DOCSLIB.ORG

Benjamin Britten's Temporal Variations

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Benjamin Britten's Temporal Variations DRN 126 Summer 2020 Text_Double Reed 75.qxd 29/05/2020 14:29 Page 10 Benjamin Britten’s Temporal Variations An Enigma Explored, Part III: Britten and the Oboe In part three, George Caird considers Britten’s relationship with the oboe and the four oboists for whom he wrote his renowned works for the instrument. (Parts 1 and 2 were published in DRN124 and 125.) Britten wrote four works for the oboe There is no hard evidence that Goossens which became a symbol of his magical during his lifetime, a number only directly commissioned the Phantasy playing and of his influence on the tonal exceeded by works for piano, voice, Quartet Op.2 on which Britten began possibilities of the instrument. This early, violin and cello. No other wind work on the 9th September 1932, but on slender instrument, very different from its instrument received such attention from 17th October the composer records: modern counterpart, was light in sound the composer and it is therefore ‘Go to R.C.M. in morning to see Léon but had wonderful tonal possibilities. It worthwhile to reflect on why this might Goossens about my Oboe Quart.’ was the model for the English Louis oboes be. Having included the oboe, oboe The Quartet was entered for the Daily made between the two World Wars that d’amore and cor anglais in some of his Telegraph chamber music competition on many of Goossens’ students would have earliest works, Britten records his 29th October but the prize on this played on, if not a Lorée. fascination with the instrument on hearing occasion went to Elizabeth Maconchy’s Léon Goossens perform at a Queen’s Hall Oboe Quintet. The work was to produce Britten’s interest in the oboe in his early Promenade Concert on 2nd October great outcomes for the composer: years is further borne out by his use of the 1930: ‘Goossen’s [sic] Oboe Concerto a broadcast performance by Goossens instrument in his Sinfonietta Op.1, in (‘beautiful, monotonous, impossibly the following August and, in 1934, many of his film scores including the gorgeously, immortally played by Léon’)’.1 an invitation to the International Society Rossini-based The Tocher, Coal Face, for Contemporary Music Festival in Ways of Communication (for piano and Florence where Goossens played the wind quintet) and God’s Chillun.2 It is not work with the Griller Quartet. surprising then that, on entering the RCM in 1930, he had quickly got to know and worked with some of its oboe students, notably Sylvia Spencer, Natalie Caine and Joy Boughton. Composer Eugene Aynsley Goossens, brother of Léon There are subsequent diary entries which confirm Britten’s admiration for Goossens’ playing such as on 27th November 1930: ‘Orchestra not too good, but L. Goossens adorable’ and on 25th February 1932: ‘Léon plays Eugene Goosen’s [sic] attractive(ly) Oboe Conc. superbly as can only he’. Terence MacDonagh Sylvia Spencer Goossens had begun teaching at the Royal College of Music in 1924 and during the Born in 1909, Sylvia Spencer joined the 1920s built up the premier oboe class in RCM Junior Department in 1923 as a the country. His students included Terence violin student, taking oboe lessons as a MacDonagh, who later was to succeed second study with Léon Goossens.3 She him at the RCM, and Evelyn Rothwell continued as a senior student from age 17 (Barbirolli) who established a worldwide with Goossens as her teacher, progressing reputation as an oboist and teacher to professional work as his second oboe herself. Many of Goossens’ students and eventually becoming 2nd oboe of the enjoyed successful careers and it is City of Birmingham Orchestra in 1928. interesting that three of these were to give Spencer only held this position for two the premières of Britten’s subsequent years, returned to London in 1930 on works for the oboe. Goossens played full graduation from the RCM and Léon Goossens throughout his career on a Lorée oboe thereafter freelanced. 