Uploaded December 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Etude for Ninths and finger agility
Damon J.H.K.
|
Etude mécanique No. 1 [My composition]
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![Etude mécanique No. 1 [My composition]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ipL7_tfKF7U/mqdefault.jpg "Etude mécanique No. 1 [My composition]
Etude for Ninths and finger agility")
![Igor Stravinsky - Renard [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/iw3jWpJK-JA/mqdefault.jpg "Igor Stravinsky - Renard [With score]
-Compsoer: Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June 1882 – 6 April 1971)
-Ensemble: Budapest Chamber Ensemble
-Vocal Soloists: Dénes Gulyás, Boldizsár Keönch, György Bordás, László Polgár
-Conductor: András Mihály
Renard [The Fox], Opera-Ballet (Burlesque) for 4 vocal soloists & chamber orchestra. OR: Renard [The Fox], A burlesque for the stage with singing and music, written in 1915-1916
In April 1915 Winnaretta Singer (la Princesse Edmond de Polignac), commissioned Stravinsky to write a piece that could be played in her salon. She paid the composer 2,500 Swiss francs. The work was completed in Morges (Switzerland) in 1916, and Stravinsky himself made a staging plan, trying to avoid any resemblance to the operatic staging or conventions. He created rather a new form of theatre in which the acrobatic dance is connected with singing, and the declamation comments on the musical action. However the piece was never performed in the salon of the princess. It was not staged until 1922.
Stravinskys Renard belongs to a genre perhaps best described as ballet hybrid. In addition to the expected dance elements, Renard is also a burlesque, a musical story that is sung and played. The text was written by Stravinsky himself, after stories of the Fox from the famous collection of Russian folk tales by Alexander Afanasiev. Renard is scored for small orchestra, percussion, timpani, cimbalom, a solo string quintet, two tenor soloists, and two bass soloists.
The story is a farmyard tale in which the Cock is twice tricked and captured by the Fox , only to be rescued each time by the Cat and the Goat. After the Cocks second rescue, the Cat and the Goat strangle the Fox, and the three friends dance and sing. Stravinsky employs the singers as part of the orchestra, and though there are exactly as many singers as characters, the vocal parts are not identified with specific characters. (The composer followed this practice in subsequent works of the same type, most notably in Les noces of 1914-1917.)
The players remain onstage at all times, without the kind of choreography one associates with traditional ballet. Rather, as the prefatory note in the score indicates, the various characters should be played by clowns, dancers, or acrobats who perform in front of the curtain. Stravinsky makes prominent use of the cimbalom, a stringed instrument played with mallets, to imitate the sound of a guzla, a similar Russian folk instrument. Stravinsky knew that finding good guzla players (or even the instrument itself) would be difficult, and settled on the cimbalom after hearing it played in a nightclub in Switzerland. According to the composer, most of Renard was actually composed on the cimbalom rather than on the piano that was more usual for Stravinsky. The cimbalom, an instrument on which rapid repeating notes and broad arpeggios are highly idiomatic, contributes significantly to the works linear texture. Stravinsky employs the other instruments in an almost soloistic manner, further contributing to the works polyphonic textures. Renards melodies are wide-ranging and disjunct, while the mixture of modes connects it to the polytonal/polymodal harmonic style of earlier works like Petrushka (1910-1911). Renards relative rhythmic and metric simplicity contrasts sharply with the richly complex rhythmic language of nearly contemporaneous works like The Rite of Spring (1911-1913).
