Brandenburg Concertos composed by Sebastian Bach during the early part of the 18th century attract the attention of many modern orchestras because of their complex rhythmic patterns. As a result, there are variations of such concertos as Brandenburg Concerto no. 2 that was played by both period and modern instruments. Period instruments are used in order to achieve the sound typical for the Baroque era, when modern instruments are used to demonstrate the benefits of changed or advanced instruments (Sadie 112). In order to understand the variety of the sound in Brandenburg Concerto no. 2, it is important to compare and contrast the concerto performances made by period and modern instruments and focus on such aspects as differences in the sound of instruments, differences in voices and techniques used by performers as well as differences in performers’ intentions.
Gustav Leonhardt leading the Leonhardt Consort focused on the use of period instruments in order to reflect the characteristic features of the sound typical for the Baroque era. The unique sound of Brandenburg Concerto no. 2 played by the period instruments is a result of focusing on clarion, recorder, oboe, violin, viola, violone, and basso continuo. Thus, the sound of a trumpet that is used for clarion playing in this variant is characterized by the lower pitch. Still, the tone is more vivid in comparison with a clarion. In its turn, the use of a recorder adds the brilliance to the overall sound. Furthermore, solo voices and violin voices seem to be more combined to play in unison (Yang 37). In addition, performers aim to focus on the authentic cadence and make the rhythm stronger.
In his turn, Raymond Leppard leading the English Chamber Orchestra adapted Brandenburg Concerto no. 2 in terms of using modern instruments and focusing on other approaches to ornamentation. Thus, in modern versions of the concerto, a clarino or a valve trumpet can be changed with a piccolo trumpet. The timbre of the piccolo trumpet can be discussed as brighter than in the previous versions of the concerto. As a result, the pitch becomes higher (Boyd 76). Still, the performers intend to add the depth to the sound while focusing on the texture and on colorful vibrato of violins. Changes in the sound are also observed because of using the traditional flute instead of the original recorder.
While referring to the differences that are characteristic for two performances of Brandenburg Concerto no. 2, it is important to mention variations in the nature of the sound that is mellower in the modern performance because of the accentuated violins and little use of the sound typical for harpsichord. As a result, the ornamentation seemed to be changed, and textural contrasts sound to be more prominent in the original version of Brandenburg Concerto no. 2 (Schulenberg 112). Direct changes in the harmonic and rhythmic structures are not observed, but there are few changes in accents supported with violins and a flute that can be heard in the modern performance of Brandenburg Concerto no. 2.
In this context, it is possible to state that the use of different instruments influences the sound of the concerto significantly, as it is noticed with references to Brandenburg Concerto no. 2, played by the Leonhardt Consort and the English Chamber Orchestra. In addition, the selection of instruments influences the conductor and performers’ choice of techniques in order to adapt the original sound to the modern performance.
Works Cited
Boyd, Malcolm. Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Print.
Sadie, Julie Anne. Companion to Baroque Music. San Francisco: University of California Press, 1998. Print.
Schulenberg, David. Music of the Baroque. New York: OUP USA, 2008. Print.
Yang, Yaokun. An Analytical Study on Performance Practices. New York: AbbottPress, 2014. Print.
On Saturday, April 27, 2013, I have been to Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto at Pasadena Symphony. The Spanish brilliant musician Jose Luis Gomez conducted this concert. He was born in Venezuela. Gomez started his music career as a violinist. At the age of 11 years old he became Concertmaster of the Youth Orchestra of Zulia State – part of El Sistema de Orquestas Juveniles de Venezuela. Lu Jia, Muhai Tang and John Nelson taught him. After only six months of study, he participated in Georg Solti competition and won it. Critics say that he knows how to emphasize the sounds of orchestra with the help of rhythmic oscillations and illuminating pauses. He offers listener an interpretation of his own using his experience of an orchestral violinist. Many listeners describe him as musically vibrant conductor.
Chee-Yun was a main violin. She is the winner of the 1989 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the 1990 Avery Fisher Career Grant. She regularly performs with the world’s most famous orchestras. Among them are Philadelphia Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, and the Toronto, Houston, Seattle, Pittsburgh and National symphony orchestras. Chee-Yun has a flawless, utterly secure and wonderful technique and extraordinary talent. She is a born performer, self-confident, deeply passionate and brilliantly artistic instrumentalist. Chee-Yun has a smooth, rich and dazzling tone. She toured with the Haifa Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Germany’s Braunschweig Orchestra and the MDR Radio Leipzig. Her releases in the Denon label include Mendelssohn’s E Minor Violin Concerto, Vieuxtemps’ Violin Concerto No. 5, Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, and Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3, with the London Philharmonic, etc.
The composer-in-residence and conductor was Peter Boyer. He is among the most frequently performing composers in the US. He has over 300 public performances. Conductor Keith Lockhart chose Boyer for the Boston Pops 125th anniversary commission. It was arranged to honor the legacy of John, Robert and Ted Kennedy. Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, and Cherry Jones narrated the premiere of Boyer’s The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers. He created a centerpiece for the An American Salute: The Boston Pops at 125. It won a Boston/New England Emmy Award. Boyer was appointed as composer-in-residence for Tchaikovsky Violin Concert for this season.
“Apollo” from the Three Olympians. Peter Boyer (b. 1970)
This work was commissioned by the Conductors Institute in 2000. It is in three contrasting movements. These movements require different technique and interpretation from the conductor. The music of first movement is calm in mood, but at the same time, it is radiant and rather energetic. It is portraying Apollo. The second part (second movement) is a representation of the image of Aphrodite. Naturally, it is melodic, harmonic and lyrical. The last part is a portrayal of Ares (god of war). The music in this part is fast and impulsive. It has a galloping, angry rhythm.
Violin Concerto in D Minor, Opus 47. Jean Sibelius (1865 – 1957)
It was written in summer of 1903. The work was dedicated to Willy Burmester, leader of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. The work has three movements:
Allegro moderato in D minor and in 2/2 time
Adagio di molto in B-flat major and in 4/4 time
Allegro, ma non tanto in D major and in 3/4 time
The first movement is Allegro Moderato in D minor. It opens with a pianissimo strings, then goes soloist with IV-V-I phrase, in D minor G-A-D, etc. By the end, cadenza opens into the recapitulation. The second movement is Adagio di molto in B-flat major. It is very lyrical. The third movement is Allegro, ma non tanto in D major. It has formidable technical difficulty. It is also known as one of the greatest concerto movements. The rhythmic percussion in the opening continues with a boldly entry of the violin. Its first theme features staccato double-stops and run with rapid string-crossing. The second theme is almost a waltz. The variations of it are played with arpeggios and double-stops. A run of octaves leads to a recapitulation of the previous theme. The last section is introduced with clarinet and low brass. It is featured with sardonic passage and violin passage of harmonics. It leads to a double stops and soaring octaves. Then goes a brief orchestral tutti and the finish in violin.
The Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68, Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897)
The symphony is in four movements:
Un poco sostenuto – Allegro – Meno allegro (C minor)
Andante sostenuto (E major)
Un poco allegretto e grazioso (A-flat major)
Adagio – Più andante – Allegro non troppo, ma con brio – Più allegro (C minor/C major)
The first movement is a large orchestral sonata. The second and third movements are more tensive than others. They have a lighter tone. The third movement composed of the Allegretto, which is contrasting “trio” section. It is in ternary form (ABA). It is calm and stepwise melody. Then a descending dotted-eighth pattern in theme B. The C and D themes are different. They are more angular rhythmically. Then follows the reprise. The special attention is paid to symmetry.
The fourth movement can be described as a “gloomy dramatic rhetoric”. The last section ends with a grand finale melody.
Clarinet concerto in A major, K. 622, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791)
The Clarinet concerto was written in 1791. It was written for the clarinetist Anton Stadler. It consists of three movements:
Allegro
Adagio
Rondo: Allegro
The concerto has a fast–slow–fast form. It has a delicate interplay between orchestra and soloist. The first movement is joyful and light. Then it transforms into a flurry. The second theme is more subtle. The second movement has a rounded binary form. The B section is prominent. It exploits the chalumeau and clarion registers. The third movement is a cheerful refrain. It is a rondo and sonata mixed together. The first B is very lyrical, features dramatic lines. The C is a most dramatic part of the concert. It is a dialog between soprano and baritone. It changes from F♯ Minor back to A major. The modern scoring is for solo clarinet in A, flute I/II, bassoon I/II, horn I/II (in A and D), violin I/II, viola, cello, and double bass.
The Symphony No. 4 in G major, Gustav Mahler (1860 – 1911)
The Symphony No. 4 in G major was written in 1899-1900. The symphony consists of four movements:
Bedächtig, nicht eilen
In gemächlicher Bewegung, ohne Hast
Ruhevoll, poco adagio
Sehr behaglich
The first movement can be described as moderately and it is not rushed. It has a sonata form and it is unusually restrained. It possesses a classical poise. The second movement is leisurely moving, without haste. It is a scherzo and trio. The third form is a peaceful melody, somewhat slowly. It has a theme and different variations of it. The fourth form can be described as very comfortable. It is strophic. It opens with relaxed, bucolic scene in G major. It presents a sunny vision of Heaven.
