A Beethoven String Quartet and DIY Visualization

I have some eye candy for you this morning, and an opportunity to get absolutely no work done today (hey, it’s Monday, let’s ease into the week!).

Here is a visualization of Beethoven’s String Quartet No 14 in C-sharp minor.  For visual learners, this is a gem, because you can see how each instrument line moves and it’s easier to see patterns.  It can also be mesmerizing to watch.

For those who are up to a challenge, let me recommend the visualization of Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge Op. 133.

The creator of the video, Stephen Malinowski, has uploaded a number of these visualizations to YouTube.  Malinowski developed the software that generates them.  Here is a TED talk about it.

So, do you want to generate your own?

It turns out the software to generate these visualizations (in other colorful formats as well) is available for free at www.musanim.com/player/.  As of today’s date the file is safe to download, if that’s a concern.  Download the file, which is in zipped format, extract it, and open the player (it works fine in Windows 8).  Pull down the “File” tab, click “Open” and select any file you might have in .mid (midi) or .mamx format.

The download includes some popular selections such as Berceuse, Chopin’s Opus 27 No 2, Clair de Lune, In Dulci Jubilo, and some selections from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.  As Malinowski points out, you can find abundant midi files to download at the Classical Archives website (sign-in required).  You can also find them at Musescore.com (sign-in required), the Mutopia Project, the Choral Public Domain Library, and the Petrucci Music Library (imslp.org).

If you do a little composing yourself and use software that generates midi files, you can see your own music on screen!  You can also recreate an ocular harpsichord of sorts, because the program allows direct input from a midi keyboard.

Thanks to friend and reader Paul B. for telling me about the Beethoven string quartet video.

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Image attribution

Portrait of Beethoven by Joseph Karl Stieler [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Tie-dye by MpegMan at en.wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], from Wikimedia Commons.  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ATieDyeShirtMpegMan.jpg

Mash-up by C. Gallant.

Parody in Church? When the Sacred and Secular Meet

When you hear the word parody, you may think of a satirical treatment of serious material.  That doesn’t seem like the kind of thing one might hear in a church.

But in the case of a parody mass, it’s ok (most of the time—I’ll tell you about the exception in a bit).  A parody mass is one which uses a secular song as the musical theme for the setting of the words of the mass.  It has nothing to do with a satirical parody.  It was a technique that was widely used in the 16th century.  It is sometimes called an imitation mass.

Some of the more well-known parody masses are the Westron Wynde masses of John Taverner, Christopher Tye, and John Sheppard, and masses based on the tune L’homme armé, some of the most well known being the settings by Josquin Des Pres, Johannes Ockeghem, and Guillaume Dufay.  You can see an article on L’homme armé, called the “most borrowed tune ever” here.

Here’s the original Westron Wynde.

Here’s a sample of Taverner’s Westron Wynde Mass.

And here’s the original L’homme armé and Dufay’s adaptation.

Of course one should probably be selective in one’s choices for mass themes.

Orlando di Lasso (Orlande de Lassus) wrote a mass now known as the Missa Entre vous filles.  Here’s the problem.  In the song Entre vous filles de quinze ans (written by Jacobus Clemens non Papa), fifteen-year-old girls are advised not to go to the fountains because they are distracting.  Clemens non Papa is rather specific about what is distracting about them.  You can imagine that some people were not too happy when they found out where the mass theme came from.

Here is Clemens non Papa’s song

Here is Orlando di Lasso’s adaptation

The use of the parody mass dwindled, but the musical intermingling of sacred and secular has continued.  Martin Luther used folk tunes for chorales.  Classical themes have been used for hymn tunes and given new words.

Here’s an unexpected mixing of sacred and secular.  See if you can hear Bach’s O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden [O Sacred Head, Now Wounded] from the St. Matthew Passion in Paul Simon’s American Tune.