[wikipedia/allmusic]")
![Edvard Grieg - 5 Poems, op. 26 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/iwMTf9QR2Wg/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - 5 Poems, op. 26 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers (Songs 1, 2, 3, 4): Monica Groop (Voice), Roger Vignoles (Piano)
-Performers (Song 5): Marianne Hirsti (soprano), Rudolf Jansen (Piano)
5 Poems for Voice and Piano, op. 26, written in 1876
00:00 - I. Et Håb {Hope}
02:20 - II. Jeg rejste en dejlig Sommerkvæld {I wandered one lovely summer evening}
04:55 - III. Den Ærgjerige {The ambitious one}
06:21 - IV. Med en Primula veris {With a primrose}
07:39 - V. På Skogstien {On a woodland path}")
![Edvard Grieg - Violin Sonata No. 3, Op. 45 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/iwTZoiRvp1U/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - Violin Sonata No. 3, Op. 45 [With score]
Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 4 September 1907)
Performers: Uto Ughi (violin), Bruno Canino (piano)
Sonata for Violin and Piano in c minor, op. 45, written in 1886-87
00:00 - I. Allegro molto ed appassionato
09:50 - II. Allegretto espressivo alla Romanza - Allegro molto - Tempo I.
15:54 - III. Allegro animato
In January 1900, Grieg performed his three violin sonatas with Wilma Neruda-Hallé in Copenhagen. Afterward, he wrote to his friend the Norwegian poet Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson that his violin sonata trilogy was closely related to his own lifes experiences. They characterize the three periods of my own evolution, he explained. The first, ingenious and full of new ideas; the second, nationalistic, and the third, turned toward vaster horizons. Indeed, in the series of violin sonatas we do sense a logical, natural progression that may well seem autobiographical.
The set of three culminates with the massive C minor sonata, Op. 45, written in 1887. Whereas each of the previous sonatas had been set down in a matter of just a few weeks, Op. 45 was begun in the autumn of 1886 and was finished, according to the composers journal, on January 21 of the following year. The work was dedicated to the painter Franz von Lehnbach, and had its premiere at the Neues Gewandhaus in Leipzig on December 10, 1887, in a performance by the Russian violinist Adolf Brodsky with Grieg himself at the piano. The work was enthusiastically hailed by critics and public alike. Within a very short time, it had entered the repertories of other leading violinists of the day, among them Wieniawski, Ysaÿe, and Kreisler.
Although Grieg characterized the piece as the product of newfound inspiration found during a time of personal happiness, such origins are hardly reflected by the terse urgency of the thematic material nor by the choice of key, a defiantly Beethovenian C minor. The dimensions are expansive, and the work takes about 25 minutes to perform. The opening movement (Allegretto molto ed appassionato) offers a tense first-subject motif, with the second group altogether more relaxed and consoling in mood. The darkly somber development section is based entirely upon the first theme, which also makes a further appearance after the recapitulation just prior to the very dramatic coda. There follows a slow movement (Allegretto espressivo alla Romanza) in the serene tonality of E major. Interestingly, piano and violin assume quite independent roles here; though each is heard in the noble main theme (some 44 measures in length), there is little sense of dialogue or equitable exchange between the two. The individuality of the two instruments is heightened to a surprising extent here, and even in the final section the two are never fully reconciled. The finale (Allegro animato) has a sonata structure (ABAB-Coda) without a development section, the lack of which is compensated for in a series of daring modulations that involve digressions into A flat major and F major. In the words of Rune J. Andersen, the piece contains universal and national elements fused into something deeply personal and specifically Griegian.
[allmusic.com]
Original Audio: https://youtu.be/k3ZXpdvAOEY")
![Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - String Quartet No. 21, K. 575 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jJJrD19AMhg/mqdefault.jpg "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - String Quartet No. 21, K. 575 [With score]
-Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791)
-Performers: Alban Berg Quartet
String Quartet No. 21 in D-Major, K. 575, written in 1789 [Prussian Quartet I]
00:00 – I. Allegretto
07:35 – II. Andante
11:38 – III. Menuetto & Trio. Allegretto
17:28 – IV. Allegretto
In the spring of 1789, Mozart, in financial straits and desperately in need of new work, set off on a journey to Germany. After visiting Dresden and Leipzig, he arrived in Potsdam on April 25. The city was at the time the virtual capital of Prussia and the residence of the cello-playing King Frederick William II. The following day a memorandum requesting that one Motzart had requested an audience with the king to lay before him his talents was presented to Frederick William, who referred the request to his director of chamber music, Jean Pierre Duport. What resulted is unfortunately not recorded at the time, but according to later reports supplied by Mozarts widow Constanze the king offered Mozart a post worth 3,000 thaler a year. The composer is said to have expressed concerns about leaving his good Emperor (Joseph II) in Vienna. Whatever the truth of the story, Mozart returned to Vienna with some kind of a commission from Frederick William to compose six new string quartets.
