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Showing posts with label Ave Maria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ave Maria. Show all posts
Thursday, November 9, 2023
Ave Maria, F. Schubert - Anastasiya Petryshak
/ petryshak.anastasiya 
Monday, October 10, 2022
Julie Anne San Jose trends as she sings ‘Ave Maria’ in her latest series
by Robert Requintina
Goosebumps as Asia’s Limitless Star Julie Anne San Jose trended on social media with her moving rendition of Bach’s “Ave Maria” which she performed in the latest episode of the primetime series “Maria Clara at Ibarra” on GMA-7 on Monday, Oct. 10.
‘Maria Clara at Ibarra’ follows the story of Klay, a Gen Z nursing student who aims to work and bring her family abroad. She is almost graduating soon, but not until she failed a minor subject—Rizal Studies. Klay believes that this subject is irrelevant to her life and future career.
Mr. Jose Torres, Klay’s professor, gave her another chance to pass Rizal Studies, and he lent her a book of Noli Me Tangere. Klay had not even read several pages of the novel when she got bored and fell asleep.
The mystery begins when Klay wakes up in the world of Noli Me Tangere! Much to her surprise, Klay finds Mr. Torres in the alternate timeline. Klay was told that she can only return to the present once she finishes the book and learns all the lessons from the novel of Dr. Jose Rizal.
CLICK TO WATCH THE VIDEO CLIP: https://twitter.com/JulienitedPH/status/1579448509035872256?s=20
“Nakakakilig po siya pakinggan grabeee!” read one of the comments.
Other comments about her performance:
“Goosebumps! GMA is really good at this. The feels. Spanish era talaga.”
“Ang ganda ng tinig ni Maria Clara.”
“Ladies and Gentleman! The Limitless.”
“That’s why Julie Anne San Jose is Maria Clara. You can’t fake that beautiful singing voice and piano-playing. You just can’t.”
“Bat ako naiyak sa pagkanta niya huhu.”
“Impressive”
Thursday, March 10, 2022
Why Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’? The Batman soundtrack explained
We break down the classical music heard in the new Batman film, and the voices behind the soundtrack...
The first sound audiences hear when sitting down to watch DC’s new big screen comic book offering, The Batman, is the opening of Schubert’s Ave Maria.
The track, performed by Tiffin Boys’ Choir, a world-renowned school choir from London, UK, can be heard accompanying someone’s heavy breathing as the first scene of the film plays out after an unusually silent film credits opening.
Ave Maria is heard three more times in the film, and Schubert’s melody is continuously weaved into the soundtrack in a twisted villainous arrangement.
But why this piece of music, what’s its significance to the story line, and what themes does the song represent? We take a closer look at this musical prayer and the other music featured in the new Batman film.
Warning: Spoilers ahead...
What is the meaning behind ‘Ave Maria’ in The Batman?
Robert Pattinson stars as the title role in The Batman alongside actor and musician Paul Dano, who portrays the film’s main villain, the Riddler. Director, Matt Reeves, wrote the part of the Riddler for the new Batman film with Dano in mind to play the part.
In the comic books, the Riddler is depicted as one of the most notorious criminal masterminds in Gotham City, and is most associated with his obsession with riddles, puzzles, and death traps, which assert his intelligence over both Batman, and the police force.
In this new film, one puzzle the audience has to solve is the association of Schubert’s Ave Maria with this character.
The villain’s main theme is even a twisted minor key version of Schubert’s melody, giving the song even more play-time than its already three-time film appearance.
The theme uses the first six-note pattern of Schubert’s melody, but instead of rising to the major third on the fourth note of the phrase, the Riddler’s theme only rises to the minor third, creating an uneasy sonic atmosphere, before a falling semitone leads us back to the phrase’s starting note.
The unedited version of Schubert’s Ave Maria is heard three times in The Batman.
Firstly in the opening scene, while the Riddler watches his first victim, Mayor Don Mitchell Jr., and his family through a window. Secondly, in archive footage found in the city’s old orphanage, the song is performed by a children’s choir while Batman’s father (Thomas Wayne) gives an electoral speech. Finally, the song is sung by the Riddler himself while locked up in Arkham State Hospital.
