Walkin’ Round the World

by Georg Predota 

Multicultural Folk Music Traditions From Various Places

With all this talk of a globalized society it is easy to forget that we are surrounded by the timeless beauty and grace of countless multicultural folk music traditions. That rich ethnic heritage of human culture and creativity has spawned some very exciting performing ensembles, and in “Walkin’ round the World” we will sample some of these vibrant and exhilarating traditions.

Wales

Calan

Let’s get started with a vibrant five-piece folk band named “Calan” that is breathing new life into traditional Welsh music. Their performances feature sparkling melodies, foot tapping tunes and a spirited and energetic performance of Welsh step dancing. The group formed in 2006, and by 2008 they would become the first Welsh band to win the coveted international band competition at the Inter Celtic Festival. The band formed when some members were roughly 13 years of age, and they still continue to make music today. Patrick Rimes was a junior Celtic Welsh fiddle champion for three years running, and Bethan Rhiannon, winner of the national clog dance competition in Wales, sings in both English and Welsh. Fiddler Angharad Jenkins is well versed in the poetry and music of Wales, and Alice French is an experienced and versatile harpist, who plays both a pedal harp and the folk harp. 

Patrick Rimes

Calan blast their way through some of the old favorite reels, jigs and hornpipes with fast paced and uplifting arrangements before melting into some of the most beautiful and haunting songs. They play fiddles, whistles, guitar, accordion and bagpipes and a traditional reed instrument from Wales called a “pibgorn” made from a wooden pipe and the horns of a bull. They have also reached beyond traditional venues and performed at the Royal Albert Hall alongside Bryn Terfel and Sting as part of Bryn’s 50th birthday celebration. “Folk” is no longer a dirty word, as Calan performs with grace, daring and sheer joy. And did I mention boundless enthusiasm and a delightful sense of humor? 

Tuva

Huun Huur Tu

For our next “Walkin’ round the World” location we arrive at Tuva, a forgotten land located between Russia and Mongolia. Situated in the far south of Siberia, its capital city of Kyzyl is located near the geographic center of Asia. Once upon a time, this historic region was called “Tannu Uriankhai” and the Tuvan people have a rich tradition of orally transmitted folklore, including riddles and aphorisms, tongue twisters, magical tales and extended epics. Tuva is also home to the music group “Huun Huur Tu,” meaning “sunbeams,” (literally “sun propeller”). The focus of their music is traditional Tuvan folk songs, frequently featuring imagery of the Tuvan steppe or of horses. The most distinctive characteristic of Huun Huur Tu’s music is throat singing, in which the singers sing both the note (drone) and the drone’s overtone(s), thus producing two or three notes simultaneously. This popular style of Tuvan throat singing known as “Khoomei,” produces a softer sounding style with the harmonics heard between one or two octaves above the fundamental. Pitch is manipulated through a combination of movements of the lips, throat, tongue or jaw. This particular singing style has been described as “wind swirling among rocks.” 

The animistic worldview of this region identifies the spirituality of objects in nature, not just in their shape or location, but in their sound as well. As such, the human mimicry of nature’s sounds is considered the root of throat singing, and cultures in this part of Asia have developed many instruments and techniques to mimic the sounds of animals, wind and water. Tuvan throat singing is traditionally sung by a soloist, or a group of soloist, and accompanied by a percussion section imitating the sound of horse hooves. Many groups also use traditional Tuvan instruments, including a bowed instrument called the “igil,” and a Jaw-harp called a “khomus,” among various other unique string instruments. Throat singing was once only a folk tradition, but it is now embraced as an emblem of Tuvan identity and more often performed by professionals in formal settings. 

Vienna

The Schrammel Quartet, 1890

If you are fortunate to find yourself in the city of Vienna and you have an evening to spare, head for the next “Heurigen.” Basically, these are local pubs numerously located throughout the suburbs of Vienna where you can eat rustic and delicious food and taste the young wine. And a visit to the “Heurigen” is always associated with a particular kind of music that emerged in late 19th century Vienna. It ingeniously blended folk music elements with art music and it is named after the originators, the violinist brothers Johann and Josef Schrammel. Both were highly talented musicians, and Johann attended the Vienna Conservatory. Josef, on the other hand, performed Viennese music in Istanbul and the Middle East, and once the brothers were reunited in Vienna, the stock market crash of 1873 gave them their chance at stardom. They joined the great folk music entertainer Georg Dänzer, and along with Anton Strohmayer built a reputation as players of folk and dance music. By 1878 they had formed a dedicated quartet that became known as the originators of “Schrammelmusik.” 