The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893)
The Violin Concerto was written in 1878. It is one of the world’s best known. It is also one of the most technically difficult among all. The concerto is naturally consists of three movements:
Allegro moderato (D major)
Canzonetta: Andante (G minor)
Finale: Allegro vivacissimo (D major)
His concerto has a lot of piquant rhythms and freshness. It was described by musicians of that time as light and fresh. It has outstanding and excellently harmonized melodies.
In the Steppes of Central Asia, Alexander Borodin (1833 – 1887)
It is an eight-minute masterpiece. This symphonic poem shows an interaction between Russians and Asians in the steppe of the Caucasus. It begins with a dominant pedal. The opening represents the Russians. Then, the melancholy notes of Eastern melody on English horn can be heard. The tranquil songs gradually combine contrapuntally in harmony rising to a powerful climax. In addition, in the middle a “traveling” theme played in pizzicato can be heard. The symphony consists of four elements. The first one is a sustained violin harmonic. Second is pizzicato loping figure. Others are a Russian folksong and an Eastern melody.
The instruments used in Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto are 14 first violins, 10 second violins, 9 violas, 10 cellos, 9 basses, 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contra bassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, harp, piano, timpani, 2 percussion. The string section was, naturally, the largest one. It included five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos and the basses. First violins, second violins, violas and cellos were clockwise around the conductor. To the right, basses were behind the cellos.
I was a good and attentive listener, because the performance was exciting. Performing musicians completely caught my attention. I did enjoyed the concert very much. Chee-Yun was brilliant, as expected. Jose Gomez was very energetic and gorgeous. He is a great conductor, no doubt. The whole concert was flawless and inspiring. The music was creating vivid images in listeners’ minds. Sometimes it was almost material, flowing through the veins right to the heart.
The tempo of the third movement of Johannes Brahms’s Violin Concerto can be described as moderate to fast and joyful, which produces the effect of vividness and guarantees a listener’s involvement. The performance of a violinist seems to be dynamic, accentuating frequent changes in the tempo and tone, and it differs significantly from the tempo of the first two movements. As a result, intense and colorful changes in dynamics are perceived as the remarkable aspect of the third movement in Brahms’s Violin Concerto.
Specific techniques that a violinist uses in order to achieve certain effects in performance and the pattern of a melody are associated with violin fingering techniques and bowing techniques. The most influential bowing technique, in this case, is staccato that affects the sound and changes in melodic accents.
While describing the mood or character of the music in relation to Brahms’s Violin Concerto with reference to the third movement, it is possible to state that the mood of the piece is lively and energetic. This mood is created with the help of using contrasts intones, patterns, and melodic parts to compose the colorful and joyful unity. This effect is also the result of melodic and temporal repetitions in the movement to accentuate its vividness. The tone quality of a solo violinist can be described as dynamic but delicate.
The reason is that the main focus is on a solo violinist and the motif he or she plays to be replicated and supported by the orchestra. A violinist’s task in this piece is to perform and accentuate rich harmonic and melodic patterns to be reflected by the orchestra and to create a certain tone quality. As a result, the piece becomes dynamic, lively, and exciting for a listener focused on the figure of a violinist.
There are some obvious reasons why Bach’s music has had such appeal to reception historians. Its “rediscovery” in the early nineteenth century, after all, “marked the first time that a great composer, after a period of neglect, was accorded his rightful place by a later generation” and, as an early example of new historicism, “eventually opened all periods of Western music to discovery and performance.” 1
The vigor and intensity of the Bach revival were so decisive that most of the research conducted on Bach reception history has tended to focus on the nineteenth century. But this is not to imply that scholars have been uninterested in how Bach’s music was received during his lifetime and the fifty years after his death. They have long studied the aesthetic responses to it recorded in eighteenth-century sources and, considering the many items that still await detailed examination, will probably continue this line of investigation for some time to come.
These aesthetic responses do tell us something about how Bach’s contemporaries and immediate successors viewed his music. Yet they are frequently of a general nature, providing no clues whatever as to the particular works that prompted them in the first place. Johann Mattheson’s report of 1717, the first reference to Bach in print, is typical: “I have seen things by the famous organist of Weimar, Mr. Joh. Sebastian Bach, both for the church and for the fist, that is certainly such as must make esteem the man highly.” 2
Besides his obvious admiration for Bach as a composer of keyboard music and sacred vocal works, little can be deduced from Mattheson’s words. Judging from what has survived of Bach’s sacred vocal output up to 1717 the “things…for the church” are sacred cantatas, for there is little else extant. But one wonders which cantatas could have made such a positive impression on Mattheson since the only Bach cantata he is known to have been acquainted with is one he ridiculed for its repetitive text declamation.3 And by “things…for the fist” does he mean organ or harpsichord music, and what genres of organ or harpsichord music does he have in mind?
The lack of documentation precludes any real answers. Could it be demonstrated, though, that if Mattheson at the time of his report owned a manuscript containing this or that Bach cantata or keyboard work, one would clearly be in a better position to entertain questions like these? It is not entirely out of the question that one day such evidence will surface, given the strong interest today in the eighteenth-century manuscript copies of Bach’s music.
Manuscript copies of Bach’s music are manuscripts in the hand of someone other than Bach or, to put it another way, manuscripts in the hand of a copyist instead of the composer. Mattheson’s hypothetical Bach source would most likely have been a manuscript rather than a printed copy, simply because printed music of any type was a rarity in eighteenth-century Germany. The printing process was costly by today’s standards — which in itself were an impediment to publication — and even when composers were lucky enough to have their music published, relatively few copies were ever issued. If a musician wanted to add a composition to his library he usually had little choice but to copy it out by hand.
Not surprisingly, manuscript copies are frequently the by-products of student-teacher relationships. We know, for instance, that Bach taught his own keyboard works to his keyboard pupils and that the pupils prepared manuscript copies of these compositions during the period of instruction. 4Whether Bach required his students to make their own copies because he was reluctant to let them practice from his or whether the students took it upon themselves to prepare copies (for whatever reasons) are moot questions. The important realization is that these pupils prepared manuscript copies from which their pupils (Bach’s grand-pupils), in turn, prepared manuscript copies from which their pupils (Bach’s great grand-pupils), in turn, prepared manuscript copies and so forth, ad infinitum.
Of course, not all of the eighteenth-century manuscript copies of Bach’s music stem from the “pupils-of-pupils” line of transmission. Bach’s colleagues diligently copied his music as well and they allowed their manuscripts to be copied by their colleagues and pupils. The result was a scribal network that, by virtue of its many channels, covered a good deal of Germany. It can scarcely be questioned, therefore, that the “copyists-of-copyists” legacy was the chief means by which Bach’s music was disseminated throughout Europe during the eighteenth century.
It is arguable that these manuscript copies are just as important for reception historians as are the aesthetic responses discussed above.5 Rarely do they tell us anything about the scribe’s attitude toward the music.6 But they do make it possible to establish incontrovertibly a number of important facts about the music that the aesthetic responses often do not yield: they tell us precisely what Bach works were known when they were known, who knew them, and where they were known. Armed with this factual data, it is easier to discuss the various roles that the works might have played in eighteenth-century musical life.
For example, if we know an eighteenth-century copyist of a large number of Bach organ works to have been a church organist, organ recitalist, organ pedagogue, and composer of organ music, it seems likely enough that he played them during worship services, included them on his recitals, taught them to his students, and emulated them in his own organ compositions. The likelihood becomes greater still when we know from other sources just how greatly the copyist admired Bach’s music.
One such copyist was the Gräfenroda cantor, Johann Peter Kellner, unquestionably one of the most important copyists in the sources for Bach’s instrumental works, particularly the keyboard music. Besides being personally acquainted with Bach, he was a prolific copyist of Bach’s music. His Bach copies have survived a total of forty-six manuscripts and it appears that several others have disappeared. Due to the dearth of autograph material, in many instances, a Kellner copy is the earliest extant source for a Bach work and in a few cases the only source. Similar statements could be made about the Bach copies made by Kellner’s students and copyists.
The importance of the Kellner circle in the dissemination of Bach’s music has been acknowledged for years and it may therefore come as a surprise that these manuscripts have never been singled out for a large or even small-scale study. Why no such study has been undertaken is hard to say but most likely two fundamental obstacles are to blame: Kellner’s students and copyists mimicked his handwriting, making it difficult to distinguish their copies from his; and very few of the sources are dated, which means, of course, that proposing a chronology is problematic. At any rate, these two stumbling blocks are clearly the reason why the little information that has been published on these sources is largely contradictory and incomplete. This study aims to rectify the misinformation, to fill in the lacunae. It purports not only to make a contribution to Bach’s reception history but also to shed light on the chronology, compositional history, and authenticity of the music itself.
Clavierübung III was Bach’s first publication for organ, respectfully received by younger contemporaries such as Lorenz Mizler. The author has given here new proof that in this kind of composition he excels many others in experience and skill… This work is a powerful refutation of those who took it upon themselves to criticize the Court Composer’s music.
