The Music Professor0:00 Introduction with Loki 0:27 Picking up on previous videos about the Moonlight Sonata 1:08 Beethoven’s talent for finales 2:10 Music of absolute ferocity 2:57 Sonata form 3:59 First subject: galloping horse opening 4:21 Both radical and conservative 4:49 Improvisatory elements 5:57 The Passus Duriusculus with examples 7:21 Toccata-like figuration 8:18 Comparison with Beethoven 9 9:01 Transition (modulation) 9:19 Second subject and the influence of Mozart. 10:56 Funky rhythms 12:40 Neapolitan harmony 14:08 String-quartet-like texture 15:44 Development section 17:03 Dominant pedal 17:48 Recapitulation 18:40 Coda with cadenza elements 20:15 Influence on Chopin 21:29 "Music that sounds as if it could never have been otherwise” 23:00 Spontaneous performance on a fortepiano with analytical commentary
This video is about the third movement finale to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. It follows previous discussions on this channel about the first movement (youtu.be/Ejsh-NZCWm8) and the second movement (xyoutu.be/c0fpWX8Tgl0).
The finale to the Moonlight Sonata is one of the most famous examples of Beethoven’s most tempestuous style. After the dreamy and mysterious poem of the first movement and the subversive minuet of the second movement, Beethoven created a furious, galloping horse ride of a finale, composed in sonata form. In 1801, when it was composed, it was music of unprecedented virtuosity and power. Played on a fortepiano (the instrument for which it was composed) it has an unprecedented wildness. But, behind its turbulence, is a masterful control of form, and a respect for Mozart’s approach to sonata form in its profusion of themes.
In this video, Matthew King explains the entire movement in the context of Beethoven’s use of sonata form, showing how some of the compositional material reveals Beethoven’s skill as an improviser. The video ends with a recording of the complete movement, played on a fortepiano, with an animated analysis. The recording was made spontaneously on a fortepiano, without prior preparation and is therefore far from error-free! It is meant to be a demonstration of the music’s spontaneity and the absolute wildness of sonority which Beethoven originally intended when he first composed this music.
Moonlight Sonata Finale - How To Scare The ListenerThe Music Professor2024-08-31 | 0:00 Introduction with Loki 0:27 Picking up on previous videos about the Moonlight Sonata 1:08 Beethoven’s talent for finales 2:10 Music of absolute ferocity 2:57 Sonata form 3:59 First subject: galloping horse opening 4:21 Both radical and conservative 4:49 Improvisatory elements 5:57 The Passus Duriusculus with examples 7:21 Toccata-like figuration 8:18 Comparison with Beethoven 9 9:01 Transition (modulation) 9:19 Second subject and the influence of Mozart. 10:56 Funky rhythms 12:40 Neapolitan harmony 14:08 String-quartet-like texture 15:44 Development section 17:03 Dominant pedal 17:48 Recapitulation 18:40 Coda with cadenza elements 20:15 Influence on Chopin 21:29 "Music that sounds as if it could never have been otherwise” 23:00 Spontaneous performance on a fortepiano with analytical commentary
This video is about the third movement finale to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. It follows previous discussions on this channel about the first movement (youtu.be/Ejsh-NZCWm8) and the second movement (xyoutu.be/c0fpWX8Tgl0).
The finale to the Moonlight Sonata is one of the most famous examples of Beethoven’s most tempestuous style. After the dreamy and mysterious poem of the first movement and the subversive minuet of the second movement, Beethoven created a furious, galloping horse ride of a finale, composed in sonata form. In 1801, when it was composed, it was music of unprecedented virtuosity and power. Played on a fortepiano (the instrument for which it was composed) it has an unprecedented wildness. But, behind its turbulence, is a masterful control of form, and a respect for Mozart’s approach to sonata form in its profusion of themes.
In this video, Matthew King explains the entire movement in the context of Beethoven’s use of sonata form, showing how some of the compositional material reveals Beethoven’s skill as an improviser. The video ends with a recording of the complete movement, played on a fortepiano, with an animated analysis. The recording was made spontaneously on a fortepiano, without prior preparation and is therefore far from error-free! It is meant to be a demonstration of the music’s spontaneity and the absolute wildness of sonority which Beethoven originally intended when he first composed this music.
#Beethoven #Moonlightsonata #themusicprofessorWagner Had A... Complicated Personal LifeThe Music Professor2024-10-12 | There was nothing conventionally 19th century about Richard Wagner! He had a complicated personal life.The Music Professor vs Glenn GouldThe Music Professor2024-10-09 | 0:00 Introduction with Loki 0:09 Are dogs allowed? 0:40 Thoughts about lecture format and who the channel is for… 1:14 Introduction to Glenn Gould 2:38 Deep dive into “How Mozart became a bad composer 3:23 Gould’s playing and some inner contradictions 4:50 Gould’s argument 5:24 What Gould leaves out! 5:46 The opening of Mozart’s C minor concerto 7:07 Mozart, improvisation and laziness. 8:44 Inter-office memos, Divertimenti and Amadeus 10:48 The essence of Mozart’s genius 11:28 Sequences and predictability 12:37 How the piano begins: Mozart’s unique approach. 13:53 The sequential passage, Messiaen and rhythm 15:05 Simplicity, hemiolas, travelling, acceleration, arrival 17:23 What the orchestra does 18:09 Sir Humphrey Price-Davies, pomposity, tradition and iconoclasm 20:40 An 'appalling collection of clichés’ 22:47 Spinning gold from the tropes of the classical style 23:35 Mozart’s use of sequence and a comparison with Bach 25:39 Delinquent scales and arpeggios 26:56 Variation, canons and astonishing rhythmic invention 28:40 Mozart is still relevant to us!
In this video, Matthew King goes head to head with Glenn Gould. It's a deep dive into his famous 1968 TV essay, ‘How Mozart became a Bad Composer’. Matthew discusses the context of Gould’s criticisms and then debates the details, always conscious of Gould’s genius and his admirably mischievous interrogation of the classical canon. The key bone of contention is whether Mozart was a great musician of the late 18th century or whether he remains relevant today. Matthew also emphasises a key part of Mozart’s genius, rarely discussed: his wonderful sense of rhythm.
Glenn Gould’s original 1968 TV essay, ‘How Mozart became a Bad Composer’ can be seen here: youtu.be/1wLMdi8R4qg
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⦿ SUBSCRIBE TO THIS CHANNEL ⦿ bit.ly/3PnnwonBeethoven, Late Style & MegalopolisThe Music Professor2024-10-02 | 0:00 Apology for ‘impressionistic’ picture 0:05 Beethoven’s rarely performed late Bagatelle in G 1:06 Brief discussion of the bagatelle 2:01 Late Style poses more questions than it answers 3:24 Megalopolis 4:34 Empty cinemas 5:44 Late work is often judged harshly 6:43 We should have more respect for aging artists 7:12 What do you think?
In this short, one-off video, Matthew King plays a rarely performed late Beethoven Bagatelle and discusses the curious phenomenon of Late Style, when artists, in their later years, move beyond their own orthodoxy and embrace mystery and experimentalism in their final works. Matthew then reflects on his recent experience of watching the 84-year old Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis in an empty cinema, and asks some questions about the future of creativity and the curious deluge of hostility that has greeted the film, comparing this general critical negativity with similarly dismissive attitudes to late work in the past.
Beethoven: Bagatelle in G major (from the 1826 Diabelli edition of Op. 119)
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⦿ SUBSCRIBE TO THIS CHANNEL ⦿ bit.ly/3PnnwonThe Moonlight Sonata - All 3 Movements On A FortepianoThe Music Professor2024-09-28 | 0:00 First movement (Adagio sostenuto) 4:55 Second movement (Allegretto) 7:16 Third movement (Presto agitato)
Beethoven’s Moonlight sonata is one of the most famous pieces in the entire piano repertoire. Written in 1801, when Beethoven was 30, it was his 14th piano sonata (Op. 27, no. 2) and is the second of a pair of sonatas published together with the subtitle ‘Quasi Una Fantasia’ (the nickname ‘Moonlight’ came later). Beginning with the famous, poetic adagio, it progresses to a mid-tempo minuet and concludes with a ferociously high-speed finale.
The animated performance on this video was made quite spontaneously, on a fortepiano (the instrument for which Beethoven originally composed the piece). Matthew King recorded the 3 movements with very little preparation, but nevertheless considers the performance, for all its technical shortcomings, to be a relevant document in revealing some of the thrill and spontaneity of Beethoven’s music which has, to some extent, been concealed behind more than 200 years of virtuoso Romantic interpretation, on instruments which no longer closely resemble that for which Beethoven composed.
