Sonata

This essay aims to examine to what extent should classical performers seek to recreate “authentic performances” of the past. Roger Norrington and the London Classical Players’ recordings of the Beethoven symphonies will be used as a case study to support the argument. Classical performers, are in this context, musicians who present a classical music performance. There is no defined boundary of what precisely is classical music, but classical music in this essay generally refers to art music…

The composition opens in Db major with a tonic chord. Here Debussy has already broken two rules of conventional voice leading; Debussy begins without the tonic note, introducing it later, where the mediant of the chord (F natural) is doubled. This gesture could also be interpreted as opening with chord iii (still with doubled mediant) moving to chord I on the third beat of the bar; however I think this is less likely to be Debussy’s intention because of the use of a Db chord in bar 9 when the…

This piece is based on pitch set classes 01346, 0124, and 014 as well as their respective inversions and transformations. The piece is set in an ABA’-like form and explores the versatility of the clarinet. In the beginning, the piano introduces the theme of 01346 and following measure presents a chord of 0124 with the melody harking back to tonality by using an unprepared suspension. These set classes form the A part of the piece. Measures 3 and 4 presents 02356 in the treble while its inversion…

Throughout the piece, the piano’s dynamics were played at a mezzo forte level. There was at times quick staccatos and accents, however I heard very little crescendos and diminuendos. If there was anything more I would have liked from the piece it would have been a broader range of dynamics that came from the pianist. Even when the baritone had nothing to sing, the constant monochromatic sound from the piano was unmoving. However, as my disappointment about the lack of adversity coming from the…

Messiaen choses to experiment with a wide range of dynamics through out the entire fourth movement. Furthermore, he indicates drastic changes of those dynamics that happen in a short period of time, which presents the audience with an element of surprise. Additionally, the Interlude is the shortest movement in the entire composition, which is 73 measures long and lasts for about two minutes (considering the entire Quartet for the End of Time is about 50 minutes long). Therefore, a rapid change…

Totentanz or Dance of the Dead Paraphrase on Dies Irae for pianoforte and orchestra, S. 126 is a symphonic piece written for piano and orchestra by the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886). Liszt initially planned the piece in 1838 and finished the first version in 1849. In 1853 and 1859 he revised it before finally publishing it in 1865. Hans von Bülow, to whom Liszt dedicated the work, was the soloist in the April 15, 1865, premiere with the Diligentia Musical Society of The Hague,…

The 20th century was a major turning point in the history of classical music. Tonal harmony of the Romance era have been replaced with the dissonant sounding atonality of many composers of the 20th century. The 20th century of classical music was led by Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, and Claude Debussy. These composers have created techniques that were unlike any other in the history of classical music. Arnold Schoenberg is known for a technique called the Twelve Tone Technique. This…

In my third concert, I decided to oppose Opus 15 with other Lieder that were composed in 1908 and 1909 and performed works by Pfitzner, Reger and Berg. While the first two contextualisations appeared to be logical points of departure in my exploration of Opus 15, as they were related to aspects that seemed more or less directly accessible through the score and offered the opportunity to potentially discover internal similarities between Opus 15 and the other repertoire in the form of a certain…

The courante (“running” or “flowing”) was a French dance whose choreography included bending the knee on the upbeat or offbeat and rising on the beat, often followed by a step or glide. The music is in moderate triple or compound meter and always begins with an upbeat. In many courantes, including the two in this suite, the meter shifts back and forth between 3/2 and 6/4, sometimes with different voices simultaneously implying different meters. Although the composer included two courantes in…

Introduction The William Tell Overture is an overture to the opera, William Tell, which premiered in Paris on August 3, 1829, and was described by Hector Berlioz as a “symphony in four parts”. However, unlike traditional symphonies with distinct movements, the transitions in this overture were without breaks. This piece was composed by Gioachino Antonio Rossini and was the last opera he composed. Rossini was a transitionary figure of the Classical and Romantic period, well known for his operas…