DOCSLIB.ORG

The Magic Flute

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Magic Flute THE MAGIC FLUTE (German title: Die Zauberflöte) Teacher study guide Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder Presented by Bay Shore Lyric Opera Company Children’s Opera Production Bay Shore Lyric Opera Children’s Production Company is proud to present The Magic Flute as part of our Children’s Opera Season. We are striving to give children from pre‐school to 8th grade the opportunity to experience opera in a theater as a fully staged production. The production was developed by Bay Shore Lyric Opera Company to introduce children to opera while educating them in the classics. We are very excited to perform at the beautiful Villa Montalvo in Saratoga and hope that your class will walk away with a melody in the pocket and more love for music in the heart. Jennifer Studley Liliane Cromer Co‐Producers Characters in the Opera Tamino handsome prince, in love with Pamina, Tenor Papageno Queen’s bird catcher, dressed in plumage, Baritone Pamina Sarastro’s prisoner, Soprano The Queen of the Night beautiful evil queen, Pamina’s mother, Coloratura Soprano Sarastro wise priest of Isis and Osiris, Bass Three Ladies servants of Queen of the Night, Sopranos and Mezzo Monostatos servant of Sarastro, in love with Pamina, Tenor Three Spirits will lead the way for Tamino and Papageno Speaker of the Temple priest Papagena beautiful bird‐woman, Soprano Friends, women When Mozart composed The Magic Flute in 1791 he did so in German to appeal to a wider audience. Mozart composed this work in the style of the Singspiel (Sing Play). In this form, spoken dialogue is interspersed among traditional arias or ensembles. With the spoken dialogue, the comical aspect of the libretto was much better served. The audiences wanted to laugh and be entertained; needless to say the Opera was a great success. The story, fairy‐tale like tells of a prince, a queen and an evil sorcerer (who in fact is not evil nor a sorcerer), a bird‐ catcher and a few other comic characters, and their battle up to the ultimate triumph of good over evil. Synopsis A C T 1 Scene 1: Forest Tamino, a prince from a foreign land, finds himself pursued by a serpent and fears for his life. He is so afraid of the serpent that he faints. Three Ladies, servants of the Queen of the Night, enter and slay the serpent. Tamino being unconscious does not realize that the three ladies saved his life. When he awakens he is alone and rather unsure of what happened. He hears the sound of a panpipe in the distance and soon realizes it is Papageno, the silly bird‐catcher. For some reason Tamino comes to believe that Papageno has slain the serpent. Papageno, not shy at all, takes gladly credit for the kill. The Three Ladies return and punish Papageno for the lie. They inform Tamino that it was them who killed the beast and hand him a portrait of the Queen’s daughter, Pamina, and promise him fortune, honor, and glory. Tamino falls in love with the image of Pamina. Tamino was informed that Pamina was captured and held prisoner by the evil sorcerer Sarastro. Now Tamino meets the Queen of the night who promises Pamina’s hand in marriage if he rescues her. Tamino accepts the mission and is given a magic flute; Papageno is given a set of magic bells and ordered to accompany Tamino. They depart led by three spirits to guide him. Sarastro is away from his fortress and has left Pamina in the care of his servant, Monostatos, who mistreats Pamina. Papageno has gone ahead of Tamino and, at the fortress, sees Pamina. Once he has frightened Monostatos away, he tells Pamina of her mother, the prince, and the mission. Tamino is led by the Three Spirits in his journey to find Pamina. He is told that Pamina lives and he expresses his joy by playing the magic flute. Papageno’s answer on his panpipe ad soon they will meet again. When Sarastro returns from his journey he meets Pamina who pleads mercy for her escape, explaining Monastatos’ abuse. Sarastro orders Monastatos punished for his wickedness. Tamino and Pamina embrace then are veiled and led into Sarasto’s temple. A C T 2 Before Tamino can be united with his beloved bride, Sarastro impose his three trials that will test both Tamino and Papageno. They will be tested for their willpower, patience, and trust. Papageno, upon succeeding will be awarded with a wife, Papagena! As their first test, Papageno and Tamino are sworn to silence under the temptation of women and left alone in the dark. This test reveals especially difficult for Papageno who loves to chatter. When they meet an old woman Papageno chatters away until thunder quiets him down. Meanwhile Monostatos, desperate for feminine attention, wants to steal a kiss from Pamina who is asleep in the palace. He is interrupted by the Queen of the Night who chases him away. She then turns to Pamina hands her a dagger and orders her to kill Sarastro. Once left alone, Pamina cries, she can’t kill a man! Let alone Sarastro. Sarastro who has witnessed the scene comforts her and reassures her that all will be fine once he has taken care of her mother, the Queen of the Night. Pamina hears the sound of Tamino’s flute and rushes toward it. She talks to him but receives nothing but sighs in reply. She is dumbstruck