Program Notes
Over the past several years, I have begun writing program notes for Symphony Orchestras. I have enjoyed learning more about the pieces that I love to play, and it has been a challenge to try to encapsulate an entire piece in a few short paragraphs. Below are some samples of my work. For any questions or requests, please contact me by selecting "Contact" in the menu above.
The Firebird Suite. Written for the Washington Idaho Symphony
Igor Stravinsky
b. June 17, 1882, Oranienbaum, a small town 25 miles west of St. Petersburg.
d. April 6, 1971, New York City, USA.
The Firebird Suite (1919 version)
Composed: Written for the 1910 season of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russe.
Premiered: Opéra de Paris on June 25, 1910.
The Work in Context
Born near St. Petersburg Russia in 1882, Igor Stravinsky’s musical life spanned nearly 90 years and two continents. Stravinsky’s work spans the full spectrum of 20th century style, from his nationalist ballets of the early 20th century, through his experimental nationalism and neoclassicism, and all the way to the serial style in which he composed for much of his time in the United States. He wrote music for the stage and for the orchestra in addition to his large output of choral pieces, music for solo voice, and chamber music.
Stravinsky’s family was quite musical. His father was the principal bass voice in the Imperial Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, and his mother was a very good amateur singer and pianist. His father knew all the prominent musicians on the scene in Russia, including Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, and Mussorgsky. The young Igor grew up surrounded by music, taking composition lessons from Rimsky-Korsakov at a young age. When his mentor died in 1908, Stravinsky had already written several works. In 1909, Stravinsky’s Scherzo fantastique premiered in St. Petersburg. In the audience was one Sergei Diaghilev. Diaghilev was an art critic, patron, and ballet impresario. After some success in presenting concerts of Russian music in Paris, he founded the Ballets Russe and presented its first season in 1909. The company was successful beyond the wildest dreams of Diaghilev or his performers. Diaghilev commissioned The Firebird for his 1910 season from Stravinsky after approaching Anatoly Liadov, who was notoriously lazy and couldn’t finish the score on time. The success of the premiere vaulted Stravinsky into international superstardom and lead to the commissions of Petrushka and The Rite of Spring in following seasons.
The Firebird was a Russian folk tale about the young Prince Ivan who wanders through the garden of King Kashchei, an evil ruler whose strength comes from a magic egg that he guards day and night. Prince Ivan captures a Firebird in the garden, who gives Ivan one of its magical tailfeathers in exchange for its life. King Kashchei tries to lure Prince Ivan away with 13 enchanted princesses, and they lure him into being captured by Kashchei’s demon guards. Ivan uses the tailfeather to summon the Firebird, who reveals to Ivan the secret of the magic egg. Prince Ivan smashes the egg, defeats the enchantment, and marries the most beautiful of the enchanted princesses.
In addition to the full ballet, Stravinsky arranged three different suites of music from the original ballet to be performed as concert pieces. The Washington Idaho Symphony will be performing the suite arranged by the composer in 1919. This suite is in five movements. The first is a slow and mysterious introduction followed by the lively and colorful dance of the Firebird. The second movement features the thirteen princesses dancing the Khorovod. This is the point when Prince Ivan falls in love with his future bride. The third movement, Infernal Dance, depicts King Kashchei’s demon aides being forced to dance themselves to exhaustion by the spell of the Firebird. The Berceuse is a lullaby that lulls Kashchei to sleep so that Prince Ivan can smash the egg. The Finale, announced by an iconic horn solo, celebrates the engagement of Prince Ivan to his future wife and the final triumph of good over evil.
b. June 17, 1882, Oranienbaum, a small town 25 miles west of St. Petersburg.
d. April 6, 1971, New York City, USA.
The Firebird Suite (1919 version)
Composed: Written for the 1910 season of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russe.
Premiered: Opéra de Paris on June 25, 1910.
- Introduction—The Firebird and its dance—The Firebird’s variation
- The Princesses’ Khorovod (Rondo, round dance)
- Infernal Dance of King Kashchei
- Berceuse (Lullaby)
- Finale
The Work in Context
- 1907: Russian troops disperse 40,000 protestors in Moscow.
- 1908: Ford Motors produces the first Model T.
- 1909: Tensions rise between Austria-Hungary and Russia over Serbia.
- 1910: Tsar Nicholas II visits Germany, the Firebird premiers in Paris.
Born near St. Petersburg Russia in 1882, Igor Stravinsky’s musical life spanned nearly 90 years and two continents. Stravinsky’s work spans the full spectrum of 20th century style, from his nationalist ballets of the early 20th century, through his experimental nationalism and neoclassicism, and all the way to the serial style in which he composed for much of his time in the United States. He wrote music for the stage and for the orchestra in addition to his large output of choral pieces, music for solo voice, and chamber music.
Stravinsky’s family was quite musical. His father was the principal bass voice in the Imperial Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, and his mother was a very good amateur singer and pianist. His father knew all the prominent musicians on the scene in Russia, including Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, and Mussorgsky. The young Igor grew up surrounded by music, taking composition lessons from Rimsky-Korsakov at a young age. When his mentor died in 1908, Stravinsky had already written several works. In 1909, Stravinsky’s Scherzo fantastique premiered in St. Petersburg. In the audience was one Sergei Diaghilev. Diaghilev was an art critic, patron, and ballet impresario. After some success in presenting concerts of Russian music in Paris, he founded the Ballets Russe and presented its first season in 1909. The company was successful beyond the wildest dreams of Diaghilev or his performers. Diaghilev commissioned The Firebird for his 1910 season from Stravinsky after approaching Anatoly Liadov, who was notoriously lazy and couldn’t finish the score on time. The success of the premiere vaulted Stravinsky into international superstardom and lead to the commissions of Petrushka and The Rite of Spring in following seasons.
