I have now completed project two on twentieth-century music. My notes for this project are attached:
Completion of Part Two, Project Two
09 Friday Mar 2012
09 Friday Mar 2012
I have now completed project two on twentieth-century music. My notes for this project are attached:
09 Friday Mar 2012
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75) lived and worked in Soviet Russia through some of the worst political suppression of artistic output experienced by mankind. The fifth symphony was produced as a response to his official fall from grace during the early days of the Stalinist purges.
I listened to the final movements of two well known recordings, one conducted by Mtislav Rostropovich and the other by Leonard Bernstein. The Rostropovich version is at the slower tempo and has a texture of a dour austere nature, which could be interpreted as representing the oppression in Stalinist Russia whilst Bernstein at the much quicker tempo gives the symphony a happy and joyous finale. The slower tempo puts much more emphasis on the unison A notes, which the quicker tempo hide. The difference in the two versions is astounding.
I then listened to a recording for comparison at the slower tempo by the Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Vasily Petrenko. This version had some subtle differences from the Rostropovich version, here percussion is varied a little, the transition from the opening to the slow section uses a cymbal and timpani rather than the side drum and the climax is stretched out a little. I also listened to a recording by the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leopold Stokowski. This was at the quicker tempo and like the Bernstein recording put a completely different complexion on the texture and mood of the work. One interesting part was a high flute in the opening section, which was not apparent on the other recordings.
I also watched a ‘live’ performance of the whole symphony by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maxim Shostakovich. The final movement of this version was at the slower tempo. As part of my research I also watched two TV documentaries, one on Shostakovich’s life in general and one examining the score of the fifth symphony. These were very useful. Most my research of the circumstances surround the political situation in Russia at the time was based on David Fanning’s article on Groveonline.
The circumstances under which artists worked in the Soviet Union under Stalin were extraordinarily difficult. Although Lenin also believed in the theory of ‘socialist realism’ for the arts he did little to enforce it. Following Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin slowly rose to prominence and by 1932 had full control of the Soviet Union. From this time came the first of the Stalinist purges on the arts and other aspects of Soviet life.
During this period virtually every family in Moscow and St Petersberg (at the time St Petersberg was known as Leningrad) was affected by the purges. Members of Shostakovich’s own family were arrested and deported. Some colleagues spoke out against aspects of Shostakovich’s music, but in reality they had little choice. If they did not criticise they risked themselves being arrested and possibly executed.
When Lady Macbeth of the Mtsenk District was criticised and banned, Shostakovich sort the assistance of the influential music patron Marshall Tukhachevsky, but he became a victim of the Red Army purge in 1937 and was arrested and executed. There are rumours that Shostakovich himself was arrested and questioned about his relationship with Tukhachevsky.
Shostakovich wrote the fifth symphony as a work to rehabilitate him following the accusations of formalism and the banning of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsenk District and other music by the composer. Although it largely meets the criteria of ‘social realism’ that the authorities were looking for, there are also aspects of it that suggest a hidden criticism of the way the Soviet people were being treated. At it’s première in Leningrad on November 21st 1937, concert goers were openly weeping during the slow third movement and this is interpreted by many as depicting the sorrowful plight of the Soviet people at the hands of the Stalinist regime. Along with the conflicts in the final movement and the different interpretations of the tempo markings of the finale show that Shostakovich was making a statement, though within the expected criteria. He also used the press to support his case with the famous statement ‘A Soviet artist’s response to just criticism’ which many believe to have come from Shostakovich himself. The ovation at the end of the première is reported to have lasted for over half an hour.
Having listened to five versions of the finale, including the televised performance, I think the faster tempo gives the work a far brighter and optimistic texture, whilst the slower tempo reflects the circumstances of ‘The Great Terror’ and the impact it was having on the Soviet people. Shostakovich was making a statement, whilst also relaunching his career by still giving the authorities the style they wanted.
02 Friday Mar 2012
For the Benjamin Britten opera I chose Peter Grimes. I researched this opera using Grove on Line and the Penguin Book of operas. I also read a few reviews of recent productions. I listened to most of the music from the opera section by section as I researched it.
