Piano Quintet Research Articles

Kaleidoscopic Topics in the Music of György Ligeti and Thomas Adès

This article applies the concept of isotopy to music to trace the dynamic appearances and interactions of topics in three works by György Ligeti and Thomas Adès. In contrast to previous applications of isotopy to music, the model I propose here is explicitly topic-centered, leading me to a complementary reconfiguring of Johanna Frymoyer’s hierarchy of topical characteristics. My theoretical adaptions are motivated by the observations that: (1) a topic’s identity is often unclear (".fn_cite($Frymoyer_2017).", ".fn_cite($SanchezKisielewska_2023)."), an ambiguity which can be exploited compositionally; (2) the same topic can recur at different degrees of clarity in a single work, leading the listener to draw out a larger structural role for the topic (isotopy) in lieu of clear formal processes in other parameters in this repertoire (harmony, rhythm, etc.); and (3) if multiple topics are engaged, they can relate to one another in formally significant ways. Using the Chorale topic as a case study, I first demonstrate a simple closed isotopy in the second movement of Ligeti’s Violin Concerto, followed by open isotopies of the Chorale and Sound Mass topics in Ligeti’s Hamburg Concerto. Finally, in applying this approach to Thomas Adès’s Piano Quintet I demonstrate how an isotopic analysis can work in dialogue with the familiar trajectory of sonata form. This approach aims to draw out semantic aspects of Ligeti’s and Adès’s highly referential style, which is representative of late-twentieth century, semantically dense, post-collage compositions, filled with familiar topics shifting in and out of focus kaleidoscopically.

“Nuit Persane” by C. Saint-Saëns: Oriental Story from a Frenchman

“Nuit Persane” by C. Saint-Saëns: Oriental Story from a Frenchman

Музыкальное искусство России начала ХХ века: Диссонансы

Over an extended period spanning more than four decades (from the late 1880s to the early 1930s), a transition from the Classical era to Modern took place. This essay examines distinct shifts in the interaction between classical and modern styles within the specific historical contexts of the late classical era (as the culmination of the classical evolution) and the early modern era (as the emergence of Modern), focusing on a range of 1910s musical works: Alexander Taneyev’s Piano Quintet, the ballets “The Firebird” and “Petrushka” by Igor Stravinsky, Nikolai Myaskovsky’s Symphony No. 5, and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s cantata “The Bells”. Additionally, attention is given to the development of this issue in the 1920s: including the ballets “Flames of Paris” by Boris Asafiev, “Carmagnola” by Vladimir Femelidi, “The Red Poppy” by Reinhold Glière, “Pulcinella” by Igor Stravinsky, and N. Myaskovsky’s Symphony No. 6, where the confrontation between the old and the new world reached its peak. In conclusion, it is argued that the stark divergence into two contrasting types of worldviews inherent in the old and the new world was aimed at a sharp reorientation of values, leading to a fundamental transformation across all aspects of existence.

10.36871/hon.202402137

This article is devoted to the musical style of Yuri Kasparov (b. 1955), Russian composer and music teacher, Professor at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, who writes primarily chamber music. Many of his compositions are scored for a chamber orchestra comprising flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, harp, piano, percussion, two violins, viola, cello and double bass (an instrumentation derived from A. Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1). His works include over 80 chamber compositions of different genres written for one to 17 instruments. He tends to use non-standard instrumentation rather than ensembles typical for classical music such as string quartet, string trio, piano quintet, etc. Most of the techniques common to the avant-garde music are found in Kasparov’s works: the twelve-tone technique, sonorism, aleatoric music, electroacoustic music, musique concrète, performance, instrumental theatre, sound collage. Still, he remains quite a traditional composer that does not break down the boundaries of what is considered “musical” and “non-musical” sound. Kasparov’s music is beautiful, emotional, easy to understand, full of melodies and continuous instrumental solos. A simple word “beauty” becomes a stylistic innovation in his music. Kasparov believes that contemporary music can be divided into two categories: sonorism and “musical graphics”. Sonorism is focused on timbre, while “musical graphics” is distinguished by a greater use of pitch. Most of Kasparov’s works can be considered sonoristic, but today he prefers “musical graphics” — “colorless black and white composition” in which “line is important”.

