Humperdinck: Overture to Hansel und Gretel

if you have never heard of this guy, his first name is engelbert. engelbert humperdinck.

this was an opera written in about 1893, receiving its first performance under the baton of none other than richard strauss. humperdinck wrote a number of operas, almost all based on fairy tales. this is by far the most successful and well remembered (in fact, i really can't off the top of my head think of any other compositions by him =/) he did most of his writing for vocal works, both solo and choral. his operatic writing was a nice counterpart to the seriousness and darkness of contemporary Wagner, though a lot of their musical vocabulary is very similar.

the overture doesn't really relate as tightly to the characters in the opera as wagner's do, but everyone knows the story of hansel and gretel anyway so i'll avoid recapping here. the overture does deal with a sort of mood setting for the opera, evoking both a dreamy idyllic atmosphere as well as a middle section of slightly more ominous music perhaps referring to the kids' encounter with the witch. the whole overture, though, definitely maintains a playful, light and catchy tone.

the opening chorale is a really fantastic one - so simple, C major, basic harmonic progressions, but phenomenal in its effect. the music here is also the basis for the more famous "prayer and dream" section in the opera itself.
the development of the material sounds a lot like brahms to me. lush strings, sustained wind solos, and a gentle swell into a rephrase by the oboe and supporting winds.
the trumpet enters with a sprightly motif at 2:50 accompanied by sharp pizzs from the strings, waking the music up and spurring it to a more flowing tempo. the rest of the brass take up this motif until we sense a proverbial curtain raise. (even a pause for applause.)
at 3:38 the strings come with their pastoral melody, the third theme to come in. the counterpart/second theme to this is the wind dance at 4:11, and this material is based to some degree on the trumpet fanfare.

the development begins at about 4:50. we have a return of every theme so far, from the horn chorale to the sprightly winds, and this is taken on a journey through several keys as well as an accelerando. the part with all the string arpeggios is especially fun.

6:05 is a grand arrival of sorts, with all the themes finally coming out in full, particularly the strings. the swing is broad, childish, almost exaggerated. the strings get busier themes over a constantly rising and falling swell of brass.

finally we cadence in a shining C major, and we have a return of the chorale. these chord changes at this section are particularly beautiful and even unexpected.

some pretty light music for today. stay posted, i think some dvorak on the way.

Wagner: Overture to Tannhäuser, WWV 70

ughhhhhh i have to do double entries for like a week before i catch up.

ok, here is tannhäuser overture (pronounced TAN-hoy-sehr), the opera of which was written by wagner in 1842-43. it was significantly amended through 1846-47 after its initial lukewarm reception, and then again for a Paris performance in 1861. the "paris version" is closest, i think, to the one that gets performed today. by this point he had just done tristan and isolde and was looking to do a big coming out party in paris that would include tristan and lohengrin. unfortunately tannhauser caused the strongest reactions and didn't last long in paris.


i have to conduct this in a week and half OMG.


i will avoid going through too much of an opera synopsis since this is just the overture. but this being wagner, it's impossible to go through the components of the piece without telling you what they relate to in the opera's scheme, so briefly, the story is about tannhauser (heinrich), a man who disappears from his original life in favor of love from venus and her unearthly pleasures. after staying there for a long time he manages to escape the spell by declaring his salvation lies in mother mary, and he is allowed to return to his home. his love elisabeth has been living in seclusion, but once she hears that tannhauser has returned, looks forward to hearing the song contest of men seeking her love. during the contest tannhauser hotbloodedly reveals his belief in the sensual pleasures due to his journey to see venus, and is threatened by the other men. elisabeth protects him, but he has to make a pilgrimage to seek forgiveness. the third act starts some undefined stretch of time later, during which elisabeth has been seeking news of tannhauser in vain. he finally returns in rags having given up his quest for absolution, saying that the pope's staff would sooner sprout leaves than he be forgiven. tannhauser is about to give everything up and return to venus, but then notices a funeral procession which happens to be carrying elisabeth. he rushes to her and throws himself over her dead body just as he receives the news that the pope's staff has sprouted leaves.

the overture is written in a sort of mirror/sonata form.
we open with a chorale which includes bassoons, clarinets, and of course horns. this is the "pilgrim's chorus," which occurs in his journey with the pilgrims. wagner writes "nicht schleppend, gehended Bewegung" which means not dragging; continually flowing. this grows into a massive brassy triumphant song.
at 5:16 we hit a brisker tempo and duple meter, beginning with an ascending diminished motif that is introduced by the violas. this is music from the venusburg, venus's mountain (literally). it is the setting of the entire first act which tannhauser spends lounging in her embrace. this section is written in B major, the dominant key (original is in E major). the music is sprightly and suspenseful (literally as well... lots of suspensions :P) he indicates to hold off getting too energetic, because he wants a big build up into the next section.
6:45 is where a new motif comes in; this is the "ode to venus," which tannhauser sings in hotblooded passion after hearing what he feels is a load of crap about love being pure and undisturbed. march-like and triumphant. wagner writes "nicht eilen. breit" which just means unhurried and broad. this theme is woven back into venusburg motifs which dissipate into the next section.
at about 8:00 we hit a very slow middle section, the interlude which is actually more music from the venusburg; violins are divided into 8 parts, and there is a mysterious floating clarinet solo above the texture. here he indicates "ruhig," calm and quiet. 
and now we start progressing backwards through the sections; we have the return of brisker venusburg music which leads us through several weird chromatic shifts until we get back to the ode to venus, which is now in the correct key of e major. from here it's basically a straight shot and accelerando towards the super brassy end.


as with basically all of wagner, super cheesy and still super fun.

