REPERTOIRE MASTER 2

Manuel De falla – Homenaje a Debussy (au tombeau de debussy)

BIO

Manuel de Falla y Matheu (Spanish pronunciation: [maˈnwel ðe ˈfaʎa], 23 November 1876 – 14

November 1946) was a Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega,
and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th
century. He has a claim to being Spain's greatest composer of the 20th century, although the number
of pieces he composed was relatively modest.

Falla was born Manuel María de los Dolores Falla y Matheu in Cádiz. He was the son of José María
Falla, a Valencian, and María Jesús Matheu, from Catalonia (Hess 2001a).

In 1889 he continued his piano lessons with Alejandro Odero and learned the techniques of harmony
and counterpoint from Enrique Broca. At age 15 he became interested in literature and journalism
and founded the literary magazines El Burlón and El Cascabel.[citation needed]

Madrid

Housing building where Falla lived in Madrid from 1901 to 1907

By 1900 he was living with his family in the capital, where he attended the Real Conservatorio de
Música y Declamación. He studied piano with José Tragó, a colleague of Isaac Albéniz, and
composition with Felipe Pedrell. In 1897 he composed Melodía for cello and piano and dedicated it
to Salvador Viniegra, who hosted evenings of chamber music that Falla attended. In 1899, by
unanimous vote, he was awarded the first prize at the piano competition at his school of music. He
premiered his first works: Romanza para violonchelo y piano, Nocturno para piano, Melodía para
violonchelo y piano, Serenata andaluza para violín y piano, and Cuarteto en Sol y Mireya. That same
year he started to use de with his first surname, making Manuel de Falla the name he became known
as from that time on. When only the surname is used, however, the de is omitted.

In 1900 he composed his Canción para piano and various other vocal and piano pieces. He premiered
his Serenata andaluza y Vals-Capricho para piano in the Ateneo de Madrid. Due to the precarious
financial position of his family, he began to teach piano classes.

It was from Pedrell, during the Madrid period, that Falla became interested in the music of his native
Andalusia, particularly Andalusian flamenco (specifically cante jondo), the influence of which can be
strongly felt in many of his works (Mercurio 2014,[page needed]). Among his early pieces are a
number of zarzuelas like La Juana y la Petra and La casa de tócame Roque. On 12 April 1902 he
premiered Los amores de la Inés in the Teatro Cómico de Madrid. The same year he met the
composer Joaquín Turina and saw his Vals-Capricho y Serenata andaluza published by the Society of
Authors.
The following year he composed and performed Allegro de concierto for the Madrid Royal
Conservatory competition. Enrique Granados took first prize with his composition of the same title,
but the Society of Authors published Falla's works Tus ojillos negros and Nocturno. Falla then began
his collaboration with composer Amadeo Vives on the zarzuelas Prisionero de guerra, El cornetín de
órdenes and La cruz de Malta (only fragments of these works survive).

His first important work was the one-act opera La vida breve (Life is Short, or The Brief Life, written in
1905, though revised before its premiere in 1913). With a libretto by Carlos Fernández Shaw, La vida
breve won Falla first prize in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando musical
competition, with a prize of 2500 pesetas and a promise of a production at the Teatro Royal in
Madrid—a pledge which unfortunately was not fulfilled (Harper 1998, 17). In April 1905 he won the
first prize in a piano competition sponsored by the firm of Ortiz and Cussó. On 15 May his work
Allegro de concierto premiered at the Ateneo de Madrid and on 13 November the Real Academia
presented him with his prize for La vida breve.

Paris

Falla moved to Paris in 1907, where he remained for seven years. There he met a number of
composers who had an influence on his style, including Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy and Paul
Dukas, as well as Igor Stravinsky, Florent Schmitt, Isaac Albéniz and the impresario Sergei Diaghilev
(Hess 2001a). In 1908 King Alfonso XIII awarded him a royal grant that enabled him to remain in Paris
while he finished his Cuatro piezas españolas. In 1910 Falla met Stravinsky and in 1911–12 traveled
to London, Brussels and Milan to give concerts and investigate possible venues for La vida breve,
which he had composed shortly after his arrival in Paris in 1907 but which, despite the support of
Dukas and Falla's own best efforts, was not finally performed until 1 April 1913 at the Municipal
Casino in Nice, with the libretto translated into French by the dramatist Paul Milliet. A second
production was given the following year at the Opéra-Comique, to acclaim from critics such as Pierre
Lalo and André Coeuroy (Hess 2001a). He wrote Siete canciones populares españolas, which he
finished in mid-1914. Shortly after, World War I began, forcing Falla to return to Madrid (Hess
2001a). While at no stage was he a prolific composer, it was then that he entered into his mature
creative period.

Manuel de Falla with walking stick (date unknown)

Return to Madrid

In Madrid he composed several of his best-known pieces, including:

The nocturne for piano and orchestra Noches en los jardines de España (1916)

The ballet El amor brujo (1915) which includes the much excerpted and arranged Danza ritual del
fuego
The ballet The Magistrate and the Miller's Wife (El corregidor y la molinera) which, after revision,
became El sombrero de tres picos (1917) and was produced by Serge Diaghilev with set design and
costumes by Pablo Picasso. It derives from The Three-Cornered Hat (1874), a novel written by Pedro
Antonio de Alarcón (Bedmar Estrada n.d.).

