LAST BLOG!!!!! AHAHSKUDHKAJSHDKJAHDSFKJH!! (3:03 AM)

John Cage (1912 - 1992)

Pretty odd character, and really took new extended techniques to a whole new level. He is most famous for is Sonatas and Interludes, which is famous for its use of prepared piano. Certain random items are placed in certain places on certain strings to produce certain sounds. Its actually not that random at all, its EXTREMELY specific, and usually a pain to set up, and most piano techs can't stand John Cage. However, some of the sounds that are produced from the piano with all that material inside is completely different than any other piano music. It is actually meant to sound like drums and percussion instruments, perhaps Balinese Gamelan.

John Adams

Minimalist composer. Not too significant.
Only real popular work is China Gates.
China Gates is actually quite pretty, or at least for the first 10 seconds. Then, once you realize that it is the same thing over and over and over and over (but wait! the left hand is different!!!) and over and over - you start to hate it. There is a 5 note pattern repeated in the right hand throughout the entire thing (thus, minimalist music), which starts to grow on you. However, if you can completely immerse yourself into the music, and get over the repetitions, it can become quite hypnotic.

George Crumb

Crumb (1929 - )

Influenced by a number of very important people, which is clearly evident in his music. His biggest influence is probably Debussy. His music is almost entirely foreground with very little background, nearly always. His use of silences, timings, and production of specific sonorities and sound qualities are directly related to his Debussy influence. His other most important influence is through Bartok's formal structure. Bartok's arc form is apparent in much of Crumb's work. Including the 5 Piano pieces.

The first piece is very quiet and sparse. There are some repeated notes, but they never get to intense. And then all of a sudden OH MY GOD! dont turn the volume up too loud! There is a scare right in the middle of the first piece. Some crazy randoms get a little hairy, and then settle down again to end softly. ARC FORM!

The second piece is a little different. This one begins with the scare and settles down eventually. The Silences between the loud stuff is almost worht listening to on it's own. If this one had a shape, it would start off high and gradgually decesned.

The third piece starts going inside the piano. Starts low and ascends, arpeggioes.

The fourth piece also goes inside the piano. It sounds very much like the third piece, however, there are more silences in this one than the last.

The last piece uses strumming and sweeps inside the piano, as well as traditional playing techniqie. This piece is quite ominous. just when you think things are settled down, there is some weird pluck or sound that jumps out at you.

Stockhausen and Cowell

Stockhausen (1928 - 2007)

This guy wrote alot of Klavierstuck. A very interesting character - Stockhausen worked pretty much all day, very diligently. He, unlike Beethoven, or many composers before him, actually told you the meaning behind his music, so there was no confusion. The one I am listening to is Kalivierstuck IX.

Stockhausen was famous for being one of the first composers to use aleatoric music, or chance music. Much of his music depends on the rolling of dice or random chance, which both arguably music, and non music...

The piece begins with the same chord, repeated over and over, several times, at different dynamics. It sounds like it could be serial, but I'm not certain. Not the best piece in the whole world, but some small interesting things hidden in there.


Cowell (1897 - 1965)

Not too much to say. Cowell was one of the first to explore different piano echniques in the 21st century, which would later be taken over by Cage and Crumb. Cowell indicated the use of entire palms and forearms to play certain chords and clusters, which he was fond of using. He was also one of the first to go inside the piano and mess with strings.

The Banshee is a piece played entirely on the inside of the piano. The performer is required (have someone) hold the pedal down, and strum, rub, and pluck strings inside the piano. It makes for a pretty interesting effect. This piece is actually pretty scary. Some of the sounds produced by the strings on the inside of the piano can sounds like screams and scary sounds. Its a pretty effective piece. Most pieces like this are rather simple once the coereography is sorted out.

Aeolian Harp is another piece which requires the performer to play inside the piano. In this case, the performer silently holds down certain keys, (chords) while struming the inside. once the giberish noise is settled, all that remains is the left over sound of the chords from the keys that are held down. It sounds pretty cool. Less effective than the Banshee.

Messiaen

Oliver Messiaen (1908 - 1992)

Messiaen's most famous piece for solo piano are the "Jesus Pieces"... The entire collection takes about 2 hours to perform in one sitting. The only two I'm listening to are regards 10 and 15. I begin in reverse. Regard 15, or "Le Baiser de l'Enfant-Jesus" is very slow and chordal. Like pretty much all of Messiaen's music, it is nearly all foreground and little background, and like Debussy, it is centered on production of specific sonorities. This usually runs the longest in the entire set, clocking in at about 12 minutes or so.

The 10th regard, or "Regard de l'Esprite de joie," is very much the complete oposite. This is fast Messiaen, which is very rhythmic, and driving, begining in the bass and working its way around. This is most difficult of the entire set, and comes as a complete shock in the set, being randomly difficult and scary compared to the rest.

