CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE RECITAL AND CONCERTO IN PIANO BY BACH, BEETHOVEN, BARTOK, DEBUSSY, LISZT, MENDELSSOHN AND MOZART A graduate project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Music in Music, Performance By Jie Hou May 2017 The graduate project of Jie Hou is approved: _________________________________ _________________________ Dr. Pei-Shan Lee Date _________________________________ _________________________ Prof. Edward Francis Date _________________________________ ___________________________ Dr. Dmitry Rachmanov, Chair Date California State University, Northridge ii Table of Contents Signature Page ii Abstract iv Program I (Concerto) 1 Program II (Solo Recital) 2 Bibliography 5 iii ABSTRACT RECITAL AND CONCERTO IN PIANO BY BACH, BEETHOVEN, BARTOK, DEBUSSY, LISZT, MENDELSSOHN AND MOZART BY Jie Hou Master of Music in Music, Performance J.S. Bach (1685-1750): Prelude & Fugue in F minor, BWV 857 Prior to his birth, Bach’s family was already well-known for their musical ability and he picked up the key skills quite early in life. Bach is considered by Mozart to be the father of harmony in composition.1 He played emotional, gorgeous and beautiful melodies which he wrote in several voices and many of his general performance involved sophisticated improvisation in perfect counterpoint often in 4 or more voices. Bach is considered the master of Baroque composition which was famous for elaborate contrapuntal forms; his demise is taken to mark the end of the era of Baroque music. Bach is also considered the father of counterpoint, a composition technique that produces several different melodic lines that are related harmonically but not melodically or by voice 1 Liszt, Franz, and Thomas Trotter. Prelude and fugue on BACH. Decca Record Company, 1990: 17. iv contour. He has also known for his Fugues, a particularly complicated form that introduces the theme with multiple voices through imitation at the beginning and returns in the entire piece. Prelude in F minor, BWV 857 is Andante espressivo which speed is peaceful and slowly. Throughout the whole composition, the principal melody is maintained at a steady motion with a chordal accompaniment that regularly imitates the treble line. When I played this prelude, I play legato to connect the main theme and the main theme alternate between the right hand and the left hand. The fugue is patient and slow starting with single long notes which is the subject. The subject alternate appear in each voice. “The subject of this fugue is three bars long. It commences on beat 2 of a 4/4 bar, thus giving the impression of a long upbeat. Its ending is defined by the return to the keynote after the half-note G which represents the dominant.” 2 Ludwing van Beethoven (1770-1827): Sonata in A flat Major, Op.26 Beethoven was born to Maria Magdalene and Johann Beethoven in Bonn. He is the one of the most famous composers in classical period. He gets his early music training from his father and local musicians. In 1992 he went to Vienna with the goal of learning with Joseph Haydn. “He was steeped in Enlightenment ideals and absorbed the music of Haydn and Mozart.”3 At the age of 26 he started to lose his hearing which made it difficult for him to hear sounds. Beethoven played a significant role in transforming Western music. He also changed chamber music, bringing it to new levels regarding both the technical demands and 2 Siglind Bruhn, J.S.Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier in-depth Analysis and Interpretation. 3 J.Peter Burkholder, Donald Jay Grout and Claude V. Palisca. A History of Western Music. W.W. Norton & Company, 2014: 563. v content. His major works include 32 piano sonatas, 9 symphonies, 5 piano concertos, 16 string quartets, 11 overtures and so on. Beethoven sonata op.26 was written in 1800-1801 at the same time when the first Symphony was composed. Before Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart already build sonata form which make up by three or four movements (fast-slow-fast or fast- slow-minuet-fast). The first movement often uses sonata form. But Op.26 is totally different with traditional sonata form. He arranges four movements which are variation, scherzo, Marcia funebre and rondo. And he didn’t use sonata form in any movement in Op.26. The piece opens relatively with a slow movement in format of variations and themes. The third movement includes a funeral march that anticipates clearly the watershed of the Symphony of Eroica that was written by Beethoven in the year 1803-1804.This is the only movement from the collection of his Sonatas that were arranged for orchestra and played after his death in his funeral4. The first movement in A