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What is Sonata Form?

Sonata Form

The word sonata has been used, over the centuries, to mean many things musical, perhaps too many things musical, so before we begin our exploration of sonata form, it behooves us to get a handle on the various meanings of the overused term.

Sonata means "sounded piece" implying a work that is played, or "sounded" on an instrument or instruments. In its earliest usage (during the Renaissance) the word sonata was a generic term, synonymous with "instrumental music". (For our information, the complementary term to sonata is cantata, a "sung piece" of music).

By the Baroque era, the word sonata began to be applied to various multi-movement instrumental works for both solo instruments and chamber groups. It wasn't until the Classical era that the term took on the two meanings for which it is still understood today.

First, sonata is an instrumental genre: a multi-movement work for solo piano or piano plus one other instrument. Since the Classical era, a piano sonata has been understood to be a multi-movement work for piano, and a designation such as violin sonata or cello sonata or clarinet sonata is understood to mean that instrument plus a piano.

Second, sonata as we understand it today refers to a specific musical form, sonata form. We will often see sonata form referred to as sonata allegro form, in order to further differentiate it from the instrumental genre of sonata.

In order to establish what makes sonata form special, we would step back for just a moment and observe other Classical era forms.

Theme and Variations form (unless entitled "double variations") features one theme only - no contrasts, departure, or returns. In Minuet and Trio form, the opening minuet is perceived as the principal theme. It is departed from and contrasted by the trio; it then returns to create thematic closure. Rondo form features one principal theme; it is departed from, contrasted, and returned to multiple times. Sonata form is that formal process that evolved to accommodate the presentation, interaction, and re conciliation of multiple principal themes, most typically two in number, Our first job, then, is to deconstruct sonata form.

Technically, sonata form evolved from something called Baroque binary dance form. Spiritually, sonata form was inspired by dramatic procedures inherent in opera. Let us discuss these dramatic procedures and, at the same time, observe their parallel in sonata form.

In the first act of an opera, we meet the principal characters and encounter the situation on which the drama will turn. In the first large section of a sonata form movement - a section called the exposition -  we meet the (typically two) principal theme that become the characters in the musical drama. The expressive nature of those themes, and the degree of contrast between them, create the situation on which the musical drama will turn.

As an opera progresses, stuff happens: action and interaction between the characters, drama, comedy, pathos, bathos, whatever. In the second large part of a sonata form movement, called the development section, the themes interact in passages characterised by great harmonic instability and expressive interest to create drama, comedy, pathos, bathos, whatever.

The closing scene of an opera sees the denouement - the moment of truth - during which the dramatic situation plays itself out; the characters learn something of themselves and thus reconcile themselves to the events that have taken place. In the third part of a sonata form movement - called the recapitulation - the theme return in their original order but with important changes, changes that reduce the degree of contrast (and conflict) between them and that, as a result, allow the themes to be reconciled to one another. An opera will typically conclude with finale and curtain calls. A sonata form movement, much more often than not, will conclude with a coda, there to create a convincing sense of conclusion.



From the book "How To Listen To Great Music", by Robert Greenberg

Introduction to the Classical Era

Enlightened Is as Enlightened Does

An Introduction to the Classical Era

The Classical era is understood as running from 1750 to 1827, from the death of Bach to the death of Beethoven. Even as period dates go, these are awful, and here's why.

While Johann Sebastian Bach's death in 1750 affords us a serviceable year to end the Baroque era, it's a fairly useless year with which to begin what we now call the Classical era. Those musical stylistic elements that we will soon enough define as being "Classical" reached their first real flower in Italy in the early1730s. For at least twenty-five years, stylistically Baroque and stylistically Classical era music coexisted, like the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon. In reality, it isn't until the 1760s that those stylistic elements we would identify as Baroque had become a thing of the past.

Concluding the Classical era in 1827 with Beethoven's death is absurd. Instead, we should end it in 1803, the year Beethoven composed the bulk of his Symphony no.3 and, in so doing, rendered classicalism obsolete in our outrageous act!

The evolution from the high Baroque to Classical musical style was a mirror of an extraordinary social evolution that we, today, call the Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment, circa 1730 to 1780, was a period that saw the institutions of Europe - religious, political, social, educational, industrial, financial, and artistic - slowly but inexorably lower their focus from the aristocracy and the high clergy to a new class of people then emerging from the bowels of the new European mercantilism and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. For lack of a better name, we call this new and growing class the middle class, and the Enlightenment marked their initial entry into the mainstream of European society. A new brand of humanism, philosophical humanism, evolved, one that asserted that all people were important, not just representatives of the Church and the state.