The last remark must refer to the attack made on Bach by J. A. Scheibe in 1737, although Scheibe had not specified organ music and it is hard to see how such complex music could be ‘Bach’s rebuttal to Scheibe’s barb’– rather the contrary. Perhaps Mattheson’s remarks in 1739 on the limits of modern organ music prompted a monumental survey, though this may over-estimate Mattheson’s influence as well. More likely is that really fine music such as Frescobaldi’s Fiori musicali wielded lifelong influence on Bach and would inspire him to produce his own Kyrie settings.
Much of Bach’s wording, as on his other Clavierübung title pages, is close to Kuhnau’s, the first of which appeared in Leipzig exactly fifty years earlier, to the day perhaps. Moreover, Kuhnau’s second volume distinguishes between beginners and those knowledgeable enough to find in its fugues material for further contemplation. The term Clavierübung was probably coined by him as a quasi-translation of musica prattica in earlier seventeenth-century Italian publications.
While Clavierübung III is clearly not merely a miscellaneous album, its nature has been in some dispute, whether it is a ‘closely-knit group of pieces’ or actually in one way or another a ‘cycle’. That the volume was being expanded in the course of being engraved would not necessarily explain why the Prelude and Fugue are separated, why the Duets were included, or why the title page mentions neither. Since the engraver Krügner also worked on Kauffmann’s Harmonische Seelenlust, it is likely that Bach was responding to such local chorale settings, using their styles to new ends. And since the Fugue shares minor details with a fugue by Hurlebusch, perhaps it was composed in response to it, not originally for Clavierübung III.
A few differences between Neumeister’s copy and the autograph version of two Ob chorales suggest that as his style matured, Bach thought out the note-patterns and the accented passing-note harmony more carefully. The original structures and gestures in earlier settings give way in the Ob to a reliance on harmony so subtle as to convey alone, without structural experimentation, an original and unique Affekt, even with more-or-less standard cadences.
Generally, the chorales attributed to J. S. Bach have counterpoint more carefully conceived and sustained, and chorale-melodies more integrated (same note-values), than those by Johann Michael Bach, whose treatment of harmony and motifs is closer to that of BWV 1100. In such a setting, decorations embellish the harmony but do not move it on in new directions. Details typical of Böhm, including his phraseology, have been recognized in BWV 1120, which, like some others, gives a vocal impression as if imitating choral music, including the work of Bach-family members. But the priority is not always certain– are Böhm settings, or the relevant choral works, always earlier than ‘Neumeister’?
Some of the chorales attributed to J. S. Bach seem to anticipate moments in the Chorale ‘Partitas’, as if the latter were a stepping-stone on the way to the Ob, as perhaps they were. But comparisons with first-class music might not always be appropriate: the idea that some ‘Neumeister’ chorales borrow elements from characteristic North German chorales– changes of meter, migration of c.f.– misses the likelihood that broken-up settings of a simple kind were known throughout Lutheran provinces, easily improvised or composed by minor organists, polished somewhat by a J. M. Bach but given their grandest form only in the work of the northern masters, who are therefore not quite representative. Just as the modest if the voluminous collection of chorales by Daniel Vetter of Leipzig (1709, 1713) is likely to have prompted the Ob project as much if not more than finer music by Buxtehude, so local hymn-collecting in Thuringia would have been the context for Neumeister’s source, as for other collections like the Plauener Orgelbuch.
Baroque music originated in the Baroque period (1600-1750). This style of music was crafted from the idea that music could move the listener in emotional and physical ways. Some key points behind baroque music are the textures, which consist mainly of the melody and accompaniment, freely mixed arrangements of instruments and voices, and rhythms from dance music. The melody often makes dramatic and unexpected leaps. Harmonies are based on minor and major tones, and disagreement between notes is more common than in most music. Bach, using all of these techniques in his music, gave baroque music a new name and introduced a whole new world of music to its listeners.
Unquestionably, Bach had a style unique to itself. Every piece of his has an individual style to it that made it easily recognizable as “Bach”. He, without a doubt, had a natural gift for writing beautiful and expressive melodies. It is sometimes said that Bach’s music makes too many demands upon the listener; therefore it is enjoyable only to major musicians. It may be true that early Bach students require an initiation to his style, but an appreciative listener certainly does not require a college degree. What amateur has not been moved by masterpieces such as “Air on the G String,” and “Sheep May Safely Graze”? Regardless of one’s musical taste, there is an experience that will reach out and grab anyone who hears a good Bach tune.
The technicalities of Bach’s music were simply amazing in the places and ways he used them. He was labeled “a master of tricks”. 7In his music, Bach introduced interesting playing techniques such as counterpoint, fugue, and cannon. Counterpoint, roughly translating to “note against note,” is the art of combining two or more melodies with each other to blend and make a whole tone. Different instruments can also, instead of playing different melodies, exchange variations of the same melody.
This is known as a fugue. Last is cannon, in which the same exact melody is played by different instruments, but they all start in different places. Also in his music, a technique known as “Fortspinnung” was often used toward the beginning of his movements. Fortspinnung is the consistent repetition of a small melody, especially in baroque music. “Bach’s music represents the crowning achievement of architectonic principles and processes practiced by the western world for half a millennium”.8
Of the massive amount of pieces Bach wrote, a large quantity was vocal works, almost all of which was accompanied by an orchestra. Of these, about 200 of 300 cantatas are known. He wrote many pieces for violin and orchestra and for harpsichord and orchestra, the art of which has mostly been lost. Six suites each were written for solo violin and solo cello. Bach had a particular talent for playing the harpsichord. He expressed his great love for harpsichord music by writing for it 48 preludes and 48 fugues, six French and English suites, and plenty of smaller pieces. These songs are still known and played today and have been a large influence on composers such as Scriabin and Chopin who wish to explore musically the moods and expressions of the human mind. Finally, Bach wrote two songs for no particular instrument, “The Art of the Fugue” and “Musical Offering.” These were both created to display compositional techniques in action and create an overall beautiful sound.
It is generally acknowledged that in his time, Bach had no musical peer. Even though Bach did not achieve serious acclaim until after his death, he is acknowledged as one of the great composers who ever lived and certainly the greatest composer of baroque music. 9In terms of modern composers, one might compare the genius of Bach to that of Paul McCartney. Both musicians possess the huge musical talent and have written many wonderful pieces. Each contributed to changing the face of the music of his time. Where Bach and McCartney differ most is in their level of popularity during their lifetime. During his life, Bach was looked upon as a being of little importance and his music was not respected. Paul McCartney, of course, enjoys the love and respect of millions of fans.
During his life, Bach was not given the fame he deserved. He was known primarily as an organist and harpsichord player rather than as a composer. For years following his death (1750), his music remained unrecognized until the 19th century, when he was finally acknowledged as the musical genius he was. Perhaps the person most influenced and appreciative of his music was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart first heard Bach’s music in the year 1782, and he instantly loved it. He enjoyed its energy and testing of boundaries.
Bach’s Weimar Period and Changed Compositional Style
One way of understanding his diversity is through the preexisting forms taken by Bach as compositional models.
In the first decade of the eighteenth century, Hamburg was the musical capital of Germany, and we should err in supposing its musical apparatus to have been completely available elsewhere. Its adoption of the Waldhorn, consequently, cannot certainly indicate contemporary use of the instrument by the smaller communities to which Bach devoted his earliest service. Despite religious controversies in Weimar, he thrived, particularly as a composer of some exciting cantatas, and on 17 October 1707, he married his second cousin Maria Barbara.
The logical rigor of much of Bach’s music (including some of his finest works) and its total lack of easy concessions to popular taste might suggest an aloof and unbending figure. But while he was uncompromising on artistic matters Bach was not without a lighter side to his temperament. His love of wine, beer, and tobacco, and the fact that he fathered 20 children is enough to show that he did not scorn life’s more sensual pleasures.
Lutheran Protestantism was the uncontested religion of Saxony and the Saxon duchies, a region beyond which Bach rarely traveled. When he joined the staff of the Leipzig Thomasschule in 1723, he was interviewed to test his religious motivation and stance and asked to sign statements confirming his opposition to Calvinism. However, this official conformity, supposedly upheld by a system of school inspections, could not guarantee dedicated devotion, and it was completely possible for an experienced composer–Telemann is perhaps a good example–to conform to the requirements of the age without actually being more than superficially religious. Indeed it has several times been suggested that Bach’s music proceeds only from a studious and professional thoroughness.
The French were not equipped with the orchestral horn until the decade following Bach’s death, and that the change of tone was associated with the adoption of an embouchure different from that used by horn players in the time of Bach and Handel, who placed the mouthpiece on the lower lip; while, in the horn embouchure, two-thirds of the mouthpiece lies on the upper lip, and the rim, narrower than that of a trumpet mouthpiece, is sunk in the red part of the under lip.
