Concertino for flute and piano, Op.107 Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944)
Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944) was a French composer and pianist. Her mother, a pianist and singer, provided young Cecile with her earliest musical instruction, who at a later age began to experiment in composition. Her father’s disagreement prevented her from attending the Paris Conservatoire, so instead she studied privately with members of its faculty, which included Benjamin Godard. She started composing music at the age of 8 and performed abroad at the age of 16.
Chaminade became a successful composer and concert pianist in the early 1900s, with a tremendous popularity in the United States and was one of the first French female professional composers.
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It features two main themes, plus many melodic episodes. The structure - in A-B-A form - is clearly identifiable through the themes that mark each of the sections: the lyrical melody that opens the work, the exciting piu animato that ends with a demanding cadenza, and the final recapitulation that is followed by a cheeky and vivacious codetta that brings the work to a dramatic close. Possessing a memorable melodic theme, the piece tests the performer through the unending phrases, virtuosic c and the resultant nimble fingerwork required. It has remained one of the great standards amongst the …show more content…
Ferdinand De Jean, a Dutch flautist, ordered Mozart to write 4 quartets and 3 flute concertos, but Mozart only completed three quartets and one flute concerto. Instead of composing a brand new flute concerto, he rearranged the oboe concerto he had written earlier that year as the second flute concerto, which is divided into 3 movements: Allegro aperto, Adagio non troppo and Rondo: Allegretto. The concerto is an excellent showpiece and is widely performed by soloists nowadays. Listening to this well-written repertoire, it is hard to believe that Mozart disliked flute or that this piece was originally written for another
She has composed small pieces of compositions for instruments that are uncommon. Some instruments include the trombone, oboe, bassoon, horn, and more wind and horn instruments. She has also composed group concertos for two pianos but has also composed solo concertos for violins, pianos, and horns. The composer has many larger formatted compositions too.
This idea was an interesting start, because it caught the audience’s attention to really listen to what was going to happen next. Then the song, went into a lighter more atmospheric section, where there were many crescendos and decrescendos. The instruments in the piece included the chimes, maracas, timpani,
Graduate Recital Program Notes: Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Poem for Flute and Orchestra Charles Griffes (1884-1920) was the director of music at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, NY from 1907–1920. He studied piano at a young age, to continue his education he moved to Berlin, where he studied piano, composition, and counterpoint at the Stern Conservatory. Griffes’s early compositions were influenced to some degree by German Romanticism, especially German Lieder. He never reached atonality in his music-making, however, at the end of his career he adopted an abstract phase that many critics among them Paul Rosenfeld, and Nicolas Slonimsky acknowledged to be impressionist and orientalist.
The Analysis: I) EXPOSITION • The Symphony opens with the F-A-F motif, making in a way a clear statement of how prominent its presence is going to be throughout the whole Symphony. In immediate succession of the opening, comes the first theme, mostly consisting of a descending melodic pattern followed by a varied repeat and an extensive continuation in which the theme’s basic idea undergoes a series of developmental processes, such as extensions accelerations and fragmentations, until finally reaching a rather weak, inconclusive IAC on Bar 14.
Although this is somewhat long duration compared to other music that listened before, the segment of the piece is played repeatedly so that I used to observe this music. The pinches in this work are unfamiliar to the audiences because they are not standard chromatic scale, which is equal temperament. The unique tuning system and the performance style increase the tension of the
This piece consisted of two different movements. The second part of it was a lot more allegro, upbeat, and energized. It symbolized the eternal love that no one, not even a powerful king, could take away. The whole orchestra had more active roles and a polyphonic texture. Together they made a beautiful
Mozart’s Influence In the Enlightenment The Enlightenment was a train of thinking that started with philosophers in the eighteenth century. Philosophers warned against religious division, cultural division, and social inequality. Today, our Declaration of Independence is based upon these same values of equality. In the Enlightenment, music took a different shape.
1.4) underwent several thematic transformations in this movement, first being treated in rising sequences. The ‘antagonist’ leaping figures (see fig.1.4) outline accents on weak beat, giving the whole section a sense of metrical disruption. The second theme appeared in B-Flat major, followed by a closing
This is then followed by a sing-song like eight-note figure that features a pointed forward momentum. The rhythmic building blocks of the theme is constructed in two bar phrases which then sequences upward by step (Example 1). The accompaniment to the theme is sustained half notes played by the second violins, Violas, and Cellos The home key and the harmonic content of the exposition is also very clear in its presentation. The opening of the movement is in A major and remains primarily diatonic in its harmonic content, with only the occasional passing tone. The primary theme is played twice having a four-bar transition in between each quotation (Example 2).
This piece has three movements, Allegro moderato, Adagio di molto, and Allegro ma non tanto. This piece starts off with a slow and expressive solo by the soloist, Alexi Kenney. The change in dynamics, the use of vibrato, and other techniques enhanced his solo. The orchestra then plays with a homophonic texture with some tempo changes. A few fast solos and a few slow ones followed.
It is forceful and heavy and is very different to the accompaniment of the first section. The accompaniment has a sudden crescendo from the pianissimo of the first section to the mezzo forte of the second section, which shocks the audience. The harmonies are also more chromatic and dissonant, adding to the unease and discomfort felt, both by the character and the audience. In bar 23, instead of the dyads, the left hand begins playing octaves while the right hand plays chords, making the piece feel more menacing. The crescendos, diminuendos and sforzandos in the accompaniment, and the harmonies accurately portray the second and fifth stanzas of the poem, where the character is pulled from his lovely dream and sees his reality, where it is cold and he is alone.
This Chaconne begins with a singing violin melody almost beguiling in its character, with a natural sense of ebb and flow that traverses numerous episodes. With the addition of double stops and chordal textures, the intensity gradually rises until it reaches the breaking point where the violin charges forward through a frenetic, virtuosic passage. The tension and register continue to rise to the point where the violin sounds as if it is screeching. The drama resolves in the brief coda as the frantic energy unwinds and the violin fades away into the
There were many musical elements heard throughout these pieces and it was interesting to hear how they varied in each song and suite. In Intermezzo, it began with a quieter violin solo melody creating a monophonic texture. Soon after, it became accompanied by the other violins and cellos, then the full ensemble came in creating a moderate, flowing melody at about mezzo forte and switching to a polyphonic texture. Next, there was a harp solo at forte with many crescendos and decrescendos. The full ensemble enters again raising the dynamics to forte before decrescendoing and slowing down to end with a held note and final tone.
First of all, the piece is quite interesting as a prelude – an introductory piece of music as it start off with dynamic and vibrant sounds that include the whole ensemble. This piece is structured as a three-part or ternary form which consists of ABA’ form. The idea of this piece is mainly act as an introductory of a story because this piece is only an excerpt from a bigger orchestral performance. From what I have heard, the solo performance is mainly comprise of the woodwind instruments in part B that indicated the slight sign of relief and calmness. The piece has a lot of variation where the composer include different timbres and dynamics such as the high dynamic structure during the first and the last part with the associating crashes of cymbals.
Johann Sebastian Bach Violin Sonata in A minor BWV 1003 (1720) Greatest German composer of all time, Johann Sebastian was born in a musical family in Eisenach. He received his musical training from his father Johann Ambrosius and relatives. Besides being a highly respected organist, Bach’s compositions were also greatly recognized and became the musical model for other famed composers after his time such as Mozart, Beethoven and Mendelssohn. The Sonata in A minor is one of the works in Bach’s six unaccompanied violin sonatas and partitas.