flat major and 3/8 meter. This is a theme that has a total of five variations. The main theme is slowly and peaceful. Each variation has different characteristics. Such as the folk style of the main theme, the sigh style of the third variation, especially the fifth variation, there are a lot of triplet with long line, the main melody hide inside. Like the Lider of Schubert. The third variation has been called a "pre-echo" of the funeral march movement by Andras Schiff during his lecture on the sonata.5 The third movement could be the most theatrical of the three movements. The left hand continues to bounce in half speed that causes a threatening and a tense atmosphere , in fact this variation is written rhythmically just as the second with just half the note values. In this movement, 4 Ockelford, Adam. "Relating musical structure and content to aesthetic response: A model and analysis of Beethoven's Piano Sonata op. 110." Journal of the Royal Musical Association 130, no. 1 (2005): 107. 5 "András Schiff Beethoven Lecture-Recitals". wigmore-hall.org.uk. Retrieved 10 April 2017. vi Beethoven clearly marked pedal mark first time. Such as “senza sordino” and “con sordino” in measure 31. It indicates that Beethoven has specific requirements in pedal uses. Even though Beethoven begins pedal mark, it’s not frequently. The fourth movement is rondo form in A flat major and 2/4 meter. This is a happy movement compare with the third movement. From measure 3, the main melody alternate between left and right hand. Bela Bartok (1881-1945): Suite Op.14 Bela Bartok is a famous ethnomusicologist as well as renowned composer and pianist. He devoted himself to the filed research and collection of folk music in many countries. He combined folk element with compose techniques of twenty century in his music. He was born in the year 1881 in Banatian Hungary. Bartok displayed unusual talent in music at an early age: he could, according to his mother distinguish between different rhythms of dances that she played on the piano before he could even know how to speak complete sentences. At four he had the ability to play forty piano pieces and his mother begun to train him formally the next year. He did his first recital in public when he was 11 years old. His recital was warmly received by the audience, and he played the music that day, his first creation that had been composed two years ago, it was a short work called "The Course of Danube." From the year 1899-1903, he learned piano under the training of Istvan Thoman who was a former student of Liszt Franz.6 There Bartok met Zoltan who created a strong bond of friendship between them. In 1903, he wrote his first work of orchestra called the Kossuth which was also a symphonic poem that honored the hero of the 6 Nissman, Barbara. Bartók and the piano: a performer's view. Scarecrow Press, 2002: 11. vii Hungarian revolution, Lajos Kossuth .His early works were greatly inspired by the music of Richard Strauss whom he came across in 1902 at the premiere of Also Sprach in Budapest. This is a solo Piano piece that was composed by Bartok in the year 1916 during the month of February. The piece was published in 1918 and in April 1919 it was debuted by the composer in Budapest. This is one of the most significant works of Bartok for piano that can be compared only to the sonata of 1926.The suite is just one of the few piano pieces that does not have folk original melodies compared to the other works of Bartok7. Originally the suite was designed to contain five movements, the extra movement is Andante, but was modified to four which includes Allegretto, Scherzo, Allegro molto and Sostenuto. This piece was written in 1911 and is popularly performed as a solo piece of the piano. The composition doesn’t utilize folk elements directly and all main theme composed by Bartok himself. Bartok just uses the tempo of dance music and the scale of main theme to emphasize the folk color. The first movement has Romania folk dance style. The characteristic of Romania folk dance is tempo which is quaver add with two semiquaver. The opening melody of the piece is mainly pentatonic and it uses a subset of the Phrygian mode just like several compositions of Bartok. The pieces revolves around a pitch of tone which always almost stays constant and the minor ,major or modal relations that are around it vary. The piece is short that sounds like it composed freely however one can start to find structures that are traditional and to the piece the piece by viewing the harmony. It is in a form that is ternary meaning that there are two themes that are distinct though one is presented two times. The melodic material of the first movement is based mainly on 7 Nissman, Barbara.