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Home , Francis Poulenc, Igor Stravinsky, Louis Durey, Orpheus (ballet), Pulcinella (ballet), Sergei Diaghilev

A level Schools Concert November 2014

An Exploration of

Teachers’ Resource Pack Autumn 2014

2 Philharmonic A level Resources

Unauthorised copying of any part of this teachers’ pack is strictly prohibited

The copyright of the project pack text is held by:

 Rachel Leach © 2014  London Philharmonic Orchestra ©2014

Any other copyrights are held by their respective owners.

This pack was produced by:

London Philharmonic Orchestra Education and Community Department 89 Albert Embankment London SE1 7TP

Rachel Leach is a , workshop leader and presenter, who has composed and worked for many of the UK’s and companies, including the London , the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, , Glyndebourne Opera, , , and the London Orchestra. She studied at the Guildhall School of and , at Opera Lab and Dartington. Recent commissions include ‘Dope Under Thorncombe’ for Trilith Films and ‘In the belly of a horse’, a children’s opera for English Touring Opera. Rachel’s music has been recorded by NMC and published by Faber. Her community opera ‘One Day, Two Dawns’ written for ETO recently won the RPS award for best education project 2009. As well as creative music-making and composition in the classroom, Rachel is proud to be the lead tutor on the LSO's teacher training scheme for over 8 years she has helped to train 100 teachers across East London. Rachel also works with Turtle Key Arts and ETO writing song cycles with people with dementia and Alzheimer's, an initiative which also trains students from the RCM, and alongside all this, she is increasingly in demand as a concert presenter. She regularly presents children’s concerts, lunchtime concerts and pre-concert events for LSO, BBC Proms, RCM & Wigmore Hall.

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Contents

Introduction 4

The London Philharmonic Orchestra 5

Igor Stravinsky 6

Neoclassicism 7

Pulcinella 8

Francis Poulenc 14

Sonata for , and 15

Ideas for Creative Work 17

Dates 20

Thanks 21

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4 London Philharmonic Orchestra A level Resources

Introduction

This pack is designed to help you and your class prepare for the London Philharmonic Orchestra A level BrightSparks concert at the Royal Festival Hall featuring works from the Edexcel AS and A2 syllabusses plus a more general exploration of Neoclassical music.

During the concert we wil examine the following works:

Stravinsky - Suite Mvts 1 (), 6 (Gavotta & ) and 7 (Vivo) A2 Unit 6: Further musical understanding

Poulenc - for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone AS Unit 3: Developing musical understanding

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5 London Philharmonic Orchestra A level Resources

The London Philharmonic Orchestra

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s finest orchestras, balancing a long and distinguished history with a reputation as one of the UK’s most adventurous and forward-looking orchestras. It was founded in 1932 by Sir , and since then they have been headed by many great names in the conducting world. Its current Principal Conductor is , and its Composer in Residence is .

The Orchestra regularly record for film – so it’s very likely you and your class have already heard them. Amongst many soundtracks they have recorded are:

 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy  The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey  Iron Man 3

The LPO are also resident at Southbank Centre, where they perform many concerts all year round, as well as having a residency at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in the summer. It works with internationally renowned conductors, instrumentalists and singers and regularly tours abroad. In 2014/15 they’ll be visiting Turkey, Iceland, USA, Canada, China and Australia.

The LPO Education and Community department maintains an energetic programme for young people and families. Our BrightSparks schools’ concert series provides orchestral experiences for school children from Key Stage 1 all the way up to A Level, providing live analysis of set works at Key Stages 4 and 5. FUNharmonics family days provide interactive concerts and music-making experiences for the whole family at the Royal Festival Hall. Other projects work with SEN schools, with GCSE students on composition projects, and with young people in contexts such as Animate Orchestra and The Band. The department also caters for young professionals – the Young and Foyle Future First schemes look to support young players and composers at the start of their careers.

The LPO is proud to be a member of the South Riverside Music Partnership (SRMP) which comprises the LPO, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and , and the Music Hubs of Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and Greenwich. For more information about the London Philharmonic Orchestra, please visit our website at www.lpo.org.uk.

