Transcripts
1. Introduction: In this third section
of the course, we are going to cover some terms which are recording,
which are important. Going through classical music. I already used some of them, so it is good to understand better what we
covered in the last lectures. It will be a pretty
informative part. There will be notions, there will be wars, there will be
information in general, not so much music and
sorry, after that, Bruckner, this might
not seem so exciting. Still. It is, it is, it is a good time investment and it will save
time in the future. Let us go directly into it. The first term we need
to learn is movement. What is a movement
I have already used today this
word several times. We can define movement
as a sub piece. Most classical music pieces are pretty big and are
divided into several, usually three or four, but not always smaller pieces. This means that they do not go from the beginning to the
end without interruption. On the other hand, they are
divided into smaller ones. Why was this invented? Because during the
Baroque period, a whole piece which
might last ten, 15 min, like many Baroque pieces,
average integration. Without any change
in the speed ending the character was felt boring, not attracting,
attracting. This is why a piece
which was e.g. 10 min long and instead of
being 10 min fast or slow, was divided into
three smaller ones with the common formula
of fast, slow, fast. So that one piece at several different moments with several different
characteristics. More maladies, more material, and the overall
musical experience was more variety and
more interesting. The more time went on the
single movement's claim, the more attention, more room, and the pieces started
to enlarge in duration. This is why, if Concerto, we will see these
words later on. A Baroque concerto, e.g. by average is 10 min of length. Going into the Classical period, the same kind of composition
would last 20 to 30 min going into remind this as we go towards the four
minute mark and so on. Because the single
movements become more and more more important, they, they, they require composers
want to give to each of them a pretty good amount of attention and they enlarge the lifespan
of each of them. Now, movement is something
we will see a lot. Schumann, it was
the first movement of the whole concerto
in broken air. It was the ending of the first
movement of the symphony. So this is basically all over. Then. Something as switches
doesn't really belong to the basics topic. But I mentioned it talking
about Romanticism earlier. So I think it's fair to explain what does
this mean to you. The expressions, absolute
music and program music. Eat a pizza. In general, in classical music, had to
be either one of the two. What are they? So absolute music is
the generic piece of music which doesn't really have any reference
to anything else. The music for the sake
of music, shoe mask, piano concerto,
Bruckner Symphony, and each of Bruckner symphonies. Absolute music. Because they, they, they are, the musical content is everything which matters. We don't need to know any kind of inspiration outside it on literature, on
something else. It is just the music for itself. And music is the final aim. There are no interferences,
interferences, interferences of other arts or other disciplines
for program music, is this the opposite? A piece of program music
is always inspired. Describes or tells the story. Story taken from something else which is not musical, e.g. the hybrid is, we have seen
in the previous course, is a piece of program music. I had to tell you the story of the inspiration
of the fingers cave. On the fingers cave Madison
had in his journey. It is a piece about a place. A place is not
something musically. The music relates to it. This makes program
music a piece of program music can tell a story. So it is narrative, can be inspired by a poem. So it tries to express is the content of the poem
with the sound and so on. I have mentioned in the
chapter on romanticism, because during
Romanticism program using becomes more
and more important. It was always there honestly. But in romanticism,
romanticism, It takes over. And even though absolute music, steel is still very
important and it will be always the most
part of music, musical production,
program music is there and gains importance. We will find it a lot
in that 19th century. Now, let us go and introduce the main
body of this section, which will be about the most important and
most common genres. Genres I practiced before filming the pronunciation
of this word, but my Italian mouth really
doesn't make a generous. Still, what is adjourned genre? It is a kind of piece. Each piece as different
characteristics. And every piece belongs to
a category which is based mostly on the instruments or voices involved in playing it. So the formation of a piece, reformation of players, is what defines the
identity of the piece. We are going to see in the future lectures,
the upcoming lectures. The most common and
the characteristics of the most important
genres in classical music. You probably have already
some of them in your ears. Symphony, concerto,
sonata, they are pretty famous words if you are a little bit into classical music, if you're not, we will see them. So no problems. So before going into
them one-by-one, it is important
to learn now that all genres belong to either
one of two main categories. These categories are chamber
music and whole music. Chamber music is about
small formations. So a handful of
instruments with mixed, maybe some voices that instruments by since
they are the same. For this purpose, whole music. On the other hand, the
features, large formations, and of course, has to be
performed in a big hall. This is why it has this name. Now, we relate also
and this will be very important to the timeline
content we covered earlier. If you haven't checked
it out, please do it. The timeline is the
most important thing. And because we need to relate to the cultural context to
understand really why some generous developed
in a certain way. So let's go, let's go into eta. We start from the small to go progressively towards
the bigger formations. So we start with chamber music.
2. Sonata and suite: In the previous lecture, I said that we will relate to the timeline periods in order to understand the evolution
and the birth, first of the different genres. I have to say that Barack is a little bit
problematic in this. Why? Because it is a little bit anarchic in
this sense and many other, many other sides of it. There was not a lot
of communication between different parts
of parts of Europe. Which means that also the names of the genres
where arbitrary, they, there wasn't a
common way to call, to name the pieces. This means that if an
author initially called the concerto something
in Germany or in France, it could be named
in another way. And this is something which
is a little bit puzzling. In classicism. We have the first
standardization of the journals and many of them, which then set as
the prominent one, the most important one
up to the modern era, where we're put in that state
and coded by classicism. During classicism,
still in Baroque, we have already something
which is born and which will last for the basically
the whole history of music. The main, one of this
pool of genres is the. So now, what is the Sonata? Sonata is a piece of very small proportions
in terms of formations, which plays, plays it. It is a piece for one
or two instruments, which is divided into
three or four movements, January, but that's
not a fixed number. I'm not saying,
Please be attentive that every piece for one or two instruments
must be a sonata. There are others,
other side genre, especially, I would say, especially during
Romanticism and also Barak. That are not sonatas and steel features this
small formation, one or two instruments.
Steel for sure. Sonata is always for
one or two incidents. When you see the word sonata, this is what you have to expect. Now, this sonata lasts
all history music lung, of course it's changes
through many centuries. He is composed and
used by authors. In the Baroque sensor. Usually we have one
melodic instrument, which many times is the violin, but doesn't necessarily
have to be evaluating. Which is a campaigned by
one harmonic instrument, which might be a
keyboard instruments. Sometimes the keyboard
instrument is, is doubled by another
reinforcing low instrument, but that's not always there. This is when the sonata
is for true instruments. When it is for one, most of the time we have
a keyboard instruments. Later on, the sonata for two instruments
changes a little bit. During the classical period, by the hand of Beethoven. The two instruments gain
the same importance. Is not one solid list
with the accompaniment. But we have usually, again still, the piano is, most of the time there is a keyboard instrument and
the one melodic violin, cello, or any other, honestly, which are on the
same level of importance. This is something which is
important because if you, if you listen to Bach sonata is completely
different expressively. And the balance between the two instruments
with a romantic one, when piano and the
other one are, have the same weight. So to say. Before going on with the main generals from classes
is on for classes in, on, I would mention another
Baroque chamber music, January, which is mostly in
the chamber music category. Not always. It is. The sweet.