Since the beginning of recorded time, European class structure and wealth had been based upon hereditary land ownership, But by the early eighteenth century, new patterns and methods of trade and manufacturing had contributed to creating a nouveau wealthy class whose wealth was based not on inherited real estate, but rather on accumulated cash.

This new middle and non-aristocratic upper class, by the sheer weight of their numbers, buying power, and growing political influence, began to assert terrific pressures on their respective societies to meet their needs and desires.

The nouveau riche wanted to be educated and consequently, it was during the Enlightenment that the concept of universal education first emerged. They wanted at least a modicum of political power and greater degree of control over their own lives.

The new middle class also wanted an end to social and religious injustice. People in the middle and upper classes began to believe that and institution was "good" tot he extent that it did the greatest good for the greatest number of people. The faith in reason that had inspired the scientific community during the seventeenth century was steered, with the result that social institutions and mechanisms were put under the scrutiny of common sense. The middle class wanted quality of life, comfort, and upward mobility.

From a purely social point of view, Enlightenment humanism was, perhaps, the most important of all the intellectual currents of the the time. Enlightenment humanism stated that life on earth and the quality of that life were as important as the afterlife promised by religion. Making the best out of an earthly life became a basic desire for the new middle class.

For the most part, the hereditary monarchies and aristocracies that still ruled Western Europe are grudgingly willing to oblige. In the 1760s, '70s, and '80s (up until the advent of the French Revolution), most such bigwigs were, to some degree or another, "enlightenment": that is, concerned for the well-being of the "little people" to a degree unheard of in previous European history.


From the book "How To Listen To Great Music", by Robert Greenberg

Mozart's Last Three Symphonies

Mozart at the Summit:
The Last Three Symphonies

July of 1788 was a bad time for Wolfgang Mozart. It was hot and humid. His wife, Constanze, was in poor health and away at the spa in Baden. Mozart's own health was not particularly good, and his infant daughter, teresa, had just died on June 29. Mozart, deeply in debt, was in the process of begging money from anyone who'd listen to him. Given this information, many commentators have, over the years, fallen into the trap of attributing autobiographical substance to Mozart's dark and even violent G minor Symphony. Are they Right?

NO. Because, back to back with his G minor Symphony, Mozart composed two of his most brilliant and upbeat works. He composed the glowing and gorgeous Symphony no.39 in E-Flate Major between June 10 and 26. He then composed the G minor Symphony, completing it on July 25, after which he wrote out the magisterial and magnificent Symphony in C Major, the Jupiter, completing it on August 10.

In fact, Mozart was among the least autobiographical composers in the canon. His music came from a source frankly divorced from issues and worries of the everyday.

Without resorting to voodoo or a discussion of extraterrestrials, it's hard to say where Mozart's music did come from. let us take these three perfect symphonies as an example. there are no extant sketches for any of them; Mozart apparently sat down and wrote them out in full score, as quickly and as neatly as a copyist could copy them. There are no erasures or alterations on the scores: everything is written with a firm, confident hand. (Mozart referred to this process as "copying out"; he did not refer to it as "composing". The implication is that the symphonies were complete, to their every detail, somewhere in his noggin, and all he needed todo was write them down, "copy them out", something he could do while he was talking, drinking, playing billiards, bowling, whatever). Referring to the apparent ease with which he composed, Mozart once wrote, "I write music the way cow piss", and inelegant if not inaccurate appraisal of his abilities.

Mozart was freaky. It's no wonder he scared the bejesus out of his contemporaries.

Wolfgang Mozart

From the book "How To Listen To Great Music", by Robert Greenberg

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

For many people, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) represented the highest level of musical genius. His unique stature is comparable to Shakespeare's in literature and Michelangelo's in painting and sculpture. He opened new realms of musical expression and profoundly influenced composers throughout the nineteenth century.

Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770, in Bonn, Germany. Like Bach and Mozart before him, he came from family of musicians. His grandfather, also need Ludwig, was music director at the court at bomb. His father, Johann, was a tenor who held a low position in the court and who saw his talented son as a profitable prodigy like Mozart. It's told that Johann  Beethoven and a musician friend would come home from the local tavern late at night, house young ludwig from sleep, ad make him practice at the keyboard until morning. At the age of eleven, Beethoven served as assistant to the court organist, and at twelve he had several piano compositions published.

