Par . The Symphony: From Mannheim to Mahler is a fascinating and accessible guide that considers the development of the symphony from a number of different perspectives: analytical, historical, and critical. Exploring important milestones, touchpoints, events, key works, and the composers that surround the genre, it also includes a composer timeline, detailed case studies and comprehensive music examples. This handy and informative book is ideal for GCSE, A-Level, and undergraduate music students, as well as anyone wanting to study and learn more about the genre. Christopher Tarrant is Lecturer in Music Analysis at Newcastle University. He received his PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London and now teaches and writes about concert music of the long nineteenth century with a special emphasis on theory of form and the Nordic symphony. Christopher is also a violinist and conductor. Natalie Wild is Director of Research and Deputy Director of Music at the Music in Secondary Schools Trust (MiSST). Her research focuses on the role a classical music education can play in breaking down social barriers. Natalie has taught both GCSE and A-Level Music for many years as Head of Music in various inner-city schools. / Date parution : 2022-05-17/ Livre / Orchestre

The ’Low’ Symphony composed in the spring of 1992 is based on the record ‘Low’ by David Bowie and Brian Eno first released in 1977. The record consisted of a number of songs and instrumentals and used techniqueswhich were similar to procedures used by composers working in new and experimental music. As such this record was widely appreciated by musicians working both in the field of ‘pop’ music and in experimental music and was alandmark work of that period.Having taken themes from three of the instrumentals on the record and combining them with material of his own Glass has used them as the basis of three movements of this Symphony.Thisis the Full Score of Glass’ orchestral work.

Philip Glass has produced ten symphonies so far the ones immediately preceding this one inspired by sources as diverse as Allen Ginsberg poetry Aboriginal writings and Native American song. Symphony No 8 however has noreferences to non-musical materials and takes as its subject according to Glass ‘the language of music itself’.The three-movement work does not conform to classical symphonic form with an extended twenty-minute first movement a slow passacaglia for the second movement and a short dense theme joined by a counter theme then ending with an extended cadence to complete the work in the third movement. Symphony No 8 was commissioned by the BrucknerOrchester Linz under the direction of Dennis Russell Davis.American composer Philip Glass is widely known as one of the most celebrated influential and prolific of the modern composers. He is frequently referred to as aminimalist though he prefers to call himself a composer of ‘music with repetitive structures.’ His operas among them the renowned Einstein On The Beach are performed across the globe and he has created work for small andlarge ensembles film and experimental theatre and founded his own performing group The Philip Glass Ensemble.

Solo for Oboe or Violin-'The title only appears frivolous to those who have lived little. With the passage of time the seasons that pass the differences in quantity and quality of light of temperature and weather become of ever greater importance in the meaning of our individual existence. This transformation follows the path of our lives and often mimes in front of our very own eyes incredulous and wondrous events that we can only experience once in a lifetime: our birth our blossoming our aging and our death. Such a subject could well take up ten years of my life. This was the case. Nevertheless everything started very innocently with a proposition from my friend François Leleux to write him a double concerto that he could play with Natalia Gutman initially named ‘Musica Concertante’. It was with this second proposition from François for another double concerto this time with Lisa Batiashvili that the idea came to me for a cycle of four concertos with each time a different instrument from the string quartet to join the oboe. The automnal colours of the cello are a perfect match for the retrospective nature of the first completed concerto in the cycle. ‘concerto nostalgico l’automne’ whilst the love and the first child of the Leleux-Batiashvili couple could only bring Spring to mind hence the ‘Concerto amoroso le printemps’ was born. When Jean-Marc Bador asked me to be an associate of the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris for two years it was quite naturally that I thought of completing this cycle for François Leleux with winter ‘Concerto tenebroso’ created in January 2010 with Lise berthaud playing the viola. All that remained was for me to conclude with a work that reunited all four protagonsits. It was summer the ‘Concerto luminoso’ which took on this role’.