Tuvan Composer Ayana Oyun (Creative Portrait)

Among the modern composers of Tuva, the personality and work of Ayana Oyun are covered little of musicology. The main stages of the composer’s creative biography are noted related to studying at Republican School of Arts and Kyzyl College of Arts, receiving a specialized education at Krasnoyarsk State Academy of Music and Theater, Mikhail Glinka Novosibirsk State Conservatory, as well as additional education at St. Petersburg Theatre Arts Academy. The composer’s creative portfolio is surveyed, providing an analysis of one of the illustrative works — the Piano Quintet. The periodization of creativity works correlates with her education in different universities in Russia and with a change in genre preferences. Thus, during the years of study at Krasnoyarsk Academy of Music and Theater (2001–2007), works of chamber genres were predominated, including the being analyzed Piano Quintet. The return to her native Tyva is marked by the formation of an original author’s style. During these years, interest in theatrical music was shown, and a number of performances with music by Ayana Oyun were staged. During the years of study in St. Petersburg (2013–2018), several musical fairy tales were created and staged: Don’t Fly Away!, Mary Poppins and Her Friends, Khorloo (Wheel). Music appeared for a number of performances at the National Theatre as well. The composer’s contribution to the development of musical theater in Tuva and the revival of the first national opera, Chechen and Belekmaa, by Rostislav Kendenbil are noted. Ayana Oyun is a rare case of a successful combination of a composer and a theater director in one person; her personality is distinguished by deep reverence and adherence to the traditions and practices of Buddhist teaching, striving for constant self-improvement, expansion of professional and spiritual horizons.

A Melody and Its Afterlives in Piano Music by the Schumanns and Brahms

In the 1830s, Robert Schumann wrote Impromptus on a Romance by Clara Wieck (op. 5), a set of variations on the theme from Wieck’s Romance variée (op. 3). In the 1850s, Clara Schumann wrote variations (op. 20) on an “Albumblatt” from Robert Schumann’s Bunte Blätter (op. 99), which stimulated Brahms to write his own variations (op. 9) on the same theme. Clara and Brahms linked the two temporal nodes together by quoting the melody shared by Clara and Robert’s youthful ops. 3 and 5 in their later ops. 20 and 9. These borrowings have stimulated interpretations that revolve around representations of people through such means as ciphers, quotations, allusions, and motives. Yet documentary and circumstantial evidence—diary entries and correspondence, private forms of music making (sight-reading and practicing in solo and chamber settings), material culture in the form of giving and receiving flowers, and a little-discussed yet remarkable piano arrangement of Robert’s Piano Quintet, op. 44, by Brahms—suggest that Brahms’s op. 9 quotation of the Schumanns’ melody was meant to recall a shared experience during a poignant moment in the year 1854. Not only to be read and recognized on paper, musical borrowings can gain expressive value as performative acts creating an open-ended field of meaning.