Beethoven went to Vienna when he was sixteen to improvise for Mozart. Mozart reportedly said, "Keep your eyes on him; some day he will give the world something to talk about." Beethoven then return to Bonn, because his mother was critically ill. She died shortly after. His father, who had become an alcoholic, was soon dismissed from the court choir. Beethoven, at eighteen, became the legal guardian of his two younger brothers. By now, Beethoven had become a court organist and violist and was responsible for composing and performing; suddenly, he was also head of a family.

Shortly before his twenty-second birthday, Beethoven left Bonn to study with Haydn in vienna, where he spent the rest of his life, In 1792, Haydn was at the height of his fame, too busy composing to devote much time or energy to teaching, As a result, he overlooked errors in Beethoven's counterpoint exercises, and Beethoven felt forced to go secretly to another teacher. (Haydn Never learned of this). Beethoven's drive for thoroughness and mastery - evident throughout his life -  is shown by his willingness to subject himself to a strict course in counterpoint and fugue even after he had composed fine works.

Beethoven's first seven years in vienna brought hard work, growing confidence, a strong sense of identity, and public praise. His letters of introduction from members of the aristocracy in Bonn opened the doors of social and cultural elite in this music-loving city. People were dazzled with his piano virtuosity and moved with his improvisations. "He knew how to produce such an impression on every listener", reports a contemporary, "that frequently there was not a single dry eye, while many broke out into loud sobs, for there was a certain magic in his expression". Beethoven rebelled against social convention, asserting that an artist deserved as much respect as the nobility. Once while playing in an aristocratic drawing room, he was disturbed by the loud conversation of a young count. Beethoven jumped up from the piano, exclaiming, " I will not play for such swine!" For a long time he was a guest of Prince Karl von Lichnowsky, who told his personal servant that if ever he and Beethoven rang at the same time, Beethoven should be served first. The same aristocrats who had allowed Mozart to die in poverty a few years before showered Beethoven with gifts. He earned good fees from piano lessons and private concerts. Publishers were quick to buy his compositions, even though some critics complained they were "bizarre" and " excessively complicated".

Disaster struck during his twenty-ninth year; Beethoven felt the first symptoms of deafness. Doctors could do nothing to halt its progress or to relieve Beethoven's physical and emotional torment. In 1801, he wrote despairingly, "For two years I have avoided almost all social gatherings because it is impossible for me to say to people ' I am deaf '. If I belonged to an other profession it would be easier, but in my profession it is a terrible handicap". On October 6, 1802, Beethoven was in Heiligenstadt, a village outside Vienna where he sought solitude during the summer. That day he expressed his feelings in what is now known as the Heiligenstadt testament, a long, agonised letter addressed to his brothers. Beethoven wrote, "I would have ended my life -  it was only my art that held me back. Ah, it seemed to me impossible to leave the world until I had Brought forth all that I felt was within me".

Beethoven's victory over despair coincided with an important change in his musical style. Works that he created after his emotional crisis have a new power and heroism. From 1803 to 1804, he composed the gigantic 3rd Symphony, the Eroica. a landmark in music history. At first, he planned to name it Bonaparte, after Napoleon, the first consul of the French Republic. Beethoven saw Napoleon as the embodiment of heroism and the champion of the principles underlying the French Revolution. Liberty, equality, fraternity were stirring words that expressed Beethoven's democratic ideals. But when he learned that Napoleon had proclaimed himself emperor of the French, Beethoven "flew into a rage and cried out, ' He too is nothing but an ordinary man! Now he will trampled under foot all the rights of man and only indulge his ambition. He will exalt himself above all others and become a tyrant!' "Seizing his score, Beethoven tore out the title page bearing Napoleon's name and change it into Eroica.

For more information about Beethoven 3rd Symphony "Eroica" : 

http://classical-music-maniac.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-eroica-symphony-beethoven.html

In 1812, Beethoven met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the great German poet he had long worshipped. He played for Goethe, and the two artist walked and talked together, shortly after this meeting, Goethe described Beethoven to a friend as "an utterly untamed personality". To his wife, the poet wrote, "Never before have I seen an artist with more power of concentration, more energy, more inwardness". Despite such description by people who know him, Beethoven remains a mystery. He was self-educated and had read widely in Shakespeare and the ancient classics, but he was weak in elementary arithmetic. He claimed the highest moral principles, but he was after unscrupulous in dealing with publishers. Although orderly and methodical when composing, Beethoven dressed sloppily and lived in incredibly messy apartments. During his thirty-five years in vienna, he changed dwelling about forty times.