The nature of Bach’s horn parts forbids one to suppose that he ever used the obsolete Jagdhorn of Praetorius’ time. In the second place, Mattheson’s eulogy of the ‘lieblich’ Waldhorn certainly indicates an agreeably mellow tone that distinguished it from the hunting horn it immediately superseded. In the third place, the view that ‘Como’ and ‘Cornoda caccia’ indicate the same instrument is contradicted by Bach’s practice. If there is one thing clearly revealed in his scores, it is his meticulous indication of instrumental tone.
Hence we have a sound reason for supposing that the terms ‘Como’ and ‘Cornoda caccia’ distinguish the mellow tone Mattheson associated with the Waldhorn, and the more strident tone of the traditional Jagdhorn, which the newer instrument had not yet supplanted at those princely Courts, e.g. Weimar and Cöthen, where the horn was still an instrument of the palace. It is certainly significant that Bach’s use of the ‘Como’ exactly coincides with the cessation of his courtly service, and with the beginning of his career in a community in which the ceremonial hunting horn had not a similar vogue.
Bach’s usage shows no originality in early works. He treats the instrument as custom prescribed, denying it the individuality with which Handel endowed it in Saul (1738) some eighteen years later. There is evidence, however, of experimental development in the instrumental movements of the church cantatas in which the bassoon is scored. The Cöthen standard is apparent in those of the Weimar period — Nos. 12, 18, 21, 31, and 150. The Sinfonia or Sonata which opens all of them generally exhibits the bassoon in strict unison with the continuo or tied to the oboes when they are present.
Without question, Johann Sebastian Bach is the greatest baroque composer who ever lived. Whether it’s his variety or quantity of music, his music techniques, and theory, or his enormous musical influence, he is the acknowledged father of baroque music. His talent for playing, arranging, and composing eventually earned him a reputation as a phenomenal composer and musician. Bach brought a whole new world of music into this world, and his music works will always be recognized as being one of the greatest things that happened to the music itself.
Despite no evidence that such a group of chorales was conceived in Weimar, their difference from Ob settings makes them complementary to it. Sources for BWV 667a and 667b have been interpreted as showing chorales undergoing expansion already in Weimar, and if Bach was responding to chorales published by Pachelbel in 1693, he was aiming at a yet greater scale. Some of Pachelbel’s, such as ‘Wir glauben’, is quite extensive and can ‘be used for preluding during the service’. The long, meditative organ-chorale-if not often as long as BWV 652a– was a stranger in Thuringia.
Even if copies of various chorales by Walther and Krebs belong to Weimar 1710–14, when most were originally composed is less clear– mostly before the Ob, to judge by the music itself, its less consistent part-writing, less extensive use of canon, and less tense harmony. ‘O Lamm Gottes’ BWV 656 is surely earlier than BWV 618, just as the three-verse BWV 656, an updated version of Pachelbel’s models, is earlier than BWV 627.
Bach’s overall compositional style changed dramatically due to his encounter with contemporary Italian music, particularly that of Vivaldi. Indeed, Bach’s assimilation of this repertory during the latter half of his Weimar period represents the single most critical development toward the formation of his own personal style, a style whose basis is the blending of Italianisms with complex polyphony. 10
References
Cammarota, Robert Michael The Repertoire of Magnificats in Leipzig at the Time of J. S. Bach: A Study of the Manuscript Sources (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1986), 250-52.
Christoph Wolff et al., The New Grove Bach Family (New York: W. W. Norton, 1983), 122, 167-68.
Christoph Wolff: (2000). Johann Sebastian Bach, the learned musician, 241-243. New York, NY: W. W. Norton and Company.
George Stauffer, “Fugue Types in Bach’s Free Organ Works,” in J. S. Bach as Organist: His Instruments, Music, and Performance Practices, eds. George Stauffer and Ernest May ( Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), 133-56.
Humphreys, David “Did J. S. Bach Compose the F minor Prelude and Fugue BWV 534?” in Bach, Handel, Scarlatti: Tercentenary Essays, ed. Peter Williams (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 173-84.
John Butt (Editor): The Cambridge Companion to Bach (Cambridge Companions to Music) Cambridge University Press (1997): 33-34.
Schweitzer, A. (1966). J. S. Bach, 111-112. (Vol. 1). New York, NY: Dover.
Stinson, Russell The Bach Manuscripts of Johann Peter Kellner and his Circle (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1985), 17-21.
Wapnewski, Peter ( Berlin: Siedler-Verlag, 1986), 259-76, now available in English translation as “Bach in the Eighteenth Century,” in Bach Studies, ed. Don O. Franklin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 281-96.
Footnotes
Christoph Wolff et al., The New Grove Bach Family ( New York: W. W. Norton, 1983), 167-68.
George Stauffer, “Fugue Types in Bach’s Free Organ Works,” in J. S. Bach as Organist: His Instruments, Music, and Performance Practices, eds. George Stauffer and Ernest May ( Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), 133-56.
Humphreys, David “Did J. S. Bach Compose the F minor Prelude and Fugue BWV 534?” in Bach, Handel, Scarlatti: Tercentenary Essays, ed. Peter Williams (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 173-84.
Cammarota, Robert Michael The Repertoire of Magnificats in Leipzig at the Time of J. S. Bach: A Study of the Manuscript Sources (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1986), 250-52.
Wapnewski, Peter ( Berlin: Siedler-Verlag, 1986), 259-76, now available in English translation as “Bach in the Eighteenth Century,” in Bach Studies, ed. Don O. Franklin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 281-96.
Stinson, Russell The Bach Manuscripts of Johann Peter Kellner and his Circle (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1985), 17-21.
Christoph Wolff: (2000). Johann Sebastian Bach, the learned musician, 241-243. New York, NY: W. W. Norton and Company.
Schweitzer, A. (1966). J. S. Bach, 111-112. (Vol. 1). New York, NY: Dover.
John Butt (Editor): The Cambridge Companion to Bach (Cambridge Companions to Music) Cambridge University Press (1997): 33-34.
Christoph Wolff et al., The New Grove Bach Family ( New York: W. W. Norton, 1983), 122.
Kodály Zoltán, his name in Slovak and Hungarian, is a famous composer. He was born in Keeskemet, Hungary in 1882 and studied violin as a child. As he grew older he also studied piano and cello and learned to play the instruments on his own. He grew to be a teacher of music and an accomplished composer. In 1967 Hungary lost a “National Treasure”. He died at 80 years of age.
Composer
Kodály started composing at a young age. He composed an overture for the school orchestra where he was told that he was a talented musician and composer. He attended university in Budapest where he studied Hungarian, German, and English. He also studied composition at the school of music in Budapest. Kodály composed much during his lifetime. He also collected folk songs and used them in his compositions.
Kodály best known works include “the opera Háry János (1926, orchestral suite 1927), the Psalmus Hungaricus (1923) and Missa Brevis (1945) for chorus and orchestra, and orchestral dances”1. His collection of folk songs and dances influenced his work greatly. It is said that his compositions are “clean-cut, folk-infused music can be, particularly when it is played with precision and a keen ear for the music’s rhythmic life and instrumental colour.”2
Some of Kodály’s works are not so organized and there isn’t an opus available for some to act as a guide. An “opus” is a musical composition: a musical work that has been created.3
Educator
Although a great composer, Kodály is best known for his role as an educator. He made it his personal goal to improve the quality of music education for children in Hungary. His methods have gone past the borders of Hungary to the rest of the Western World. The method he taught is named for him but was created by another. It carries his name because he introduced its use beginning in Hungarian primary schools.
Kodály was disappointed with the level of music being taught (or not taught) to young children. Kodály believed that music training was a right that could not be ignored. Kodály wanted the education system to have better teachers, better curriculum, and class time set aside for music4. He also thought that music should be learned when children are young so that they could learn music like they were learning their mother-tongue.
The Method
The Kodály method focuses on teaching music by learning how to sing on pitch. The Curwen/Glover Hand Signs are designed to help teachers teach pitch:
Children are taught the hand signs and the sound or pitch associated with them. Once learned the moving of the hand up or down indicates the height or depth of the pitch. Students make the signs in front of the body.5 Children are introduced to both classical and folk music and are taught to sign on pitch with this method.
The Kodály Method is actually a combination of methods borrowed from other teaching techniques. Kodály’s students and colleagues put together what is today called the Kodály Method.
Children are also taught set rhythm symbols and Names:
Using the Kodály method, children are taught to sing, play instruments, and dance from memory.7 The teacher presents the material to the students using the same method every time. When a new song is presented children hear it first, then sing it, understand it, read and write it, and create it.8 During the teaching process the teachers use rhythm, symbols, and syllables. They use the hand signs and the children are taught that their voice is an instrument. A typical second grade music class would learn the “Viennese Musical Clock” to learn the concepts of rhythm, melody, form, and harmony.
The Kodály Method has been shown to improve “intonation, rhythm skills, music literacy, and the ability to sing increasingly complex parts”.9
Criticisms
Not everyone is a fan of Kodály or the Kodály Method. Some argue that those who have learned using the Kodály Method have a harder time learning staff notation.10 One teacher in particular, Kenneth McGuire of the University of Alabama, argued that students taught using this method have difficulty learning a single sixteenth note rhythm. The confusion may stem from the sixteenth note is called “ti” which is the same as the eight note. Mr. McGuire provides a solution to the problem. He teaches the sixteenth as “tu” retaining the “t” and adding the “u” oo sound11:
Conclusion
The Hungarian composer Kodály Zoltán contributed greatly to composing and the education of young. This Hungarian was also a collector of folk music that influenced his compositions. He was deeply troubled by the state of music education in his country and took steps to convince the socialist government to provided music education at the primary school level. His desire to improve the state of music education put him in the spotlight as an educator.
The Kodály Method was named for him but was actually a combination of several methods that were used successfully to teach music. Using the Kodály Method, teachers teach music to primary school students. The method is a combination of hand signs to indicate pitch and singing using the voice as the students’ first instrument. The method is used in eighteen different countries around the world including the United States.
The Kodály method has been used successfully to teach such concepts as rhythm, melody, form, and harmony. The method improves intonation, rhythm skills, music literacy, and the ability to sing increasingly complex parts.
Not all are fans of the method. Some instructors have developed a program to assist students with the transition to staff notation and and the sixteenth note.
Works Cited
D. “Kodaly: Cello works.” American Record Guide 66.5 (2003): 128(1). General Reference Center Gold. Gale. Web.
Classics for Kids® 1223 Central Parkway Cincinnati OH 45214. Web.
DeVries, Peter. “Reevaluating Common Kodaly Practices.” Music Educators Journal 88:3 (2001) 24-27.
Dobzsay, L. “The Kodály Method and Its Musical Bias.” Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 1972 15-33.
Eösze, László/Mícheál Houlahan, Philip Tacka: ‘Kodály, Zoltán’, Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy.
“Friday Review: Music Review: Classical CD releases: Bartok: Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta; Divertimento; Kodaly: Dances of Galanta Scottish Chamber Orchestra/ Mackerras (Linn) 4/5 pounds 13.99.” The Guardian (London, England) (2004): 20. General Reference Center Gold. Gale. Web.
“Kodaly, Zoltan.” The Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia University Press, 2000. 21428. General Reference Center Gold. Gale. 4 Apr. 2008 Gale Document Number:A69213798. Web.
McGuire, Kenneth. “A variation on Kodaly’s rhythm syllable system.” Teaching Music 11.2 (2003): 58(3). General Reference Center Gold. Gale. Web.
“Opus”. Definition: musical composition: a musical work that has been created; “the composition is written in four movements”. Web.
Footnotes
“Kodaly, Zoltan.” The Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia University Press, 2000. 21428.
Friday Review: Music Review: Classical CD releases: Bartok: Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta; Divertimento; Kodaly: Dances of Galanta Scottish Chamber Orchestra/ Mackerras.
“Opus”. Definition: musical composition: a musical work that has been created; “the composition is written in four movements”. Web.
Dobzsay, L. “The Kodály Method and Its Musical Bias.” Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 1972 15-33
Classics for Kids® 1223 Central Parkway Cincinnati OH 45214. Web.
IBID.
IBID.
IBID.
DeVries, Peter. “Reevaluating Common Kodaly Practices.” Music Educators Journal 88:3 (2001) 24-2.
Eösze, László/Mícheál Houlahan, Philip Tacka: ‘Kodály, Zoltán’, Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy.
McGuire, Kenneth. “A variation on Kodaly’s rhythm syllable system.” Teaching Music 11.2 (2003): 58(3).
Current music has been shaped by our histories. For centuries, music has expanded and diversified to accommodate other types of art. Before the XX century, society’s culture and physical features characterized music in America. However, during the XX century, social and economic issues such as wars, diseases, and workers’ welfares characterize the music.
By embodying these features, music has communicated and provoked social change in societies. In this research paper, one composer from the XX century is highlighted. The composer chosen is Charles Louis Seeger, Jr. As such, the research paper investigates how the composer’s works of art were useful to the music industry during his era. To come up with a comprehensive research paper, several literature reviews are analyzed, and interviews are conducted.
During the XX century, Seeger became renowned for his composition. His compositions became very popular, reaching over to millions of audience in the English speaking nations. For instance, the growth and popularity of folk songs during the century is attributed to his contribution.
He helped to popularize and break new grounds to intimate acoustic performance associated with folk music in contemporary society. Ever since then, music students, songwriters, singers, and scholars have been looking for new ways to popularize and add value to folk music to attract a wide range of audience.
The topic is of interest because the composer is considered the father of modern American folk songs. Throughout his lifetime, Seeger made enormous contributions in the field of music. Currently, he is accredited to the revitalization of some genres of music in the USA. Like his father, Seeger had considerable understanding of the academic approach to music.
Compositions by Seeger are worth studying because they illustrate how American music, especially folk music, evolved over the 20th century. By studying it, it can be revealed how the 20th-century composers struggled with advancements in technology and changing audiences’ preferences.
Literature review
Several literature reviews have been documented on Charles Seeger. Three literature reviews were utilized in the research. Their reliability had to be checked to ensure that they were scholarly. Evaluating the reliability of these sources involved several processes, and one of them was to look at whether the article or source is peer-reviewed or not.
It should be noted that there are several other kinds of literature that focus on the composer such as Understanding Charles Seeger and Studies in Musicology: 1935-1975. One of the literatures asserts that the composer was born in Mexico City (Pescatello 3). He was born to American parents in the year 1886. His father was a musician and a composer. Seeger attended Harvard University during the early 20th century. He graduated from the institution during the year 1908 (Pescatello 3).
He later moved to Germany to advance his education in music. While in Germany, the author asserts that the composer developed hearing impairment. After the tragedy, he left Germany to the USA. Back in the USA, the composer became a music lecturer at the University of California.
At the university, he taught for more than four years before being dismissed for conflicting with the government’s views. Later, he taught at the Institute of Musical Art, New York, between the years 1920 and 1932 (Pescatello 3). Similarly, he taught music at the New School for Social Research between the years 1930 to 1936.
Like his father, Seeger composed several popular folk songs in America during the early 20th century (Hicks 186). As a professor of music, Seeger worked relentlessly to publicize folk music among American societies. Through his teachings, he asserted that the American societies, unlike their ancestors, were music illiterates. In a bid to enhance folk music in the community, Seeger came up with a folk a society that was supposed to compose and perform vernacular songs.
In all these songs, survival, revival, and arrival, elements of folk songs were paramount. Seeger lamented that through folk songs, Americans could appreciate colonization, industrialization, and urbanization.
Through the article Folk Music in the Schools of a Highly Industrialized Society, Seeger asserted that all folklorists are required to preserve and pass on folk songs to the future generations (Hicks 187). To achieve this, he postulated that educators should be involved in teaching children the significance of folk songs as any other type of music.
Another literature asserts that just like his father Seeger perceived music to be vivacious and part of the current events rather than past events (Edmondson 1033). Through his works, he composed a remarkable diverse collection of folk songs from the USA and around the world.
He would perform his compositions before his audience to illustrate the importance of music in society. His understanding of several cultures made him popular among the youths who considered folk music as the music of the past and the lower class members of the society. Similarly, through his diverse cultural understanding, he was able to bridge the gap between the urban and rural audiences. Both the young and elderly thinkers appreciated and enjoyed his works.
Through Dissonant Counterpoint, he became a living legend of American folk songs during the mid 20th century. Similarly, through these contributions, he managed to be considered as a folk revivalist in the 20th century. Seeger’s compositions such as Asleep, When We Two Parted, and Endymion became popular among American youths (Edmondson 1035).
Body of the research
A research design is a methodical plan to investigate a research problem. Usually, five types of research design are available. They are co-relational, field (survey), experimental, qualitative, and meta-analysis. For this type of research, field or survey research design is going to be utilized. As such, field research encompasses of compilations of data outside of a lab, stores, or formal set up. The means and processes used in the fieldwork differ across researches.
For research, the information will be obtained through face-to-face interviewing, questionnaires, and analyzing the existing literature. The questions will be directed at individuals in natural environments. Usually, fieldwork entails a variety of distinct or inconsistent methods. The methods may include casual meetings, direct inspection, and group discussions.
Even though the process usually is categorized as qualitative research, it should be noted that at times the method might comprise of quantitative dimensions. By analyzing the existing literature about the composer, the researchers are going to gather a lot of useful information about the composer.
For this study, the data will also be collected through field research. The method entails acquiring public data from secure and reliable music institutions, face-to-face interviews, and questionnaires. Music institutions will provide the researchers with crucial information such as the composer’s present and past successes and failures. The sources are very efficient since they are bias-free.
The face-to-face interview will require a participant to question the composer’s fans in person to collect their personal views. During the interview, the contributors will be asked to detail perception of the composer. The questions used during the interviews are open-ended. Equally, questionnaires will be used to collect private information from the participants.
Conclusion
During the research, it was noted that modern music had been shaped by our past. Over the last few decades, music has expanded and diversified to accommodate other types of art. Before the 20th century, society’s culture and physical features characterized music in America. However, during the 20th century, social and economic issues such as wars, diseases, and workers’ welfares characterize the music.
By embodying these features, music has communicated and provoked social change in societies. In the above research paper, one composer from the 20th century is analyzed. The composer chosen is Seeger. Like his father, Seeger composed several popular folk songs in America during the early 20th century. As a professor of music, Seeger worked relentlessly to publicize folk music among American societies.
The research paper investigates how the composer’s works of art were useful to the music industry during his era. To come up with a complete research paper, several literature reviews are evaluated, questionnaires are undertaken, and interviews are conducted. The literature reviews indicate that the public has little knowledge about the 20th-century composers. Although several scholars have tried to shed more light into the lives and works of these composers, it should be noted that only a few areas of their contributions have been uncovered.
Works Cited
Edmondson, Jacqueline. Music in American Life An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories That Shaped Our Culture. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2013. Print.
Hicks, Michael. Henry Cowell, bohemian. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002. Print.
Pescatello, Ann. Charles Seeger: a life in American music. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2002. Print.
Before speaking about Bach and Handel as great world musicians, it is worth mentioning that their biographies were very important in the formation of the individual features of their creative works.
The son of the poor city musician, Johann Sebastian Bach was born in the epoch of difficult ruins of Germany after the thirty-year wars. The destroyed cities, the devastated fields, the ruined country facilities were the result of this war (1618 – 1648). The ancestors of Bach were peasants, but one of them managed to get an education and to become a musician, having begun the whole galaxy of musicians. Johann Sebastian Bach was born in March 1685 in Eisenach, where he had lived up to ten years of age. When Bach was15, he moved to Luneburg, where he entered a local grammar school and became the chorister in chorus. Here Bach formed his esthetic tastes and musical views. It is interesting that he was here almost simultaneously with Handel, the ingenious contemporary who has born, as well as Bach in 1685. But both great musicians did not meet. In 1708 Bach came back to Weimar.
In 1717, after the conflict with the duke and monthly arrest, he passed to the service in Ketene, where he had created the collection “Preludes and fugues” for orchestral concerts, suites, sonatas, suites for a violin and clavier. In 1723 moved to Leipzig to give education to his sons. Since 1729 Bach was the musical director of Leipzig University and supervised the students’ musical society. In Leipzig, Bach composed a huge quantity of works (Davison, 1951).
By 1740 Bach reached the greatest popularity but began to conduct the most closed way of life, giving all time to the highly talented children, whose glory in future has eclipsed the glory of the father. Last year the life Bach suffered from the illness of their eyes, had an operation and became blind. Bach died at the age of 65 in 1750. The number of works by Bach is very great. They are broken into five groups. The most extensive are church cantatas. The second are large art cult compositions – passions, oratorios, solemn mesa and 4 incomplete messes. The third group is the works for body and a harpsichord. The 4th group is the works for various instruments – a violin, flutes, lutes. The last, the fifth group includes the works for orchestral structure.
On behalf of Bach, the huge historical process gets to the end, which is based, on the one hand, on the communication of music with the cult, and from another – on powerful development of household music – dance, national song, music with drama representation. Both these jets have merged in the creativity of Bach and make him the universal musician of the time.
It is necessary to mention the ease of the composing, his confidence and shown by him in the most various areas of musical composition. From the graceful, simple dances to the graceful vocal works, Bach always finds the finished possession of style, expressive melody, brightly pulsing rhythm, strictly logical modulation in inexhaustible riches of harmony. During the lifetime of Bach was appreciated basically as the virtuoso (Hadow, 1973).
First of all, Bach was interested in melodious and expressive play – the art of cantabile. It was not the idea of Bach only. Another major quality of the musician is accuracy. For the achievement of this purpose, it is necessary to observe all rules with which the greater masters burden themselves.
Like the majority of great people of the past, George Fredric Handel was a native of the lower class of German society. His ancestors were handicraftsmen; Handel’s father, the barber-surgeon, served in various European armies (Swedish, Saxon) and had located in native city Halle, had achieved a post of the court surgeon of duke Saxon and by the time of the birth of his son he reached significant material prosperity. Mother of the composer was a match for the spouse: conceded to him neither in courageous energy nor insincere and physical health.
George Fredric Handel was born in February 1865 in Halle. Since their early childhood, his surprising musical abilities and extreme interest in everything connected with the world of sounds, music was showed. But musical hobbies of the child have encountered prejudiced counteraction of the. He dreamed of another future for his son, about the career of lawyer what was respectable in the environment of the German burghers. However, the spontaneous draft to music broke all barriers and obstacles. The success of performance in seven-year age before duke had that desirable result that has begun regular employment by music with the best musician and teacher of the city Halle, organist Zahau. Under the direction of Zahau, Handel studied polyphony and the style of German composers.
Handel’s first creative experiences concern ten years’ age: for the favourite instrument of an oboe, he has written a series of plays – six trios for two oboes and a bass. Thanks to Zahau, he was accustomed to being guided easily and quickly since childhood in the various musical phenomena, to master them and to select for him the most important and interesting. These qualities strengthened by the experience of the subsequent creative work especially promoted the formation of a universal style of music by Handel. In the twelfth year, Handel has undertaken their first concert trip to Berlin. The success was great (Scott, 2007).
The death of the father in 1697 has removed an interdiction from the profession of musician; nevertheless, carrying out his will, Handel continued grammar school and, having finished, has entered the university on the faculty of law. Simultaneously Handel has acted as the church organist. Handel’s official duties included teaching music in grammar schools. Weekly concerts demanded constant updating of repertoire, and Handel created it, composing a set of cantatas and chorals. In the spring of 1703, Handel has moved to Hamburg. The Hamburg opera headed by the Kaiser was in blossom. For the first time, the young musician closely adjoined musical theatre; and becomes the opera composer. The increasing attention to Handel as to the musician and the teacher has entailed creative orders and offers.
The Hamburg opera noticeably tended to decline. The new administration of the theatre, being guided mainly by commercial reasons, has filled the repertoire of theatre with rough low-standard works. To seize the universal Italian opera style, Handel leaves Hamburg and goes to Italy. In Italy, he has lived about four years, being long in the largest and well-known cities: Florence, Rome, Venice, and Naples (Davison, 1951).
It should be mentioned that Handel’s musical traditions were defined in Italy. Between 1711 and 1716, Handel lives alternately in Hanover and in London, obviously preferring to stay in the English capital. These were the most productive periods of Handel’s life.
In conclusion, it is worth saying that the biographies of the two musicians had a great impact on their creative work. They both did not reach the beginning of their career, and that is why they needed great affords to become really good professionals.
It should be mentioned that Bach’s creative activity was more pessimistic than Handel’s one. Probably it is connected with the difficulties which were experienced by Bach in his childhood.
Nevertheless, both of these two great musicians made a great contribution to the development of world classical music.
References
Sadie Stanley, Tyrrell John (2003)The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians: 29 volumes with index, Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition
Hadow William Henry (1973) The Age of Bach and Handel (The Oxford History of Music, Vol. IV), Cooper Square Pub; 2nd edition
Davison Archibald T. (1951) Bach and Handel: The Consummation of the Baroque in Music, Harvard UP
Scott Cyril (2007) The Comparison between the Influence of Handel and Bach, Kessinger Publishing, LLC
Religion has played a significant role in art expression, and artists often rely on belief for inspiration. Whether painting art or musical art, religion has significantly contributed to their development. The relationship, therefore, between religion and art is correlational as the two complement each other. Music has had a great way of building religious imaginations, as evident from the early Judaism religion, Christianity, and Islam. Antonio Vivaldi and Tomas Luis de Victoria are perfect examples of composers who had inspired religion. Their inspiration can be ascertained through their masterpieces, “Gloria” and “O Magnum Mysterium.” These two pieces were written for the Christian faithful, specifically for Christmas celebrations during the Renaissance and the Baroque periods. This paper analyzes these two masterpieces from a conductor rehearsal point of view. Understanding the complexities of the two compositions and all the information about them would help a conductor prepare effectively for their performance.
The two pieces are both Christian gospel songs that were written for the church. The inspiration behind both pieces is, however, different. Despite the pieces being of the same purpose, the environment or context in which the songs were performed is different. Victoria’s “Ó Magnum Mysterium” was composed for the Catholic Church’s mass to appreciate Jesus Christ’s birth. This piece is clearly about the ‘Nativity Story,’ which is the story about people’s lives that steered to the birth of Jesus Christ (May 2019). This song is a Church chant that could be sung in between mass and was a Matins. Being a Matins means that the song was a nighttime chant for the night masses. Though the music can be sung in a church environment, it can be performed at a given time and in a specific way.
During the Renaissance period, the motet was common in the performance of most of the composed pieces. Creating a composition for the motet was what Victoria had in mind when composing “O Magnum Mysterium” during this time. The vocal vibrancies of the piece is an accurate representation of the composers’ writing strategies during this period. Being a sacred piece, “O Magnum Mysterium” is benevolent as it carries the Nativity message of the birth of Jesus Christ (Bond, 2018). Therefore, the work was meant to be performed by an orchestral choir before a congregation in between mass.