10 Double Reed News 126 l Summer 2020 DRN 126 Summer 2020 Text_Double Reed 75.qxd 29/05/2020 14:29 Page 11 Spencer’s connection with Benjamin reasons outside my control! But I hope Britten probably came through the RCM they’ll get straightened someday, as as Britten began his studies there in I want to hear you blow it – Best September 1930, and Spencer would have wishes, Benjamin Britten6 remained in contact with the College in the years following her graduation. It is Born in 1908, Natalie Caine went to interesting to note that she had already school at Southwold in Suffolk, and was asked him for a trio for flute, oboe and initially a pianist and composer, coming piano for the Sylvan Trio by the 3rd April to the oboe late.7 On entering the RCM 1933 when Britten recorded in his diary her life changed on hearing Sylvia that he was to write, ’a Suite for Fl. Ob. Spencer play the oboe, and Caine Pft. commissioned by Sylvia Spencer’.4 immediately asked Goossens for lessons. On 25th July that year, she also deputised Her progress was rapid and soon she was for Goossens in a rehearsal of the performing at a high level. In 1933 she Phantasy Quartet. More than a year later, deputised in rehearsals of Britten’s she performed this work with the Phantasy Quartet and thus got to know renowned Griller Quartet at a the composer. This connection may well Contemporary Music Society concert: have led to her involvement in the ‘Sylvia Spencer and the Grillers play my première of the Temporal Variations as, quartet very beautifully; not perfectly, but with both Sylvia Spencer and Joy with imagination, and spirit. It goes down Boughton discounted by November 1936, well, after that they play the Prokofiev Britten may well have been instrumental Quintet brilliantly...’5 in turning to another RCM connection. Joy Boughton Despite in the end not being involved in In later life and after World War II, Caine the première of the Temporal Variations, played notably with the Philharmonia Spencer remained friendly with the Orchestra, taught at the RCM and Junior The third student of Goossens who was composer. She made contact with him in RCM and is on record playing the cor associated with Britten is perhaps the 1943 after his return from the USA, asking anglais in trios with Sidney Sutcliffe and most important in being the player for after a copy of his folk song arrangement Roger Lord. Her students, Janice Knight whom the composer wrote Six of I wonder as I wander which she had and Carolyn King 8 remember a modest, Metamorphoses after Ovid Op.49. obviously considered performing, playing highly musical and supportive teacher Joy Boughton is less relevant to a study of the one-voice piano part on the oboe. A who spoke little of past glories. But it is the Temporal Variations save that she was postcard from Britten to her, dated 8 June known that Caine, on hearing of the approached to play the première. 1943, was interestingly inconclusive: eventual publication of the Temporal However, as the daughter of the Variations with the apparent ‘altered’ composer Rutland Boughton, and a Sorry for long silence, but work and dedication from her to Montagu Slater, player who grew up in the artistic ‘flu have completely occupied me was deeply hurt by this. Caine played atmosphere of her father’s Glastonbury these last months. Sorry, also, that I on an English Louis instrument, made in Festival, it is not surprising that she can’t or couldn’t let you have a copy the style of the old Lorée instruments became the player of choice for the of ‘I wonder as I wander’ – copyright such as Goossens’. English Opera Group when it was formed after the Second World War. She in many ways personified Britten’s fascination with the oboe which combined the ‘impossibly gorgeous immortal’ playing of Goossens with an artistic freedom, a mixture that could cast light on the works that the composer wrote for the instrument. So, in tracing Britten’s connection with the oboe through these players of the instrument, another question emerges. Might the oboe itself have become significant to the composer? Britten’s visit to Barcelona in April 1936, just as he was working on Our Hunting Fathers, was for the first performance of his Suite for Violin and Piano Op.6 with the violinist Antonio Brosa. The performance took place on the hill, Montjuïc, Double Reed News 126 l Summer 2020 11 DRN 126 Summer 2020 Text_Double Reed 75.qxd 29/05/2020 14:29 Page 12 where previously it had been intended But, while the saxophone and clarinet Variations. The idea that the composer to hold an anti-fascist Olympics.9 may have fulfilled some of the qualities may