by his silence and desperate for a response but runs off in dismay. The old woman that appeared before Papageno and claimed to be his wife returns as a beautiful bird‐woman named Papagena. She vanishes quickly and Papageno too is miserable. When Tamino embarks on his final trial, Pamina rushes to join him in his journey and urges him to play upon his magic flute. The flute protects Pamina and Tamino, as they pass‐through the cave of water and the cave of fire. Papageno believes he will never be worthy of Papagena when the three spirits suggest he play the magic bells. Papagena appears and agrees to marry. Sarastro unites the lovers. Tamino and Pamina live happily ever after, the Queen and her follower succumb to Sarastro goodness and join him. Biography Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria on 27 January 1756 – and died 5 December 1791 in Salzburg as well. He was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as masterworks of symphonic, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers. Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at 17 he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, Austria, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best‐ known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and the Requiem. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons. His influence on subsequent Western art music is profound. Beethoven wrote his own early compositions in the shadow of Mozart. Activity: Show your student a map of Europe and all countries Mozart visited when he was a child prodigy. What is OPERA An Opera is a dramatic story told through song. It the most complete art form, combining all of the elements of art, words, music, drama, and dance. The uniqueness in opera is the use of music to convey an entire story/plot. All the forms merge to become this fascinating art. So many artist work on actually making an opera, it is really a team effort from the start. Opera takes any type of dramatic story and tries to make it more exciting and more believable with the help of music. Many famous stories have been made into operas, including Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and Romeo and Juliette Who works on making an opera? Step 1. Initial step The librettist: writes the story or takes an original literary work and rewrites it. The composer*: composes the music to the text The publisher: publishes the work Step 2. The people who put on an opera The opera director: chooses to put the opera on the season schedule The casting director: hires the singers to perform in the opera The orchestra manager: hires the musicians to play in the opera The chorus master: hires the chorus to sing in the opera The stage director: stages the opera and works with the technical staff The stage manager: calls all cues when the show is up and running The rehearsal pianist: plays all rehearsals before the orchestra sitz probe Step 3. Behind the stage The crew: handles all the details back stage, scene changes etc... The prop master: makes sure all the props are ready on stage and back stage The prompter: Prompts the singers in case they forget a word The supertitle technician: projects the translation of the text above the stage The Lighting technician: works the lighting board Step 4. Below the stage The costume designer: designs the costumes and accessories The costumer: sows and fits the costumes for the artists The wig master: prepares the wigs and fits the artists The makeup artist: does the makeup for the artists Step 5.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Köchel Numbers
    Köchel numbers I have long associated Mozart's works with the numbers from the Köchel catalogue, so that, for example, the number 465 instantly evokes in my mind the slow chromatic introduction to the C major "Dissonance" quartet. During our first year in Canada, my wife and I lived at a house bearing the number 899, a disappointingly unevocative number, I thought, since I knew that Köchel’s catalogue ends at 626 with the Requiem. Then we moved to our present address, 529 Piccadilly Street. The number 529 was equally unevocative; a consultation of Alfred Einstein’s Mozart biography revealed it to correspond merely to an isolated song, unknown to me. Compounding my frustration was the fact that the number of the next door house is 533, the Köchel number of my beloved Mozart piano sonata, the contrapuntal two movement sonata in F. I was further chagrined to find that just down the street there are three successive houses bearing numbers corresponding to some of my favourite works, 499 (D major "Hoffmeister" quartet) 511 (A minor rondo for piano) and 515 (C major quintet)—the presence of an intervening side street explains the incongruous jump from 499 to 511. I remained unhappy with my house number until it struck me after a while (no Ramanujan am I) that 529 is the square of the prime number 23, Alban Berg's "magic" number, which pops up in many of his compositions (for example, the number of bars in each movement of his "Lyric Suite" is a multiple of 23). Stimulated by these revelations, it suddenly occurred to me that my initial house number 899 was less dull than I had first thought, mathematically at least: it's the product of 29 and 31, a pair of "twin" primes.