The last Messiaen piece I am listening to is the "Mode de caluers et d'intensities." This is a pretty cool piece, for sure. It uses complete serialism, where each pitch is assigned a certain articulation, dynamic, duration, etc, and pitches appear in serial orders. Pretty cool - it's one of the only pieces to use complete serialism.

Copland and Barber

Aaron Copland (1900 - 1990)

American Composer who did alot of experimenting with American folk tunes. His most important pieces for solo piano are the Variations, and the Sonata. I will be listening to the Variations.

Awesome piece! The theme is based around 4 notes, and moved all around and played with extensively. It is often displaced by octaves, and appear only in close form once I believe. It's a very "ugly" piece, but it is incredibly cool. The story is that it was meant to be premiered by Walter Gieseking, but he refused, saying that no ordinary concert-goers would enjoy such an ugly piece, so Copland ended up premiering it himself, and thereafter it was famous. I love this piece, and deffinitly want to play it one day.


Sammy Barber (1910 - 1981)

Only famous for a few pieces for piano, the excursions being the most popular, also the piano concerto, and the Sonata, Op. 26. The first movement of the Barber Sonata open with rapid reverse-dotted rhythms which sound like some kind of antiphonal dialogue. The second movement begins with a falling figuration which is repeated a couple of times, softly, before it is played with and varried, then repeated. The same figuration persits, expands, and eventually unfolds and contracts, with different accompaniment. The best one is the um-pa pa accompaniment that appears for only a measure or two, but it comes out of nowhere. The third movement is slow. The opening sounds almost like the opening to the Copland variations, but then a real melody comes in. Of course the whole thing is over "odd" accompaniment, which sounds kind of modal, but not quite atonal. The final movement is a fast fugue, and sounds like a bitch to play. It just keeps going..

Shostakovich

Shostakovich (1908 - 1975)

Shostakovich was unfortunately always living under the Stalinist regime, which completely shaped his music. There were ridiculous amounts of censorship and control over the arts during Stalin's time, and Shostakovich couldn't really develop into what he wanted to break out of, so he developed into it. There is deffinitily a certain degree of opression which can be heard in his music, the sonatas and the preludes and fugues. He copied Bach, 48 P's and F's, two in each key.

The D minor prelude and fugue from the second book (Op. 87) is the best, and last one. In one word it is simply:

Epic

Good piece, a very strong sense of power behind the music. The Prelude especially. It begins very chordal and grows into passionate orgasims. The fugue begins simple, but like the prelude grows. The subject begins with perfect 4ths, A - D, A - D.. etc. It sounds heart-wrenching as it develops. Beautiful.

Prokofiev Sonata No. 6

Prokofiev (1891 - 1953)

6th sonata

1st movement has a recognizable rhythmic figure which is repeated, feeling in an unusual meter. cool movement, sounds difficult. Winds down into a steady, beautiful flowing melody, sounding at first pentatonic. The second movement is all staccato chords, easily recognizable. The third movement is slow and quite beautiful, there is a long melody over the top of some interesting sounds underneath it. Sounds almost tonal, but not Atonal. The last movement is exciting, vivace, sounds to me like a chase - very fun.

back to Stravinsky

Stravinsky

This is an extra, for me, on his Piano Rag-Music.
The opening is slowish and grandeur, eventually getting into a rag-like theme with a continuous 5 - 1 motion in the bass constantly. Pretty sweet piece actually.

Hindemith and Ginastera

Paul Hindemith (1895 - 1963)

A German. Very much so. He was very Germanic in the traditional sense, believing (like Brahms) that music should be functional. His most famous piece for solo piano is the Suite "1922." The piece is pretty cool, using early 20th century dances as the 5 movements. All of the movements sound like their title, except that they are quite dissonant. The first, a march, is what you would expect from a march, quite rhythms in a march tempo. The second, a "Shimmy" is a popular early 20th century dance, and has grinding rolls up into a repetitive rhythmic figure, all of which sounds very dissonant, but yet quite danceable at the same time. The third movement, a Nocturne, isn't much of a dance, but it is slow and steady. It opens very steadily, and feels like it isn't really going anywhere. The fourth movement, a "Boston" sounds to me like it opens more like a nocturne than the previous one, before going into the slightly turbulent section before winding down back into solemness. There is a recognizable grace note, sounding somewhat like the first Chopin ballade or something.. The last movement, "Ragtime" is probably the most popular, it has a repetitive rhythmic figure, that repeats, very much like an awesome parody on Joplin. Its my favorite of the batch.

Ginastera (1916 - 1983)

His music is characterized by a rhythmic percusivness which gives it drive. It it usually very exciting to listen to, and is alot of fun to play.

