Tchaikovsky’s “The Seasons”: March, Song of the Lark

by

In the 19th century, writers such as Charles Dickens commonly published books in monthly installments which appeared in popular periodicals. Published on the first day of each month in 1876 in the St. Petersburg music journal, Nuvellist, Tchaikovsky’s piano cycle, The Seasons, Op. 37a reached listeners in a similar way. Subtitled “12 characteristic scenes,” the atmospheric works are miniature tone paintings. Tchaikovsky composed them concurrently with the ballet, Swan Lake. In this era before recordings, …

Read more

Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending”: A Communion with Nature

by

Begun in 1914 on the eve of the First World War and completed in 1920, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending is a shimmering, impressionistic ode to the serene English countryside. Gently rising ever higher, the solo violin depicts the courting flight of the skylark, which glides over the green hedgerow-stitched landscape during spring and early summer. Wordsworth described the bird as the “ethereal minstrel.” Filled with a sense of nostalgia and lament, …

Read more

Antonio Bertali’s Chaconne: Fiddling Around in a Baroque Jam Session

by

The Italian Baroque composer and violinist Antonio Bertali (1605-1669)  is now little more than a footnote in music history. But during his lifetime, Bertali was a celebrated virtuoso and composer of operas, oratorios, liturgical works, and chamber music. Half of his output has been lost. Born in Verona, Bertali migrated north to Vienna where he was employed by the court of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II. He is credited with establishing the …

Read more

Brahms’ Variations on a Theme of Paganini: Musical Athleticism

by

Niccolò Paganini’s 24th Caprice for solo violin has provided an irresistible blueprint for numerous composers. Most famously, its jaunty, infectious melody inspired the 24 variations of Sergei Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43. Nearly seventy years before Rachmaninov, in 1863, Johannes Brahms composed his own Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 35. The work is organized in two books, each made up of fourteen blazingly athletic variations, and …

Read more

Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini: Virtuosity with a Twinkle in the Eye

by

As a musical form, the “theme and variations” is pure fun. For the composer and performer, it can represent the ultimate display of cleverness—as if to say, “listen to what I can do!” We can imagine Mozart, Beethoven, or Schubert showing off at a party with a series of increasingly intricate keyboard variations on a given theme. Sergei Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43 is filled with this kind …

Read more

Janáček’s “Mládi” (Suite for Wind Sextet): A Memory of Youth

by

Czech composer Leoš Janáček had just turned 70 when, in July of 1924, he composed the wind sextet, Mládi, JW 7/10 (“Youth”). In a letter to Kamila Stösslová, Janáček described the work as “a kind of memory of youth.” The four movement suite formed a musical reminiscence of his student days at the Augustinian monastery of St Thomas in the old Moravian city of Brno. For Janáček, these formative years were marked …

Read more

Theodore Shapiro’s “Severance” Theme: Haunting and Hypnotic

by

In a recent post at his Youtube channel, Everything Music, Rick Beato analyzes the title theme from the hit television series, Severance, composed by Theodore Shapiro. Built on modal harmony, the theme is at once haunting, hypnotic, satisfying, and unsettling. Developing from a small fragment, its tension-filled melodic line is filled with wrenching, exotic intervals. Shapiro drew subtle inspiration from David Shire’s theme for the 1974 film noir thriller, The Conversation, which similarly features …

Read more