1850-1899 Symphony

Question 1

Name 6 symphonies ca.1850-1899.

Answer 1

1. Johannes Brahms: Symphony No.1 in c, Op.68 (1876)
2. Johannes Brahms: Symphony No.4 in e, Op.98 (1885)
3. Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No.9 in e “From the New World”, Op.95 (1893)
4. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6 in b “Pathetique”, Op.74 (1894)
5. Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.2 “Resurrection” (1888-94)
6. Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.4 (1899-1901)

Question 2

Piece: symphony by Brahms, 1.

Answer 2

Johannes Brahms: Symphony No.1 in c, Op.68 (1876)

• Brahms himself declared that the symphony, from sketches to finishing touches, took 21 years, from 1855 to 1876. Much of his work underwent radical changes. Brahms’ self-critical fastidiousness led him to destroy many of his early works. Second, there was an expectation from Brahms’ friends and the public that he would continue “Beethoven’s inheritance” and produce a symphony of commensurate dignity and intellectual scope—an expectation that Brahms felt he could not fulfill easily in view of the monumental reputation of Beethoven.
• There is a strong resemblance between the main theme of the finale of Brahms’ First Symphony and the main theme of the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Also, Brahms uses the rhythm of the “fate” motto from the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. This rather annoyed Brahms; he felt that this amounted to accusations of plagiarism, whereas he saw his use of Beethoven’s idiom in this symphony as an act of conscious homage. Brahms himself said, when comment was made on the similarity with Beethoven, “any ass can see that.”
• The symphony begins with a broad introduction wherein three key elements are heard simultaneously: the low drumming, the rising figure in the strings, and the falling figure in the winds.
• The slow second movement features a long violin solo reminiscent of some of Beethoven’s later works: the late quartets and Missa Solemnis.
• The third, scherzo-like movement, has an easy spirit yet is full of complex rhythms and interwoven textures, and is in a traditional ternary form (ABA). A notable aspect of this movement is Brahms’s careful attention to symmetry.
• The fourth movement contains melodies reminiscent of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The last section—Allegro non troppo, ma con brio—contains a grand melody in a major key, as the novel, Beethoven-like main subject of the grand finale.

Question 3

Piece: symphony by Brahms, 4.

Answer 3

Johannes Brahms: Symphony No.4 in e, Op.98 (1885)

• The symphony is rich in allusions, most notably to various Beethoven compositions.
• The first movement is in a conventional first movement sonata form.
• The second movement features a theme in the phrygian mode.
• The third movement is the only true scherzo found in Brahms’ symphonies. It is also in sonata form with the secondary theme nearly absent in the development and coda.
• This last movement is notable as a rare example of a symphonic passacaglia, which is similar to a chaconne with the slight difference that the subject can appear in more voices than the bass. For the repeating theme, Brahms adapted the chaconne theme in the closing movement of Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantata, Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150.

Question 4

Piece: symphony by Dvořák.

Answer 4

Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No.9 in e “From the New World”, Op.95 (1893)

• Dvořák was interested in Native American music and the African-American spirituals he heard in America. Dvořák had absorbed their `spirit’ before writing his own melodies. Dvořák stated: “I am convinced that the future music of this country must be founded on what are called Negro melodies.’
• (Dvořák) I have not actually used any of the [Native American] melodies. I have simply written original themes embodying the peculiarities of the Indian music, and, using these themes as subjects, have developed them with all the resources of modern rhythms, counterpoint, and orchestral colour.”
• Non-pentatonic elements, namely half-tone changes in pitch, are easily seen, although there are notable pentatonic themes in the symphony. Dvořák’s American String Quartet is much more pentatonic, at least in the early measures of each movement.
• Commissioned and premiered by the New York Philharmonic. At the premiere in Carnegie Hall, the end of every movement was met with thunderous clapping and Dvořák felt obliged to stand up and bow. This was one of the greatest public triumphs of Dvořák’s career.

Question 5

Piece: symphony by Tchaikovsky.

