Author: mrsfostermusic

Click here for an excellent whistle-stop tour of an orchestra. See and hear the instruments of the orchestra, played by the musicians of the BBC Philharmonic from their own homes during lockdown.

This is Rondo alla Mambo (inspired by the Third Movement of W. A. Mozart’s Horn Concerto No.3) played by French Horn player, Sarah Willis, and the Havana Lyceum Orchestra of Cuba. Sarah Willis is a horn player in the world-renowned Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. She travelled to Havana in Cuba to teach and discovered that music was everywhere, and was very surprised to come across a monument commemorating Mozart. This was the inspiration for her project ‘Mozart y Mambo’ a one-time musical experience combining Mozart’s horn concertos with traditional Cuban music. Find out more about this project here.

The mambo is a genre of Cuban dance music which originated in Cuba in the 1940s. Listen out for the syncopated rhythms and exciting percussion. Compare the mambo-style melody in today’s extract above (from 57 seconds) with Mozart’s original version here from the 1780s.

Do Not Be Afraid is a choral song composed by Philip Stopford with words by Gerard Markland. It is based on four verses from the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 43.

Philip Stopford (born 1977) is an English sacred music choral composer and choir director. He is known for his contemporary a cappella and accompanied settings of traditional Latin and English prayers and hymns. A cappella means vocal music performed without instrumental accompaniment as can be heard in today’s piece. A cappella is Italian for ‘”in the manner of the chapel”‘ – it was originally used in religious music.

Gustav Mahler (1860 – 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian composer and conductor from the late Romantic period of music. Today’s piece, the Symphony No. 1 in D major was mainly composed between late 1887 and March 1888.

The extract is from the start of the fourth movement.

Things to listen out for:

• The introduction consisting of an abrupt cymbal crash, a loud chord in the upper woodwinds, string and brass, and a timpani roll, all in succession.
• Fanfares in the brass section

The symphony is scored for a very large orchestra, consisting of the following:

• Woodwinds – 4 flutes, 4 oboes, 4 clarinets, 3 bassoons 
• Brass – 7 horns, 5 trumpets, 4 trombones, 1 tuba
• Percussion – 6 timpani, 1 bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tam-tam
• Strings – 1 harp, 1st violins, 2nd violins, violas, cellos, double basses

Flight of the Bumblebee is an orchestral piece written by Rimsky-Korsakov for his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, composed in 1899–1900 during the late Romantic period of music. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 –1908) was a Russian composer who is regarded as a master of orchestration. Orchestration is the practice of writing music for an orchestra.

The composition of today’s piece is intended to musically evoke the seemingly chaotic and rapidly changing flying pattern of a bumblebee. 

Things to listen out for:

• The rapid chromatic scales played by the solo violinist. A chromatic scale is a pattern of notes consisting of semitones. A semitone is the smallest gap between 2 notes, for example C to C#. Using semitones creates musical tension.
• The virtuosic melody line with a light accompaniment from pizzicato orchestral strings. Pizzicato means the instruments are played by plucking the strings with the finger instead of using the bow.
• A steady pulse

Alexis Ffrench (born 1970) is a contemporary composer and pianist from the UK. He is known for his unique style of combining his classical training on the piano with a love of roots music and R&B (rhythm and blues).

Today’s piece, Waterfalls comes from his debut album, Evolution.

Things to listen out for:

• The piece begins in 3/4 time with a 1-in-a-bar feel. 
• The right-hand melody mainly consists of step-wise movement.
• The opening melody is repeated several times. At 00:51 listen out for the violin counter-melody (a secondary tune heard at the same time as the main melody).
• The music builds up to a climactic moment at 02:01 where the piano note values are halved, creating a cascading feel (like a waterfall)
• A percussion instrument called a mark tree is used at various points during the piece. See if you can hear when it is being played.

Mary O’Brien (1939 – 1999), professionally known as Dusty Springfield, was an English pop singer and record producer. Her career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s and at her peak, she was one of the most successful British female performers, famous for her distinctive mezzo-soprano sound.

Today’s song, “Son of a Preacher Man” is a song written and composed by American songwriters John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins. Springfield recorded the song in September 1968 for her album Dusty in Memphis.

As a fan of US soul music, she brought many little-known soul singers to the attention of a wider UK record-buying audience. Since her death, Springfield has been widely commended as the leading British soul singer of the twentieth century. She is remembered as an icon of the Swinging Sixties, and her album Dusty in Memphis is recognised as a pop-R&B masterpiece.

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (1685 –1757) was an Italian composer from the Baroque period although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style too.

Listen out for this piece’s bell-like quality from the outset and the use of ornaments. Music from this time often featured long flowing melodic lines using ornamentation (decorative notes such as trills and turns).

“Baker Street” is a song written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty. It was released as a single in 1978.

The song features a prominent eight-bar alto saxophone riff played as a break between verses. A riff is a short, repeated melodic pattern, often forming the background to a solo or vocal line. 

The sax riff led to what became known as “the ‘Baker Street’ phenomenon”, a resurgence in the sales of saxophones and their use in mainstream pop music and television advertising.

Georgs Pelēcis (born 1947) is a Latvian composer and musicologist. A musicologist is a person who studies musicology (the history, theory and science of music).

Today’s piece is Concertino bianco (literally ‘Little White Concerto’). It’s name reflects its key signature. It is in the key of C major which means that the piece is played on all white notes as there are no sharps or flats.