Sweet is fully Barak. It doesn't, it dies with Barak. When you cross the word sweet. In another period, especially late Romantic period,
it means something guys. So please do not get confused. I'm sorry that sometimes
in classical music the same words are used
for several things. But this is why we
need to be precise. Baroque suite is a piece of music divided into
several movement, which has the characteristic that each movement is a dance. This doesn't mean that it
is meant to be danced. Not at all. The suite is meant only
for listening purposes. It is dance music. Without any dancer. Dance music, which is meant to be
just listened and enjoy as any other
piece of music. Normally the suite is
a chamber music piece. It means for a small formation, but not always, e.g. Johann Sebastian
Bach wrote a handful of great suites for orchestra. So it means a larger one. Also, I have to say before
moving on that in a Baraka, the border between chamber music and the whole music is not that. That's trunk as it is later on. Why? Because that the difference which is not only in the numbers but in the mindset
and the conception of especially chamber music
was not really there. And also because
baroque orchestras normally are not that big, they are a little
bit in-between. They are, they are often
called the chamber orchestra. Orchestra, which is
something in-between the whole energy and
the chamber formation. Maybe formation of
ten to 20 people. Except when there
are course involved. So a lot of voices then of course the
orchestra has to be bigger. But normally for
purely instrumental music orchestras and
never that we embark. Now, I'm sorry, this was, this was maybe a
little bit confusion. Because Barack is unfortunately, the most important thing we covered in this
lecture is the Sonata. Please remember the Sonata, these for one or two instruments divided into 34,
usually movement. This is, this is the
most important thing, which is worthy to remember. All the rest will make
sense the more we acquire experience with classical
music listening. In general, I would not listen to example that
matching this part because we will meet
this janitors a lot and it's not bind now to
prolonged each lecture. Putting into it one 2
min of music just to, just for the sake of
it sounds like this. Now, we move on into the very important concept
of classical chamber music, which is something real
or candy in the sense, in the, in cultural terms. This is the sweetest
little chocolate, very, very nice thing and
something which produced and gave to compose her the chance
to produce great music. We see it now.
3. Classical chamber music: As already mentioned, during
the classical period. So we are in the second
half of the 18th century, chamber music gains a
completely new meaning. Especially, or at least starting from the city I'm, I live in. Y, y, in Vienna. Something new begins. There were very particular
and unique social conditions here with the relish in the relationship between
the common people, the population, and music. Here in Vienna, there was an unprecedented number
of amateur musicians. So many, many, many, many thousands of eight
for sure, hundreds, probably thousands of
people who were not professional musicians
enjoyed playing music in their free time. And music was seen as an exquisite and very
effective social tool. It was very normal to
spend an evening with friends ending up after dinner playing some
music together. It was considered part
of the social rituals of spending having a
good time together. Like again, this determines a
very high demand of chamber music
during those years. And this is why the great composer we already are encount encounter
several times today, Franz Joseph Haydn with one of the main founder of
classicism in music, forged this new type
of chamber music, which answers to the needs
of this particular audience. So, how is this chamber music? So first of all, chamber
music is of course, a range of formations. It starts with the Sonata
the most, the most, the little one with one or
two instruments and goes up to eight, roughly
eight instruments. Steel pieces for six
or more instruments are not very common, especially in the
classical years. Why? Because they, they cause
the practical problems. Not all the rooms. Chamber music was
played in, in, in, in private, private,
in private houses. Was large enough for so many instruments
and also the audience, which of course was very small. And also finding
so many musicians required to play a piece, 468 instruments were not easy. This is why the
preferred formations where three or four instruments. It was a fair number, a good compromise between
the practical conditions and the richness of the possibilities
this formation gave. This is why the two major genres of classical chamber music. And these two generals remained important also
for romantic, romanticism. And on are the Piano Trio, which means piano, violin, and cello, and especially
the string quartet. The string quartet is the chamber music
genre par excellence is the most important. The formation with four
stringed instrument, meaning true violins,
one viola and cello, is seen by composers, has the perfect formation
because it reminds the vocal cord it to males
low and two females high. The two violins being
sovereign, Alto, and the two viola and cello, tenor and bass, the
shoe male voices. And this creates a picture of perfection from low to high, with the first violin,
which is the highest, the child, which is the lowest, which played a extreme parts. And the second violin which
plays lower than the first. The viola, which are
the internal parts, they cover the whole
spectrum of sound and the sound like a
whole big instrument, because the sound of string
instruments is very similar, even though it is
of different heads. And this is, this is felt
like endless possibilities. And then a perfect instrument. Now, which are the
characteristic of the classical chamber music. They are meant to be perfect for the environment
it was played in. Classical music, chamber, classical chamber
music pieces mime, a highly refined, polite, elegant, with T and
clever conversation. Like a source in a social event, when a group is that the
group of voices chatting, we have a group of instruments having a whole
summer, wholesome, not intended in a moral
sense, but then in, in a pleasant and high
paced conversation. This is why the roles of
the instruments are equal. There is no instrument more important than,
than one answer. Likewise, when it is, when, for people, habit,
talk together. Haydn, steel has the habit of giving to the first violin some more importance
than the other three. But he also was a violinist. But from Mozart on the four instruments and
with other formations, still, all the older. The number of the instruments
have the same importance. This is a typical
very classical thing. The conversation
is, even though it is refined and even though
it is not a neighbor vulgar, it is often little
bit frivolous. Why? Because it is an exquisitely
way to spend time together. It must not be sublime. It must not be unforgettable. Not at all for the classical
rationalistic spirit. That is not required. That idea or that each work
of art must be unique, must be super meaningful,
must be memorable, is typical romantic born
out of Beethoven and especially held in high
consideration by romantics. Here. Here we are in a different
kind of society. The view of music is different, and especially the view of
chamber music is different. For the classical. Classical intellectuals. And artists are
intellectuals in this sense. Being frivolous is not
something necessarily bad, as long as the
conversation Is clever, is interesting, and is, doesn't, doesn't descend
to a vulgar lab. You can, you can have incredibly artistic moments,
even being frivolous. Also, because they are all
a little bit frivolous. This is the spirit of
classical chamber music. It is the first
audience of the piece. While being played
are the musicians themselves who have
fun playing together. And also usually there is a small audience of
the other guests, of the families and so on. This is the environment. We are in. A room like
this is the one I'm in, is easily go room to
play some chamber music. This is the spirit then from Beethoven on as
many other things, this starts to change. Now this time, I would like
to give you an example, because how this sounds is important to understand
really the spirit of it. So let us again listen
to a short excerpt, as usual, from a string
quartets by Haydn. Haydn wrote more than
70 string quartets. He's the master of
the string quartet. And listen how this
really resemble. Find social moments. Now you see, you see for sure how this
really resembles a dialogue, resembles a conversation,
and how the question, answer kind of rhetoric
is so important here. In generally music,
music is based on the question and answer pattern, the action, and the reaction
that is crucial for me. But here this is really
all there and fuzzy. As two. To complete the
picture, of course, I would mention the fact
that the piano trio and the string quartets are
the most district courts that are the most
important genres. But there can be many others with any
mixture of instruments. There are really no rules. We have a quintic, the sex that an octet
is a 568 instruments. Seven is basically never there. I would say almost never. And this is how
the modern concept of chamber music, this board. Now we take a look at
romanticism and briefly see how in the following century
these dielectric changes.