Granada period

From 1921 to 1939 Manuel de Falla lived in Granada, where he organized the Concurso de Cante
Jondo in 1922. In Granada he wrote the puppet opera El retablo de maese Pedro (Master Peter's
Puppet Show, 1923) and a concerto for harpsichord and chamber ensemble (Harpsichord Concerto,
1926). The puppet opera marked the first time Falla included the harpsichord in his orchestra. Both
of these works were written with Wanda Landowska in mind. In these works, the Spanish folk
influence is somewhat less apparent than a kind of Stravinskian neoclassicism (Hess 2001a; Hess
2001b, 234, 239; Hess 2004, 139, 146, 151).

Also in Granada, Falla began work on the large-scale orchestral cantata Atlántida (Atlantis), based on
the Catalan text L'Atlàntida by Jacint Verdaguer.

Statue of Manuel de Falla on the Avenida de la Constitución in Granada, Spain.

Argentina

Falla continued work on Atlántida after moving to Argentina in 1939, following Francisco Franco's
victory in the Spanish Civil War. (The orchestration of the piece remained incomplete at his death
and was completed posthumously by Ernesto Halffter.) He also premiered his Suite Homenajes in
Buenos Aires in November 1939. In 1940, he was named a Knight of the Order of King Alfonso X of
Castile. Franco's government offered him a large pension if he would return to Spain, but he refused.

Falla did spend some time teaching in exile. Among his notable pupils was composer Rosa García
Ascot. His health began to decline and he moved to a house in the mountains where he was tended
by his sister María del Carmen de Falla (1882–1971). He died of cardiac arrest on 14 November 1946
in Alta Gracia, in the Argentine province of Córdoba. He had left in writing that he wanted to be
buried in the Sierras de Córdoba in Argentina. The Spanish Embassy of Francisco Franco decided to
bring him back to Spain.[citation needed] In 1947 his remains were brought back to Spain and
entombed in the cathedral at Cádiz. One of the lasting honors to his memory is the Manuel de Falla
Chair of Music in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at Complutense University of Madrid. Manuel
de Falla never married and had no children.[citation needed]

In November of 1919, a correspondent for The Times of London wrote of his meeting with the great
Spanish composer Manuel de Falla in Granada:

Granada itself is explained by its music and guitars, not in the music of fatuous gypsy entertainments
got up for strangers, but that which is performed in private houses and gardens. One evening Señor
Falla took me to a house just outside the Alhambra. In the patio, the fountain had been muffled, but
not altogether silenced, by a towel; there was a light murmur of water running into a cistern. Don
Angel Barrios (who is part composer of a delightful “Goyesque” opera, El Avapiés) sat there, collarless
and comfortable, with a guitar across his knees. He had tuned it in flats so that in some odd way it
harmonized with the running water, and his father now and again sang one of those queer, wavering
melodies of Canto flamenco, with their strange rhythms and flourishes so characteristic of Andalucia,
while Señor Barrios accompanied him with amazing resource and variety. . . . Señor Falla, of course,
has long realized what sort of music and what instruments are most suited to the gardens of
Spain . . .

That correspondent was the British author J.B. Trend (1887–1958), who would later write Manuel de
Falla and Spanish Music, an important book which offered rare glimpses into the life of the composer
and his deep understanding of and love for the guitar. Trend, an expert on Spanish history and
culture, corresponded frequently with Falla, and, over the years, was able to spend time with him.
According to Trend, “Falla always treated the guitar seriously; and when the editor of the Revue
musicale invited him to send something ‘pour le tombeau of Claude Debussy,’ he wrote his
Homenaje for the guitar, and it was first tried over in his room at one of the meetings I have
described. . . . It is an extraordinary work, full of that passionate seriousness which is characteristic of
Falla’s music and of all things which are really and truly Spanish.”

For guitarists, Manuel de Falla (1876–1946) remains an enigma. Although he was surrounded by the
sound of the guitar and was friends with many guitarists, both classical and flamenco, he only
composed that one short, yet exquisite Homenaje (Pour le tombeau de Claude Debussy) for the
instrument. However, there is no doubt that the guitar played an important role in Falla’s
development as a composer. And it was not just the flamenco and popular Spanish guitar that
asserted an influence on his music—it was also the music of the 16th century vihuelistas and the
Baroque guitarristas that left a deep impression on the composer, due in large part to his early
studies with Felipe Pedrell.

Works

For listings of Falla's compositions, see List of compositions by Manuel de Falla and List of works for
the stage by Manuel de Falla.

Honours

1935: Associate of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium (Anon. n.d.; Anon.
& [2006], 73).

1940: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Alfonso X the Wise.

Member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando

Member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Nuestra Señora de las Angustias.

Composer Manuel de Falla as depicted on a former currency note issued in Spain in 1970

Legacy
HOMENAJE
Homenaje, Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy by Manuel de Falla (1876-1946). Played
by Sanel Redžić on a 1961 Hermann Hauser II via Siccas Guitars and their
great YouTube channel. This is one of the gems of modern works for the guitar filled with a wider
vision of the music of the era and works well on the guitar. Written in 1920 it was later arranged
for piano by the composer (see more info on the piece below).

de Falla is considered by many the “Spanish Debussy”;

Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy by Manuel de Falla (piano version). Subsequently
transcribed by de Falla for piano and containing reminiscences of Debussy’s La sérénade
interrompue,Ibéria and, at the end, of La soirée dans Grenade.