Score-Silvestre Revueltas' ‘Sensemaya’ was written in 1937 for chamber orchestra; one year later the composer transcribed it for a huge orchestra of twenty-seven wind instruments fourteen percussion instruments and strings. The rhythms are laid out precisely and have considerable visceral impact very much in a manner that recalls Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. However Revueltas' masterful orchestration and ability to evoke the ancient Maya civilization with decidedly modern music are uniquely his own. It is a unique orchestral spectacle something only Revueltas could have written and in its way it is one of the most brutal works of its time. The workbegins with a low note in the bassoon as the percussion plays the sinuous syncopated rhythm that drives the work. Soon a solo horn enters playing the first of this work's two major themes a muscular ominous motif. Other horns join the first one to play the theme growing louder and more emphatic but rigorously yoked to the underlying rhythm. Eventually the horns blast as loudly as they can with obsessive trills on the bassoon far underneath and the violins enter with the slashing second theme. The horns take up this new theme and bring it to a climax after which the music returns to its opening texture. This recapitulation brings with it a mood of foreboding. The rhythm becomes even more obsessive and finally the music reaches a massive climax during which both themes are played overlapping sometimes in part and sometimes in whole by woodwinds brass and violins in what sounds like a musical riot. The coda feels like the final dropping of a knife.

Full Score-The Persian traditional music (called the Dastgah Segah) is based on intervals made of three quarter-tones and natural whole-tones. Segah has no interval in common with the European/ Western equal-temperament tuning. This lack of common intervalsbetween the Segah mode and the equal-temperament tuning will lead to a cognitive dissonance if this mode is set against the equal-temperament system. My goal has been to elaborate on the innate tensions that exists between the two interval systemsand use it as a symbol for the existing political and cultural tensions between the Persian and the Western cultures. The piece consists of two Persian traditional instruments the Ney (Persian vertical bamboo flute) and the Kamanche (Persian spikefiddle) as the musical representatives of the Persian culture set against the Western orchestra as the musical representative of the Western culture. A small ensemble of Western instruments consisting of a harp and string quintet accompanies thePersian instruments. The harp is tuned to the Segah intervals and the string quintet plays in the Segah mode. The orchestra is performing inthe Western equal- temperament tuning. From the very first bars of the main section of the piece confusionsand misunderstandings arise. The orchestra being unable to play in Segah or understand the mode becomes more and more agitated. Musical tensions between the soloists and the orchestra lead to musical confrontations and finally to musicalviolence. The orchestra becomes extremely violent and militaristic and tries to suppress the soloists efforts to express their musical thoughts. In the midst of all these confusions and cultural misunderstandings musical connections and attractionsstart to take place. The orchestra and the soloists find themselves musically attracted to each other and start imitating each others musical phrases. Cognitive dissonances start to be gradually transformed to musical dialogues symbolizing thegradual replacement of the clash of civilizations with the dialogue of civilizations. Segah was written for Khosrow and Kian Soltani and premiered at the Segah Festival on January 15 2016.

Thomas Adès and Philip Hensherâ??s dazzlingly precocious chamber opera Powder Her Face propelled its composer to international attention after its premiere in 1995 and with nearly 300 worldwide performances remains one of the most frequently performed British operas of the last two decades. Charting the glamorous rise and seedy fall of the notorious socialite beauty Margaret Duchess of Argyll the score is as witty poignant and memorable as the â??Dirty Duchessâ?? herself paying homage to the popular idioms of cabaret and tango as well as to Weill Berg and Stravinsky. It is hard to believe that this masterpiece was written by a 24year-old but then that young man was Adès whose prodigious musical talent was awe-inspiring even as a teenager.