#Beethoven #Moonlightsonata #themusicprofessorChopin didnt Go Down Well With The Critics #themusicprofessor #chopin #pianoThe Music Professor2024-09-21 | A clip from the full lenght video about Chopin's E minor Prelude: youtube.com/watch?v=cXjrLB1yaT4&t=1363s&ab_channel=TheMusicProfessorThe Tristan Chord RevealedThe Music Professor2024-09-14 | 0:00 Introduction with Loki 1:22 Wagner - a colossal figure 1:58 Tristan und Isolde - his most famous achievement 2:21 Historical context: Revolution in Dresden 3:31 Rethinking opera 3:42 The Ring Cycle and the invention of the Leitmotif 4:05 Wagner’s influence on literature 4:38 Wagner interrupts work on the Ring Cycle 5:27 A philosophical explanation of Tristan & Isolde 6:21 The objective and the subjective 6:42 Tristan and Isolde’s dilemma 7:34 The potion reveals pure subjectivity 8:24 The most dramatic end to any operatic act! 8:49 Act 3 is one of the most amazing things... 9:03 Context: what does the Tristan chord represent? 9:52 No one had ever begun a piece of music like this before 10:40 Orchestration and symbolism 12:00 The sound is enigmatic 12:43 continuing phrases 13:39 Tonality is being outlined very systematically 15:13 It tends to be explained out of context 15:49. Wagner’s teachers, Partimento and the Rule of Octave 19:49 Harmonising a descending A minor scale bass line 20:23 Augmented 6th chords 21:11 The French 6th plus an appoggiatura 21:57 Transforming convention: a definition of genius 22:58 Wagner’s use of the chord throughout the opera 24:18 Tristan & Isolde is the seed of modernity 25:26 The final resolution of the chord at the end of the opera 25:47 Later developments: Debussy and Stravinsky 27:59 Tristan opens a new realm of possibilities 28:31 Reading through the opening of the Tristan Prelude at the piano
This video is a deep dive into Wagner’s Tristan chord, the most famous and enigmatic harmonic event in history.
Matthew King explains the chord from a number of perspectives, and helps to put this microcosm of Wagner’s genius into a broader dramatic and historical context, with some discussion of Wagner’s development, and a quick survey of subsequent literary and musical events that occurred under the spell of Tristan und Isolde.
Friedrich Nietzsche, who in his younger years was a close friend of Wagner’s, wrote that, for him, "Tristan and Isolde is the real opus metaphysicum of all art... insatiable and sweet craving for the secrets of night and death. . . it is overpowering in its simple grandeur". In 1868 he wrote about the effect of the Prelude: "I simply cannot bring myself to remain critically aloof from this music; every nerve in me is a-twitch, and it has been a long time since I had such a lasting sense of ecstasy as with this overture". Long after his split with Wagner, he still admired Tristan und Isolde: "Even now I am still in search of a work which exercises such a dangerous fascination, such a spine-tingling and blissful infinity as Tristan — I have sought in vain, in every art."
Here is a fascinating discussion for anyone wanting to look in more detail at the Tristan chord from the perspective of the Rule of Octave: youtu.be/YQRXbIV3gCc
Here is an interesting philosophical discussion about Tristan, the Ring and Parsifal between Sarah-Jane Leslie and the late Roger Scruton: youtu.be/vj4wKO_a56g
Hans Knappertsbusch’s recording of the Tristan Prelude (with the full score): youtu.be/bgObIjsSfYo
Marie Jacquot performs the Prelude and Liebestod (orchestra only) in 2022 with the WDR Symphony Orchestra: youtu.be/5aaXzYn86GU
Waltraud Meier, Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan orchestra perform the Prelude and Liebestod: youtu.be/n4bqRlNSQQE
Carlos Kleiber’s legendary recording of the entire opera (get hold of the libretto on line!) youtu.be/tzrPQkGjuII
Pierre Boulez conducts Wagner's rarely heard concert version of the Tristan Prelude which includes a fascinating new transition to the final B major resolution at the end of the opera: youtu.be/hcYjKs_9ov8?t=85
#wagner #tristanchord #themusicprofessorChopins Prelude in E Minor - Annotated ScoreThe Music Professor2024-08-17 | This video features a performance of Chopin’s Prelude in E minor with animated commentary. It comes from a longer video which features a detailed discussion of the prelude (youtu.be/cXjrLB1yaT4). Chopin’s E minor Prelude comes from his Op. 28 set of preludes in every key. The E minor prelude is a quintessential Romantic lament. Composed in the late 1830s, Chopin discovered new, unexplored harmonic possibilities in this apparently simple music, composed in 4 lines, shifting downwards in semitones. The music is a wonderfully concise and poetic depiction of melancholy in just two ’sentences’, each consisting of a sighing melody of fixed notes in the right hand over subtly shifting chords in the left hand. As it progresses in long, descending chromatic lines from tonic to dominant, the prelude gives rise to a rich and labyrinthine pathway of magically coloured harmonies.
Chopin Prelude in E minor Op 28 no. 4.
Pianist: Matthew King.
The longer video, featuring Matthew King's discussion of the prelude, can be seen here: youtu.be/cXjrLB1yaT4
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⦿ SUBSCRIBE TO THIS CHANNEL ⦿ bit.ly/3PnnwonRhythms And AlgorithmsThe Music Professor2024-08-13 | 0:00 Celebration of 50K subscribers with Loki 0:29 Loki leaves 0:44 Please like and subscribe and consider donating to the channel! 1:18 To celebrate 50K I’m going to play something from Bartok’s Mikrokosmos… 1:30 Brief chat about Bartok and his dances in Bulgarian Rhythm 2:05 My first encounter with Bartok 2:41 Bartok’s 4th Dance in Bulgarian Rhythm from Mikrokosmos Book 6.
A celebration of 50K subscribers to the Music Professor channel, featuring a celebratory rendition of Bartok’s 4th Dance in Bulgarian Rhythm from his Mikrokosmos Book 6.
Bartok: Dance in Bulgarian no. 4 from Mikrokosmos Book 6.
Bartok’s own magnificent (1940) recording of his Dance in Bulgarian no. 4 from Mikrokosmos Book 6: youtu.be/cqPU_hf7I4A
The complete (1940) recording of Bartok playing all 6 pieces in Bulgarian rhythm: youtu.be/Cj306a_qTPk
#Bartok #Mikrokosmos #themusicprofessorIs This Really The Raindrop Prelude?The Music Professor2024-08-03 | 0:00 Introduction with Loki 0:24 Pronunciation of Chopin’s name 1:00 Background 1:30 Chopin’s Preludes Op. 28 and the example of Bach 2:50 The radical thing about Op. 28 3:31 Romantic fragments and ruins 3:56 What Schumann said 4:54 What Liszt said 5:26 Every character is there 5:59 The holiday in Majorca with George Sand 6:44 George Sand’s account 10:03 Which prelude is ’The Raindrop’? 11:31 A study in quaver motion with a pedal note 13:12 The melody 15:35 The nocturne genre 17:49 The middle section in C sharp minor 22:25 A very characteristic chord 23:10 Recapitulation 23:26 The magnificent anti-cadenza 24:40 D flat ‘Raindrop’ Prelude Op. 28 (with animated commentary)
This video is an introduction to Chopin’s famous ‘Raindrop’ Prelude in D flat major, the longest in Chopin’s set of preludes Op. 28. Matthew King explores the background to Chopin’s preludes, both in terms of his desire to create a systematic set of works in the tradition of Bach, exploring every key and a huge range of musical characters. At the same time, the pieces are radical Romantic works: ‘Ruins’ and ‘eagles’ pinions’ as Schumann described them. Matthew King also discusses the famous holiday in Majorca with George Sand, and her magnificent but rather Romantic account of their composition. The piece is then analysed at the piano. The video ends with a complete performance of the prelude with animated commentary.