have held a special regard for the Here, Britten heard a band accompanying that Britten heard in this folk style, instrument as one that could play with some Sardana dancing outside the Town it is the double-reed oboe that provided exquisite refinement on the one hand Hall, remarking on the Catalan shawms, more qualities for the works that Britten whilst also fulfilling a kind of primaeval the tible and the tenora, in an observation chose to write for it. It is interesting to role as a folk instrument seems to give that may prove significant when we note the use that Britten makes of the credence to the creation of the consider the composer’s choice of oboe in Our Hunting Fathers where in Temporal Variations and the later instrument for the Temporal Variations: both his Composition Sketch and the Fair Six Metamorphoses after Ovid.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Léon Goossens and the Oboe Quintets Of
    Léon Goossens and the Oboe Quintets of Arnold Bax (1922) and Arthur Bliss (1927) By © 2017 Matthew Butterfield DMA, University of Kansas, 2017 M.M., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2011 B.S., The Pennsylvania State University, 2009 Submitted to the graduate degree program in Music and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts. Chair: Dr. Margaret Marco Dr. Colin Roust Dr. Sarah Frisof Dr. Eric Stomberg Dr. Michelle Hayes Date Defended: 2 May 2017 The dissertation committee for Matthew Butterfield certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Léon Goossens and the Oboe Quintets of Arnold Bax (1922) and Arthur Bliss (1927) Chair: Dr. Margaret Marco Date Approved: 10 May 2017 ii Abstract Léon Goossens’s virtuosity, musicality, and developments in playing the oboe expressively earned him a reputation as one of history’s finest oboists. His artistry and tone inspired British composers in the early twentieth century to consider the oboe a viable solo instrument once again. Goossens became a very popular and influential figure among composers, and many works are dedicated to him. His interest in having new music written for oboe and strings led to several prominent pieces, the earliest among them being the oboe quintets of Arnold Bax (1922) and Arthur Bliss (1927). Bax’s music is strongly influenced by German romanticism and the music of Edward Elgar. This led critics to describe his music as old-fashioned and out of touch, as it was not intellectual enough for critics, nor was it aesthetically pleasing to the masses.
    [Show full text]
  • MUSIC for OBOE and STRINGS Mozart • Crusell • J.C. Bach
    557361bk USA 26/8/04 7:30 pm Page 4 Max Artved The oboist Max Artved was born in 1965 and joined the Tivoli Boys’ Guard at the age of twelve. In 1980 he entered the Royal Danish Academy of Music, studying with Jørgen Hammergaard, and subsequently with Maurice Bourgue in Paris and Gordon Hunt in London. He made his solo MUSIC FOR début in 1990 and joined the Royal Danish Orchestra in 1991, later the same year becoming principal oboe with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Awards include the Jacob Gade Scholarship, the Gladsaxe Music Prize and the Music Critics’ Artist Prize. His career has brought solo OBOE AND STRINGS engagements in Scandinavia and throughout Europe, and he has contributed to recordings released by dacapo and by Naxos Mozart • Crusell • J.C. Bach Elise Båtnes The violinist Elise Båtnes was appointed leader of the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2002. She has appeared as a soloist, particularly throughout Scandinavia, and was leader of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. She has been a Max Artved, Oboe • Elise Båtnes, Violin member of the Vertavo Quartet, and has served as artistic director of the Bergen Chamber Ensemble. Tue Lautrup, Violin/Viola • Dimitri Golovanov, Viola Dimitri Golovanov Dimitri Golovanov is a native of St Petersburg, where he studied at the Conservatory, before emigrating from the Soviet Union. He has served as principal violist in the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra since 1994. Lars Holm Johansen, Cello Lars Holm Johansen Lars Holm Johansen was principal cellist in the Royal Danish Orchestra until August 2002, and is well known for his collaboration in chamber music and as a co-founder of the Copenhagen Trio.