The Homenaje, pour le tombeau de Claude Debussy of Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) stands
unequivocally among the masterpieces of the twentieth century. Written in 1920, it also stands
squarely among Falla’s neo-classical works, evoking the dedicatory tombeau genre as practiced by
Baroque lutenists and guitarists. A concise work of just about three minutes duration, the work was
written for an issue of the Paris Revue dedicated to the memory of the recently deceased Claude
Debussy (1863-1918). In this work Falla combines a habanera dance rhythm with a sighing, plaintive
F-E pitch motif demonstrating the duality of the corporal and the spiritual. Falla quotes Debussy’s
piano piece Soirée dans Grenade near the end, the pitches of which transubstantiate into Debussy’s
final breaths.
Also see this intro by Keith Anderson on this Naxos album
Manuel de Falla can need little introduction, among the first Spanish composers to win international
recognition. He spent time in Paris, where he lived from 1907, after studying in his native Cádiz and in
Madrid, but returned to Spain in 1914. His years in France, however, brought acquaintance with
Dukas, Debussy and Ravel, and a new understanding of how Spanish music might develop, urged by
Isaac Albéniz. Influenced increasingly in Spain by the traditional Andalusian Cante jondo, he settled
in Granada, where his friends included the poet Federico García Lorca. In the Civil War his
sympathies were inevitably divided, but he pledged loyalty to Franco in 1938. In 1939 he moved to
Buenos Aires, where he worked on his ambitious and finally unfinished stage composition Atlántida.
He died in 1946. Falla’s Homenaje, pièce pour guitare écrite pour ‘Le Tombeau de Debussy’, was
written in 1920. Debussy had died in 1918, and La Revue Musicale published in 1920 a tribute, which
included a musical tribute, Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy, with contributions from Bartók, Dukas,
Goossens, Malipiero, Ravel, Rousseau, Satie, Schmitt and Stravinsky. The supplement also included
Falla’s Homenaje, which he had sent to the guitarist Llobet, who performed it in Barcelona. The Paris
première was given by Marie-Louise Casadesus on the harp-lute. The work alludes to Debussy’s La
soirée en Grenade (Evening in Granada) and Ibéria. It is Falla’s only work for guitar and was
subsequently arranged by the composer for the piano and orchestrated.

Masterpiece” is a term I have heard throughout my career when colleagues mention Manuel de
Falla’s Homenaje. Benjamin Britten, after hearing Julian Bream performHomenaje, is reported to
have said, “The piece is only seven minutes long but there is twenty minutes of music in it.” As it
turns out, the work is actually more like three minutes in length, which makes Britten’s comment
even more remarkable.

What makes Manuel de Falla’s Homenaje a masterpiece? There are too many reasons to mention
here in a single essay, but I will try to explain why I love the work so much.
The genesis of Homenaje is to be found in the death of Claude Debussy, when Henri
Prunierers ,editor of the Parisian music journal, Le Revue Musicale, asked numerous composers
among them Stravinsky, Satie, Bartok and Falla to compose musical tributes in honor of the late
composer. No wonder, then, that, as part of his charge to pay tribute to the French composer, Falla
drew inspiration from Debussy’s own music, in particular a piano piece called “La Soirée dans
Grenade,” which is the second part of a three-movement work,Estampes, that Debussy wrote for
solo piano.

At the top of his score for “La Soirée…” Debussy notes, “Mouvement de Habanera”
The habanera is a sung dance created in Cuba (Havana) that became very popular in Europe,
South America and the United States during the 19th century. It is an important influence in
American jazz and the development of the Tango in Argentina.

This rhythm of the Habanera is the rhythm that Falla employed in his homage — composed,
curiously enough, in Granada — to Debussy.

The habanera rhythm is comprised of a dotted eighth note followed by a sixteenth note that skips
into the two following eighth notes. Falla adds two sixteenth notes to the sequence which are
followed by the dotted eighth and sixteenth-note figure as originally found in the opening measure
of the Debussy.

After a seven-measure introduction, Falla introduces the main melody, one of the most
memorable and heartfelt melodies in the classical guitar literature.

What is so arresting about the work is how Falla juxtaposes the sexy rhythm of thehabenera with
this sad melody. Guitarist Rey de la Torre wonderfully articulates the issue in an interview (now
available online here) done in 1976 by Walter Spalding. I urge all who want to perform this work
to read this article.

Eight measures from the end of Homenaje, Falla quotes directly from Debussy. The passage is
there on page one of the Debussy score in the fourth system, pulled directly from measures 3 and
4 of his “La Soirée…”
The pitches Falla chose for the opening figure in the upper voice are F and E. This interval of a
semi tone set in the habanara rhythm produce a musical equivalent of a sigh. It is a haunting and
gripping introduction.