The Routledge Handbook to the Music of Alfred Schnittke by Gavin Dixon

Reviewed by: The Routledge Handbook to the Music of Alfred Schnittke by Gavin Dixon Peter J. Schmelz The Routledge Handbook to the Music of Alfred Schnittke. By Gavin Dixon. (Routledge Russian and East European Music and Culture.) (Routledge Handbooks.) New York: Routledge, 2022. [xviii, 315 p. ISBN 9780367222468 (hardcover), $250; also available as e-book, ISBN and price vary.] Illustrations, music. In summer 2022, Amoeba Music, arguably the best independent record store chain in the United States, published its annual Music We Like zine. One item from its lists of recommended recordings—by Felix (no last name given), a staff member from Berkeley, California—featured this endorsement of Daniel Hope and Alekseĭ Botvinov's release of Schnittke's violin and piano music: "Nothing on this compilation is predictable, for Alfred Schnittke's music is multifaceted and quite entertaining. His skills involved adopting old traditional music into contemporary form without concern [for] any one idiom. Easily one of the most underrated and overlooked composers of the 20th century. I encourage you to embrace this captivating assortment of Schnittke works. Your ears will gape with wonderment" (http://www.amoeba.com/music/music-we-like, "2022 – Summer," p. 41 [accessed 9 September 2022], referring to Deutsche Grammophon, DG 483 9234 [2021], CD). Listeners captivated by Schnittke's music and eager for further information on his Suite in the Old Style, Violin Sonata no. 1, or any of the other compositions on Hope and Botvinov's disc now have a reliable Englishlanguage source to consult: Gavin Dixon's Routledge Handbook to the Music of Alfred Schnittke. Yet this reference volume is by no means for neophytes alone. Dixon has established himself as an authoritative guide to Schnittke's output as the author of, among other things, an innovative dissertation ("Polystylism as Dialogue: A Bakhtinian Interpretation of Schnittke's Symphonies 3, 4, and His Concerto Grosso No. 4/Symphony No. 5," PhD diss., Goldsmiths, University of London, 2007) and as editor of (and contributor to) Schnittke Studies (New York: Routledge, 2017). A student of the late Alexander Ivashkin, a pioneering figure in Schnittke advocacy and research, Dixon also has deep familiarity with the many sketches and scores in the Ivashkin–Schnittke Archive at Goldsmiths, University of London. His Schnittke handbook is based on these and other primary and secondary sources, including the significant collection of Schnittke drafts and sketches in the Juilliard Manuscript Collection. A listener to Hope and Botvinov's disc looking for Schnittke's violin and piano compositions in Dixon's handbook would be in luck, and they won't need to flip many pages to find them [End Page 382] all. Organized by genre, the handbook collects all of Schnittke's music for violin and piano in the same section. The bulk of the volume consists of capsule accounts of each and every Schnittke composition, major and minor, in all their versions and arrangements. These entries are, in effect, very thorough program notes (several originated as program and liner notes [p. xvii]). Each provides basic details about the work's composition history, first performance, form, structure, motives, harmony, salient stylistic elements, as well as commentary on any texts. Each entry also contains scrupulous documentation of revisions and any variations between autograph score and published editions. Most of the analyses are brief, but Dixon knows Schnittke's music well and has a keen ear and eye for telling details. It is true that some descriptions betray a certain dutifulness (e.g., Drei Gedichte von Viktor Schnittke for tenor and piano [pp. 97–98]). But others are more extensive, the fruits of a prolonged engagement, particularly those for the symphonies, Peer Gynt, Life with an Idiot, and the Piano Quintet, to name but a few. The handbook synthesizes available sources, compiling and collating material from the dominant interpretative studies in Russian, German, and English, including foundational works by Ivashkin, Valentina Chigareva, Valentina Nikolaevna Kholopova, and Jürgen Köchel. Dixon carefully presents all sides of any disputes or interpretative puzzles, often letting dissonant interpretations remain unresolved (e.g., my difference of opinion with Ivashkin over Schnittke's indebtedness to socialist realism in his early compositions [p. 74]). When combined with the evidence from Schnittke...

СЕРГЕЙ РАХМАНИНОВ И НИКОЛАЙ МЕТНЕР: ЖИЗНЕННЫЕ И ТВОРЧЕСКИЕ ПАРАЛЛЕЛИ

Today the whole world celebrates a jubilee date — the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff. The Moscow Conservatory conducts monographic programs in all of its four halls, where all genres of the composer's legacy are presented: three operas are staged, all symphonic works are played, all romances are sung. This article is devoted to the creative interrelations and great friendship between S. V. Rachmaninoff and N. K. Medtner from the conservatory years. It focuses on the later work of the two composers, whose main genres are marked by stylistic parallels. This is about Russianness in their work, about the abiding longing for their beloved homeland, which nourished their inspiration until the last years of their lives. The stylistic comparisons are based on Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances" and Medtner's Piano Quintet, Rachmaninoff's Fourth Piano Concerto and Medtner's Third Piano Ballade Concerto.

Continuous Exposition in Mozart's Slow Chamber‐Music Movements

ABSTRACTThe literature on continuous exposition is characterised by two features: (1) concentration on the music of Haydn and (2) the examination of fast movements. This essay deviates from these starting points by examining Mozart's slow movements. The aim is to give close readings of a small number of works taken from a limited corpus rather than to provide an overview of Mozart's slow continuous expositions. The works concerned are the slow movements of three‐ and four‐movement chamber‐music works composed after 1775. Of the 42 slow movements in this corpus there are three with a continuous exposition: Larghetto from the Quintet for Piano and Winds, K. 452 (1784), Larghetto from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581 (1789), and Adagio from the String Quintet, K. 593 (1790). These expositions are analysed, and each of them is paired with another exposition from Mozart's slow chamber‐music works that features elements leading in K. 452, K. 581 and K. 593 to continuous organisation. The similarities notwithstanding, these expositions are interpreted as two‐part.

GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION J. BRAHMS’ COMPOSITIONAL TECHNIQUE IN PIANO QUINTET IN F MINOR OP. 34

Under analysis is the issue of notation functioning as a sign system in the process of fixing a musical work, which is relevant in modern musicology. Scientific publications outline various aspects of musical semiotics, but do not highlight the relationship between the specifics of compositional techniques and ways of its rendering. Graphic signs are studied in the proposed article from the standpoint of this relationship which determines the scientific novelty of the results. The purpose of the research is to reveal the ways of graphic representation of the composer’s technique in the musical text on the example of J. Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor Op. 34 using semiotic and structural-functional methods of analysis. Results of research. In order to conduct this research, analysis of graphical representation of compositional devices in J. Brahms’ musical text has been done. His characteristic traits of writing include highly developed motivic technique. The composer finds new variants of musical units without changes of their rhythmical parameters or inner interval relations. In works by J. Brahms, variation presupposes such operations on motives, in which the composer changes either their articulation or temporal parameters as a result of shifting musical units in regard to the metric “grid” of the bar. Hence, there have been revealed new functions of the musical notation which becomes an important tool to fix and stabilize the musical work. Conclusions. As the composer fixes his musical intentions, formation of individual graphic sign system occurs; it is based on traditional notation but is marked by different functional and logical connections according to author’s intentions. As a result of this, various slurs, accents, “hairpins”, dynamic marks and their succession become one of the ways, in which composer’s thought acquires graphic representation. The specifics of graphic signs functioning in J. Brahms’ music requires their analysis as semiotic objects and understanding of the rules by which they can be deciphered. These rules cause relations between sign-bearers and their interpretants. Slur with its primal meaning of legato, placed in a new context, becomes a marker of motivic structure. Further joining of the slur with the “hairpin” allows indicating the principal tone, “emphasis” in a motive which influences its articulation. Thus, a circle of interpretants occurring in certain contexts expands.

Imre Waldbauer, an Important but Little-Known Violinist Partner of Béla Bartók

Abstract Imre Waldbauer (1892–1952) attained his greatest stature as a performer in his position as the first violinist of the Waldbauer–Kerpely Quartet, named after him and cellist Jenő Kerpely. This ensemble premièred Bartók's String Quartets nos. 1, 2 and 4 and his early Piano Quintet. Although Waldbauer's name is mostly mentioned in the Bartók-literature primarily because of his quartet, he was also important for Bartók as a “standalone” violinist as well. Waldbauer and Bartók played numerous sonata recitals from the 1910s to the 1930s, and Waldbauer also played the first performance of important violin works by Bartók: the “One Ideal” from the Two Portraits, (première: Budapest, 12 February 1911), the Violin Sonata no. 2 (première: Berlin, 7 February 1923) and nos. 16, 19, 21, 28, 36, 42, 43, 44 from the Forty-Four Duos (concert hall première: Budapest, 20 January 1932). Although Waldbauer seems like an individual of special importance, very little is known about his relation to Bartók and about his life in general (unlike his violinist contemporaries, e.g. Joseph Szigeti or Zoltán Székely). The present paper focuses on the relationship between the composer and the violinist, using materials from the yet unexplored Waldbauer legacy held in the Budapest Bartók Archives (recent donation from the Waldbauer family).

TOPICS, DOUBLE CODING AND FORM FUNCTIONALITY IN THOMAS ADÈS'S PIANO QUINTET

AbstractThis article interrogates the formal and expressive roles of the opening horn-call topic in Thomas Adès's Piano Quintet (2001). Although William Caplin describes the relationship of topics to form as ‘rather tenuous’, he notes that some topics have a ‘likely’ formal relation.1Within this, he includes the rising horn call as an initiating function. Drawing upon Charles Jencks’ influential concept of double coding, which describes a sign's ‘attempt to communicate with both the public and a concerned minority’,2I show how the Piano Quintet's horn-call opening satisfies, on one level, the familiar (tonal) initiating formal function that Caplin describes but, understood in the context of two significant reversals of the horn call's characteristic rising contour to descending horn fifths (the openings of Beethoven's ‘Les Adieux’ sonata and Ligeti's Horn Trio), Adès's opening can be understood as transgressive. This Janus-faced interpretation of the opening bars engages both positively and critically with these references to the past, a double-coded understanding which points to Adès's continued popularity in both academic and concert spheres.