Par JARRELL MICHAEL. De la nature... du musical Michael Jarrell, né en 1958, est l'un des compositeurs les plus en vue de sa génération. Dans une démarche toute personnelle, qui ne s'est inféodée à aucun mouvement, et dans une quête intérieure inlassablement poursuivie, il a opéré une synthèse de l'héritage des musiques d'après-guerre dont il a extrait certaines caractéristiques techniques pour les mettre au service d'une véritable poétique musicale. En effet, contrairement à ses aînés, il explore moins le langage pour lui-même, faisant des nouvelles techniques le lieu d'une mutation dans la pensée musicale, qu'il ne cherche à le mettre au service de l'expression. Aussi se méfie-t-il d'une conceptualisation excessive, et de l'utopie dont l'oeuvre serait porteuse, préférant mettre en valeur les vertus d'un artisanat qu'il enseigne par ailleurs à Vienne et à Genève, ainsi que lors de nombreux séminaires à travers l'Europe. Ses oeuvres, facilement identifiables dans l'abondante production contemporaine, sont toutes liées les unes aux autres, non seulement par une certaine forme de sensibilité, leur tonalité propre, mais aussi par la récurrence de certains traits que Jarrell retravaille dans des contextes différents. Il s'est ainsi très tôt constitué un univers qu'il ne cesse de remodeler, visant moins l'originalité apparente de chacune des pièces qu'un déplacement constant des perspectives dans lesquelles les mêmes idées, en elles, peuvent être appréhendées. 'Cent fois sur le métier...' voilà quelle pourrait être sa devise. On trouve ainsi dans chacune de ses oeuvres quelque chose de familier qui acquiert en même temps une certaine étrangeté, sentiment qui constitue peut-être un élément essentiel de son expressivité. La musique de Jarrell arpente les régions du rêve et de l'irréalité, à la recherche de son moment de vérité, souvent situé dans les sonorités les plus graves et tes plus lentes, là où le temps, ailleurs agité, s'immobilise. C'est peut-être ce qui confère à sa musique une forme de tendresse inséparable de la beauté sonore, allant jusqu'à un esthétisme raffiné, loin des recherches extrêmes et des formulations autoritaires. Chez lui, même les techniques instrumentales les plus inhabituelles, ou les sonorités électroniques, auxquelles il a souvent recours, sont rapatriées dans un monde sensible emprunt de pureté où ce sont les qualités expressives qui dominent. Celles-ci ne renvoient pas forcément au moi du compositeur, qui tend au contraire à s'effacer, mais davantage à l'essence même du musical, au phénomène en soi, porteur d'une présence singulière au monde. On retrouve de telles qualités dans sa dernière oeuvre, ...Le ciel, tout à l'heure si limpide, soudain se trouble horriblement..., commandée par l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Elle fait appel à un grand orchestre symphonique standard: 3 flûtes (dont alto et piccolo, 2 hautbois et cor anglais, 2 clarinettes et clarinette basse, 2 bassons et contrebasson, 4 cors, 3 trompettes, 3 trombones, tuba, harpe, timbales, 4 percussions (vibraphone, glockenspiel, cloches tubes, cymbales, bongos, tam-tam, grosse caisse, temple blocks, tom grave, spring coils, triangle, mark tree) et cordes. Malgré un titre qui pourrait sous-entendre un élément programmatique, l'oeuvre appartient à la catégorie de la musique pure. L'orchestre y est traité de façon conventionnelle, mais avec une virtuosité d'écriture, un raffinement dans la sonorité qui exige beaucoup de ses interprètes. D'un seul tenant, l'oeuvre se divise en quatre parties principales d'inégale longueur, les deux premières étant plus importantes que les deux suivantes: la première est constituée d'un continuum de notes rapides réparties entre les cordes et Les bois, tandis que les trompettes, doublées par différents instruments, lancent une figure d'appel incisive qui s'allonge progressivement. L'écriture est d'une grande virtuosité, les figurations en triples croches passant d'un instrument ou d'un groupe à un autre. Les notes rapides se figent une première fois dans des oscillations jouées notamment par les cordes divisées, puis à travers des notes répétées qui traversent toute la texture orchestrale. Après un passage intermédiaire privilégiant les sons graves, l'écriture vive reprend jusqu'à un sommet dramatique marqué par des trilles, aussitôt suivi d'une désintégration qui mène à la seconde partie. Celle-ci débute avec des quintes jouées par