Tag Archives: orchestra

Johann Stamitz: The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts – No. XI

This is the eleventh installment  of the Periodical Overtures in 8 Parts which are being published in conjunction with Musikproduktion Höflich.

Listen here before heading over to musikproduktion höflich to obtain the score and parts.

 

In 1826, a correspondent … wrote to The Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review in response to a previous issue’s article “The Great Symphonists.” He listed a number of mid-eighteenth-century symphonists whom he felt had been unjustly ignored. He credited (Johann) Stamitz with introducing the crescendo and diminuendo, and pointed to Periodical Overture No. 11 as possessing “beautiful specimens” of the crescendo in its first and last movements.[1] Then, in 1980—two centuries after the symphony’s heyday—Claude V. Palisca published Stamitz’s first movement in the inaugural edition of the Norton Anthology of Western Music.[2] He based his score on the venerable Denkmäler Deutscher Tonkunst edition from 1902.[3] That selection has therefore given generations of collegiate music students an introduction to characteristic “Mannheim” features in this vigorous opening; it also make the first movement of Bremner’s edition seem like a familiar friend.

One of the memorable gestures of Periodical Overture No. 11 is the use of three sharp “hammer-blow” strokes, or premier coups d’archet, that immediately grab listeners’ attention.[4] This “Allegro assai” is structured as a quadruple-meter sonata form without repetitions (characteristic of Stamitz’s later symphonies), and the first theme is underpinned by measured tremolos in the second violins and violas and by “drum 8ths” in the “Basso” part.[5] Distinctive horn calls resound in the second half of the theme (m. 11), and one of the transition’s most exciting elements is the use of Mannheim crescendos, which begin building in measure 18 and again in measure 27. The oboes are showcased in the more lyrical second theme (m. 47), which also plays with antiphonal effects between sections of the orchestra. After the modulatory development (m. 75), the recapitulation reverses the order of the themes, with the lyrical oboes reappearing in measure 108, the horn calls in measure 132, and the hammer-blows in measure 139 for a resounding conclusion.

The “Andantino” shifts to the dominant key of B-flat major, and it employs a binary-sonata pattern that James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy call a “Type 2 Sonata,” diagrammed as an ||: a/I b/V :||: a/V b/I :|| structure.[6] This simple-duple movement is scored for strings only, and its first theme has a lovely lilting quality above softly pulsing drum 8ths. The second theme (m. 30) features both the bass and viola parts in rising and falling scalar patterns, followed by the violins in a more disjunct and syncopated line (m. 40). Like many Mannheim works, sudden dynamic contrasts are often separated by only a single measure, and the latter half of the movement is peppered with rinforzandi accentuations.

The “Prestissimo,” an exhilarating finale in 3/8, is again loaded with strategies that the Mannheim orchestra made famous. Its first theme comprises an upward sequence that employs the quick rising-and-falling motif known as the Bebung, while the bass strings accompany with steady drum 8ths.[7] The sequence gradually crescendos to bell-like chords played fortissimo by the whole ensemble (m. 17) while the upper strings now play measured tremolos. The chords are quickly followed by lively hunting-style fanfares for the winds and upper strings. The sonata form’s second theme (m. 47) again starts quietly; the second violins and violas play oscillating, conjunct lines underneath measured tremolos, with the oboes joining in on the second half of each phrase. The extremely brief development (m. 95) plays with a modulatory Bebung before stabilizing in E-flat at measure 103 for the recapitulation of the first theme. The second theme makes its own return in measure 149. A series of seven hammer-blow E-flat chords in the last three bars bring the movement (and symphony) to a satisfying, table-thumping close.

Alyson McLamore

[1] Senex, “To the Editor,” The Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review 8, no. 31 (July 1826): 304–5.

[2] Johann Anton Wenzel Stamitz, “Sinfonia a 8 in E-flat Major (La Melodia Germanica No. 3), in Classic • Romantic • Modern, 42–50, Vol. II of Norton Anthology of Western Music, ed. Claude V. Palisca (New York: W. W. Norton, 1980); it continues to appear in the 2019 eighth edition.

[3] Hugo Riemann, ed., Sinfonien der pfalzbayerischen Schule (Mannheimer Symphoniker), Jahrgang III, vol. 1 of Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Bayern (Denkmäler deutscher Tonkunst, Zweite Folge), ed. Adam Sandbergern (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1902), 1–28.

[4] David D. Boyden and Peter Walls, “Coup d’archet,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 2001), Vol. 6: 579.

[5] Wolf, The Symphonies of Johann Stamitz, 340.

[6] James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy, Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 353–4.

