Sibelius’ “Valse triste”: A Fleeting Dream-Vision

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Described in an early review as “evocative of a fleeting dream-vision,” Jean Sibelius’ Valse triste (“Sad Waltz”), Op. 44 was originally conceived as incidental music. It accompanied a haunting scene from the 1903 Symbolist play, Kuolema (“Death”), by the composer’s brother-in-law, Arvid Järnefelt. A program note from the original production offers the following description: It is night. The son, who has been watching beside the bedside of his sick mother, has fallen asleep from sheer …

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Arvo Pärt’s “Solfeggio”: Adventures with a Diatonic Tone Row

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What happens when you treat the simple C major scale as a diatonic tone row? The answer can be heard in Solfeggio, the first a cappella choral work of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (b. 1935). Composed in 1963, the same year as Pärt’s Symphony No. 1, Op. 9, “Polyphonic,” Solfeggio anticipates the composer’s later meditative tintinnabuli style. Solfeggio unfolds with a sense of cosmic timelessness. Serene clusters of sound form and dissipate as each vocal …

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Arvo Pärt’s Symphony No. 1, “Polyphonic”: An Exuberant Exploration of Counterpoint

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There is an adage that composers, as they age, write music of increasing contrapuntal complexity. The phenomenon can be heard in the music of Mahler and John Adams, but Estonian minimalist Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) followed a decidedly different path. In his youth, Pärt embraced the prevailing modernism, and the 12-tone system of Arnold Schoenberg, in which the twelve notes of the chromatic scale are treated equally so as to negate the …

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Glazunov’s “The Seasons” (Autumn): A Bacchanale Amid Falling Leaves

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Alexander Glazunov’s allegorical one-act ballet, The Seasons, Op. 67, depicts nature’s cycle of death and rebirth. The deep frigid sleep of winter gives way to the blossoms of youth and sunshine. The ballet concludes with the abundance of autumn. It is a vibrant and celebratory bacchanale amid falling leaves. A student of Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov (1865–1936) was a Romanticist who painted with shimmering tonal colors. His symphonic ballet scores continued in …

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Brahms’ Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118, No. 2: Emanuel Ax

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Completed in 1893, the Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 118 were among Johannes Brahms’ final works. They drift into a world of dreamy introspection and wistful nostalgia. The lengthening shadows of autumn are at hand. Brahms dedicated the collection to Clara Schumann. Op. 118, No. 2, the Intermezzo in A Major, is at once majestic, melancholy, and longing. Marked Andante teneramente (“tenderly”), it has been described as a cradle song. Developing from …

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Bizet’s “Carmen”: Three Celebrated Excerpts

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Filled with infectious melodies and sultry exoticism, Georges Bizet’s 1875 Carmen is one of the most popular and performed operas. Set in Seville, Spain, it tells the tragic story of a free-spirited Romani woman (Carmen) who seduces the soldier, Don José. He leaves his fiancée and deserts the army to be with her, but Carmen soon grows tired of his obsessive love. Carmen leaves Don José for the bullfighter, Escamillo. In the final …

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Schumann’s Konzertstück for Four Horns: A Novel Showcase for an Instrument Reborn

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In the early 19th century, valves began to appear on horns. It was an innovation which expanded the instrument’s virtuosic possibilities. Previously limited to a series of pitches based on the harmonic series, the horn could now glide up and down the chromatic scale. Robert Schumann took notice and was eager to exploit the new technology. He described his Konzertstück (“concert piece”) for Four Horns in F Major, Op. 86 as “something …

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