Author: mrsfostermusic

The Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was composed during 1888 placing the piece in the Romantic period of music.

The horn is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. It is often called the French Horn and is thought by many to be the most beautifully sounding instrument in an orchestra.

The horn’s mellow sound can turn a simple tune into something that both soothes and lifts the spirit. Horns can also be tremendously powerful and when the whole section plays loudly the sound will break through any orchestral texture. Today’s piece contains perhaps the biggest horn solo in orchestral horn repertoire and demonstrates the above description perfectly. The horn solo (see below) is marked ‘dolce con molto express.‘ which is Italian for sweetly with much expression. Listen out for how the soloist interprets this and how he also adds much expression through the use of crescendos and diminuendos.

Bedřich Smetana (1824 – 1884) was a Czech composer who has been regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music.

Vltava, also known by its English title The Moldau was composed in 1874 during the Romantic period. It is about 13 minutes long, and is in the key of E minor.

In this piece, Smetana uses tone painting to portray the sounds of one of Bohemia’s great rivers, The Vltava. Tone painting is the musical technique of composing music that reflects the literal meaning of a song’s music/lyrics. For example, ascending (rising) scales would accompany music/lyrics about going up; slow, dark music would accompany music/lyrics about death.

In his own words:

The composition describes the course of the Vltava, starting from the two small springs, the Cold and Warm Vltava, to the unification of both streams into a single current, the course of the Vltava through woods and meadows, through landscapes where a farmer’s wedding is celebrated, the round dance of the mermaids in the night’s moonshine: on the nearby rocks loom proud castles, palaces and ruins aloft. The Vltava swirls into the St John’s Rapids; then it widens and flows toward Prague, past the Vyšehrad, and then majestically vanishes into the distance, ending at the Labe (or Elbe, in German).

In today’s extract, you will hear Smetana’s most famous tune. Listen out at the start of the extract for the main melody (below) moving in steps:

“If Ye Love Me” was written by the English composer Thomas Tallis in 1565 as a setting of a passage from the Gospel of John. It was composed for an a cappella choir of four voice parts. A cappella refers to vocal performances without instrumental accompaniment.

Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 – 1585) is considered one of England’s greatest composers. He composed throughout the reigns of Henry VIII, who broke away from Rome and created the Church of England; Edward VI; Mary I, who was a Catholic; and Elizabeth I, who was a Protestant. He therefore had to be adaptable to such turbulent times and skillfully composed Catholic church music in Latin, then Anglican church music in Latin and then in English. Today’s piece was written at a time when it was mandated that church services must be sung in English and must give ‘to each syllable a plain and distinct note‘.

Typically for Anglican compositions of this period, the structure of this piece is written in an ABB form, consisting of two main sections with the second section repeated.

This piece starts with a homophonic texture but soon gives way to imitative counterpoint. Imitation can be found in a lot of sacred choral music from the Renaissance period. Imitation is where one musical part copies another.

The Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo consisting of siblings; singer and drummer Karen (born 1950) and musician, record producer, songwriter, and music arranger Richard Carpenter (born 1946). The combination of Richard’s arranging and composing skills, together with Karen’s smooth, expressive contralto vocals lead them to become one of the biggest-selling American musical acts of all time.

A contralto is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. Karen received much praise and admiration for her 3-octave contralto vocal range, and was listed among the American Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 greatest singers of all time.

“I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” is a jazz song written by Billy Taylor and Dick Dallas in the 1960s. Jazz is a style of music which emerged in America around the turn of the 20th century. The music can be characterised by improvisations, syncopations and swing rhythms.

Billy Taylor (1921 – 2010) was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster and educator. He was passionate about jazz and spent much of his career as a jazz activist, successfully introducing a much wider audience to the jazz genre. He appeared on hundreds of albums and composed more than 300 songs during his career, which spanned over six decades. Today’s song is his most famous and achieved popularity with the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. 

The trio is one of the common choice of line ups by jazz performers. It consists of the:

• piano
• bass
• drums

There are many different recordings of this song, the most famous perhaps being that of Nina Simone’s cover version from her 1967 album Silk & Soul.

