Sining Liu

Research Assignment 4
September 30th 2021

1.
Oxford Dictionary of Opera
Tableau- In International usage, a stage “picture” in which the action is frozen for a picturesque
display.

Bibliography:
Warrack, Jack and Ewan West. “Tableau.” The Oxford Dictionary of Opera. Oxford: Oxford
Univ. Press, 1992. 695.

The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia:

Tableau- In French opera, the equivalent of “scene.” In general usage, a temporarily “frozen” stage
picture, as at the climax of an ensemble or finale.

Bibliography:
Hamilton, David, ed. The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia. S.v. “Tableau.” New York: The
Metropolitan Opera Guild, 1987. 355.

2.
Yes, Liszt wrote both programmatic symphonies and chamber music.
Mendelssohn also wrote programmatic music for both genres.
Liszt - Le carnaval de Pesth, S.379
Mendelssohn – The Evening Bell, piece for harp and piano MWV Q20

Bibliography
Eckhardt, Maria, Rena Charnin Mueller, and Alan Walker. “Liszt, Franz.” Grove
Music Online, 2001. Accessed 6 Oct. 2021. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.

3.
Yes. For examples, Franz Liszt performed Beethoven’s Adelaide, gesungen von
Herrn Benedict Gross, auf dem Claviere begleitet von Liszt on April 18 th, 1838, 12:30
noon in Wien. On October 1839, Liszt also performed Beethoven’s Scherzo in Vienna.
On March 23, 1840, Liszt performed Beethoven’s Variations, Op. 34 in Budapest.
Busoni performed Beethoven’s Eroica Variations, Op. 35 on December 1 st, 1897
in London. He also performed Beethoven’s Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 106 on
December 1st, 1894 in Berlin.
 Bibliography
Kehler, George. The Piano in Concert. S.v. “Liszt, Franz.” 2 vols. Metuchen, NJ:
The Scarecrow Press, 1982. I: 758-63.

4.
Etude/Study (New Grove):
 Study = Exercise at one time
 Distinction illustrated by Schumann’s Studien Op. 3 (1832), which preceded
by short Ubungen based on technical difficulties found in the studies
themselves.
 Early Keyboard Music: didactic, not mentioning “study.”
 1593 – Diruta’s Il transilvano
 1716 – Francois Couperin’s L’art de toucher le clavecin
 1753 – CPE Bach’s Versuch uber die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen
 1789 – Handstucke in Turk’s Clavierschule
 Other (partly pedagogic)
 1626: Frescobaldi’s Il primo libro di capricci, canzon francese, e
recercari with preface fo ‘fli studiosi dell’opera’ (students of the
work)
 1720: JS Bach’s Clavier-Buchlein vor Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
 11 preludes of WTC
 Early versions of inventions and sinfonias
 19 century – popularity in piano produces volumes of technique >
th

musicality
 J.B. Cramer: 1804-10
 Clementi: Gradus ad Parnassum (1817-26)
 Later Gradus: more musical
 Moscheles:
 Studien, Op. 70 (1825-6)
 Charakteristische Studien Op. 95 (1836-7): concert study
 Czerny
 Concert Study – technique = music
 Chopin:
 12 Grand Etudes, Op. 10 (1833) – dedicated to Liszt
 12 Etudes, Op. 25 (1837)
 Single technical problem ca. Czerny, Charles Mayer, Henri Bertini
 Harmony sophistication & novelty
 Simple structure: ternary
 Liszt (larger scale)
 12 Transcendental Studies
 1825-6: Etude en douze exercises
 1837: Grandes etudes, character pieces
 3 in sonata form (Cm, Fm, DbM)
 1852: Etudes d’execution transcendante
  Lighten up texture because piano weight increases
 Tighten up structure
 Programmatic with titles
 Fuex follets
 Harmonies du soir
 Alkan (even larger scale)
 C1838: 1st 2 – RH/LH alone (earliest eg.)
 1848: Douze etudes dans les tons majeurs, Op. 35
 L’incendie du village voisin - programmatic
 1857: Douze etudes dans les tons mineurs, Op. 39
 Inspired by Bach’s Clacier-Ubung
 Overture, variations, symphony in 4 movts, concerto in 3 movts
 Schumann
 1834-7: Symphonische Etuden Op. 13
 Paganini studies
 Schumann: Op. 3 & 10, neglected
 Liszt: 1839, rev. 1851
 Brahms: Variations on a theme by Paganini Op. 35 (1862-3)
 Skryabin, Rachmaninoff (Etudes-tableaux, Op. 33 & 39), Debussy,
Bartok, Messiaen
 Other Instruments: (more technical)
 Violin: Fiorillo, Rodolphe, Kreutzer, Rode, Baillot, Beriot
 Paganini: 24 Caprices Op. 1 (1820)
 No. 24 in Am
 Brahms: Variations, Op. 35 (1862-3)
 Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43
(1934)
 Lutoslawski: Variations on a Theme of Paganini (1941)
 Boris Blacher: for orch. (1947)
 Cello: Dotzauer, Grutzmacher
 Etude (French) in 20th century
 1928-9: Stravinsky – Quartre etudes pour orchestra
 1938: Rawsthorne – Symphonic Studies
 1956: Henze – Sinfonische Etuden
 1956: Franck Martin – Etudes pour orchestra a cordes
 1985-95: Ligeti – 3 books of Etudes for piano