Johann Schrammel: “Wien bleibt Wien”, march

“Schrammelmusik,” as it is called, soon took suburbia by storm, and it also became the latest rage in the palaces and mansions of the Viennese elite. Their popularity even extended to an 1893 invitation to perform at the International Exposition in Chicago. Traditionally, the ensemble consisted of two violins, a double-necked contra-guitar and a G clarinet, with an optional button accordion added for rustic colour. The repertory included marches, folk music and traditional forms of dances, including the waltz, the polka, and the Ländler. Communicating a sense of melancholy and sentimentality, “Schrammelmusik” eventually also included the “Wienerlied,” a vocal genre using Viennese dialect in a popular blend of comic and mournful topics. In all, the Schrammel brothers composed over 200 songs. Even composers of more formal music, including Johann Strauss, Johannes Brahms and Arnold Schoenberg became Schrammel enthusiasts. The Schrammel genre is still a living tradition, and recently combined with blues, jazz and rock to shape an exciting 21st century reinterpretation. 

Bulgaria

Ensemble Chinary

For our next stop on our “Walkin’ round the World Tour” let’s visit Bulgaria. The hilly and mountainous topography of Bulgaria made contact between villages difficult, and during the winter months, impossible. As such communities evolved in relative seclusion and the country is divided into six ethnographic regions: “The Shop, or Sofia district, Pirin-Makedoniya in the southwest; Rodopa, comprising the Rhodope Mountain region along the southern border; Trakiya, the central Thracian plain; Dobrudzha, in the northeast; and the area known simply as ‘Northern Bulgaria’ in the northwest. Songs formed the basis of village musical culture, and across the entire region, they were performed for specific events in the calendar, life-cycle rites, during work, and for entertainment. “Playing instruments and singing were considered separate, gender-specific activities. Instrumentalists almost never accompany singers, and women rarely played indigenous instruments. Although it was not uncommon for men to sing, women acted as the primary bearers of an oral singing tradition.” Bulgarian music uses a wide variety of regionally different indigenous instruments, including the “Kaval” a rim-blown wooden flute, the “Tsafara” or Shepherd’s pipe, the “Duduk” a vertical wooden flute, and the “Gayda” a traditional goatskin bagpipe. We also find a bowed string instrument called “Gadulka,” a large drum worn over the shoulder called “Tupan,” and the “Tambura,” a long-necked, metal-strung fretted lute.

Bulgarian folk music is known for its asymmetrical rhythms, where the meter is split into uneven combinations of short and long metric beats. In essence, they correspond to the short and long steps during dancing. Each basic folk dance type uses a distinct combination of these rhythmic units. The “Rachenisa” features seven beats divided 2+2+3, the “Paydushko Horo” features five beats organised 2+3, the “Eleno Mome” has seven beats divided 2+2+1+2, and the very complicated “Bucimis” subdivides its 15 beats as 2+2+2+2+3+2+2). Bulgaria experienced some seriously tumultuous political times during the middle of the 20th century. “The political events of 1944 resulted in the institutionalization of all musical activities within a monolithic network of state administrative organs whose representative bureaus extended into every city, town, and village, and whose structure and ideals emulated those of Soviet cultural development.” A substantial number of professional folksong and dance ensembles started to emerge, with the objective to preserve the performance of village music in a contemporary format representative of the socialist state. The ensemble “Chinary” was founded after the fall of the iron curtain, and includes professional dance artists, musicians and singers. The repertoire of the ensemble includes dance and song traditions of all folklore regions of Bulgaria. “The performances of Chinari are unique in terms of modern staging on production of traditional Bulgarian folklore, and offer an incredibly successful combination of talent, beauty, youth and professionalism.”