The Firebird was a Russian folk tale about the young Prince Ivan who wanders through the garden of King Kashchei, an evil ruler whose strength comes from a magic egg that he guards day and night. Prince Ivan captures a Firebird in the garden, who gives Ivan one of its magical tailfeathers in exchange for its life. King Kashchei tries to lure Prince Ivan away with 13 enchanted princesses, and they lure him into being captured by Kashchei’s demon guards. Ivan uses the tailfeather to summon the Firebird, who reveals to Ivan the secret of the magic egg. Prince Ivan smashes the egg, defeats the enchantment, and marries the most beautiful of the enchanted princesses.
In addition to the full ballet, Stravinsky arranged three different suites of music from the original ballet to be performed as concert pieces. The Washington Idaho Symphony will be performing the suite arranged by the composer in 1919. This suite is in five movements. The first is a slow and mysterious introduction followed by the lively and colorful dance of the Firebird. The second movement features the thirteen princesses dancing the Khorovod. This is the point when Prince Ivan falls in love with his future bride. The third movement, Infernal Dance, depicts King Kashchei’s demon aides being forced to dance themselves to exhaustion by the spell of the Firebird. The Berceuse is a lullaby that lulls Kashchei to sleep so that Prince Ivan can smash the egg. The Finale, announced by an iconic horn solo, celebrates the engagement of Prince Ivan to his future wife and the final triumph of good over evil.
Pines of Rome. Written for the Midland-Odessa Symphony and Chorale
Ottorino Respighi
b. July 9, 1879. Bologna, Italy
d. April 18, 1936. Rome, Italy
Pines of Rome
Composed: 1923-1924
Premiered: December 14, 1924. Bernardino Molinari conducting the Augusteo Orchestra in Rome.
The Work in Context
Ottorino Respighiwas an Italian violinist, composer, educator, and musicologist who spent most of his career in Rome. Born into a musical family in Bologna, he began studying piano with his father at an early age. At the age of 21, he accepted the position of principal violin for the Italian opera season of the Russian Imperial Theater in St. Petersburg. During his years playing in Russia, he took composition lessons with the great Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who is still admired as a great orchestrator to this day. Although he did not have many lessons with Rimsky-Korsakov, Respighi considered these lessons to be highly influential on his compositional style. He continued to perform and compose in Italy, Russia, and Germany until he landed a permanent teaching position in Rome in 1913.
Although he at times made common cause with more modernist composers, Respighi was a conservative at heart who loved the Italian musical tradition. He had an active interest in musicology, and published numerous transcriptions of the works of Renaissance-era Italian composers. He composed operas that had some success in the stylistic tradition of Verdi and Puccini. His breakthrough as a composer came in 1917 with the premier of his orchestral tone poem, Fountains of Rome. Following in the success of these works, he wrote two sequels, Pines of Rome and Roman Festivalsin 1924 and 1928, respectively. Respighi continued to compose and teach in Rome until his death in 1936.
Pines of Romeis a work that has thrilled audiences with its vivid colors and dramatic conclusion since its premier in 1924. It contains one of the most dramatic, long crescendosin the orchestral repertoire in the fourth movement. In conceiving of this work, Respighi thought of the various events that the pine trees in Rome would have “seen” in their long lives. He said, “The centuries-old trees which so characteristically dominate the Roman landscape become witnesses to the principal events in Roman life.”
Respighi left a prose description of each movement in the score. His notes are as follows:
The Pine Trees of the Villa Borghese. Children are at play in the pine groves of Villa Borghese; they dance round in circles, they play at soldiers, marching and fighting, they are wrought up by their own cries like swallows at evening, they come and go in swarms. Suddenly the scene changes to
Pine Trees near a catacomb. We see the shades of the pine trees fringing the entrance to a catacomb. From the depth rises the sound of mournful psalm-singing, floating through the air like a solemn hymn, gradually and mysteriously dispersing.
The Pine Trees of the Janiculum. A quiver runs through the air: the pine trees of the Janiculum stand distinctly outlined in the clear light of a full moon. A nightingale is singing.
The Pine Trees of the Appian Way. Misty dawn on the Appian Way; solitary pine trees guarding the magic landscape; the muffled, ceaseless rhythm of unending footsteps. The poet has a fantastic vision of bygone glories. Trumpets sound and, in the brilliance of the newly risen sun, a consular army bursts forth toward the Sacred Way, mounting in triumph to the Capitol.
According to Elsa Respighi, the composer’s wife, “The Pines of Rome was one of the compositions in which her husband was most emotionally involved. His success in immersing us in the beauty of his beloved city is compelling testimony to that involvement.” Aside from its rich colors and superb orchestration, Pines of Rome was groundbreaking in a very significant if understated respect. It was one of the first pieces to use electronic sounds in its orchestration. Respighi included in the score the instruction to play a recording of a nightingale at the end of the third movement. To this day, publishers supply the recording that Respighi specified with the score of the work.
b. July 9, 1879. Bologna, Italy
d. April 18, 1936. Rome, Italy
Pines of Rome
- The Pine Trees of the Villa Borghese
- Pine Trees near a catacomb
- The Pine Trees of the Janiculum
- The Pine Trees of the Appian Way
Composed: 1923-1924
Premiered: December 14, 1924. Bernardino Molinari conducting the Augusteo Orchestra in Rome.
The Work in Context
- 1922: Mohandas Gandhi sentenced to six years for civil disobedience.
- 1923: Sound put on movie film for the first time
- 1924: Ice cream cone rolling machine invented, Pines of Rome premiered
- 1925: Chrysler Corporation founded
Ottorino Respighiwas an Italian violinist, composer, educator, and musicologist who spent most of his career in Rome. Born into a musical family in Bologna, he began studying piano with his father at an early age. At the age of 21, he accepted the position of principal violin for the Italian opera season of the Russian Imperial Theater in St. Petersburg. During his years playing in Russia, he took composition lessons with the great Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who is still admired as a great orchestrator to this day. Although he did not have many lessons with Rimsky-Korsakov, Respighi considered these lessons to be highly influential on his compositional style. He continued to perform and compose in Italy, Russia, and Germany until he landed a permanent teaching position in Rome in 1913.