By June the present D major Quartet had already been completed, but of the remaining quartets only two were composed, and then only after the lapse of a year. Various reasons have been advanced as an explanation as to why Mozart was so slow in producing the Prussian quartets, but one is that the composer had received money upfront from the Prussian king; in a money-begging letter to Puchberg he mentions having the quartets engraved at his own expense. The three Prussian quartets which were completed are notable for the prominence of their cello parts, obviously intended to please the cello-playing king. In the opening Allegretto of K. 575, for instance, it is the cello that is given the task of presenting the second theme, and all three quartets contain many passages in which the cello emerges either as soloist or in dialogue with one of the other instruments. The K. 575 quartet as a whole is notable for its understated, almost secretive mood. The Andante is a deceptively simple movement that showcases the cello as an agent independent of the other instruments, and the Menuetto (Allegretto) is distinguished by a brief eruption of passion at the start of its second half. The concluding Allegretto opens with a theme given to the cello high in its register before proceeding to run a more disturbed course than is apparent in the remainder of the work. As in other works from the last years of Mozarts life, there is a delightful incorporation of counterpoint into a texture of Classical ease, here in the form of an ornate canon. Scholars have also found fragments of an alternate finale in which Mozart seemed to indulge his puckish side.
[allmusic.com]")
![Paul Hindemith - Suite 1922 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jRLf-0QWcXY/mqdefault.jpg "Paul Hindemith - Suite 1922 [With score]
-Composer: (16 November 1895 – 28 December 1963)
-Performer: Sviatoslav Richter
-Recorded in 1989
Suite 1922, for piano, Op. 26, written in 1921-22
00:00 - I. Marsch
01:36 - II. Shimmy
04:54 - III. Nachtstück
11:44 - IV. Boston
18:04 - V. Ragtime
Whereas in the Kleine Kammermusik of 1921 Hindemith chuckled good-naturedly about such shopworn forms as marches and waltzes, in the 1922 Suite for solo piano, his attitude toward the march, shimmy, Boston and ragtime is more plainly bad-tempered. In the years immediately following the First World War, Hindemith had been privately composing pastiches of popular dances of the day, but had held them back from publication, considering them mere sports. By 1922, however, Hindemith no longer had any qualms about using popular music as a basis for serious musical statements.
In Suite 1922, satire borders on sarcasm; in the opening Marsch, the pianist is instructed to play it rather clumsily. The writing for the piano is unusually thick and heavy with chords, especially in the left hand; as such it is almost unrecognizable as coming from one of the master contrapuntalists of the twentieth century. The rhythm is irregular, and the harmonies built on dissonant, cluster-like explosions and angular aggregations of fourths and fifths make for a very unmarchable march indeed.
The other dance forms are similarly undermined in the suite. The second movement, Shimmy, is based on a dance-hall variant of the foxtrot, but makes only occasional allusions to the form, spending most of its time musing on a dour, ambiguously harmonized theme. The central Nachtstück anticipates Hindemiths serious and contemplative mature style harmonically quite dark in this instance; the central section is ethereal, with haunting motives drifting about in the upper range of the keyboard. It is succeeded by an equally unsettled Boston an old American dance with similarities to the waltz. Repeated attempts to establish the requisite triple-time drift instead into tonally ambiguous (albeit fascinating) meditations. For the Ragtime finale, Hindemith instructs the pianist to play wildly but in strict rhythm, and to [r]egard the piano here as an interesting percussion instrument. Dissonance reaches its maximum intensity in this loud and disturbing movement.
In 1940, Hindemith wrote to Hugo Strecker, I think it is not necessary to reprint that awful Suite 1922.... The piece is really not an honorable ornament in the music-history of our time, and it depresses an old man rather seriously to see that just the sins of his youth impress the people more than his better creations. That it continued to impress listeners, however, amply demonstrates its intrinsic value.
