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-Introduction
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Okay; I think it’s time to bring out the warhorses; that is, the famous
classical tunes that everybody knows, or has at least heard on Bugs Bunny. Now I’m planning to do an entire Bugs Bunny
Introduces the Classics show —which is not a new idea, I know— so I’m going
to keep away from Bugs Bunny classics, for the most part.
Let’s try two things in this show:
Firstly, let’s try to get you to know the names of these pieces, and the composers.
Next, let’s try to introduce you to something
else, which is equally good, or equally catchy, by the same composer. A
sort of ‘What’s on the B side?’ approach.
Just a couple more things.
Second, I have an e-mail address now; it’s archieWXPI@gmail.com. There’s a link to it at the website. Send
me mail, and I’ll read it and reply, or read out a response right here. |
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Bach: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
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This
next piece is what my folks played at bedtime when I
was just about four years old. It
should put me right to sleep, except that we sang it in school for a
prize
day one time, and I was totally hooked.
Here it is, sung by the Wiener Singerknaben, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. It
has a trumpet playing the soprano part. (People don’t realize that
the original
scoring had the sopranos doubled with a trumpet.) Listen to the
inner parts. The oboe is front and center, but there is
a violin playing a really lovely counterpoint to it. Also, the tenor
voice has a really sweet
line of music. The bass line, of
course, as in all of Bach music is interesting and important.
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3, 4
Bach: Rondeau, Badinerie
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Now I want to play something else by Bach. You’ve heard
tons of Bach already, so I’m not going to try too hard. But here is a
pair of tunes that were actually on the B side of the record my Dad used to
play. Both of these are movements from
the B minor (Orchestral) Suite. These
are the Rondeau, and the Badinerie.
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Tchaikovsky: Waltz of the Flowers
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Waltz of the
Flowers, from the Nutcracker Ballet Suite by P. I. Tchaikovsky. This is the whole thing, except for the
Harp introduction, which I took out.
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Tchaikovsky:
Pathetic Symphony, movt ii
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A lovely movement from Tchaikovsky is from his Pathetic
Symphony (Symphony No 6). This
movement is in quintuple time, and the stress is on beats 1 and 3. You’ve all heard Dave Brubeck’s Take
Five. That one is in compound
quintuple; this one is in plain old quintuple. It is in ABA form, or rather A1
B A2 form, where A1 and A2 are almost the same, but obviously, A2
is slightly modified, as an ending.
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Beethoven: fragments
from Symphonies 9, 5, and 3
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There is a lot of Beethoven that people might have heard,
including the famous Ode to Joy
from the 9th Symphony:
Then the famous 5th Symphony:
A little less well known, but as brilliant, or even more
brilliant, the Eroica, or the 3rd Symphony:
I’ll play all of these movements in completeness sometime.
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Beethoven: Sonata
No. 14, fragment from Movt 1, complete Movt 2.
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Here is the recapitulation from the first movement of the
Moonlight Sonata, by Wilhelm Kempff.
Here is the middle movement, which is a lot less
well-known, played by Emil Gilels.
Listen to his control of the piano!
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Haydn: ‘Emperor’
Quartet, excerpt
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Haydn was a major composer. He practically invented the String Quartet,
though really, it was a sort of team job. I’ve played a couple of Haydn
pieces, notably an aria from the Creation.
Here is an excerpt from his Emperor Quartet, from which is taken the
Austrian National Anthem, and the German National Anthem.
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Haydn: Great Whales, from Die Schöpfung (Creation)
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The aria ‘And God created Great Whales,’ from Haydn’s Creation.) Note: the text of the entire oratorio was
taken from Milton’s Paradise Lost.
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The Seekers: Georgy Girl
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It’s been some time since we heard a song from the Seekers
being played. The Seekers were an
Australian group who sang lovely open harmony. Here’s one that used to be really well
known, because of being featured in a movie: Georgy Girl, starring Vanessa Redgrave (Sorry: it was Lynn Redgrave.)
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Seekers: Walk with me
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Another song by the same group is Walk With Me, which has
a really lovely interlude, played on the 12-string guitar
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Schubert: Unfinished
Symphony (excerpt)
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Schubert is famous for his Unfinished Symphony.
It
was not a symphony that he died before completing, in the sense that
he ran
out of time. It was just one that was
either complete in two movements, or one that he set aside. Here’s
the beginning of the first movement. (I feel bad to play enormously
long
movements for obvious reasons, so this is just an excerpt.) You
could easily find it on YouTube, for
instance, if you like it.
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Schubert: Who is Silvia
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Schubert also wrote a song based on a Shakespeare sonnet
called To Silvia. Here are the King’s
Singers, singing it a capella. You can
hear them depicting the piano
part. Schubert was Austrian, but they
loved Shakespeare over there (back then).
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John Lennon: Imagine
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John Lennon’s Imagine
is really well known. He did not write Yesterday, that was Paul McCartney. So, here’s Imagine. Does Religion create a world without
strife, or does Religion add to the strife?
I think opinion is pretty well equally divided on the issue.
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John Lennon: Aisumasen
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Another song he sang was Aisumasen, which is Japanese for I’m Sorry. Listen to the awesome guitar interlude.