#Chopin #raindropprelude #The MusicProfessorWas Mendelssohn Greater Than Mozart?The Music Professor2024-07-20 | Check out the full video this clip is from here: youtube.com/watch?v=xqf4Ezvg8aQ&t=6s&ab_channel=TheMusicProfessorBoring Classical Music (According To Reddit) Part 2The Music Professor2024-07-13 | 0:00 Welcome to Part 2 (and please watch Part) Liszt’s sonata is playing. 0:14 Handel’s Messiah and the Hallelujah chorus 1:00 Handel and Stravinsky 1:24 Bruckner 2:10 Myaskovsky 2:28 Chopin’s funeral march 4:41 Delius 5:09 John Cage: 4’33’' 5:33 Vivaldi’s mandolin concertos 5:55 Mahler’s 5th Symphony 7:23 Chopin’s…what? 7:34 Pachelbel’s canon 8:26 Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder 9:16 Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker 10:56 Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms 11:43 Schubert’s G major Quartet 11:51 Boulez Structures I & 2. 12:13 Dvorak’s New World Symphony slow movement 13:00 Music and magic 13:30 Use your Ears! 13:53 Over to you…
Can classical music be boring? In this video, Matthew King reacts to a Subreddit discussion in which certain classical composers and pieces are said to be boring.
#Boringmusic #themusicprofessorBoring Classical Music (According To Reddit)The Music Professor2024-06-29 | 0:00 Introduction with Loki 0:27 Can classical music be boring? 0:57 Chopin wrote a fugue 2:10 Viola sonata by Mendelssohn 3:23 Beethoven’s influence on Mendelssohn 4:38 Satie’s Vexations 5:38 Ravel’s Bolero 8:02 Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony 11:15 Vaughan Williams ’The Lark Ascending’ 12:15 Anything written by Haydn 12:58 Comparison with Stamitz 14:39 Haydn’s Trumpet concerto 15:06 Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra 15:50 Mahler’s first symphony 17:10 Einaudi 17:14 Pachelbel’s Canon in D 17:23 Many composers… 18:33 Brahms 1st piano concerto 18:48 Liszt’s B minor Sonata
Can classical music be boring? In this video, Matthew King reacts to a Subreddit discussion in which certain classical composers and pieces are said to be boring.
#Boringmusic #themusicprofessorBeethovens 9th - Whats that all about?! (Part 1)The Music Professor2024-06-15 | 0:00 Introduction with Loki 0:35 200th anniversary of Beethoven 9 0:53 The Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna 1:14 Proposal of a soap opera format. What do you think? 1:50 The 9th century in Beethoven’s career 2:47 The evolution of Beethoven’s style 3:17 The middle period 3:41 The Theatre an Der Wien concert in 1808 4:00 The premiere of the 5th and 6th symphonies 4:48 The Choral Fantasia and the Ode to Joy 6:36 Years of struggle 7:28 The Phoenix-like emergence of the late period 8:58 Schiller’s Ode to Joy and Beethoven’s universal hymn 9:20 There’s more to the 9th than the finale! 9:37 Beethoven never repeats himself 10:21 The open ‘primal’ 5th 12:10 Dotted rhythms 12:46 Momentum 12:58 The emergence of D 13:15 The main theme 13:54 Beethoven: Romanticism and looking back 14:37 Almost like a French Overture 15:12 Harmony comes in 15:37 The Neapolitan (E flat) 16:04 answering phrase on the dominant 16:18 Beethoven disrupts rhythm at the cadence 17:38 The 2nd sentence on tonic 18:32 The emergence of B flat 19:00 Transition (Liszt’s transcription) 19:25 We’re on the move! The Toccata 20:08 A comparison with Beethoven’s 5th symphony (Learned Style) 21:02 The canon and the wonderful modulation 22:32 The new serene Pastoral character 22:55 It’s like a play 23:10 Do you want a 2nd episode on the 2nd subject…? 23:40 Liszt’s arrangement of the 1st Subject of Beethoven 9 with analytical commentary
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the premiere of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in May 1824, this video attempts to explain a work which has attained monumental status within Western culture. Matthew King discusses Beethoven’s final symphony in the context of his entire career and the evolution of his style. There is a comparison between Beethoven’s triumphant Viennese symphonic concert in 1808 and his ‘return’ concert in 1824. Matthew King then explains the extraordinary opening of the symphony, emerging as if out of primal mystery, and he considers how Beethoven’s material manages both to look forward to Romanticism, and also back to the past with elements of Baroque style.
If you would like the survey of Beethoven's 9th symphony to continue, please say so in the comments below.
Beethoven Symphony no. 9 in D Minor Op. 125 (transcription by Franz Liszt)
Pianist: Matthew King.
Liszt’s complete transcription of the first movement of Beethoven 9 can be heard here in a recording by Cyprien Katsaris: youtu.be/3h7e_UI24BU?si=Qt4Jg_3hMZ1X5mMD
A wonderful performance of Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia of 1808 can be heard here, with Martha Argerich at the piano, conducted by the late Seji Ozawa: youtu.be/GjXBKR4iDS8?si=BSLe7fkDlWfaFQ6u
#beethovensymphony #odetojoy #TheMusicProfessorThe Music prof. Breaks Down Bernstein on Beethoven 7The Music Professor2024-06-01 | 0:00 Introduction with Loki 0:36 This is one of the most unremarkable melodies 1:14 Bernstein’s showing off 1:31 Allegretto tempo 1:46 “It isn’t a good tune” 2:33 The primary element is rhythm 3:15 Schubert was obsessed with this material 4:00 "Do you like the melody?" 4:36 The chromatic drop 5:10 Is Beethoven a great melodist? 6:00 “There’s nothing there!” 6:21 "He spent his whole life trying to write a good fugue" 7:26 Comparison with Mozart 7:40 The late fugues 8:23 The Archduke trio 8:49 Simplicity is a hugely undervalued quality 9:31 The Russian tradition of melody 9:45 Beethoven learnt his compositional tricks from Haydn 10:08 "Beethoven was a nobody!” 10:49 An example from the Appassionata 12:24 Orchestration? The 8th Symphony 13:04 Beethoven’s deafness affecting his textures 14:21 Bernstein’s hyperbole 14:41 Mahler’s reorchestrations of Beethoven 14:59 Slightly old fashioned gestures in late Beethoven 15:24 Comparison with Berlioz and the younger generation 16:36 Lenny’s really going for Beethoven 17:14 "In Beethoven’s case, the form is all” 18:28 "No composer ever had that - even Mozart!” 18:41 “It’s so unpredictable and so right” 19:09 “He struggled!” 19:31 Works that Beethoven was planning when he died 19:58 A digression about Beethoven’s unfinished String Quintet sketch 21:12 Beethoven’s crazy life 22:28 Struggling with severe disability 23:00 “…phoned in from God!” 23:42 Berio and sculpture 24:02 "But he wrecked himself trying to achieve this inevitability” 24:43 “It could be no other way.” 25:01 Berlioz listening to Beethoven’s 5th symphony
In this video Matthew King reacts to an extract from Leonard Bernstein’s conversation with Maximilian Schell about Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. The focus of the discussion is the famous Allegretto second movement. Bernstein’s comments on the piece are characteristically brilliant and perceptive but also full of hyperbole and exaggeration. Matthew King analyses Bernstein’s remarks, using them as a springboard for a broader discussion about Beethoven’s life and work.
The original discussion between Maximilian Schell and Leonard Bernstein about Beethoven’s 6th and 7th symphonies can be seen here: youtube.com/watch?v=OuYY1gV8jhU
#Bernstein #Beethoven7 #TheMusicProfessorPrelude in E Minor: How Chopin Baffled CriticsThe Music Professor2024-05-18 | 0:00 Introduction with Loki. 0:28 Chopin and the advance of harmonic vocabulary 1:10 The Preludes, Chopin and George Sand 1:31 Chopin and improvisation 2:27 Improvisation and composition, a historical perspective. 3:07 The structure and key relationships of the Preludes 3:31 Simplicity and complexity 4:01 A huge compendium of Chopin’s virtuosity 4:20 A comparison with James Joyce 5:51 The E minor is a Lament 5:13 Dido’s Lament by Purcell. 5:54 The Passus Duriusculus 6:35 Bach’s Crucifixus 7:29 Beethoven’s 9th Symphony 8:29 Chopin’s lament breaks with tradition 10:03 The pedal note and the sigh 11:20 The chromatic descent in 3 parts 13:05 Chopin’s magical harmony 14:51 The first half: more and more poignant 17:16 The second half: faster and more turbulent 20:33 Contemporary criticisms of Chopin in the London Press in the 1840s 23:16 Chopin, the radical: new vistas, new colours, new harmonic possibilities. 24:17 Chopin’s E min or Prelude (with animated commentary)
This video is an introduction to Chopin’s Prelude in E minor: the quintessential Romantic lament, popular among virtuoso pianists and amateur players alike. Composed in the late 1830s, Chopin discovered new, unexplored harmonic possibilities in this apparently simple music, creating a wonderfully concise and poetic depiction of melancholy in just two ’sentences’: each one consisting of a sighing melody of fixed notes in the right hand over subtly shifting chords in the left hand. As it progresses in long, descending chromatic lines (in all 3 parts) from tonic to dominant, the music gives rise to a rich and labyrinthine pathway of magically coloured harmonies.