Rameau: Rondeau from Les Indes Galantes

i have to admit that i am doing this piece mostly just because it is so accessible and fun, even though there are definitely other things that rameau wrote that might fit better in the arc that i have created with handel and albinoni. not much, though: rameau dedicated himself mostly to operas and harpsichord music. he was also a dedicated theorist about harmony, even though he remained loyal to traditional forms. he replaced lully as the dominant opera composer in france, and was forever embroiled in a debate with them about how complex harmony should be - he made steps that were considered revolutionary.

this opera-ballet was written in 1735, around the beginning of the last forty years of his life he dedicated to writing operas. it was the first work of his which introduced his harmonies into a lighter genre. it is a collection of four acts which depict disjoint scenarios rather than a coherent plot. this rondo is from the fourth act, les sauvages (the savages of america), which is set in north america. a spaniard and a frenchman (alvar and damon respectively) compete for the love of zima, the daughter of a native chief.

unfortunately for them, zima happens to prefer adario, one of her own people. this rondeau is sung in scene 6, after which she has pretty much rejected the other two suitors. they sing of the innocence of their undisturbed love in their undisturbed land, and about their independence from others' wishes and laws.

ok, all i really have to say about this piece in particular is that it actually reminds me quite a bit of the fugue in the albinoni i just posted. isn't it awesome?

Borodin: Prince Igor - No. 17, Polovtsian Dances

borodin seems to have been a bit of a pain to work with as a musical colleage/fellow composer (like all the mighty five except for balakirev, he was not a professional musician). it seems almost half of his stuff was either finished or orchestrated by glazunov and/or rimsky, and rimsky actually writes about the difficult night before the orchestration of polovtsian dances was due for rehearsal by the orchestra. apparently borodin had put off doing this so much that on the night before it was needed for copying/distribution, he hopped over to rimsky's house and the two of them plus anatoly liadov spent the whole night writing orchestra parts by hand.

if you know anything by borodin, it's either the very famous dance of the maidens from this little set of dances, or the nocturne from his string quartet no. 2.

ozawa/berlin.

there are several different dances, each ascribed to the different groups of people dancing. the first theme, in flute solo, with the distinctive triplets, is given in a slow 4/4 andantino, and is an introduction. it's followed by the most famous tune, at 0:58. this represents the dance of maidens. this theme plays with the a major key and its relative minor, giving a sort of modal feel. the diminished fourth in the second half of the phrase is a bit of "exotic" flavor to the melody.
at 3:10 we suddenly go into 3/4 with a more rambunctious galloping dance, which is representative of a general dance by everyone. it's actually got hints of ravel for me (or i guess it would be more accurate to say that ravel has traces of this type of festiveness and sliding chromatic scales in some of his colorful orchestral music).
5:17 goes back into duple meter, but is a brisk 6/8. this is apparently a dance of the boys, in presto. it builds to a sort of minor climax, but then all of a sudden we are back with the dance of the maidens at 6:40 or so. but then at 7:37 he decides to incorporate the theme from the dance of the boys in as well. they work well simply superimposed upon each other. then gradually the triplet rhythm takes over and we're back in the presto dance. now the tension starts building again for the second time.
now we get, in the same tempo, a running sixteenth note theme which i think that this particular recording skips the first time it's supposed to come around (which is directly after the first dance of the maidens). this is supposed to be a wild dance of men that first time, but along with a very very fast version of the introduction theme, it is now just a general dance. it leads to a rather rousing conclusion.

since this piece is part of an opera, i'll say a bit about what part of the opera these dances are supposed to represent. they occur at the bottom of act 2. prince igor has been captured by the polovtsy after his failed campaign, but since he didn't ask for mercy when he was captured, the ruler, Konchak, orders that he be treated like an honored guest, even offering him freedom on the condition that igor not wage war against them again. igor refuses, saying he can't lie, and konchak regrets that they were not born to be allies. he summons polovtsian slaves to entertain igor, and these dances are that entertainment.

the opera is, of course, about igor's escape and redemption. he returns and saves his own kingdom from destruction at the hands of a neighboring prince.
the main criticism of this opera is that it's not dramatically coherent, and borodin wrote his libretto pretty much as he composed the music. as a result they weren't able to make the music and the plotline cohere as well as they should have. and it also didn't help that he died before he finished, but this work was in progress for almost 20 years. so only pieces of it have really been enduring, this being one of them and the overture being the other.