The first sonata is what I have to listen to. It is quite exciting, and has an extremely memorable opening motive in the first movement. The second movement is fast and pianissimo, sounding like the Carl Vine sonata. The third mvement is slow and kind of lyrical. It has some dissonant arpeggioes rising, always rising, until a brief cadenza-like thing that brings it back down a bit. It kind of floats around like this. The last movement is fast and exciting, and sounds like it could easily be the sound-track for some mortal combat game or something of the sort. The rhythm gives it drive (as one might expect with Ginastera).

The best last name ever.

Szymanowski (1882 - 1937)

So there's not much at all for this guy, besides his awesome last name.
He is the next famous Polish composer after Chopin, and he happens to be quite impressionistic. His influences include Chopin (of course), Scriabin (of course), Debussy (of course), Strauss, and Stravinsky. He's basically a impressionistic Chopin. So he's basically a copy-cat of Scriabin. His music is pretty interesting, and never played.

The good stuff for solo piano: Etudes Op. 4, and Op. 33, 3 Sonatas, and some good character piece stuff.

Stravinsky and Poulenc

So, i will be writing several blogs to catchup the night before the exam! This will be an adventure.

Stravinsky (1882 -1971)

Not a whole lot to say. Began his career successfully writing ballets. There isn't too much for the piano. There is the famous Petrushka, which is one of the toughest pieces to play. Its interesting how the composers who wrote the famously difficult music didn't write too much else for the piano (except for Liszt of course). There is also the Sonata and some Etudes, Op. 7.

If Schoenberg was the "Emancipator of dissonance," than Stravinsky was the "emancipator of rhythm." He write some of the most obscene and often erroneous time signature changes and random rhythms that really do give the sensation of an ametric meter. He and Bartok were both doing things like this, but it seems like Stravinsky was the one who went the extra step.

And oh yeah, Stravinsky was also quite neo-classicist. In fact, sometimes more neo-borouqe than Neo-Classiscist. Taking ideas from the past, and making them fresh.

Poulenc (1894 - 1963)

Very little to say:
Famous for his line: "Do not analyze my music - love it."

And so I wont.

Very little rep to know about, the "Les Soires de Nazelles" is a big piece, about 30 mins long, which is comprised of 8 character pieces or "portraits." There is also a presto in B-flat, and "Perpetual Motion," a pretty cool piece.

Bartok

Bela Bartok (1881 - 1945)

Bartok is a big name for any pianist. He was, as I see it, one of the last great pianist-composers, He himself being an excellent pianist, and a huge composer as well. He made it his goal to meld Hungary (his native country) into the world of western classical music. He is also famous for his use of Hungarian folk melodies. He actually went all over the Hungarian country-side collecting folk tunes, which he would use later in his music.

We divide his life into different periods (like Beethoven). The first being from 1907 - 1917, which was characterized by his "folky-ness," and include works like his Rhapsody Op. 1, Bagatelles, the Allegro Barbaro, the 15 Peasant Songs/Dances, and the popular suite Op. 14.

In what we call his second period, Bartok experimented with more rhythmic thingamabobs and more dissonant sounds, and we soon find Bartok's obsession with 4ths and tri-tones. Bartok has a number of characterizing features, including the 4ths and tt's. Bartok's music is usually quite dry, not quite A-tonal but most ceratainly modal, and even bi-modal or bi-tonal, he uses ostinatoes quite often, he music is very motivic, and his use of odd metic entities, such as contiuously changing meters, and what not.

He has alot of famous rep to mention.
For solo piano:

Rhapsody Op. 1, Bagatells Op. 6, Romanian Dances Op. 8a, Suite Op. 14, Etudes Op. 18 (which are bloddy hard), Improvisations on Hungarian Folk Songs Op. 20, Allegro Barbaro, 15 Hungarian Peasent Songs, the Sonata, the Out of Doors Suite, and the 6 books of Microkosmos.

The Far East

Eastern Europe / Hungary

Janacek (1854 - 1928)

One of the only famous Czheck composers, Janacek was as all of the Eastern European composers are: folky. He used folk songs in much of his music. Like I said, there isn't too much to say about him - he only has a few famous pieces for the piano, the Sonata (1905) titled "1. X 1905," refering to a date (October 1st, 1905), when some worker was violently killed, and the piece is tribute to him. Its a very somber work, the two movements are titled "foreboding" and "death." The only other significant piece for piano by Janacek is "In the Mists (1912)," which has four movements. Again another depressing work - he wrote it during times of hardship loss, including the recent death of his daughter. The piece is as you might expect fomr the title - very impressionistic.


Dohnanyi (1877 - 1960)

Really the only reason we do Dohnanyi is because he taught at our very own Florida State University. He was Hungarian and studied at the Budapest (Liszt) Accademy, tought piano in Berlin, and eventually moved to the US, where he taught at FSU for 10 years. Other than that, there are really only a couple of contributions into the piano repetoire. The first big one is the 51 exersices, which are great! they are aimed at finger independence and most involve holding some keys with some fingers while lifeing and playing others. The only other significant work is the "Variatoins on a Nursery Song" for piano and orchestra. The piece is meant to be humerous and features lush, dramatic orchestral parts, followed by the pianist playing "twinkle twinlke little star."