United States

Bluegrass Band

For our next stop on the “Waking’ round the World” tour we travel to the Appalachian region of the United States. Basically, it’s a cultural region that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. Bluegrass, a genre of American music originated in that particular region in the 1940s, is derived from the English and Scottish ballad tradition, Irish and Scottish fiddle music and African-American blues influences through the inclusion of the five-string banjo. Unlike mainstream country music, bluegrass is traditionally played on acoustic stringed instruments. Since it blurs the categories of folk, popular, and classical music as much as any American genre, “its exact definition is a matter of debate.” Typically, a bluegrass band consists of four to seven individuals who sing and accompany themselves on acoustic string instruments: two rhythm instruments (guitar and double bass) and several melody instruments (fiddle, five-string banjo, mandolin, resonator guitar, and second guitar). Lead instrumentalists take solo breaks between verses of a song and provide a harmonic and rhythmic background often in a responsorial relationship to the vocal part. The bluegrass repertory included traditional folksongs and newly composed sentimental secular songs, country blues, religious songs, revival hymns, and instrumental numbers. The majority of bluegrass music unfolds in duple meter with rhythmic emphasis on the off-beats, and tempos are generally fast and very exciting.

Scotland

Clann an Drumma

Our final stop on this particular “Walkin’ round the World” tour brings us to Scotland, and to Scotland’s premier tribal band “Clann an Drumma.” Originally founded by Joe Kilna MacKenzie, who sadly passed away in 2010, they have continued to bring Scottish tribal music to worldwide audiences. The name of the band, which is Scots Gaelic for “Children of the Drum,” quickly gives you some idea what their music is all about. It involves the heavy use of percussion and Highland bagpipes, and the band’s motto is “Keep it Tribal.” Based in Glasgow, this tribe features Donnie MacNeil on pipes. That lone piper matches his excellent chops against Tu-Bardh Wilson, Jacquie Holland, Joe Kilna MacKenzie and Jamesie Johnston, all providing solid layers of drums and percussion. Actually, they are keeping alive a tradition going back hundreds of year, when the sounds of drums and bagpipes would accompany the Scottish warriors who fought in legendary battles.

Of course, the bagpipe is usually associated with Scottish folk music, but the origins of that instrument if found throughout large areas of Europe, North Africa, and South Asia. The earliest mention of bagpipes in Scotland dates to the 15th century although they are believed to have been introduced to Britain by the Roman armies. The pìob mhór, or Great Highland Bagpipe, was originally associated with both hereditary piping families and professional pipers to various clan chiefs; later, pipes were adopted for use in other venues, including military marching. But wait, “Clann an Drumma” isn’t your traditional bagpipe music. Of course, the tunes are mostly traditional pieces carried by the pipes, but when the percussion kicks in it turns into a thunderous new world. And when the four tattooed drummers add vocalizations, which is often wordless, sometimes shouting, it becomes music that you can actually feel pulsing through your body. If nothing else, it will get your heart racing and your foot tapping.

   

Vancouver pianist suffers heart failure during concerto performance, continues playing

Alexander Toradze was performing with the the Vancouver Symphony. Picture: Getty

By Sophia Alexandra Hall, ClassicFM

@sophiassocials

 

Prior to the concert, the audience was told the pianist had been experiencing a shortness of breath.

Last week, Georgian-American pianist Alexander Toradze was scheduled to perform two concertos with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA, based in Vancouver Washington.

However, the classical musician, who turns 70 next month, had been feeling unwell in the run up to the performance on Saturday 23 April. By the day of the concert, Toradze was struggling to walk unaided, so was accompanied onto the stage by Dr. Michael Liu, a medical doctor and board member of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

The audience had been warned in advance that although Toradze had tested negative for coronavirus, due to experiencing a shortness of breath there was a possibility the musician wouldn’t be able to perform.

However, the virtuoso pianist played through not one, but two concertos; first, Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, followed by the main event, Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto. Toradze is recognised worldwide for his interpretation of Russian repertoire and studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow as a teenager.

His performances, which both took place during the first act, were met with enthusiastic applause, but unbeknownst to the audience – and at the time Toradze himself – the pianist had experienced acute heart failure while performing. 

On Sunday, the day after the performance, Dr. Liu drove Toradze to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, where doctors told the pianist what had happened on stage. Toradze was meant to be playing with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra again tonight, but is instead being kept at the medical centre until his health stabilises.

Toradze recorded this video to reassure his fans and concerned members of the orchestra.

Describing the event as a “pretty memorable concert”, Toradze seems in good spirits and sends best wishes to all the musicians and his fans.