Apologies for the slightly fuzzy resolution on this video. Matthew had the camera on the wrong setting!
#Chopin #EminorPrelude #themusicprofessorThe Dune Soundtrack: What the **** is Hans Zimmer doing...!!!?The Music Professor2024-05-04 | In this video, the Music Professor reacts to the epic soundtrack to ‘Dune’ by Hans Zimmer.
Encouraged by a younger viewer to "check out the Dune soundtrack", Matthew King, without any prior knowledge, reacts spontaneously to a short online video of Hans Zimmer and friends performing the soundtrack live. Matthew's reaction includes various attempts to play and ‘sing’ extracts from Zimmer’s score in the moment (and inevitably there are occasional lapses of memory and inaccuracies!)
This is really an exercise in instantaneous reaction. Feel free to react spontaneously (if politely!) in the comments below.
#HansZimmer #Dune #TheMusicProfessorIs This Really The Best Piece Ever Written...?The Music Professor2024-04-13 | This is the second part of Matthew King’s critical reaction to Classic FM’s notorious 'Hall of Fame' and features the thrilling final countdown to ONE. Matthew King, without any prior knowledge, attempts to play and ‘sing’ pieces on the spur of the moment (and inevitably there are terrible displays of ignorance, along with occasional lapses of memory, inaccuracies and some truly appalling vocalisation!) This is really an exercise in instantaneous reaction.
This is really an exercise in instantaneous reaction. Feel free to react spontaneously (if politely!) in the comments below.
#ClassicFM #HallofFame #TheMusicProfessorDeath In Venice is Seriously CreepyThe Music Professor2024-04-11 | Matthew saw the Welsh National Opera perform Death In Venice by Benjamin Britten. Here is what he had to say about it.Classic FM Made A Stupid List - ReactionThe Music Professor2024-04-06 | This video is a purely reactive one. Matthew King, without any prior knowledge, checks over the top 50 items (this is part 1) in the Classic FM 'Hall of Fame’ and reacts spontaneously to them. The reaction includes various attempts to play and ‘sing’ extracts from some of them on the spur of the moment (and inevitably there are quite a few lapses of memory and inaccuracies!)
This is really an exercise in instantaneous reaction. Feel free to react spontaneously (if politely!) in the comments below.
#ClassicFM #Top50 #The MusicProfessorTräumerei: Schumanns WONDERFUL Dream!The Music Professor2024-03-23 | 0:00 Introduction with Loki 0:14 Kinderszenen: a song cycle without words 0:30 The Mendelssohns invent a genre 1:11 Schumann invents a genre 1:36 A turbulent year. Separation from Clara 1:56 Clara: a child prodigy 2:20 A radical marriage 2:43 Clara instructs Robert to be more popular 3:26 Florestan and Eusebius 4:20 Conversation with Wagner 4:52 Schumann's introspection 5:20 Träumerei in film 5:35 Horowitz and Träumerei 6:45 Debate between Berg and Pfitzner 7:07 Inspiration vs analysis 8:01 Tempo, metronomes and historical change. 9:40 Träumerei played at its original tempo 10:28 Loki leaves the room 11:21 Schumann’s original intention and subsequent slowing down. 11:45 The still centre of the cycle 12:29 8 phrases, each with a rising 4th 13:12 Schumann’s ‘organic’ variation 13:45 3 steps and horn calls 14:10 Phrases of 5 beats and 3 beats 15:00 Every phrase is harmonised differently 16:20 Quick analysis 16:44 Counterpoint like a quartet 17:09 The melancholy turn 17:22 B flat 17:46 The 7th 18:44 Schumann represents Clara in music. 19:33 Influence on Debussy 21:00 Schumann’s Träumerie: performance with annotations.
This video is an introduction to Schumann’s Träumerie of 1838, one of Schumann's most famous piano pieces, used frequently in cinema, and the subject of some controversy. It is the still, dreamy, central 7th piece in a 'song-cycle without words' of 13 miniature piano pieces called Kinderszenen (‘Scenes from Childhood’). Its wonderful evocation of dreaminess grows out of its rhythmic ambiguity and the beautiful subtleties of its melodic and harmonic writing. Each phrase floats like a song melody and then dissolves in a delicate web of counterpoint.
Robert Schumann: Träumerei (1838)
Pianist: Matthew King.
One of Horowitz’s many recorded performance of Träumerei (this one in Moscow in 1986) can be seen here: youtu.be/3fhKaAX5dOc
Another performance by Horowitz, this time with the whole of Kinderszenen: youtu.be/yibf6QNjgGU
Andreas Staier’s recording of Träumerei on a fortepiano can be heard here: youtu.be/ws_hMJsu8TM
Edited by Ian Coulter ( iancoultermusic.com ) Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew King
#Schumann #Kinderscenen #themusicprofessorWhen Schumann Gets IntimateThe Music Professor2024-03-09 | Robert Schumann composed Von Fremdmen Ländern und Menschen (‘From Unknown Lands and People’) in 1838 while he was separated from his future wife, Clara, whose father refused permission for the couple to be together. It is a wonderfully poetic opening to a sequence of 13 miniatures called Kinderszenen (‘Scenes from Childhood’), a song-cycle without words.
In its tiny frame, the piece explores fascinating changes of mood and a unique approach to transition. Schumann floats a soaring phrase several times over a gentle triplet accompaniment, like a barcarolle, with the notes divided between the hands. Inside the texture, the musical notes BACH revolve mysteriously. Schumann loved ciphers - the musical letters in Clara’s name (CAA) also appear in the piece, to magical effect.
In a future video, Matthew King will discuss some of these things in more detail
Robert Schumann: Von Fremdmen Ländern und Menschen (1838)
Edited by Ian Coulter ( iancoultermusic.com ) Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew King
#Schumann #Kinderscenen #themusicprofessorSaties VEXATIONS (complete): All secrets are revealed!The Music Professor2024-02-24 | 0:00 Hold onto you seats 0:13 Bass line 0:28 Harmony 0:43 Inversion 0:58 The 3 lines 1:58 The chords 3:02 Music without a tonal centre 3:26 The phrases 3:56 The reason this music can bear repetition 5:09 Satie’s mysterious instruction 6:24 The New York premiere 7:23 Satie’s relationship with Suzanne Valadon 8:24 Suzanne Valadon’s hat 9:23 Suzanne Valadon’s portrait of Satie 9:54 Satie admiration for Valadon 10:23 A pet goat 10:52 Cats and caviar 11:08 A corsage of carrots 11:22 Valadon leaves Satie 13:36 Satie’s calligraphy 14:52 Satie’s portrait of Valadon 15:56 More pictures by Suzanne Valadon 16:55 Valadon as model 18:20 Satie falls out with Paladin 21:25 Peladin’s novels 22:14 Writers who admired Paladin 24:20 Peladin’s cult 24:50 Satie is official composer 26:30 Peladin’s Salon 27:33 Satie’s differences with Paladin 32:20 Gregorian chant 35:19 Satie’s Open Letter 36:46 Friendship with Debussy 37:25 Satie’s influence on Debussy 39:19 A picture of Wagner 40:46 Advice to Debussy 45:45 Disagreements over Wagner 48:10 Vexations is a response to Wagner 51:16 Humour and seriousness 52:41 Satie influences Debussy’s career 54:45 Satie and the Windmill 57:42 A painting by Renoir 58:41 Bohemianism 01:00:41 The Monkish phase 01:02:00 A spoof cult 01:04:10 Which instrument? 01:06:20 Satie’s apartment as Abbey 01:15:00 Strange letters 01:22:00 Satie’s changes of style 01:22:52 The Velvet Gentleman phase 01:24:30 Comparison with David Bowie 01:27:30 Brian Eno 01:29:31 Written before Brahms 01:31:00 A challenge to German music 01:33:27 Satie’s influence 01:36:28 Satie and Stravinsky 01:38:23 New accommodation 01:39:34 Radical politics 01:41:23 Zizek 01:44:23 Furniture music 01:49:25 Communism 01:50:53 A minimalist order: a better world 01:57:21 Satie and Debussy 02:02:56 Debussy’s piano playing 02:04:20 Lunches with Debussy 02:07:47 Debussy’s eggs and cutlets 02:11:13 Satie and Debussy: very different political ideas 02:20:21 Debussy becomes prosperous 02:22:45 Photograph by Stravinsky 02:24:40 Stravinsky’s recollections of Satie 02:32:10 Bottles of water and a hammock 02:35:07 Satie describes his own music 02:38:35 The form of Vexations 02:42:04 Socrate and Princess de Polignac. 02:46:04 Stravinsky’s memories of Socrate 02:50:34 Debussy, Satie and Stravinsky 02:54:29 Satie describes his working day 03:06:04 Satie and Debussy quarrel about Parade 03:07:24 Picasso 03:09:54 Debussy’s jealousy. Jeux etc. 03:12:58 Parade 03:18:56 Satie writing about his tragic rift with Debussy 03:29:50 Satie and surrealism 03:31:00 Poulenc describes the premiere of Parade 03:42:39 Debussy dies 03:45:13 Satie writes about Debussy 03:47:43 Satie and Poulenc 03:52:12 Satie and Ravel 03:56:39 Satie admires and criticises Ravel 04:02:13 Poulenc remembers Satie 04:04:21 Satie’s influence on Cage 04:07:38 Cage discovers Vexations 04:11:35 Cage organises premiere 04:14:31 Christian Wolf remembers the premiere 04:18:32 Cage on Satie 04:21:33 Poulenc on Satie 04:23:38 100 umbrellas 04:25:27 Pumice and Paranoia 04:29:30 Poulenc remembers Socrate 04:33:50 Satie played the piano badly 04:38:24 Satie’s aphorisms 04:46:42 The new spirit 04:53:18 Satie on Animals 04:58:15 Satie on Artistic Truth 05:05:32 Satie on Stravinsky 05:07:48 Satie’s Conservatory Catechism 05:09:39 “What I am” 05:19:43 Intelligence and Musicality among Animals 05:32:08 Child Musicians 06:10:00 Musical Spirit 06:33:22 Theatricalities 06:42:58 Perfect Surroundings 06:48:48 Montmartre Musicians 06:52:13 Odd Corners of my Life
This is a complete performance of Erik Satie’s 'Vexations' (with a written commentary). Satie's famous, and mysterious notations, half joking, half serious, on a single page of manuscript have inspired the longest video yet released on this channel.
Vexations (like a Samuel Beckett play) is mysterious, absurd, baffling and unsettling in equal measure, occupying a strange twilight between comedy and tragedy: a circular, self-referential paradox.
But Satie also invented the idea of ‘furniture music’. Listeners should feel free to dip and out of this video or to have it playing in the background while they do other things.
Satie’s instruction, "At this sign customarily the theme of the Bass will be presented” is somewhat ambiguous, since the “theme in the bass” is present within each harmonised passage. For this performance, to save time (!) Matthew King departs from orthodox performance tradition and has interpreted the “theme of the Bass" as simply occurring within the 3 part texture, not on its own. This follows the recommendation of the Satie Scholar, Robert Orledge: “My advice to pianists would be to play the bass theme at the start, and then the two chordal strands as many times as they can without hallucinating or collapsing from exhaustion."
Bon Appetite!
Erik Satie: Vexations (1893)
Pianist: Matthew King.
An edited version of Igor Levit’s marathon performance in 2020: bit.ly/49suEJW
#Vexations #Satie #themusicprofessorRavels Tiny MasterpieceThe Music Professor2024-02-10 | The first 500 people to use my link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare https://skl.sh/themusicprofessor02241
0:00 Introduction with Loki 0:09 Ravel’s marvellous underrated Prelude 0:35 It’s an easier piece (quote from Scarbo played by Argerich) 0:47 The year 1913 0:54 Three great ballets of 1912 1:32 Collaboration with Stravinsky 1:46 Trois Poèmes de Stephane Mallarmé 1:57 Ravel, a composer of masterpieces 2:30 Inspiration of Schoenberg and Stravinsky 2:43 The third song in the Mallarmé cycle 3:33 Ravel straightens out the Mallarmé motif 4:22 A sight-reading test piece for the Paris Conservatoire 5:09 A short analysis of the Prelude 5:40 a simple illustration of Ravel’s harmony 6:13 Radiant D major, bitter-sweet D minor 6:44 Comparison with Puccini 7:14 More poignant than before 7:36 The most beautiful phrase of all. 8:11 Debussy: “It is the product of the finest ears that have ever existed” 8:55 Ian Coulter introduces Skillshare 10:37 Ravel’s Prelude in A minor (with animated commentary)
Ravel’s exquisite Prelude in A minor of 1913 is one of his shortest and least played pieces. This video explains the prelude in the context of Ravel’s life and work during the period it was written. There is a short explanation of how the music works, followed by a performance of the prelude with animated commentary at the end of the video.
Prelude in A minor (1913) by Maurice Ravel. Pianist Matthew King.
Check out other videos about Ravel on this channel:
Edited by Ian Coulter ( iancoultermusic.com ) Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew King
#Ravel #Prelude #TheMusicProfessorIs The Poor Things Score A Masterpiece?The Music Professor2024-01-30 | Matthew gives a very quick, concise review of Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things, featuring Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo. Tell us your own thoughts on the film.Moonlight Sonata 2nd Movement - Full PerformanceThe Music Professor2024-01-27 | This is an animated recording of the second movement of Beethoven’s Sonata quasi Una Fantasia Op 27 no. 2, more commonly know as the Moonlight Sonata.
In September 2023, this channel released a video ( youtube.com/watch?v=c0fpWX8Tgl0&ab_channel=TheMusicProfessor ) which included a longer discussion of the origins and cultural context of this piece, focussing on the second movement. In response to the various comments and requests for the score and recording alone, we are now releasing this separate video without the preliminary discussion, and containing just the first edition score, and a recording, on a fortepiano, of the second movement, plus an animated commentary.Träumerie - When Schumann Had A DreamThe Music Professor2024-01-13 | Robert Schumann composed Träumerie in 1838. It is the still, dreamy, central 7th piece in a cycle of 13 pieces called Kinderszenen (‘Scenes from Childhood’). Its wonderful evocation of dreaminess grows out of its rhythmic ambiguity and the beautiful subtleties of its melodic and harmonic writing. Each phrase floats like a song melody and then dissolves in a delicate web of counterpoint.
Edited by Ian Coulter ( iancoultermusic.com ) Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew KingWas Napoleon Any Good?The Music Professor2024-01-05 | Matthew gives a very quick, concise review of Ridley Scott's Napoleon, featuring Joaquin Phoenix. Tell us your own thoughts on the film.What is this instrument?The Music Professor2023-12-30 | Matthew has stumbled upon quite a strange instrument at Walmer Castle. What is this thing called?Carol Of The Bells Arranged For 7 HandsThe Music Professor2023-12-25 | The Carol of the Bells is a popular Christmas carol based on an old Ukrainian song called ‘Schedryk’. The King family have created our own version of the carol with 7 hands at the piano (the 7th hand moves from the bottom to the top of the keyboard).
We dedicate this little Christmas piece to the people of Ukraine this Christmas.
Edited by Ian Coulter ( iancoultermusic.com ) Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew KingThis Is How Christmas SoundsThe Music Professor2023-12-23 | 0:00 Introduction with Loki 0:12 Liszt’s Christmas Tree Suite 0:30 Not the sexy Liszt or the grand Liszt 0:58 An old man, struggling with alcoholism, depression and a nomadic life 1:52 Christmas 1881 in Rome 2:21 Liszt’s upright piano 3:00 Debussy’s visit and Liszt’s pedal 3:17 The soap opera 3:39 Cosima 3:43 Hans von Bulow 4:09 (similarity to Stockhausen) 4:36 Rehearsals of Tristan and Isolde 5:12 Wagner’s affair with Cosima 5:31 The kids and their stepfather 6:00 Wagner’s wide brimmed hat 6:14 Daniela’s career 6:24 Liszt or Daniela? 6:44 Reaction against virtuosity 6:55 The late style at its most charming 7:16 In Dulci Jubilo 7:45 The pastoral atmosphere and the siciliano rhythm 8:09 Greensleeves 8:29 Liszt invents Christmas harmony 9:50 A sign of genius 10:10 Gregorian chant and bells 10:47 The middle of the piece: E major - a shift of colour 12:28 Liszt’s arrangement for two pianists 12:57 A beautiful Lisztian coda reconciles the two keys 14:02 The final chord 14:30 Liszt’s ’Shepherds at the Manger’ (with animated commentary)
‘Weihnachtsbaum' (Christmas Tree) is a suite of 12 pieces for solo piano by Franz Liszt which he dedicated to his granddaughter Daniela. The first performance took place in Daniela’s hotel room in Rome, in December 1881. This video is about the third piece in the cycle, which represents the shepherds at the manger, and uses the melody of an ancient Christmas carol called 'In Dulce Jubilo’ with a rocking siciliano accompaniment, halfway between Gregorian chant and a lullaby. Its wonderfully simple and unpretentious style is so effective that it almost single-handedly defines how Christmas music is meant to sound!