Zoltan Kodaly (1882 - 1967)

He's really not that important in the big scheme of things. All that needs to be known of him is thta he was the Bartok apprentice, the Robin. I don't believe he wrote anything significant for the piano. I just discoverd that his first name is Zoltan, which is pretty awesome. Maybe that's why were mentionining him. He wrote a famous dissertation on Hungarian folk music at the Budapest Accademy.

Ives and Griffes

Charles Ives (1875 - 1954)

In my opinion one of the most interesting composers we've discussed in class. His life sounds very interesting. He was a very intelligent man - went to Yale, and was smart enough to realize that music business doesn't pay. He sold insurance, and earned a fortune along with the inheritance of his father, and so he composed in his spare time. This unusual pairing of "insurance salesman" and pianist/composer showed his the fullness of life. He was able to see the world from two different perspectives.
To add, from someone who writes music in their spare time - its pretty good! He is considered one of if not the best American composer to date.
His most famous work for piano is the "Concord" Sonata, which is broken down into 4 movements all named after famous transcendentalists Emerson, Hawthorne, Alcott, and Thoreau.


Charles Griffes (1884 - 1930)

Not as much to talk about with Griffes. He is one of the American impressionists, and his music is influenced by that of French impressionism. His music thus uses a number of exotic scales and what have you, for impressionistic means. He is considered the American equivalent to Debussy, but he is not nearly considered as successful as Debussy. His major works for piano included a Sonata and a tone poem. Not too much else to mention. He also wrote a few works for voice as well.

A few Germans

Arnold Schoenberg (1874 - 1951)

His name was originally spelled Schönberg (with the umlaut), but was respelled to what we here in America consider it to be the normal spelling. His music dramatically reshaped the way we look at and listen to what we consider "new" music today. His compossitional shift, which takes place in Op. 11 No. 3 is his move into expressionism. Music no longer had any kind of tonal center, and thematic material would not be repeated in any way, which completely abandoned formal structure as well. From here on, Schoenberg was called the "Emancipator of Dissonace," because dissonace no longer had conssonace. If it were not for connssonace, we would not have dissonace, everything would just sound the same. However, simply "unresolving" chords left and right, leads throws out any kind of "dissonance" -- it is what it is. No need to label it as somehting "dissonant." By doing so, Schoenberg also got rid of any kind of harmonic expectatoins, and his music was truely "free."

Anton Webern (1883 - 1945)

One of Schoenberg's famous pupils. Anton was most inspired by Schoenberg's Op. 11 and Op. 19 which were some of Schoenberg's first experiments in this "expressionist" style, and this is most certainly reflected in Webern's works. His "Piano Variations Op. 27" are, I must say difficult to listen to upon first listen. However, the notes aren't all completley random. Upon closser inspection, you can find palendromes and interesting little tricks thrown all about that you really have to look for, and are much more difficult to hear than they are to see. He was killed tragically by an American soldier at the end of WWII during a cerfew he stepped outside for a cigar and was shot.

Alban Berg (1885 - 1935)

Another student of Schoenberg, but slightly less famous. His only significan piece for the piano is the Sonata, Op. 1. The piece is more High Romantic than what we think of as 20th century music. The piece is full of emotion and what appers to be tragety, or desperation under oppression of some kind, with excessive use of rubato throughout (quite a Romantic trait). Berg's music isn't completely "A-tonal." There still remains in his music a sence of center.

The 3 Amigos

Tres Amigos


Isaac Albeniz (1860 - 1909)

Albeniz is almost the 20th century Spanish version of Mozart. Child prodigy, making 4 year old public appearances, toured all around America before he returned to Europe at 14. But it seems that Albeniz, like Mendelssohn, didn't improve a whole lot. However, in his defense - his compositions changed dramatically after his studies with Felipe Pedrell. He is our first Spanish nationalist composer, using exotic scales, dance rhythms, Guitar Idioms (a very Spanishish thing), and wrote in the style of Cante Hondo, which was a deeper kind of song style.

Enrique Granados (1867 - 1916)

Not too much to say about this guy. He was much less nationalistis than either Albeniz or Falla. He studied composition with Filipe Pedrell as well. His real only big work was his "Goyescas," which was a sort of opera called a Zarzuela. Its a light opera which alternates with spoken drama and sung - much like recitative would in earliler. His music in generally retains elements of Romanticism in the early 20th century, and his solo piano stuff sounds like it could have been written by a Spanish Liszt or something. (well may not Liszt - but you get this idea).

I just had to put up this pic I found of Granados from wikipedia. He looks too much like Pedro from Napolean Dynamite.

He was killed when he boat was torpedoed in the English Channel during WWI.


