Program Notes for April 13, 2024
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) Claude Achille Debussy
Composer: Born August 22, 1862, Saint Germaine, France; Died March 25, 1918, Paris, France
Work composed: 1894
First Performance: December 22, 1894 in Paris, Gustave Doret conducting
Instrumentation: three flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two harps, crotales, and strings
Estimated duration: 11 minutes
Most recent RSO performance: February 11, 2012, Steven Larsen conducting
Claude Debussy's masterpiece Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, is based on a poem by the French Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé, written in 1867. The poem introduces to the reader the ancient Greek mythological character called a satyr, a half-man, half-goat that inhabited the woods. The character is similar to the god Pan, who is the god of the forests and other wild regions as well as a fertility figure.
The poem by Mallarmé is somewhat linear/narrative in that it describes a satyr who wakes up from his reveries and chases a group of wood nymphs bathing nearby. Having a brief encounter, the satyr then falls asleep. Upon waking, the satyr wonders if it was all a dream. He then finds a scarf left by one of the nymphs.
To the Symbolist poets, the purpose of the printed word was similar to the color used by Impressionist painters. It was meant to portray nature and the human condition through a somewhat subjective lens. Senses were meant to overlap and to be confused. What is reality? It is whatever the individual thinks it to be. Is the story of the satyr in the poem meant to tell a story or to give to the reader a blurred sense of reality? It is the sensuousness of the poem that is important. Mallarmé himself thought of his poem as music!
Claude Debussy took the poem and gave it new life through the use of a new type of orchestration (instrument use), a new approach to harmony, an ambiguous sense of form and a new approach to melody. This musical experimentation was later called Impressionism by music critics and historians. It was a term that Debussy came to despise as it put all of his music into one box or category.
The work sounds dreamlike for many of the reasons given above and it was such a success that when it was premiered, The poet himself said, "I have just come out of the concert, deeply moved. The marvel! Your illustration of the Afternoon of a Faun, which presents no dissonance with my text, but goes much further, really, into nostalgia and into light, with finesse, with sensuality, with richness. I shake your hand admiringly, Debussy. Yours, Mallarmé."
Debussy said of his work, "The music of this prelude is a very free illustration of Mallarmé's beautiful poem. By no means does it claim to be a synthesis of it. Rather there is a succession of scenes through which pass the desires and dreams of the faun in the heat of the afternoon. Then, tired of pursuing the timorous flight of nymphs and naiads, he succumbs to intoxicating sleep, in which he can finally realize his dreams of possession in universal Nature."
The work is still considered by many as the first "Modern" piece of music. In itself, Debussy was greatly influenced by many varied outside sources. In regard to inspiration, the Symbolist writers in France, as stated above. In regard to his unique use of orchestration, Debussy studied the music of Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the great Russian composer, teacher and developer of a new "Russian" orchestration that favored more use of woodwinds to brighten up the "color" of a composition. Debussy's Prelude relies heavily on woodwinds, particularly the use of the solo flute to represent the satyr. The solo clarinet, oboe and English horn also feature prominently.
With the exception of the four French horns, there are no brass instrument found in the score. However, there are the use of small bells called crotales that are used near the end of the work. Sometimes, finger cymbals are also used. The use of these exotic bells come not only from Rimsky but also from the influence of Indonesian gamelan music. In 1889, there was an important cultural event in France, the Paris Exhibition or World’s Fair. It was set up where the current Eiffel Tower is constructed (the Eiffel Tower was constructed for this event and was instantly hated by the Parisiennes!). At the fair, there was an exhibition of music and culture from Indonesia and the music performances strongly influenced Debussy and others. The gamelan is primarily a percussion ensemble and its music is highly repetitive and hypnotic.
Cotales
Finger Cymbals
An Indonesian gamelan
Of course, Debussy sifts the use of percussion through a very fine and subtle filter. If not careful, the listener might even miss the use of the finger cymbals/crotales at the end, but the influence is still there!
In regard to harmony, Debussy again borrows from the Russians and in particular Rimsky-Korsakov and Modest Mussorgsky. Mussorgsky in particular liked to break traditional rules of harmony to reach a desired effect. To many composers, Mussorgsky was either an "idiot" that didn't understand the rules (a four chord should be followed by a five chord, never the opposite, etc.) or he was a genius. Debussy greatly appreciated these radical ideas and started using them in his music; again, through a very French filter. He liked what he liked and he wasn't afraid to use it! This marked him as a rebel by the Paris Conservatory faculty and Debussy proudly wore that badge.
The use of freer form, melody and harmony helped create the dream-like state achieved in the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. This is Debussy's way of telling the story in an ambiguous way through music. The piece is roughly in three parts: the first part tells of the satyr through the solo flute and his waking up from his sleep. The second part begins with the solo clarinet entrance in a scherzo-like solo with arabesques/flourishes that depict his attempt to seduce a group of wood nymphs. The strings have a long and winding melody that helps portray the sensuousness of the encounter. The woodwinds, harp and horns create a backdrop of rhythmic unease by the use of different rhythms used in ostinato (short repeated rhythmic and melodic figures). The return of original material in the solo flute marks the third and final section and leads to a wonderful diminuendo and breakup of the work. Debussy creates the perfect dream in music and helps tell the unreality and sensuousness of the poem by Mallarmé.
