welcome! concerts & conversations
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome! Concerts & Conversations
Class #2
Sergei Prokofiev 1891 -‐ 1953
130+ Composi8ons • Concertos • Operas • Symphonies • Ballets • Sonatas • Films • Suites • Celebra8ons • Other Symphonic Pieces
Prokofiev’s Musical Styles
Early Style: • Experimental • Sa.ric & grotesque • Aggressive • Primi.ve • Mysterious • Drama.c • Classical
Mature Style, lighter: • Tonal, melodic, narra.ve, expository
Mature Style, serious: • Tonal & melodic • Narra.ve & expository • Elements of dissonance • Tradi.onal forms • Sa.ric & grotesque • Emo.onal & evoca.ve
Prokofiev Symphony #5
• Four Movements • Tonal & melodic & dissonant • Emo.onally obvious & puzzling • “A hymn to free and happy Man.”
www.lifelonglearningcollabora.ve.org/philharmonic/preview-‐the-‐upcoming-‐concer.html
Augus8n Hadelich
hMp://www.schmidtart.com/ar.sts/augus.n_hadelich
Hadelich plays Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D
Mid 19th century Russia: A Musical Turf War
Na8onalist Side: The Big Five
Balakirev
Borodin Mussorgsky
Cui
Rimsky-‐Korsakov
Music Principles of the Big Five:
Russian music must be based on: • The cadence of the Russian language • Russian folk music • Expository messages • Non-‐Western musical structures • Pentatonic (whole tone) scale
The Russian academic interna8onalist side:
Musicians should: • Transcend na.onal boundaries • Draw on the genres of western European music • Draw on the structures of Western music • Use the diatonic scale
Tchaikovsky: Na8onalist or Interna8onalist?
• AMended St Petersburg Conservatory • Learned to love the western music • Thought Mozart was the “Christ of music” • Felt the famous 5 were sloppy & uncouth • Wanted to combine Slavic musical expression and a roman.c approach with the Western forms • But always struggled with form
Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D
• Follows the typical form of the concerto: • Three movements: o Moderately fast o Slow o Fast, lively
• Solo instrument is given lyrical melody lines and technically challenging passages
Concerto: Typical First Movement
• Orchestra Intro: Preview the themes • Soloist & orchestra: State the principle themes (2+) • Soloist & orchestra: Develop/explore the themes • Soloist & orchestra: Recap the themes • Soloist: Improvise on themes • Orchestra Coda: Close the movement
Intro-‐-‐> Exposi8on-‐-‐> Development-‐-‐> Recapitula8on-‐-‐> Cadenza-‐-‐> Coda!
First Movement of Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D
• Orchestra Intro: A melody, played twice, not heard again • Exposi.on: First theme; transi.on; second theme • Development: First theme again, without change • Recapitula.on: First theme again, without change • Cadenza • Coda
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D
• Second Movement: • Slavic folk tune • Melancholy
• Third movement: • Rapid Cossack dance. • Short phrase repeated six .mes, faster, louder, and wilder .
The Soloists
Kotek & Tchaikovsky
Adolph Brodsky
Augus8n Hadelich