Today I want to share a gorgeous violin solo piece from the Opera Thais written by French composer Jules Massenet. Jules Massenet is the first composer featured on this blog that does not have the same level of fame as the other great classical composers such as Bach and Beethoven. In fact, after his death, the majority of his music went out of fashion, and many of his operas were no longer performed.
This piece however, will stand the test of time as it's become very popular in mainstream media. I'm sure you have heard this in the waiting room of your doctor's office, or perhaps at the spa. Appropriately, the common name of this piece is "Meditation".
On a deeper level, this piece is a symphonic intermezzo in between two scenes from the Opera Thais. In the story, the monk Athanael asks the beautiful courtesan Thais to leave her lavish life of luxury and sin and join him to find salvation through Christianity. While she is thinking about his words, this violin solo plays accompanied by a full symphony. Ultimately, Athanael falls in love with Thais and proclaims on her deathbed that nothing in life is as important as sharing love with another human being.
Meditation from Thais - Composed by Jules Massenet
Continuing with the theme using of orchestral music to highlight the different periods of classical music, today I want to share two very famous symphonies by two of the greatest classical composers: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven.
First, what is a symphony? Again, think of it as a mini album written in a common key, typically containing 4 tracks alternating in mood and speed (ex. medium fast song, slow song, really fast song, medium song). Also, a symphony is for a full orchestra and band, so there will be both string and brass instruments. If you were ever in orchestra or band, that one concert a year where the two collaborated probably involved playing a symphony, and very likely one of the two below.
We will start with Mozart, since he came earlier of the two. Mozart was a true child prodigy, and extremely talented. Unfortunately, he ran into money troubles later on in life and was buried penniless in a common grave. The symphony No. 40 is referred to as "The Great G-Minor symphony" and was composed in that latter half of his life. Critics say the piece exhibits emotions of sadness, passion, and grief.
To recap last post's lesson here is the naming convention for the piece in layman's terms: Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K550 - Movement 1Allegro
Name decipher: Name of album, catalog ID, track number, description of the track in terms of speed
Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, 1st Movement - Allegro, composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Beethoven was another child prodigy who was exploited by his father at a young age to make money off of his talents. He was arguably abused emotionally and physically to practice the piano as a child, suffered many breakups, and started losing his hearing at 26, all of which led to a certain element of rage in some of his pieces. Below is a classic example with a theme commonly heard in all genre's of music, movies, and tv shows.
Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op.67 1st Movement - Allegro con Brio
The "Air" is one of the most famous orchestral pieces in Baroque music. It is the 2nd movement of Suite No.3 in D Major, BWV 1068, and composed by the famous J.S. Bach.
What does all of the underlined gibberish mean? It's helpful to understand some background. Composers back in the day wrote massive amounts of music, sometimes for the royal court. These pieces were long, short, and for instrumentation of all types, and became very messy and confusing when trying to keep track which piece was which. Fast forward couple hundred years, musicologists (people who study music) began to create catalogs for famous classical composers with overwhelming number of compositions to make it easier to keep track. BWV simply refers to the specific catalog for J.S. Bach's works and was created in 1950.
Orchestral suites can be though of as an album, and the movements are like individual tracks. Often times, there will be a theme among each suite, most notably the key it is in. In this example, this Suite is predominantly in the keys of D Major and the relative minor. Sometimes a particular movement or suite will become so popular, it will be given a special name (i.e. Moonlight Sonata is famously known by the 2nd movement of a Beethoven piano sonata). But more often, it is just a numerical name, in this came Suite No. 3.
"Air" is actually no special name. It refers to aria, a song-like lyrical piece. When listening to this piece, try to imagine all the melody as being sung and resonating in a opera theater.
What is considered classical music? There's a wide array of definitions referencing style, genre, and historical period, but for a basic understanding, you can just think of it as music composed between the following 4 periods:
As you can see, some of the periods overlap, and contemporary is it's own animal. Obviously, hip hop is not considered classical music, even if it is composed in present day. What categorizes the first 3 periods are similarities in structure and style, which start to become more diversified during the contemporary era, so there are smaller movements within contemporary that have been grouped together.
Here is a taste of each era with a short and famous piano piece:
Baroque: Prelude No. 1 in C Major BWV 846 from The Well Tempered Clavier, composed by J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
This is from a famous book of Prelude and Fugues composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, who is a top contender for the title of "Father of Classical Music". Out of the entire collection, this piece is arguably the most famous because it is more simplistic and easier to enjoy. Some of the fugues become very complex in terms of multiple voices and will give you a headache!
Classical: Fur Elise, composed by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Although the style is approaching romantic, I just couldn't resist because this is probably one of the most famous piano solo pieces of all time. You can commonly find this piece in movies, tv shows, and as background music for websites, elevators, waiting rooms, you name it! The title translates to "For Elise", and historians have argued who Elise actually is, the most famous being a former student who eventually turned down Beethoven's proposal of marriage.
Chopin (pronounced Sho-Pan, not like you're Choppin' vegetables) wrote a series of very famous compositions called Nocturnes, which are basically short piano pieces 'inspired by the night'. They demonstrate heavily the concept of Rubato, which is a swaying of the music by increasing and decreasing tempo in the performance to convey a sense of romance.
Contemporary: The Cat and the Mouse, composed by Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
This is one of my favorite contemporary piano pieces! I am a very girly girl, who is heavily biased towards romantic pieces, but this one was just so fun to play. If you close your eyes and picture Tom and Jerry, you can almost see the chase and the cat limping away at the end.
That's all for now, next week, we will explore some famous orchestral works used in movies. Stay tuned!