les cordes graves divisées et colorées par les percussions (les contrebasses, qui doivent modifier leur accord, jouent des sons harmoniques). La musique semble vouloir repartir d'un point originel, elle se réinvente à partir d'une structure élémentaire, dans une extrême douceur. L'impétuosité du début laisse place à une grande délicatesse des sonorités. C'est un trait que l'on retrouve dans de nombreuses pièces de Jarrell: après l'effervescence d'une écriture brillante, agitée, nerveuse, que l'auditeur suit dans sa course folle, vient un moment réflexif et profond, qui nécessite une réorientation de l'écoule, une plongée dans la nature même du phénomène sonore. La trame qui se déploie dans un tempo lent offre ainsi une autre image de la sonorité orchestrale, comme si une musique des origines, au caractère de litanie, était soudain dévoilée sous la couche éclatante du début. Elle donne le sentiment d'avoir commencé bien avant son moment d'apparition, comme si elle provenait des couches profondes de la conscience, d'une mémoire archaïque. D'ailleurs, Jarrell réélabore ici un passage d'une pièce antérieure, Music for a While, lui reprenant son matériau de base. Le sentiment de profondeur est dû au formidable ralentissement du temps, qui nous met soudainement en apesanteur, mais aussi à une forme en spirale, qui tranche avec la musique directionnelle qui précédait. L'effet que provoque la distance sensible entre de tels contrastes est onirique: on ne sait plus si la première partie, qui nous échappe en se projetant vers l'avant, n'était qu'une forme illusoire, ou si nous entrons, avec la partie lente, dans une sorte de rêve éveillé. Un passage central, dans cette seconde partie, s'organise autour de guirlandes sonores à la harpe et aux cloches que tout l'orchestre remplit de sonorités suaves. Les arpèges descendants des vents doublés par des pizzicatos de cordes, que transpercent des notes répétées aux trompettes et aux cors, dans un climat encore doux, annoncent la reprise du mouvement frénétique. Mais cette fois, ce sont moins des figures virevoltantes qui passent à travers les pupitres que des blocs de notes joués par la masse des instruments: des figures qui s'élancent vers le haut aboutissent à des notes répétées, en une forme d'antiphonie, et mènent à un sommet d'intensité. Après quoi, en guise de coda, une quatrième partie nous conduit à une fin mourante: l'harmonie se fige, les polyrythmes annulent toute sensation de mesure, les longues tenues des instruments graves chutent chromatiquement, les percussions jouant des figures rituelles, en résonance, jusqu'à l'immobilité finale. Le titre de la pièce provient de Lucrèce (De la nature). Il n'a pas de signification structurelle immédiate, comme souvent chez Jarrell, mais exprime en quelques mots l'idée qui avait présidé au morceau. Le trouble s'apparente ici à une forme d'étrangeté, à quelque chose d'inquiétant qui n'apparaît pas de façon narrative, tel un vent d'orage dans un ciel serein, mais comme l'essence même de l'articulation formelle entre deux types d'écriture, deux types d'expression qui exigent des temporalités opposées l'une à l'autre. La soudaineté, c'est le renversement entre les deux. Pourtant, on retrouve un même noyau entre les parties vives et les parties lentes, la quinte jouant dans les deux cas un rôle structurel, et le mib apparaissant comme une note polaire (toute la musique de Jarrell est aimantée par des pôles qui orientent l'écoute). Si le passage du limpide au trouble se traduit par la sonorité orchestrale, par le maniement très sensible des timbres qui provient en grande part de la tradition orchestrale française, il se manifeste aussi par des figures qui évitent tout profil thématique, toute forme mélodique au sens traditionnel du terme, et qui composent la texture. L'auditeur a directement à faire avec la matière sonore. Et celle-ci est composée de part en part. L'adjectif poétique vient à l'esprit pour définir une invention qui s'écarte aussi bien des formes illustratives que des constructions schématiques, et qui repose essentiellement sur l'organisation des hauteurs au détriment des effets, des sonorités bruiteuses ou des gestes iconoclastes. Et malgré les passages brillants, malgré les explosions sonores toujours maîtrisées et un maniement virtuose de l'orchestre, cette poétique révèle un caractère fondamental plutôt intimiste. Philippe Albèra / contemporain / Répertoire / Orchestre