Beethoven fell in and out of love with several women, mostly of noble birth, but was never able to form a lasting relationship. He wrote a passionate letter to a woman refereed to as the "immortal beloved"; it was found in a drawer after his death. Only recently has a Beethoven scholar established her identity as the Viennese aristocrat Antonie Brentano. Beethoven took consolation from nature for disappointments in his personal life. Ideas came to him while he walked through the Viennese countryside. His 6th Symphony, the Pastoral, beautifully expresses his recollections of his life in the country.

Beethoven was never in the service of the Viennese aristocracy. A growing musical public made it possible for him to earn a fairly good income by selling compositions to publishers. His stature was a great that when he threatened to accept a position outside Austria in 1809, three nobles made a special arrangement to keep him in Vienna. Prince Kinsky, Prine Lobkowitz, and Archduke Rudolf -  the emperor's brother and Beethoven's pupil - obligated themselves to gove Beethoven an annual income. Their only condition was that Beethoven continue to live in the Austrian capital - an unprecedented arrangement in music history.

As Beethoven's hearing weakened, so did his piano playing and conducting. By the time he was forty-four, this once brilliant pianist was forced to stop playing in public. But he insisted on conducting his orchestral works long after he could do it efficiently. The players would become confused by his wild gesture on the podium, and performances were often chaoctics. his sense of isolation grew with his deafness. Friends had to communicate with him through an ear trumpet, and during his last eight years he carried notebooks in which people would write questions and comments.

The Music of Nineteenth Century (Romantic Era)

The Music of the Nineteenth Century

The Romantic era is understood as running from the death of Beethoven in 1827 until 1900. Were we compelled to do so, we could come up with better dates. It is compulsion we will, for now, ignore.

The adjective romantic comes from the noun romance. A romance was a story or poem that dealt with legendary people and/or events written in one of the romance languages, that is one of the languages descended from Roman (Latin). For example, the medieval poems about King Arthur were called Arthurian romances. As a result, when the adjective romantic was first used during the seventeenth century, it referred to something remote, legendary, fantastic, and marvellous, beyond the everyday work of real life.

When applied to the art and literature of nineteenth century, then, the word romantic refers not to physical love or affection but rather something that is beyond the everyday. Where a twenty-first-century individual, when met with something incredible, might say, "Far out, man", her nineteenth-century counterpart would have said, "Most romantic, dude".

The big difference between the music of Classical era and that of the Romantic era has to do with expanded expressive content and the incremental changes to the musical language that were made in order to describe the expanded expressive content.

We must be wary of the word inevitable. In truth, few things are inevitable: death,perhaps (but certainly not taxes, not if you've got your money in a numbered account in Cayman Islands). Nevertheless, given the social evolution that marked the European world from the seventeenth to nineteenth century, there does appear to be a certain inevitability to the development of Romantic art.

The music of the Baroque era in general, and opera in particular, acknowledge and celebrated the individual human voice to a degree entirely new in past-ancient world. During the Enlightenment, the dramatic and homophonic elements of Baroque opera were institutionalised in the instrumental genres and musical forms of classicism. Beethoven, having come to the conclusion that music was above all a self-expressive art, adhered to Classical era rituals only to the degree that they served his expressive needs.

In his lifetime, Beethoven was regarded by many as an eccentric modernist whose late music, in particular, could be written off as the product of a slightly crazy, hearing-impaired composer. However, it didn't take long time for the generation of composers who came into their prime immediately after Beethoven's death to embrace him as the Moses of new music, one that would lead them to an expressive promised land relevant to the changing social and economic realities of 1830s and '40s.

Danhauser's painting Liszt at the Piano (1840) illustrates perfectly the Romantic era infatuation with the Beethovenian "ideal". Pictured is a Parisian salon filled with some of the greatest artists of the day. For his inspiration,Liszt is looking at a monumental marble bust of Beethoven perched on the piano. The bust is seen against a window, which frames a roiling and turbulent sky, as if to say the Beethoven is one with the gods, that he cannot be contained in a mere room.Typical of Beethoven's postmortem deification, the bust looks more like Tyrone Power than the short, ugly, smallpox-scarred Ludwig van Beethoven. For the great majority of composer and listeners of the mid- and late-nineteenth century, Beethoven was viewed as a spiritual guide, as a hero,  as a deity, as a catalyst for the expressive evolution that we now call romanticism.