Robert Schumann: Album of Songs for the Young

by Georg Predota , Interlude

Robert Schumann

For the 7th birthday of his daughter Marie, Robert Schumann compiled a short album of “Little Piano Pieces.” Once he had gotten that process started, Schumann kept adding miniatures to the collection. His wife Clara Schumann wrote in her diary, “The pieces usually given to children at their piano lessons are so bad, that it has occurred to Robert to bring out a collection of such little works himself.” Schumann was on fire and reported to his friend Carl Reinecke, “I cannot remember ever feeling as content as when working on these pieces… I felt as though I were starting to compose all over again!” Schumann composed the 43 pieces of his Album for the Young in barely 2 weeks, but a good many more miniatures have surfaced in various manuscripts but were not included in the published collection. The set is subdivided into two parts, starting with pieces “suitable for younger players,” and concluding with pieces “appropriate for more mature players.” Clara Schumann prepared the final edition and tellingly wrote, “Never play bad compositions, nor even listen to them, unless absolutely obliged to do so.”

The Evening Star

You lovely star,
You shine from afar,
And so I hold you
Dearly in my heart.

How I do love you
So deep in my heart!
Your twinkling eyes
Look ever on me.

So I look to on you,
As you are there or here:
Your friendly eyes
Stand ever before me.

How you nod at me
In peaceful rest!
O lovely little star,
O were I like you!
(Translation © Gary Bachlund)

Robert Schumann: Album of Songs for the Young

Six months later, Clara Schumann was expecting her fifth child, and Robert Schumann followed up his Album for young pianists with one for young singers. The inspiration for his Album of Songs for the Young might well have been pedagogical, as he considered singing a fundamental part of music education. As he recommended in his pamphlet Musical House and Life Rules, “Try, if you also have only a little voice, to sing from the page without the help of the instrument … But if you have a resonant voice, do not hesitate a moment in cultivating it, consider it as the finest gift that heaven bestows on you! He who wants to cultivate a complete musical personality should not only strive for instrumental virtuosity, as on the piano, but should not neglect singing.” In no time, Schumann had composed 25 solos songs and 4 duets, and he wrote to his publishers: “This collection will best express what I had in mind. I have selected poems appropriate to childhood, exclusively from the best poets, and have tried to arrange them in order of difficulty, progressing from the easy and simple to the difficult and complex. At the end comes Mignon, gazing into a more troubled emotional life.”

Butterfly

[Oh] butterfly tell,
Why do you flee me?
Why are you in such haste,
Now far and then near?

Now far and then near,
Now here and then there–
I shall not catch you,
I shall not harm you.

I shall not harm you:
O stay here always!
And I were a little flower,
I would say to you,

I would say to you:
Come, come to me!
I give you my little heart,
How fond I am of you!
(Translation © Sharon Krebs)

Clara and Robert Schumann

Scholars have suggested “for all their apparent simplicity, these songs need to be performed with loving detachment rather than wallowing sentimentality, and the singers who have been most successful with this repertoire are those who have not turned themselves into children.” The Album of Songs for the Young is not simply a loose collection of songs, but it should be considered a genuine cycle. Fundamentally, “it reflects Schumann’s understanding of the formal and substantial development of folksong into something more elaborate, and it also discloses an exemplary exegesis of a phenomenon by way of varied possibilities for interpreting a given poem in a musical setting.” Following the pattern established in his Album for the Young, Schumann divides the song collection into two sections “For the Younger,” and “For the Older.” The first section begins in the world of children and deals with animals, nature, and daily life. We also find songs of the gypsy lads and shepherd boys, as well as the sandman and the ladybird. The second section leads us into a world of wider experiences and feelings, from the pantheism of Goethe’s “Song of Lynceus the Watchman” to the yearning of “Mignon.”

