Musical Musings Volume 9 - Works For Voice

The human voice is in many ways the most flexible and expressive musical instrument known to man, as well as being the first. The organization of sounds that developed into the first musical systems of the world were based on the human voice, and professional composers have been inspired to write for it for centuries.  Contemporary popular music is almost exclusively for the accompanied voice, and classical music has a huge repertoire of vocal music for soloist, chorus, and all kinds of combinations with instrumental accompaniment.

This 9th Volume in the Musical Musings series of articles about classical music continues with works that are for or include the voice. All types of vocal music are included save for opera, which I consider to be a separate category in itself.  The time line of composers is from Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) to Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975) and range from works for solo voice and piano, to works for soloists, chorus and orchestra. The mix of compositions contained within also range from the well known to the obscure.

Most of the works are not in English, a detriment to understanding for some. Indeed, the essence of most vocal music is in the meaning behind the words and how the composer has molded the music to them. But the listener who accepts the challenge of exploring the words and music will be rewarded with hearing some of the most powerful, beautiful, and masterful music written. 


Translations are included for the text of each work. These translations have been gleaned from various sources. Some are copyrighted, and proper credit is given to the translator, some are in the public domain, and for some of the lesser-known pieces I have provided my own English translation. I am by no means a polyglot, and these translations were done with the help of the computer. As such, they can only give an approximation and are intended to give a general idea of the original text’s meaning.

Musical Musings Volume 8 - Symphonies Part Two

This 8thVolume in the Musical Musings series of articles about classical music continues with selected compositions in the genre of the symphony. As in Part One (Musical Musings Volume II – Symphonies Part One) there are well known works represented in addition to works that are less well known.

The symphony evolved over many years, and this volume includes a symphony by one of the first acknowledged composers who wrote in the form, Giovanni Sammartini, who began writing symphonies as early as 1732.  So the symphony as a form has been around for nearly 300 years.    

There are 50 works included from 26 different composers, including two women composers; the American Mrs. H.H.A Beach and the British Alice Mary Smith.  As with the rest of the volumes in the series, there are links to performances of the works that are discussed included at the end of each article.  I invite one and all to visit Musical Musings, the blog where these articles first appeared.  

Happy listening!
Alan Beggerow

Musical Musings Volume 7 - Concertos Part Two

The history of concerted music for orchestra and one or more soloists is a long one, beginning with the early Baroque period (beginning roughly in 1600) to the modern contemporary period. The repertoire for one or more soloists and orchestra is huge in sheer number and variety of works, hence the Concerto category is the first category to have a second volume devoted to it.

The solo concerto really came into being in the early 18^th century with the Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi who made the concerto a vehicle for a soloist on one instrument with orchestra backing. He also steered music away from counterpoint and fugue and into the more accessible style gallant.  Vivaldi’s innovations in style and content led to the result in t he early 19^th century of the performer/composer, virtuoso performers that wrote music for their own use that would show off their prowess on their given instrument. Many composers first made a name for themselves as performer/composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, and many, many more.
 
This 7th volume in a series of ebooks about classical music composers and their works is a collection of 50 concertos. Included are works by familiar and unfamiliar composers, as well as well-known and so not well-known compositions.  There are 37 different composers included, so this volume has the greatest variety of composers of any other of the seven current volumes.

As with the rest of the volumes in the series, there are links to performances of the works that are discussed included at the end of each article.  I invite one and all to Musical Musings, the blog where these articles first appeared. 

Musical Musings Volume 2 and 3

Musical Musings Volume 2 - Symphonies

Link For This Book

From C.P.E Bach, one of the innovative composers that wrote some of the first symphonies that are meant to be played as works in their own right, to Dmitri Shostakovich, the 20^th century’s most renowned symphony composer, this collection is a veritable history of the form.

As with Volume one, at the end of my comments and analysis of each work is a link to a performance of the work itself.  I hope my comments and any analysis I give of the work adds to the listening pleasure of the hearer.

Musical Musings Volume 3 - Concertos

Link For This Book

The Concerto as a form in music had beginnings in the Early Baroque period and originally designated works for voices and instruments that had independent parts from the voices. Earlier music had the instruments merely double the vocal lines.  The Late Baroque period saw the concerto transformed into the Concerto Grosso where a small group of instruments would play different music than the main body of the ensemble. This form gradually became the modern concerto for solo instrument and orchestra.

The concertos for various different solo instruments of the Late Baroque composer Vivaldi led to the development of the concerto for keyboard instrument, the harpsichord concerto by J.S. Bach and the organ concerto by Handel.  The concerto went through further refinement in the Classical period, with the 26 keyboard concertos of Mozart (with the later ones written for piano) being the outstanding example. Beethoven also did his part to expand and enrich the form. With the changes in music publishing and composers becoming independent artists instead of employees of royalty of the church, the arrival of the great pianist/composers of the early 19^th century came about. And with the concertos of Paganini adding to the repertoire for the violin, the 19^th century concerto became vehicles for audience-pleasing instrumental playing prowess.

The word ‘concerto’ itself may have been derived from Latin word that mean ‘to unite, to compete’, and that is a handy way to broadly categorize concertos. There are those concertos where the soloist becomes a part of the whole. These concertos can be thought more like symphonies for orchestra and soloist. Then there are those concertos where the soloist is definitely the star and the orchestra is more or less for backup. To my mind, the best concertos are a hybrid of the two categories. 

In this 3rd volume of Musical Musings I have included 51 concertos, with the majority being either for violin or keyboard.  But other instruments are also represented - viola, cello, organ, bassoon, oboe, clarinet, guitar, even the recorder. There are also pieces included that are concertos in everything but name. From J.S. Bach to Shostakovich, over two hundred years of music is represented. As before, at the end of each work discussed is a link to a performance.

New eBook Offering

I have a new ebook recently published on amazon.com. It contains 50 articles from my classical music blog Musical Musings, and with each article is included a link to a performance of the work written about.

Link for this book