A Level Schools Concert November 2014
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A level Schools Concert November 2014 An Exploration of Neoclassicism Teachers’ Resource Pack Autumn 2014 2 London Philharmonic Orchestra 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 composer, workshop leader and presenter, who has composed and worked for many of the UK’s orchestras and opera companies, including the London Sinfonietta, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Wigmore Hall, Glyndebourne Opera, English National Opera, Opera North, and the London Symphony Orchestra. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, 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. ©Copyright Rachel Leach London 2014 3 London Philharmonic Orchestra A level Resources Contents Introduction 4 The London Philharmonic Orchestra 5 Igor Stravinsky 6 Neoclassicism 7 Pulcinella 8 Francis Poulenc 14 Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone 15 Ideas for Creative Work 17 Dates 20 Thanks 21 ©Copyright Rachel Leach London 2014 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 - Pulcinella Suite Mvts 1 (Sinfonia), 6 (Gavotta & variations) and 7 (Vivo) A2 Unit 6: Further musical understanding Poulenc - Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone AS Unit 3: Developing musical understanding ©Copyright Rachel Leach London 2014 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 Thomas Beecham, and since then they have been headed by many great names in the conducting world. Its current Principal Conductor is Vladimir Jurowski, and its Composer in Residence is Magnus Lindberg. 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 Composers 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 Dance, 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 6 London Philharmonic Orchestra A level Resources Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971) Igor Stravinsky was born in St Petersburg in 1882 into a musical family. His father was a bass 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 Sergei Diaghilev who invited Stravinsky into write for his ballet company in Paris 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 Russian ballet - 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 Petrushka and then the riotous The Rite of Spring. After Rite he was the most talked about composer in the world and very much in demand. The effect of World War I After the Great War and the Russian Revolution 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 Baroque 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 Picasso 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. ©Copyright Rachel Leach London 2014 7 London Philharmonic Orchestra A level Resources 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. ©Copyright Rachel Leach London 2014 8 London Philharmonic Orchestra A level Resources 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 clarinets), two horns, one trumpet and one trombone, and arranged his strings like a baroque Concerto Grosso with small soloist group – Concertino (two violins, viola, cello, bass) and Ripieno (larger, fuller string orchestra.) 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 (Overture) Mvt 6 Gavotta Mvt 7 Vivo Mvt 1 Sinfonia Source material – Domenico Gallo: Trio Sonata No.