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Image attribution

Jan van Eyck (circa 1390–1441) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AJan_van_Eyck_-_The_Ghent_Altarpiece_-_Singing_Angels_(detail)_-_WGA07642.jpg

Free Webcasts: Brahms Piano Concerto No 1 and No 2 This Weekend

The DSO wraps up its BrahmsFest with free live webcasts of Piano Concerto No 1 and No 2 this weekend.

You can see the webcast at dso.org/live.

On Friday, 26 February 2016 at 10:45 AM EST the program will include Piano Concerto No 1, and Schoenberg’s arrangement of the Piano Quartet in G.  The featured pianist is Hélène Grimaud.

On Sunday, February 28 at 3 PM EST the program will feature Piano Concerto No 2 with pianist Grimaud, and Berio’s arrangement of the Sonata for clarinet and orchestra with clarinetist Ralph Skiano.

Brahms fans may also enjoy Brahms biographer Jan Swafford’s brief overviews of the pieces that were presented in the programs.  You can find the videos on the DSO’s YouTube page.

Haiku Wednesday: Scott Joplin’s Forgotten Operas

She rises up and
Leads her people to
Fight evildoers,

Those who control by
Superstition and by fear,
Evil magicians.

They capture her and
Would kill her; but then rescue
Arrives—she is saved.

The people now know
Education is the way,
And she will lead them.

Composer rises,
Leaving his railroad labors
To embrace music.

We know him only
As the father of ragtime,
There was so much more.

His first opera—gone:
A Guest of Honor was staged,
Then the score was lost.

He tried yet again.
His score was hailed in print, then
Largely forgotten.

But now, a new day:
Vindication for this work.
Treemonisha lives.

Scott Joplin is known as the father of ragtime.  But few know that he was the composer of two operas.  A Guest of Honor was written in 1903 and Treemonisha was written in 1910.

A Guest of Honor was performed in a number of cities in the American Midwest in 1910.  The score was subsequently lost.

Lost also is the orchestration of Treemonisha—only the piano and vocal score, published in 1911, survives.  No one would publish the score, so Joplin paid for the printing himself.

Joplin submitted a copy of the score to the American Musician and Art Journal, where it received a glowing review.  The text of the review can be seen in conductor Rick Benjamin’s detailed account of the history of Treemonisha and the life of Scott Joplin contained in the program for a performance of Treemonisha (pp 14-15).  The program also contains the libretto.  You can find the score of Treemonisha here.

Conductor Rick Benjamin cites research that, contrary to popular belief, Treemonisha was performed during Joplin’s lifetime, but it appears the number of performances was limited.  Thereafter, it was forgotten.

It was only in the early 1970s that the score again saw the light of day and received the recognition that it deserved.

And now, due to the wonders of the Internet, you can see it too.  Click the links to see the Overture, Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3.

Treemonisha lives.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treemonisha

http://www.newworldrecords.org/uploads/fileLHtge.pdf

Berlin, Edward A., King of Ragtime.  Oxford University Press, 1994.

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Image attributions
Cover of Treemonisha score, published 1911, public domain via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ATreemonisha_cover.jpg

Scott Joplin.  First published in St. Louis Globe-Democrat newspaper, June 7, 1903.  Public domain via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AScott_Joplin_19072.jpg

Manuscript of Earliest English Secular Song Found

Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, Rawlinson Collection, MS. Rawl. G 22 via earlymusicmuse.com.

A manuscript of what is now considered the earliest English secular song was found some time ago in an unexpected place.  The name of this song is Mirie It Is While Sumer Ilast.  Here’s the story.  Someone wrote out this English song and two other French songs and stuck the sheets of paper in the front of a book of psalms.  The paper dates from the first half of the 13th century.

Whoa.  That’s over 760 years ago!

The other contender for earliest English secular song had been Sumer is Icumen In.  This manuscript predates it.

Ian Pittaway has written a fantastic blog post on Mirie It Is While Sumer Ilast.  He provides great detail on the song’s significance and structure.