©Copyright Rachel Leach London 2014

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Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971)

Igor Stravinsky was born in St Petersburg in 1882 into a musical family. His father was a singer with the Imperial Opera but despite this it was expected that young Igor would take up a career in law and his musical tuition as a boy was patchy as a result. In 1902 Stravinsky met the great Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who at that time was one of the most important figures in Russian music. He took an interest in Stravinsky’s early compositions and encouraged him to take music more seriously. When Stravinsky’s father died, Igor quit his law course and began studying music full time with the aim of becoming a composer

Stravinsky’s first success, a tiny piece called Fireworks, was heard by the Russian impresario who invited Stravinsky into write for his company in

Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes

Diaghilev lived in Paris and had formed a ballet troupe called Ballet Russes the aims of which were to bring the best of - the best dancers, musicians and designers - to the sophisticated Parisian audience. Stravinsky was a very Russian sounding composer but was also very daring and new – this was perfect for Diaghilev’s vision and so he commissioned him to write a ballet. The result was

The Firebird of 1911.

This ballet was an overnight hit and the new artistic partnership of Stravinsky and Diaghilev followed it with the equally impressive and then the riotous . After Rite he was the most talked about composer in the world and very much in demand.

The effect of

After the Great War and the Europe was in turmoil. Many of the artistic institutions of Paris had shut down and those still in existence certainly no longer had the resources to stage lavish productions. Diaghilev looked at other ways of creating new work and came up with an idea for using music thought to be by the Italian superstar composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. He wanted to create a small ballet based on an 18th century commedia dell’arte story and using stock comedic characters dancing in masks. Diaghilev asked Stravinsky who had suffered a loss of income during the war, to make the adaptations. To further tempt him he put in place an exciting team of collaborators including Pablo as set designer. Stravinsky couldn’t refuse but he was keen to put his unique stamp on the music rather than just orchestrate it for a new audience. In doing so he created his first Neoclassical masterwork.

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Neoclassicism

 A 20th-century trend within music popular between the two world wars.  An attempt by modern composers to return to the ‘simpler’ sound of music from the 18th centuries as a response to what they considered to be excess within music of the late 19th century.  Stravinsky’s Pulcinella is a re-working of actual music from the 18th century with a 20th-century twist.  Poulenc’s Sonata is a 20th-century piece twisted to sound like it is from the earlier period.

In many cases it would be more accurate to call the music ‘Neo-Baroque’

For a great compare and contrast exercise look at the orchestra size, length and structure of the following –

18th-century ‘perfection’ - Mozart Symphony No 40 mvt 1 19th-century ‘excess’ - Mahler Symphony No 2 mvt 1 20th-century ‘neoclassical’ - Prokofiev Symphony No 1 mvt 1

Mahler’s 2nd Symphony and another late symphony by Mozart – No.36 – are both being performed by the LPO this season. These may of interest to you and your students within the A level course - please see p.20 for further details.

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Pulcinella

The ballet and the Suite

Pulcinella began life as a one-act ballet in 1920. Stravinsky re-worked music from the 1700s (now known to be by a variety of composers including but not restricted to Pergolesi) and told a comic story of lost love, disguise, faked murder and revenge. The story was so ridiculous with a convoluted plot, unlikely drama and 21 disjointed scenes that it wasn’t instantly successful so Stravinsky took his favourite 8 scenes and created a Pulcinella with Pimpinella, Ballet Capitole suite for orchestra in 1924. This version is now one of Stravinsky’s most popular works.

Stravinsky used a small ‘Haydn’-sized orchestra of double winds (no ), two horns, one trumpet and one trombone, and arranged his strings like a baroque Grosso with small soloist group – (two , , , bass) and Ripieno (larger, fuller .) so the piece instantly looked and sounded from the older period

The following movements from the suite are on the Edexcel A2 syllabus: Mvt 1 Sinfonia () Mvt 6 Gavotta Mvt 7 Vivo

Mvt 1 Sinfonia

Source material – Domenico Gallo: Trio Sonata No. 1 in G Major Scored originally for two violins, cello and continuo (, bass)

Differences between Stravinsky and Gallo Stravinsky keeps Gallo’s and cello parts and assigns to the same instruments. Gallo’s 2nd violin part and continuo are fleshed out considerably.