    [Show full text]
  • Phantasy Quartet of Benjamin Britten, Concerto for Oboe and Strings Of
    UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date: 5-May-2010 I, Mary L Campbell Bailey , hereby submit this original work as part of the requirements for the degree of: Doctor of Musical Arts in Oboe It is entitled: Léon Goossens’s Impact on Twentieth-Century English Oboe Repertoire: Phantasy Quartet of Benjamin Britten, Concerto for Oboe and Strings of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Sonata for Oboe of York Bowen Student Signature: Mary L Campbell Bailey This work and its defense approved by: Committee Chair: Mark Ostoich, DMA Mark Ostoich, DMA 6/6/2010 727 Léon Goossens’s Impact on Twentieth-century English Oboe Repertoire: Phantasy Quartet of Benjamin Britten, Concerto for Oboe and Strings of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Sonata for Oboe of York Bowen A document submitted to the The Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS in the Performance Studies Division of the College-Conservatory of Music 24 May 2010 by Mary Lindsey Campbell Bailey 592 Catskill Court Grand Junction, CO 81507 [email protected] M.M., University of Cincinnati, 2004 B.M., University of South Carolina, 2002 Committee Chair: Mark S. Ostoich, D.M.A. Abstract Léon Goossens (1897–1988) was an English oboist considered responsible for restoring the oboe as a solo instrument. During the Romantic era, the oboe was used mainly as an orchestral instrument, not as the solo instrument it had been in the Baroque and Classical eras. A lack of virtuoso oboists and compositions by major composers helped prolong this status. Goossens became the first English oboist to make a career as a full-time soloist and commissioned many British composers to write works for him.
    [Show full text]
  • Chronicling the Developments of the Double Reed
    Eastern Kentucky University Encompass Honors Theses Student Scholarship Spring 2016 Chronicling the Developments of The oubleD Reed Jenna Sehmann Eastern Kentucky University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://encompass.eku.edu/honors_theses Recommended Citation Sehmann, Jenna, "Chronicling the Developments of The oubD le Reed" (2016). Honors Theses. 345. https://encompass.eku.edu/honors_theses/345 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at Encompass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Encompass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Eastern Kentucky University Chronicling the Developments of The Double Reed Honors Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of HON 420 Spring 2016 By Jenna Sehmann Mentor Dr. Christine Carucci Music Department Abstract Chronicling the Developments of The Double Reed Jenna Sehmann Dr. Christine Carucci, Music Department Abstract Description: This study examines scholarly articles in thirty-eight years of periodical journals, The Double Reed, published by the International Double Reed Society. Research articles were coded to fit into twelve prominent categories: career-related, composition, extended techniques/modern practices, health, historical, instrument, interview, pedagogy, performance practice, performer profile, reeds, and other. After an analysis of journal articles (N =935) from The Double Reed, results indicated historical articles, interviews, and composition-related articles were the most prominent categories. There was a fairly even dispersion between oboe and bassoon articles, while the majority of published material was generated from American authors. Additional trends are noted to inform and advance the double reed community.
    [Show full text]
  • *Measurecounts.Txt
    Chamber Music Conference Works with Measure Number Totals by Movement Last Updated July 13, 2019 Copyright 2019 Chamber Music Conference and Composers' Forum of the East Ades Catch: The parts and score are pre-numbered. Anderson Quintet: The printed rehearsal letters in only edition (Bass-Is) are adequate without numbering the part. Arensky Quartet Opus 35: I:213; II:279; III:116 Arensky Trio Opus 32: I:233; II:335; III:78; IV:144; Malcolm Arnold 3 Shanties Wind Quintet: I:138; II:53; III:180 Arriaga #1 String Quartet: I:226; II:93; III:94; IV:266 Baaren Trio (1936): I:74; II:54; III:91 Bacewicz Wind Quintet: I:204; II:50; III:60; IV:83 Bacewicz Piano Quintet: I: 295; II: 301; III: 100; IV: 162 Bacewicz Trio (1935): I:102; II:47; III:127 Bach Trio Sonata Bwv 1037: I:30; II:141; III:28; IV:80 Bach Trio Sonata Bwv 1038: I:33; II:52; III:17; IV:35 Bach Trio Sonata Bwv 1039: I:28; II:113; III:18; IV:142 Bach Trio Sonata Bwv 1079: I:48; II:249; III:30; IV:113 Barber Dover Beach: total:123 Barber Summer Music Wind Quintet: The printed rehearsal letters are adequate without numbering the part. Bartok #1 String Quartet: I:71; II:367; Introduzione: 33; III:380 In the third movement, do count the single beat general pause bars at measures 265 and 323. Bartok #2 String Quartet: II:577; III:141 In movement I, the cello part is in a non-aligned meter at rehearsal number 8.