    [Show full text]
  • Performing Michael Haydn's Requiem in C Minor, MH155
    HAYDN: The Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America Volume 9 Number 2 Fall 2019 Article 4 November 2019 Performing Michael Haydn's Requiem in C minor, MH155 Michael E. Ruhling Rochester Institute of Technology; Music Director, Ensemble Perihipsous Follow this and additional works at: https://remix.berklee.edu/haydn-journal Recommended Citation Ruhling, Michael E. (2019) "Performing Michael Haydn's Requiem in C minor, MH155," HAYDN: The Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America: Vol. 9 : No. 2 , Article 4. Available at: https://remix.berklee.edu/haydn-journal/vol9/iss2/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Research Media and Information Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in HAYDN: The Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America by an authorized editor of Research Media and Information Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 Ruhling, Michael E.. “Performing Michael Haydn’s Requiem in C minor, MH155.” HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America 9.2 (Fall 2019), http://haydnjournal.org. © RIT Press and Haydn Society of North America, 2019. Duplication without the express permission of the author, RIT Press, and/or the Haydn Society of North America is prohibited. Performing Michael Haydn’s Requiem in C minor, MH155 by Michael E. Ruhling Rochester Institute of Technology Music Director, Ensemble Perihipsous I. Introduction: Historical Background and Acknowledgements. Sigismund Graf Schrattenbach, Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, died 16 December 1771, at the age of 73. Johann Michael Haydn, who had been in the service of the Prince-Archbishop since 1763, serving mainly as concertmaster, received the charge to write a Requiem Mass for the Prince-Archbishop’s funeral service.
    [Show full text]
  • Antonio Salieri's Revenge
    Antonio Salieri’s Revenge newyorker.com/magazine/2019/06/03/antonio-salieris-revenge By Alex Ross 1/13 Many composers are megalomaniacs or misanthropes. Salieri was neither. Illustration by Agostino Iacurci On a chilly, wet day in late November, I visited the Central Cemetery, in Vienna, where 2/13 several of the most familiar figures in musical history lie buried. In a musicians’ grove at the heart of the complex, Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms rest in close proximity, with a monument to Mozart standing nearby. According to statistics compiled by the Web site Bachtrack, works by those four gentlemen appear in roughly a third of concerts presented around the world in a typical year. Beethoven, whose two-hundred-and-fiftieth birthday arrives next year, will supply a fifth of Carnegie Hall’s 2019-20 season. When I entered the cemetery, I turned left, disregarding Beethoven and company. Along the perimeter wall, I passed an array of lesser-known but not uninteresting figures: Simon Sechter, who gave a counterpoint lesson to Schubert; Theodor Puschmann, an alienist best remembered for having accused Wagner of being an erotomaniac; Carl Czerny, the composer of piano exercises that have tortured generations of students; and Eusebius Mandyczewski, a magnificently named colleague of Brahms. Amid these miscellaneous worthies, resting beneath a noble but unpretentious obelisk, is the composer Antonio Salieri, Kapellmeister to the emperor of Austria. I had brought a rose, thinking that the grave might be a neglected and cheerless place. Salieri is one of history’s all-time losers—a bystander run over by a Mack truck of malicious gossip.
    [Show full text]
  • The Sackbut and Pre-Reformation English Church Music
    146 HISTORIC BRASS SOCIETY JOURNAL THE SACKBUT AND PRE-REFORMATION ENGLISH CHURCH MUSIC Trevor Herbert n the mid-1530s the household account books of the Royal Court in London showed that as many as twelve trombone players were in receipt of regular fees. If these accounts /signify all expenditure on Court music at that time, it can be estimated that an eighth of the wages bill for this part of its activities went to trombone players. The 1530s were something of a high point in this respect, but it remains the case that for the whole of the 16th century a corps of trombonists were, in effect, salaried members of the royal musical establishment.1 Yet, not a single piece of English music from this period is explicitly linked to the trombone. This in itselfis not significant, as the labelling of parts at this time was rare,2 but the illustration draws historians of brass instruments to a neat focus. Throughout the 16th century trombonists occupied a regular and important place in English musical life. The players were professionals, probably fine and distinguished performers: What did they play and when did they play it? In this article I address some issues concerning the deployment of trombones in the first half of the 16th century. It is worth stressing that musical practice in England in the 16th century was sufficiently different from the rest of Europe to merit special attention. As I explain below, the accession of Henry VII marks what many historians recognize as a watershed in British history. The death of his son Henry VIII in 1547 marks another.