The Sandman

I wear a fine pair of boots
with wondrously soft soles,
I carry a sack upon my back!
Hush, I scamper quickly up the stairs.
And when I enter the chamber
The children are saying their prayers:
Two little grains of my sand
I scatter into their eyes,
Then they sleep the whole night
Watched over by God and the angels.
Two little grains of my sand
I scattered into their eyes:
The good little children should be visited
By a beautiful dream.
Now rapidly and swiftly with my sack and my stick
back down the stairs!
I can no longer stand around idly,
I must still visit many [children] tonight.
You are already nodding off and laughing in your dreams,
And I barely opened my little sack.
(Translation © Sharon Krebs)

Robert Schumann: Album of Songs for the Young, 29 May, 1849

In terms of music, Schumann’s Album of Songs for the Young offers increasing levels of difficulties. In the opening “children’s songs” the melody is primarily supported by simple but delightful harmonic progressions in the piano. The harmonic accompaniment, sophisticated as it well may be, is simply intended to support a young singer. It has been suggested that Schumann here “follows the tradition of pedagogically oriented collections of songs for children from the 18th century, found in a variety of published sources.” These songs can also be performed together in the family circle. Mailied (May Song) has a second voice ad lib, some numbers are for two voices, while Spinnelied (Spinning Song) is for three, and in Weihnachtlied (Christmas Song), with the text attributed to Hans Christian Andersen, at the end a chorus can join in with the refrain ‘Hallelujah, Kind Jesus’ (Alleluia, Child Jesus).”

Christmas Song

When the Christchild was brought to the world,
Who has rescued us from hell,
He lay in a manger in dark night,
Pillowed on straw and hay;
But above the hut there shone the star,
And the ox kissed the foot of the Lord.
Halleluja, Child Jesus!

Take courage, soul that is sick and weary,
Forget your gnawing pains.
A child was born in the city of David
As a comfort for all hearts.
Oh let us go to the little child,
And become children in mind and spirit.
Halleluja, Child Jesus!
(Translation © Sharon Krebs)

Clara and Robert Schumann’s children

Scholars have suggested that the songs of Schumann’s Album of Songs for the Young hold only a marginal position in musical life today. “For young singers they seem in part overtaxing, but because of their pedagogic aims, on the other hand, they are artistically undervalued by adult singers. The first numbers in particular seem too childish for performance by a concert singer. It may be argued, however, that Schumann’s songs conjure up, not naively but in feeling, the innocent world of childhood.” Aesthetically, they seem close to his piano set “Scenes of Childhood,” which also present idyllic reflections of childhood by adults. That sense of childhood idyll is clearly seen on the title-page of the first edition, which portrays a group of children singing and making music in a paradise of a natural setting “of leafy tendrils with flowers, fruits and nesting birds.”

Watching over children

When good children go to sleep,
Two little angels stand by their beds,
They tuck them in and tuck them up,
And keep a loving eye on them.
But when the children get up,
Both the angels go to sleep,
If the angels’ strength is now not enough,
The good Lord himself keeps watch.
(Translation © Richard Stokes)

Schumann’s Album of Songs for the Young develops from children’s songs to pure art song in the Mörike setting “Er ist’s” (It is Spring).

Spring is here

Spring is floating its blue banner
On the breezes again;
Sweet, well-remembered scents
Drift portentously across the land.
Violets, already dreaming,
Will soon begin to bloom.
Listen, the sound of a harp!
Spring, that must be you!
It’s you I’ve heard!
(Translation © Richard Stokes)

The piano and vocal part are quietly restrained in the first half of the song, possibly suggesting that spring can already be sensed, but that it has not yet arrived. However, after a delicate and light staccato arpeggio imitating the echo of a harp, the “protagonist loudly bursts forth with recognition of the season’s entrance; here, the vocal line simultaneously reaches its highest notes and its first forte crescendo within just two demanding measures.” The composer repeats segments of the text several times, varying each occurrence, especially in terms of dynamics, to emphasize the protagonist’s elation.

Critics have suggested, “Mörike-lovers may consider this song a witless travesty of a beautiful poem.” However, the music is certainly charming and effective, and Schumann has left the innocence of his early songs in this set behind and the music has “grown into the dancing pulse of a girl’s first love song.” Until recently, it has been fashionable to consider the songs of 1849 a decline. “Schumann never again reached or even approached the level of his 1840 masterpieces” a scholar writes. “Other composers of comparable stature are believed to mature in their music; Schumann appears to deteriorate. A favoured explanation is mental illness…and the musical evidence seems to support a theory of progressive disorder from 1849 onward. And while Schumann is still a fine songwriter in 1849, he is no longer a great one. Sometimes, as in Goethe’s text from Faust, he treats great poetry rather cavalierly.”