Structure Rounded Binary Form (material from A section returns undeveloped and without modulation)

Texture Melody Dominated Homophony

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Section A bars 1 – 15

Bars 1 – 4 First theme in tonic (G), modulates to dominant (D)

Added notes enrich the harmony at first cadence. Open strings, 5th and octaves, low create a rustic sound.

Bars 7 - 9 New countermelodies on , violin 2 and cello. Polyphonic texture

Bars 10 – 13 Big change to the cadence - added beat (from 2/4, 3/4 change of metre)

Section B bars 16 – end

Begins in dominant key, travels through a wider range of keys before returning home

Bar 18 Added bar between phrases of melody. Stravinsky uses Gallo’s little cadential figure again.

Bars 21 – 23 Downward sequence

Bars 24 – 26 Circle of 5ths (Gallo) blurred by descending countermelody on violin 1 (Stravinsky). Creates dissonances

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Bars 29 – 30 Good example of 3 part texture, similar to the original

Bar 33 Return to opening (A section material). Anacrusis left off – theme ‘sneaks’ in on horn and bassoon is then repeated tutti

Bars 37 – 40 Good example of melody-dominated homophony and Stravinsky’s expansion of the continuo

Mvt 6 Gavotta

Source material – Carlo Monza: Keyboard Suite in D, Mvt 4 Gavotta & 6 doubles Scored originally for solo harpsichord (double means the same as ‘variation’)

Differences between Stravinsky and Monza Instrumentation - Stravinsky uses just wind and brass for this movement and fleshes out Monza’s solo keyboard writing. Stravinsky borrows from Monza’s theme, variation 1 and 4 for his theme and 2 variations.

Structure Binary Form, Theme and Variations Texture Melody Dominated Homophony

Gavotta Section A bars 1 – 10 Bars 1 – 10 Just , , horns New material invented for 2nd oboe, 1st bassoon, horns Begins in Tonic (D) modulates to Dominant (A) A section repeats

Gavotta Section B bars 11 – 32 Begins in subdominant key (G), travels through a wider range of keys before returning home

Bar 15 Downward glissandi in bassoons (sounds like sighing)

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Bar 19 Thicker texture from 3rds, 6ths matches Monza’s use of chords

Bar 24 Weakened cadences. Embellishments written out

Variation 1 Section A bars 33 – 42 A gigue in 6/8 New countermelody on 1st horn A section repeats

Variation 1 Section B bars 43 – 64 Bars 43 – 46 Alternating tonic and subdominant chords with added tonic pedal throughout causes clashes

Bar 47 – 50 repeats in sequence

Variation 2 Section A bars 65 – 72 The same material covered in less bars due to new Alberti bass accompaniment throughout adapted from Monza’s keyboard version, now on bassoon with challenging leaps.

A section repeats

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Variation 2 Section B bars 73 - end Bars 72 Octave displacement of melody Rushing upwards scales between notes of melody (‘tirades’)

Bar 77 New countermelody on flute leads to dissonance

Bar 79 Chain of consecutive 5ths

B section repeats with…

Bar 80 – 82 Bizarre return to beginning of section which includes an overlap of melodies

Mvt 7 Vivo Source material – Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: Sinfonia a 3 in F major Mvt 4 Scored originally for cello, bass and continuo

Differences between Stravinsky and Pergolesi Stravinsky keeps Pergolesi’s melody intact but gives it to solo bass until bar 62 when it is shared between bass and trombone. Pergolesi’s bassline is given to the orchestra.

