Brahms’ Serenade No. 2 in A Major: A Pathway to the Symphony

by

As a musical form, the serenade implies light, entertaining music of the evening, set in a loose collection of movements which resembles a divertimento. The two youthful Serenades which Johannes Brahms wrote in his early twenties conform to this description. Yet they can also be heard as trial runs on the path to a symphony. It was Robert Schumann who heard “veiled symphonies” in Brahms’ early piano music, and who anticipated that …

Read more

Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in B-flat Minor, BWV 891: Stratospheric Stretto

by

Epic is a word that could describe Bach’s Prelude and Fugue No. 22 in B-flat Minor, BWV 891. The companion pieces come near the end of Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier, the manuscript of which is dated between 1739 and 1742 in the final years of the composer’s life. From the Prelude’s opening bars, a dense contrapuntal conversation unfolds. At moments, the imitative voices resemble a fugue. The real fugue arrives with …

Read more

Paul Creston’s Second Symphony: A Celebration of Song and Dance

by

The Second Symphony of American composer, Paul Creston (1906-1985), celebrates the fundamental musical building blocks of melody and rhythm. These elements are expressed in the Symphony’s two movements, “Introduction and Song,” and “Interlude and Dance.” Through a process of thematic transformation, the theme which opens the Symphony is developed adventurously throughout. This theme first appears as a wandering shadowy single line in the low strings. The violas enter in fugal counterpoint, soon …

Read more

Barber’s “Summer Music” for Wind Quintet: A Soundtrack for Languid Days

by

With the title, Summer Music, Samuel Barber did not have anything specifically programmatic in mind. Instead, the single movement piece for wind quintet conveys a general atmosphere. Barber said, “It’s supposed to be evocative of summer—summer meaning languid, not killing mosquitoes.” Indeed, the lazy opening moments of Summer Music are enveloped in haze and humidity. Fleeting blues strains combine with primal echoes of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. As the piece continues, the musical conversation among …

Read more

Paul Creston’s Dance Overture: Celebratory Variations

by

The music of the American composer, Paul Creston (1906-1985), is filled with sunny harmonies, lush tonal colors, and rhythmic vitality. Creston was born in New York City to Sicilian immigrant parents. Baptized Giuseppe Guttoveggio, he changed his name, selecting “Creston” after a character he played in a high school drama. As a composer, he was entirely self-taught. Through the study of scores, he considered his teachers to be Bach, Scarlatti, Chopin, Debussy, and …

Read more

James MacMillan’s Larghetto for Orchestra: Chorale and Plainchant

by

In his “constant, restless search for new avenues of expression,” the eminent Scottish composer, Sir James MacMillan (b. 1959), embraces tradition. MacMillan, whose catalogue includes five symphonies, six operas, a handful of concerti, and numerous sacred choral works, cites Scottish folk music and “the timeless truths of Roman Catholicism” among his influences. His Larghetto for Orchestra transforms the orchestra into a series of choirs, with echoes of ancient plainchant and contemplative liturgical …

Read more

Stephen Hough Plays Richard Rodgers: “March of the Siamese Children”

by

During his seventeen year partnership with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers did more than write memorable tunes. The team of Rodgers and Hammerstein was concerned with a new, more sophisticated kind of American theater in which music furthered the plot and revealed the character and setting. For weeks, before any writing took place, they would immerse themselves in the dramatic details of the play. Often, their works explored settings which Broadway …

Read more