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Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto
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Felix Mendelssohn is credited with writing the tune to
Hark the Herald Angels Sing. One of
the best known Wedding Marches is also his.
It’s taken from the music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Like I said, the German people of the
nineteenth century thought Shakespeare was utterly romantic. Here is a bit of it:
Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto is one of the great entries
in classical music. Here are the first
few minutes of the Violin Concerto in E-minor:
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Wagner: Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin
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I’ve played for you a couple of pieces by Wagner. Many of you know the Ride of the Valkyries,
from Apocalypse Now, and you know the Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin, which is often used as a wedding march.
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Die Engel
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Wagner wrote several beautiful Lieder, that is songs, that
were nothing to do with opera at all.
Here’s one, called The Angel,
one of the Wesendonck Lieder
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Hollies: Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress
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If you’ve heard of Crosby Stills and Nash, then you know
about Graham Nash. He was earlier a
member of an awesome group called The Hollies. Here are two songs by them; it’s hard to
tell which of the two you might have heard.
This one is called The Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress.
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Hollies:
Bus Stop
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The second song is one of my all-time favorites: Bus Stop.
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Elgar: Pomp & Circumstances
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At graduation time, this tune is heard all over the US:
Actually it is part of a much longer march: Pomp and
Circumstance March No. 1 by Edward Elgar.
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Edward Elgar:
Nimrod, from Enigma Variations
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Almost better known than the Pomp and Circumstances
marches is the set of variations called the Enigma Variations written by Elgar. Out of these, the variation called Nimrod is the best known. It is a
piece of great dignity (or rather gravity),
and often used at funerals. Here it is
played by the London Philharmonic with Daniel Barenboim conducting.
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George Gershwin:
Summertime
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Who comes next?
Let’s see whether you can identify the composer of this one.
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Gershwin: Prelude 2
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This is the famous Prelude No. 2
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Brahms: Lullaby
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The best-known piece by Brahms is his famous Lullaby (Weigenlied), one of a set of several songs he wrote for voice and
piano. Here’s the original. All the versions we usually hear have been —improved— by various people. I
slightly improved this one by instrumenting it for strings and woodwind, and
changing two notes. Actually, 4 notes, since it is repeated. I just couldn’t
resist. I might change them back
before I put the show on the air. (I didn’t.)
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Brahms: Hungarian Dances
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The obvious choice for the second piece by Brahms is his
famous St. Anthony Chorale Variations, but I only have that on LP, and it’s
too late in the week for me to make an mp3 out of that. So it’s going to be one of the Hungarian Dances.
The Hungarian Dances are not a dance suite, like the Bach Suites.
They’re collections of dances for people to play at home, so it’s
music for amateurs to play. Just about
the time of Beethoven, which is about the time of the American Revolution, composers
could no longer make a living from being court composers, so they had to
start publishing printed collections for ordinary people. Everything becomes more interesting if you
connect it up. Certainly history becomes more interesting.
Well, guess what. I
found it hard to pick one of the dances to play for you; the first seven of
the collection of 21 were all familiar.
Robin Fountain and the Williamsport Symphony played several in
orchestral versions back in 1993.
These were all originally written to be played by two people at the
same piano, called piano four hands. A
lot of fun. This one is no. 5 in G
minor.
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Mozart: Sonata K545
in C, Movts 1, 2, 3
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For Mozart, let’s play this well-known Sonata in C major,
sometimes called the Easy Sonata (or the same thing in French, you can look
it up), K 545. This is played by Glenn
Gould, who was supposed not to care for Mozart very much, so he races through
this first movement. He also plays
without much pedal, which was something a lot of people didn’t like. But he plays it so fast that I can play all
three movements for you. Here’s the
first movement. The first part
introduces two themes. The middle part
develops them. Then there’s a recap of
the two themes, with a slight variation.
For the middle movement, I’m going to play a recording by
Walter Klien, who is a much more reasonable pianist —now don’t go quoting me
on these things— anyway, it’s a little slower and quieter. It is a Rondo, which is in an ABACA, or
ABACADA form. Many pop songs have this structure.
Okay, back to Glenn Gould for the last movement. I think that the theme is supposed to
represent “ha ha ha, hee hee hee”
Listen, and tell me what you think.
You also see how on the money Peter Schaffer’s play Amadeus was. All the little musical bits are actually
taken from Mozart music. It is not a
parody of Mozart at all; it is a real depiction of the man, slightly
exaggerated, and presented as a parody, for the sake of people who might be a
little aghast at the sort of person Mozart really was. The representation of Salieri in the play, however, is almost certainly a parody.
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Mozart:
Gran Partita, Movt 3
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Talking about Amadeus,
For the last piece, I’m going to play this movement from one of the Mozart Serenades. This is the most famous one. In Vienna, there were groups of guys who
got instruments from somewhere, usually from wealthy families who sponsored
them, and formed private music clubs, and walked around the streets at night,
and played outside famous the town houses of these families. Mozart wrote some of his best stuff for
these roving minstrel bands, including this one. It is a multi-movement work, and this is
the third movement, the Adagio, which means slow. (All the speed indications were in
Italian. If I said it had something to
do with the Catholic Church, people would totally get on my case, but that’s
what I think.) This is from the
Serenade no. K 361, or the Gran Partita.
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