Although he at times made common cause with more modernist composers, Respighi was a conservative at heart who loved the Italian musical tradition. He had an active interest in musicology, and published numerous transcriptions of the works of Renaissance-era Italian composers. He composed operas that had some success in the stylistic tradition of Verdi and Puccini. His breakthrough as a composer came in 1917 with the premier of his orchestral tone poem, Fountains of Rome. Following in the success of these works, he wrote two sequels, Pines of Rome and Roman Festivalsin 1924 and 1928, respectively. Respighi continued to compose and teach in Rome until his death in 1936.
Pines of Romeis a work that has thrilled audiences with its vivid colors and dramatic conclusion since its premier in 1924. It contains one of the most dramatic, long crescendosin the orchestral repertoire in the fourth movement. In conceiving of this work, Respighi thought of the various events that the pine trees in Rome would have “seen” in their long lives. He said, “The centuries-old trees which so characteristically dominate the Roman landscape become witnesses to the principal events in Roman life.”
Respighi left a prose description of each movement in the score. His notes are as follows:
The Pine Trees of the Villa Borghese. Children are at play in the pine groves of Villa Borghese; they dance round in circles, they play at soldiers, marching and fighting, they are wrought up by their own cries like swallows at evening, they come and go in swarms. Suddenly the scene changes to
Pine Trees near a catacomb. We see the shades of the pine trees fringing the entrance to a catacomb. From the depth rises the sound of mournful psalm-singing, floating through the air like a solemn hymn, gradually and mysteriously dispersing.
The Pine Trees of the Janiculum. A quiver runs through the air: the pine trees of the Janiculum stand distinctly outlined in the clear light of a full moon. A nightingale is singing.
The Pine Trees of the Appian Way. Misty dawn on the Appian Way; solitary pine trees guarding the magic landscape; the muffled, ceaseless rhythm of unending footsteps. The poet has a fantastic vision of bygone glories. Trumpets sound and, in the brilliance of the newly risen sun, a consular army bursts forth toward the Sacred Way, mounting in triumph to the Capitol.
According to Elsa Respighi, the composer’s wife, “The Pines of Rome was one of the compositions in which her husband was most emotionally involved. His success in immersing us in the beauty of his beloved city is compelling testimony to that involvement.” Aside from its rich colors and superb orchestration, Pines of Rome was groundbreaking in a very significant if understated respect. It was one of the first pieces to use electronic sounds in its orchestration. Respighi included in the score the instruction to play a recording of a nightingale at the end of the third movement. To this day, publishers supply the recording that Respighi specified with the score of the work.
Shostakovich Symphony No. 9. Written for the Midland-Odessa Symphony and Chorale
Dimitri Shostakovich
b. September 25, 1906. St. Petersburg, Russia
d. August 9, 1975. Moscow, Russia
Symphony No. 9 in E-flat major, Op. 70
Composed: 1945
Premiered: November 3, 1945 by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Yevgeny Mravinsky.
The Work in Context
Dimitri Shostakovichlived through a time of incredible upheaval in his native Russia. Born 11 years before the revolution of 1917, he grew up in a moderately wealthy family and attended the same schools as the children of Leon Trotsky. His family made music frequently in the house, and Shostakovich entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1919. Shostakovich was associated with the modernist wing of the Soviet music scene as a young man. This was not initially a problem, as the Soviet Communist Party under Lenin was more concerned with addressing the economic crises and dislocations due to the revolution, WWI, and the world-wide economic depression. Under these conditions, Dimitri Shostakovich began his compositional career and was well received around the world. His Symphony No. 1 premiered in 1926 to broad acclaim.
In 1934, Shostakovich premiered his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtensk District. This modernist and gritty opera was initially well received until Stalin attended a performance in 1936. Peter Burkholder observed that Stalin was angered by its “discordant modernist music and surrealistic, often grostesque portrayal of violence and sex.” Stalin, who took power in the mid-1920s, was in the process of brutally consolidating his power and exercising his control over the artistic life of the USSR. An article was printed in Pravda, the state newspaper of the USSR, denouncing Shostakovich who now feared for his life.
Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 was premiered in 1937 to great acclaim throughout the Soviet Union. The composer himself endorsed a description of the work as “a Soviet artist’s reply to just criticism.” This work rehabilitated Shostakovich in the eyes of the state and allowed him to continue to work. He was denounced again in 1948 and could only write film music and propaganda music publicly. He continued to write serious music “for the desk drawer” that he had no hope of ever hearing performed. In 1979, a set of memoirs were discovered that many believe were written by Shostakovich. They tell a story of a composer who was severely dissatisfied and disillusioned with this treatment by the Communist Party. Due to the fact that authorship of these memoirs has been difficult to establish, musicologists still debate whether his rehabilitation was sincere or if he was including covert subversive elements even in the music that was endorsed by the State.
Symphony No. 9, written and premiered in 1945, went through an interesting evolution from the time Shostakovich first began talking about it until it was written and premiered. Due to the long shadow cast by Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, composers often carefully consider how they will approach their ninth work in this genre. Shostakovich initially talked of writing a large-scale work including chorus and solo singers to express the victory of the Soviet people. The work that he wrote and premiered, however, was completely different. The Ninth Symphony is a smaller-scale, Neoclassical work more similar to Haydn in form and wit than to Beethoven. It was initially well received, but later Soviet critics criticized it for not being triumphant enough, for not having the correct ideology, and for not reflecting the spirit of the Soviet People. The work was banned on February 14, 1948 in his second denunciation.
