Edouard Lalo - Symphonie Espagnole

Edouard Lalo
1823 - 1892

Edouard Lalo (full name: Edouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo) was a French composer. My favourite of his works is the Symphonie Espagnole written for violin - and - I'm not the only one. Lalo's Spanish Symphony remains today to be a key work in any serious violinist's repertoire, and is even known simply as 'The Lalo'. His musical style is known for its powerful melodies and equally as powerful orchestrations.

Edouard Lalo's 'Symphonie Espagnole' was written in 1874 for violinist Pablo de Saraste. Although the piece is called a symphony, musicians today consider the work to be more of a violin concerto. I came across this piece when I was taking my grade 8 violin, as the fourth movement - andante - was on the list of recommended pieces. In the opening of the piece, we hear fragments of ideas from the violin melody throughout the orchestra in a much grander style. Similar to the piece, the orchestra in the introduction goes from minor to major, and back to minor again. Despite it's forceful and aggressive opening, the orchestra then diminuendos for the entrance of the violin - which is extremely delicate in comparison. However, from listening to this, one might assume the violin to be a gentle role in the movement. This is completely wrong, as the range of emotions that the instrument travels through in the music is enormous.

The recording of the fourth movement by violinist Maxim Vengerov is by far the best, as his playing sounds absolutely effortless and yet extremely precise - especially considering that all four movements are devilishly difficult. The technical difficulties in the piece are frequent, as the player has to conquer the huge intervals in the melody, endless trills, turns and other decorative techniques - as well as using the solo line to direct the orchestra. For this recording, I am completely in awe of both composer and performer - as both of their styles together create a crucial recording for all classical music lovers' collections. 

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John Tavener

John Tavener
Born 1944

As a young man, Tavener was described by many as a musical prodigy. Born and educated in London (with John Rutter as one of his peers) he then went on to study at the Royal College of Music - like all true london musicians. John Tavener is now one of the lucky few to be considered by many as one of the best contemporary Classical composers. A profoundly religious man, Tavener's music is heavily influenced by medieval music. Despite the fact his music is often considered to be quite conservative - I actually find the accessibility of his music to be one of the most appealing features of his compositional style. To persuade any critics further, Tavener has been knighted for his services to music, and has also won the Ivor Novello award.

The Lamb
One of his best pieces is perhaps his christmas carol: 'The Lamb'. This piece - although considered difficult to listen to - is one of the best pieces of contemporary classical music to use to educate anybody about the different compositional techniques used by contemporary composers, such as inversion, augmentation, diminution and retrograde. The piece is made up of a single phrase, that is transformed throughout the piece in every way possible, e.g. singing it in unison, in retrograde, in harmony etc. When the phrase is inverted, it creates a sound that is quite unnatural for the ear. However, like a lot of Tavener's music, this technique creates an eerie and beautiful atmosphere that distinguishes his music from other contemporary choral pieces.

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Song for Athene
Tavener's most well-known piece is his 'Song for Athene'. Composed for the Westminster Cathedral Choir, the piece was sung at the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997 as her cortege departed from Westminster Abbey. This was indeed appropriate, as the piece was intended as an elegy. The inspiration for the music came from Tavener's description of Athene: "Her beauty, both outward and inner was reflected in her love acting, poetry, music and of the Orthodox Church". Similar to The Lamb, the piece is based around a repeated phrase sung by the tenors, as well as using similar techniques such as inversion. Although the piece is a little repetitive, the intentions of the composer bring a new level to the music. Moreover, its use in the funeral of Princess Diana will forever mark this short choral work as tragically beautiful.

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Hymn to the Mother of God

I first came across this piece on a choral course, and was pleasantly surprised by the religious tone that it created even when we were simply rehearsing it. Not only is the first chord haunting - but Tavener structures this piece by using a double choir effect with one choir singing a few beats after the first. By doing this, the second choir creates a sort of echo that emphasises the religious nature of the work. What I particularly like about this piece, is that Tavener includes unrelated modulations between the ends and the beginnings of phrases. For instance, at 1:25, we can clearly hear some sort of imperfect cadence. This is then followed by a silence, and then jumps straight back into the first chord of the piece. Although - like most of his pieces - Hymn to the Mother of God is very short, the message is simple - and it is the elaborate decoration of clashing harmonies that make it so meaningful. 