4. Romantic chamber music: Going on. With time,
society changes. Music, changes, art in
general changes and the conception of art
to changes these, this way of conceive
chamber music we have seen during the classical
years in Vienna especially, but of course, it was exported could not
last for so long. In the following century, in the 19th century, these changes, first
comes Beethoven, who refuses this concept of refined but a little frivolous
conversation, not at all. For beta of each piece of music. Master aim for that. Being sublime, being
unforgettable, telling a story of the, of the whole ward and
embracing the whole world. This is of course, in contrast
against what was there, but we'll be picked by many
romantic composer as a model, even for the small formation. This may relate more naturally to the world
of big Formation, big orchestras,
compositions which create a wall of sound which
convey these great ideas. But still Beethoven
and some of his, some of his admirers in
the romantic period. We still try to achieve this, even with little numbers. 24 instruments will try
to play like an ocher. So with the same
strength of an orchestra and the same wheel of
being supply and ground. This is for sure one stream of chamber music which is
there in romanticism, but is not the main one. There is something
else which replaces the refined conversation
we have during classicism. And it is the seek, the research for Teamocil. This is something which is
typical of Romanticism. Music, chamber music
seizes to be for everyone, a product to consume, which was for sure
in classicism, it was sold and consumed. Really. This doesn't mean it, it was a lower tire
of art, not at all, but it could be greater art
but still was produced to be, to be sold and enjoyed
by the audience. During Romanticism,
this really ends. Romanticism is by
itself more military. The circle around
the artist is small, mass be small because you can understand these inner life, the struggles, and the fantasy and imagination
of the romantic. Romantic already know that he's writing for a few chosen people. This is why chamber
music do too, is still smaller size aims to create an intimate atmosphere, inner connection
between the players, which are more than the protagonists of the main characters
of the conversation. They are the voice
of the author. And these small, small,
end chosen audience. In team into miasma is
the term we use to, to define this tendency
which produces such a number of masterpieces of our pieces which are really breathtaking. Chapin is for sure, with the production completely
dedicated to the piano. So just one instrument
is the master of this. But not only Chapin, there is one genre which
is typical of Romanticism, which portrays
intimacy at its best, is the German lead. Lead in German means Sanger. And that is what elite is. A song for one voice, which may be male,
female, whatever. Usually, the same lead can
be sung by a male or female. It is fine. So it is not dedicated
to one voice, in particular, a piano. Piano or combining and the
voice singing simple song. Many of these romantic
intimacy pieces are smaller. All what I mentioned
during classicism, the string quartet
to the Piano Trio, which go on in romanticism, two, are divided into
movements, usually for. Which means they are
pretty large pieces. Still. Even in the atmosphere of our conversation we have
seen during classicism, romanticism, they get
bigger and bigger. So we have String Quartet
by Schubert, e.g. which are 50 min long or so with Bramson,
late romanticism. Big pieces, 35, 40 min, all, with all the movements, with the duration of
all four movements. Why? So many other pieces which has several
different names, we're not seeing them
and the lead among them. They don't have several
movements within. They are not parted into,
into smaller pieces. They are just one, usually few minutes longer. Piece, 3 min, 4 min up to
CS6 or something like that. They are meant as a risk paired whispered
emotional expression, which is also helped by
the choice of a point. Because a leader is sunk and
therefore we have words, the lead aims to create a connection is
strong connection between musical and
poetic expression. It is a very poetic
genre in its own, and it is typical. German lead is really German. In other countries
we have opera, which, which grabs vocal music. Opera is of course, nor belonging to chamber music, nor to hold music. Opera is in the opera
theater, opera house, and it is a category of
its own 0 Paris Opera. Now, we will for sure talks
about the lead in the future. We are going to listen to
several lists because lead, the lead is the primary source of German romanticism
inspiration. So it is something
very important. Almost each, I would
say, each without the, almost each great romantic composer in Germany
wrote leader, which is the plural
of lead leader songs. It is a very, very powerful genre and the very
culturally exquisite. Now quickly, as an
ending to this lecture, what happens after Romanticism? There are no, not really a whole bunch of innovations
in the modern era, this romantic intimacy
fade away, fades away. The chamber music pieces lose a general pool of
characteristics culturally, they remain just the basis
for a small formation. What is new is that composer
start to experiment because experimental ism is
the most common thing and important thing
in the new century. In the 20th. We'll experiment with
weird formation. Formation which were not traditionally cultivated by romantics and
classical composers. We will see more often mixtures of string and
woodwind instruments. We will seek
percussion instruments coming in into chamber music, which is really weird
because the chamber is not the normal home place for
percussion instruments. Because they, they are
annoying in a smaller, in a small room. This is the main feature of 20th century music
in the chamber. The chamber side. You
really have to expect anything looking into modern
chamber music pieces. Now, this is it
for chamber music. We go on talking about the huge formations and
the two main genres of it.