On the other hand, during Vivaldi’s time, the Baroque era, harmonic singing groups were the main events. Orchestral choirs were the ultimate focus of composers, and they composed joyous and tonal pieces (Lee, 2020). “Gloria” is one of such pieces that contains a colorful and cheerful melody. Vivaldi’s “Gloria” is a piece to be performed by a huge choir, and it has all the characteristics of the Baroque period composition.
Vivaldi’s “Gloria” was composed for the young ladies in the orphanage where Vivaldi used to live. During the time of its composition, Vivaldi had not quit his gospel life as he was still inspired by faith to compose this piece. Gloria was composed by Vivaldi as a joyous piece to be performed during the Mass as he wanted the Christmas celebrations to have more life in them. Creating beautiful and happy music for the teenagers was also part of his goals during his stay at the orphanage. The girls were also born out of anonymous fathers, and thus the song was meant to lift their spirits and give them happiness. This piece can be performed at a Church during any mass or any Christian service. It is a joyous and melodic choir song that needs a bright and colorful audience. This, therefore, means that the two pieces can be performed in the same environment: the church. They, however, are to be completed in two different contexts due to their alteration in composition and style. Vivaldi’s “Gloria” is performed at any time of the day and between masses or services, while Victoria’s “O Magnum Mysterium” is performed at night. Being a chant, “O Magnum Mysterium” does not need a colorful and joyous audience.
“O Magnum Mysterium” was a Greek poem that was meant to tell of the story of the birth of Christ. Victoria worked on it and modified it into a small choir presentation that could be performed during Church mass. After Victoria changed the piece, a choir could perform it and presented it in between Mass. Earlier, the music was a Christmas time chant that spelled out the “Nativity Story” about the events before and after the life of Jesus Christ. The piece has remained a nighttime song even after the modification from a chant to a Christmas song by Victoria (Burkholder et al., 2019). Presently, the piece can be performed in an orchestra with various well-organized instruments and a choir. The musical composition has been improved over the years, and its performances are better and more articulate.
As stated earlier, Vivaldi had composed the piece “Gloria” during his time at the orphanage where he offered teaching of the piano. This orphanage had a history of performing magnificent music, and so Vivaldi wrote this exceptional masterpiece for them. At this time, Vivaldi had the idea of composing this piece for the girls’ choir at the orphanage. The song was meant to be performed by a large ensemble at the church. The work was joyous, and the melody was colorful, and the girls would enjoy performing it. Gloria as a composed piece was, however, hidden from the world and was later performed in 1939 (Pysh 2020). Vivaldi did not present this masterpiece as much, and it remained hidden from the world for a very long time. Vivaldi’s original composition was, however, published and played for the first time in 1957 (Pysh 2020). Today, massive orchestras and choirs have performed this piece, and it has become such a sort after piece.
Victoria’s “O Magnum Mysterium” is a responsorial chant and belongs to the genre of classical music. It was composed by Victoria during the Renaissance period and incorporated into the Catholic Church’s liturgical masses. The piece was a responsorial chant, and this meant that a motet or a small choir was to perform it. Due to the fact that the piece was a song or poem of the nativity story of Jesus Christ, it was performed in celebration of Christmas. Victoria’s “O Magnum Mysterium” was more sacred than the other versions by other composers. His version was described as being emotionally appealing and had greater mystical intensity. Victorian “Magnum Mysterium” was the same as that of Palestrina’s and was composed fundamentally in the Aeolian mode. The piece is written in a four-part SABT ensemble, and its beginning is graced with soft sopranos that are later joined by altos (Louderback, 2018). The wonders of the Virgin birth of Christ are captured through five bare octaves and five bare fifths. The occasional use of a dropping fifth is a usual nature of Victoria’s works, mainly at introducing his pieces.
Antonio Vivaldi’s “Gloria” is also a classical piece but a hymn of praise used in the second Ordinance of the Latin Mass. Vivaldi composed this piece during the Baroque period for an all-girl choir at the orphanage, where he taught music. It is one of the most significant sacred pieces that Vivaldi ever composed in his life. The piece “Gloria” was written in D major fashioned by the joyous leaping octaves and repetitions (Carey, 2021). The music is graced with bursting energy propels, and the whole theme of the song is colorful. Vivaldi separated the piece into twelve distinct portions, and each part had its unique style. However, the entire song has energy and is both composed of vocal and instrumentation performance. There is great harmony between the vocals and the instruments as they complement each other to give this masterpiece. These sections are separated by beautiful interludes that build on one another. The piece has a sunny nature with its distinctive joyous melody and rhythm.
As a conductor getting ready to perform these two pieces, one requires a significant level of preparation. These two pieces were perfectly composed and given a touch of maestro by the composers. It is, therefore, important that the style of these two compositions are studied and understood by the composer before their performance has gone underway. These two pieces’ techniques are entirely different from one another. Thus, understanding each song is essential to mastery of the style, and learning each step of the composition helps the conductor perform his work effectively (Owens, 2019). The score sheet should be a guide during the performance and not a reference. Therefore, the pieces’ stylistic attributes, “O Magnum Mysterium” and “Gloria,” should be studied and mastered.
The original “O Magnum Mysterium” motet was written in a flat and a transposed Dorian mode. On the contrary, the Victorian version was composed of four sections, the first two sections being duple meter, and the last sections have been termed as ‘Alleluia’ sections. The first portion of the previous section is in triple meter, and the final part is in duple meter. The first section of the piece begins with paired voices, with the second voice having a distinctive imitation of the first. The basses and the tenors imitate the cantus while the altos sing an octave lower after singing the first line by the other voices (Donaldson, 2017). The piece then moves into elastic and contrapuntal rhythmic combinations. The section is full of shifting imitations, and the section ends in full cadence. The second section of the piece is shorter than the first, and it follows a somewhat similar style to that of the first. The portion also consists of contrapuntal movement, as observed in the first section of the composition. The repeated notes in this piece create emphasis on the Blessed Virgin.
Vivaldi’s Gloria consists of twelve movements with an orchestration of various instruments such as the oboe, continuo, and strings. In this composition, the homophonic and polyphonic styles are prevalent. The presence of harmonic suspensions, Melismas, and chromatic melodic lines flow makes the piece a unique design. As one of the composers during the Baroque period, Vivaldi’s compositions were decorative and vibrant. Ornamental and passionate characteristics were significant features of the arrangements during the baroque period. Gloria as a composition has several contrasting musical elements, and each movement has its unique style (Pysh, 2020). The essential keys used in this piece are D major, B minor, G major, E minor, and C major. There are major shifts in the work’s tempo; it starts with Allegro, Andante, Largo, Adagio and ends in Allegro. The style used in this piece changes from homophonic to polyphonic according to the spirit of each movement (Pysh, 2020). The Allegro tempo is fast while Andante, Largo, and Adagio are slow tempos.
A consideration of each movement shows some unique stylistic characteristics of the composition. The melodic progression of each movement is based on the mimicking of thematic provisions. Vivaldi included the instrumentation portion of this piece and the instruments double on the choral sections’ melodies. The chords that have harmonic and secondary dominance are used throughout the piece. Vivaldi, like Victoria, also employs repetition in his composition. Duplication is observed in the rhythm and the sequencing of the entire piece. Imitations in the music have also been repeated all through the composition creating an array of emphasis. The piece’s general style is explosive and colorful as it starts in a brilliant D major key.
As a conductor rehearsing to perform these two pieces, it would help get a deep analysis of the pieces. A deep analysis involves a study of the background of the artists and their works. The environment in which they performed could also be a great pointer into understanding the context into which the two pieces are to be performed. A conductor would also gain significantly by studying the stylistic devices of the two pieces. This will help the conductor know the musical elements incorporated in the two pieces. It is crucial to ensure a good rehearsal before the pieces’ performance improves the conductor’s mastery of the pieces (Owens, 2019). The conductor’s prowess and performance are vital for the ultimately successful execution of the songs. Therefore, the aspects covered in this paper are essential to a conductor rehearsing for these pieces’ performance.
Burkholder, J., Grout, D., & Palisca, C. (2019). Norton Anthology of Western Music (8th ed.). W. W. Norton and Company INC.
Carey, P. (2021). Antonio Vivaldi: Gloria in D. Providence singers. Web.
Donaldson, J. (2017). A graduate recital in conducting (master’s degree). Pittsburgh State University.
Lee, J. (2020). An understanding of Style of Baroque Ornamentation in Handel’s Operatic arias: A study of selected recordings (1950s – 2010s) (Doctoral). University of Kentucky.
May, T. (2019). Mysteries and transformations: Celebrating a contemporary classic and new perspectives on the nativity. Los Angeles chorale performances magazine. Web.
Owens, M. (2019). Morten Lauridsen’s choral cycle, nocturnes: A Conductor’s Analysis (doctoral). University of Kentucky.