ADÈS AND SONATA FORMS

AbstractDespite an ever-expanding body of literature on Adès's engagement with the music of the past, his use of traditional formal models has attracted little critical comment. That which does exist privileges the relatively straightforward surface articulation of his musical forms over more nuanced accounts. In the case of Adès's sonata forms, this has had at least two consequences for our understanding of his music: first, that too strong an emphasis on syntactical groupings occludes what is happening discursively in the music; and second, that ‘textbook’ models are not the only formal tradition with which Adès's sonata forms engage. Rather, his sonatas bear traces of a rotational model that recalls the examples of Janáček and Sibelius. This article considers how Adès's sonata forms can be constituted not as neo-classical prefabrications but, a posteriori, as a practice that emerges across his career – from the Chamber Symphony and …but all shall be well to the Piano Quintet and Concerto for Piano and Orchestra – from an interaction between traditional syntactical groupings, thematic procedures and tonal plots.

Piano quintet in the work by Russian composers at the close of 18th -the first third of 19th centuries

Piano quintet in the work by Russian composers at the close of 18th -the first third of 19th centuries

Kaikhosru Sorabji’s Letters to Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock) ed. by Brian Inglis and Barry Smith

Reviewed by: Kaikhosru Sorabji’s Letters to Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock) ed. by Brian Inglis and Barry Smith Nalini Ghuman Kaikhosru Sorabji’s Letters to Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock). Edited by Brian Inglis and Barry Smith. London: Routledge, 2020. [184 p. ISBN 978-1-138-47843-5. £96 (hardcopy), £29.59 (paperback and e-book)] This handsome new volume presents the corpus of letters from composer–pianist– critic Kaikhosru Sorabji (1892–1988) to his contemporary, Philip Heseltine (Peter War-lock) (1894–1930). Written between 1913 and 1922, Sorabji’s letters have remained largely unseen among the Heseltine papers in the British Library, apart from a series of short excerpts published in 1992 (see Kenneth Derus, ‘Sorabji’s Letters to Heseltine’, in Sorabji: A Critical Celebration, ed. Paul Rapoport [Aldershot: Scholar Press, 1992], 195–255). Meticulously transcribed here by Barry Smith, the complete letters are lively and engaging, providing fascinating insights into both the early development of these two composer–critics and their socio- cultural and musical milieu. The Introduction by Brian Inglis is critically astute, effectively drawing on recent scholarship to bring the issue of identity (particularly race) to the fore in a nuanced framing of Sorabji and his work, while also perceptively considering questions of sexuality, influence, and stylistic development in relation to both composers. Only Sorabji’s side of the correspondence is preserved, so the editors took up the idea of interspersing Heseltine’s letters to friends in which he describes those he is receiving from Sorabji. This makes for entertaining (and, at times, as explained below, disturbing) reading. The appendices add further interest with a selection of printed documents penned by the protagonists—including Heseltine’s 1913 Musical Times article, which was the catalyst for the correspondence, and Sorabji’s brief but touching tribute to Heseltine in 1931, following his death. Closing an early letter to Heseltine, begun on 6 January 1914, Sorabji exclaimed: ‘Do soon write one of your most delightful letters and don’t be too furious that this letter is so long and wordy. I can’t help it. I must write!’ (p. 51). And write he did. These early letters are brimming with vivid descriptions of new works, concerts in London, and musical personalities, alongside discussions of political, religious, and cultural subjects, all shot through with brilliant wit. Quite the opposite of an insular English outlook, Sorabji’s letters reveal a voracious cosmopolitanism. Heseltine remarked to Frederick Delius early in the correspondence: ‘He is very interesting, since he tells me all about composers of whom I know nothing’ (December 1913, pp. 45–46). Indeed, Sorabji discusses a vast amount of repertoire, often ‘hot off the press’, by international composers from Zoltan Kodály, Alexander Scriabin, [End Page 361] and Erik Satie, to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Richard Strauss, Jean Sibelius, and Albert Roussel, at times notating his incisive analyses with music examples. As the correspondence moves into 1916, there is a compelling sense of anticipation as Sorabji begins to compose in earnest, often meeting with Heseltine to share his works at the piano. Now the reader becomes privy to the intimacy between the two composers as they support each other’s creative endeavours. When Sorabji asks if he could dedicate his first piano concerto to Heseltine, he explains: ‘I am quite sure that but for your encouragement and “bonté” the Concerto would never have seen the light of day’ (May 1916, p. 105). ‘Soul-shattering’ was Heseltine’s verdict on the concerto after Sorabji played it for him at the Bechstein studios (letter to Colin Taylor, March 1916). By the end of the correspondence in 1922, we have followed Sorabji’s completion of, inter alia, five further piano concertos, his first symphony, several songs, a piano quintet, and three piano sonatas. Heseltine wrote to Delius of ‘his quite extraordinary talent’ and ‘the overwhelming emotional power of his music’, while marvelling at his ‘technical mastery’ (March 1920, p. 120). Several figures illustrate all this creative activity: a page from the first concerto’s manuscript full score reveals the pianism demanded of Sorabji to bring this piece to life for his friend (p. 32), while an eye-catching letter of July 1916 sees Sorabji notating the...