    [Show full text]
  • Boston Symphony Chamber Players 50Th Anniversary Season 2013-2014
    Boston Symphony Chamber Players 50th anniversary season 2013-2014 jordan hall at the new england conservatory october 13 january 12 february 9 april 6 BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS Sunday, February 9, 2014, at Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 Welcome 4 From the Players 8 Today’s Program Notes on the Program 10 Charles Martin Loeffler 12 Kati Agócs 13 Gunther Schuller 14 Hannah Lash 15 Yehudi Wyner 17 Amy Beach Artists 18 Boston Symphony Chamber Players 19 Randall Hodgkinson 19 Andris Poga 20 The Boston Symphony Chamber Players: Concert Repertoire, 1964 to Date COVER PHOTO (top) Founding members of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, 1964: (seated, left to right) Joseph Silverstein, violin; Burton Fine, viola; Jules Eskin, cello; Doriot Anthony Dwyer, flute; Ralph Gomberg, oboe; Gino Cioffi, clarinet; Sherman Walt, bassoon; (standing, left to right) Georges Moleux, double bass; Everett Firth, timpani; Roger Voisin, trumpet; William Gibson, tombone; James Stagliano, horn (BSO Archives) COVER PHOTO (bottom) The Boston Symphony Chamber Players in 2012 at Jordan Hall: (seated in front, from left): Malcolm Lowe, violin; Haldan Martinson, violin; Jules Eskin, cello; Steven Ansell, viola; (rear, from left) Elizabeth Rowe, flute; John Ferrillo, oboe; William R. Hudgins, clarinet; Richard Svoboda, bassoon; James Sommerville, horn; Edwin Barker, bass (photo by Stu Rosner) ADDITIONAL PHOTO CREDITS Individual Chamber Players portraits pages 4, 5, 6, and 7 by Tom Kates, except Elizabeth Rowe (page 6) and Richard Svoboda (page 7) by Michael J. Lutch. Boston Symphony Chamber Players photos on page 8 by Stu Rosner and on page 18 by Michael J.
    [Show full text]
  • Iona Mitchell Final Recital – Oboe Tracey Renwick – Accompanist 4Th June 2021
    Iona Mitchell Final Recital – oboe Tracey Renwick – accompanist 4th June 2021 Alessandro Marcello (1673-1747) Oboe Concerto in D minor – I: Andante spiccato Edition Peters. E.P 12887 Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) Fantasy Pieces opus 2 – 1: Romance 2: Humoresque Edition Wilhelm Hansen. WH30736 Charlotte Bray (1982-) Late Snow for solo oboe – 1: “An end. Or a beginning” CE Composers Edition. ce-cb1ls1 Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) Interlude for Oboe & Piano Boosey & Hawkes. B&H 20641 Marcello Alessandro Marcello was a Venetian nobleman and a highly skilled amateur musician. His oboe concerto in D minor, originally for oboe, strings, and continuo, was first published in 1717 under a splendid pseudonym, Eterio Stinfalico, and for a long time was thought to be by Antonio Vivaldi. J S Bach was so impressed by it that he made a keyboard arrangement BWV 974 which now is the earliest surviving manuscript of the piece from 1715. There are three movements of which I am playing the first, Andante spiccato. It has a steady tempo and predictable phrase lengths which leaves room for ornamentation, a key feature of baroque music. I add ornaments typically at the ends of phrases and during ongoing sequences where it might sound quite plain without the performer’s musical intervention. Nielsen The Fantasy Pieces are made up of two movements, Romance and Humoresque, the first of which was completed in November 1889 and the latter in March 1890. The Danish composer Carl Nielsen was just 25 when it was completed. The first movement’s name Romance aptly fits the piece as it is a languishing, legato, expressive journey in a minor key, with some bright major moments higher up in the instrument’s range.