I found it incredibly difficult to write only 250-300 words to cover synopsis and background to this opera, but please find my efforts at the link below:
OCA – Part 2 Project 1 – Benjamin Britten
The use of dual tonality was quite interesting and the dissonance it caused, a good example being the duet between Grimes and Orford at the end of the prologue. I wanted to say so much more in my programme notes about how Britten changed Grimes to a sympathetic character from the original Crabbe poem and how he probably drew a parallel between Grimes and himself as both being outsiders from the societies they lived in, but space did not allow.
I remember watching the 1969 TV production of this opera on Sky Arts a year or two ago, so I did know a little of the opera anyway. Albert Herring is currently doing the rounds on Sky Arts at the moment and I have it saved in my skyplus box to watch at some point. I hope I will now understand the music better.
24 Friday Feb 2012
For my own performance of this work, I was at home and opened the windows of my flat. The work started with only the sound from inside the flat of the fan on the convector heater and the dull burr of the freezer. From the outside the wind was blowing and I heard the soft rustle of trees and a small gust that made the Venetian blinds shake. Next there was the faint sound of an aircraft engine some way off before the first car went down the road. This car was pulling an empty trailer which rattled as the car sped past. A taxi then went by, thus creating a different automobile sound.
It didn’t really feel like I was creating music, but I felt I was creating something. It was perhaps more like the feel of an art installation. It was however, a very interesting exercise, and demonstrated the effect of external factors on sound.
This work is made up of fragments of jazz performances is one continuous chain. The performances are varied and many are from the early days of the swing era and vary from fragments of solos on various instruments and fragments from vocal performances as well as piano. The fragments obviously do fit the standard definition of music but not as a piece as a whole. It is just a series of recorded fragments put together seemingly randomly.
This work consists of notes played in an unorganized manner. Again appears quite random. I would however say this can be considered music, although not under the strictest dictionary definition of what constitutes music.
This piece for various types of metallic percussion again seems to be a collective of unorganised notes. This work does have some formal structure in terms of rhythm.
I chose Berg’s violin concerto as an example of serialism, following reading an interview in Gramophone Magazine with violinist, Isabelle Faust, who has recently recorded the work. This work though is very different from the works I listened to by John Cage. The work is tonal, though with some dissonance and definitely would fit the dictionary description of what constitutes music. This is a fine work by Berg and following a very violent end to the second movement allegro the work ends with a quite beautiful adagio section of the same movement.
There is a distinct difference between the music of chance, which creates a kind of random feel compared to the complexities of serial music, where although in theory a distinct set of twelve notes can be played in order, inversion, retrograde etc, so in effect can also have a random affect, but in reality they are arranged in a formal way that makes sense of the music. There is of course plenty of atonal music connected with serialism, but the Berg work I chose is not one of these, but a tonal and at times very elegant and beautiful work.
I think an understanding of formal requirements of a system of music gives a much greater understanding of how a piece of music works and is fundamentally important to correctly interpret the emotional meaning of the work. In the Berg violin concerto dynamics and orchestration have a big impact on the emotion of certain parts. The use of the serial use of tones is important when juxtaposed with these other elements along with rhythm and tempo of the music.
A lot of the emotion in music is generated from the tempo, dynamics and the passion expressed by the performers for the music. This can be detected without knowledge of the technicalities of how a work is formally created, but to get a greater understanding of the complexities you do need the knowledge of how the technical aspects weld the music together. Chance music does not quite have this same effect as it feels random, but emotion is expressed in indeterminacy by rhythm and how the space created is filled.
There are some similarities between indeterminacy and serialism in the way notes are not played within a diatonic system as they are in traditional forms of classical music. Note values in these systems are equal, whereas in a diatonic or key system the tonic has a kind of supremacy over the other notes.
My personal response to the works I have listened to in this exercise are that I enjoyed the Berg violin concerto far more that the works of John Cage but some of Cage’s work I would listen to again and I’m sure there is serial music that I would be less enthusiastic about than the Berg violin concerto.
23 Thursday Feb 2012
Today I begin work on Project Two in Part Two.
This piece of music for solo oboe and tape delay system combines the acoustic with the electronic. The tapes come in at different times, on a delay process, playing back the solo oboe, but with an electronic feel, and also adding other, mainly percussive sounds. The work is largely atonal. The music would not work without the electronics, and the electronics would not work without the solo oboe giving the work it’s basis. Tonguing techniques are used in passages as trills on the oboe are exploited. The additional tape noises are used to raise the dynamic of the work. The work retains a fairly steady tempo throughout.