5. Symphony and concerto: We now learn about whole music, which means the pool of genres which feature
big formations, a lot of instruments, or voices. There are two main
genres in this category. Actually, there are
several others, but they are not that
important and we will see them one-by-one
separate courses because of course it's worthy, but it's not worthy now
to remember many names, many words, we will see them. So the two main ones are the
symphony and the concerto. The symphony is born in
the Classical periods. Actually in, during Barack
There was hidden there, something like that,
like the symphony. But first it was not
called Symphony. And also it is not,
it was not a January, which was mature enough to say it existed already
in the Baroque. It is born with glasses. It was experimented in the transition between
Barack and classicism. And then our usual Franz
Joseph Haydn, again, heme set it in the final form. Basically. This final form is a
pretty large piece for orchestra divided into
four usually movements. The four movements are
in the beginning of it, as it was invented by Haydn. We have faster, slow, a dance movement in
the third place, and then a fast, paced and exciting endear. Later on, the third dance
movement will be replaced with another kind of
movement of movement. We will see it when
it will be the case. So this is the scale on the
backbone of the symphony. It will remain basically like this for movements later on, the number of movement during
late romanticism will be, will vary a little bit. But still four movements
is the standard. This symphony is a
piece which for sure is one of the most pretentious. Once. I use pretentious as it's
not a very good choice because pretentious as
bad meaning, so on. I'm not willing to meet
with me the bad meaning. Steal. The symphony is
a general which shortly after its birth acquires
a particular importance. Composers writing symphonies. And this is true for
the last symphonies, both by Haydn and Mozart and
especially with Beethoven. Symphony will be always a grant and kinda huge composition, huge both in duration because
with Beethoven radiant, the leg motor, we
have lungs inference. But also it wants
to be a composition with which says
something unforgettable, which, which is a
challenging piece to listen. You can eat is not, it is not really
a piece to lease. A kind of peace to listen while you are distracted
or just relaxer, or just the two, to spend some time
without focusing. Their symphony is demanding. It is a mark of is this January and Beethoven
released the guy who, who, who says this
after Beethoven. Symphony cannot be
something forgettable. It may be in the
end, can be solved, but in the intent of
the composer is not. Now, let's now talk
about the concerto. Concerto is a piece
in three movements, usually fast, slow, faster, standard formula
for one instrument, one main instrument, and an
orchestra, or combining it. In this what kind of formula
it ended up being set. As usual during the
classical period. I have to say that
in the Baroque era, the Concerto already existed. But again, in true
Barak fashion, it was, it was very successful, success of the invention
of the composer. The rules defining
the concerto where not as the standardized
and shared. Throughout Europe. It means that the
number of solids, verizon, it may be one, it may be true three
of up to four usually. And also the orchestra, which instruments are
in the orchestra? Which size is the orchestra? It each, each concerto
as a different one. It, most of them during the Baroque are only string
orchestra or incident, but that's not a rule. Sometimes we had some Wiggins, sometimes two, sometimes
three, sometimes six. There were, there were
no rules in this census. This is why the modern concept
of Concerto, I would say, is set again during the classical period when
the solid is reduced. I'm almost always 21 is red. And the orchestra accompanying is usually a
symphonic orchestra. The same kind of orchestra
we find in symphonies. Maybe a little smaller
but not, must not be. So this regenerates
contraction symphony are the most important. It's again no use to spend waste time now to listen
to some examples. Examples because we
will find them all over and we will listen to
these two kinds of pieces. Several, several, several times. We actually, we already listened to an example
of both of them. Bruckner Symphony. Schuman was a concerto earlier. So you can go back and
listen to them if you want. Now, before we move on into our last section of this course, I would like to spend a couple
of meetings to briefly, to briefly tell you
something about another pool of genres, which is a sacred music.
6. Sacred music: It is really worth spending some time talking
about sacred music, because in European
artistic history, in general, a sacred
art is very important. It is the most ancient and throughout the
whole history of art. And so this means also the history of music
is always there. So this, this kind
of music is the most eternal in the sense that it is the least
subject of change. From baroque to modern. Modern ears are the two main
genres of sacred music. Basically stay the same. They are the master, the most important one, and the oratorio,
the second one. So let me quickly describe them. The mess is a composition which is meant to be played
during the Sunday mass. So the ritual, it is divided into five Movement, five parts. They have a title, which is the first word
of the word of the text, which is every time the same. The main characteristic of
the mess is that it is vocal. Features singers, usually for
solid singers and a core. So pretty big vocal formation and is always on the same text. The words remain the same. They are untouchable. Of course. This for this 555 movements, they, if you quickly want their names but they are
not important to remember. Key area, credo Gloria, Sanctus, and use De Santos is divided into two,
Sanctus and Benedick. They are in letting
the text is in Layton, which is the official
language of the church. And they don't have fixed the speeds,
fixed characteristics. The composite have freedom to write the music they want on the five main
bodies of the mass. Still, since the music
refers to words, there are some usual
choices many composer make. I think that's enough
for the mess for now. We will maybe in the
future make a course on the mass because it
is very interesting. So many great composers
have written masses. So there is great music there. The second great sacred
music genre is the Oratorio. Oratorio is an Italian word. It was born as many other things in
classical music in Italy. There is not really an
original English word for it. What is in the auditorium? It is a huge sacred
music composition. The formation is the
same as the mass. We have orchestra, both messenger oratorio,
solid singers. Some of them in the
mess they are for. In the oratorios. The number is not fixed and
a core, usually pretty big. The main feature of the oratorio
is that it is narrative. It's a story, historic, taken from the Bible,
sacred stories. It is basically like an opera. Sacred opera, which are the differences between the
oratorio and the Opera. Opera, not that
many. Just a couple. The first one is that in the
oratorio there is no stage. The singers do not act. Maybe they do just lead
suggested, but not always. Usually it is like in a concert, they stay still and they sink. That's it. It is not staged. This is why it is not. The oratorio is not played
in the upper house. There is no need for it. It is played in concert
hall or in the church. And the second
main difference is that in directorial we
always have one narrator, One voice, which is
usually a male voice, doesn't play any character. There are all the other singer
or different characters which intervening in
the story, in the plot. But there is one voice which tells what's
in-between the scenes. And basically is the
reader of the sacred book. There is no book or sacred
book to read, of course, the singular things
by heart, but he is, he is the glue
between the scene and the main values for sure
of the whole composition. As much as an opera in
oratorio can be very long. It's, it is very challenging. A composition, very
demanding, very huge, and may last for hours
as much as, as an opera. Reading. These are the two
main types of sacred music. Again, they are not, they
are not the only ones, but the most important ones. Here we close for now the
torque on the genres. These are the most important. Again, we will discover the one I did not mention
today in other courses. Now, we move on to
the final section for today because I think this course is
already pretty long. And don't want to
make on basics. Ten hour course. We talk about one of the main characters
of classical music, which is the orchestra. How is the orchestra, which are the
instruments, and so on. We move on to that. And we end. Today's course.