Die Hirten an Der Krippe (from Weihnachtsbaum) by Liszt. Pianist Matthew King.
Stephanie McCallum’s recording of Liszt’s Weihnachtsbaum can be heard here: youtu.be/16WOBK0tlPg
You can see Marta Argerich and Daniel Barenboim play Liszt’s duet version of the first piece of the cycle here: youtu.be/CTXjCIFnkZU
Edited by Ian Coulter ( iancoultermusic.com ) Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew KingThis Is The Most Annoying Thing On The InternetThe Music Professor2023-12-15 | The internet seems to be becoming increasingly saturated with ads promoting super-fast musical tuition and promising spectacular results over very short periods of time. My main concern about these claims is that they promise the El Dorado of musical accomplishment without having to bother with the (fabulous and rewarding) journey of genuine musical training. Music teachers are consequently portrayed as old-fashioned, boring pedants who should be avoided, whereas, in actual fact the opposite is true: always TRUST those who have genuine experience and expertise and (as always in life) AVOID the charlatans and confidence tricksters who are trying to sell their nice easy ’too good to be true’ package.
This video is dedicated to the many brilliant, hard working, underpaid music teachers all over the world, including those wonderful teachers who have taught me, and encouraged and inspired members of my own family, who have made music tuition a joy not a chore, and have found so many different ways to open windows onto the vistas of sound, making music exciting and attainable for their students. Thank you.
Don’t trust the charlatans. Support your local music teacher!
Piano improvisation on 'Three Blind Mice' by Matthew King
With spoken contributions from George Vere, Christina King and Ian Coulter.
Edited by Ian Coulter ( iancoultermusic.com ) Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew KingIf Chopin Had Written Now And Then By The BeatlesThe Music Professor2023-12-13 | Taken from our longer video which discusses The Beatle's new song Now and then (bit.ly/3NkKeOz), here is Matthew improvising on the theme in the style of Frédéric Chopin.Was Maestro Oscar-Bait? 🎥🏆The Music Professor2023-12-11 | Matthew gives a very quick movie review of 'Maestro', the new biopic on Leonard Bernstein.
Edited by Ian CoulterNew Arrangement Of WagnerThe Music Professor2023-12-02 | Matthew is in Inverness this weekend where his new version of Wagner’s Siegfried Act III for chamber orchestra is being played by The Mahler Players.The Beatles’ Now And Then In The Style Of 6 ComposersThe Music Professor2023-11-30 | Right now, the first 500 people to use my link will get a one month free trial of Skillshare https://skl.sh/themusicprofessor11231
0:00 Introduction (minus Loki) 1:01 Joni Mitchell’s 80th Birthday 2:02 The release of ’Now and Then’ 2:54 The original version 3:54 A short description of ’Now and Then’ 4:19 The part of the song that was edited out. 5:11 The final version. 6:43 The Beatles phenomenon 7:49 Album after album 8:28 Brief comparison with Hitchcock and Beethoven 8:50 Moments when creative energy collides with the zeitgeist 9:05 The fragmentation of the Beatles 9:33 An essay in nostalgia 10:12 Paul McCartney: the driving force 10:44 A very touching document. 11:04 Now and Then 11:39 The brief return of Loki 12:00 A word about Skillshare 13:34 John Lennon’s Spanish style 14:18 The Phrygian drop 14:46 Conversational style in Lennon’s songwriting 15:38 Improvising in the style… 15:54 Improvising in the style of Beethoven 18:37 J.S.Bach 19:34 Mozart 21:24 Chopin 21:53 Liszt 22:32 Ravel 23:08 An absurd exercise and a question 23:58 Ian’s button and YouTube membership
This video is about the Beatles’ ‘final’ song, Now and Then, which was released on 2 November 2023. The video considers the origins of the song, John Lennon’s original home recording from 1977, the Beatles final version, the song's place in the band’s output, and its role as a cultural document. Matthew King reflects on the Beatles’ achievement and considers how the song fits into the story of a band who were once at the cutting edge of innovation and cultural change, and are now icons of a lost world.
In the second half of the video Matthew improvises on the first phrase of the song in the styles of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Liszt and Ravel.
Edited by Ian Coulter ( iancoultermusic.com ) Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew KingWest Side Story and Bernsteins TritoneThe Music Professor2023-11-25 | 0:00 Intro 1:09 Release of’Maestro’ in cinemas 0:45 Benjamin Britten’s musical trinity 1:02 Bernstein overview 3:56 pre-film thoughts 4:37 Intro to West Side Story 6:00 Bernstein understands tension 6:57 The fusion of genres 7:29 The tritone and the perfect 5th. 9:29 The overture and the Jets 10:19 Bitonality and rhythmic dislocation 11:18 ‘Cool’ and the fugue 13:34 A tritone bass in the pasodoble 14:00 Romantic elements: ’Something’s coming’. 15:06 Tony & Maria and the redemptive power of love… 16:22 ‘Maria’ 17:15 Duet: 'A Boy like that’ 18:55 ‘I have a love’: the climactic tritone 20:50 The final bars: a possibility of hope. 21:46 footnote 1: Wagner’s use of the tritone 22:34 footnote 2: Stravinsky’s use of the tritone 23:50 Conclusion
Recorded on the eve of the release of the movie ‘Maestro’, this video focusses on Leonard Bernstein and his multifaceted talent as composer, conductor and communicator before taking a deep dive into ‘West Side Story’, focussing on how Bernstein enhances the drama through his use of the tritone as a symbol of societal tension which can only find resolution through the redemptive power of love.
There is a huge amount of footage of Bernstein conducting and communicating on YouTube. Here are some examples.
#Bernstein #Westsidestory #themusicprofessorWhich Show Is This?The Music Professor2023-11-23 | Can anyone tell us which show Matthew is talking about, in which he forgets the names of its two main characters? This may also be a clue as to what our next video will cover!Mozarts miraculous final year...and LisztThe Music Professor2023-11-18 | 00:00 Intro 1:01 ‘Mysterious Mozart’ 1:19 A meal with Haydn 1:44 The greatest creative year of his life 2:28 What if Mozart had gone to London? 2:57 Mozart and Haydn were friends 4:44 Ave Verum Corpus 5:47 Music and spirituality. 6:11 Comparison with Shakespeare 7:20 Mozart excels at every genre. 8:00 Mozart's beginnings 9:01 Then the chorus comes in 9:25 It doesn’t matter whether you’re a believer or not. 10:11 The second phrase 10:30 “On the cross” - on a suspension. 12:07 The Third phrase…development 14:40 The final phrase…like a recapitulation. 16:00 The trial of death. 17:34 Liszt in 1862 19:17 The Sistine chapel 20:35 The Mozart miracle 22:17 Liszt’s singing piano 23:12 Tchaikovsky’s version
In June 1791, Mozart took a break from composing his final opera, ’The Magic Flute’ in order to visit his wife who was staying in a spa near Vienna called Baden bei Wien. Constanza was expecting their sixth child (Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart). Whilst Mozart was in Baden, he composed a short motet, 'Ave Verum Corpus', for his friend Anton Stoll, who was director of music at St. Stephan, Baden. The motet is only 46 bars long and is scored for chorus with strings and organ. The striking mix of apparent simplicity and profundity in the score are characteristic features of Mozart’s late style. This video discusses Mozart's final year, his friendship with Haydn and the music of his ‘Ave Verum Corpus' in detail, and concludes with Liszt’s 1862 arrangement of Mozart’s motet for piano solo.
Mozart: 'Ave Verum Corpus’ arranged for piano solo by Franz Liszt
The book quoted near the start of the video is ‘Mysterious Mozart’ by Phillipe Sollers.
