Franz Liszt's Cantico del Sol: A Source Study

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the compositional process of the revised version of Liszt's Cantico del Sol di San Francesco d’Assisi, especially focusing on the little-known manuscripts preserved in Weimar, Budapest and Leipzig. The author confirmed for the first time that the “Leipzig copy” of the work also includes Liszt's handwriting. Surely both manuscripts in Weimar and Leipzig are Stichvorlagen for the first edition. The latter is the revised vocal score with accompaniment either on piano or organ. Definitely Liszt also checked the engraver's manuscript of the vocal score for himself. On September 6, 1881 to Carolyne, Liszt wrote the following: “I am going to write the arrangement for piano and organ of the new definitive version of the Cantico di San Francesco.” It is very likely that this arrangement means the “Leipzig copy,” not the piano solo version. Therefore, the date of composition of the latter should be reconsidered. On the other hand, the autograph fragment for orchestra in Budapest is an important correction to the missing manuscript between the early version and the revised one.

Crafting successful music careers: Insights from the professional lives of Australian pianists

This study investigates the careers of 28 classical pianists in Australia to develop greater understanding of skills needed to build professional music careers and to highlight implications for higher music education training. Semi-structured interviews were analyzed for emerging themes using Subotnik and Jarvin’s scholarly productivity or artistry (SP/A) model, looking for connections between distinct skills developed during education and their role in the building of professional careers. Participants in this study began learning to play the piano at an early age and pursued lessons during primary education, developing their technique, learning numerous works, and participating in competitions. In high school, the pianists learned to play other instruments, studied more complex and demanding piano solo repertoire, and participated in extra-curricular music activities. During performance-focused undergraduate study, all concentrated on improving technique, building solo and collaborative repertoire (including contemporary music), and exploring other music-related areas. Postgraduate study overseas and concertizing broadened their understanding of world-class standards. The participants undertook casual music jobs at the start of their careers, but eventually many achieved permanent full-time employment. Hard work, ability to learn quickly, natural gifts/talent, and passion for music helped these pianists build successful portfolio careers. The findings reveal that today’s tertiary music graduates will require diverse music and entrepreneurial skills, and a positive attitude. The implications highlight the need for the development of wide-ranging playing skills beyond solo performance and entrepreneurial competency as important factors for music careers.

Mapeamento de derivações por variáveis sintéticas na Peça para dois minutos de Guerra-Peixe

Peça para dois minutos, de Guerra-Peixe, obra serial para piano solo, é o objeto de estudo da presente análise. Motivos recorrentes foram observados, de modo que surgiu o interesse em desvelar as técnicas de recorrência de ideias, desenvolvimento e estruturação. Chegou-se à conclusão de que a obra possui um pequeno motivo onipresente, e que ela se afasta da estrutura mais fechada do dodecafonismo. Os métodos utilizados envolveram a análise motívica de Schoenberg, a análise tradicional de variações, parte da técnica das “variáveis sintéticas” (desenvolvida por um dos autores), e uma parte restrita da teoria dos conjuntos.

Cultural Revolution and Political Ambivalence in Zhao Xiaosheng’s Two Ballades for Piano Solo

The ascendancy of China’s Cultural Revolution led to a purge of the rightists, including musicians. This article unveils composer Zhao Xiaosheng’s emotional entanglement of fear and suppressed hostility toward the revolution, reflected in the political and artistic ambivalence in his two ballades for solo piano composed after his father’s death.

Minuet - The Reminiscence of the Individual Dance Form in Maurice Ravel’s Piano Works

"The minuet is one of the most representative dance forms of the Baroque era. Thanks to its popularity, it becomes part of stage works like operas and ballets, instrumental suites, later (in the Classical and Romantic era) movements of symphonies, sonatas, string quartets, and trios. Ravel had a special interest in old dance forms. Among his musical works there are several dance-movements like Pavane, Rigaudon, Forlane, or Menuet. The use of these in individual works is limited, having only three minuets written for piano solo: the Menuet antique (1895), the Menuet in C sharp minor (1904), and the Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn (1909). Keywords: Ravel, Baroque, Reminiscence, Baroque dance forms, Piano, Minuet, Neoclassicism. "