7. Introduction to part 4: As the last focus
for this course, we are going to get to
know the orchestra. The orchestra is one of the main characters in
classical music for sure. It is one of the most common realities
we get in touch with when we go and listen to operas or concert
in a concert hall, in a big hall. There orchestra is always there. It is a very great
instrument taken as a whole. Because of the massive amount of different kinds of sounds, the overthrow of the
orchestra authors. But this might be also felt as a little bit hard because there are so many
different instruments that getting acquaintance and familiar with each kind of
sound is not that easy. So in the following lectures, we are going to see one-by-one, the main instruments
in the orchestra. Basically, all the instruments
we commonly meet and start to learn and get familiar
with the timber they have. Timbre is the
technical word again, is another of these words. I don't feel it's necessary
to remember because it literally means
kind of sound. Timber is how a certain
instrument sounds. That's it. The orchestra, we
see a little bit of its history very
quickly before we jump into the music and the different instruments is
born in the Baroque period. Steel, as we have already
seen in the Baroque period, is still very susceptible
to the circumstances. And the wheel of the composer. And the word orchestra in the Baroque period can mean
very different formations. It gets standard as
many other things as we see in only from classicism on, I would say from meat, the classes and on for sure. The current meaning of
the word orchestra is a larger formation
of instruments. At least 2020 is the minimum. 25, 30 instruments starts
to be a real orchestra. Which features instruments form basically all the families, all the instrumental families, which are the strings, the winds, and the percussion. At least one percussion
instruments. Usually there is one. We
will see them all later on. In the Baroque. Orchestra can mean only
strings can mean only wins, can mean only brass instruments. Can be very small,
can be very big. It is the practical. So the practical circumstances dictated the content
of the orchestra. If there were not
instruments available, these words will be used for
as much information, e.g. it happens in the barrack. For sure. The path of the
orchestra is a path of growth. It starts small. Most of the time. In the bar up the
orchestra is small. It is normally when
courts are not involved, when the orchestra
doesn't have to support a mass of voices. So of course it has to be large to match the
sound of the voices. But when it is on its own, the Baroque orchestra is
normally greatest model. Moving on into classicism
and then the romanticists, the orchestra gets
larger and larger. Why? Because e, composers going on with time want
more kind of sounds. Which means that more
instruments diff, of different of it. Speaking in term of
quality, not in quantity. I mean, different qualities of instruments make a
greater quantity. Two are gathered
in by composers, especially the
family of the wins, gets more and more stacked. This, of course, requires also a larger number of strings, which were always
there in order to match the sound of the
woodwinds and the brass. Now, we will see these
words in detail later on, wins, woodwinds, brasses.
We will see them. The middle point
when we set the, I would say the standard
orchestra is Beethoven. The orchestra which is used by Beethoven is most,
in most symphonies, is the medium size orchestra features usually 40
instruments roughly, and has already most of
the instruments out there. As a pretty good
balance between wins and strings and features that tympani as a
percussion instrument. Later on, moving into romanticism, especially
late romanticism, the orchestra gets huge, huge, bigger and bigger. Up to arriving in the
very end of romanticism, the end of the 19th century, having orchestras of 100, even 150 instruments,
huge mass of sounds. I would say that it is worth mentioning the mad
scientist of orchestra, the composer who after
Beethoven started this, this experimentation with
new instruments with, with the enlargement of the
orchestra in order to have different colors created by
different kinds of sounds. This composer is the great
French genius, Hector Berlioz. He's a truly great composer. I didn't mention him when we talked in general
about Romanticism. I feel sorry. We mentioned him. Now he's, he's,
he's really great. And he started this process. Then Wagner followed
his example and we have the enlargement into
very big formations. Now. We move into the families first and then
the single instruments. We will use a pizza, which is built as a
pedagogy piece to, to teach actually this how the orchestra is,
which are the instruments. So it is perfect for us. We, in the next lecture, we now break it down.
8. Families of instruments: In the beginning of
the 20th century, the tactics gained a
greater importance as they never had how to
teach effectively, how to address
especially children. Teaching. This
dashed also music. All of a sudden, there were written a lot of
educational didactic pieces. Pieces, which wanted to
teach something about music. Music which with the passing of centrally become more and
more stacked and complex. The same goes for the orchestra. Pieces to show how
the orchestra is. There are in particular to
masterpieces of this genre. If we can call it that way. The most famous one is for sure, Peter and the Wolf by
Sergei per coffee. If it is a musical fairy tale, which means a story
which is set and is told by a narrator with music supporting it and
each character as a different instrument
associated to it that the young audience called the
learner to recognize in a fun way the type of
sound of each instrument, and also something about their character
because they were, of course, thoughtfully
associated to a different personality. The other piece, which is our focus because it
is more schematic, it is better for our purposes. Is titled the young person's
guide to the orchestra by the great English
composer Benjamin Britten. Now, that piece as
also another title, which is a more, I would say, official title. It is more in line with the tradition of
classical music for sure. Because that piece is so good
that it is also play out, played outside its
educational role. Normally, we have a speaker who poses the music and
explains what is going on, which will be my role here now. But the piece can be also
played as a concert piece, as normal piece of music. And in that sense, it has a different title, which is variations and food
on a theme by Henry Purcell. A very long title, yes. Again, the title says, tells us what the piece is. Always happen, often
happens in classical music. So let us analyze this title, variations and fog, ornithine
by hair, hairy per cell. Harry Potter cell is a great, I would say the greatest
English born composer who lived in Barak handle, let me remind you. Is not English born,
is German born. But parcel is truly English
and he was a real genius. Britain feels like a little bit like the hair of per cell. Taking the role as a leader, leading English composer
in modern times. Variations and Phuc. So theme. With variation, what is this? A theme is a melody. They are synonyms. Theme equals melody. We have a manual which is
blending the beginning, which is the basis
for variations. What is a variation? If variation is a short
piece which is usually chained with other
variations as it is here, which resembles an
original theme, resembles it enough for
us to recognize it. So that's, yeah, we, we perceive a link
between the two, but is also different enough from it to be variety, to be, to introduce something new
and to delight us with some new features which usually
are rhythmic or melodic. Now, you can understand that
this is a very good way. Show different instruments
because what will Britain do? We'll write one variation for each instrument
in the orchestra. And each instrument will be the main character
of one variation. That one after the other, we will create a picture. It will create a picture
of the whole orchestra. We will see the
single instruments in from the next lecture on. Now, we see the very
beginning of the piece, which is not about the
single instruments, but the families of them. The instruments are grouped into families due to
their similarities. We have three major families. They are wins,
strings, percussions. Now, we go into the listening. What happens in the first place? The theme by per set is played by the whole
orchestra so that we can listen to how the whole thing sounds is
very mighty, very stately. It sounds like this. Now, this was altogether, we now listen to
the same melody, which comes next, but
played only by one family, which is the root, wins. So wind instruments are the instruments
which required to be blown into to be played
to produce sound. This family is divided
into two main categories. They are the woodwinds and the brass is the
difference is yes, the material they are made, or at least they were
made in the origin of the single instruments
like the flute nowadays is not
any more of wood, but it was, it was so, so the woodwinds is
the first family. We will see them in detail
one after the other later on. So let us just listen how
they sandwiched together and we will see their
personalities in the next lecture. The woodwinds are
not very powerful, but they have a very distinctive
individual personality. They are real characters. They have a very unique
sound, each of them. While the family
which comes in now, have a more similar
kind of sounds, the instruments
which are involved, but they are really powerful. The brasses, they are big. They sound very powerful. They have this juicy fat sound which really fees the hall. Altogether. They
sound like this. The brushes have, I would
say that on their own, have a pretty solemn
tone when they come in. They cannot play, they, they can never
played sets faster. So they have this great, mighty, godly kind of face. Now we go into the strings, the family of the violin and
the violin like instruments. They are numerous, they are
a big part of the orchestra. And they have sweet voice. They resemble the human voice, the viral in particular, but all of them they are, they are developed
in a similar way. The Byron is a willful
imitation of the human voice. It is meant to sound, to sound like someone singing. The violin might
sound like if you might advise the lower ones, shallow and so on. Like a main voice. Altogether, they produce this
kind of sound we hear now. The last family is the
percussion family. Here we will see a
lot of percussions. Britain is so creative that is able to pull off
something really weird but, but really impressive, which
is to reproduce something about something which is similar to the melody using
only the percussions. Which is pretty impressive. Yes, it is something you
don't see very often. I would say, and
I will repeat it when they come one
after the other, that the percussions are not really there that match
in the orchestra, at least in the major part
of the history of music. There is only one
percussion instruments. Steadily in the orchestra, which is very important, which is the tympani, which is the only orchestral instrument. We will listen it tweet clearly now because it is the
one which starts the. Now. What we listen to now, which can play actual nodes. All the others instruments, or at least most of them, can't play any notes, just produces the
because if Nice, listen to what, pretend he's able to create using only that. Now that we have seen the groups of
instruments, orchestra, woodwinds, brasses, strings, percussions,
whole orchestra. Again, we move into
the single ones. We start with the woodwinds, and we go on in the next
lecture with the variations.