"Aconcagua", Concerto for Bandoneon and Orchestra Astor Piazzolla
Composer: Born March 11, 1921, Mar del Plata, Argentina; Died July 4, 1992, Bueno Aires, Argentina
Work composed: 1979
First performance: December 1979 at the Auditorio de Belgrano in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Instrumentation: solo bandoneon, strings, harp, timpani, percussion, and piano
Estimated duration: 23 minutes
This is the Rockford Symphony Orchestra’s first performance of this work
Astor Piazzolla is now recognized as one of the pioneers of the Bandoneon, a large accordion-like instrument that became popular as an instrument in Argentinian tango music. He is also recognized as a composer of music called "Tango Nuevo" or "New Tango". As a child, Piazzolla grew up listening to tango records from his parents and it was this form of popular dance music that he combined with his study of classical composition and Baroque music in particular.
His interest in classical music eventually got him a scholarship to study in France with perhaps the greatest teacher of the twentieth century: Nadia Boulanger (1887 – 1979). She taught musical composition at her home in Paris and at the Fontainebleau Conservatory outside of Paris. Her students included the likes of such famous composers and instrumentalists as Grażyna Bacewicz, Daniel Barenboim, Lennox Berkeley, İdil Biret, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, John Eliot Gardiner, Philip Glass, Roy Harris, Quincy Jones, Dinu Lipatti, Igor Markevitch, Virgil Thomson, and George Walker.
Nadia Boulanger
Piazzolla's music is tied up with Ms. Boulanger as she was the one that helped him decided that his true voice was in the use of tango music from his homeland of Argentina. This was the real importance of Ms. Boulanger; she never tried to make her students copy another composer but to find their true voice. Her studios were filled with visits from great composers, conductors, soloists, and publishers from Paris and from around the world. There was such a smorgasbord of music at her studio that if a composer just drank in what was around them, they would eventually find that voice!
What should be mentioned in regard to tango music is its evolution. Tango began as a music and dance form in the brothels of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. It has indigenous elements from the gauchos or cowboys of the surrounding area as well. It combined with classical European elements of music to become a somewhat popular form in the early 1900s. However, it was looked down upon by the elite of Argentinian culture.
Following the 1920s, tango travelled to France and became more accepted and also picked up a more commercial feel to it. Tango travelled back and forth between Argentina and Europe a few times and each time, it picked up a more sophisticated and polished style until it eventually lost its negative stigma and was accepted as a popular form of music.
Piazzolla's approach is steeped in the rhythms of tango, particularly the feel of two against three, and a heavy emphasis of the fourth beat at the end of regular phrases. Combine Piazzolla's studies in contemporary composition and Nadia Boulanger's encouragement and you have a new form of music, the Tango Nuevo.
Another signature of tango music is the use of the bandoneon. This is a large accordion that travelled to Argentina along with many of European immigrants in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It uses a pull-push style of bellows that all accordion-family instruments use. The beauty of the instrument is its expressiveness and volume; it is perfect for large gatherings and dances. Piazzolla was a master of the bandoneon and wrote many of his works for bandoneon and a small ensemble consisting of guitar, bass, violin, and bandoneon. He worked with this type of ensemble for many years as it was an easy mix of musicians to record with and to play in large or small venues.
Here is a video of Piazzolla performing with a small jazz/rock group on French television in the 1970's. The work is called Libertango and is one of his best-known works. Please look past the dated clothes, hair styles and sets that are very Disco inspired. The real beauty is to watch Astor Piazzolla in his element, performing on the bandoneon.
Start about 2:30 into the video when Piazzolla begins to play on this video link.
The concerto was written in 1979 for a small ensemble and was named Aconcagua by his publishers after the name of the highest mountain peak in Argentina. This was to symbolize the height to which Piazzolla's music had risen and the technical and musical skill required to perform the piece.
The music uses somewhat strident harmonies and yet is tonal in nature. There are always elements of tango along with contemporary classical music that makes this such a fun a rewarding piece to play and hear.
Tableaux d'une exposition (Pictures at an Exhibition) Modest Mussorgsky (arranged Maurice Ravel)
Composer: Born March 21, 1839, Karevo, Russia; Died March 28, 1881, St. Petersburg, Russia
Work composed: Original piano version, June, 1874; Maurice Ravel orchestration, 1922
First Performance: October 19, 1922, in Paris, France, Serge Koussevitsky conducting
Instrumentation: piccolo, two flutes, two oboes (one doubling English horn), two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, alto saxophone, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, celesta, two harps, and strings
Estimated duration: 35 minutes
Most Recent RSO Performance: October 7, 2017, Steven Larsen conducting
Modest Mussorgsky is one of the great nineteenth century Russian composers that was part of “The Mighty Five.” This was a group that attempted to write music that was based on Russian folk music, Russian Orthodox Church music and on Russian themes. He was considered the most experimental of this group and continued on this path of composition long after the others of the group had left to form their own musical styles (Balakirev, Borodin, Cui, and Rimsky-Korsakov). He was originally a civil clerk in St. Petersburg, Russia but came under the temptation of composing music by the leader of the group, Mily Balakirev in 1858.