Here is Pittaway’s performance from the original manuscript.

Here is a multi-instrument performance of Mirie It is While Sumer Ilast.

References

http://earlymusicmuse.com/mirie-it-is-while-sumer-ilast/

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Image attribution:  Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, Rawlinson Collection, MS. Rawl. G. 22 via earlymusicmuse.com.

Free Webcasts: Brahms Symphony No 1 and No 2

There’s still a chance to see the DSO’s BrahmsFest mascots, the adventurous red hedgehogs, at the DSO’s free live webcast tonight, 19 February 2016, and Sunday, 21 February 2016.

Oh yeah, you can also see Symphony No 1 (Friday) and Symphony No 2 (Sunday).

You can see the webcast at dso.org/live tonight, 19 February 2016, at 8 PM EST and Sunday, 21 February 2016 at 3 PM EST.  Friday’s program will also include the Academic Festival Overture and Serenade No 2.   Sunday’s program will feature Symphony No 2 and Serenade No 1.

Why the red hedgehogs?  Because Brahms used to hang out at Zum Roten Igel, The Red Hedgehog, his favorite pub in Vienna.

Have a good weekend!

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Image attributions

Johannes Brahms, 1853.  Public domain.

Hedgehog, http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0/ via rantpets.com

Hear the Mozart-Salieri Cantata!

Recently I told you about the discovery of a cantata co-written by Mozart and Salieri.

The piece was performed on a harpsichord at the Czech Museum of Music in Prague.  The video was released yesterday.  The author of each section of the piece is displayed before it is played.

Haiku Wednesday: Schubert Online

Schubert Online has
Manuscripts, letters, and more
Now all in one place.

Schubert Online is a website that has collected digitized scans of Schubert documents from a number of European libraries.  The website describes itself as “the world’s largest collection of Schubert music manuscripts, first and early editions.”  And let’s not forget the letters and other documents.  I find it fascinating to see the composer’s own handwriting, both in scores and in letters, and to see some of the topics that concerned him.  This is from Schubert’s diary:

Schubert diary entry courtesy of schubert-online.at and the Vienna City and State Library Music Collection.

17 June 1816

Today I composed for money for the first time, namely a cantata for the name day celebration of Professor Wattrot von Dräxler.  The honorarium is 100 florins, Vienna currency.

I thought it was interesting that Schubert’s handwriting was somewhat neater when he penned a letter to the king.

Schubert letter excerpt courtesy of schubert-online.at and the Vienna City and State Library Music Collection.

7 April 1826

Your Majesty!
Most gracious Emperor!

In deepest reverence the undersigned makes the humble request to be most graciously granted the vacant position of Vice-Kapellmeister, and supports this request with the following grounds…

I would be remiss if I didn’t include some music.  Here is one of my favorite sections from Schubert’s Mass in E-flat major D 950, Et incarnatus est and a performance so you can hear it.  Schubert combines gentle beauty, the weaving of three voices together, with something akin to terror in the middle before returning to the beauty of the initial passage.  So Schubert. Pleasant sunshower, thunderstorm, rainbow.  Major-minor-major. Light and shadow.  I like this recording, but please note that they have decided to use “German Latin,” that is, Latin pronounced as if it were German.  So “sancto” becomes “zancto”.  The tenor solo is the second staff from the bottom.

Image courtesy of schubert-online.at and the Berlin State Library Prussian Cultural Heritage [collection]

Image courtesy of schubert-online.at and the Berlin State Library Prussian Cultural Heritage [collection]

 

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Image attribution: Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFranz_Schubert_by_Wilhelm_August_Rieder.jpeg

Music and America’s First Presidents

Today in the United States we are celebrating Presidents’ Day.  President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday is 12 February and President George Washington’s birthday is 22 February.  The Monday between the two is designated as a federal holiday.

It got me to thinking, “What would George Washington have listened to?”  And from there I discovered some interesting facts about America’s founding fathers.