9. Woodwinds: Let us start now
our path through the discovery of each
single instrument. I have to say it
was pretty tough call whether to show you a video of the of the people
playing the piece or not. I chose not to because I think it is more
beneficial if we start getting used to just focus
on what we perceive with our ears and focus more just on the sound
of them and not, not how they look while playing. So we start with the woodwinds, normally in an order
in standard orchestra, which means the
orchestra of Beethoven, of the last Mozart of the
first part of Romanticism. We have two of them. Two of each. Woodwind instruments. Each of them plays an individual part. It means that for
every single player, we have one line
into full score. The first instrument britain
shows us is the fluid. The fluid is a high instrument and as you will see in a moment, it has a very tweety
bird like voice. You will have no wonder on
the fact that coffee if in Peter and the Wolf chose the little bird to be
represented by the fluid. Before we listen. There is another
flute-like instrument playing with the
two main fluids. It is the instrument
called piccolo. What is the piccolo? Piccolo is basically
a liter of fluid, which is half long
as a normal one. It sounds very, very high
because in music always, the bigger the instrument, the lowered sounds, and
the other way around. The piccolos sounds terribly
high, very, very high. The name piccolo is an Italian word because pea color in Italian
means lethal. So the full name of
official name in Italian is flowered pea color. It means literary liter fluids. So English adopted the
only active beak color to show through to
name this instrument. Let us listen to the
fluids variation. Now we go already
into a new one. You see that the variation is go one after the
other pretty quickly. The next instrument is the oboe. We have already seen this
instrument with the Schumann. It play the melody of the beginning of
the piano concerto. It is, we already
talked about it with an instrument which
has a long paste, crying, kind or sound. So I think there is
no point to spend more words on, on this. We go and see how, of course Britain writes
in a pretty similar way to Schumann to show the features
of these instruments. Melody, which is yes, derived by the parser one, but as a character of
something which is linear, slow paced and pretty sad. Now the character
will change suddenly. Welcome the clarinet. If in Peter and the Wolf, Procopius chose to associate
the all way to the Dukkha. The elbow is the
voice of the dark. And you see how,
how, how good is the Shizhen is the clarinet, which is the instrument
which plays. Now you see that it is very similar in how
it looks with the, oh boy, just the
two extremities of the instrument are different. Still the kind of sound
is completely different. The clarity is very agile, is the kind of
sound is very soft, but can be serpentine. Also. If the, oh boy is a dance is the kind
of sound is very dense, is concentrated, is, it is
like a little bit Sandy. The clarinet is as a pure
sound like a glass-like sound. I mean, trying to describe
the sound with words, it doesn't really work. Just listen to it. For coffee. If I chose the cat
for the clarinets. Now, we are already at
the end of the woodwinds. There is only one
instrument remaining, and it is the law
instrument in this family. The bassoon. The bassoon is pretty similar as how it sounds with the overweight is all
very, very much lower. It is a pretty cool
looking instrument. It is very different
from all the others. Coffee if chose to associate the bassoon with the
grumpy grandfather. The grandfather of Peter, who is always complaining, always review, king, never
happy, always grumpy. You will see now how again, appropriate is this choice? These were the woodwinds. You for sure notice
that the bassoon, even though it has this kind of grumpy and unhappy
and bubbling sound, where, especially
when it's placed in the high register for it, which means not that
high, but still. It can be also very melodic. Sometimes we have
terrific moments of orchestral music when
the bassoon comes out. And nobody expects it, because as every low, low instrument, it doesn't
catch the attention that much. You won't find yourself listening to the
bassoons very often. Still when, when he has something important
sentence here, it creates great moments. You have already probably
noticed that if you didn't, you can go back and
listen again to this. It's not that the longer that each instrument, each, each, each of these four would be instruments played in a couple, except the fluids, which
have also the piccolo. So there were three,
but all the others. Where to end they
played different nodes. This is how the
orchestral writing for woodwind instrument goes. Now, we move forward
in the next lecture. Now, we are going to look at
the strings which come next.