von Suppe: Light Cavalry Overture

bet you heard this all the time and actually have no idea whom it's by!! and reading the name won't really ring a bell either. at least, that was my reaction when i first played this piece. i was like, why is this so familiar if i don't even recognize the composer's name. but this contains some of the most recognizable cartoon music ever! see the second section, about 2 and half minutes in. can you see the cartoon horses?


so, Franz von Suppe  (whose name the announcer at the performance i participated in managed to mispronounce as franz von SOUP, and forever now i will read his name wrong in my head when i see it) was an austrian light opera composer who lived from 1819 to 1895. he wrote four dozen operettas, which is impressive, but most have fallen to the wayside. anyway during his life he also sang as a tenor and had a reasonably successful career writing music for productions done in vienna. light cavalry was written in 1866 and is one of only two overtures (the other being poet and peasant) which have survived the ages.

this overture is basically a mirror form. you've got a brass fanfare section, then the fun galloping section, which both come back at the end. sandwiched in the middle is a very fun melodramatic cello melody.
it's a very military-inspired little operetta, but i'm sure you don't need me to tell you that.

Bizet: Prelude to Carmen

i can't find an opus number for almost anything bizet wrote: apparently all of his stuff was catalogued by a guy named winton dean, an english musicologist born 1916. so all his stuff mostly just has WD numbers, and this is WD31, composed in 1873-4 on commission by the opera-comique in paris. the first run didn't go so well, and it wouldn't begin gaining real popularity, starting in vienna, until just a few months after his death in 1875. it took almost 8 years for it to come back to paris.

this whole opera is full of memorable tunes, a lot of which make an appearance in the prelude. in fact there isn't really any "form" to this overture except the prominence of said tunes. the overture's theme, is a jolly, festive, whirling dance in two, notable for its vibrant percussion and excitement-building trills. it's interspersed with a f-sharp major section that has a softer, lilting melody (which doesn't last long - too much celebration going on).
next is everyone's favorite melody of course - the toreador's song, sung by escamillo later on. the theme returns and brings that to an affirmative close.
this is as far as the recording above goes, which is really a good one - kind of dry acoustics but i like how the direction builds through all the repeated sixteenths and the clarity of the whole instrumentation, which sometimes gets to be a problem (i won't post levine's version here because i think it's really over-muscled. his orchestra is gigantic btw, for some reason this didn't seem to be as much of a problem in the mozart in the previous entry, but i really think they are being overzealous in the carmen recording).

here's mehta doing all of what is technically in the prelude. there's a sultry theme that enters, heralding a darker undertone. lots of harmonic minor and dramatic bass-instrument thumps. and then the prelude ends on a huge diminished 7th chord, and... the opera begins!

see you tomorrow.

Mozart: Overture to Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), K. 620

OK, as i've been promising for a few days, some Mozart!

composed in 1791, and unique because it's one of the only works Mozart composed to german text. the libretto was written by emanuel schikaneder. it was his last really major work, produced in vienna.

i don't really want to focus on plot synopsis, so we'll just dive right in to the actual overture.

levine has near perfected the art of opera, and is one of the most consistent big name maestros for the form today. this is a rather beefy version. he also looks incurably goofy (i cannot be the only one who wants to laugh when i see the cue right before the first note), but it cannot be disputed he gets the job done.

the first few chords are always done differently. the pickup is actually written as a sixteenth, but they're usually so heavy that they sound like something different. in any case: these chords are like a foundation - they set up a "realm," both tonal and emotional, within which the opera resides: graceful yet grand, dramatic and delicate. or as dale put it more poetically, "it's like describing eden." and indeed the whole overture of an opera is all about setting up a musical stage. the rest of the overture uses mainly just one brisk theme of eighths and sixteenths, which is developed in a fugal form. a brief middle section begins with a sort of reprise of the opening chords in the dominant major, B flat. a minor section which develops the sole theme with more fugal interplay gets furious and dramatic but remains light. a truly mozartean ring around the circle of fifths leads us to a fake recap which dissolves into a series of descending scales, and then back to the theme for the real recap.

notice the fantastic brass fanfares in the coda ;)

just for reference, you can also check out the muti/vpo one - i won't host it here because i think it's quite similar to the levine, except perhaps a bit more delicate and "classy." it is nice because you can see the orchestra for most of it, ionno about that bg picture though :D

here's something very different.

a perfect example of what i was talking about with the opening sixteenth notes. abbado decides to take them pretty much in time, and doesn't stretch the half notes *or* the fermatas. the opening is muuuch brisker than you hear normally, and the overall sound is thinner - almost as if he's trying to go for a period feel with the modern orchestra. lots of decay on longer notes, super short chords, and generally everyone is playing quite light even for this overture. it's also quite a bit faster, clocking in at over half a minute shorter than levine or muti (in a 7 minute piece, nontrivial). i enjoy this though. very unsentimental, but classy.