Valentyn Bibik: reaching artistic maturity

The object of research is the works of V. Bibik written at the beginning of his mature period. The aim of the research is to reveal the main features of Bibik’s style. Methods of research include technical analysis of the works in the context of the innovative tendencies in the Ukrainian music of 1960–70s, as well as comparative research. Research results. Outstanding Ukrainian composer Valentyn Bibik (1940–2003) wrote over 150 works. Mostly they are large-scale symphonic, choral, vocal, and chamber pieces. Among them are 11 symphonies, over 20 concerti for various instruments with orchestra, vocal and choral cycles, chamber compositions (the last group includes 5 string quartets, 3 piano trios, sonatas for string instruments both solo and with piano), 10 piano sonatas, piano solo works (two sets of preludes and fugues – 24 and 34 total, Dies Irae – 39 variations). The composer was born in Kharkiv. In 1966 he completed studies at Kharkiv Conservatory, where he attended the composition class of D. Klebanov. Since 1994, he had been living in St.-Petersburg, and since 1998, in Israel where he died in 2003. Bibik’s formative period coincided with a substantive modernization of Ukrainian culture in the 1960s. During those years, members of the “Kyiv avantgarde” group (L. Hrabovsky, V. Sylvestrov, V. Godziatsky, et al.) sought to utilize modernistic idioms and techniques, such as free atonality, dodecaphony, sonoristic and aleatoric textures, cluster harmony, etc. Unlike the others, Bibik started with a more conservative style, which bore the influences of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Bartók. Bibik’s mature period started several years later in the early 1970s with Piano Trio No. 1 (1972) and the composition Watercolors for soprano and piano (1973). Together with his next piano work 34 Preludes and Fugues, these compositions show extremely individual features of Bibik’s style, such as: 1. Special treatment of the sound, which is considered not just a material for building certain musical structures but a self-valuable substance (Bibik has an original manner of organizing sound). Hence, timbral and textural aspects draw special attention to the composer. 2. The pitch and rhythmic structure of the themes is quite simple. A combination of several simple motives becomes the starting point of long and sophisticated development. These motives are derived from folk music, however, due to rhythmic transformation, they have lost their direct connection with the folk source. 3. Rhythmic structures areal so very simple. They often include sequences of equal rhythmic values (usually crotchets or eights). However, the composer avoids monotony dueto due to variable time signatures and permanent rubato, as well as significant flexibility in phrasing. 4. The development relies mostly on melodic and polyphonic elaboration of initial simple motives. The composer utilizes various kinds of polyphony, such as canonic imitations, various combinations of the main and supportive voices, heterophony, hyper-polyphony. In fugues he employs both traditional and new methods of thematic and tonal distribution. 5. The harmony in Bibik’s works is mostly modal, as well as a combination of modality with free atonality and extended tonality. The structure of the dense chords is close to clusters, while more transparent chords include mostly seconds and fourths (as well as their inversions). He almost never used traditional tonal harmony and chords built up from thirds, and was interested in their color aspect rather than their tonal functionalism. 6. The sonoristic texture is very important. It does not diminish the importance of the melody but gets into special collaboration with it (“singing sonority”). A special “mist” around a clear melodic line is one of Bibik’s most typical devices. Due to special “pedal” orchestration, both the line and the “surrounding” sounds become equally important. 7. Elements of limited aleatoric music may be found in his rhythm and agogics, and sometimes inpitch structures (passages and figurations with free choice of the pitches). His favorite technique is a superposition of two rhythmically and temporally independent textural layers (for instance, a combination of the viola solo and the sonoristic orchestral background in the third movement of the Fourth Symphony). 8. Sonata for mand the fugue were significantly reinterpreted within free atonality and modal harmony. These provisions are the scientific novelty of the study.