Manuel (de) Falla (1876 - 1946)

Yes he also studied with Filipe Pedrell.

Also famous for his Zarzuelas but also his ballets. His Fantasie Baetica, which was dedicated to Artur Rubenstein is his most famous piece for solo piano. His compositional style is certainly the most "modern" of the 3 Amigos, and is evident in the Fantasie. His other important work for piano includes orchestra and is treated as a concerto titled (k)Nights in the Gardens of Spain (1909 - 1916).

Trivia - Falla's characature used to be on the Spainish currency before the Euro was introduced to Spain - Somehting else I discovered from wikipedia.

Claudio d-Bus

Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918)

Debussy was an instrumental figure in the way we listen to music today. As one of the first "20th century" composers, he nearly began the musical impressionistic movement, following in the footsteps of the artistic movement already underway. His music is very evocative, aiming at soothing or playing with the senses and creating images in the mind through music. Debussy all but threw older harmonic stereotypes out the window. If Schoenberg was to be the "emancipator of dissonance" then one of the first steps was Debussy's emancipation of harmony. His harmonies are free, not following any set rules or progression. Although he does borrow some standards at times, they are mostly free and independent like none before him, and after. Debussy was famous for his ear. Not that is was larger than normal, but that he could listen very well and hear things like nore other. Perhaps this is why in his music, there is usually no rhythmic figuration proloning harmoies, rather Debussy uses silences, to enjoy the sounds being produced and to digest. Debussy loved to play with different scales and harmonic fun things, such as whole tone, octatonic, and pentatonic scales.

In his Preludes, each preludes has a programatic title, which appears at the end of the piece oddly enough. Debusys insisted that the title appear after the piece had been played, perhaps to bring about whatever one's own 'impression' was of the music, then compared to his at the ending. Quite interesting. His most famous is "Volies" (from book 1), which incorporates entires sections in whole tone and pentatonic.

The Images are beautiful, and are also the essence of impressionistic music. Each has a programatic title, which is the image Debussy aimed at painting in the music. As Debussy grew more and more impressionistic, so did his titles, growing more and more particular.

Rach and Scrable

Rachmaninoff

Probably one of my favorite characters out there, whom I regret to know quite little about. Has great music, has great playing, and overall he's a very interesting character. He went through depression after a terrible review of his first symphony which he worked very hard on. I thought it was quite interesting to learn that he never smiled in public. I had always wondered why he never looked cheerful in any of the photos I've seen of him. It was in order to maintain a certain level of professionalism. It's a little extreme actually. But I wonder - Was he like this before his depression and before he was on the brink of suicide, or was this always the case? On his music - He wrote 24 preludes, which seems to be the trend.. all of which are gorgeous. The preludes are split up between a few different operas. He also wrote several etudes, the Etudes-Tableaux which are meant to depict some kind of scene, are both beautiful at times, and others just dreadful to play. Many have absolutely ridiculous left hand parts, which only Rachmaninoff could play.

Scriabin

Here is a real character. Apparently Scriabin thought that he was the new messiah. He believed he was to write some huge work of music to be performed by hundreds of people, which was meant to bring about the coming of judgment day. This guy is absolutely awesome. He was raised only by women, and grew up an aspiring pianist, only to injure his right hand while playing Liszt's Don Juan. He had the condition (I forget what it's called), when one see colors in their head when they hear music, so he invented a kind of "color organ" with which he could share his craziness with the rest of us. Much of his large works feature colorful lighting. As for his music - It is also quite interesting. He first began, extremely Chopin-like - with beautiful melodies over a flowing, usually arpegiated left hand, but quickly moved away. He music changed dramatically once he entered his messianic phase. He music featured various use of the perfect intervals, 4th in particular, and he abandonded many "Western" principals in music, including funtional harmonies. Once he got into his late late later phases, he became very impressionistic. If you listen to very early Scriabin and compare it to late Scriabin, the difference will shock you.

Brahms

John Brahm in 4 words:

beard, chromaticism, exercises, Clara.

I'm Spent.

The Un-important people.

Frank (1822 - 1890)

Pretty much insignificant composer from Belgium. He does have a couple popular pieces however - the Prelude Choral and Fugue, Prelude Aria and Finale, and Prelude Fugue and Variations. Notice they all have preludes. Frank was an organist, and his music is significant organ influences, such as continued use of pedal points with lower octaves and counterpoint. He made great use of chromaticism, mostly through counterpoint - something he was quite good at. He had very interesting colorful harmonic doohickeys.