A Symphonic Sketch-In this piece Otto M. Schwarz depicts a ride on a roller coaster. At the beginning the cars are pulled up by a chain. High above the ground the ride suddenly begins the steep descent with the loop the loop being accompanied by the screams of the passengers. Towards the end of the piece the ride becomes faster and faster and then finally comes to an abrupt end. The musical sketch Roller Coaster is especially suitable as an encore for your concerts. Climb on and let the ride begin!

Born in Havana Cuba in 1895 Ernesto Lecuona is arguably Cuba's greatest serious composer. He was a gifted pianist who wrote hundreds of songs and piano works before he died in 1963. Most of his music is composed in a rich authentic Cuban style. The most famous of his works is Malagueña the sixth movement of his Suite Andalucia for solo piano which was first published in 1928. Malagueña has been recorded as a popular song (with added lyrics) as a serious piano work (even by Lecuona himself in the 1950's) and also as a jazz standard (Bill Holman's arrangement for the Stan Kenton Orchestra in the early 1960's.) Over the years it has been arranged many times for variousother mediums ranging from symphony orchestra to field arrangements for drum and bugle corps.In 1976 James Barnes arranged Malagueña for the University of Kansas Marching Band. A few years later with permission from the publisher he expanded this original arrangement into a full work for symphonic band called Prelude Fantasy and Fandango on Lecuona's Malagueña. After several performances in the spring of 1978 (most notably at the MENC Convention in Colorado Springs) this work along with over 200 other Barnes manuscripts lay fallow in the KU Band Library. While packing up his office belongings when he retired from The University of Kansas in 2015 Barnes came across this long languishing Prelude Fantasy and Fandango which remained in condensed score. In the fall of 2016 he completely re-composed the opening portion of the work reduced the number of required percussion and disposed of the two harps in his 1978 version. This new setting features evocative thinly scored extended solo passages for clarinet bassoon and flute before the full wind band concludes the work with a powerful dramatic setting of the main themes of Lecuona's masterful Malagueña.

Pastorale for Christmas-Though lesser known than some Christmas melodies this stately pastoral work incorporates the chorus of O Come All Ye Faithful (or Adeste Fideles) into the writing. The original melody by Yon is rather remarkable in its elegant beauty and sounds timeless and enchantingly ancient though it was written rather recently in 1917. Pietro Yon was an organist who spent most of his career at the St. Patrick Cathedral in New York. Yon was well regarded in his lifetime by fellow musicians notably among his pupils was the celebrated American songwriter Cole Porter and upon his passing in 1943 Arturo Toscanini himself was among those who attended his large funeral. This arrangementbegins solftly with a simple statement of the melody in the trumpets. The theme expands as it is passed around the various instrumental choirs with increasing use of counterpoint. Culminating in a joyous exhaultation the music winds to a gentle and serene conclusion. The score is well-cued in key sections where the melody is prominent.