COMPOSITIONAL-DRAMATIC FEATURES OF THE SONATA FOR OBOE AND PIANO BY F. POULENC

Backround. Chamber instrumental music by F. Poulenс is a bright, original and important part of the composer’s creative heritage. The sonata genre, represented by ten works for different instruments, occupies a special place in it. F. Poulenc’s appealed to it throughout his career, so studying samples of this genre belonging to different periods helps to trace the evolution of F. Poulenc’s compositional style. However, despite the widespread popularity of performers, chamber and instrumental works by F. Poulenс are not sufficiently covered in music studies. The purpose of the article is to reveal the compositional and dramatic features of the Sonata for oboe and piano by F. Poulenс. Results. Some specific techniques characteristic of S. Prokofiev’s works as a sign of respect for the Russian composer are used in the Sonata for the oboe and piano by F. Poulenc. This work has a genre and narrative-psychological program, as evidenced by the names of the movements: “Elegy”, “Scherzo”, and “Sorrow”. The title of the first movement – “Elegy” – means “mourning song” in Greek. This genre is quite common in the works of Russian composers. It seems legitimate that, in devoting his sonata to S. Prokofiev, F. Poulenc gave the first movement a title related to Russian culture. Songful, clear in structure melody is harmonized with the involvement of transitions to the distant keys. The second movement of the Sonata – “Scherzo” – contrasts sharply to Elegy. Exquisite harmonies and complex polyphonic combinations are replaced by monophony. If in the first movement the text of the piano part indicated the use of a soft deep carcass, the second movement applied a sharp, sometimes too rough, martellato. Elegy’s sophisticated agogics are destroyed by “iron” metricity, precision, and regular Scherzo’s accents. The Scherzo genre is interpreted here in a sharp grotesque way. The introduction begins in the dynamics of f and has a rigid rhythm. The parts of both instruments are completely equal. The endsections of Scherzo are steeped with “hypnotic” rhythmic movement. The middle section of the second movement is lyrical. The thematicism of the Scherzo middle section refers to the lyrical pages of S. Prokofiev’s work. The semantic center of the entire sonata for the oboe and piano by F. Poulenс is the third movement – “Sorrow”, which is a kind of musical epitaph. Created shortly before the composer’s death, the sonata can be considered one of thefinal results of his career. Perhaps this is not only a tribute to S. Prokofiev, but also a musical monument to himself. The textual presentation of the third movement is reminiscent of the choral. The melodic basis of the sonata finale is a set of intonations that are associated with spiritual singing of the Orthodox tradition. The main theme is exhibited in piano solo and has a mournful character, almost completely surreal. Conclusions. F. Poulenc’s Oboe and Piano Sonata is a three-movement cycle that has a genre and psychological program, as evidenced by the names of the movements. None of them uses the sonata form itself. All movements have a threesectionreprise structure. This, along with the program, points to the influence of suite logic, which fits into the tendency for the genre to be renewed in the 20th century, including combining the sonata genre with others. Working with different genre models and their hybrids is also a reflection of the neoclassical trends of 20th-century music that have always been inherent in F. Poulenc’s work. Signs of influence of Russian composers – S. Prokofiev, I. Stravinsky, M. Mussorgsky – are manifested not only at the level of thematicism, quotations, intonational allusions, types of texture presentation, but also at the level of dramaturgy. Thus, the interaction of lyrical and grotesque musical images in the second part is reminiscent of the conflict of love and enmity in S. Prokofiev’s ballet “Romeo and Juliet”.

Fanny Hensel’s Lieder (ohne Worte) and the Boundaries of Song

The subject of this chapter, Fanny Hensel’s Lied in D♭ major for piano solo, Op. 8, No. 3, might seem an anomalous choice for a volume devoted to the composer’s texted Lieder. But one could readily advance the argument that, like Schubert, Hensel was at her core a naturally gifted song composer who gave as free a rein to lyrical impulses in her purely instrumental music as she did in setting the verses of her favorite poets—Goethe, Tieck, Eichendorff, and Heine. Some of her piano pieces, which she typically titled Lieder or Klavierlieder, raise the question as to whether particular poetic sources lay behind their inspiration. Perhaps the most enigmatic of these examples is Op. 8, No. 3, which, when published posthumously in 1850, appeared with the title Lied, to which was added in parentheses “Lenau.” This chapter takes into account the sixteen Lenau settings composed by Hensel and her brother between 1839 and 1847, and considers whether Op. 8, No. 3 might be linked to specific verses of Lenau, or might offer, perhaps, a musical portrait of the poet, who suffered a mental collapse in 1844.