[7] Hugo Riemann, ed., Sinfonien der pfalzbayerischen Schule (Mannheimer Symphoniker), in Year 7, Vol. II, of Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Bayern, in Series 2 of Denkmäler deutscher Tonkunst (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1906), xvii.

Pietro Maria Crispi: The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts – No. V

This is the fifth installment  of the Periodical Overtures in 8 Parts which are being published in conjunction with Musikproduktion Höflich.

Listen here before heading over to musikproduktion höflich to obtain the score and parts.

Although Crispi’s overture is scored for the customary “eight parts” that comprised the majority of works of Bremner’s series, the winds are not given truly independent material. In fact, whenever the oboes play, they double one or both of the violin parts almost without fail. On a few occasions, they play sustained pitches while the higher strings present measured tremolos or oscillating patterns. Similarly, the horns customarily play a simplified version of material drawn from various string parts; they are never featured on their own. Moreover, as is the case in over half of the Periodical Overtures, the ensemble is reduced to strings alone in the middle movement.

The first movement introduces Crispi’s fondness for sharp dynamic contrasts. Structured as a sonata-rondo form in common time, the cheerful “Allegro Spiritoso” opens with a principal theme that returns in the tonic D major at m. 60 and again at m. 99. Curiously, the opening theme consists of two six-bar phrases in its first two appearances, but it is truncated to five-measure phrases in its final statement. Although Crispi was not a member of the Mannheim school of composers, various devices associated with that influential mid-century ensemble appear throughout the movement, such as the measured tremolos in m. 17 and onward, the “drum 8ths” in the low strings beginning in m. 3, or the oscillating Bebung gestures that launch each occurrence of the second theme (mm. 37, 57, 88, etc.).[1] In comparison to the robust principal melody, the secondary theme seems wispier and much less substantial. Its phrase lengths are also modified in its successive re-appearances.

The central “Andantino”—a thirty-six-measure ternary structure with a codetta extension, set in the dominant key of A major—again displays Crispi’s penchant for variable phrasing. During the opening section, he shifts between short motifs that start on the downbeat and phrases that begin at other points of the duple-meter measure, keeping listeners slightly off-balance. The B section (m. 12), in E major, sustains a quiet dynamic level, contrasting with the final A section (m. 20) in which Crispi again plays with subito dynamic contrasts.

The closing “Allegro assai” returns to D major but is a bit more adventurous in its harmony. The first half of this gigue-like finale (in 3/8 time) resembles a conventional sonata-form exposition, presenting a first theme in the tonic, then moving to the dominant A major for both a second theme (m. 17) and a closing theme (m. 28). After the repetition of the exposition, the first theme is heard in A, and shifts abruptly to a repetition in the tonic minor (m. 45). (Crispi uses a favorite device—a rapidly descending five-note scale—to transition to this surprising key.) A short rising sequential passage leads to the second (m. 61) and closing themes (m. 72), set in the expected D major. As with the preceding movements, Crispi delights in echo effects achieved by sudden dynamic changes.

We do not know if Bremner issued the Periodical Overtures simply in the order that he acquired them, or if he planned the way that the early symphonies would be grouped in their respective sets of six. If he did follow some scheme, it is tempting to regard Periodical Overture No. 5 as the lighter, scherzo-like “relief” before the subsequent Periodical Overture No. 6 by Johann Stamitz, which, in performance, is triple the length of Crispi’s contribution. Still, Crispi incorporated various moments of flair in his treatment of phrasing, dynamics, and harmony, and the appeal of his sole representation in Bremner’s series should encourage musicians to seek out his many other surviving compositions.

Alyson McLamore

[1] Hugo Riemann, ed., Sinfonien der pfalzbayerischen Schule (Mannheimer Symphoniker), in Year 7, Vol. II, of Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Bayern, in Series 2 of Denkmäler deutscher Tonkunst (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1906), xvii.

 

field with yellow flowers and blue sky with smallclouds

Sov Godt (for Pål)

(2024)

for four string orchestras

Duration 11 minutes

Based on the opening bars of the final movement of J.S. Bach’s Johannespassion, Sov Godt (for Pål) for four string orchestras is a meditation on rest, recuperation, love and hope. It was written at a difficult time when my family has been unable to be together and when my grandson Pål has been extremely unwell – the music brings together many emotions.

 

Overflow (version for strings)

Written originally as a chamber orchestra piece to accompany the artwork of the Italo-Canadian artist Janet Bellotto in 2013, this version for string orchestra was completed in 2020.

(2013 – revised 2020)

Duration: 5’15”

Instrumentation: string orchestra (minimum 3,3,2,2,1)

Score and parts available on request.