Rehearsals for the Real Thing

Rehearsals for the Real Thing Jay Rogoff (bio) As we crept toward that post-pandemic day when we could watch dancing bodies, in three-dimensional glory, perform before our eyes (cue the mysterious second movement of Robert Schumann's piano quintet, which Mark Morris used for V, his 2001 assertion of life's triumph over darkness), dance on video continued to fill some of the gap, reminding us what we were missing. For more than a year, I have focused on new dances devised during the pandemic, some of which will hold the stage when we once again gather in theaters, others revealing themselves immediately as creatures of necessity—reminders that dancers need to dance, choreographers need to arrange bodies, and audiences, however intrigued by the novel challenges of video and Zoom dance, crave the real thing. In [End Page 618] this final discussion of pandemic works, Mark Morris, the Pennsylvania Ballet, and the New York City Ballet offer three approaches: respectively, a live online performance, recorded simulacra of live performance, and an elegant film that doesn't pretend to be live dance but uses its own means to suggest that excitement. In May, the Mark Morris Dance Group streamed four works live from Brooklyn's BRIC House, including a world premiere, Tempus Perfectum. The title can mean "perfect," "exquisite," "excellent," or "completed time," but which does Morris intend? That his dancers perform in perfect time to the music, Brahms's Sixteen Waltzes. Op. 39? (They do.) That as the pandemic ends, his new work celebrates the end of a dreary time? (It does.) In any event, the performers in this concert all pointedly wear Covid masks as talismans against the plague—even Laurel Lynch in Three Preludes, a 1992 dance to Gershwin, and Brandon Randolph in Jealousy, a 1985 work to Handel, mask up, although both works are solos. Masks have evolved from symptoms into symbols, Morris knows, commemorating the imperfect time we hope we have now completed. By obscuring the dancers' facial expressions, they also force our focus onto their bodies and limbs, where Morris always wants us to look. The four dancers in Tempus Perfectum explore varieties of movement to the brief Brahms piano waltzes, played by Colin Fowler, MMDG's music director. Their black masks mark solidarity as well as precaution. They greet us by running at the camera, then peeling off at the last second, before Laurel Lynch, in a red dress (the costumes are uncredited), launches into the lovely and lilting first waltz. She skips with huge swoops of her legs in rond de jambe. Karlie Budge, in a light blue dress, performs sudden crunches and lunges during the second waltz, then lilts delicately left and right. Noah Vinson, in a blue top and black slacks, turns Budge's lilts into more deliberate rocking before turning with smooth grace. The turns grow more violent when Dallas McMurray solos, in a green top with black slacks, then yield to little leaps and off-balance skitters. After meeting the full cast, we expect them to partner up—these are waltzes, after all—especially when Budge returns to join McMurray. But Morris has made a career of overturning expectations, and as Budge floats up and back, McMurray exits. In fact, Tempus Perfectum never grants the thing time has perfectly trained us to anticipate, a man and a woman waltzing together. Instead, both men join Budge for a kind of syncopated waltz fugue, with silly strutting, heads thrown dramatically back, and grand swings of the arms. Lynch has another solo with large arm extensions, elegant sweeps and turns, and abrupt drops into steely, right-angled pliés, her arms shooting out to the sides. When the first duet arrives, it's for the two men; they wrap their arms around each other, mirroring steps, and taking each onto the other's hip. A women's duet then provides symmetry, Lynch dancing with Budge, weaving in and out of unison, Budge now sinking into plié while Lynch thrusts out her limbs. [End Page 619] Two more solos allude to folkdance, McMurray blending gaiety with severity, Lynch following emphatic leg thrusts with lovely arabesques. A Slavic-looking duet for the...