I adore the harmonies of the Homenaje. The use of the guitar’s open 5th and 6thstrings E and A
on the downbeat of the first measure creates an aura of tonal ambiguity that pervades the piece.
For example, on the downbeat of measure 19, a critical moment in the work, the composer sounds
the notes from bottom up C, G, D, creating a C 9 chord. That having been said, I don’t think the
composer was thinking so much in that manner as he was of the idiomatic chord voicings on the
guitar.

For example, the chord in measure 9 is perhaps better thought of as a “stacking” of the intervals of
fifths and a forth. This type of chord voicing is heard again in measures 27. I particularly like the
haunting shift in mood in measure 24 with the change of color on the recording. Here we have an
A major 7th chord but the F# is there as part of the motive and creates an uneasiness. It is the
contrasting color of the chord that is so arresting. Returning to the chord in measure 19, it is the
only point in this piece that a stacked 4th-5th sonority contains only perfect qualities of these
intervals without dissonant tritones seconds, sevenths or ninths.

The most striking dissonant chord happens in measure 34 where we see within the chord a fifth, a
fourth and an augmented fourth on the top. If you include the low e before the chord it could be
labeled an F major 7th #11 but again it does not function that way in the traditional sense. I
believe Falla was thinking more of the guitars sonorities and tying them in with the original notes
of the opening motive. The chord lies beautifully on the instrument and is an iconic chord in the
guitar’s literature.

This climatic moment is followed by a run that takes us off into an entirely new section of the
work both rhythmically and melodically. This section from measures 37 to 42 exploits the open
string pedal tone E on the guitar’s first string that provides a sense of flow reminiscent of some of
Debussy’s piano compositions.

These harmonies offer a musical instability that gives the work a mournful tone while also
propelling the work forward. The main motive and the evocative chords create a modal
atmosphere, which is characteristic of traditional Spanish music.
What is particularly beautiful is the chord after the fermata in measure 67. It is an A major chord
and the final chord, but the chord is set off balance because of the F which continues on through
completing the opening motive. The final two notes reiterate that opening musical sigh —a
breathtaking ending marked with perdendosiover the last two measures. As my dear friend and
colleague Julian Gray wrote about the ending, “Falla truly creates a moment here as when Hamlet
says of death that it is "The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns."

I have recently been conducting seminars based on the Homenaje, and one of the many issues that
come up is the extraordinary amount of musical markings the composer provides throughout the
work. I would venture to say that I know of very few works written before this (this particular
issue of Le Revue Musicale was published in 1920) that offer so much detail on the printed page.
Falla tells you precisely how he wants you to play the piece dynamically and rhythmically.

Falla was clearly a stickler for detail. Right from the opening notes of the piece, he is notating
specific dynamic and articulation markings. On the second beat of the measure 1, he writes
staccato indications under the bass notes and “x’s” above the upper voice notes (at the bottom of
page one it is written in French that the “x”-marked notes should be slightly held). The effect is
wonderful, demanding a specific technique often overlooked by many guitarists. I would guide
the reader to Alicia de Laroccha's recording of Falla's" Fantasia Baetica". It is very instructive in
how to handle this gesture.

These are just a small few of the numerous markings included in the score. I urge students to use a
few different highlighters to color the articulation markings, the dynamic markings, the hairpins
and all of the musical markings such as theritardandi and affretandi.

Nevertheless, I sometimes question Falla’s (or his editor’s) choices. For example, I have always
felt that the metronome marking of a quarter note equaling 60 printed in parentheses was too fast.
I tend to play it more around 50 beats per minute — or, perhaps, a touch faster. If the tempo is too
slow, one loses the feeling of thehabanera. If it is too fast, it does not sound sad and calm as he
suggests in his overall description next to the tempo marking.

To my knowledge there exists three published editions of this work — the one that was originally
published in Le Revue Musicale in 1920; the edition edited by the legendary Catalan guitarist
Miguel Llobet; then there is the 1986 edition by the English composer and teacher John Duarte. In
addition, there is also a manuscript that offers particular insights into Falla’s expression. I urge
students to look at not only all three of the guitar editions but the piano score and Falla’s own
orchestration of the work.

I have chosen to play from the Llobet version. Miguel Llobet was one the great guitarists in the
history of the instrument. He had an uncanny understanding of the instrument. More importantly,
he worked with Falla on the score, making his edition the one I most resonate with.

What you hear in the video is my third recording of the Homenaje. My first recording of the work
was just too slow. During the recording, I had been absolutely hell bent on a very slow and sad
interpretation. After a few listenings, I decided it was horrible and was more a dirge than
a habanera.

I then went back into the studio and recorded it at a faster tempo. This time, I was so concerned
with the tempo and achieving the habanera feeling throughout that I neglected to do the
numerous affretandi with any authenticity.

A month later, I had just taught the piece in a master class on Maui. That same night I checked out
my second take. I was horrified at what I heard — I wanted to weep (I think I did!!).

I immediately emailed the recording to my friends John Dearman and Fred Hand for their opinion.
The following day, they both urged me to find a way to record it again in Honolulu. The video
shoot was only days away. I was freaked! Luckily, Darin Leong came to my rescue and allowed
me to record it at the eleventh hour in his studio in Honolulu. This is the version you hear on the
video.

Homenaje sur Le Tombeau de Debussy (its full title) is a piece that generates much discussion
amongst guitarists and will for generations to come. We can go into great detail talking about
issues such as, how long to hold the “x”-marked notes or what the correct tempo — or, for that
matter, should one be equally “sad” and “calm” or “calm” and “sad” in interpreting the notes on
the page.