While it’s not uncommon for film villains to sing their own themes (see Die Hard), the Riddler’s reason for singing this song is more one of vengeance, a theme that weaves through The Batman.
The Riddler reveals that he was an orphan in his ‘face off’ with Batman in Arkham State Hospital, and thanks to pinboard footage we see during an earlier scene, we can place the Riddler as a child in the children’s choir that sings Ave Maria.
This piece of music is subsequently suggested to be very important to the Riddler’s character, as it was the song he and his peers at the orphanage sang the day soon-to-be mayor, Thomas Wayne, announced the ‘renewal fund’; a billion pound investment into the city, part of which would go to the orphanage.
Wayne however, was murdered a week later, meaning the money promised to the orphanage from the renewal fund was never invested, and the orphaned children had to continue living in squalor while the criminals and corrupt police in the city profited.
What does Ave Maria represent in The Batman?
The Riddler’s children’s choir sings Ave Maria to Schubert’s melody, one of the Latin prayer’s most common modern-day settings. The lyrics for Ave Maria (Hail Mary in English), revere Jesus’ mother, the Virgin Mary, in the Christian religion.
Schubert’s melody and the Latin prayer text is a popular choice for funerals, making the repetitive appearance of the song throughout the film an eerie one.
The song is also visually associated with death throughout the film, with the first time it plays preempting the death of Mayor Don Mitchell Jr., and the second time preempting the death of Thomas Wayne.
There are various settings of the Latin prayer, and it is poignant that the music team chose the Schubert melody for the film, due to the original lyrics associated with this music.
Although today, the Schubert melody is most commonly sung with the Latin prayer lyrics, the German composer originally wrote the tune as part of a setting of seven songs from Walter Scott's popular epic poem The Lady of the Lake.
This melody was from song number six, Ellens dritter Gesang (Ellen’s third song), and the original German lyrics were actually a call to the Virgin Mary for help.
Schubert’s lyrics plead, “Thou canst hear though from the wild; Thou canst save amid despair. Safe may we sleep beneath thy care, Though banish'd, outcast and reviled.”
In Arkham State Hospital, the Riddler recounts in the orphanage, 30 children would sleep in one room, and every winter a baby would die because it was so cold, and the institution was unable to properly care for the infants.
The despair and wish for safety during sleep in Schubert’s lyrics are echoed by the Riddler in his description of his childhood, and perhaps explain why this melody was chosen to soundtrack his character.
What other classical music is heard in The Batman?
The Tiffin Boys’ Choir also perform Henry Purcell’s Dido’s Lament (When I am laid), a song about preparing for death, which is heard during the funeral of Mayor Don Mitchell Jr. As well as appearing on the soundtrack, the choir appear on screen in white chorister robes during the scene.
The school choir have lent their voices to multiple other Hollywood films before including The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) and Dumbo (2019).
Another famous choral piece is heard as Batman races back to his penthouse to save his butler, Alfred, played by Andy Serkis, from a bomb threat.
In a dramatic scene, where the action unfolds under the crescendoing soundtrack, the piece playing is ’s Requiem (Requiem Op. 48 7. In Paradisum (I)). Yet again, this is another classical piece of music often played at funerals, and has the viewer concerned that Alfred will die due to the death-associated music playing.
Although Alfred ends up surviving, it is an intensely emotional scene, and pulls at the viewers heartstrings as the huge orchestral and choral melody blocks out all other sound and makes you think you’re about to witness a main character death.
Earlier in the film, we also hear Alfred listening to classical music as he works on trying to break one of the Riddler’s cyphers. As he decodes, the music playing is the second movement of ’s ‘Emperor’ Piano Concerto No. 5.
Who wrote the music in The Batman?
Away from the featured classical music (and the Nirvana track Something in the Way) the score for the film was composed by Michael Giacchino.
Giacchino told Collider in 2020 that he felt “total freedom to do whatever [he wanted]” when it came to music for the film.
It was clear that director, and Giacchino’s friend, Matt Reeves trusted the composer with the task, as the two have worked on multiple films together such as Cloverfield (2008), Let Me In (2010), and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014).
Giacchino’s mostly minimalistic score, uses mainly strings and brass to emphasise the plot’s overarching theme of vengeance.