Daniel Weymouth's in (all) the time we have left

Daniel Weymouth's in (all) the time we have left Sunny Knable (bio) What shall we do with the time we have leftShall we talk of countries and kingsshall we see the small thingsthis, then this, then thisunfolding. A bove are the words written after the final bars of Daniel Weymouth's 2008 quintet for clarinet and string quartet, in (all) the time we have left [referred to as in (all) the time hereafter], which read like a psalm for the 21st Century. This inscription, written by the composer, silently marks the end of an homage to Weymouth's colleague at Stony Brook University, John Lessard, a composer who passed away in 2003. Weymouth's quintet explicitly quotes Lessard's Quintet for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Violoncello and Piano (1993) and borrows key elements from it throughout his own composition. The efficacy of Weymouth's elegiac work lies in the kindred relationship between the two pieces, as this paper will demonstrate through an analysis pertaining to form, texture, register, pitch, rhythm and other particular characteristics of in (all) the time.1 [End Page 129] By his own admission, Weymouth often begins his compositional process by creating a map of salient pitches, and in the case of in (all) the time, had done precompositional work mapping out his intended timbres and textures as well. Charting the formal sections is as simple as taking note of those elements, in addition to double bar lines, which the composer uses to mark the change of character. Searching for these demarcations yields the form shown in Example 1. While Weymouth is traditional in his willingness to use clear-cut sections and repeated material, he avoids any resemblance to classical forms by utilizing a linear progression of ABCDE. An intriguing aspect of in (all) the time is that it is accompanied with a "bonus track" as Weymouth whimsically calls it: a miniature piano solo entitled A Trifle, for Jack (referred to as A Trifle), which is both a complement to his quintet and a condensation of it. Its existence constitutes a useful tool when beginning an analysis of the larger composition. Comparing the material in Weymouth's A Trifle to his quintet was like searching for gold with a treasure-map. Many elements of pitch-class are plainly apparent, others are hidden, and some are seemingly nonexistent. In the twelve-measure piece, there is a Click for larger view View full resolution Example 1. delineations of form in weymouth's in (all) the time [End Page 130] correspondence to nearly every section of its larger counterpart (see Example 2). A straightforward link between the two can be seen in comparing the opening phrases. The first four notes of A Trifle are found in all voices of the strings in m. 2 of the quintet (Example 3). Other associations are more elusive such as in mm. 104–06 of in (all) the time, corresponding to m. 6 of A Trifle. Though the pitches are rearranged and interjected with other pitches, the range and recurrence of material makes the connection evident (Example 4). Whereas most of the pitches in A Trifle can be accounted for, between mm. 8–9 of A Trifle, about 100 measures in the quintet are not reflected in the miniature. This could be attributed to the fact that the C section functions like a distillation from non-coordinated textures in the A/B sections to the coordinated gestures in the D/E sections, as explored later in this paper's analysis of rhythm. Click for larger view View full resolution Example 2. comparing weymouth's a trifle to in (all) the time [End Page 131] Click for larger view View full resolution Example 3. notes of m. 1 of a trifle found in m. 2 in (all) the time [End Page 132] Click for larger view View full resolution Example 4. notes of m. 6 of a trifle found in m. 105 of in (all) the time [End Page 133] Another characteristic marking the form is the use of tempi. An odd element among these is the difference in his metronome markings, strangely close in number. As seen in Example 5...