Still, even with all of Manuel de Falla’s markings, the piece offers the performer a remarkable
level of flexibility in its interpretation. The choices one makes under such circumstances may
seem sometimes arbitrary, the music is so beautiful that it demands of the player decisions of an
almost spiritual nature.

Alberto Ginastera – Sonate

In zijn eerste werken verwerkt hij de Argentijnse folklore (Panambí, Danzas
Argentinas en Estancia). Maar zijn behandeling van volkse invloeden verandert in de loop der
jaren. In de Variaciones Concertantes heeft hij de volksmuziek verwerkt zonder deze in zijn
compositie te citeren en gebruikt hij moderne technieken. De Variaciones concertantes van 1953
zijn geïnspireerd door Bartóks Concert voor orkest waarin alle instrumenten soleren. De cello
brengt het thema, dat begeleid wordt door de harp met de tonen van de losse snaren van
de gauchogitaar (e-a-d-g-b-e). Over dit werk merkte Ginastera op, dat hij een Argentijnse
atmosfeer wilde scheppen met eigen thematische en ritmische elementen, in plaats van
folkloristisch materiaal. Sommige variaties zijn decoratief, andere vervormen het hoofdthema tot
nieuwe thema's. De Variaciones eindigen met een malambo (dans), een mengsel van 6/8- en
3/4-maat met een enkele keer een 7/8-maat erdoorheen.[1] In de late werken vanaf 1958 hoor je
het neo-expressionisme naar voren komen (de opera Bomarzo, Popul Vuh para orquesta,
tweede celloconcert).
Gaucho is in Argentinië, Paraguay, Uruguay en in het zuidelijk deel van Brazilië (hier: Gaúcho)
de benaming van voornamelijk nakomelingen van Spanjaarden en Indianen, die zich op
de pampa's bezighouden met veehoeden.

For many years, the Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera shied away from writing any music for guitar. As
a non-player, writing for the instrument was difficult and this fact, he said, "checked my creativity, although
the guitar is the national instrument of my homeland." It was only in the 1970s, when the Brazilian
guitarist Carlos Barbosa-Lima asked for a composition, that he finally wrote for the guitar. At that time, he
said, he realized that the "guitar repertoire in fact consisted solely of little pieces, with virtually no large,
uniform works." Therefore he decided to write a sonata in the standard four, albeit concise, movements, each
lasting between two and four minutes. The sonata was quickly recognized as one of the major pieces in the
guitar repertory.

Ginastera added a few musical "special effects" to the usual sounds of the guitar. The opening "Esordio" is
built on two themes: One has the quality of an exhortation, with accompaniment of punctuating chords. The
other theme is more lyrical, with percussion effects. The second-movement Scherzo is perhaps the most
extreme in its use of unusual sound effects: glissandi of both single notes and chords, strumming on the
strings in the area where they are attached to their tuning pegs, and causing the strings to snap against the
fingerboard punctuate a rhythmic movement. At times, the rhythm stops for some serious-sounding out-of-
tempo statements, which are then interrupted by the scherzo. However, the third movement, the "Canto" is
entirely unmeasured, like a flowing, improvised serenade, with frequent changes of tempo and spirit. The final
movement is a vigorous rondo, with rhythms that can be traced back to pre-Columbian cultures of the
Pampas.

As in the Esordio, the entire A section serves as a mystical, imaginary folk prelude to the more lyrical
B section.

he B section of the Esordio is described by the composer as "a song which was inspired by Kecua
music."54 Ginastera's term "Kecua" is evidently his own alternative version of Quechua, one of the
tribes of indigenous peoples of the northwest of Argentina. The music shows clear andino
characteristics typical of certain types of folk music from that region.

Bach – Chaconne
Chaconne, Italian Ciaccona, solo instrumental piece that forms the fifth and final movement of the
Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004, by Johann Sebastian Bach. Written for solo violin, the Chaconne
is one of the longest and most challenging entirely solo pieces ever composed for that instrument.

Bach’s string compositions, including a half dozen partitas

and sonatas for solo violin, were composed in the late 1710s and
early 1720s, while Bach was employed at the court
in Köthen, Germany. It was a period of great freedom and creativity
for the composer.
The Chaconne forms the longest movement of the piece by far,
making up roughly half of the entire partita. It draws upon
the Baroque dance form known as a chaconne, in which a basic
theme stated at the opening is then restated in several variations. In
Bach’s Chaconne, the basic theme is four measures long, short and
simple enough to allow for 64 variations. From a stern and
commanding mood at the beginning, Bach gradually increases the
complexity of his theme, mixing in various compositional effects.
Some twists upon the theme are spacious and grand; others flow
nimbly. Fast runs and large interval skips are frequent, requiring
much dexterity from the performer. Bach also calls forth changes in
emotional intensity, as some variations are dominated by long notes
and others by many, more urgent short notes. Bach builds up his
work over 256 measures, finally restating the theme at the end with
new, even stronger harmonies.
A century and a half after Bach composed the piece, Johannes
Brahms wrote:

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The Chaconne is for me one of the most wonderful, incomprehensible pieces of music. On a
single staff, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts
and the most powerful feelings. If I were to imagine how I might have made, conceived the
piece, I know for certain that the overwhelming excitement and awe would have driven me
mad.
v

Elliott Carter – Shard

Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an
American modernist composer. He is one of the most respected composers of the second half of
the 20th century, having combined elements of European modernism and American "ultra-
modernism" into a distinctive style with a personal harmonic and rhythmic language, after an
early neoclassical phase.[1][2][3][4] His compositions are known and performed throughout the world,
and include orchestral, chamber music, solo instrumental, and vocal works. Carter was twice
awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Born in New York, he had developed an interest in modern music in the 1920s. He was later
introduced to Charles Ives, and later came to appreciate the American ‘ultra-modernists’. After
studying at Harvard University, he studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, then
returned to the United States. Carter was productive in his later years, publishing more than 40
works between the ages of 90 and 100,[5] and over 20 more after he turned 100 in 2008.[6] He
completed his last work, Epigrams for piano trio, on August 13, 2012.[7]

Contents

 1Biography
 2Premieres and notable performances
 3Musical style and language
 4Significant works
o 4.1Orchestral
o 4.2Concertos
o 4.3Voice and ensemble
o 4.4Piano
o 4.5String quartets
o 4.6Chamber
 5Partial discography
 6Notable students
 7References
 8Further reading
o 8.1Interviews
o 8.2Listening
 9External links

Biography[edit]
Elliott Cook Carter Jr. was born in Manhattan on December 11, 1908, the son of a wealthy lace
importer, Elliott Carter Sr., and the former Florence Chambers. Much of his childhood was spent
in Europe; he spoke French before learning English. As a teenager, he developed an interest in
music, although his parents did not give much encouragement to his interests other than
providing for early piano lessons,[1] but he was encouraged by Charles Ives, who sold insurance
to Carter's family. While a student at the Horace Mann School in 1922, he wrote an admiring
letter to Ives, who responded and urged him to pursue his interest in music. Besides that, he
began to be interested in modern music as part of his broader exploration of modernism in
various other art forms.[1]

In 1924, a 15-year-old Carter was in the audience when Pierre Monteux conducted the Boston
Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in the New York première of The Rite of Spring.[8] Carter later came
to appreciate the American ‘ultra-modernists – namely Henry Cowell, Edgard Varèse, Ruth
Crawford and, later, Conlon Nancarrow. Ives often accompanied Carter to BSO concerts
conducted by Serge Koussevitzky, who programmed contemporary works frequently, and then
returned to Ives' home to critique and parody the so-called ‘tricks’
of Debussy, Stravinsky or Prokofiev – who were composing European 'new music' Ives
considered only 'superficially modern'.[1]

Starting in 1926, Carter attended Harvard University,[9] where he majored in English but also
studied music, both at Harvard (whose music course did not satisfy him) and at the nearby Longy
School of Music, and also sang with the Harvard Glee Club. His Harvard professors
included Walter Piston and Gustav Holst. Carter earned a master's degree in music from Harvard
in 1932, but the course did not help make much progress in his compositional skills. Hence,
Carter then moved to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger both privately and at the École
Normale de Musique de Paris. He worked with Boulanger from 1932 to 1935 (though he did not
compose much music with her that he believes is worth preserving)[1] and in the latter year
received a doctorate in music (Mus.D.).

Later in 1935, he returned to the US to write music for the Ballet Caravan. The founder of the
Ballet Caravan Lincoln Kirstein commissioned Carter to compose two
ballets, Pocahontas and The Minotaur, which would be among his longest works he composed
during his Neo-classicist phase, though neither of them was greatly successful.[1]

On July 6, 1939, Carter married Helen Frost-Jones. They had one child, a son, David Chambers
Carter. He lived with his wife in the same apartment in Greenwich Village from the time they
bought it in 1945 to her death in 2003.[5]

From 1940 to 1944, he taught at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. He worked for
the Office of War Information during World War II. After the war, he held teaching posts at
the Peabody Conservatory (1946–1948), Columbia University, Queens College, New
York (1955–56), Yale University (1960–62), Cornell University (from 1967) and the Juilliard
School (from 1972).[5] Meanwhile, in the 1950s, Carter, having edited Ives' music, turned back to
his interest in the experimentalists. In response to his experience in the war, he decided to
achieve an emancipated musical discourse through re-examination of all parameters of music.
Notable works during this time were the Cello Sonata, the rhythmically-complex first string
quartet and Variations for Orchestra. The latter two marked Carter's turning point in his career.[1]

In 1967, he was appointed a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1981, he
was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, in 1985 the National Medal of Arts. In 1983
Carter was awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal for outstanding contribution to the arts by
the MacDowell Colony.[citation needed]

On February 7, 2009, he received a Trustees Award (a lifetime achievement award given to non-
performers) from the Grammy Awards.[10]

In June 2012, the French government named Carter a Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur.[11]

Carter wrote music every morning until his death,[12] of natural causes, on November 5, 2012 at
his home in New York City, at age 103.[13][14]

Premieres and notable performances[edit]