[allmusic.com]")
![Alexander Borodin - Piano Quintet [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jViUmSHwsn4/mqdefault.jpg "Alexander Borodin - Piano Quintet [With score]
-Composer: Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin (12 November 1833 – 27 February 1887)
-Performers: Moscow String Quartet and Alexander Mndoiantz
Piano Quintet in c minor, written in 1862
00:03 – I. Andante
05:39 – II. Allegro non troppo
11:34 – III. Allegro moderato
While in Heidelberg in May 1861, Borodin met and fell in love with the pianist Yekaterina Protopopova, who soon became his wife, and who seems to have inspired in him a taste for her favourite composers, Chopin and Schumann. Later that year she fell ill, and the engaged couple wintered in Italy. There in May and June 1862 Borodin composed his Piano Quintet in C minor, the last work he would complete before his game-changing meeting with Balakirev.
That the twenty-eight-year-old composer was already ripe for adoption to the nationalist cause is evident from the opening theme, which has the contours and character of a Russian melismatic song. In fact the entire first movement is made up of variations, repetitions and derivations from this idea, dressed up in piano textures that could easily have come from Anton Rubinstein on the other side of the nationalist/academic divide.
The movement feels quite happy to end in A minor, rather than the tonic C minor, and it is in A minor that the scherzo second movement launches out, its main theme being another thinly disguised variation on motifs from the first movement. A bouncy violin theme provides contrast, and once again enthusiasm and directness of feeling, rather than sophisticated technique, carry the movement forward. The trio section rhapsodizes freely, never feeling obliged to put all five instruments together.
The finale is once again subtly derived motivically, and its initial motifs are never all that far from the surface. As with the cello sonata, the opening mood—wistful in this case—is a feint. The music soon becomes more robust, before taking flight à la Mendelssohn. Here Borodin attempts a full sonata from, complete with repeated exposition. From a Germanic perspective many ideas go to waste; from a Russian-nationalist one, however, it is entirely virtuous that they should be unhampered by excessive learning. This is music for use and enjoyment, unconcerned with conforming to ‘comme il faut’. The structure may be wayward, but this at least means that the listener is kept intrigued as to when and how it will end. Always apparently winding up, in the end it seems to wind down before reaching its full potential; but the soft conclusion suggests that Borodin knew what he was aiming at.")
![Robert Schumann - Vier Gesänge {Four Songs}, op. 142 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jYe8pkmNa-w/mqdefault.jpg "Robert Schumann - Vier Gesänge {Four Songs}, op. 142 [With score]
-Composer: Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856)
-Performers I. and IV. : Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Baritone), Christoph Eschenbach (Piano)
-Performers II. and III. : Peter Schreier (Tenor), Norman Shetler (Piano)
Vier Lieder {Four Songs} for Voice and Piano, op. 142, written in 1840 and 1852
[00:00] - I. Trost im Gesang
[02:31] - II. Lehn deine Wang
[03:21] - III. Mädchen-Schwermut
[06:23] - IV. Mein Wagen rollet langsam
Assembled from songs Schumann left unpublished at his death, the four lieder of Op. 142 were published in 1858 by Rieter-Biedermann and dedicated to Frau Livia Frege by the publisher.
Trost im Gesang (Solace in song), by Justinus Kerner, laments the lonely existence of the night traveler. Just as the traveler wanders off the path because it is difficult to see, Schumann moves from the opening E flat major to a distant D major at the center of this ternary-form structure. The accompaniment, plodding and non-melodic, follows the rhythm of the melody but not the shape.
Lehn deine Wang (Rest your cheeks [against my cheeks]), by Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), was originally intended for the Dichterliebe, Op. 48; set aside by the composer, it remained unknown until after his death. Opening in G minor, the songs narrator asks a lover to lay her cheek against his so their tears may mingle. The second half of the song modulates to a new key as the narrator talks of the lovers inner flames and how he will die from loves yearning. Schumann conveys the sense of yearning by closing the song on the dominant, with no hint of resolution.