Archives and blank spots: scholarly perspectives for recovering Polish music (1794–1945)

In this article, the author tries to present the issue of blank spots in the history of Polishmusic since 1794 (the world premiere of Cud mniemany, czyli Krakowiacy i Górale [The supposedmirtacle, or Cracovians and highlanders] composed by Jan Stefani to the libretto of Wojciech Bogusławski is regarded as a symbolic beginning of national style in Polish music) up to the end of the SecondWorld War. It was a great period in history when Poland twice did not exist as a state (between1795 and 1918 and between 1939 and 1945).At the beginning the attention is drawn to the Polish music in the nineteenth century. Author describes new discoveries such as the Second Piano Quintet in E flat Major (with double bassinstead of second cello) by Józef Nowakowski (Chopin’s friend), and String Quartets op. 1 and monumentaloratorio Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi by Józef Elsner who was Chopin’s teacher in the Conservatory of Music in Warsaw (Elsner’s Passio discovered at the end of the twentieth century isregarded now as the most outstanding religious piece in the history of Polish music in the nineteenth century). Among other works author also mentions romantic opera Monbar (1838) by Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński and first opera of Stanisław Moniuszko Die Schweitzerhütte (about 1839) written to the German libretto during composer’s studies at Singakademie Berlin. Addressing the issue of Polish music of the first half of the twentieth century author draws attention to the composer Eugeniusz Morawski regarded as the leading Polish author of programme music next to Mieczysław Karłowicz (unfortunately Morawski is still forgotten figure in the Polish musical life). Among others the importance of symphonic heritage of Feliks Nowowiejski, an author ofextremely popular in Europe during the second decade of twentieth century oratorio Quo vadis, is mentioned. At the end of article, the author takes up the problem of the enigmatic figure of Adolf Gużewski.The whole musical output of Gużewski, whose opera Dziewica lodowców [The Ice Maiden] was applauded in Warsaw and Russian opera houses in the second decade of the twentieth century, is now considered lost.

How can a performance of Shostakovich’ piano quintet be dramatized by using words, movements, staging and lighting?

Student Number 3026329 Supervisor(s) Andrew Wright, Maggie Urquhart Title De Formule Research Question How can a performance of Shostakovich’ piano quintet be dramatized by using words, movements, staging and lighting? Summary This research was carried out in and through the practice and performances of ensemble ‘de Formule’, a piano quintet in which we both play the violin. As a result of this research, our goal was to perform the Shostakovich piano quintet in a dramatized way, which we did in 2018. The research text describes the internal research process. By looking at (historical) sources about the composer and the piece, and by analyzing the score we got an impression of the context and atmosphere of the quintet, and we created a story to go with it. We found that the piece fitted today’s very important topic about finding your identity within the (mass) society, knowing the history of Shostakovich’ own struggles and the expressions he creates in his melodies, harmonies, instrumentation etc.: sometimes searching, sometimes dragged along in sarcastic happiness and sometimes screaming for help. All these elements we used to conduct the research process, which included translation of the story lines and expressions into movements, words, light effects and different stagings. As a result of this dramatization, we noticed that the audience seemed to understand the music better, and for ourselves, the performance was a more meaningful experience. Short Bio Coraline Groen obtained a bachelor’s degree from the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. Her teachers have included Vera Beths, Peter Brunt and Philippe Graffin in The Hague, and Rodney Friend at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Groen was a member of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Academy 2018-2019 and played with the Bayrische Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra and the Residentie Orchestra. She was appointed principal of the second violins of the NJO, the RAM Symphony Orchestra and the Gustav Mahler Academy Orchestra. Groen is a member of the Volkmann Trio, De Formule, and a duo with bayan player Robbrecht Van Cauwenberghe.

Polarization, Modal Orientation, and Voice Leading

This article seeks to define tonality as an interaction between different levels of structure in terms of a conjunction of intervallic distance, polarization, modal direction, and voice leading of the harmonic progressions. Intervallic distances depend on the modal direction of transformations as well as on polarization on the circle of fifths in any hierarchy level. Voice leading creates pitch spaces that both embody and outweigh the abstract concept of tonal event according to transformational theories. This model of tonality is particularly relevant to music of the later nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries, where works are based on complex, developed structures composed of non-symmetrical recurring units. The potential for analysis is demonstrated with several passages from Dohnányi’s Piano Quintet, op. 26, first movement.