The first movement contains an opening theme that could have been written by Haydn. The movement continues with this light air, although repeated musical “curve-balls” are thrown at the audience in the form of extra beats, trills on unexpected notes, and unusual modulations. The trombone has a two-note motif that it interjects in a different place in the recapitulation than it did in the opening of the piece. The second movement is a lightly-orchestrated waltz more reminiscent of chamber music than of the slow movement of a symphony. The third movement, marked Presto, is an energetic, flashy movement with melodies constantly being traded between the woodwinds and the strings. The fourth movement opens with a very serious fanfare in the trombones and tubas. This short movement trades between these fanfares and mournful bassoon cadenzas. The last movement is in the rondo form frequently found in Classical Era works. The initial melody continues to return after episodes of contrasting material.
The conductor of the premier, Yevgeny Mravinsky, said of the piece: “To be sure, not all the symphony is ironic – it contains both tender lyricism and deep sadness. The insouciant or frivolous “light-heartedness” of the first movement (think of the secondary subject!) and the element of deliberate and labored gaiety in the finally express, not the composer’s own feelings, but those of his opposite – the self-satisfied, short-sighted philistine who is essentially indifferent to everything.” Shostakovich summed up the piece more succinctly: “It is a merry little piece. Musicians will love to play it and critics will delight in blasting it.”
b. September 25, 1906. St. Petersburg, Russia
d. August 9, 1975. Moscow, Russia
Symphony No. 9 in E-flat major, Op. 70
- Allegro
- Moderato
- Presto
- Largo
- Allegretto
Composed: 1945
Premiered: November 3, 1945 by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Yevgeny Mravinsky.
The Work in Context
- 1940: John Steinbeck wins the Pulitzer Prize for Grapes of Wrath
- 1941: Seige of Leningrad begins
- 1942: Bing Crosby records “White Christmas,” best-selling album in history
- 1943: Red Army breaks Axis lines at Stalingrad
- 1944: Seige of Leningrad ends
- 1945: End of WWII, Shostakovich writes Symphony No. 9
Dimitri Shostakovichlived through a time of incredible upheaval in his native Russia. Born 11 years before the revolution of 1917, he grew up in a moderately wealthy family and attended the same schools as the children of Leon Trotsky. His family made music frequently in the house, and Shostakovich entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1919. Shostakovich was associated with the modernist wing of the Soviet music scene as a young man. This was not initially a problem, as the Soviet Communist Party under Lenin was more concerned with addressing the economic crises and dislocations due to the revolution, WWI, and the world-wide economic depression. Under these conditions, Dimitri Shostakovich began his compositional career and was well received around the world. His Symphony No. 1 premiered in 1926 to broad acclaim.
In 1934, Shostakovich premiered his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtensk District. This modernist and gritty opera was initially well received until Stalin attended a performance in 1936. Peter Burkholder observed that Stalin was angered by its “discordant modernist music and surrealistic, often grostesque portrayal of violence and sex.” Stalin, who took power in the mid-1920s, was in the process of brutally consolidating his power and exercising his control over the artistic life of the USSR. An article was printed in Pravda, the state newspaper of the USSR, denouncing Shostakovich who now feared for his life.
Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 was premiered in 1937 to great acclaim throughout the Soviet Union. The composer himself endorsed a description of the work as “a Soviet artist’s reply to just criticism.” This work rehabilitated Shostakovich in the eyes of the state and allowed him to continue to work. He was denounced again in 1948 and could only write film music and propaganda music publicly. He continued to write serious music “for the desk drawer” that he had no hope of ever hearing performed. In 1979, a set of memoirs were discovered that many believe were written by Shostakovich. They tell a story of a composer who was severely dissatisfied and disillusioned with this treatment by the Communist Party. Due to the fact that authorship of these memoirs has been difficult to establish, musicologists still debate whether his rehabilitation was sincere or if he was including covert subversive elements even in the music that was endorsed by the State.
Symphony No. 9, written and premiered in 1945, went through an interesting evolution from the time Shostakovich first began talking about it until it was written and premiered. Due to the long shadow cast by Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, composers often carefully consider how they will approach their ninth work in this genre. Shostakovich initially talked of writing a large-scale work including chorus and solo singers to express the victory of the Soviet people. The work that he wrote and premiered, however, was completely different. The Ninth Symphony is a smaller-scale, Neoclassical work more similar to Haydn in form and wit than to Beethoven. It was initially well received, but later Soviet critics criticized it for not being triumphant enough, for not having the correct ideology, and for not reflecting the spirit of the Soviet People. The work was banned on February 14, 1948 in his second denunciation.
The first movement contains an opening theme that could have been written by Haydn. The movement continues with this light air, although repeated musical “curve-balls” are thrown at the audience in the form of extra beats, trills on unexpected notes, and unusual modulations. The trombone has a two-note motif that it interjects in a different place in the recapitulation than it did in the opening of the piece. The second movement is a lightly-orchestrated waltz more reminiscent of chamber music than of the slow movement of a symphony. The third movement, marked Presto, is an energetic, flashy movement with melodies constantly being traded between the woodwinds and the strings. The fourth movement opens with a very serious fanfare in the trombones and tubas. This short movement trades between these fanfares and mournful bassoon cadenzas. The last movement is in the rondo form frequently found in Classical Era works. The initial melody continues to return after episodes of contrasting material.
The conductor of the premier, Yevgeny Mravinsky, said of the piece: “To be sure, not all the symphony is ironic – it contains both tender lyricism and deep sadness. The insouciant or frivolous “light-heartedness” of the first movement (think of the secondary subject!) and the element of deliberate and labored gaiety in the finally express, not the composer’s own feelings, but those of his opposite – the self-satisfied, short-sighted philistine who is essentially indifferent to everything.” Shostakovich summed up the piece more succinctly: “It is a merry little piece. Musicians will love to play it and critics will delight in blasting it.”