Under the influence of Russian composers Balakirev, Alexander Borodin, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, and Mikhail Glinka, Mussorgsky began to experiment writing orchestral music. Up to this time, he was known more for writing small piano music works as he was a gifted and technical performer. Mussorgsky began to write works in various genres, including operas, symphonic tone poems, song cycles and piano works.
The gift of Mussorgsky’s music is that it is full of unorthodox harmonies, orchestrations, form, and troubled texts based on personal tragedy or Russian History. In regard to Pictures at an Exhibition, Mussorgsky wrote a series of 10 brief, but powerful piano works tied together under a single theme or concept. The purpose was to musically pay homage to a friend by the name of Viktor Hartmann. Hartmann was a painter that Mussorgsky knew in St. Petersburg who had died in 1873.
The work depicts an exhibit of paintings that Hartmann had done, and Mussorgsky's devilishly hard piano work tries to portray each painting. In addition, Mussorgsky writes music that is meant to portray the person at the exhibit walking from one painting to the next. It is believed the person was Mussorgsky himself. Not all of the paintings are still in existence, but the ones still around are available to view.
Mussorgsky's piano work was not published until 1886 but it was recognized as a work of technical brilliance and of genius. There have been several arrangements of the work for orchestra (and even for Prog Rock by Emerson, Lake and Palmer!) and the one most often performed is the orchestration done by Maurice Ravel in 1922. Ravel was commissioned to write the arrangement at the request of Serge Koussivitsky, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Ravel's arrangement leaves out a promenade or two but retains the ten paintings.
The program is as follows:
Promenade. The viewer comes into the art gallery for the first time and begins his viewing. The theme is expansive and in irregular meter, borrowing heavily from Russian Folk Music.
I. Gnomus. This painting no longer exists but it was described as a small, twisted gnome-shaped nutcracker that has possibly come to life.
II. Il Vecchio castello (The Old Castle). This painting does not exist anymore but was described as a medieval castle with a troubador in the forefront playing a guitar while he sings.
III. Tuileries. This is the garden outside the Louvre in Paris. Children are playing and singing in a riotous manner. The painting is no longer in existence.
IV. Bydło. An old Polish oxcart is being pulled away from the viewer by a herd of oxen. The music is full of repeating bass notes over which a tuba plays the melody. It gradually dies away as the oxcart leaves the view. This is followed by a transformation of the Promenade as we move to the next painting.
V. Ballet des poussins dan leurs coques (Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks). This was a drawing that Hartmann did for costumes to be used in a ballet.
VI. Samuel Goldenburg and Schmuÿle. Two portraits of Russian Jews, one rich and one poor. These two paintings were owned by Mussugsky and he loaned them to the gallery putting on the exhibition. This is followed by another statement of the Promenade.
VII. Limoges – Le Marché (Limoges – The Grand Market). The painting no longer exists but it was described as portraying the hustle and bustle of the Grand Market of Limoges, France. This movement goes directly into the next portrait:
VIII. Catacombæ. This is a depiction of the famous Catacombs of Rome. In this movement, Moussorgsky gives the listener some of his most dramatic and harmonically experimental music. Ravel scores it primarily for brass and it leads directly to a ghostly restatement of the Promenade titled “Cum mortuis in lingua mortua” (With the dead in a dead language).
After a brief pause, the two remaining paintings are musically portrayed.
IX. La Cabane sur des pattesde poule (Baba-Yaga) (Baba Yaga or the Hut on Fowl Legs). The painting is of an elaborate wooden clock with cabin logs as the base and chickens on the top. This portrays the old Russian witch Baba Yaga who flies through the air in a hut with chicken legs instead of a broom. The music is based on the interval of an augmented fourth, the "Devil's Interval" in music. It is loud, full of contrasts harmonically, dynamically, and musically.
This movement leads directly into the final painting.
X. La grande porte de Kiev (The Great of Kiev). This painting was an entry Hartmann did for a competition to build a new gate for the city of Kiev for which he won first prize. The gate is in the shape of a warrior's helmet with bell towers. The gate was never built for lack of funds. In Mussorgsky's music, the Promenade theme is transformed into a triumphal entry of the city. Twice, the music is interrupted by plaintive music in the woodwinds to portray the Orthodox clergy dedicating and blessing the gate. The work ends in a glorious statement of the Promenade theme with all the possible bells and percussion available to celebrate the consecration of the gate and to pay homage to the memory of Mussorgsky's friend.