Answer 5

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6 in b “Pathetique”, Op.74 (1894)

• The composer led the first performance only nine days before his death, and was the last of Tchaikovsky’s compositions premiered in his lifetime.
• Suicide theories were much stimulated by the Sixth Symphony, which was first performed under the composer’s baton only nine days before his demise, with its lugubrious finale (ending morendo, ‘dying away’), its brief but conspicuous allusion to the Orthodox requiem liturgy in the first movement and above all its easily misread subtitle
• The Russian title means “passionate” or “emotional”, not “arousing pity”, but it is a word reflective of a touch of concurrent suffering.
• Tchaikovsky dedicated the Pathétique to his nephew, Vladimir “Bob” Davydov, with whom he was in love.
• Rimsky-Korsakov asked Tchaikovsky whether there was a program to the new symphony, and Tchaikovsky asserted that there was, but would not divulge it.

Question 6

Piece: symphony by Mahler, 2.

Answer 6

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.2 “Resurrection” (1888-94)

• Mahler’s most popular and successful work during his lifetime.- around eighty to ninety minutes
• Mahler completed what would become the first movement of the symphony in 1888 as a single-movement symphonic poem called Totenfeier (Funeral Rites).
• While thoroughly aware he was inviting comparison with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 – both symphonies use a chorus as the centerpiece of a final movement which begins with references to and is much longer than those preceding it – Mahler knew he wanted a vocal final movement.- text from Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock’s Die Auferstehung (The Resurrection). Mahler used the first two verses of Klopstock’s hymn, then added verses of his own that dealt more explicitly with redemption and resurrection.
• Mahler initially devised a narrative programme (actually several variant versions) for the work, which he shared with a number of friends. In this programme, the first movement represents a funeral and asks questions such as “Is there life after death?”; the second movement is a remembrance of happy times in the life of the deceased; the third movement represents a view of life as meaningless activity; the fourth movement is a wish for release from life without meaning; and the fifth movement – after a return of the doubts of the third movement and the questions of the first – ends with a fervent hope for everlasting, transcendent renewal, a theme that Mahler would ultimately transfigure into the music of his Das Lied von der Erde. As generally happened, Mahler later withdrew all versions of the programme from circulation.
• The first movement resembles a funeral march and is in a modified sonata form.
• The second movement is a delicate Ländler in A-flat major with two contrasting sections of slightly darker music.
• The third movement is a scherzo in C minor based on Mahler’s setting of “Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt” from “Des Knaben Wunderhorn”, which Mahler composed almost concurrently; in correspondence, Mahler expressed amusement that his sinuous musical setting could imply St. Anthony of Padua was himself drunk as he preached to the fish.
• The fourth movement is a Wunderhorn song, sung by an alto, which serves as an introduction to the Finale.
• The finale is the longest, typically lasting over half an hour. It is divided into two large parts, the second of which begins with the entry of the chorus and whose form is governed by the text of this movement.

Question 7

Piece: symphony by Mahler, 4.

Answer 7

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.4 (1899-1901)

• A typical performance of the Fourth lasts about an hour, making it one of Mahler’s “shorter” symphonies. The performing forces are also small by Mahler’s usual standard.
• The first movement is in sonata form and features sleigh bells.
• The second movement is a scherzo that features a part for a solo violin whose strings are tuned a tone higher than usual. The violin depicts Freund Hein, a figure from medieval German art. Freund Hein is a skeleton who plays the fiddle and leads a Totentanz or “danse macabre”. The unusual tuning of the violin adds tension to its sound and contributes to the music’s ghostly character.
• The third movement is a solemn processional march cast as a set of variations.
• The fourth movement opens with a relaxed, bucolic scene in G major. A child, voiced by a soprano, presents a sunny, naive vision of Heaven and describes the feast being prepared for all the saints. The scene has its darker elements: the child makes it clear that the heavenly feast takes place at the expense of animals, including a sacrificed lamb. The child’s narrative is punctuated by faster passages recapitulating the first movement. Unlike the final movement of traditional symphonies, the fourth movement of Mahler’s No. 4 is essentially a song, containing verses, with interludes, a prelude and a postlude (a strophic structure).