Carter composed his only opera, What Next?, in 1997–98 for the Berlin State Opera at the behest
of conductor Daniel Barenboim. The work premiered in Berlin in 1999 and had its first staging in
the United States at the Tanglewood Music Festival in 2006, conducted by James Levine.[15] He
later considered writing operas on the themes of communal suicide and a story by Henry James,
but abandoned both ideas and resolved to write no more operas.[12]

On December 11, 2008, Carter celebrated his 100th birthday at Carnegie Hall in New York,
where the Boston Symphony Orchestra and pianist Daniel Barenboim played his Interventions for
Piano and Orchestra, written that year. Between the ages of 90 and 100 he published more than
40 works, and after his 100th birthday he composed at least 20 more.[5]

Interventions for Piano and Orchestra received its premiere on December 5, 2008, by the BSO,
conducted by James Levine and featuring the pianist Daniel Barenboim at Symphony Hall,
Boston.[16] Barenboim reprised the work with the BSO at Carnegie Hall in New York in the
presence of the composer on his 100th birthday.[5] Carter was also present at the 2009 Aldeburgh
Festival to hear the world premiere of his song cycle On Conversing with Paradise, based
on Ezra Pound's Canto 81 and one of Pound's 'Notes' intended for later Cantos, and usually
published at the end of the Cantos.[17] The premiere was given on June 20, 2009, by the baritone
Leigh Melrose and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group conducted by Oliver Knussen.[18]
[19]

Figment V for marimba was premiered in New York on May 2, 2009, by Simon Boyar, and Poems
of Louis Zukofsky for soprano and clarinet had its first performance by Lucy Shelton and Thomas
Martin at the Tanglewood Festival on August 9, 2009. The US premiere of the Flute
Concerto took place on February 4, 2010, with the flutist Elizabeth Rowe and the Boston
Symphony Orchestra conducted by Levine. The last premiere of Carter's lifetime was Dialogues
II, written for Barenboim's 70th birthday and conducted in Milan in October 2012 by Gustavo
Dudamel.[20] The last Carter premiere ever, which happened after Carter's death, was "The
American Sublime", a work for baritone and large ensemble, dedicated to and conducted by
Levine.[21]

Musical style and language[edit]

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Carter's earlier works were influenced by Igor Stravinsky, Roy Harris, Aaron Copland, and Paul
Hindemith, and are mainly neoclassical.[citation needed] He had strict training in counterpoint,[citation
needed]
from medieval polyphony to Stravinsky, and this shows in his earliest music, such as the
ballet Pocahontas (1938–39). Some of his music during the Second World War is fairly diatonic,
and includes a melodic lyricism reminiscent of Samuel Barber.

Starting in the late 1940s his music shows an increasing development of a personal harmonic
and rhythmic language characterized by elaborate rhythmic layering and metric modulation.
[22]
While Carter's chromaticism and tonal vocabulary parallels serial composers of the period,
Carter did not use serial techniques. Carter said, "I certainly have never used a twelve-tone row
as the basis of a composition, in the way described in Schoenberg’s Style and Idea, nor are my
compositions a constant rotation of various permutations of twelve-tone rows".[23] Rather, he
independently developed and catalogued all possible collections of pitches (i.e., all possible
three-note chords, five-note chords, etc.).[where?] Musical theorists like Allen Forte later
systematized these data into musical set theory. A series of Carter's works in the 1960s and
1970s generates its tonal material by using all possible chords of a particular number of pitches.

Among his better known works are the Variations for Orchestra (1954–5); the Double Concerto
for Harpsichord and Piano with Two Chamber Orchestras (1959–61); the Piano Concerto (1964–
65), written as an 85th-birthday present for Stravinsky; the Concerto for Orchestra (1969), loosely
based on a poem by Saint-John Perse; and the Symphony of Three Orchestras (1976). He also
composed five string quartets,[24] of which the second and third won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in
1960 and 1973 respectively. Spaced at regular intervals throughout his mature career, they are
considered by some to be the most important body of work in that medium since Bartók.
 Symphonia: sum fluxae pretium spei (1993–96) is his largest orchestral work, complex in
[22]

structure and featuring contrasting layers of instrumental textures, from delicate wind solos to
crashing brass and percussion outbursts.

The Piano Concerto (1964–65) uses the collection of three-note chords for its pitch material;
the Third String Quartet (1971) uses all four-note chords; the Concerto for Orchestra (1969) all
five-note chords; and A Symphony of Three Orchestras uses the collection of six-note chords.
Carter also made frequent use of "tonic" 12-note chords. Of particular interest are "all-interval"
12-tone chords, where every interval is represented within adjacent notes of the chord. His 1980
solo piano work Night Fantasies uses the entire collection of the 88 symmetrical-inverted all-
interval 12-note chords. Typically, the pitch material is segmented between instruments, with a
unique set of chords or sets assigned to each instrument or orchestral section. This stratification
of material, with individual voices assigned not only their own unique pitch material but texture
and rhythm as well, is a key component of Carter's style. His music after Night Fantasies has
been termed his late period and his tonal language became less systematized and more intuitive,
but retains the basic characteristics of his earlier works.

Carter's use of rhythm can best be understood with the concept of stratification. Each
instrumental voice is typically assigned its own set of tempos. A structural polyrhythm, where a
very slow polyrhythm is used as a formal device, is present in many of Carter's works. Night
Fantasies, for example, uses a 216:175 tempo relation that coincides at only two points over its
20+ minutes. This use of rhythm was part of his expansion of the notion of counterpoint to
encompass simultaneous different characters, even entire movements, rather than just individual
lines.