10. Strings: We now listen to the
string instruments. String instruments are the
backbone of the orchestra. The beginning of
the orchestra life is as a string orchestra. So the woodwinds and the brass instruments came
in gradually later on, while the orchestra cannot
renounce to the streaks. They are pretty famous,
especially this one, the most, the highest
of them on the violin. There is no point in
showing pictures of the other ones because they all look like a violin, only bigger. The biggest of them all, which is the lowest,
is the double bass, which is so high from here, I don't know if you
see the hand to the ground as big as it is. The name of the
string instruments. We will see them
again one-by-one, proposed to us by Britain. We have the violin,
highest, viola, lower, cello, even lower, and double-bass, the
lowest of them all. Now, we go into, into the music. The variation will
show them one by one. A couple of very
important things still, the string instruments
do not really play out. What does that imply? It implies that they
have to play in groups. They are called sections,
the string sections. Because you cannot compare
the sound of one violin to the sound of just one. Oh boy, or climate. If they play just 1.1 together, they will sound may
be pretty balanced. But if you take, for woodwinds again
against four strings, that doesn't really work. This is why in the orchestra, we have groups of at least 868 is the minimum number
normally of each string. The highest they are, the more numerous they are. Also for the violin, we have two groups. The variant is very important and it is a very
versatile instrument. It can play very high, but also in a meat, meat, the middle texture. So the first violin
normally play very high. The second violins play, play an intermediate kind of register lower
than the first one. So in a standard for
d elements orchestra, we would have something
like ten first violins, ten or eight second violins, six to eight violas, six shallows, and
34 double basses. These are the proportions of
the numbers you would see in a symphonic or opera orchestra as far as the strings
are regarded. Also, what does section imply? It implies that
within one section, normally all the instruments
play or the players means play just
one pi h of them. The ten first violins, e.g. play the same notes. It may happen in
certain kinds of music, in certain authors
that they are split, but in two or 34 parts
in this section, but normally they play
altogether the same part. Now, let us go and finally, listen to the string variations. First, we have, we go from
the highest to the lowest. First we have the
violins with their, with their lively high, of course, sparkly, sparkly. Bar for or yeah. You'll, you'll see what I mean. Sparkling. Sparkling, sparkling and foster child voice. Let's go into this. Now you've seen how variety
is the usage of the violin. First, the fact that you have
maybe spotted two parts, two groups of violin paying
it is because Britain made the first and second
violin play together. So they were, they
were two groups. And also the violin. Really, really, really. Yes. Right? And versatile. If you go back and listen again, you see how they can be jumpy, they can be sparkling, but they can also
be very lyrical, very singing like very delicate. They can, they can
be percussive. They can be read the teeth, but they can be soft. This is why violins
are very loved by composers and
also this is why violins play a major role
in the melodic sinking. They are, they are
often melodic parts, especially the first virus. Now we move into another
string instruments. We make a step lower. We listen to the violas. The violas are the warm
voice of the string. The string family in general, they are not as agile
as the variance. Of course, the biggest is
an instrument that list IJ. It is by nature, by its nature. And they, violas are used not in such a main
character role as the violence by composers. They are, they are often behind the curtain
doing dirty job, the dirty job of
the internal part. So to enrich the sound of
the orchestra in general, but not catching attention, stealer, especially
romantic composers, some time give them
a lot of love when they realize really worth it. Because when, when they
have a melodic part, they are really wonderful sound. Very warm, very bad. Full of battery, yes, the warm butter when
it's not very healthy, but giving a full
byte of warm butter, this is kinda like
how they feel. All right? You've seen what
a great intensity and the violas are
really capable of it. Now, we go even lower
to the shallows. That shallows are. I would say that
after the violins, the most versatile and
popular in the string family, they are like the brother, the mainly causing
of the violence. The violence have a female
voice. They are very high. They resemble the
voice-over soprano of a high female voice, while the shallow is a
pretty low male voice, it means that it has
a double nature. Many times the cello
just the does, again, the bus dirty role, just to provide the basis of the harmony of a whole piece, leaving too high voices. The role of the melodic part. In this sense, they
might sneak unnoticed. But when composers,
especially, again. From Beethoven on. Composers want a juicy, juicy, big boy melodic voice. They will go for the channels, channels where we're
lacked a lot by romantics also as
melodic instruments. They went and they also have
a greater range of sound. So they can, they can
seen in the belly, in the, in the, in the low register creating
a melody which sounds why the end mighty also
can play like here, like you will listen here
in the high register. Their voice resembles pretty
closely to the violas. Voice. Very intense. Very, they hold the
line very well, keeping up the sound tension. They are not as
high as the violas, but they are more powerful
in terms of sound volume. Let us listen to the shallows. You have seen what a
wonderful shade device the cello has is a very, very loved instruments and there are many reasons
because of that. Now, we had two variations which were very melodic,
couldn't very lyrical. We go, we have a new
burst of vitality. The double basses, they
are the biggest size and too low with the sounding
of the string family. Normally, I have to say they do not catch attention at all. They are very seldom used for melodic purposes because
they are really not, not suited for that. They are too low. They
do, again, bases work. They provide the huge shoulders. The orchestra plays on steel. Sometimes they stand up and
have dedicated moments. Many times they are used
for comic purposes, funding purposes, because
they are not at all agile. And this creates when
they play pretty fast, you will see now they, they, they, they
sound pretty funny. They sound a lot like a
fat man who tries to run, maybe manages in a way. But it is not very
funny spectrum. It is. Because if a man is not
supposed to run very well, and this is how britain shows
them because on their own, this is pretty much
almost the only way to show the double bass voice. Let's go and listen
to the variation. Now, we are out of
the string family. I would like now to play another variation
of an instrument, which is really
not in any family. It is the harp. The Harper is an
instrument which is not normally seen
in the orchestra. It entered the
symphonic orchestra. It means the orchestra, which is meant for, is purely instrumental music. Only very late, late,
late romanticism. So for the major part of the history of
music was not there. But it is used a
lot in the opera, in the opera orchestra already
from early Romanticism. Is there the Italian
opera and French, also Italians and
French in particular, I would say that
French composers love the heart because it has
a really magical summit, produces debris
in the atmosphere is very poetic atmosphere. It is the instrument which we see in a lot of
love scenes when, when we go a little
bit out of every day, atmosphere, let us listen. Britain creates a
wonderful environment, musical environment for
the variation of the art. I would say that Britain here poorest little bit
also the periodicity. The periodicity button
pushes the peritectic button because this is a
really overcharged use of their Harper in the
typical operatic way. You're creating the
dreamy atmosphere in exaggerated,
even a little bit. Now, this was the string
family plus the Harper. We go now into the brass family, the next lecture and see the
canons of the orchestra.