In the early years of our century when vital new forces were revolutionising the arts Russian-born Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) was one of the visionary pioneers who sought a new musical language. At least a full decade before the advances of Stravinsky and Schoenberg Scriabin had begun the process of a complete break with all musical conventions. By 1905 he was immersed in a search for a way to express in sound the mystical and theosophical ideas obsessed him. Scriabin’s last two orchestral works were the products of a virtual delirium of composing. Simultaneously refining his poem called Poem of Ecstasy andcompleting the symphony that grew out of it (and shared its name) Scriabin never forgot the rapture of composing this work about creation and self-fulfilment: “I gasp for breath but oh what bliss! The very meter kindles the meaning…” Prometheus: Poem of Fire – Scriabin’s last and most revolutionary symphony – portrays Man’s epic journey from the mists of beginning time to a wonderous self-realisation given the gift of fire and light to make creative vision possible. Massively scored Prometheus incorporates a “colour Organ” to bathe the performance space in a vast interplay of coloured lights. For the music professional and every student of composition orchestration and conducting both scores are strikingly original and instructive. Equally fascinating are Scriabin’s approach to composition the extraordinary sonorities of his orchestra and his fanciful often supercharged performance instructions that replace conventional words for tempo mood and expression.

From the Suite To Gozzi's Fairy Tale Drama-The Gozzi's Turandot - in one form or another - occupied Busoni at various times in the years 1904-1917. He was very fond of fantastical and magical tales: his immediately preceding work was the Piano Concerto Op. 39 BV247 which included music from an unfinished adaptatioon of Adam Oehlenschläger's Aladdin. In 1904 Busoni began sketching incidental music for Gozzi's Chinese fable. He also arranged a concert suite which was first performed in 1905 and published in 1906. A production of Gozzi's play with Busoni's music was mounted by Max Reinhardt in Berlin in 1911 and for the second and last time in London in 1913. This transcription of the first movement of Busoni's Turandotsuite was created for George A. Treviño and his superb Lopez High School Band of Brownsville Texas. The piece was premiered in February 2017 at the Texas Music Educators Association convention on the occasion of the Lopez band's 6A Honor Band performance.

The Danzas Fantasticas Fantastical Dances of Joaquin Turina are the composer?s best known work originally scored for Piano but Orchestrated by the composer and performed first in 1920 in their Orchestrated version. The work is full of exalted romantic melodies Iberian flourishes and exciting instrumental writing. The work quotes passages from the novel La Org a (The Orgy) by José Más at the beginning of each of the three movements. The movements are Exaltación a jota dance in 3/8 Ensueño (Dream) a zortziko in 5/8 and Org a a farruca all regional dances of Spain.Joaquin Turina is often contrasted with Albéniz and Granados those two proponents of a Spanish nationalstyle. Turina strove to write music of a European standard in the conventional major forms and it is possible to hear the influence of Turina?s years studying in Paris as well as his native Spain combined with the composer?s own unique Voice.

Orchestra Scores-Saint Francois D'Assise is an opera in 3 acts by Olivier Messiaen. This volume is part of the edition that includes the books with the full Orchestra scores as well as the explanations analysis and comments of each tableau. It is focused on the “Act 1 Tableau 2. Les laudes” which tells of the moment when Saint Francis his requests to God to meet a leper and to be able to love him. This tableau depicts Saint Francis and the “Mineurs Brothers” singing the morning service until the bells ring leaving Saint Francis alone to pray. It includes Saint Francis’ prayers some parts of Cantique descréatures on Brother Wind Sister Water Brother Fire and Mother Earth and the Sanctus. Based on the life of Saint Francis of Assisi this opera is set in Italy and is composed as per below: Act I: 1. La croix 2. Les laudes 3. Le baiser au lépreux Act II 4. L’ange voyageur 5. L’ange musicien 6. Le prêche aux oiseaux Act II 7. Les stigmates 8. La mort et la nouvelle vie This opera was first played at the Paris Opera in 1983. Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) was a French organist and composer passionate about Ornithology and one of the most important composers of his century. Inspired by Japanese music he had a very special way of composing and his work can be identified by its complexity its diatonic aspect its harmony with limited transposition its colour and its additive rhythms. He composed many works related to ornithology and birdsong including the 'Bird Catalogue' in 7 volumes and the 'Treatise on Rhythm Colour and Ornithology' in 7 volumes.