Mozart’s original version of ‘Ave Verum Corpus’ K. 618 for chorus, strings and organ, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt: youtu.be/lqcCW0OA7es?si=sYXCf45HrhEMcm8X
Liszt’s original 1862 piano piece, ‘A la Chapelle Sixtine’ in which Allegri’s ‘Miserere’ and Mozart’s ‘Ave Verum Corpus’ appear to be in a kind of theological dialogue: youtu.be/tkAMKzRSrjc?si=AnEDMt6L0aDNIv7Q
Edited by Ian Coulter ( iancoultermusic.com ) Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew King“How Is Music…Spiritual?The Music Professor2023-11-15 | Mozart wrote his Ave Verum Corpus a few months before his death in 1791. Find out more about this short spiritual masterpiece in our next video.Mozart And The Glass ArmonicaThe Music Professor2023-11-04 | 00:00 Start 00:06 The Hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica 00:30 Benjamin Franklin 02:52 The ultimate late 18th Century gadget 03:20 Associations with depression 03:59 Composers who have written for glass harmonica 05:58 Marianne Kirchgessner 06:34 Mozart’s preference for unusual instruments 07:59 1791 - Mozart’s final year 08:51 Two opera commissions 09:54 The mysterious stranger and the Requiem 11:10 Salieri 11:55 Mozart’s evolving style 12:27 The Magic Flute: a preference for trios 13:38 Ave Verum Corpus 14:49 Tempo 15:14 Periodic phrase structure 18:10 The middle section 20:40 Recapitulation, variation and embellishment 22:09 Mozart’s Adagio K356 (with animated commentary)
The topic of this video is Mozart’s Adagio for Glass Harmonica of 1791, composed during the hectic final year of its composer’s short life. The video explains the historical context of the music, the origins of this mysterious instrument as a technological wonder of late 18th century, and its association with supernatural and melancholy effects. Mozart’s short work is explained within the broader setting of his frenzied activities in 1791 and his tragic untimely death.
Mozart: Adagio for Glass Harmonica K 356, played on a piano.
Edited by Ian Coulter ( iancoultermusic.com ) Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew KingMoonlight Sonata 2nd Movement...The Story ContinuesThe Music Professor2023-10-21 | 0:30 The dawn of Romanticism 0:49 How does the second movement fit into the sonata? 1:44 Heroes and teachers: Mozart and Haydn 3:01 A post-French-Revolutionary world 3:40 Reading from a comment 4:38 Beethoven was not an ‘abstract’ composer. 5:10 Hearing loss and the Heiligenstadt Testament 6:18 Minuet and Trio 7:26 “A little flower between two abysses" 9:37 Beethoven disrupts the normal phrasing. 10:21 Ritmo di Quattro battute 12:14 Rhythmic reversals 13:13 The same (enharmonic) tonality 13:56 The pastoral trio 15:59: Beethoven’s Shakespearian quality. 17:11 End of movement 1 and the whole of movement 2 (with animated commentary)
The topic of this video is the second movement of Beethoven’s 'Sonata quasi Una Fantasia’ Op 27 no. 2, more commonly known today as the Moonlight Sonata. This second movement has always been something of a Cinderella - a lighter, more classical minuet, sandwiched between the great warhorses that flank it on either side or, as Franz Liszt, more elegantly described it, “a little flower between two abysses”. The piece however contains some marvellously subtle rhythmic dislocations which seem to challenge the ‘aristocratic’ conventions of the minuet, and these are continued in the more rustic style of the trio section with its famous bluesy harmonies and swung rhythm.
The video ends with a recording of the complete movement, played on a fortepiano, with an animated analysis.
This channel is very grateful to an anonymous donor for lending us a fortepiano for the recording.
Beethoven: Allegretto (movement 2) from Sonata quasi Una Fantasia Op 27 no. 2
Edited by Ian Coulter ( iancoultermusic.com ) Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew KingIt Sounds Wrong!The Music Professor2023-10-18 | A short excerpt from our upcoming video on the second movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.
Edited by Ian CoulterThe Truth About The Moonlight Sonata - 1st Mvt. PerformanceThe Music Professor2023-10-07 | This is an animated recording of the first movement of Beethoven’s Sonata quasi Una Fantasia Op 27 no. 2, more commonly know as the Moonlight Sonata.
In September 2023, this channel released a video (youtu.be/Ejsh-NZCWm8?si=EaQHBTyCivlcuI4M) which included a longer discussion of the origins and cultural context of this piece, focussing on the first movement. In response to the various comments and requests for the score and recording alone, we are now releasing this separate video without the preliminary discussion, and containing just the first edition score, and a recording, on a fortepiano, of the first movement, plus an animated commentary.
The recording of the complete first movement was made quite spontaneously, with limited equipment, and played on a fortepiano which was lent to the channel. Following Beethoven’s instruction that the pianist must “play this whole piece very delicately and without dampers”, a knee pedal, located below the keyboard of the fortepiano, was used to raise the dampers for quite long periods, allowing the strings to resonate. The poetic, mysterious and ghostly sound, resulting from pedalling this way, is probably what Beethoven envisaged: a sonority in which each harmony dissolves impressionistically into the next. Hector Berlioz described the effect:
The left hand softly displays large chords of a solemn, sad character, and the length of these allows the vibrations of the piano to extend gradually over each one of them.
This channel is very grateful for the use of a fortepiano (lent to the channel anonymously) for the recording of the first movement of the sonata.
Beethoven: Sonata quasi Una Fantasia Op 27 no. 2 (first movement)
Edited by Ian Coulter ( iancoultermusic.com ) Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew KingThe Mystery of Mozart’s Minuet in DThe Music Professor2023-09-30 | 0:37 Mozart’s operas and the French Revolution 3:10 Revolutionary chromaticism, ‘Amadeus’ and Wagner 7:59 Photo-serial augmented triads 8:50 Speculation: Was this intended for a suite? 10:06 Structure (miniature sonata form) and popular style 11:18 “He hits you with this terrifying thing” (and Ravel), hemiolas and development 13:12 The recapitulation “strange new counterpoints” but is it unfinished? 14:14 Is this bit added by Max Stadler? 15:03 Isn’t it likely that Mozart did something different?” Improvisation…speculation… 15:30 “One more thing… 15:55 Mozart’s Minuet in D K 355 (with animated commentary)
In May 2023, this channel posted a short video about Mozart’s 'Kleine Gigue’ in G major, composed in 1789. The topic of this video is another miscellaneous keyboard work by Mozart, also composed in 1789 (near the end of the composer’s life, the same year he composed his wonderful opera, ‘Cosi fan Tutte’, and pretty much contemporary with the start of the French Revolution). Both the Little Gigue, and this little Minuet in D, display, in their tiny frames, a revolutionary tendency. Both are, in a sense, conventional binary-form pieces but both are saturated with chromaticism to such an intense degree, that tonality itself feels a little unstable. A common feature of the little Gigue in G major, and the little Minuet in D, is that they both seem intent on presenting all 12 chromatic notes in a systematic manner, almost as if Mozart were experimenting with his own version of proto-serial composition.
Mozart’s Minuet was probably left unfinished. There is no manuscript, and the minuet was published with a trio (not performed in this video) composed by Mozart's friend, Maximilian Stadler, who may well have completed the minuet itself - this seems likely, given the slightly conventional and (by Mozart’s standards) unsatisfactory ending of the published version. This video discusses these issues, and features a recording in which Matthew King has improvised a speculative new ending.
Edited by Ian Coulter ( iancoultermusic.com ) Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew KingUnmasking Chopins Minute WaltzThe Music Professor2023-09-15 | 0:33 Introduction. 1:45 The minute waltz in a minute. 2:52 a short analysis. 4:00 hemiola rhythm. 4:52 “A portrait of a waltz” 5:26 The influence of Italian opera. 6:00 Chopin’s playing. 7:20 The year 1847 and George Sand. 8:00 Lucrezia Floriani. 9:41 A proper performance with animated analysis
A while ago, in the early days of this channel, we posted a short video of Matthew King attempting to play Chopin’s Minute Waltz in a minute, to celebrate our first thousand subscribers. It was a silly party trick, which, now that we are celebrating 30K members of our wonderful and rapidly expanding community of subscribers, we have decided to repeat!
So here is Chopin’s D flat Waltz Op 64 no. 1, first played ludicrously quickly, followed by a more sober discussion about its background, and then a second performance (with some analytical animation). According to a contemporary account, “Chopin especially liked Broadwood’s Boudoir cottage pianos of that date (1848), two-stringed, but very sweet instruments, and he found pleasure in playing on them.” The piano used for the recording, at the end of this video, is an old English Daneman upright, somewhat equivalent in sound to the 'Broadwood Boudoir cottage pianos' that Chopin apparently admired.
A huge thank you to our loyal and generous patrons and subscribers, and also to new subscribers who have recently joined the channel.