Gabriel Faure (1845 - 1924)

He had a rough life. No one ever liked his music, and even now, he music is noticeable, but still not very significant - a shame because it is very interesting music. Faure took weird stuff to a whole new realm, and I feel he was about 20 or 30 years ahead of his time. Faure's harmonies are just wayyy out there - most of the time being completely unfunctional, simply drifing from one place to another, usually connected by some sort of rythmic contour which fills sound within the piano. His music is quite impressionistic, and wasn't appreciated until late in his life. He wrote much more than Frank for the piano: 13 barcarolles, 5 impromptus, 13 nocturnes, and 8 brief pieces. There is also a widely appreciated Theme and Variations I believe.
My thoughts on Faure - I feel that he was very much ahead of his time. A memeber of the salon crew, it seems from my understanding that his music just didn't quite fit it. You compare his music to that of Chopin, Liszt, and any other salonist of the day and you'll find the music sounds nothing alike, Faure's music being much more distant. I think that had he been born about 30 years later, his music would be much more popular today.

Eddie Grieg (1843 - 1907)

Alright Norway!!! Representing with Grieg!
Great guy, great music, very Romantic in nature, with tons of folk elements in much of his music (especially the lyric pieces, but many in the Sonata as well, and even a few in the concerto!). I also find it interesting that his name is quite widely known, even though he also did not write very much for the piano. The most popular piece being the concerto, other than that, the sonata, the ballade, and a hell of a lot of lyric pieces. Most people havn't even played some of the lyric pieces, and yet they remain popular. Some are good, some not so much.

Folk elements - Grieg incorporated folk elements in almost all of his piano music, a sort of nationalistic trait of his. The lyric pieces are all "folky" in nature, as intended, but Grieg also manages to slip folk themes into the Sonata and Concerto as well. In the concerto, the opening theme in the piano, the falling half step, major third, then major third, minor third alternating is apparently a folk theme! Even the first theme is quite folky in nature. Percy Grainger - probably one of the only famous Australian pianists to the day, was praised by Grieg for playing his concerto with the most "Norwegian" quality, better than any Norwegian pianist could. Grieg coached Grainger with the concerto and a few rare recordings of Percey Grainger's piano rolls exists today. In the concerto, Grieg manages to incorporate folk elements, virtuosofy them, and make them flashy, so theres something everyone could love...

Fronzy Ponzy

Fronzy Ponzy was a bear
Fronzy Ponzy had long hair
Fronzy Ponzy had large cajones...



Franz Liszt was arguably the world's best pianist. In his younger life, he would practice technique for about 5 hours a day, something I really wish I had time for.. But anyway - extremely interesting character, full of great stories I wont rant on about here...

His Sonata is a very long work, and is very widely played, and every pianist wants to play it. This Sonata is different from Classical, and even most Romantic Sonatas in that it is technically only one movement long. There is no break for separate movements, however, it is a four movement sonata. The one big long work is divided up into 4 sections with a coda. There is a whole story about how it correlates with the Faustian story of temptation with the devil (Mephistopheles) and then the pure Gretchen comes along and fixes everything, yada yada.

The years of pilgrimage (Annees de Pelerinage) are divided into three books, each a different "tour" of some part of the world. The first is Switzerland, the second is Italy, and deals with Italian artwork, be it literary or artistic, and the third is an enocre tour of Italy, but deals with more random encounters, many of which religious in nature.

I must say I have only recently be aquianted with the Annees de Pilerinage, and I have grown to like them very much. This is very serious music for Liszt. Much of his music was flash trash panty droppers. So I think its great to see what the guy came up with when he really put his mind to it.

Chopin's Barcarolle and Second Piano Sonata

Barcarolle, Op. 60

Ok, just to get this out of the way - one of the only reasons the Barcarolle is famous is because of the double trills, lets face it. These are some of the only double trills Chopin ever wrote (I do believe there is a brief one or two in the Grand Polonaise, Op. 22), and they are certainly hard to play. I think it's kind of a shame, really. The Barcarolle is a wonderful piece, very beautiful, and I think it's kind of a shame that when we think of it, the first thing we think of are those damn double trills. I suppose there's no way of changing that, really..

Piano Sonata, No. 2 in B-flat Minor

Chopin's piano sonatas are wonderful. The second is probably the most popular, next to the third. The first sonata is the ugly child with warts who sits in the corner, watching all the other kids play..

Actually, the first sonata is Op. 4. which was before Chopin really began to develop as a composer and take off. I would imagine it is very Classical in nature, since he wrote that before he began exploring with different Romantic ideas, so its probably really boring, at least in comparison to his tons of other masterpieces. I bet Felix liked it.