In Mädchen-Schwermut (Girls sadness), probably by Lily Bernhard, a girl weeps over her place in the joyless world. In E minor throughout, the songs melody progresses from repeated notes to a more passionate, arching shape in the second half, in which the accompaniment, too, becomes more animated. Schumann depicts the emptiness of the girls heart by abruptly stopping the right hand flourish at the end of the song, leaving only the open chord in the bass.
Mein Wagen rollet langsam (My carriage rolls slowly), by Heine, was also intended for the Dichterliebe, Op. 48. Schumanns accompaniment depicts the slow, uneven progress of the carriage through the forest, while the constantly descending voice part creates an atmosphere of low energy. In the second verse, three shadows come to the carriage and nod mockingly at the passenger; when they giggle and rush away the accompaniment becomes more animated.
[allmusic.com]")
![Edvard Grieg - 4 Norwegian Dances, op. 35 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/k7hH14ycSTo/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - 4 Norwegian Dances, op. 35 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers (Piano 4-hands): The Cologne Piano Duo
-Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
-Conductor: Ole Kristian Ruud
4 Norwegian Dances for 4-hands or Orchestra (orchestrated by Hans Sitt), op. 35, written in 1880
Piano 4-hands
00:00 - I. Allegro marcato
05:29 - II. Allegretto tranquillo e grazioso
07:37 - III. Allegro moderato alla marcia
10:18 - IV. Allegro molto
Orchestra
15:04 - I. Allegro marcato
20:42 - II. Allegretto tranquillo e grazioso
23:22 - III. Allegro moderato alla marcia
27:08 - IV. Allegro molto
The Norwegian Dances (4), Op. 35, (1883) of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1845-1907) are for the most part based on tunes he found in Ludvig Mathias Lindemans folk song collection Mountain Melodies Old and New. Like many sets of national dances from the nineteenth century Brahms Hungarian Dances and Dvoráks Slavonic Dances, for example Griegs Norwegian Dances were originally scored for piano duet to satisfy demand for music to be played in the home. They were later orchestrated by the Czech-born conductor Hans Sitt and it is in this guise that they are best known to later audiences.
All four of the dances are in simple ternary form. Three of the four the first, third, and fourth have quick outer sections and slower inner sections while the second reverses this order. Taken as a whole, the Norwegian Dances are in symphonic form, that is, the first and fourth dances (Allegro marcato and Allegro molto) are more expansive and more developed while the two central dances are like the Intermezzos central movements of Brahms symphonies with the second (Allegretto tranquillo e grazioso) taking the place of a slow movement and the third (Allegro moderato alla Marcia) serving as a march-like Scherzo à la the later march-scherzos of Tchaikovskys Symphony No. 6.
Like all of Griegs best music, the Norwegian Dances are filled with achingly beautiful tunes set to supple chromatic harmonies, joyously festive tunes above cheerful rhythms, and the occasional faux-frightening tunes with skittering harmonies. At least two sections of the dances the cheerful opening of the first dance and insouciant opening of the second are nearly as well-known as the first Peer Gynt Suite or the Holberg Suite.")
