Solo Keyboard

Bach’s Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist BWV 671: Monumental Treatment of an Ancient Melody

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In 1525, Martin Luther wrote his Kyrie, adapting an ancient Gregorian chant melody set in the Phrygian mode. It consists of three parts, moving from God the Father, to God the Son, and concluding with the Holy Spirit. J.S. Bach composed three organ preludes (Clavier-Übung III) based on the sections of Luther’s Kyrie. Beginning in the treble register, each descends, as if to evoke the religious symbolism of Christ’s descent. In the final …

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Ravel’s “Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn”: An Homage in Code

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In 1909, the Revue musicale mensuelle de la Société Internationale de Musique commissioned six French composers to write pieces in commemoration of the centenary of the death of Franz Joseph Haydn. Ravel’s 54-bar-long minuet is built on a five-note motif outlining Haydn’s name. The French system for musical cryptograms involves the entire alphabet, with H-N, O-U, and V-Z in lines under the original diatonic notes A-G. In Ravel’s score, H is represented by B natural, A and …

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Tchaikovsky’s “Autumn Song” (October) from “The Seasons”: Olga Scheps

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In 1876, while completing the ballet score for Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky composed The Seasons, a series of atmospheric tone paintings for solo piano. Commissioned by the publisher, Nikolay Bernard, the brief pieces were published on the first day of each month in the St. Petersburg music journal, Nuvellist.  Set in D minor, Tchaikovsky’s October submission, Autumn Song, is quiet and melancholy. It accompanies a poem by Tolstoy which describes yellow windswept leaves. The interpretive marking is …

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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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“Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit”: György Kurtág’s Sublime Transcription of Bach

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In an interview, the Hungarian composer György Kurtág (b. 1926) was asked if he is a believer. His answer was uncertain: I do not know. I toy with the idea. Consciously, I am certainly an atheist, but I do not say it out loud, because if I look at Bach, I cannot be an atheist. Then I have to accept the way he believed. His music never stops praying. And how can …

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Remembering Rodion Shchedrin

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Rodion Shchedrin, the celebrated Russian composer and pianist, passed away on August 29 in Munich, Germany. He was 92. Reflecting a colorful blend of influences from the archaic to the avant-garde to Russian folklore, Shchedrin’s works include the ballets Carmen Suite (1967) and Anna Karenina (1971), the opera Lolita (1993), three symphonies, and five concertos for orchestra. Shchedrin created many of his ballets for his wife of 57 years, prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya. …

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John Cage’s “In a Landscape”: An Homage to Satie

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4’33” remains the most famous work of the American composer and theorist, John Cage (1912-1992). The experimental piece, composed in 1952 for any combination of instruments, requires performers to sit onstage and not play their instruments. The ambient sounds of the room take over and form the freest kind of chance music. Our ears become attuned to an ever-present sonic counterpoint. Total silence is a fallacy. One of Cage’s greatest influences was …

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