George Washington said in a letter to a composer who had sent him some music that he could “neither sing one of the songs, nor raise a single note of any instrument.”¹   But while George couldn’t play music himself, he considered it very important.  So important that he ordered the army’s fife and drum musicians to shape up and practice or be demoted and receive a cut in pay!²

His wife Martha, her children, and grandchildren, however, all studied music.  There was a harpsichord at Washington’s home, Mount Vernon.³   Among the music to be found there was an arrangement of a Haydn symphony, an arrangement of the overture of Gluck’s opera Iphigenia at Aulis, an excerpt of Handel’s Water Music, and some sonatas by J. C. Bach.⁴

President Thomas Jefferson played violin and cello, and purchased a pianoforte for his wife during their engagement.  Apparently, before the engagement, rival suitors gave up and left after overhearing a duet between Jefferson on his violin and his beloved on the harpsichord as they sang together.  Jefferson enjoyed the works of Haydn, as well as Italian, French, and Scottish music, and several observers noted that Jefferson was always singing or humming a tune.  Jefferson said that music “is the favorite passion of my soul.”  Unfortunately, he continued, “fortune has cast my lot in a country where it is in a state of deplorable barbarism.”⁵  Oh dear!

Although he was not a president, founder Benjamin Franklin must be noted for his wide-ranging musical talents.  He played viola da gamba,⁶ harp, violin, and guitar.⁷  He may have composed music. He also invented an improvement on the playing of the rims of water-filled glasses, the armonica, or glass harmonica, for which Mozart and Beethoven composed music.  Here is Mozart’s Adagio for Glass Harmonica.

However, it must be noted that Franklin was not a great fan of Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus.  After seeing a performance in London, in a letter to his brother Franklin accused Handel of, among other things, putting the accents in the wrong places and “screaming without cause.”⁸  Don’t pull any punches there, Ben!  You can see the text of Franklin’s diatribe here (scroll down to images, “Franklin’s letter to his brother”).

President Abraham Lincoln, while not a musician himself, took great pleasure in attending concerts (especially operas) and hearing bands and singers perform.  See a lengthy article on Lincoln and his tastes in music here.  Lincoln attended a performance of Mozart’s Magic Flute in 1865, and was a fan of the music of American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk⁹ (here is Gottschalk’s composition The Union (Fantasy on Patriotic Airs).

Visit the following link for a look into music and musical performances at the White House.

References

1. “George Washington to Francis Hopkinson, February 5, 1789,” in The Writings of George Washington, Vol 30, pp 196-197 via http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/music/
2. “General Orders, June 4, 1777,” in The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799, Vol 8, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1931, pp 181-182 via http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/music/
3. Britt, Judith S., Nothing More Agreeable: Music in George Washington’s Family. Mount Vernon, VA: The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union, 1984 p 11 via http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/music/
4. Britt, p 30.
5. https://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/personality-profile-jefferson-and-music
6. http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_inquiring_glass.html
7. http://www.post-gazette.com/frontpage/2006/07/30/Scholars-revive-debate-on-whether-Ben-Franklin-composed-tongue-in-cheek-string-quartet/stories/200607300156
8. http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1377.htm
9. http://www.npr.org/2009/02/16/100675699/if-abraham-lincoln-had-an-ipod

Image attributions

George Washington with headphones via https://joeyandkiki.wordpress.com/tag/boombox/

Lincoln with boombox via http://1funny.com/lincoln-boom-box/

More Free Brahms from the DSO

What: Brahms, Symphony No 3, Double Concerto, Tragic Overture

When:  Sunday, 14 February 2016 at 3 PM EST

Where: Detroit, but for our purposes, online

How: dso.org/live

Who: The Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin, Baiba Skride (violin), Danjulo Ishizaka (cello).  Skride was brilliant in the Brahms Violin Concerto on Friday.

Why:  Because Brahms, that’s why.

How much:  Free!

‘Nuff said.  Be there or be Brahmsless.