Song of Lynceus the Watchman

I am born for seeing,
Employed to watch,
Sworn to the tower,
I delight in the world.

I see what is far,
I see what is near,
The moon and the stars,
The wood and the deer.

In all these I see
Eternal beauty,
And as it has pleased me,
I’m content with myself.

O happy eyes,
Whatever you have seen,
Let it be as it may,
How fair it has been!
(Translation © Richard Stokes)

Robert Schumann: Lieder-Album fur die Jugend, Op. 79 – No. 24. Spinnerlied (Christina Landshamer, soprano; Christian Gerhaher, baritone; Andreas Burkhart, baritone; Gerold Huber, piano)

Robert Schumann: Lieder-Album fur die Jugend, Op. 79 – No. 27. Lied Lynceus des Türmers (Christian Gerhaher, baritone; Gerold Huber, piano)

Schumann: Album of Songs for the Young – Mignon

It has been said that Goethe’s character “Mignon” beautifully embodied the virtues of Romanticism. “From her simplicity, to her unbreakable loyalty and strength of emotions, she simultaneously embodies youthful innocence and mature longing, helplessness as an abused child and an ambiguous relationship with her protector… She gave voice to those in society who were otherwise ignored or forgotten.” Schumann composed “Mignon” to conclude his Album of Songs for the Young in the summer of 1849 amidst the uproar and danger of the Dresden uprising.” In his reading of the poetry and his musical setting there is no audible suggestion of decline. It might be somewhat taxing for untrained voices, as the melodic line is disjunct and widely spaced. In addition, the phrasing of the vocal lines and their interlinking with the piano part certainly calls for trained interpreters. Assumed mental deterioration aside, Schuman thought highly enough of his “Mignon” setting to place it at the head of his “Songs of Wilhem Meister,” Op. 98a.

Mignon

Do you know the land where the lemons blossom,
Where oranges grow golden among dark leaves,
A gentle wind drifts from the blue sky,
The myrtle stands silent, the laurel tall,
Do you know it?
It is there, it is there
I long to go with you, my love.

Do you know the house? Columns support its roof,
Its great hall gleams, its apartments shimmer,
And marble statues stand and stare at me:
What have they done to you, poor child?
Do you know it?
It is there, it is there
I long to go with you, my protector.

Do you know the mountain and its cloudy path?
The mule seeks its way through the mist,
Caverns house the dragons’ ancient brood;
The rock falls sheer, the torrent over it,
Do you know it?
It is there, it is there
Our pathway lies! O father, let us go!
(Translation © Richard Stokes)

The Greatest Composers of Film Music Saint-Saëns, Breil, Steiner and Korngold

 by Hermione Lai, Interlude

Auguste and Louis Lumière

I am just an ordinary city girl, and one of the greatest joys during the burning hot day of summer is a visit to my local cinema. Sitting in a comfy chair in a chilled air-conditioned room with a huge bag of popcorn in my hand while I look at a giant screen and listen to beautiful music on surround sound is one of my greatest joys. I certainly prefer it to looking at my computer or TV screen at home, with my mother or siblings interrupting me all the time. So I decided to write a little blog on the greatest composers of film music, and I’ll start with a bit of trivia.

Cinématographe

Do you know what extraordinary event took place in Paris on 28 December 1895? I give you a little hint by telling you that it involved the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière. Maybe you know that the Lumière brothers were manufacturers of photography equipment, best known for their Cinématographe motion picture system. On that specific day in 1895, in what is considered the birth of cinema, they showed a series of short films to a Parisian audience. Even more remarkable is the fact that a pianist improvising on popular tunes accompanied this first screening. 

L’Assassinat du duc de Guise

It seems a bit funny, but the so-called silent film era wasn’t silent at all, but included music to establish a mood. As literally thousands of movie theaters sprang up in Europe and the United States, the solo piano was the most common instrument for musical accompaniment. “In a number of theaters, a percussionist was added to create special effects, and soon special theatre organs were built to produce a wide range of musical colors and effects, including gunshots, animal noises, and traffic sounds.” Larger theaters were known to feature ensembles, including chamber orchestras and occasional singers. We also know that the music played during screenings generally fell into three different types; borrowings from Classical music, arrangements of well-known popular, patriotic, or religious tunes, and newly composed music. Here then is the second trivia for today. Do you know who is generally credited with composing the first original film score? The answer is Camille Saint-Saëns, who wrote original music for the film “L’Assassinat du duc de Guise” (The Assassination of the Duke of Guise) in 1908. 