Like the Riddler’s theme, The Batman’s theme also centres in on a short phrase. The Batman’s theme is made up of a four-beat phrase, with just two notes, and is a repetitive and somewhat unusually simple theme for the composer.
However, Giacchino’s score uses dynamics and texture to create a theme out of this limited phrase. The music lifts from a mysterious, low four-note pattern to an unstoppable orchestral force incorporating brass and percussion to illustrate the power of the film’s hero.
Arguably the most developed theme, melody-wise, comes in the form of the second protagonist of the film, Catwoman. Her theme is a slinky syncopated smooth shared strings and solo piano melody. The lounge piano style music reflects Catwoman’s job as a hostess at a criminal club, while the stealthy strings illustrate her cat-like tendencies.
The soundtrack was released on 25 February 2022, just over a week before the film, and fans across multiple platforms, from the music alone, were already declaring the movie to be a “masterpiece”, and that this was Giacchino’s best score yet.
With the composer’s award-winning track record, critics are already suggesting The Batman could be on the cards for an Oscars nomination for Best Original Score in 2023.
The Batman is out in cinemas now.
Monday, October 11, 2021
Did Giuseppe Verdi Compose only Operas?
by Georg Predota, Interlude
Giuseppe Verdi, 1840
We do know that Giuseppe Verdi was born in the small village of Roncole, near Busseto in the Duchy of Parma. What is not clear, however, is the exact date of his birth. The baptismal register of 11 October records him as ‘born yesterday,’ but as days were sometimes counted as beginning at sunset, that could mean either 9 or 10 October. His parents belonged to families of small landowners and traders, and his father Carlo was described as an innkeeper and his mother Luigia Uttini as a spinner. The family always celebrated the boy’s birthday on 9 October, and Verdi strongly believed that he was actually born on that day.
Verdi as organist in Busseto
We are not going to argue with Verdi about his birthday, but instead recognize him as one of the most precocious musical talents of all time. He started keyboard lessons at the age of three, and when his teacher passed away, the nine-year old Giuseppe took over his teacher’s job and duties. He was rejected in his application to the Milan Conservatory, citing “faulty piano technique; a promising composer with genuine imagination but in need of contrapuntal discipline.” This rejection, although painful, did not prevent Verdi to arguably become the greatest Italian musical dramatist.
Boito and Verdi, 1893
Verdi composed 27 operas, beginning with Oberto in 1839 and ending with Falstaff in 1893. After Verdi had completed Aida in 1870/71, he decided that he would write no more music for the stage. Instead he turned to a religious work in the Messa da Requiem and to instrumental music in his Quartet for Strings. In the event, his operatic collaborations with Boito resumed, but around the time of Falstaff, he again composed a number of religious choral works. Collected under the title Quattro pezzi sacri, Verdi paid respects to two figures from the Italian past that he considered central to the cultural unity of the country.
Verdi’s birthplace
He uses texts by Dante, and relies for his musical setting on the contrapuntal treatment and word painting of Palestrina. Scholars have suggested, “Verdi’s last antique style might well suggest an old man’s retreat from the world; but on another level it speaks yet again of Verdi’s passionate concern for the national traditions into which he had been born, and with which he had so constantly engaged.
Verdi described the setting of the “Ave Maria” as Scala enigmatica armonizzata a Quattro voci miste (Enigmatic scale, harmonized for four mixed voices). This enigmatic scale spans an octave and rises by a semitone and by an augmented second. It is followed by three whole tone and two semitones. It descends with two semitones followed by one whole tone and an augmented second. From there a semitone, the original augmented second, and finally a semitone concludes the descending version of Verdi’s enigmatic scale. The scale is first heard in the bass, both ascending and descending, and then in the alto, tenor and the soprano. It sounds like a harmonic and contrapuntal exercise, and originally it was not part of the Quattro pezzi sacri, but eventually the publisher Ricordi included it in the set.