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Swan Lake - Tchaikovsky

Although I've already written a post about one of Tchaikovsky's ballets, (Tchaikovsky's 'The Nutcracker') I love the music of Swan Lake so much that I thought I would make a post about it anyway. A couple of years ago, the public were blown away by Darren Aronofsky's dark ballet film: 'Black Swan'. Having heard endless hype about the film from friends and critics, I went to go and see it. I was confident that I would enjoy the movie, as I love Natalie Portman, and I love the music of Pyotr Tchaikovsky - what could possibly go wrong? Not only did I find that the film was poorly acted and frequently (although unintentionally) comical, but there were numerous plot holes and bonkers scenes throughout. Unfortunately - for me, 'Black Swan' murdered the music of Swan Lake by playing the same music cues again and again - almost as much as we had to watch Natalie Portman attempt her endless pirouettes.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
1840 - 1893

Moving away from the film, Tchaikovsky's music for the ballet 'Swan Lake' is some of the most beautiful and recognised Classical music in the world. The music for the ballet was composed between 1875 and 1876. The story was pieced together from various Russian folk-tales, and tells the story of Odette - a princess turned into a swan by an evil curse. Although there was some controversy over the composer of the original ballet, Tchaikovsky proved that he had written the first, named: 'The Lake of the Swans', that contained various themes found in the ballet. Although Tchaikovsky is usually the first name a person gives when asked to name a composer of ballets, at the time, ballets were only commissioned to composers considered to be ballet writing 'specialists'. Aspiring to be one of them, Tchaikovsky studied the works of other specialists. This enthusiasm stuck with him, and is clear from his eagerness to write the score for 'Swan Lake' (a score that only took him one year). Now, Tchaikovsky is the best of all the ballet composers that ever lived.

My favourite of all the musical extracts from the ballet is the main theme, played by an Oboe, accompanied by the rest of the orchestra. Although Tchaikovsky starts the solo with a rather tender and restrained tone, the opening tremolando in the strings suggests that something much darker is on the horizon, and predicts the theme to be taken over by the brass. When the theme finally reaches the strings, the melody becomes slightly more tragic and romantic, leading up to the climax of the piece at 2:32. This extract really does tell the story of the cursed princess, and - although tragically abused by the makers of 'Black Swan', it is still just as beautiful every time I hear it.

The Blue Bird - Charles Stanford

Charles Villiers Stanford
1852 - 1924

Charles Stanford was an Irish composer, teacher and conductor. Not only did Stanford study at the University of Cambridge, he also studied music abroad in Berlin. As a teacher, he was one of the founding members of London's Royal College of Music - and taught composition there for the rest of his life. Many of his pupils became great composers as well, including Gustav Holst (Planets Blogpost) and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Although he wrote a lot of operatic works, Stanford is known for his choral music, and is often linked with British composer Hubert Parry (Parry Blogpost).

I first started to get to know the compositional style of Stanford in my secondary school choir, when we started learning his Magnificat in G. The Magnificat is mainly a treble solo (often sung by a very red-faced and out of breath 11 year old boy), accompanied by a full choir beneath. This is a good example of the kind of choral music that Stanford wrote for church. In particular, the harmonies and choral textures (frequently homophonic) demonstrate the kind of writing style that became comfortable for Stanford.

The piece that I wanted to post about is in fact very different to the grand, Parry-esque style of Stanford's Magnificat in G. Like all a capella pieces, Charles Stanford's 'The Blue Bird' is extremely difficult to hold in tune, and to balance the dynamics between each of the parts. However, when sung properly - it is one of the most beautiful yet simple choral pieces I have ever come across. One similarity to the Magnificat is the way the piece is structured with the sopranos carrying a sort of solo line, whilst the rest of the choir moves mostly together and as an accompaniment. I always find that the harmonies in this piece are extremely cathartic, and are a perfect representation of the words. The words are taken from a poem written by British poet: Mary Coleridge.

For me, the most striking thing about the piece is the way Stanford writes the soprano part; with occasional notes after the choral phrases simply to enhance the effect of the chords, then following this with a soprano melody that develops the choral accompaniment into so much more. Although repetitive, the serenity of the music is guaranteed to wash away any stress that I may have, and the ambiguous cadence at the end of the piece always leads me to imagine that the listener has fallen asleep,  and therefore needs no fancy cadence to signify the end of the piece.

The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba...

This week when I was sitting at my desk thinking about possible pieces or composers for a post - my thoughts were interrupted by the inevitable and unstoppable sound of my mother's ringtone - a synthesised version of Handel's 'Arrival of the Queen of Sheba'. When my mother asked me to see if I could figure out how to stop the constant noise of her voicemail service trying to contact her every two minutes, I found that there is no option to turn it off. Although irritating, I suppose it is better than the four of five blackberry and iphone ringtones that everyone has. I then realised that maybe I was being sent a message (no pun intended) to write a blogpost about the piece.

George Frideric Handel
(1685 - 1759)

Although not one of my favourite composers, I admire the works of Handel as I find his music to be precise and delicate - unlike the overwhelming sound of other, later composers. However, I find most of Handel's most popular works to be overplayed. In particular - his Messiah. This is irritating to me, as I absolutely love Handel's Messiah and definitely rate it as one of the greatest classical works of all time.