Structure Rounded Binary Form Texture Melody Dominated Homophony

Section A bars 1 – 21 In F major without modulation

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False start bars 21 – 24 Return to opening material for 3rd time, in home key Upward scale to high C takes melody to dominant key and B section Accompaniment remains in Tonic key

Section B bars 25 – end Bar 30 Over-emphasis of harmony with thick chords

Bar 33 Over-emphasis of cadence with quaver rest (causes ), full orchestral chords (the only time the full orchestra is used), and added pitches (G in D7)

Bar 38 – 45 Octave from bar 6 doubled 3 octaves higher on flute, slight variation of causes ‘blurred’ sound. Heterophonic texture

Bar 46 Parallel minor key (Pergolesi trait), high bass and syncopation causes bluesy sound Blurred harmony of and basses

Bar 53 Material from A section returns, minus middle section

Bar 54 – end Weakened cadences – no dominant note at bar 60, final cadence is III - I

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Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963)

Francis Poulenc was born in Paris in 1899 into an extremely wealthy family. Poulenc’s father ran a hugely successful chemical company and Poulenc’s mother was an amateur pianist. Realising young Poulenc was gifted he was sent to a piano teacher who happened to be an expert in the piano music of and , so those were Poulenc’s first musical icons.

As a teenager, Poulenc began writing music and quickly came to the attention of Stravinsky. It was 1917, Stravinsky was one of Europe’s most famous composers at that time after the success of his three Parisian . Stravinsky was so impressed with Poulenc’s work that he got him his first publishing contract and became another mentor.

Erik Satie and As a young man Poulenc spent time in the district of Paris drinking in café bars with a range of young up and coming artists from all genres. People like Picasso, and crucially . Eventually Poulenc and five like-minded young composers joined together under the name Les Six.

To get a taste for the eclectic Parisian music scene Poulenc inhabited listen to the following –

Debussy: a great impressionist masterpiece but perhaps too overblown for Les Six Ravel: the master orchestrator with a masterpiece but perhaps too serious for Les Six Satie: Gymnopédies & Gnossiennes the ever-popular tiny piano pieces worshipped by Les Six.

Debussy’s La mer and some related Ravel are both being performed by the LPO this season. Please see p.20 for further details.

Les Six - , , , , and Poulenc - would get together and have heated artistic discussions. They vowed to write music that was simple, direct, tuneful but also witty, unexpected and occasionally silly, as a reaction to the over-powering enormity of composers like Wagner and Tchaikovsky – similar thinking to the

ideals of neo-classicism.

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Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone

Poulenc’s Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone was written in 1922. It was written alongside similar short trios for other wind instruments. It is made up of three movements, the first of which features on the Edexcel AS syllabus.

NB: The misleading title - although the title is ‘Sonata, for Horn Trumpet and Trombone’, the piece isn’t in sonata form with the classical exposition-development-recap meaning. Poulenc is using the word sonata to simply mean ‘piece’ or ‘work’ and this is his first nod to the past.

Poulenc’s piece is neoclassical but in contrast to Stravinsky’s it features all new material rather than a re-working of music from the past. Poulenc then subverts his ideas for comedic effect rather than reverence to a bygone age

Significant Features

Structure Ternary Form Texture Melody Dominated Homophony (the trumpet has most of the melodic material)

Section A bars 1 – 25 Bars 1 – 4 Simple, diatonic melody with expected chords Begins G major, cadences I – V – I

But Over-emphasis of triad (G major) and cadence plus added notes in the final chords to create discords show us we’re firmly in the .

Bars 9 – 17 Over-emphasis of parallel 6ths (for 9 bars), changing metre, syncopation

Bar 22 – 26 Over-emphasised cadence with rhythmic augmentation, unusual placement of motifs within the bar. Ends in G minor.

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Section B bars 26 - 57 Bars 26 – 35 Everything is different – slower, smoother, quieter than section A

Bars 36 – 39 Tiny, dramatic climax, large leaps on trumpet

Bar 40 – 47 Opening tune on horn, staccato with ‘um-pah’ accompaniment

Bar 48 – 56 Transition back to home key and A section

Section A bars 58 – 85 Bars 58 – 65 Exactly the same as bars 1 – 8

Bars 66 – 73 Development of idea from bar 48 (B section developed within A section repeat)

Bars 73 – 83 Repeat of bars 9 – 17, reorchestrated and transposed

Coda bars 86 – end Odd, comical ending Bb pedal chromatic scale, over-emphasised triad (borrowed from bar 1)

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Ideas for Creative Work in the Classroom

Creative composition tasks based on some of the features of these pieces and Neoclassicism in general may help your students to understand the genre from a hands-on point of view. Here are some suggestions for creative work that can be undertaken either in groups or individually.