Verdi at age 86
Verdi’s setting of the “Stabat mater” calls for four-voice choir, and large orchestra with harp. Composed in 1896 and 1897 it uses the text of the famous Roman Catholic hymn “The grieving Mother stood.” Variously attributed to Pope Innocent III, St. Bonaventure, and the Franciscan monk Jacopone da Todi, it offers a unique female perspective on the crucifixion of Jesus. In twelve couplets, the poetry expresses compassion for Mary, mother of Christ, as she watches her son suffering on the cross. Verdi’s setting refrains from text repetitions, and he unifies the work with internal melodic references. Taking the poetry from the last canto of Dante’s Paradiso, “Laudi alla Vergine Maria” is a largely homophonic and delicate setting for two sopranos and two contraltos. His setting of the “Te Deum” is scored for double choir and orchestra, and it is a work of considerable originality and power. It is widely regarded as “the proper conclusion to any performance of this group of settings.” Although the text is frequently used to celebrate military victories and coronations, Verdi wrote to his friend Giovanni Tebadini “the text has nothing to do with victories and coronations.” Instead, Verdi presents an intimate and moving prayer that constantly changes in tone and expression.
Monday, October 4, 2021
Charles Gounod - his music and his life
Charles Gounod was born 200 years ago, on 17 June 1818 in Paris. Today we primarily remember him as the composer of the opera Faust and an Ave Maria descant to the first prelude of J.S. Bach’s C-major prelude from the WTC. Yet, during the second half of the 19th century, he was one of the most respected and prolific composers in France. His musical influence on the course of French music was highly significant, but in the fractured post-Wagnerian critical climate towards the end of his life, his reputation took a severe hit. Son of a painter and engraver of considerable talent, Charles exhibited enormous talents in music and the fine arts. Pressured into studying law, Charles decided at age 16 to devote himself to music. Private lessons in counterpoint and harmony with Antoine Reicha prepared Charles for his enrollment at the Paris Conservatoire. Fully devoted to composition, Charles furthered his studies with Halévy and Le Sueur, and he won the Prix de Rome in 1839 with his cantata Fernand.
The operatic stage in Rome—primarily populated by Donizetti, Bellini and Mercadante—was of little interest to Gounod. However, coming under the influence of the Dominican preacher Père Lacordaire, Gounod became genuinely fascinated by the music of Palestrina and the cultural legacy of Rome. He also crossed paths with Fanny Mendelssohn, and spent the remainder of his government stipend in Austria and Germany. After meeting with Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig, Gounod returned to Paris and became music director of the Missions Etrangères church in 1843. He stayed in this position for the better part of four years until he formally enrolled at the seminary of St. Sulpice to begin studies for ordination into the priesthood. In the end, he rather abruptly abandoned his pursuit of the cloth and began to cast his eyes towards the glitzy world of opera.
Gounod was not a household name on the Parisian musical scene, but all that changed when he started to orbit around the mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot. It was her influence that secured him an unexpected commission at the Opéra for Sapho, with a libretto by Emile Augier. In the event, Sapho was an unmitigated failure at the box office, but the work did receive some critical approval from Hector Berlioz. As such, the Opéra offered him another contract in 1852 to set Eugène Scribe’s libretto La nonne sanglante.
Additional projects soon followed but Gounod had no great theatrical success until he hit the jackpot with Faust derived from Goethe. Première on 19 March 1859, the opera was once more praised by Berlioz, but casting problems and a hostile press raised doubt whether Faust would be able to survive. Thanks to the efforts of the publisher Antoine de Choudens, who bought the rights and aggressively promoted the work, Faust exploded onto the European opera stages. Richard Wagner called it a “feeble French travesty of a German monument,” but he could not prevent Gounod’s Faust to become the most frequently staged operas of all time.
Gounod died on 18 October 1893, and although Ravel considered him the “real founder of the mélodie in France,” his music fell rapidly out of fashion. Gounod steadfastly believed in a universal dramatic and spiritual truth, and his refusal to pursue the implications of Wagner’s musical style placed him at odds with writers and critics alike. Debussy quipped, “Gounod, for all his weaknesses, was necessary as his art represents a moment in French sensibility.”
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Franz Schubert - His Music and His Life
Born on January 31, 1797, in Himmelpfortgrund,
Austria, Franz Peter Schubert, the son of a schoolmaster, received a
thorough musical education and won a scholarship to boarding school.