    [Show full text]
  • Framing a Critical, Interdisciplinary Approach to Film: Teaching Amadeus
    Framing a Critical, Interdisciplinary Approach to Film: Teaching Amadeus Nancy Rachel November, University of Auckland Brenda Allen, University of Auckland ow might I interpret the film Amadeus as a Mozart reception doc- ument of the 1980s?” “What does ‘authenticity’ mean in relation to that film’s soundtrack and screenplay?” “How is Salieri char- “Hacterized in the film, and why?” These are the sorts of questions one might wish that students would formulate when considering the popular music biopic (biographical film) Amadeus in relation to music history. The reality can be quite different. Surveys of second year Music History students at the University of Auckland in 2012-2014 show that they tend to view music history as estab- lished fact, and have great difficulty posing complex critical questions and constructing critical, evidence-based arguments. Most writers on the subject of historical literacy agree that the ability to read, write and think critically about a range of media is an especially valuable skill. These abilities not only serve stu- dents’ immediate studies within historical disciplines, but also enable graduates “to negotiate and create the complex texts of the Information Age.”1 This is espe- cially true of music history: one can draw on a broad range of sonic, visual and digital media to answer the increasingly varied questions that music historians address. But how is one to help students prepare for the interdisciplinary skills, attitudes and understandings this requires? How do we best equip students to analyze and read critically the films, YouTube clips, cartoons and diverse other source material they might want and need to study? One useful way to address such questions is for music history teachers to bring co-teachers from other disciplines in to a given music history course: a cartoon historian, for example, or a teacher from film studies, as befits the sub- ject matter.
    [Show full text]
  • Writing About Music: a Style Sheet, Second Edition
    36473_u01.qxd 2/6/08 4:24 PM Page 1 1 Music Terminology Titles of Works 1.1 The formal title of a work from the classical repertoire includes the key, index identifier, and sometimes its familiar or tradi- tional name. Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 in Ef Major, op. 55 (“Eroica”) or Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, op. 55 (“Eroica”) Either solution is correct. (The use of lowercase b and the num- ber symbol # for Ef and F# is not.) For most applications the spelled-out version ends posing fewer challenges to design and layout. 1.2 Generic Titles. Generic titles are those, in English, that use such describers as symphony, concerto, fantasia, and the like, often with an identifying opus or catalog number appended. These ti- tles are given in roman type. Consider the forms given below. Bach, Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565 ___–1 Haydn, Baryton Trio No. 71 in A Major, Hob. XI:71 ___ 0 ___+1 1 36473_u01.qxd 2/6/08 4:24 PM Page 2 music terminology Beethoven, String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, op. 18, no. 1 Beethoven, Violin Concerto in D Major, op. 61 Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony Schubert, Mass No. 6 in Ef Major, D. 950 Schumann, Variations for Piano, op. 9 the Schumann Variations, op. 9 Lisz,: Piano Sonata in B Minor (See, for more samples, 1.16, and, for catalogs, 1.25.) Capitalization styles vary but should be consistent throughout a work. CMS (8.203), for instance, prefers Symphony no. 3.