The second sonata is wonderful, the first movement starts off with that famous D-flat octave leap downward to the E naturals - Strangely enough, this starts off as if it were one of the Ballades, on a single pitch with no clear harmonic implications, and not in tonic. Interesting. The first movement is notable for its truncated form. refer to Roberto's blog (http://rds06c.wordpress.com/) for a little insight on the formal innovations. The second movement (Scherzo) is kind of nice. Chopin does Chopin things within - such as the moving entire chords in parallel motion in one direction, yada yada. The third movement is famous - the funeral march. Everybody and their mom has heard it.. its in alot of cartoons.. Something else that I've discovered: I read somewhere that Chopin's second piano sonata is modeled after Beethoven's Sonata Op. 26. In both sonatas the second movement is a Scherzo, and the third a funeral march - actually sounding very much alike. Chopin adds an extremely Chopin-esqe middle section, with a gorgeous melody that simply breaks your heart. The biggest discrepancy between Beethoven and Chopin is I think is the last movement. Chopin just rambles out a bunch of notes, Presto, which fly by in under a minute. Its a little absurd, but I'm sure Chopin had his reasons. It is one of Chopin's more interesting attempts, but it comes across as really odd, even for a Romantic piece. Chopin probably figured since he knew the first three movements would be good enough to sell the sonata by themselves, he figured he could play around with something experimental in the last movement..

Chopin's 24 Preludes and .. oh wait, no fugues...

Preludes, Op. 28

The preludes are very nice, but not incredibly special.. They do have a key cycle, just like Bach's Preludes and Fugues, one being in every key. Really the only similarity they have with Bach's P's+F's are that they have a key cycle, that's about it - and the cycle isn't even the same. When Bach does the parallel way (C Maj, C min, etc..), Chopin does the relative way (C Maj, A min, etc..). Some are nice, some are not. The most famous being the "Raindrop" prelude, which is gorgeous. Some are long, some are short (the C minor is only a couple of lines). While some are one or two phrases, some could be much longer. I believe the longest the the Raindrop, which is more of a Nocturne than anything else, lasting several minutes. I'm spent.

Sexy Clara ...and Felix

Clara - wonderful gal.

She lived very much under the wing of her father, Friedrich Wieck - and grew up to be daddy's little pianist. She was very good, going on several tours of Europe, giving several performances, and doing the whole concert pianist thing, representing not only women, but the anti-Liszt brigade as well. If Liszt stood for everything oober flashy and over-the-top, Roberto and Clara stood for the opposite. Roberto being a member of the Davidsbundler, and founding the Die neue Zeitschrift für Musik, his magazine, which he would constantly call for less flash and pisazz, and more seriousness of Romantic music. Clara was the piano-playing version of Roberto, touring the world, essentially competting with Franz, but also repressenting the serious side of Romantic music (and performance of Romantic music)

Felix - silly guy.

In my opinion he repressents the melding of Classicalism and Romanticism. He was born a prodogy - at the same starting poing at Mozart, but would never develop nearly as much as Mozart, and never really evolved too much with the evolving Romantic stuff all around him. His music can very Romantic at times, but for the most part, sounds like Classical music on steroids. However, his Songs Without Words, all 8 books of them, do come across as being quite Romantic, and isn't it funny that that is what he is most remembered for?... It is worth noting that he was also a member of the Davidsbundler, and stood for many of the same things that Roberto did. yada yada yada - Felix was a cool cat.

It is also worth noting that my first cat's name was Felix, and every time I think of Felix Mendelssohn, I picture a huge fat fluffy black cat....

This was the closest I could find to a cat similar to Felix - I do think he was a little fatter though...

Schumann's Fantasy

Fantasy, Op. 17

This is my newly discovered favorite work by Schumann. This "Fantasy" is more of a Sonata than anything. It is in three movements, the middle be in a contrasting key, returning to the original key for the final movement.

The reason I have found such recent interest is after I discovered the story behind the music. Isn't that interesting - I was previously neutral towards this piece, and once I discovered the story behind it I was suddenly fascinated. (that's a good transfer). Anyway, here's the story. So Schumann wrote this while he was separated from Clara for a good deal of time, before they were married. Thought the piece there are a significant number of references to Beethoven. In fact, the piece was written for a Beethoven memorial statue celebration or something of the sort. Many of the Beethoven references are in relation to his Sonatas, which I can tell Schumann enjoyed. He writes very much at times along the lines of both the 'moonlight' sonata, as well as the last Beethoven sonata, Op. 111. Listening to the Fantasy is almost like listening to a Beethoven sonata - only one with crazy-strange dotted rhythms and syncopations all the time.. Schumann also quotes a beautiful song by Beethoven which is about distant lovers (how perfect). Throughout the piece, there are several 5-note themes which are either ascending or descending, which are references to Clara (there are 5 letters in the word CLARA), which usually occur whenever there is a beautiful spot in the music. Personally, I think it's very cool. To top it off, Schumann includes a very brief poem at the top of the score, translated is:

Among all the sounds
In the bright dream of earthly life
There is emitted a soft tone
For him who listens in secret.

How cool is that?! It's like secret-decoder pin -- Schumann Fantasy style!
It was Schumann's way of say: "look stupid, there's more to the music than you think if you look hard enough..."


but isn't that what all Romantic music is about? ...