Although he was never rich, the composer's work gained recognition and
popularity, noted for bridging classical and romantic composition. He
died in 1828 in Vienna, Austria.
"A mind that is too easy hides a heart that is too heavy."
– Franz Schubert
Early Life
Born on January 31, 1797, in Himmelpfortgrund, Austria, Franz
Peter Schubert demonstrated an early gift for music. As a child, his
talents included an ability to play the piano, violin and organ. He was
also an excellent singer.
Franz was the fourth surviving son of Franz Theodor Schubert, a
schoolmaster, and his wife, Elisabeth, a homemaker. His family
cultivated Schubert's love of music. His father and older brother,
Ignaz, both instructed Schubert early in his musical life.
Eventually, Schubert enrolled at the Stadtkonvikt, which trained
young vocalists so they could one day sing at the chapel of the Imperial
Court, and in 1808 he earned a scholarship that awarded him a spot in
the court's chapel choir. His educators at the Stadtkonvikt included
Wenzel Ruzicka, the imperial court organist, and, later, the esteemed
composer Antonio Salieri,
who lauded Schubert as a musical genius.
Schubert played the violin in
the students' orchestra, was quickly promoted to leader, and conducted
in Ruzicka's absence. He also attended choir practice and, with his
fellow pupils, practiced chamber music and piano playing.
Young Composer
Schubert worked as a schoolmaster for the next four years.
But he also continued to compose music. In fact, between 1813 and 1815,
Schubert proved to be a prolific songwriter. By 1814, the young composer
had written a number of piano pieces, and had produced string quartets,
a symphony, and a three-act opera.
Over the next year, his output included two additional symphonies and
two of his first Lieds, "Gretchen am Spinnrade" and "Erlkönig."
Schubert is, in fact, largely credited with creating the German Lied.
Boosted by a wealth of late 18th-century lyric poetry and the
development of the piano, Schubert tapped the poetry of giants like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, showing the world the possibility of representing their works in musical form.
In 1818, Schubert, who had not only found a welcome audience for his
music but had grown tired of teaching, left education to pursue music
full-time. His decision was sparked in part by the first public
performance of one of his works, the "Italian Overture in C Major," on
March 1, 1818, in Vienna.
The decision to leave school teaching seems to have ushered in a new
wave of creativity in the young composer. That summer he completed a
string of material, including piano duets "Variations on a French Song
in E minor" and the "Sonata in B Flat Major," as well as several dances
and songs.
Franz Schubert is considered the last of the classical composers and one of the first romantic ones. Schubert's music is notable for its melody and harmony.
Composer Franz Schubert received a thorough musical education and won a scholarship to boarding school. Although he was never rich, the composer's work gained recognition and popularity, noted for bridging classical and romantic composition. He died in 1828 in Vienna, Austria.
Franz Peter Schubert demonstrated an early gift for music. As a child, his talents included an ability to play the piano, violin and organ. He was also an excellent singer.
Franz was the fourth surviving son of Franz Theodor Schubert, a schoolmaster, and his wife, Elisabeth, a homemaker. His family cultivated Schubert's love of music. His father and older brother, Ignaz, both instructed Schubert early in his musical life.
Eventually, Schubert enrolled at the Stadtkonvikt, which trained young vocalists so they could one day sing at the chapel of the Imperial Court, and in 1808 he earned a scholarship that awarded him a spot in the court's chapel choir. His educators at the Stadtkonvikt included Wenzel Ruzicka, the imperial court organist, and, later, the esteemed composer Antonio Salieri, who lauded Schubert as a musical genius. Schubert played the violin in the students' orchestra, was quickly promoted to leader, and conducted in Ruzicka's absence. He also attended choir practice and, with his fellow pupils, practiced chamber music and piano playing.
In 1812, however, Schubert's voice broke, forcing him to leave the college, though he did continue his instruction with Antonio Salieri for three more years. In 1814, under pressure from his family, Schubert enrolled at a teacher's training college in Vienna and took a job as an assistant at his father's school.
Schubert worked as a schoolmaster for the next four years. But he also continued to compose music. In fact, between 1813 and 1815, Schubert proved to be a prolific songwriter. By 1814, the young composer had written a number of piano pieces, and had produced string quartets, a symphony, and a three-act opera.
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