Bibliography
Ferguson, Howard, and Kenneth L. Hamilton. “Study.” The New Grove Dictionary
of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed. 29 vols. London: Macmillan, 2001. XXIV:
188-271.

5.
 “‘Combinatoriality’ is property of a set that all the elements of it are to be found
in a combination of analogous segments from different set forms.” Example could be
found in the opening theme of Schoenberg’s orchestral Variations – the combination
of S1 (prime form) and S2 (retrograde inversion) could form a secondary set. Besides
this sort of combinatoriality set exploited by Schoenberg, the property could also be
displayed in other forms such as tetrachords of 3 set forms. This combinatorial set is
explored a lot by Babbitt.

Bibliography
Griffiths, Paul. The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of 20th-Century Music. S.v.
“Combinatoriality.” New York: Thames and Hudson, 1986. 52.

6.
Mozart did not title his last symphony “Jupiter.” “There is no certainty that who
first nicknamed this symphony, but it has been suspected that J. B. Cramer was
responsible for it. Apart from the nickname, this symphony has nothing “Olympian”
in the G major theme in the first movement, which Eric Blom says he borrowed from
a comic aria he composed earlier.”

Bibliography
Berkowitz, Freda Pastor. Popular Titles and Subtitles of Musical Compositions. S.v.
“‘Jupiter’ Mozart. Symphony in C major (K. 551).” 2 nd ed. Metuchen, NJ: The
Scarecrow Press, 1975. 82-83.

7.
“During the 1760s these keyboard works were apparently composed for the
harpsichord. The first clear (albeit indirect) evidence of composition for the fortepiano
(or possibly clavichord) is found in the highly expressive Sonata No.20 (1771), with
mannered dynamic marks. Nevertheless, most works from the 1770s may have been
conceived for the harpsichord or neutrally for both instruments. Beginning in the early
1780s, and decisively from the late 1780s on, Haydn composed for the fortepiano.”
According to the work list at the end of New Grove, the first sonatas Haydn
composed for pianoforte are 3 sonatas, No. 40-42.

Bibliography
Webster, James, and Georg Feder. “Haydn, Michael.” The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians. 2nd ed. 29 vols. London: Macmillan, 2001. XI: 188-271.

8.
“Baryton is a bass string instrument that is simultaneously bowed from above and
plucked from behind… From the beginning, the instrument was played as a vio-cum-
theorbo. While the bowed strings carried the tune, the plucked strings accompanied…
The most common baryton trio texture – baryton, viola and cello… By combining
three instruments with common ranges yet differing timbres, Haydn and his
contemporaries had at their disposal a variety of textures guaranteed to obscure any
lapses in Nikolaus’s playing…”

Bibliography
Sadie, Julie Ann. “Baryton.” The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. 3
vols. London: Macmillan Press, 1984. I: 163-66.

9.
The article on William Grant Still in the New Grove Dictionary is much shorter
compared with the article in the International Dictionary of Black Composers. Both
articles begin with the biography of William Grant Still, but the International
Dictionary is in much more detailed. The introduces and analyses in details Still’s
important works.

Bibliography
Murchison, Gayle M. “William Grant Still.” International Dictionary of Black
Composers. 2 vols. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1999. II: 1065-72.

10.
The article in the Grove Dictionary of Instruments on the “celesta” is basically
the same with the article on the “celesta” in the general New Grove, except the
general New Grove has one more sentence with the information that Chausson was
one of the first composers to compose for celeste (La tempete, 1888). The Oxford
Companion to Musical Instruments contain basically the same information about the
origin of the instruments, the composers, and the inventor. The Oxford Companion
has information of Struss’s usage of the instrument in Der Rosenkavalier, and the
information about the instruments using tuning forks prior to celesta.

Bibliography
Baines, Anthony. The Oxford Companion to Musical Instruments. S.v. “Celesta.”
New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. 51.