The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba comes from an oratorio called 'Solomon' - a libretto based on the biblical stories of King Solomon. This movement is by far the most famous, and rightly so - as it is instantly uplifting, joyful and regal - always a crowd pleaser. The most amusing passages are perhaps the miniature conversations between strings and wind that encourage and develop the original theme. Despite constant repetition and trills in a lot of the passages, with little variation in the music in terms of the dynamics and instrumental range - it is instead the melodies and harmonies that drive the piece in several different directions. In conclusion, this piece is playful, delicate and unforgettable. The synthesised ringtone however, could drive anyone bonkers.

The Stars of Classical Music

In terms of Classical music, it is interesting to think about who recieves (and who should recieve) the praise for a performance, CD, arrangement and so on and so on. As a composer, my view is biased - as I believe the composer should be the one to gain the majority of the credit for a piece, even being performed by somebody else. My logic behind this is that there are only a handful of Mozarts, Beethovens, Korngolds and Stravinskys - however, there are millions of very talented professional musicians all over the planet. Despite this, there is extraordinary musical talent out there at the moment - and, I thought it was only fair to make a post about the performers rather than the composers this week.

Representing the pianists of the world is Chinese concert pianist: Lang Lang. Lang Lang - meaning: 'brilliance of the sky' - first came across western music whilst watching an episode of Tom & Jerry which features a rhapsody by Franz Liszt. From then on, he took up piano lessons and quickly made his way through some of the most prestigious music establishments in the world. The first time I saw Lang Lang perform was at The Albert Hall. Performing Beethoven, he had an incredible attention to detail and phrasing, and gave a truly dramatic performance that kept the entire hall silent (until the rupture of applause of course). However, Lang Lang is not only a brilliant pianist. He has received numerous awards for his work with charities and foundations in China, as well as being listed by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influencial People in the World.

I recommend: Piano Concerto No. 1 - Frederic Chopin

For the singers, I chose my favorite male voice: Ian Bostridge. Bostridge is well-known for his performances as both an opera singer and song recitalist. A lot of Bostridge's repertoire is focused on English vocal music. My favorite of all his albums is 'The English Songbook' - a collection of some of the most lovely English vocal pieces such as 'Linden Lea', 'Silent Noon' and 'Cradle Song'. Having alreay mentioned one of his recordings in an earlier post, I refer you to 'Ivor Gurney - Sleep'. Surprisingly, Bostridge originally intended to go into theoretical physics. However, after a few years of experience in the field, he decided to turn to the modern history (which he studied at Oxford and Cambridge). Eventually, Bostridge became a professional singer, and went on to become one of the most famous contemporary male voices.

I recommend: Silent Noon - Ralph Vaughan Williams

To represent the women, I chose Nicola Benedetti - a Scottish Classical violinist. Benedetti was first properly discovered by the public when she won the Young Musician of the Year Award in 2004 at the age of 16. From this, she was offered a recording contract worth £1million, and went on to perform at various prestigious engagements around the world. Now with six albums altogether, Benedetti has just brought out her most recent: 'The Silver Violin', which features many classics from the violin repertoire such as John Williams' 'Schindler's List' and Erich Korngold's violin solo from his opera 'Die Tote Stadt'. Some criticise the album to be a rather unimaginative line-up of music. However, I disagree as I believe her to have already proved her capabilities of playing some of the hardest music in the violin repertoire in her previous albums.

I recommend: Die Tote Stadt : Tanzlied des Pierrot - Erich Korngold

Finally, I chose Gareth Malone to represent the young generation of choirmasters and broadcasters. Malone describes himself as a "presenter and populariser of choral singing". Malone first started to attract attention with his first programme: 'The Choir' which encouraged those who had had no previous musical training to sing together in a choir. However, Malone is most famous for his other tv programme: 'The Choir: Military Wives' in which he brought together a group of military wives to create a song for them to sing about their husbands. The song itself was written by established composer Paul Mealor, however the praise was given to Malone, along with the brave wives who with no musical experience, created a heart-warming performance that was difficult not to like.

I recommend: Wherever You Are - Paul Mealor

Many criticise those who have gone through the Classical music industry and come out famous and successful businessmen and women, as they believe them to have sold themselves out for the commercial spotlight. To me, this is absolutely ridiculous, as making Classical music commercial is a key factor in trying to make Classical music more appealing and more accessible to the rest of the public. Just because they've had a few classy photo-shoots and interviews to promote their work, it doesn't mean we should diminish the fact that these are hard-working musicians who wish to share their talents with the world.