1812 Overture. Written for the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra
Tchaikovsky was a new kind of Russian composer. Whereas many of his predecessors, such as Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, distrusted and opposed the influence of Western European music and the new conservatories, Tchaikovsky took the opposite course. His first theory teacher was an adherent of Beethoven’s late style. Tchaikovsky enrolled in the new St. Petersburg Conservatory the year it opened, and he graduated three years later, in 1865. Tchaikovsky went on to compose in all of the major genres, and he composed both absolute and programmatic music.
The Year 1812 festival overture began as an idea from the famous pianist, composer, and conductor Anton Rubenstein. Rubenstein, the young Tchaikovsky’s teacher at the conservatory, wanted his former pupil to write a piece for one of three major upcoming events: the Moscow Exhibition of Industry and Arts, the 25th anniversary of the Tsar’s coronation, or the opening of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. This massive church was built to commemorate Russia’s defense of Moscow against Napoleon’s army in 1812. Tchaikovsky was unenthusiastic; he had a history of not wanting to compose “purely for the sake of the 100 ruble note at the end of it.” Rubenstein appealed to Tchaikovsky, and he relented and agreed to compose for the cathedral consecration. The resulting work has become not simply one of Tchaikovsky’s most famous works, but one of the most recognizable pieces in the Western canon.
Despite the piece’s eventual popularity, Tchaikovsky did not have a high opinion of the work. “I don’t think it has any serious merits,” he said in a letter, “and I shan’t be at all surprised and offended if you find that it is in a style unsuitable for symphony concerts.” The piece did appeal to the audience, as it offered a musical account of the defense of Moscow. The work opens with four cellos and two violas playing the Russian hymn, “God Preserve thy People.” The following material describes the struggle between the Russian and French forces by pitting Russian folk songs against La Marseillaise: the national anthem of France. This section concludes with a forceful statement of La Marseillaise accompanied by canon fire. After an extended string cadenza of descending lines, “God Preserve thy People” returns, this time in triumph played by the brass to signify the victory of the Russian forces. The piece concludes with the Russian dance theme set against “God Save the Tsar” in the low instruments. Tchaikovsky accompanied this tune with peal of church bells and canon fire as the Russian people celebrate their victory. Despite Tchaikovsky’s pessimism, the piece has been a continuing success since its first performance, and is frequently heard in the United States at patriotic events.
The Year 1812 festival overture began as an idea from the famous pianist, composer, and conductor Anton Rubenstein. Rubenstein, the young Tchaikovsky’s teacher at the conservatory, wanted his former pupil to write a piece for one of three major upcoming events: the Moscow Exhibition of Industry and Arts, the 25th anniversary of the Tsar’s coronation, or the opening of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. This massive church was built to commemorate Russia’s defense of Moscow against Napoleon’s army in 1812. Tchaikovsky was unenthusiastic; he had a history of not wanting to compose “purely for the sake of the 100 ruble note at the end of it.” Rubenstein appealed to Tchaikovsky, and he relented and agreed to compose for the cathedral consecration. The resulting work has become not simply one of Tchaikovsky’s most famous works, but one of the most recognizable pieces in the Western canon.
Despite the piece’s eventual popularity, Tchaikovsky did not have a high opinion of the work. “I don’t think it has any serious merits,” he said in a letter, “and I shan’t be at all surprised and offended if you find that it is in a style unsuitable for symphony concerts.” The piece did appeal to the audience, as it offered a musical account of the defense of Moscow. The work opens with four cellos and two violas playing the Russian hymn, “God Preserve thy People.” The following material describes the struggle between the Russian and French forces by pitting Russian folk songs against La Marseillaise: the national anthem of France. This section concludes with a forceful statement of La Marseillaise accompanied by canon fire. After an extended string cadenza of descending lines, “God Preserve thy People” returns, this time in triumph played by the brass to signify the victory of the Russian forces. The piece concludes with the Russian dance theme set against “God Save the Tsar” in the low instruments. Tchaikovsky accompanied this tune with peal of church bells and canon fire as the Russian people celebrate their victory. Despite Tchaikovsky’s pessimism, the piece has been a continuing success since its first performance, and is frequently heard in the United States at patriotic events.
Song of the Volga Boatmen. Written for the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra
Born near St. Petersburg Russia in 1882, Igor Stravinsky’s musical life spanned nearly 90 years and two continents. Stravinsky’s work spans the full spectrum of 20th century style, from his nationalist ballets of the early 20th century, through his experimental nationalism and neoclassicism, and all the way to the serial style in which he composed for much of his time in the United States. He wrote music for the stage and for the orchestra in addition to his large output of choral pieces, music for solo voice, and chamber music.
In 1914, due to his wife’s increasingly severe case of tuberculosis, the Stravinsky family moved to Leysin, high in the Swiss Alps above Lake Geneva. Stravinsky stayed in Switzerland throughout the war, and wrote some of his most famous works for small ensembles, such as Histoire du Soldat. After a brief trip back to Russia to settle some business affairs, he never again returned to his homeland. It was during his time in Switzerland that he composed his arrangement of “Song of the Volga Boatmen.”
In 1917, Russia was turned upside down as the Bolshevik revolution overthrew the Tsars of the Romanov dynasty. Stravinsky was initially hopeful that this revolution would lead to better living conditions for the people of his homeland. Citizens of the newly formed USSR realized that “Long Live the Tsar” was no longer an appropriate national anthem, so the famous ballet impresario Diaghilev, who had staged Stravinsky’s ballets such as the Rite of Spring, contacted the composer and asked him to compose a new song for the new country. The legislator Rodzianko suggested that Stravinsky use the tune “Song of the Volga Boatmen.” The text represented the spirit of collective labor that the revolution hoped to inspire in its citizens.