This paper is aimed at discussing the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Franz Liszt. In particular, it is necessary to illustrate the similarities and distinctions of their styles. Admittedly, they represent different periods in the history of music, but they share common attributes such as the technical complexity of their works and the use of common musical passages. Yet, there are significant structural differences. In particular, Bach’s works have a distinct prelude, whereas Franz Liszt does not always incorporate this element. Moreover, Liszt frequently applies extremely fast cadenzas that were not applied in the eighteenth century. These are the main issues that should be discussed in greater detail.
At first, it should be mentioned that Bach represents the baroque period in the history of music which lasted from the seventeenth to the eighteenth century. In turn, Franz Liszt was the advocate of the so-called New German School (Spielvogel, 2011, p. 791). Moreover, it is important to mention that they lived in different societies. For example, Bach lived at the time, when only wealthy aristocrats and religious institutions supported classical composers. In fact, they could be the main patrons of composers like Bach. In turn, Franz Liszt’s works could be heard by wider audiences. At the time, when Bach created his works, musical compositions could be performed by a small number of performers who could be located in a palace chamber. In turn, the nineteenth century was the period during which large orchestras began to play the key role. Moreover, the composers, who worked in the nineteenth century, tended to create more complex works. These are some of the factors that should be taken into account because they are important for understanding the styles of these composers, especially some of the main distinctions.
One should mention that both Bach and Liszt were distinguished keyboardists, and they were known for their performing ability. It is possible to focus on the solo piano works known as Dreams of Love created by Franz Liszt and Bach’s English Suites because they represent the methods applied by these composers. First, their works require considerable technical ability. In this work, Bach combines imitative counterpoint with the movements and patterns that were typical of the baroque. For instance, each of the suites has a distinct prelude. This is one of the details that can attract the attention of the listener. Certainly, these legacies of the Baroque are no longer noticeable in the works of Franz Lists. In particular, Liszt’s Dreams of Love do not have such a prelude. Furthermore, Liszt’s compositions have a very fast cadenza, and such passages were not often used by Baroque composers such as Bach. It is also vital to mention that Liszt often relied on the passages explored by Bach (Arnold, 2002). For instance, one can mention the famous B-A-C-H theme (Arnold, 2002). These are the main aspects that can be singled out.
On the whole, this discussion indicates that despite significant time differences, the works of Liszt and Bach have some common attributes such the use of counterpoint and technical complexity of their compositions. Nevertheless, there are structural differences in their works. In particular, much attention should be paid to the absence of prelude in Liszt’s work. However, it is vital to remember that Liszt often relied on the passages created by Bach. These are the main elements that can be identified.
Reference List
Arnold, B. (2002). The Liszt Companion. New York, NY: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Spielvogel, J. (2011). Cengage Advantage Books: Western Civilization, Volume II: Since 1500. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.
This is a critic of The Bach Variations: A Philharmonic Festival by András Schiff (pianist) held on April 6, 2013. The Bach Variations concert took place at the New York Philharmonic’s Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center. Bach composed the keyboard concertos for the harpsichord, but Schiff played the same on a modern piano. In fact, the play at the Keyboard Concerto No. 5 in F minor and No. 3 in D major enthralled the listeners.
Critics and audience have known Schiff from the 20th century as one of the most successful pianists of the century (Swed 1). Schiff has become a promoter for playing Bach’s keyboard music by using the current grand piano. He has remained the most illuminating and moving piano player of the time.
The Critique of The Bach Variations
Schiff showed the impression of an experienced musician as he turned the concert into an impeccable performance of the night. He entered the well-lit stage and took his place at the piano methodically. The hall dimmed as the light turned on the artist. Schiff’s performance reflected the pristine articulation with variations in rhythms. Watching Schiff play, the audience could not realize that he was relying on the works of Bach’s harpsichord (Tommasini 1).
In the past years, Schiff has emerged has the leading Bach interpreter of his time. Schiff’s Bach festival expressed an accomplished pianist, who could perform in a cantabile manner throughout the concert. The dominance of the lyricism was also evident in Schiff’s concert, which was nuance and flexible to the end. Schiff was powerful and virtuosic as the concert demanded because he managed all the variations perfectly. He relied on the melodic and quality of the concert rather than the normal pristine approach of the Bach’s counterpoint.
Schiff had a way of controlling movements of his hands in a fashion that placed the left hand ahead of the right one. He played with a clearly defined outline so well at the piano. The concert remained heavy-handed to the end. Schiff preferred loud variations and edgy attacks. This created inflated Bach Variations that attracted the audience’s attention.
Schiff has a high standard of concentration. For instance, he had his foot firmly on the floor and rarely used the pedal. However, he used the pedal at the end of the A Minor fugue. This variation ended with a prolonged bass. During the time of Bach, clavier referred to any keyboard instrument in the artist’s hand. Schiff proved that the fugue was for the piano organ. The instrumentation of the solo keyboard Schiff performed on the piano enhanced the elegance of the concert.
Schiff made an excellent use of the piano in the performance. For instance, the audience could observe the slow movement during the Largo of the Concerto in the F minor. At this point, Schiff graced the performance with smooth melody and lyricism. In addition, Schiff introduced conjuring in the melodies while he struck the keys at the piano. Schiff created a concert that sustained notes in the tunes in a persistent manner over the subtle music that accompanied the Philharmonic strings coupled with the supple play of uninterrupted bass notes that supported the melody.
The elongated counterpoint of the fugues demanded the entire attention of the audience in order to understand the Bach’s logic and emotions in the pieces. In this regard, Schiff turned the piano into a tool of accomplishing a great piece of a concert. The approach made the audience not to miss the elegance tone of the performer. At the same time, listeners also felt a strong sense of transcending with the instrument because the piano was superior to those of Bach’s time in which any instrument at hand was important.
Earlier settings of Bach concerts had violin at the Keyboard Concerto in the D major. Consequently, Schiff had managed to transform the Concerto into E major (BWV 1042) in order to create a prominent performance of the modern time. Scholars have looked at such concertos in relations to Bach’s solo violin, which have the A minor and E major and concluded that Bach changed them to G minor Keyboard Concerto.
Schiff’s performance created a dramatic unit. He achieved unity in the performance by eliminating some elements at the end of a piece in order to introduce a new prelude. However, Schiff managed to let the final major chord to end delicately and maintained a sensational minor as he approached the next chapter. This created a sense of unity in the concert performance. Some scholars believe that this is a concept far beyond Bach’s performance.
Schiff managed to control the rhythm of the Allegro during the opening movement. The act of controlling the rhythm gave the music a robust vigor as Schiff developed elements of the demanding contrapuntal lines. Schiff and his team of string players displayed enthusiasm during the performance of Allegro.
He emerged as a conductor in the Philharmonic concert. Schiff guided the Mendelssohn’s Sinfonia No. 9 on C. This composition has varied tunes in the middle of the performance. Schiff focused on enhancing the elegance and intricacy of the performance. Schiff displayed a superb performance throughout the concert. In fact, he performed Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 in D minor without a baton. Schiff seemed to perform the Symphony from his memory by relying on his hands as a way of facilitating the vibrant performance. The Philharmonic performers were delighted with their performance throughout the night.
Schiff played Schumann’s piano music with energy to show that he had mastered the music from its writers and could comfortably introduce new elements with a great synergy. The music looked complex due to grandiose touches, but it remained intimate with the performers, as well as the audience. The performance reflected the analytical nature of Schiff.
Schiff’s performance reflected the art of seeking and deriving pleasure from music. He excelled in piano, but managed to maintain a smooth tone throughout the music. At the same time, the audience could observe physical delight in performers as the music elevated emotions of listeners. Schiff ended the performance in a firm style as he approached the chromatic prelude.
At some points, Schiff displayed a sense of fast changes in variation 25. These instances of haste were mere disappointments in such a superb concert. Such minor niggles could not derail the perfect display of the musician.
The audience did not fail to recognize the amazing sleeve notes from Schiff. Schiff approached the concert like a player with the intention of creating live and excellent performance. The manner in which Schiff used the piano remained inauthentic and advanced to most viewers. This is where Schiff overtook Bach, who used harpsichord and could not stand long hours of playing the harpsichord with the audience listening. However, Schiff proved that he was a master at the piano as time soon elapsed.
Conclusion
The concert was an inspiring experience as Schiff demonstrated his piano prowess. The audience could observe a deep connection between Schiff and the music. The performance remained wonderful and lively in the entire concert. This performance of The Bach Variations was a benchmark for the year. However, it is important for the audience to have the physical form of the music in order to understand the movement of the performance.
The performance confirmed what other critics have noted about Schiff as an outstanding interpreter. These critics know that Schiff is an excellent performer, who has the ability to transcend the piano and still show that he is not shy to show and express his true filling for Bach. Schiff creates a sense of admiration in Bach because he indulges in it as his own creation. We must also recognize Schiff’s stylistic choices, particularly with regard to the piano in which he displays a great sense of commitment. Such a profound sense of commitment to a performance shows Schiff as an accomplished artist. A keen observer could recognize that the concerts categorically belonged to the harpsichord, but Schiff managed to set their resonance by using the modern piano. In fact, some of these musical forms are easily portable because they look like essays in the form of counterpoint. Schiff has managed to create The Bach Variations by using a modern piano effortlessly.
