Righteous Classical Music: The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Paul Dukas

Oh yeah, who doesn't like The Sorcerer's Apprentice? Unlike some classical music, this piece is usually considered pretty accessible. Mostly due to it's use in Fantasia, but it was also very popular before that too.
Now, this piece is what we call a Scherzo (Italian for 'I Joke', or 'I Play'), and I think that is a really good way to describe it! The music ranges from very mysterious to light and playful, and eventually becomes dark and uncontrollable. This is of course, due to the piece's nature as a tone poem! We all know the story, which is basically about a young magician who decides to try out some of his master's tricks, and it eventually gets way out of hand.
In both terms of Mood and Technical stuff, this piece is tricky. On the Mood side, we have to create a playful, sometimes foreboding, always enchanting atmosphere. On the technical side, you have to deal with accidentals peppered all over the place, and time signatures like 9/16.
The orchestration for this piece is very good. There is a terrific part for Bassoon, and lots of action for the Percussion section, as well! Also a great part for our Chummy, the Piccolo. ;)

Next Up!: Gymnopedie by Erik Satie

Righteous Classical Music: In the Steppes of Central Asia by Alexander Borodin

“In the silence of the monotonous steppes of Central Asia is heard the unfamiliar sound of a peaceful Russian song. From the distance we hear the approach of horses and camels and the bizarre and melancholy notes of an oriental melody. A caravan approaches, escorted by Russian soldiers, and continues safely on its way through the immense desert. It disappears slowly. The notes of the Russian and Asiatic melodies join in a common harmony, which dies away as the caravan disappears in the distance.”
-Alexander Borodin's notes on the score

I think Borodin's note there says more about the piece than I ever could. I really love this song, because of the many layers and different textures, and the underlying theme of cultural harmony.
This song isn't very difficult to play; the difficulty rather lies in capturing the mood. You have to be very mindful of the setting. You can't just be playing in a concert hall, you have to envision yourself in this very foreign place, where you're not entirely comfortable.
The structure of the piece is quite interesting. We begin with the violins, playing a very high, but very quiet harmonic note, quite evocative of desert heat. The music grows from there, with the melodies becoming stronger, and going from being rather nervous and uncertain, to sounds of joy and harmony. As the piece begins its slow and gradual decrescendo, both the Russian melody and the Asian melody are played at the same time, and the violins start playing their harmonic again. The piece finishes out with a lovely flute solo, which is in theory, very easy to play, but look at the dynamic markings...

Wow, FOUR piano markings? Sheesh, howabout I just don't play at all? ;) But impossible dynamics aside, enjoy the music! Close your eyes, and let it take you somewhere far away!


Next Up: The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Paul Dukas or Gymnopedie by Erik Satie

Righteous Classical Music: Danse Macabre [Camille Saint-Saens]

Dear Mister Conductor: May we please play this amazing song for our next concert? It has everything you could possibly want, like a creepy backstory, a breathtaking violin solo part, and some neat percussion! I mean, there's plenty for you to work with here! We'd have a ball!
-Monica (2nd Flute/Piccolo)

Ahem. As you may have gathered, I suddenly find myself a huge fan of this piece of music. So much that I thought it would be worth writing a post about. As you gathered from the title, the piece in question today is Danse Macabre, a tone poem by Camille Saint-Saens. A tone poem is a piece of music, or a symphony that is supposed to tell a story or evoke a scene. Other examples would be the Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz (which I learned all about while eavesdropping on the music appreciation class at school), or Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, by Claude Debussy. The latter is more about establishing the mood of a scene than telling a story, but in my book it still counts. ;)
SO! Danse Macabre is based on old French superstition. They say that every Halloween at midnight, Death (or the Devil, according to some tellings) comes to the graveyard with his violin and plays, forcing the skeletons to dance for him. At dawn the cock crows, and he stops playing and the skeletons must return to their graves to wait all year for another night of hard partying.
The symphony begins with a harp, playing the note D twelve consecutive times, to represent the coming of Midnight.
After that, there's a little quiet part, and then out of nowhere the violin soloist plays dissonant, eerie doublestops that if you're not expecting, can be a bit of a jump moment. The solo violinist 'plays' Death, and it's actually pretty cool. The violin soloist has to tune his E string down a half step to Eb, in part for the tritone chords at the beginning. It sounds wicked awesome.
Anyway, so next, the main theme is carried by the flute (yay!). Except that the flute doesn't seem to play any character (like the violin, or later the oboe) or serve any symbolic purpose (like the harp or xylophone), it's just there.
The whole piece has a terrifically eerie feel to it. I get shivers down my spine listening to it! Enjoy...



Next Up!: Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity by Gustav Holst

Righteous Classical Music: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun by Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy is sort of the musical equivalent of an impressionist painter. This piece doesn't work the way normal classical music does, it's a lot more vague sounding, and has a very heavenly feel. The sound is very warm, and light. When I close my eyes while listening to it, the colors gold, light pink, and green come to mind, or the image of sunlight filtering through trees.
Afternoon of a Faun has terrific parts for the entire orchestra, the woodwind section especially. The piece starts out with a flute playing a haunting melody all by itself, and there are a lot of neat oboe and clarinet solos, too.
I'm kind of sad that We had to cut this piece from our program last semester. I mean sure, I wouldn't have gotten the solo, but there are some parts that are just transcendent and the one rehearsal we played this all the way through, I totally lapsed into a trance around the 4:20-6:00 minute mark. That's where the metaphorical bird takes flight and the song is SO beautiful! Thanks, Claude Debussy!


Next on the agenda: Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens!