Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)Coriolan Overture opus 62The ancient Roman general Coriolanus was the subject of a tragedy by William Shakespeare, who found the story in Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans. In Beethoven's time, Shakespeare's play was well known but already 200 years old; a more modern play about Coriolanus was written in German by Heinrich Joseph von Collin. Beethoven wrote his Coriolan overture in 1807 as opening music for a production of this German play.The story of Coriolanus is brief, compared to Shakespeare's better known tragedies. The title character is a patrician, a Roman aristocrat, who refuses to participate in the crowd-pleasing politics necessary to be elected to the Senate, even though he is the valiant hero of a recent military campaign. Despite the pleas of his mother, Coriolanus insults the plebian crowds whose support is crucial to his election; in response, the Tribunes banish him from Rome. Coriolanus offers his military services to the enemies of Rome and is forestalled from sacking the city only because of further entreaties from his mother. In Shakespeare's play, Coriolanus dies at the hands of the enemy leader, who considers him a traitor. In Collin's play, Coriolanus commits suicide, overcome by the prospect of ruin and dishonor. How does Beethoven use music to suggest this tragedy to theatergoers of his time and audiences of our own century? From the first low, dark, sustained note, we suspect that this is not going to be a light-hearted story. There are three such long notes, each cut off by a short violent chord, more unsettled each time. These tragic exclamations are followed by the main theme of the piece, an agitated melody that is interrupted by both sudden silences and harsh outbursts. A gentle second theme, perhaps depicting the influence of Coriolanus's mother, fails to quell the hero's rage; following the conventions of Classical composition, all of this musical material is repeated and developed. At the very end, after a final repeat of the opening sustained notes and violent punctuations, the music falls apart. Forward momentum is lost, the melody wanders, and the hero's theme fades away. The three quiet, brief notes that end the overture are the ghosts of the three long notes with which it began. Paul Hindemith (1895 - 1963)Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von WeberIt should come as no surprise that Paul Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis is a favorite of both audiences and performers. This music has many virtues: it is tuneful, clever, brilliantly scored, and short. (Back in the days of LPs, it fit easily on one side of a record.) Most amazingly, for music produced during the Nazi era by a refugee from Germany, it is buoyantly optimistic. Unlike work from the same time by Shostakovich (which we will perform later this season), its optimism is neither ironic nor temporary. Some people attribute this cheerfulness to a desire by the composer to please the "unsophisticated" American audience of the work's premiere (January 1944 in New York). Hindemith was actually a most "advanced" and controversial modern composer who delighted in complex counterpoint and shifting tonality. He departed from his usual practice to create such an approachable, hummable, piece of music. Of course, the principal tune of each movement comes from a much earlier, melodically gifted composer, Carl Maria von Weber (1786 - 1826). Hindemith makes each of Weber's tunes a bit spicier and then adds his own blend of modal harmony, colorful orchestration, and dramatic sense. The result is a true metamorphosis of ordinary Classical themes into pure musical magic.The first movement opens in a burst of energy, a wild ride into a landscape of medieval-style open harmonies and exotic instrumental effects. Though Hindemith (who was a violist) wrote brilliantly for the string family, this piece is a showcase for woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments. The prominent use of horns (which in German music usually depict either hunting or mail delivery) and "woody" oboes and bassoons suggests a mythical forest, recalling Weber's best-known work, the supernatural hunting opera Der Freischutz. Movement 2 moves to the Orient, with a theme from Weber's Turandot (a Chinese story later used by Puccini). The melody originally appears in the woodwinds over a background of etheral string harmonics, but makes the round of the entire orchestra in a set of variations featuring each instrumental family. The music reaches a furious climax, subsides, and then rebuilds through jazzy lines for the brass and virtuoso passages for percussion (drums, chimes, bells, cymbals, etc.) until a final quiet encounter of woodwinds and percussion. The lyrical third movement gives the listener some respite from the activity of movements 1 and 2. Woodwind instruments and horn are featured in this quiet, lullaby-like music, though there are also some lovely lines for the strings. The second half of the movement repeats the opening, but with a virtuoso flute solo overlaid on the melody. Suddenly, with a horn call, we plunge into the fourth movement, a march of energetic string rhythms, woodwind melodies, and drumbeats leading to an unabashedly heroic song first presented by the horn choir. When the whole orchestra joins in, it is hard for the audience to keep from bouncing in their seats. The image Hindemith conveys, while martial, is not of oppressive militarism but of joyous warriors. The lone hero is nowhere to be found, either; this is a victory march for the whole team. Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949)Don Quixote opus 35The lone hero is celebrated in many of Strauss's tone poems (including Don Juan, Til Eulenspiegel, and Ein Heldenleben). In his 1898 evocation of Miguel de Cervantes' hero Don Quixote, also called "Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character", Strauss explores the boundaries of idealism and insanity. Like the novel on which it was based, the music asks questions: When does an individual's violation of society's conventions make him a public nuisance, and what should his family and friends do about it? Is Don Quixote an admirable, superior man, who has the right to wreak havoc on the world around him in pursuit of heroic delusions of nobility, or simply a pain in the neck? Don Quixote opens with a long presentation of the main melodies depicting Don Quixote and his associates. The opening theme in the winds is sprightly and adventuresome; clearly, Strauss sees this story as a romantic adventure, not as a heavy tragedy. The next few melodies jump up heroically, only to droop down limply. An oboe solo introduces the lyrical "love theme" of the ideal Dulcinea, reminiscent of the sweetest melodies of Der Rosenkavelier. Brass instruments herald heroic action. The various musical ideas mix and contend in the whole orchestra as Don Quixote's thoughts become confused and fragmented.
The true spokesman for Don Quixote is the solo cello, who appears after
a cymbal crash. Sancho Panza, the faithful but lower-class servant, has
a scurrying theme; his instrument is the solo viola, which naturally has
a less forceful sound than its larger relative. Tenor tuba and bass
clarinet also help to define this comic character. The concept of Don
Quixote's romantic ideal of courtly love, Dulcinea, is often assigned to
the solo violin.
After the introduction, Don Quixote engages in ten episodes (variations)
of different lengths:
Margery Goldstein |