Mily Balakirev, the Russian composer and teacher, first published the Russian folk tune “Song of the Volga Boatmen” in a collection of folk songs. Stravinsky’s setting of this melody shows evidence of both Balakirev’s harmonization and Glazonov’s use of the tune in a tone poem. The work premiered in Rome on April 12, 1917 under the title “Hymn to the New Russia,” alongside a presentation of some of Stravinsky’s other works. Despite it’s familiar melody and the backing of prominent politicians and public figures, the song setting failed to become the new national anthem due to its association with serfdom under the Tsars and its pessimistic sound.
The song became a popular concert piece due to its repeated performance by Feodor Chaliapin, the famous Russian bass. The song was later arranged by Manuel de Falla at the request of the League of Nations in 1922. All the proceeds from the sale of the piece went to relief for Russian war refugees after the end of World War I. Later, in 1941, Glenn Miller’s jazz arrangement of the tune topped the U.S. pop music charts. Stravinsky’s original orchestration features orchestral winds and percussion without the use of strings.
In 1914, due to his wife’s increasingly severe case of tuberculosis, the Stravinsky family moved to Leysin, high in the Swiss Alps above Lake Geneva. Stravinsky stayed in Switzerland throughout the war, and wrote some of his most famous works for small ensembles, such as Histoire du Soldat. After a brief trip back to Russia to settle some business affairs, he never again returned to his homeland. It was during his time in Switzerland that he composed his arrangement of “Song of the Volga Boatmen.”
In 1917, Russia was turned upside down as the Bolshevik revolution overthrew the Tsars of the Romanov dynasty. Stravinsky was initially hopeful that this revolution would lead to better living conditions for the people of his homeland. Citizens of the newly formed USSR realized that “Long Live the Tsar” was no longer an appropriate national anthem, so the famous ballet impresario Diaghilev, who had staged Stravinsky’s ballets such as the Rite of Spring, contacted the composer and asked him to compose a new song for the new country. The legislator Rodzianko suggested that Stravinsky use the tune “Song of the Volga Boatmen.” The text represented the spirit of collective labor that the revolution hoped to inspire in its citizens.
Mily Balakirev, the Russian composer and teacher, first published the Russian folk tune “Song of the Volga Boatmen” in a collection of folk songs. Stravinsky’s setting of this melody shows evidence of both Balakirev’s harmonization and Glazonov’s use of the tune in a tone poem. The work premiered in Rome on April 12, 1917 under the title “Hymn to the New Russia,” alongside a presentation of some of Stravinsky’s other works. Despite it’s familiar melody and the backing of prominent politicians and public figures, the song setting failed to become the new national anthem due to its association with serfdom under the Tsars and its pessimistic sound.
The song became a popular concert piece due to its repeated performance by Feodor Chaliapin, the famous Russian bass. The song was later arranged by Manuel de Falla at the request of the League of Nations in 1922. All the proceeds from the sale of the piece went to relief for Russian war refugees after the end of World War I. Later, in 1941, Glenn Miller’s jazz arrangement of the tune topped the U.S. pop music charts. Stravinsky’s original orchestration features orchestral winds and percussion without the use of strings.
Beethoven Symphony No. 5. Written for the Huxford Symphony Orchestra
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C Minor op. 67 premiered in 1808. While not as initially popular as the Third Symphony, it has become one of the centerpieces of the Western canon. It consistently ranks in the top ten most performed works by American orchestras. A. Peter Brown calls it “the quintessential Beethoven symphony” due to its combination of a unique musical language with immediate audience appeal. The symphony opens with the iconic “short-short-short-long” rhythmic motive. This pattern is a common thread that runs through all four movements. The opening, as is common to Beethoven’s symphonies, is harmonically ambiguous. The C minor of the first movement sets the stage for the glorious modulation to C major for the final movement. The fourth movement is important to the development of the symphony as a genre because it includes, for the first time, the piccolo, the contrabassoon, and three trombones. This represents an expansion of both the range and the color palette of the orchestra.
Ludwig van Beethoven was the third generation of the Beethoven family to work as a court musician in the Electorate of Cologne. Ludwig was born in Bonn, the capital of Cologne, in 1770. His first music teacher, Christian Gottlob Neefe, was the musical director of the court theater. Neefe saw great talent in the nine-year-old Beethoven, and even said that he would be the next great musical prodigy in the style of Mozart. Beethoven left Bonn in 1792 to study with Haydn in Vienna. He initially made a name for himself in Vienna by displaying his virtuosity at the piano in concerts held in private salons. He premiered his first symphony on April 2, 1800, as part of a concert he conducted also featuring music of Mozart and Haydn, as well as other works of his own. While the first symphony was not initially popular, although heavy wind scoring drew favorable reviews, the concert was a success, and the popularity of Beethoven’s music grew with the Viennese public.
Beethoven began work on the Fifth Symphony in 1804. The years between 1804 and the symphony’s premier in 1808 were some of the most productive of his career. He wrote the Sonatas op. 53, 54, and 57, the Fourth Piano Concerto, the “Razumovsky” Quartets, the Violin Concerto, the opera Fidelio, the Mass in C, and the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Symphonies during this span. The premier, on December 22, 1808, featured all newly composed works by Beethoven: the Fifth and Sixths Symphonies, excerpts from the Mass in C, a new aria for Fidelio, the Fourth Piano Concerto, the Fantasia for Solo Piano, and the Choral Fantasy. The concert was given to benefit Beethoven financially, so he was responsible for everything from booking the hall to hiring the musicians. By all accounts, the premier was not altogether successful. Beethoven only left time for one rehearsal, in which he antagonized the soprano soloist to near terror. The orchestra did not execute the music at a high level due to difficulty of parts and lack of performance time. Fortunately, the critics refrained from forming a final opinion of the pieces until they had another hearing. The next performance of the Fifth Symphony, on January 23, 1805, was a success and received glowing reviews.