Sheet music of “The Perfect Song” from
The Birth of a Nation

For our next trivia question we turn to the United States and “the most controversial film ever made in the United States,” also called “the most reprehensibly racist film in Hollywood history.” The silent film in question was called “The Birth of a Nation” and featured a plot, part fiction and part history, that chronicles the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the relationship of two families in the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. While Abraham Lincoln is portrayed positively, as a friend of the South, the film “has been denounced for its racist depiction of African American. The film portrays them, many of whom are played by white actors in blackface, as unintelligent and sexually aggressive toward white women. The Ku Klux Klan is portrayed as a heroic force, necessary to preserve American values, protect white women, and maintain white supremacy.”

Joseph Carl Breil in 1918

It’s all pretty horrible and makes me cringe, and some critics say that it “caused an entire century of racism.” However, the reason I decided to feature this particular film in this blog has nothing to do with the subject. Rather, it seems that the director D.W. Griffith “elevated cinema to an art form with this classical Civil War spectacle, and Joseph Carl Breil composed a three-hours-long landmark score that featured music by Richard Wagner, patriotic tunes for the Civil War scenes, “and new music featuring a number of leitmotifs to accompany the appearance of specific characters.” “The Perfect Song” is regarded as the first marketed theme song from a film, with critics calling the score “a mix of Dixieland songs, classical music and vernacular heartland music; an early, pivotal accomplishment in remix culture.” 

Music 101 – A Foray into Understanding Classical Music

by Janet Horvath, Interlude 

Introduction to Classical Music

The Strings

I’ve been a professional classical musician for more decades than I care to disclose. By far the most common comment I’ve heard (other than, “Why, that cello is bigger than you are!) is— “I don’t know anything about classical music. I like it, but I just don’t understand it.”

I invite these doubtful audience members to relax and listen. I assure them that one doesn’t necessarily need to “know” anything to enjoy the music.

In an attempt to rectify this seemingly insurmountable obstacle for some people toward classical music, I’m embarking on a series for the uninitiated, which we will call Music 101. I will devise some interesting materials and quizzes so that people new to certain classical repertory will know what to listen for. I hope to cover, with the help of my fellow Interlude writers: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Music. Don’t be afraid to ask about particular questions you are burning to have explained.

Introducing the Orchestral Instruments

First, I thought we should start with the instrument families of the orchestra.

The strings are by far the largest group of instruments in the orchestra—the violins, the violas, the cellos and the double basses. All of the stringed instruments are played with a bow, strung with horsehair. The larger the instrument the lower is their sound. Their four strings get thicker and longer too of course. They are beautiful works of art, carefully hand crafted of wood. The older instruments are like fine wines that have aged, honing their beautiful sound. Some of the most coveted stringed instruments of a maker hailing from Cremona Italy, (and the most expensive), are those made by Italian master luthier, Antonio Stradivarius (1644-1737.) He is considered the most significant artisan in the field. It is estimated that Stradivarius made 1,000 to 1100 instruments— violins, violas, cellos and even harps and guitars—and today we are lucky that 650 instruments survive. The varnish that he used on the surfaces of the wood defies analysis even to this day.

Guarneri is the family name of distinguished luthiers also from Cremona, Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries whose standing is comparable to the Stradivarius family. Guarneri del Gesu (1698-1744) made remarkable violins. Many world-class violinists prefer the instruments of Guarneri to Strads! Anne Akiko Meyers owns the “Molitor” Strad and just recently Meyers received the lifetime use of the “Vieuxtemps” Guarneri del Gesu, purchased for her by an anonymous buyer.

Among cellists, two names stand out. Dominico Montagnana (1686-1750) was an Italian master from Venice whose cellos are regarded as exquisite. Lynn Harrell has just announced that he is going to sell his beloved Montangana cello, an instrument he has played on for fifty years. Matteo Goffriler, also Venetian, is particularly noted for his cellos. His cello from 1733 belonged to the great cellist Pablo Casals, which he acquired in 1913 and played throughout his life until his death in 1973. From 1950-1965 Janos Starker played and recorded on the “Aylesford” Stradivarius. In 1965 Starker acquired a Goffriller cello made in Venice in 1705, which he owns to this day.

