas are very popular among pianists today, and some of them are quite difficult and are standard repertoire in competitions. Here are a few samples from his earlier period: Etude in D# minor, Op. 8 No. 12, probably his most popular piece (and quite difficult!), Etude Op. 2, No. 1, another very popular piece, Nocturne for the left hand, Op. 9 No. 2, a very beautiful piece that you wouldn't know was for the left hand alone if you weren't watching, and finally, his Sonata No. 2, Op. 19, 2nd movement.
From his middle period: Etude Op. 42, No. 5, another popular piece. It is still very romantic, and tonal, though perhaps edgier than the previous pieces. Also written during this time is the 4th piano sonata, Op. 30, a very jazzy and generally happy piece, though definitely pushing the limits of tonality more than before.
Finally, from his last period, one of his last piano works, "Vers la flamme" (Toward the flame), Op. 72. This is a rather disturbing piece, as are a lot of his later works. The name says it all - it starts out slow and cool, but gets hotter and hotter as it progresses, until by the end, the heat is actually quite uncomfortable. Listen to it here with pianist Vladimir Horowitz, one of the few to give this piece the proper fire. Horowitz is one of Scriabin's greatest intepreters and also interacted with him during his lifetime. Apparently Scriabin told Horowitz that this piece also could be called "Toward the Sun".
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