    [Show full text]
  • The Magic Flute
    The Magic Flute Opera Box Table of Contents Welcome Letter . .1 Lesson Plan Unit Overview and Academic Standards . .2 Opera Box Content Checklist . .9 Reference/Tracking Guide . .10 Lesson Plans . .13 Synopsis and Musical Excerpts . .32 Flow Charts . .38 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – a biography ......................49 Catalogue of Mozart’s Operas . .51 Background Notes . .53 Emanuel Schikaneder, Mozart and the Masons . .57 World Events in 1791 ....................................63 History of Opera ........................................66 2003 – 2004 SEASON History of Minnesota Opera, Repertoire . .77 The Standard Repertory ...................................81 Elements of Opera .......................................82 Glossary of Opera Terms ..................................86 GIUSEPPE VERDI NOVEMBER 15 – 23, 2003 Glossary of Musical Terms .................................92 Bibliography, Discography, Videography . .95 Word Search, Crossword Puzzle . .98 GAETANO DONIZETTI JANUARY 24 – FEBRUARY 1, 2004 Evaluation . .101 Acknowledgements . .102 STEPHEN SONDHEIM FEBRUARY 28 – MARCH 6, 2004 mnopera.org WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART MAY 15 – 23, 2004 FOR SEASON TICKETS, CALL 612.333.6669 620 North First Street, Minneapolis, MN 55401 Kevin Ramach, PRESIDENT AND GENERAL DIRECTOR Dale Johnson, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Dear Educator, Thank you for using a Minnesota Opera Opera Box. This collection of material has been designed to help any educator to teach students about the beauty of opera. This collection of material includes audio and video recordings, scores, reference books and a Teacher’s Guide. The Teacher’s Guide includes Lesson Plans that have been designed around the materials found in the box and other easily obtained items. In addition, Lesson Plans have been aligned with State and National Standards. See the Unit Overview for a detailed explanation. Before returning the box, please fill out the Evaluation Form at the end of the Teacher’s Guide.
    [Show full text]
  • Coronation Mass) K
    Missa in C (Coronation Mass) K. 317 It's no secret that Mozart did not get along very well with his boss in Salzburg. The Archbishop Count Colloredo had a somewhat heavy hand in dealing with the young composer, and was adamant about instituting ecclesiastical reforms, also supported by Emperor Joseph: keep the music short and tight. Moreover, Mozart's return to Salzburg in January,1779, after a long trip to Mannheim, Munich and Paris, was a rather glum affair. His attempts at gaining a position, or at the very least, strong patronage throughout the trip, were only modestly successful; most tragic of all, his mother had died quite suddenly the previous July (1778), while in Paris. Now back in Salzburg in mid-winter, Mozart prepared what was to be his penultimate mass for the Archbishop (Mozart moved to Vienna in 1781) - - indeed the next to last complete mass of his life, since the great c minor mass (K. 427) and the Requiem (K. 626), which came during his Vienna years, were left incomplete (his last complete mass K.337, was written in 1780). Without question, however, the present mass (K. 317), commonly known as the “Coronation” mass, is the outstanding mass of Mozart's “Salzburg” years. While in many ways he adheres to the dictum of the reforms (the whole mass should last no more than three-quarters of an hour), there is a grandness and majesty to the whole which belies its relatively brief length. The construction is mainly homophonic, and the entire mass comes in at just under half-hour in length, but the effect of the whole is more akin to a missa solemnis - - a grand and powerful experience.
    [Show full text]
  • PROGRAM NOTES by Phillip Huscher
    PROGRAM NOTES by Phillip Huscher Johannes Brahms Born May 7, 1833, Hamburg, Germany. Died April 3, 1897, Vienna, Austria. Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 The earliest music in Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem (A German requiem) dates from 1854; six of the seven movements were completed in August 1866. The first three movements were premiered in Vienna on December 1, 1867. Brahms added a movement in fifth place in May 1868, and the first performance of the complete work was given in Leipzig on February 18, 1869. The score calls for four-part chorus, soprano and baritone soloists, and an orchestra consisting of two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones and tuba, harp, timpani, organ, and strings. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra's first subscription concert performances of Brahms's A German Requiem were given at the Auditorium Theatre on April 15 and 16, 1898, with Minnie Fish-Griffin and Charles W. Clark as soloists, the Chorus of the Association (Arthur Mees, director), and Theodore Thomas conducting. Our most recent subscription concert performances were given at Orchestra Hall on February 18, 19, and 20, 1999, with Dorothea Röschmann and Thomas Quasthoff as soloists, the Chicago Symphony Chorus (Duain Wolfe, director), and Daniel Barenboim conducting. The Orchestra first performed this requiem at the Ravinia Festival on June 30, 1983, with Kathleen Battle and Håkan Hagegård as soloists, the Chicago Symphony Chorus (Margaret Hillis, director), and James Levine conducting; and most recently on August 2, 1997, with Rebecca Evans and Thomas Hampson as soloists, the Chicago Symphony Chorus (Duain Wolfe, director), and Christoph Eschenbach conducting.