The Woodwinds

Now perhaps you can understand a string player’s reticence to allow anyone to even get near our instruments. Although most of us play instruments of lesser quality, it is like walking around with a priceless one-of-a-kind painting and they are beloved family members.

The woodwinds include the flute, clarinet, oboe, and bassoon and their relatives—the piccolo, the alto and bass flute, the bass clarinet, the basset horn, (clarinet family) the English horn (oboe family) and the contra-bassoon. Once again, the lower frequency instruments are larger. The oboe, clarinet and bassoon are played with reeds—pieces of painstakingly shaped and scraped cane. Usually the oboe and bassoon players shape their own reeds, as the behavior of the reed is the primary factor in the oboe’s quality of sound including the pitch, and the tone quality. The reed contributes to the ease of the production of the sound. Ask any oboe player and they will tell you that they spend unbelievable numbers of hours soaking, binding and scraping reeds, some specifically shaped for certain pieces of music, and even up to the moment before they play. An entire toolkit is required for this process.

The Brass

The brass instruments are easily identifiable. They are the loudest instruments and are made of the shiny metal— consisting of the trumpets, French Horn, trombone and tuba and their relatives: Piccolo trumpet, cornet and flugelhorn (trumpet family) the euphonium (tuba family) and the more rare Tuben or Wagner horn, which combines elements of the French Horn and the tuba. This instrument was created specifically for Wagner’s’ operatic Ring cycle. French horn players typically play the Wagner tuben. The tuben are finicky instruments, which also appear in the Bruckner Symphonies.

And the granddaddy is the cimbasso! This instrument is in the trombone family The cimbasso encompasses a similar range to the tuba or bass trombone and is played rarely.

Cimbasso

The percussion family includes any number of instruments to bang, scrub or scrape with mallets or sticks, or to shake and whirl. They are considered to be the oldest musical instruments after the human voice. The orchestra percussion section might include additional instruments that are not strictly percussion instruments per se, like whistles, sirens, bells, and tuned instruments such as the marimba, xylophone, glockenspiel and vibraphone. The timpani or kettledrums belong to their own subgroup as they are tuned to certain pitches. Usually a timpanist is hired in addition to the percussion players. When you see the timpanist lean down as if to put their cheek on the instrument it is to hear the tuning.

Keyboard instruments do make their appearance in the orchestra as well—the piano, celeste, harpsichord and organ.

And finally the harp is a multi-stringed instrument generally categorized in the stringed instrument group but it has its own category. Although there are many sizes of harps including folk, lap and Celtic instruments, the orchestral harp is a large instrument requiring heavy lifting. It has a frame, sound-board and pedals so the instrument can play in different keys. During contemporary music you will see a lot of fancy footwork from the harp player while both of their hands strum the strings.

Benjamin Britten’s A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra is a wonderful piece, written to highlight each individual orchestral section separately.

Guide to Music Reading

Reading music is like learning another language. The markings in the sheet music include established symbols. In addition to signs that indicate the time signature, the clef and key signature, we have symbols to indicate length of notes, pauses, tempo markings and dynamic markings, as well as markings for the direction of the bow movements. The tempo marking at the beginning of a movement sometimes indicates speed as well as character. For example, andante means gently as well as slowly. Additionally, the composer often uses either Italian or German words within the piece of music to indicate mood, style or interpretation. We become adept at reading all of these indications simultaneously. Fingerings, though, are typically a matter of a player’s preference.

Of course this is secondary to the task of mastering our instrument! We must learn to coordinate our two hands and/or lips, mouth and fingers to produce a mesmerizing sound. Once we can do that and read the music, then the interpretation can begin. The conductor indicates the emotion and passion with his or her movements, stick technique and facial expressions, to produce one unified concept.

The music is about conveying a mood or emotion. Our response is always subjective as with other art. As individuals what it may conjure up for me might be different for you and even that of the composer. Think of the last movie or theater production that you went to. The music assists in depicting the emotions in the movie—it may inspire feelings such as agitation, apprehension, remorse, bitterness, and elation. It may evoke memories. Just let it wash over you so that you and it will allow you to create your own visual images.