Liszt at the Piano, by Josef Danhauser (1840)

For the audiences of the Romantic era, music became the ultimate art form. The remote, boundless, ephemeral, non tactile nature of music, particularly instrumental music, made it the ideal art for the nineteenth century . Its detachment from the world, its mystery, and its incomparable power of suggestion - which works on the mound directly without the mediation of words - made it the dominant art, the one most representative among all the arts of the nineteenth century. According to the nineteenth century English essayist Walter Pater, "All art aspires to the condition of music".

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

From the book 'How to Listen to Great Music', by Robert Greenberg

Vienna Philharmonic New year Concert 2015

The Candide Overture (From the Opera 'Candide')

Title: Candide Overture
Composer: Leonard Bernstein

The Overture to Candide earned a place in the orchestral repertoire. After a successful first concert performance on January 26, 1957, by the New York Philharmonic under the composer's baton, it quickly became popular and was performed by nearly 100 other orchestras within the next two years. Since that time, it has become one of the most frequently performed orchestral compositions by a 20th century American composer; in 1987, it was the most often performed piece of concert music by Bernstein.

Music
The overture incorporates tunes from the songs "The Best of All Possible Worlds", "Battle Music", "Oh, Happy We", and "Glitter and Be Gay" and melodies composed specifically for the overture. Much of the music is written in time signatures such as 6/4 and 3/2, which are often combined with 4/4 and 2/2 to make effective 5/2s and 7/2s in places by rapid, regular switching between them and 3/2.

Instrumental

• piccolo
• two flutes
• two oboes
• one E-flat and two B-flat clarinets
• bass clarinet
• two bassoons
• contrabassoon
• four horns
• two trumpets
• three trombones
• tuba
• timpani
• a large but standard percussion contingent
• harp
• 1st violins
• 2nd violins
• violas
• cellos
• basses

Candide Overture video:

The Pyongyang Concert (The Starting of World Peace with Music)

The Opening

Welcome Speech

National Anthem of North Korea

Star Spangled Banner

Lohengrin: Prelude to Act III

Introduction by Lorin Maazel

The New World Symphony (Adagio - Allegro Molto)

The New World Symphony (Largo)

The New World Symphony (Scherzo. Moto vivace)

The New World Symphony (Allegro con fuoco)

Introduction by Lorin Maazel 2

An American in Paris

Farandole

Introduction of Lorin Maazel 3

Candide Overture

Arirang (North Korea Song)

Credits

The Mountain King (Grieg)

Edvard Grieg

Title: In the Hall of the Mountain King

Composer: Edvard Grieg

"In the Hall of the Mountain King" (Norwegian: I Dovregubbens hall) is a piece of orchestral music composed by Edvard Grieg for the sixth scene of act 2 in Henrik Ibsen's 1867 play Peer Gynt. It was originally part of Opus 23 but was later extracted as the final piece of Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1, Op. 46. Its easily recognizable theme has helped it attain iconic status in popular culture, where it has been arranged by many artists.

The English translation of the name is not literal. Dovre is a highland place in Norway, and "gubbe" translates into (old) man or husband. "Gubbe" is used along with its female counterpart "kjerring" to differentiate male and female trolls, "trollgubbe" and "trollkjerring". In the play, Dovregubben is a troll king that Peer Gynt invents in a fantasy.

Characteristic

The piece is played as the title character Peer Gynt, in a dream-like fantasy, enters "Dovregubben (the troll Mountain King)'s hall". The scene's introduction continues: "There is a great crowd of troll courtiers, gnomes and goblins. Dovregubben sits on his throne, with crown and sceptre, surrounded by his children and relatives. Peer Gynt stands before him. There is a tremendous uproar in the hall." The lines sung are the first lines in the scene.

Grieg himself wrote, "For the Hall of the Mountain King I have written something that so reeks of cowpats, ultra-Norwegianism, and 'to-thyself-be-enough-ness' that I can't bear to hear it, though I hope that the irony will make itself felt." The theme of "to thyself be... enough" – avoiding the commitment implicit in the phrase "To thine own self be true" and just doing enough – is central to Peer Gynt's satire, and the phrase is discussed by Peer and the mountain king in the scene which follows the piece.

Music

The simple theme begins slowly and quietly in the lowest registers of the orchestra, played first by the cellos, double basses, and bassoons. After being stated, the main theme is then very slightly modified with a few different ascending notes, but transposed up a perfect fifth (to the key of F-sharp major, the dominant key, but with flattened sixth) and played on different instruments.

The two groups of instruments then move in and out of different octaves until they eventually "collide" with each other at the same pitch. The tempo gradually speeds up to a prestissimo finale, and the music itself becomes increasingly loud and frenetic.

Lyrics

(The troll-courtiers): Slagt ham! Kristenmands søn har dåret

Dovregubbens veneste mø!

Slagt ham!

Slagt ham!

Slay him! The Christian's son has bewitched

The Mountain King's fairest daughter!

Slay him!

Slay him!

a troll-imp): Må jeg skjære ham i fingeren?

(another troll-imp): Må jeg rive ham i håret?

(a troll-maiden): Hu, hej, lad mig bide ham i låret!

(a troll-witch with a ladle): Skal han lages til sod og sø?

(another troll-witch, with a butcher knife): Skal han steges på spid eller brunes i gryde?

(the Mountain King): Isvand i blodet!

May I hack him on the fingers?

May I tug him by the hair?

Hu, hey, let me bite him in the haunches!

Shall he be boiled into broth and bree to me

Shall he roast on a spit or be browned in a stewpan?

Ice to your blood, friends!

In the Hall of The Mountain King video:

In the Hall of The Mountain King (Full Score) pdf file:

http://conquest.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/a/ac/IMSLP02017-Grieg_-_Peer_Gynt_Suite_No.1-4__Op.46-4__Full_Score_.pdf

The Ride Of The Valkyries (Wagner)

Title: Ride of the Valkyries (German: Walkürenritt or Ritt der Walküren)

Richard Wagner

Composer: Richard Wagner

Fully Orchestrated by the end of the first quarter of 1856

The "Ride of the Valkyries" (German: Walkürenritt or Ritt der Walküren) is the popular term for the beginning of act 3 of Die Walküre, the second of the four operas by Richard Wagner that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen.

As a separate piece, the "Ride" is often heard in a purely instrumental version, which may be as short as three minutes. Together with the Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin, the Ride of the Valkyries is one of Wagner's best-known pieces.

The "Ride of the Valkyries" in the Walküre Opera

The main theme of the "Ride", the leitmotif labelled "Walkürenritt", was first written down by the composer on 23 July 1851. The preliminary draft for the "Ride" was composed in 1854 as part of the composition of the entire opera, which was fully orchestrated by the end of the first quarter of 1856.

In the Walküre opera, the "Ride", which takes around eight minutes, begins in the prelude to the third act, building up successive layers of accompaniment until the curtain rises to reveal a mountain peak where four of the eight Valkyrie sisters of Brünnhilde have gathered in preparation for the transportation of fallen heroes to Valhalla. As they are joined by the other four, the familiar tune is carried by the orchestra, while, above it, the Valkyries greet each other and sing their battle-cry. Apart from the song of the Rhinemaidens in Das Rheingold, it is the only ensemble piece in the first three operas of Wagner's Ring cycle.

History

The complete opera Die Walküre was first performed on 26 June 1870 in the National Theatre Munich against the composer's intent. By January of the next year, Wagner was receiving requests for the Ride to be performed separately, but wrote that such a performance should be considered "an utter indiscretion" and forbade "any such thing". However, the piece was still printed and sold in Leipzig, and Wagner subsequently wrote a complaint to the publisher Schott. In the period up to the first performance of the complete Ring cycle, Wagner continued to receive requests for separate performances, his second wife Cosima noting "Unsavoury letters arrive for R. – requests for the Ride of the Valkyries and I don't know what else." Once the Ring had been given in Bayreuth in 1876, Wagner lifted the embargo. He himself conducted it in London on 12 May 1877, repeating it as an encore.

As concert repertoire piece

Within the concert repertoire, the Ride of the Valkyries remains a popular encore, especially when other Wagnerian extracts feature in the scheduled program. For example, at the BBC Proms it was performed as such by Klaus Tennstedt and the London Philharmonic Orchestra on 6 August 1992 and also by Valery Gergiev with the Kirov Orchestra on 28 August 2001. It was also performed as part of the BBC Doctor Who Prom in 2008.