    [Show full text]
  • Coronation Mass
    CORO CORO Mozart: Mass in C minor Harry Christophers & Handel and Haydn Society MOZART Gillian Keith, Tove Dahlberg, Thomas Cooley, Nathan Berg Coronation Mass “…a commanding and compelling reading of an important if often overlooked monument in Mozart’s musical development.” cor16084 gramophone recommended Mozart: Requiem Harry Christophers & Handel and Haydn Society Elizabeth Watts, Phyllis Pancella, Andrew Kennedy, Eric Owens “A requiem full of life…Mozart’s final masterpiece has never sounded so exciting.” classic fm magazine Teresa Wakim cor16093 Paula Murrihy Harry Christophers Thomas Cooley To find out more about CORO and to buy CDs visit Handel and Haydn Society Sumner Thompson www.thesixteen.com cor16104 ne of the many delights of being I feel very privileged to take this august Society towards its Bicentennial; yes, the OArtistic Director of America's oldest Handel and Haydn Society was founded in 1815. Handel was the old, Haydn the new continuously performing arts organisation, the (he had just died in 1809), and what we can do is continue to perform the music of the Handel and Haydn Society, is that I am given past but strip away the cobwebs and reveal it anew. This recording of music by Haydn the opportunity to present most of our concert and Mozart was made possible by individuals who are inspired by the work of the season at Boston's glorious Symphony Hall. Built Handel and Haydn Society. Our sincere thanks go to all of them. in 1900, it is principally the home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, but it has been our primary Borggreve Marco Photograph: performance home since 1900 as well, and it is considered by many, with some justification I would add, to be one of the finest concert halls in the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Randall Thompson's Requiem
    Randall Thompson’s Requiem: A Forgotten American Masterpiece Zachary J. Vreeman hirty years after his death, Randall it is somewhat paradoxical that many choirs Thompson remains one of the United have only experienced Thompson through his States’ most frequently performed Alleluia (1940), which is an excellent example Tcomposers. In his choral music especially, of Thompson’s abilities in the area of structure, Thompson was a “monument of calm integrity in pacing, and form, but has a limited text. Nearly a musically turbulent half-century.”1 His mature all of Thompson’s other choral music is settings compositional style was established early in his of English texts, often quite unique ones, and it life and does not reflect many of the disparate is in these works that he shows his mastery of paths of his contemporaries: he had no forays setting texts to music. Works like The Peaceable into serialism or electronics, nor did he use any Kingdom (1936) and The Last Words of David folk material or pre-existing melodies as his (1949) are fine examples of carefully crafted, inspiration. Harmonic conservatism placed him dramatic settings of English texts not set by any out of favor with some of the more academic other composers, and they persist as part of the theorists, but his music has always found a place permanent repertoire. Thompson’s penchant for with performers. His melodies are tuneful, English setting extends also to secular subjects, singable, and both his large and small works with Frostiana (1959) and its constituent parts show careful construction, attention to form, still frequently performed today.
    [Show full text]
  • MOZART's REQUIEM Program Notes by Dennis Keene the Requiem Of
    MOZART’S REQUIEM Program Notes by Dennis Keene The Requiem of Mozart is one of the most famous musical compositions ever written. Its fame comes not only from the music itself, but also from the story of its composition. There is hardly another piece of classical music that has been the source of so much speculation of the details of its creation. If you wish to read all the various theories, it’s all there on the internet, for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_(Mozart) Here are the facts as we know them: in the last year of Mozart’s life, he was approached by an anonymous man to compose a Requiem. It was later revealed that the man was an intermediary of count Franz von Walsegg. It is assumed that von Walsegg intended to pass the Requiem off as his own, since he had done that with other pieces. Mozart needed the money dearly, and began composing this Requiem immediately. Mozart became ill and eventually died with the Requiem unfinished. His wife, Costanza, wanted to get the Requiem secretly finished as quickly as possible, so that she might pass the work off as Mozart’s and get the remaining fee. She turned first to Joseph von Eybler, who worked on it for a while, then gave up. She turned next to Franz Xaver Süssmayr, who completed the work in what we would now call its “traditional” version. Over the centuries, and particularly in the last few decades, there have been several attempts to figure out what exactly Mozart has in mind, and to complete the work in a way that was felt would be superior to Süssmayr’s version.
    [Show full text]