11. Brasses: We take now a look at
brass instruments. They are a family which was not really used that much up to
a certain point in time. The first which starts to use them consistently is Beethoven. But still, we have to wait
late romanticism until at least the middle part of Romanticism until they really
started being used a lot. They are important instruments
and also they are, they have distinct
personalities. The first one and
the most important of them all is the horn. The horn, which is an
abbreviation for French horn, which is the full official name, is the chain in-between the
woodwinds and the brass is. They play usually more
with the woodwinds, then with the other brushes. They have a very
particularly soft kind of sound. They can be very loud. Of course they are brushes, but they conquered the heart
of Romantic composers. We will talk a lot about
the horns in Romanticism, we will find a lot the horns, especially in certain
Romantic composers, especially in the German
one's enduring romanticism. The horn takes the role
of the voice of nature. Because first it is the
instrument of the hand. Second, because it is, most, most importantly, it is, it has a kind of sound which seems to arrive
from far away, gives this sense of
pace of wide spaces. This is why it was
associated with forest, with untouched natures. Nature. Let us listen and see what an atmosphere
the horn creates. You've seen what, what sounds the horn hazards is very
charming as an instrument. The horn was for sure among
the brass instruments, the one which entered the
orchestra, the areas. It is already used consistently. From the very beginning
of classicism. It was the instrument, powerful instruments
of the orchestra for a pretty long time. Until the Trump had entered
the scene consistently. The trumpet has a completely
different role and meaning in comparison
with the horn. The trumpet is the
military instrument. It is that, that instrument
which whenever it sounds, it brings us to the battlefield, the action, the, the fight. Let us listen to the
trumpet variations. Of course, Britain
will push this, this characteristic
of the trumpet. Mo, a lot. Putting with it
the military drum. Now, we move already forward. We have a close relative
of the trumpet, which is the trombone. Trombone. Even though the, the name resembles
to the trumpet one is still very
different from it. They are also very close
in the way they are built, but still the meaning of them
is completely different. If the trumpet is military, the trombone has a
religious meaning. This might sound surprising. The sound of the trombone
is closer to the horn. Then to the trunk but itself. It is not so squeaky, not so high and powerful. It is wider and lower. It is bound to the
religious wars that to the sacred music world
because it was used a lot. Also variation times
to support the course, the religion, the course in the great cathedrals like sand, sand mark in Venice, e.g. but many others. It was a very powerful
voice and therefore, it remains associated with that, with that kind of music of expressive with the
***** and width, sorry, with the trombones. Another instrument now
plays. In Ethernet. We find the not so much again, only in very, very big
orchestras in late romanticism. We have the bar. The toolbar is the biggest
of the brass instruments, and it plays the
lowest. It uses. The correlative of the
double-bass in the strings, but not used so much. It is very, it is that kind of insulin which makes
the worst shake. It plays super low, but it is incredibly powerful. It was loved by some composers like
Wagner or Ricard Strauss. Britain for, for, for
the sake of brevity, puts it with the trombones
and also because the blue bar basically
never plays alone. Now, let us listen
to this variation. You will see that the
atmosphere of the Chan was, the term must create is solon, is really church life. Now, we are already at the
end of the brass section. Let us talk before we
move on about numbers. We have seen that in
the woodwinds we have normally true each
for the brass, it's not that simple. Yes, true is still
a recurring number. The trumpets are usually true, again, except when the orchestra
is really, really large. When the orchestra starts
to be 8,000 of instruments, the numbers fluctuate in depends on the composer
will of balance. Normally we have two
trumpets, three trombones. The timbers are always three. Neighbor to neighbor for. The horns are when the
orchestra is normal. Middle size. Normally they are true. But already, we've already from the period of Beethoven
and early Romanticism, composers, which one to have a particularly dark sound will increase the number
of horse to four. This is something which
happens pretty early, is one of the first
enlargement of the orchestra. One of the earliest in
the Romantic Century.
12. Percussions: Now going on, we move
to the percussions. There is a pretty large
section in this piece we will listen through without
stopping on the percussions. Why we, I don't
really care about it. Why? Because the important
percussion instrument is basically only one for
the orchestra sake, or at least the one which plays, the first one which
plays it is the tympani. The tympani is the
percussion instruments of the orchestra from, from very, very old times. It is used alongside the
orchestra and until the very, again, in late, until late romanticism and
especially the modern era. It is the only one.
In the modern times in the 20th century, composers start to add a lot of other percussion instrument to create particular effects. Also in the opera. Other percussions might be there to add some stage effects. Something which
happens on stage in the plot be
represented by music. But they are not important. We mentioned rename
only the tympani. The tympani is very important. The tympani is also
the only instrument. Among the percussions who
can play several nodes. They need several pieces, but each of them plays one node. So the, usually,
the least number we can have is normally
true for one player, but we can have more. The composer can, can
decide to ask or more. Let us listen to the
percussion variations. And then we already are at
the final ground ending, which will be really terrific. And we show the instruments from the first to the
last super quickly again. Now, you might wonder, why does Britain spend so
much time on percussion? So many different ones,
so many variations. First, the team party, well, of course it's
the most important, but then so many others
which we almost never see. The answer is
simple because this is a piece address to children. And children love
percussion instruments. That just it, even
though they don't have such an important
role into the orchestra. Now, we move on
to the last part, which it's overwhelming power, which will allow us to
listen to them all. Once again, in the matter
of a couple of minutes.
13. Epilogue: The variations are now over. And we had to the final
section of this composition, what is going to happen? We have a cougar. If you remember, the
full title of, of this, of this composition, is variations and fog on
ethene by Henry Purcell. What is a fork? A fork
is a type of form. We haven't talked about
form in this course. Why? Even though form is one of the most important topics
in classical music, as it is in every
art, I would say. I don't, I don't feel that
it belongs to the basics. This is why I did not
include it in this, in this course you
are watching now, we will talk about it a lot
in the future, no worries. So casual explained,
what is a frog? What, what is going to happen? The folk starts
basically always with just one instrument
which plays the magnet. In this case, the melody
of the frog will be derived from the main
theme of the piece, the one bipolar cell we have listened to
in the beginning. Afterwards. Another instrument comes in. And then subsequently all the
instruments we have seen in the same order come in and
play the same short melody, one after the other. While the instruments
which were already playing still go on
playing secondary lines. This leads to a
stacking of sound. Many, many insulin come in
and play, creating a climax. And the main melody,
the main theme, is passed from one
instrument to another, creating these chasing effect, which is typical of the fork. This will give to Britain
the chance to show, again all the instruments
in a very fast way, because this fog is, is
terrifically exciting, but it's also very short, just 2 min and we are over the interests
of the instruments. Our goal fast-paced. I will name all the instruments we have seen as they enter. So I also help you to follow the pace of the foot because the food
is very complex. And in the same way we
have, we have discussed, when mentioning and listening to the short snippet from Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach
in the barrack chapter. We're not supposed to track
and follow everything. There is to much going on. We just follow the entrances. So let's go listen from here. When we stop the to
the end of the piece. The first instrument which
plays is the pick column. Clients are older. We're going to the streets. Double basses, very low, almost impossible to hear. Heart. Now we are heading towards
the brass section. The climate thrombus,
or the professors to get on top of all the grass blades or
regional states, the solid. Why is it and why? That was a very exciting ending. This food is really
masterfully written. You have seen so much goes on, but still it remains
slightly, it remains, it remains entertaining and you can follow it
still pretty easily, even though it is
deadly complex. Now, we are at the end of
our orchestral courses. Again, we want to
find every time in the orchestra all of these instruments still
Britain of course, decides to use a large orchestra in order to be able
to show them all. Almost all, I would say we will find some weirder
ones sometimes. Now we are at the
end of this course. I hope that everything is clear. If you, if it is not, you can always contact me, ask me questions,
give me feedback. It is every time you
are welcome to do so, it is always appreciated. Also, I know that I
have said this already many times today and I'm
sorry to repeat it again. You are probably
tired to hear this. But I know this course we're meteoric,
pretty informative. I talked so much. There was not that much music
and that's something I, I'm not very happy. But it was important to
give this information. We will use it in the future, promised to more music
icons is our goal, is always the music. What yes, we spent
time talking about, it is aimed towards more music. So stay tuned. Thank you for
watching and see you soon for more great music.
Giacomo Mura, Classical music appreciation teacher