![Edvard Grieg - 12 Melodies (Vinje-Songs), op. 33 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kEyHrhf6Lgk/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - 12 Melodies (Vinje-Songs), op. 33 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers (Songs except No. 2): Monica Groop (Voice), Roger Vignoles (Piano)
-Performers (Song No. 2): Anne Sofie von Otter (Voice), Bengt Forsberg (Piano)
12 Melodies after Poems by A. O. Vinje for Voice and Piano, op. 33, written in 1873-80
00:00 - I. Guten {The youth}
03:00 - II. Våren {Spring}
08:23 - III. Den Særde {The wounded heart}
10:42 - IV. Tyteberet {The whortleberry}
12:22 - V. Langs ei Å {Beside the stream}
14:05 - VI. Eit Syn {A vision}
15:54 - VII. Gamle Mor {Old mother}
17:47 - VIII. Det Förste {The first thing}
20:09 - IX. Ved Rundarne {At Rundarne}
22:28 - X. Et Vennestykke {A broken friendship}
24:03 - XI. Trudom {Faith}
26:40 - XII. Fyremål {The goal}
In April 1880, Grieg began composing again after a long period of travel and performing. He was inspired by the poetry of Aasmund Olafsson Vinje. Vinje (1818-1870) was truly a poet of the nineteenth century, his Romanticism following in the footsteps of Heine, Byron, and Goethe, and with a nationalistic feeling not only for subject matter, but also for language, using a country version of Norwegian. This suited Griegs desire to use Norwegian folk idioms in his music, and these songs are considered his first genuinely Norwegian songs. Grieg initially set 15 poems, but published only ten of these in Op. 33, adding two others that he had composed earlier. The songs were published in two books, in multiple languages. Grieg worked closely with the translators, hoping to accurately capture the feel of the original texts, but not always succeeding, even with that close relative of Norwegian, Danish. This helps explain why the songs are much better known in Norway than anywhere else. From the simplicity of a description of nature in Langs ei Å to the breathless dance of the fleeting vision in Eit Syn, and the dissonance of bitterness in Eit vennestykke (A Broken Friendship), the music is determined by the text in each song; the mood and words of the poem determine the mood and harmonies of the music. Most of the songs are strophic, all are representative of Griegs gift for melody, and even if the folk music idioms are not obvious, the songs are unmistakably Griegs. The set begins with Guten (The Youth), a warning to a restless youth. This is followed by what is probably Griegs best-known song (other than Solveigs Song), Våren (Spring), later orchestrated along with the third song, Den sårede (The Wounded Heart). Langs ei Å (Beside the Stream), the fifth song, was written in 1877, while the seventh, Gamle Mor (The Old Mother), was written in 1873, but neither is out of place with the later songs. No. 6, Eit Syn (A Vision), is one of the more popular of the 12, as are No. 9, Ved Rundarne (At Rondane), and the final song, Fyremål (The Goal). In that final song, the bitterness inherent in much of the others is resolved through Vinjes hopeful text and Griegs strong-minded, melodious opening and lyrical middle section of his setting.
[allmusic.com]")
![Francis Poulenc - Le bal masqué [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kTqC28EKFFs/mqdefault.jpg "Francis Poulenc - Le bal masqué [With score]
-Composer: Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (7 January 1899 – 30 January 1963)
-Text: Max Jacob (2 July 1876 – 5 March 1944)
-Conductor: Antonio Plotino
-Performers: Nicolas Rivenq (Baritone), Alberto Negroni (Oboe), Giampiero Sobrino (Clarinet), Rino Vernizzi (Bassoon), Francesco Tamiati (Piston), Enrico Calini (Percussion), Massimiliano Damerini (Piano), Giulio Plotino (Violin), Alfredo Persichilli (Cello)
Le bal masqué, Cantate profane sur des poèmes de Max Jacob pour baryton et orchestre de chambre, FP 60 (1932)
00:00 - I. Prèambule et air de bravoure
03:47 - II. Intermède
06:11 - III. Malvina
08:06 - IV. Bagatelle
10:13 - V. La dame aveugle
12:58 - VI. Finale
Francis Poulenc was introduced at an early age into the Parisian cultural circles in which prominent figures like Cocteau and Satie moved, and his early compositions (that is, those that came before his religious awakening in the mid-1930s) reflect the decidedly effervescent aesthetic values that Poulenc and the other members of Les Six, in response to the emotional viscosity and heavy handedness of the Austro-German musical establishment, came to represent. Among Poulencs contributions to this early Parisian style was an approach to musical development and continuity that neither developed or continued: themes didnt grow out of each other organically, they appeared pell-mell, piled on top of each other, strung along with carnivalesque variety; harmonic progressions bypassed modulation in favor of bootlegger turns and chromatic acrobatics. Fittingly, Poulenc was very fond of the surreal, shape-changing images and incongruous plots that filled the poems of Max Jacob (1876 - 1944), and set many of them to music. Among these are the four poems appearing in Poulencs Profane Cantata, Le Bal Masqué (The Masked Ball).