Ride of The Valkyries Video:

Ride of The Valkyries (Full Score) pdf file:

http://conquest.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/c/c3/IMSLP45496-PMLP04725-Act_III.pdf

The E minor Violin Concerto (Mendelssohn)

Felix Mendelssohn

Title: Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64

Composer: Felix Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, is his last large orchestral work. It forms an important part of the violin repertoire and is one of the most popular and most frequently performed violin concertos of all time. A typical performance lasts just under half an hour.

Mendelssohn originally proposed the idea of the violin concerto to 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, seeking his advice with the concerto. The work itself was one of the foremost violin concertos of the Romantic era and was influential on many other composers.

Although the concerto consists of three movements in a standard fast–slow–fast structure and each movement follows a traditional form, the concerto was innovative and included many novel features for its time. Distinctive aspects include the almost immediate entrance of the violin at the beginning of the work (rather than following an orchestral preview of the first movement's major themes, as was typical in Classical-era concertos) and the through-composed form of the concerto as a whole, in which the three movements are melodically and harmonically connected and played attacca (each movement immediately following the previous one).

The concerto was well received and soon became regarded as one of the greatest violin concertos of all time. The concerto remains popular to this day and has developed a reputation as an essential concerto for all aspiring concert violinists to master, and usually one of the first Romantic era concertos they learn. Many professional violinists have recorded the concerto and the work is regularly performed in concerts and classical music competitions.

Mendelssohn also wrote a virtuoso Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra in D minor between 1821 and 1823, when he was 12 to 14 years old, at the same time that he produced his twelve string symphonies. This work was "rediscovered" in 1951 by Yehudi Menuhin.

Music

Instrumental

• two flutes
• two oboes
• two clarinets
• two bassoons
• two horns
• two trumpets
• timpani
• I & II violins
• violas 
• cellos
• basses

Form

Consist of 3 movements:

1 Allegro molto appassionato (E minor)

2 Andante (C major)

3 Allegretto non troppo – Allegro molto vivace (E major)

Allegro molto appassionato

Instead of an orchestral tutti, the concerto opens with the almost immediate entry of the solo violin, playing the very tune in E minor that gave Mendelssohn no peace. Following a bravura of rapidly ascending notes, the opening theme is then restated by the orchestra. There is then a frenetic chromatic transition passage as the music subsides and modulates into a tranquil second subject theme in G major. The melody is initially played by the woodwinds with the soloist providing a pedal note on an open G string. The tune is played by the solo violin itself before a short codetta ends the exposition section of the opening movement. The opening two themes are then combined in the development section, where the music builds up to the innovative cadenza, which Mendelssohn wrote out in full rather than allowing the soloist to improvise. The cadenza builds up speed through rhythmic shifts from quavers to quaver-triplets and finally to semiquavers, which require ricochet bowing from the soloist. This serves as a link to the recapitulation, where the opening melody is played by the orchestra, accompanied by the continuing ricochet arpeggios by the soloist. During the recapitulation, the opening themes are repeated with the second theme being played in the E major before returning to E minor for the closing of the movement. The music gathers speed into the coda, which is marked 'Presto', before a variant of the original chromatic transition passage ends the first movement.

Andante

The bassoon sustains its B from the final chord of the first movement before moving up a semitone to middle C. This serves as a key change from the E minor opening movement into the lyrical C major slow movement. The movement is in ternary form and is reminiscent of Mendelssohn's own Songs without Words The theme to the darker, middle section in A minor is first introduced by the orchestra before the violin then takes up both the melody and the accompaniment simultaneously. The tremulous accompaniment requires nimble dexterity from the soloist before the music returns to the main lyrical C major theme, this time leading towards a serene conclusion.

Allegretto non troppo – Allegro molto vivace

Following the second movement, there is a brief fourteen-bar transitional passage in E minor for solo violin and strings only. This leads into the lively and effervescent finale, the whole of which is in E major and whose opening is marked by a trumpet fanfare. This movement is in sonata rondo form with an opening theme requiring fast passage work from the soloist. The opening exposition leads into a brief second B major theme which is played by the soloist and builds to a series of rapidly ascending and descending arpeggios, reminiscent of the cadenza from the first movement. The orchestra then plays a variation of the opening melody, after which the music moves into a short development section in G major The recapitulation is essentially similar to the exposition, apart from the addition of a counter-melody in the strings. There is almost a small cadenza near the end of the movement when the woodwinds play the main tune against prolonged trills from the solo violin. The concerto then concludes with a frenetic coda.