Ludwig van Beethoven was the third generation of the Beethoven family to work as a court musician in the Electorate of Cologne. Ludwig was born in Bonn, the capital of Cologne, in 1770. His first music teacher, Christian Gottlob Neefe, was the musical director of the court theater. Neefe saw great talent in the nine-year-old Beethoven, and even said that he would be the next great musical prodigy in the style of Mozart. Beethoven left Bonn in 1792 to study with Haydn in Vienna. He initially made a name for himself in Vienna by displaying his virtuosity at the piano in concerts held in private salons. He premiered his first symphony on April 2, 1800, as part of a concert he conducted also featuring music of Mozart and Haydn, as well as other works of his own. While the first symphony was not initially popular, although heavy wind scoring drew favorable reviews, the concert was a success, and the popularity of Beethoven’s music grew with the Viennese public.
Beethoven began work on the Fifth Symphony in 1804. The years between 1804 and the symphony’s premier in 1808 were some of the most productive of his career. He wrote the Sonatas op. 53, 54, and 57, the Fourth Piano Concerto, the “Razumovsky” Quartets, the Violin Concerto, the opera Fidelio, the Mass in C, and the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Symphonies during this span. The premier, on December 22, 1808, featured all newly composed works by Beethoven: the Fifth and Sixths Symphonies, excerpts from the Mass in C, a new aria for Fidelio, the Fourth Piano Concerto, the Fantasia for Solo Piano, and the Choral Fantasy. The concert was given to benefit Beethoven financially, so he was responsible for everything from booking the hall to hiring the musicians. By all accounts, the premier was not altogether successful. Beethoven only left time for one rehearsal, in which he antagonized the soprano soloist to near terror. The orchestra did not execute the music at a high level due to difficulty of parts and lack of performance time. Fortunately, the critics refrained from forming a final opinion of the pieces until they had another hearing. The next performance of the Fifth Symphony, on January 23, 1805, was a success and received glowing reviews.
Pictures at an Exhibition. Written for Huxford Symphony Orchestra
Modest Mussorgsky was born into a wealthy, land owning family who lived in the countryside south of St. Petersburg, Russia. After enduring the loss of his family’s wealth in 1866 due to the Emancipation of the Serfs, Mussorgsky took a job in the civil service and focused on his composition. In 1874, after extensive re-writes and waivers from various government censors, his great opera, Boris Godunov, finally premiered in its entirety. Although the work was a public success, the other members of “The Russian Five” (a name given to Mussorgsky, Cui, Borodin, Balakirev, and Rimsky-Korsakov by Vladimir Stasov) panned the work as “immature.” Stung by this critique and the sudden death of his friend Victor Hartmann, Mussorgsky stopped work on his next opera, and instead wrote Pictures at an Exhibition as a tribute to the recently deceased Victor Hartmann.
Victor Hartmann (1834-1873) was primarily an architect, but he also made handicrafts, painted, and designed costumes for the theater. Most Russian critics, with the exception of Vladimir Stasov, ignored his work. Stasov introduced Hartmann to “The Russian Five,” and he and Mussorgsky became close friends. Upon the artist’s death in 1874, Stasov organized a retrospective show, which Mussorgsky attended. Of the 400 works displayed at the retrospective, as few as 65 still exist today. Mussorgsky, inspired by the show, wrote his piece Pictures at an Exhibition for piano in 1874. Mussorgsky published the work in 1886, but it did not gain prominence until Maurice Ravel orchestrated the work in 1922.
Pictures at an Exhibition consists of ten movements with several Promenade movements interspersed. The Promenades all derive from the same musical material, and their irregular meter gives the impression of stopping and starting as an attendee walks through an art show. From the composer’s letters, it is clear that Mussorgsky saw himself as the viewer walking through the exhibit. The numbered movements draw inspiration from the works of Hartmann to varying degrees:
I. Mussorgsky based movement I, Gnomus, on a design Hartmann made for a grotesque nutcracker intended as a Christmas tree decoration. The sketches that inspired this music are lost.
II. The artistic origin for movement II, The Old Castle,is uncertain, but it probably based on a watercolor of an Italian castle by Hartmann.
III. Movement III, Tuileries (Dispute between Children at Play) derives its inspiration from a painting called “Tuileries Garden” by Hartmann. The painting depicts a group of children playing with their nurse.
IV. The connection to Harmann in movement IV, Bydlo is uncertain at best. The word bydlo literally means cattle, but Stasov recounts a description from the composer in which Mussorgsky explained the piece as an ox-cart approaching from a distance.
V. Mussorgsky bases movement V, Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks, on a costume design by Hartmann for the ballet Trilby.
VI. For movement VI, “Samuel” Goldenburg und “Schmulye,”Mussorgsky used two watercolors, one of a rich Jew and one of a poor Jew that Hartmann had given him in 1868. In the music, the pompous Samuel Goldenburg theme in the strings contrasts with the fluttering Schmulye theme in the trumpet.
VII. Stasov’s correspondence with Mussorgsky is particularly instructive in movement VII, The Market at Limoges (The Great News). Stasov claims the movement depicts “old women quarreling at the fair in Limoges.” Hartmann painted this scene while visiting France. In the margin of his manuscript, Mussorgsky wrote this scenario: “Great news! M. de Puissangeout has just recovered his cow, The Fugitive. But the good crones of Limoges are not entirely agreed about this, whereas M. be Panta-Pantaleon’s nose, which is in the way, remains the color of a peony.”
VIII. Movement VII, The Catacombs, draws inspiration from a painting by Hartmann of the artist and a friend viewing the catacombs by lantern light. Mussorgsky titled the second half of this movement Cum mortuis in lingua mortua,Latin for “with the dead in a dead language.” In the manuscript’s margin, Mussorgsky wrote: “A Latin text would do well: The creative spirit of the departed Hartmann leads me to the skulls, calls out to them, and the skulls begin to glow dimly from within.”
