Twentieth Century

Hindemith’s “Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber”: Music of Transformation

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The word “metamorphosis” signifies a transformation from an embryonic state to maturity. Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber by Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) employs this process. The four-movement orchestral work, completed in 1943, is based on obscure music by Weber, an innovative opera composer who is credited with expanding the size and dramatic scope of the orchestra at the dawn of the Romantic period. The themes, almost completely preserved, are drawn …

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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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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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Stephan Koncz’ “A New Satiesfaction” (Gymnopédie No. 1): A Melancholic Musette After Satie

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With their sense of serene detachment, hypnotic repeating rhythms, and harmonic stasis, Erik Satie’s Trois Gymnopédies opened the door to a dreamy new world, previously unimagined. Composed in 1888, the brief, atmospheric solo piano works anticipated ambient and experimental music of the late 20th century. The composer and theorist, John Cage, declared Satie’s innovations to be “indispensable.” The iconic Gymnopédies have influenced numerous works, from Stephen Sondheim songs such as Barcelona, to Janet Jackson’s 2001 …

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