Schumann's Piano Symphony

Etudes Symphoniques, Op. 13

Schumann's "Symphonic" Etudes are slightly confused. It seems like they cannot decide whether to be in variation form or etudes. Instead of deciding, Schumann just does both.. The Etudes are based on a theme, actually composed by the father of Ernestine von Fricken, the woman Schumann was engaged to, origionally for flute. The Etudes are more of character variations than etudes at times, but alternate with etudes like writing, for one or more technical difficulty exploited throughout the variation. Schumann labels them all variations, with finale.

Schumann's Etudes are very different than those of say Chopin or Liszt. Schumann's etudes usually explore some kind of Rhythmic oddity, much of the time underneath or over top of a lyrical melody, sometimes not, much of which is in thick texture and fat writing. Schumann's "etudes" don't have any kind of virtuosic scalar passages or flashiness to them at all. Schumann was firmly against the flashiness of other Romantic composers such as Liszt and Wagner.

The Symphonic Etudes were not meant to be played with orchestra or anything ridiculous. One can argue however, with Schumann's thick texture-style of wrting, that they could appear 'symphonic' in that sense. Or, labeling them "Symphonic" etudes is just a big fat label of attention..

Schumann's Portraits

Carnaval, Op. 9

Perhaps Schumann's most celebrated work, his Carnaval op. 9, appears to me as an expansion of his Papillons and earlier character pieces. Schumann takes the idea of building a short piece around a character or specific scene or mood, and applies it to real persons as well as ficticious ones.

Carnaval is much longer than Papillons, being 21 short pieces, Papillons only having 12. This time around, Schumann gives each of his pieces a title. Many of the titles are characters, some imaginary, some real, while others are kinds of dances, or some scene or setting. Once again, Schumann uses the ballroom scene in Jean Paul's Flegeljahre, however, this time is appears to be from a different perspective. Schumann no longer entirely follows the story of Walt and Vult, but each piece appears to be a different character attending the ball. Schumann uses several fictional characters, such as his famous Eusebious and Florestan, but also other made up characters such as Pierrot, the sad clown, and Arlequin, the lively jester. Schumann uses real characters as well, such as his immitations of both Chopin and Paganini. He also depicts Clara in his "Chiarina", and Ernestine von Fricken in "Estrella."

Schumann ties all of the very large work together with four notes: A-flat, E-flat, C, and B. Schumann randomly offers these notes as "Sphinxes" in one movement, but generally begins nearly all of the pieces with these four notes in different combination, even thought the pieces appear in different keys. In-fact, Schumann titles the entire work "Carnaval (Scènes mignonnes sur quatre notes)" or "Small Scenes on Four Notes."

Throughout the work, Schumann does a number of notable Schumannesqe things, such as his obsurring of the beat. Schumann loved to play around with time, including several hemiloas, and melodies that lie almost entirely on upbeats and syncopations. Schumann also experimented with other rhythmic oddities, such as in Eusebius, he divides measures in 7's, half measues into 5's and 3's, while keeping the accompaniment in duple almost all the way throughout, something that hadn't been too explored yet in Romantic music, all of which was aimed at making the music sound un-measured and free.

And of course, Schumann reuses themes from Papillons in Carnaval, such as the main theme from the first piece in Papillons in "Florestan" of Carnaval. He also uses the "Grandfathers Dance" which appeared as the finale in Papillons, and uses it in "Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistins," the last piece in Carnaval, as well as a number of snippets of previous pieces in Carnaval, to sum up the work and tie everything together.

Schumann's Butterflies

Papillons, Op. 2

Robert Schumann's Papillons, or "Butterflies" depicts a masquerade ballroom scene in Jean Paul Richter's novel Flegeljahre. All of the music directly relates to the text of the novel, and Schumann has done such a brilliant job of painting several pictures of the ballroom scene.

This particular scene in Jean Paul's novel follow the events of two brothers - Walt and Vult, as they hunt for dancing partners at the ballroom throughout the night. All of the 12 short "pieces" that make up Papillons are in triple meter, with the exception of No. 2 and a brief section of the Finale, obviously emphasizing, and maintaining the ballroom dance feel throughout the entire composition. The story mostly follows Walt's account of the evening, his search for Wina, and arguing and dealing with his brother Vult. Schumann beautifully sets the entire thing to music, depicting all kinds of emotions, scenes, characters, boots (randomly), and events that take place throughout the course of the night.

The entire work is quite remarkable, and it's no wonder why this work is such a favorite. I can really appreciate how Schumann can maintain the triple meter throughout while still providing enough interest to keep the whole thing from getting boring, whilst following the plot down to the detail. Wonderful.

It is important to note that Schumann uses several important themes here, which he reuses in his other works (Carnaval, op. 9) including the famous "Grandfather's Dance," which is based on a German folk song, which serves here as the Finale of Papillons. The other theme Schumann will reuse is the theme from No. 1, which in the finale overlaps with the "Grandfather's Dance" quite nicely. Schumann revisits both of these themes in the next work I will discuss - Carnaval Op. 9.