The work came as the result of a commission from the Vicomte and Vicomtesse de Noailles to compose a work for a 1932 concert at the Théâtre de Hyères. The poems, taken from Jacobs 1921 anthology, Laboratoire central, held for Poulenc a kind of odd Bradbury-esque nostalgia, and many of Jacobs images evoked faint fragments of memories. The song cycle reaches our ears, too, as a grab bag of unsorted, mismatched textual and musical remembrances. Poulencs score calls for a solo baritone (or mezzo), oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, piano, violin, cello, and percussion. This ensemble offers a broad timbral array, which allows the composer to be as playful with register and orchestration as he is with melody and harmony. His menagerie of melodies is passed from instrument to instrument, treating his clever lines with skillfully idiomatic charm and humor.
The cycle is structured in such a way that the four songs are separated by instrumental passages either autonomous movements, such as the Interlude between the first and second songs, and the Bagatelle that separates the third and fourth; or extended instrumental prefaces, such as the Caprice that precedes the Finale, or, for that matter, the long introduction to the first song. The Preamble begins with an infectiously peppy romp, bringing to mind the Darwinian cocktail party from Milhauds Création du Monde. The baritone enters, singing of a mysterious Madame la Dauphine, Chinese Peasants, and cannons made of goose fat. The most readily identifiable connections between this strange collection of observations are phonetic ones, which Poulenc makes abundantly clear through incessant repetition (Madame la Dauphine-fine-fine-fine-fine.... a peasant from Chine-chine-chine-chine... you get the idea). Elsewhere, the text is treated even more clownishly. A maudlin thirty-second note run introduces the overly-rhapsodic benediction that closes Malvina. Worse yet, the closing lines of the last poem in the cycle the singer, following the composers instructions très violent and exagérément articulé, tries to achieve an ever-climactic conclusion, repeating the last words an inexcusable number of times; and just when we think he might be finished, he leaps saucily into his falsetto range for a delightfully ridiculous finish.
Poulenc eventually sobered up a bit, and in his middle years he composed a large body of rather reverent sacred works. Still, pieces like the Laudamus Te from the Gloria, and the finale of his swansong, the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, demonstrate the youthful and invigorating wit of his earlier works.
[allmusic.com]")
![Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - String Quartet No. 19 Dissonance, K. 465 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kcfDxgfHs64/mqdefault.jpg "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - String Quartet No. 19 Dissonance, K. 465 [With score]
-Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791)
-Performers: Quatuor Mosaïques
String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, K. 465, written in 1785 [Haydn Quartet VI]
00:06 - I. Adagio - Allegro
14:08 - II. Andante cantabile
22:18 - III. Menuetto. Allegro
28:36 - IV. Allegro molto
The last of the six quartets Mozart dedicated to Haydn, K. 465 is officially in the sunny key of C major, but it owes its Dissonant nickname to its slow, tense introduction, full of unresolved harmonies over a throbbing cello line. Soon enough, this disorienting Adagio gives way to the first movements bright, Allegro main matter. The first violin sings out the short-phrased principal theme, which the other instruments soon pick up in contrapuntal imitation. A second, more jittery melody and a third in triplets all become fodder for a brief development section, although its the first theme, now with a minor cast, that dominates the proceedings until the recapitulation soothes the troubled quartet the exposition returning, of course, without the baggage of the dissonant introduction.
The second movement, Andante cantabile, wraps itself in warm F major, with all four instruments exploring a variety of highly lyrical thematic passages. Third comes a witty, Haydn-esque Minuet (and one that would influence Beethoven), full of sudden dynamic contrasts and pitting various combinations of instruments against each other. The brief Trio section dips into C minor for an episode of agitated pathos. As it begins, the finale (Allegro) has every indication of being a conventional if quick rondo, but the music continually veers into unexpected harmonic territory, skidding into the minor and fragmenting the themes; this is perhaps a sonata-allegro movement, with the development section split among the episodes of a rondo. Performers may play this as either comedy or drama, but the music is really a bold melding of the two.
[allmusic.com]")
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