Chopin: Waltz in D flat Op 64 no. 1 (1847).
Pianist: Matthew King (Two performances - the first very silly and the second one more serious)
The quotations used in the video come from 'Chopin: Pianist and Teacher' by Jean-Jaques Eigeldinger
You can read more about Chopin, Sand and her novel, 'Lucrezia Floriani’ here: https://interlude.hk/lucrezia-floriani-romantic-relationship-between-frederic-chopin-george-sand/
Edited by Ian Coulter ( iancoultermusic.com ) Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew KingThe Truth About The Moonlight SonataThe Music Professor2023-09-04 | 0:00 Introduction: one of the most famous pieces in the world 0:37 Things about the piece that are not so familiar 1:14 The historical context 1:55 The ’sacred tradition’ 2:29 Beethoven is going deaf 3:00 Two new sonatas 3:08 The career-defining genre 3:41 Sonata quasi una Fantasia - an experimental approach to the genre 5:17 “without dampers” 5:56 The fortepiano of Beethoven’s time 6:18 The tempo and the sonority 6:53 Impressionistic sound 7:52 An enormous hit 8:22 'Moonlight’ was never Beethoven’s title 9:01 Connection with Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’ 13:08 The beginning 13:41 The ‘funeral march’ melody and Op 26 15:13 A ghost scene 15:49 The '2nd subject’ lament 16:00 Dissonance 16:33 The dedicatee 17:45 The development section 18:52 The recapitulation 19:09 The coda 19:26 The whole form flows 19:44 The combination of classical form and improvisation 20:11 The other movements 20:40 The first movement played on a fortepiano
The topic of this video is the first movement of Beethoven’s second 'Sonata quasi Una Fantasia’ Op 27, more commonly known today as the Moonlight Sonata, with a discussion about some of the less familiar aspects of the music’s genesis (especially its probable connection with Mozart’s Don Giovanni) and challenging some very old misconceptions about its title, its meaning, its tempo, its pedalling and even the way it is meant to sound.
The video ends with a recording of the complete first movement, played on a fortepiano. Following Beethoven’s instructions that the dampers be lifted from the strings throughout the movement, a poetic, mysterious and ghostly sound world is created in which each sonority dissolves impressionistically into the next.
This channel is very grateful to an anonymous donor for the use of a fortepiano for the recording of the first movement at the end of the video.
Matthew King has never been a good speller - we apologise for the misspelling of the word 'neapolitan' in the video.
Beethoven: Sonata quasi Una Fantasia Op 27 no. 2 (first movement)
Edited by Ian Coulter ( iancoultermusic.com ) Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew KingYouve never heard this version of Fur Elise - (Full Performance)The Music Professor2023-08-18 | In July 2023 this channel released a video (youtu.be/jblFQ1whX5s) which included a longer discussion of the history of Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’. In response to the various comments and requests for the score and recording alone, we are now releasing a separate video without the preliminary discussion, and containing just a score and recording, plus minimal written commentary.
In 1810 Beethoven composed a short piano piece, which we now know as ‘Für Elise’. It has become (with the possible exception of the first movement of the ‘Moonlight’ Sonata) Beethoven’s most famous composition for piano, with one of the most famous melodies in the world. which is something of an irony, because Beethoven never had the piece published, and indeed the version we know today comes from a somewhat unreliable source having been transcribed in the 1860s from a manuscript that subsequently disappeared. The dedication, “Für Elise’ may itself be a misreading of a more likely dedication to Therese Malfatti, who turned down Beethoven’s proposal of marriage in 1810.
Twelve years later, in 1822, after completing his final three piano sonatas, Beethoven put together an assortment of short Bagatelles for piano, some of them newly composed, and some revisions of older pieces. He sketched out a revised version of ‘Für Elise’, embellishing some of the material, rhythmically displacing the accompaniment, and slightly altering the structure. These modifications are a fascinating glimpse at the composer’s ‘tool-shed’, as we watch Beethoven altering and improving things that he appears to have disliked in the first version. In the end, he decided not to publish this revised version and so it was not included among the Op 119 Bagatelles.
Published versions of Beethoven’s 1822 sketch differ slightly: the British musicologist, Barry Cooper published a version of the sketch in 1989, and in 2021 Bärenreiter Urtext published an excellent new edition of the Bagatelle in A minor (Für Elise) containing the original version, a printed version of Beethoven’s draft of the piece with his 1822 alterations, and a completion (from the revised draft) of the 1822 version by Mario Aschauer, which closely resembles the version performed in this video. The notated material in this video reproduces the essential elements in Beethoven’s 1822 revision. Any extra material, not found in Beethoven's original version, or in his 1822 sketch, is written in small notes in the video animation.
Beethoven: Bagatelle in A Minor ('Für Elise')
Pianist: Matthew King
The original video (from which this is an extract) is here: youtu.be/jblFQ1whX5s
Edited by Ian Coulter ( iancoultermusic.com ) Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew King
#Beethoven #FürElise #themusicprofessorIs This The Beginning Of Modern Music? (Satie: Gymnopedie 1)The Music Professor2023-08-11 | Erik Satie wrote his three Gymnopedies in 1888. All three pieces are like different versions of the same music, and each is as radical and as beautiful as the one before. All three pieces have a lilting 3-in-a-bar rhythm, like a slow waltz with a held chord on every 2nd beat.
The first Gymnopedie is very famous. Its dream-like character has made it popular with film makers, and it has become a common ‘relaxing classic’. Listeners are consequently unaware just how shockingly radical this decidedly strange music must have seemed in 1888.
The music contains a number of elements which were highly unusual, even unique for the period: a subtle, almost bitonal use of modality; numerous dissonances and altered chords; a mysterious circling form; a melody like a procession of notes, often containing intriguing symmetries, and a radical tonal ambiguity. No less extraordinary is the stillness of the music; its non-progressive, non-developmental character - absolutely at odds with the prevailing Austro-German Romantic style of music of the period.
With his first Gymnopedie, Satie boldly laid down the gauntlet in redefining what music can be: something ambiguous, static, circular, ambient, evocative…. this is nothing less than the birth of modern music.
Edited by Ian Coulter ( iancoultermusic.com ) Matthew King (www.matthewkingcomposer.com) Professor of Composition Guildhall School of Music & DramaGnossienne 3 - Satie Does it againThe Music Professor2023-08-04 | Erik Satie wrote seven Gnossiennes. The third is dated 1890, Like its companions, Gnossienne 3 is radical in conception: It is in A minor and uses only minor chords throughout. Strikingly, the melodic material combines diminished triads (as a melodic shape) over minor chords, and the piece employs a mode of Satie’s invention: a ‘Hungarian minor’ scale with a sharpened 6th. In 1889, Satie had sketched and abandoned a 'Chanson Hongrois' for piano, sensing perhaps that the idiom was a little too conventional (since Liszt and Brahms had already made the Hungarian style popular earlier in the century). However, an element of the Hungarian style affected the modality of the Gnossiennes which he went on to compose in the 1890s. The third Gnossienne also makes extensive use of plagal harmonic progressions (with numerous drops down a 4th) generating a sense of continual downward movement, and frequent cross-rhythmic circling patterns (creating the effect of lostness) over extended plagal cadences. Towards the end of the Gnossienne he employs two expressive downward drops of a third, shortly before the final return of the melody. Satie also pioneered, in this music, an incantatory style that was to have a huge impact on composers in the 20th century. His striking use of accented semibreves with acciaccaturas was much imitated in 20th century music by Debussy, Stravinsky, Varèse, Messiaen and others.
All Satie’s Gnossiennes are composed without barlines, and they all have a gently rocking accompaniment in the left hand, with an majestic and mysterious melody floating above it in the right hand. All the Gnossiennes use modes to create intriguing and mysterious melodic lines. The extraordinary simplicity of the musical texture and syntax belies the prodigious originality of the resulting music. Written before Brahms had composed his late intermezzi, these are fabulously experimental pieces in which the form consists of haunting melodic fragments which circle around without any specific direction or goal. In their circularity and stasis they seem to lay down a challenge to German 19th century dominance: music does not have to be developmental; neither does it have to be goal-directed or hierarchical. It can simply float along and be an evocative mystery.
Satie’s music was enormously influential on several currents of twentieth century music: Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Poulenc (who orchestrated this gnossienne - see below), Milhaud, Varèse, Jolivet, Messiaen and, later on, Cage, Feldman, minimalist composers, Birtwistle, Bill Evans, Brian Eno, quite a few film scores etc. etc.