IX. Mussorgsky returns to Hartmann’s designs for inspiration in movement IX, The Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba-Yagá). Baba-Yagá was a monster from Russian folk literature. She was usually thought of as a witch who ground up human bones with a mortar and pestle and ate them. Hartmann had made a bronze clock depicting the Baba-Yagá that Mussorgsky used in the composition of this movement.
X. The final movement of the piece is The Bogatyr Gates (in the Capital in Kiev). In 1869, Hartmann began work on a design for a gate to commemorate the tsar’s escape from assassination at Kiev on April 4, 1866. While his design might be his most famous work, the competition was called off and the gate was never built.
Maurice Ravel received a commission in 1922 from Koussevitsky, a prominent Russian conductor, to orchestrate Pictures at an Exhibition. Russian Music had been popular in France since around the turn of the century, and Ravel moved in the same social circles as various Russian composers and artists. In addition, Ravel, Debussy, and their contemporaries saw Mussorgsky as one of the first Modernist composers. The new orchestration premiered on October 19, 1922, with Koussevitsky conducting. The performance was well received and added to Ravel’s stature with the public. The work is orchestrated for 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd doubling English Horn), 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, alto saxophone, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, tympani, glockenspiel, chimes, triangle, tam-tam, rattle, whip, cymbal, snare drum, bass drum, xylophone, celesta, harp, and strings.
Victor Hartmann (1834-1873) was primarily an architect, but he also made handicrafts, painted, and designed costumes for the theater. Most Russian critics, with the exception of Vladimir Stasov, ignored his work. Stasov introduced Hartmann to “The Russian Five,” and he and Mussorgsky became close friends. Upon the artist’s death in 1874, Stasov organized a retrospective show, which Mussorgsky attended. Of the 400 works displayed at the retrospective, as few as 65 still exist today. Mussorgsky, inspired by the show, wrote his piece Pictures at an Exhibition for piano in 1874. Mussorgsky published the work in 1886, but it did not gain prominence until Maurice Ravel orchestrated the work in 1922.
Pictures at an Exhibition consists of ten movements with several Promenade movements interspersed. The Promenades all derive from the same musical material, and their irregular meter gives the impression of stopping and starting as an attendee walks through an art show. From the composer’s letters, it is clear that Mussorgsky saw himself as the viewer walking through the exhibit. The numbered movements draw inspiration from the works of Hartmann to varying degrees:
I. Mussorgsky based movement I, Gnomus, on a design Hartmann made for a grotesque nutcracker intended as a Christmas tree decoration. The sketches that inspired this music are lost.
II. The artistic origin for movement II, The Old Castle,is uncertain, but it probably based on a watercolor of an Italian castle by Hartmann.
III. Movement III, Tuileries (Dispute between Children at Play) derives its inspiration from a painting called “Tuileries Garden” by Hartmann. The painting depicts a group of children playing with their nurse.
IV. The connection to Harmann in movement IV, Bydlo is uncertain at best. The word bydlo literally means cattle, but Stasov recounts a description from the composer in which Mussorgsky explained the piece as an ox-cart approaching from a distance.
V. Mussorgsky bases movement V, Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks, on a costume design by Hartmann for the ballet Trilby.
VI. For movement VI, “Samuel” Goldenburg und “Schmulye,”Mussorgsky used two watercolors, one of a rich Jew and one of a poor Jew that Hartmann had given him in 1868. In the music, the pompous Samuel Goldenburg theme in the strings contrasts with the fluttering Schmulye theme in the trumpet.
VII. Stasov’s correspondence with Mussorgsky is particularly instructive in movement VII, The Market at Limoges (The Great News). Stasov claims the movement depicts “old women quarreling at the fair in Limoges.” Hartmann painted this scene while visiting France. In the margin of his manuscript, Mussorgsky wrote this scenario: “Great news! M. de Puissangeout has just recovered his cow, The Fugitive. But the good crones of Limoges are not entirely agreed about this, whereas M. be Panta-Pantaleon’s nose, which is in the way, remains the color of a peony.”
VIII. Movement VII, The Catacombs, draws inspiration from a painting by Hartmann of the artist and a friend viewing the catacombs by lantern light. Mussorgsky titled the second half of this movement Cum mortuis in lingua mortua,Latin for “with the dead in a dead language.” In the manuscript’s margin, Mussorgsky wrote: “A Latin text would do well: The creative spirit of the departed Hartmann leads me to the skulls, calls out to them, and the skulls begin to glow dimly from within.”
IX. Mussorgsky returns to Hartmann’s designs for inspiration in movement IX, The Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba-Yagá). Baba-Yagá was a monster from Russian folk literature. She was usually thought of as a witch who ground up human bones with a mortar and pestle and ate them. Hartmann had made a bronze clock depicting the Baba-Yagá that Mussorgsky used in the composition of this movement.
X. The final movement of the piece is The Bogatyr Gates (in the Capital in Kiev). In 1869, Hartmann began work on a design for a gate to commemorate the tsar’s escape from assassination at Kiev on April 4, 1866. While his design might be his most famous work, the competition was called off and the gate was never built.
Maurice Ravel received a commission in 1922 from Koussevitsky, a prominent Russian conductor, to orchestrate Pictures at an Exhibition. Russian Music had been popular in France since around the turn of the century, and Ravel moved in the same social circles as various Russian composers and artists. In addition, Ravel, Debussy, and their contemporaries saw Mussorgsky as one of the first Modernist composers. The new orchestration premiered on October 19, 1922, with Koussevitsky conducting. The performance was well received and added to Ravel’s stature with the public. The work is orchestrated for 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd doubling English Horn), 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, alto saxophone, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, tympani, glockenspiel, chimes, triangle, tam-tam, rattle, whip, cymbal, snare drum, bass drum, xylophone, celesta, harp, and strings.