Analysis

The concerto is innovative in many respects. In the first movement alone, Mendelssohn departs from the typical form of a Classical concerto in many ways, the most immediate being the entry of the soloist almost from the outset, which also occurs in his First Piano Concerto. Although the first movement is mostly in sonata form, Mendelssohn has the first theme played by the solo violin and then by the orchestra. Classical concertos typically opened with an orchestral introduction followed by a version of essentially the same material that incorporates the soloist.

The cadenza is also novel in that it is written out as part of the concerto and located before the recapitulation. In a typical Classical concerto, the cadenza is improvised by the performing soloist and occurs at the end of a movement, after the recapitulation and just before the final coda.

The violin concerto stands out from previous concertos with its connected movements. There is no break between the first and second movements, with a bassoon note held between the two. The bridging passage between the last two movements begins almost immediately after the slow movement. The melody is similar to that of the opening, which hints at the cyclic form of the piece. The linking was designed to eliminate applause between movements. This would have come as a surprise to Mendelssohn's audience, who, unlike today's, were used to applauding between movements.

The concerto also calls on the soloist to be nothing more than an accompanist to the orchestra for extended periods, such as the ricochet arpeggios at the start of the recapitulation. This too was novel for a violin concerto of its time.

Mendelssohn Violin Concerto (Full Movement) video:

Mendelssohn Violin Concerto (Full Score) pdf files:

http://conquest.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/a/af/IMSLP24558-PMLP04931-Mendelssohn_Violin_Concerto_Op.64.pdf

The A minor Piano Concerto (Grieg)

Edvard Grieg

Title: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16

Composer: Edvard Grieg

Composed in 1868

First premiered by Edmund Neupert on April 3, 1869 in Copenhagen, 

with Holger Simon Paulli conducting

The work is among Grieg's earliest important works, written by the 24-year-old composer in 1868 in Søllerød, Denmark, during one of his visits there to benefit from the climate, which was warmer than that of his native Norway.

Grieg's concerto is often compared to the Piano Concerto of Robert Schumann — it is in the same key, the opening descending flourish on the piano is similar, and the overall style is considered to be closer to Schumann than any other single composer. Incidentally, both wrote only one concerto for piano. Grieg had heard Schumann's concerto played by Clara Schumann in Leipzig in 1858 (1859 is given by alternative sources), and was greatly influenced by Schumann's style generally, having been taught the piano by Schumann's friend, Ernst Ferdinand Wenzel. Compact disc recordings often pair the two concertos.

Additionally, Grieg's work provides evidence of his interest in Norwegian folk music; the opening flourish is based around the motif of a falling minor second (see interval) followed by a falling major third, which is typical of the folk music of Grieg's native country. This specific motif occurs in other works by Grieg, including the String Quartet No. 1. In the last movement of the concerto, similarities to the halling (a Norwegian folk dance) and imitations of the Hardanger fiddle (the Norwegian folk fiddle) have been detected.

Music

Instrumental

• 2 flutes
• 2 oboes
• 2 clarinets in A and B flat
• 2 bassoons
• 2 horns in E and E flat
• 2 trumpets in C and B flat
• 2 trombones
• tuba
• timpani
• I & II violins
• violas
• cellos
• double basses
• Grieg later added 2 horns and changed the tuba to a third trombone.

Form

The concerto is in three movements:

1 Allegro molto moderato (A minor)

2 Adagio (D-flat major)

3 Allegro moderato molto e marcato - Quasi presto - Andante maestoso (A minor/F major/A minor/A major)

The first movement is noted for the timpani roll in the first bar that leads to a dramatic piano flourish. The movement is in the Sonata form. The movement finishes with a virtuosic cadenza and a similar flourish as in the beginning.

Beginning of the Piano Concerto

The second movement is a lyrical movement in D-flat major, which leads directly into the third movement.

The third movement opens in A minor 4/4 time with an energetic theme (Theme 1), which is followed by a lyrical theme in F major (Theme 2). The movement returns to Theme 1. Following this recapitulation is the 3/4 A major Quasi presto section, which consists of a variation of Theme 1. The movement concludes with the Andante maestoso in A major, which consists of a dramatic rendition of Theme 2 (as opposed to the lyrical fashion with which Theme 2 is introduced).

Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor (Full Movement) video:

Grieg Piano Concerto In A minor (Composer's Manuscript) pdf file:

http://imslp.org/imglnks/usimg/f/fb/IMSLP116898-PMLP03728-Grieg_Pianokonsert_NB67_part.pdf