Alexander Borodin (1833 – 1887) was a Russian chemist and musical composer from the Romantic era. He wrote this string quartet during 1881. A string quartet is a musical ensemble consisting of four string players – two violin players, a viola player and a cellist. A viola is a string instrument, larger than a violin and with a thicker and darker tone.

Today’s piece is the 3rd movement of the string quartet and is called Notturno (Nocturne). A nocturne is a musical composition that reflects the moods and feelings of night time.

Stevie Wonder (born 1950) is an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most successful songwriters and musicians in the history of popular music. He has been a pioneer and influence to musicians of various genres of music including pop, rhythm and blues, soul, funk and rock.

Stevie Wonder began playing instruments at an early age, including piano, harmonica, and drums. Despite being blind from a very young age due to complications with being born prematurely, he has said in interviews that he never thought of being blind as a disadvantage. He was a child prodigy known as Little Stevie Wonder, and was first signed to a record label at the age of 11. He has since sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Stevie Wonder is also known for his work as an activist for political causes.

Things to listen out for:

• The bass guitar and keyboard playing a unison walking bass line from the start of the intro and throughout the song.
• Use of syncopation. Syncopation is a rhythmic device involving a mixture of on and off beats.
• Call and response between Stevie’s vocals and the horn section (saxophones and trumpets).
• Use of a synthesiser, first heard in the intro. The synth line plays a descending then ascending minor scale in the pre-chorus. See if you can hear it.

Find out more about this song on this excellent podcast: (scroll down to Dec 2018)

https://strongsongspodcast.com/website

Gustav Theodore Holst ( 1874 – 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher from the modern period of music. He is best known for his orchestral suite The Planets but he also composed many other works across a range of genres, such as today’s piece which was written for string orchestra and published in 1922.

During Holst’s earlier years as a composer, he took interest in folk music, and wrote many pieces based on folk tunes and songs. Today’s piece begins with the folk tune “Dargason”, a 16th-century English dance tune, followed by “Greensleeves”, a traditional English folk tune, played by the cellos.

Listen out for the polyphonic texture (different independent melodies happening at the same time).

Steel band music started in Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. Calypso is a form of traditional music often played on steel pans. Calypso music has:

• 4/4 time with syncopation (rhythm patterns where stressed notes are placed off the beat)
• acoustic and bass guitar or band with trumpets, saxophones, electric guitars, drum kit and Latin percussion instruments
• the melody often uses call and response in the chorus
• simple harmony
• structure consisting of verse, choruses and instrumental sections
• topical, witty lyrics – often satirical

Steel bands are characterised by:

• instruments (known as pans), which were originally made out of oil drums

• lead instruments known as tenors playing the melody
• middle-pitched pans playing the chords (altos)
• bass pans playing the lowest notes
• a rhythm section for up tempo numbers including drums and percussion e.g. tambourines and maracas
• sticks with ends padded with rubber bands
• long notes played with a rolling tremolo effect (a trembling sound created by fast repetition of the same note)
• smooth (legato) and expressive melodies

‘Yellow Bird‘ is a traditional 19th century folk song from the island of Haiti in the Caribbean. The song continues to be popularly associated with calypso and the Caribbean, and is often performed by steelpan bands.

The Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27, is a symphony by the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, written in 1906–07 which puts it in the late Romantic period.

Sergei Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Following criticism of his first attempt at writing a symphony he suffered badly from depression. Fortunately, successful therapy allowed him to rediscover his love for music. His Symphony No.2 was composed in Dresden, Germany, where he and his family lived for almost four years from 1906. Rachmaninoff lacked confidence in his writing and it is said that he was very unhappy with the first draft of this piece. However, after months of revision he finished the work and conducted the premiere in 1908 to great applause and it has remained one of the most popular of all of his works. An excellent example of resilience and growth-mindset!

A symphony is a long piece of music, in three or four movement, for a full orchestra.

This symphony was originally scored for full orchestra with 3 flutes (the 3rd doubling on piccolo), 3 oboes (the 3rd doubling on cor anglais), 2 clarinets in A and B♭, bass clarinet in A and B♭, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, and strings.

The symphony is in four movements:

1. Largo — Allegro moderato (E minor)
2. Allegro molto (A minor)
3. Adagio (A major)
4. Allegro vivace (E major)

Today’s extract is from the second movement.