    [Show full text]
  • A Pedagogical Study of the Op. 39 Quintet
    PROKOFIEV BECKONS THE DOUBLE BASS INTO THE MODERN AGE: A PEDAGOGICAL STUDY OF THE OP. 39 QUINTET Kathryn E. Jones Doctoral Document Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2014 APPROVED: Jeffrey Bradetich, Major Professor Karrell Johnson, Committee Member Susan Dubois, Committee Member John Holt, Chair of the Division of Instrumental Studies James C. Scott, Dean of the College of Music Mark Wardell, Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Jones, Kathryn E. Prokofiev Beckons the Double Bass into the Modern Age: A Pedagogical Study of the Op. 39 Quintet. Doctor of Musical Arts (Performance), August 2014, 45 pp., 27 musical examples, references, 84 titles. Until Serge Prokofiev’s 1924 ballet score Trapèze, the double bass occupied a background or at best a doubling role in almost all composers’ use of the instrument. Technical challenge was limited in these pieces, because composers did not see the instrument’s potential in a chamber music environment. As luthiers developed the instrument, the technical ability of players grew, and composers began writing more challenging music for the instrument. As one of the first major composers to see the double bass in a new light, Prokofiev wrote challenging music for the instrument. This paper illuminates the alluring pedagogical aspects of Prokofiev's Quintet in G Minor, Op. 39 and provides recommendations for accomplishing some difficult passages with ease. Copyright 2014 by Kathryn E. Jones ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people have contributed to the success of this project. First, I must thank my dissertation committee members for their countless hours of editing, and coaching.
    [Show full text]
  • Humbert Lucarelli: Oboe Artist
    HUMBERT LUCARELLI: OBOE ARTIST D.M.A. Document Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Bradley Michael Walsh B.M., M.M. Graduate Program in Music The Ohio State University 2011 Document Committee: Professor Robert Sorton, Advisor Dr. Daryl Kinney Professor Karen Pierson Professor Mark Rudoff Copyright by Bradley Michael Walsh 2011 ABSTRACT Humbert Lucarelli is recognized as one of the world’s leading oboe soloists of the twentieth century. The New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians, lists Mr. Lucarelli as one of America’s most renowned oboists. His career has spanned six decades, and in that time, he has forged a unique career that is rare in American oboe playing. To his credit, he has recorded hundreds of works and has had commissions and premiere performances of over one hundred compositions for solo oboe by many celebrated composers. Lucarelli’s performances have been reviewed in over two hundred newspapers around the world. Since 1968, Lucarelli has also been active as a teacher at The Hartt School of Music in West Hartford, Connecticut. He taught at other prestigious schools of music in the United States, at summer festivals, and at music schools throughout the world. An advocate of the oboe as a solo instrument, Mr. Lucarelli has also been responsible for creating competitions for young professional oboists. This document provides biographical information on Mr. Lucarelli’s career and how it evolved into something other than the orchestral career for which he trained.
    [Show full text]
  • A Survey of the Literature of the Oboe and English Horn
    Central Washington University ScholarWorks@CWU All Master's Theses Master's Theses 1959 A Survey of the Literature of the Oboe and English Horn Virginia Downing Snodgrass Central Washington University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons, and the Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons Recommended Citation Snodgrass, Virginia Downing, "A Survey of the Literature of the Oboe and English Horn" (1959). All Master's Theses. 232. https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/232 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Master's Theses at ScholarWorks@CWU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@CWU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A SURVEY OF 1�E LITERATURE OF THE OBOE AND ENGLISH HORN A Thesis Presented to the Graduate Faculty Central Washington College of Education In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Education by Virginia Downing Snodgrass August 1959 SPECIAL COLLECTION · ---·· 94175 APPROVED FOR THE GRADUATE FACULTY _________________________________ A. Christianson, COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN _________________________________ Ralph Gustafson _________________________________ Wayne S. Hertz TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE . I. THE PROBLEM • • . 1 The Problem • 1 Statement of the problem . 1 Importance of the study • • . 1 Method books . 2 Solos • . 2 Ensembles . 3 4 Phonograph records . II. THE HISTORY OF THE OBOE AND THE ENGLISH HORN . 5 The Oboe . 5 The English Horn . 9 III. EXPLANATION OF GRADING AND CLASSIFICATIONS 11 IV . METHOD BOOKS AND STUDIES . 15 Oboe . 15 English Horn . 21 . Fingering Charts .