1. The Asymmetrical (wonky) Processional March

Stravinsky’s Sinfonia at the opening of Pulcinella is essentially a processional march and as such it should be firmly within 2/4 or 4/4. However, that extra beat Stravinsky inserts at bar 12 throws everything, pulls the piece up to date and prevents it from being predictable. Challenge your students to create their own march using an unpredictable pattern of beats.

To be a proper (Classical period) march it should have the following characteristics –

 ‘Um pah’ bassline – using tonic and dominant notes from each chord

 Clear, predictable diatonic melody with balanced phrases

 Begin and end in the Tonic key (it could travel to the dominant at some point)

When this is made, ask your students to bring it into the 21st century by –

 Adding (or subtracting) at least one beat to upset the ‘um pah’ bassline

 Adding ‘wrong’ notes to the harmony to create discords

 Knocking the balance of the melody

If this is successful, set them the task of creating any genre of music with an uneven metre

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2. Theme and Variations

Movement 6 of Pulcinella is a theme with 2 variations based on an older theme with 6 variations. Theme and variations as a form is an excellent way of demonstrating a lot of musical knowledge in a fun, hands-on way.

 Decide on a theme that everyone can play. It can be anything from anywhere, any genre, any instrumentation, or it can be the very material Stravinsky works with here. -

(Movement 2 of Pulcinella also features an excellent tune for manipulation)

 Create a class, group or individual version of your chosen theme, as simple and straightforward as possible.

 Challenge your students to create variations upon the theme. Here are some classic devices that composers use for their manipulations:

a) Change the metre/key/mood/instrumentation/accompaniment/ harmonisation/structure b) Experiment with playing the melody backwards c) Make an from one bar of the melody and create new material around it d) Go abstract!

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3. Make new sound old, make old sound new

Broadly speaking there are two forms of Neoclassicism. Stravinsky makes the old sound new by adding a 20th century twist to works from two centuries before. He does this by -

1. Adding ‘wrong’ notes to chord progressions 2. Weakening cadences 3. Fleshing out accompaniments 4. Adding syncopation and uneven metre

Poulenc writes a new work and makes it sound old by:

1. Writing an overly simple diatonic tune with expected diatonic harmony 2. Writing balanced phrases with very obvious, clear cadences 3. Sticking to clear melody-dominated homophonic texture 4. Over-emphasising the home key

Stravinsky is blurring the features of the past, Poulenc is over-emphasising them. Set your students the task of either re-working an old melody from 18th century by adding new features or adapting a new melody by adding period features. Again the source material can be from anywhere, any genre etc. Aspiring composers may wish to create their own melody and write an 18th century version and a 20th century one.

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Dates

Below is a list of dates for LPO concerts that include many of the pieces of music and composers that have been listed or referenced in this pack. If you would like to bring your students to one of these evening concerts, please contact our Box Office on 020 7840 4242, or for group bookings (for groups 10+) 020 7840 4205.

Saturday 1st November Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm Mahler: Symphony No.2

Wednesday 12th November Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm Poulenc: Concerto for two pianos and orchestra Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole Debussy: La mer

Saturday 6th December Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm Stravinsky: of Wind Instruments (1920 version) Stravinsky:

Saturday 21st March Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm Stravinsky: Petrushka (1911 version)

Wednesday 25th March Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm Mozart: Symphony No.36

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Thank You

We hope this pack will give you some suggestions to enhance A level provision in your school. For further ideas, don’t forget that the LPO’s BrightSparks series of schools concerts runs annually at the Royal Festival Hall, with specific concerts for Key Stage 3 and GCSE, and associated teacher INSET sessions. You can find out more on our website: http://www.lpo.org.uk/education/lpo-education.html.

Do feel free to get in touch at any time about our work here at the LPO, or if you’d like any future guidance for musical work in the classroom. We’d love to hear about your school’s future musical activities!

Isabella Kernot, Education and Community Director [email protected] Alexandra Clarke, Education and Community Project Manager [email protected]

©Copyright Rachel Leach London 2014