or, to move it into a more easily readable range: This is what happens near the opening of the Schubert B-flat Sonata D. 960; firstly, the opening melody – beautiful, serene – comes to rest on a chord of F when suddenly, from the bottom left hand of the keyboard, comes a long grumbling growl (see […]
Category Archives: Song
Schubert’s late Mass in E-flat – the date on the score is 1828, the last year of the composer’s life – is his sixth essay in the setting of the liturgical text. It’s a large and fascinating work with moments of ravishing Schubertian beauty. Take this, for example, from the opening of the Sanctus: Schubert: Mass […]
Schubert’s last symphony – like much of the composer’s later work – has a darkness at its heart. As in the Adagio of his Octet, this emotional crisis occurs during the sonata-like reprise of the symphony’s second movement (Andante con moto). A fff outburst is followed by a shocked and traumatised total silence. The strings – still […]
Apart from it being a rather useful (trite but it works?) internal rhyme, Cole Porter wasn’t exactly wrong about the deep emotional effect of the juxtaposition of majors and minors; it’s just that it’s a bit more complicated than that. Have a listen… recognise them? The simple act of flattening one note in a chord, like […]
The trouble with alliteration is that once you start in on it, it’s not so simple to stop. Anyway, it’s not the title of Wilhelm Müller’s pithily named collection of poems (Gedichte aus den hinterlassenen Papieren eines reisenden Waldhornisten) – the source of the Winterreise texts –that concerns us here but more the wandering horn player himself. […]
The last five years of Schubert’s life. Just five years? Doesn’t seem that long, does it? But, in a life span of a mere thirty-one — once you take away ten or so years for childhood — those five years come to represent a quarter of the composer’s mature life and, in terms of composition, the […]
The Tempest is the opposite of a disappointment; it is a masterpiece of airy beauty and eerie power. Alex Ross on Adès’s opera, The Tempest The New Yorker, March 1, 2004. This week we complete our trawl through 20th century English music with the work of Thomas Adès. I must admit to having to cheat (slightly), […]
From joyous birth (Finzi’s setting of Treharne, Dies Natalis) to mystic death (Herbert Howells’ Hymnus Paradisi) with the great bell of Winchester Cathedral ringing out over all to summon both the quick and the dead (Jonathan Harvey; Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco). All this together with the procession, ritual and game of the music of Harrison […]
Bridge over the river Kwai (Oscar winning film music) English dances, set 1 Clarinet sonatina Brass Quintet 1 Symphony 5 English dances, set 1 … and, by way of (sometimes extreme!) contrast, we’ll also sample the work of Peter Maxwell Davies; here’s an example of his music theatre — Eight Songs for a Mad King: […]
“one of the most substantial composers these islands have yet produced.” Martin Anderson, The Independent Need convincing? Listen to this… Also, this week, a chance to explore the Four Ritual Dances from Tippett’s opera The Midsummer Marriage: Earth in Autumn, Waters in Winter, Air in Spring Fire in Summer Course materials: Elizabeth Maconchy Cycle of […]