    [Show full text]
  • B (S20) LISTENING LOG: E—L PETER EBEN Laudes Earliest Work
    20 B♭ (S ) LISTENING LOG: E—L PETER EBEN Laudes Earliest work on the CD by Czech avant garde organist. Atonal, dissonant, but deals with recognizable motives and gestures. Somewhere there’s a Gregorian theme. There are four movements, the first is agitato. The second begins with extreme low and high pitches, loud rhythmic middle. The third has a weird mute stop. The fourth begins pianissimo, isolated notes on lowest pedals. (Mh17) Hommage à Buxtehude Good-humored toccata, then fantasy on a repeated note motif. Dissonant but light. (Mh17) Job Mammoth 43`organ work in 8 movements, each headed by a verse from Job. The strategy resembles Messiaen`s, but the music is craggier and I suspect less tightly organized. (1) Destiny: Job is stricken. Deep pedals for terror, toccata for agitation. (2) Faith: The Lord gives and takes away: Flutes sound the Gregorian Exsultet interrupted by terrible loud dissonance – agitation has turned to trudging, but ends, after another interruption, with muted Gloria. (3) Acceptance: After another outcry, Job is given a Bach chorale tune, “Wer nur den lieben Gott,” a hymn of faith – wild dissonances followed again by chorale. (4) Longing for Death: a passacaglia builds to climax and ends in whimpering ppp. (5) Despair and Resignation: Job`s questioning and outbursts of anger, followed by legato line of submission. (6) Mystery of Creation: eerie quiet chords and flutings, crescendo – rapid staccato chords, accelerando as if building anger – block chords fortissimo – solo flute question. (7) Penitance and Realization: Solo reed with ponderous pedal – chattering, hardly abject! – final bit based on Veni Creator.
    [Show full text]
  • Britten Sinfonia at Lunch
    Press Release For release: 12 March 2017 Britten Sinfonia ‘At Lunch’ Nicholas Daniel and Britten Sinfonia give the world premiere of Brian Elias’s Oboe Quintet Wednesday 19 April at 1pm, Wigmore Hall, London Friday 21 April at 1pm, St Andrews Hall, Norwich Tuesday 25 April at 1pm, West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge Britten Sinfonia Principal oboe, Nicholas Daniel and Britten Sinfonia give the world premiere of Brian Elias’s Oboe Quintet in the orchestra’s ‘At Lunch’ concert series in Norwich, Cambridge and Wigmore Hall. The concert features Elias’s new 19 minute work alongside Gerald Finzi’s Interlude for oboe and string quartet, Op.21 and Mozart’s String Quintet in C minor 406/516b. It coincides with the launch of an NMC recording of Brian Elias’s music featuring Britten Sinfonia and Susan Bickley in a BBC Proms performance of Elias’s Electra Mourns (winner of a 2013 British Composer Award), as well as Geranos performed by Psappha, and songs performed by Susan Bickley and Roderick Williams, with Iain Burnside. Serving up lunchtime music with real bite, Britten Sinfonia’s award-winning At Lunch concerts set new pieces from leading and emerging composers alongside some of the greatest chamber works. Concerts, which begin at 1pm, last an hour and won’t break the bank, offer the chance to hear some of the country’s finest chamber musicians in more intimate repertoire. This concert features an outstanding line up: Britten Sinfonia Principals Jacqueline Shave (leader), Nicholas Daniel (oboe), Caroline Dearnley (cello), Clare Finnimore (viola) and Miranda Dale (violin), and Dorothea Vogel (viola).
    [Show full text]