He said that such steady pulses reminded him of soldiers marching or horses trotting, sounds no
longer heard in the late 20th century, and he wanted his music to capture the sort of continuous
acceleration or deceleration experienced in an automobile or an airplane.[citation needed] While Carter's
music shows little trace of American popular music or jazz, his vocal music has demonstrated
strong ties to contemporary American poetry. He set poems by Elizabeth Bishop, John
Ashbery, Robert Lowell, William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, and Marianne
Moore. Twentieth-century poets also inspired several of his large instrumental works, such as
the Concerto for Orchestra and A Symphony of Three Orchestras.

Britten – Nocturnal

BIO

1913-76

Norfolk – royal college of music London (rondo concertante voor piano)

filmmuziek voor docu’s - He then worked as a composer for the radio, theatre, and cinema, coming
into close contact with the poet W.H. Auden.

leidende rol in Britse klassieke muziek (variations on a themeo f frank bridge)

USA (opera’s klarinetconcert, where his first work for the stage, the operetta Paul Bunyan (1941;
libretto by Auden), was performed. A commission by the Koussevitzky Foundation led to the
composition of his opera Peter Grimes (1945; libretto by M. Slater after George Crabbe’s poem The
Borough), which placed Britten in the forefront of 20th-century composers of opera. His later operas
include The Rape of Lucretia (1946); the comic Albert Herring (1947); Billy Budd (1951; after Herman
Melville); Gloriana (1953; written for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II); The Turn of the Screw
(1954; after Henry James); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1960); Owen Wingrave (television, 1971);
and Death in Venice (1973; after Thomas Mann).
Opera’s: whose operas were considered the finest English operas since those of Henry Purcell in the
17th century. He was also an outstanding pianist and conductor.

Aldeburgh Festival 1947 (rape of Lucretia – English opera group with britten as artistic director) werd
het centrum van britten’s muzikale activiteiten

Ontmoetingen met Sjostakovitsj

A midsummer night’s dream (1960), WAR Requiem? DEATH IN VENICE

Britten was overtuigd pacifist en weigerde dienst tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog op grond van
gewetensbezwaren.
Zijn levenspartner was de tenor Sir Peter Pears, voor wie hij veel werken schreef en die hij als
pianist begeleidde: ritten’s nontheatrical music are his song cycles. Among those that established
his stature as a songwriter are (for voice and piano) Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (1940;
written for the tenor Peter Pears, his life partner and artistic collaborator), The Holy Sonnets of
John Donne (1945), Winter Words (1953), and Hölderlin Fragment (1958); and (for voice and
orchestra) Our Hunting Fathers (1936; text by Auden), Les Illuminations (1939; text by Arthur
Rimbaud), and Serenade (1943).
 Hij verwierf de Order of Merit, de Order of the Companions of Honour en in 1976
de adellijke titel Baron van Aldeburg

 Britten’s largest choral work is the War Requiem (1962) for

choir and orchestra, based on the Latin requiem mass text and
the poems of Wilfred Owen, who was killed in World War I.
Other choral works include the Hymn to St. Cecilia (1942; text
by Auden), Ceremony of Carols (1942), Rejoice in the
Lamb (1943), St. Nicolas (1948), Spring Symphony (1949),
and Voices for Today (1965; written for the United Nations’
20th anniversary).
 Among his principal instrumental works are the Simple
Symphony for strings (1925); three string quartets (1941, 1945,
and 1976); concerti for piano and for violin; The Young
Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (1945); and Symphony in D
Major for Cello and Orchestra (1963), written for the Russian
cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.
 Britten’s operas are admired for their skillful setting of English
words and their orchestral interludes, as well as for their
dramatic aptness and depth of psychological characterization.
In chamber operas such as The Rape of Lucretia and the
church parables, he proved that serious music theatre could
flourish outside the opera house. His continual willingness to
experiment with modern musical styles, forms, and sonorities
and with new theatrical environments proved extremely
fruitful.
  Britten was created Companion of Honour in 1953 and was
awarded the Order of Merit in 1965. In June 1976 he was
created a life peer, the first musician or composer to be
elevated to the peerag

NOCTURNAL
What better piece to start us off in this new category than Nocturnal after John Dowland, Op. 70 by
Benjamin Britten. The piece is based on "Come, Heavy Sleep" from John Dowland's First Book of
Songs (1597). Each movement is a variation progressively closer to the Dowland song which
concludes the final movement. Nocturnal was composed in 1963 by English composer Benjamin
Britten and was written for guitarist Julian Bream. Due to the importance and prominence of the
composer it is one of the most influential works written in the twentieth century. Julian Bream
premiered the piece on 12 June 1964 at the Aldburgh Festival.
The piece is based on Come, Heavy Sleep from John Dowland’s “First Book of Songs”(1597). The
movements are variations on Dowland’s theme and represent various dreamscapes. Each
variation becomes progressively closer to the Dowland song which finally appears in last
movement. You could call this a set of variations in reverse. Here are the movements: 1.
Musingly, 2. Very Agitated, 3. Restless, 4. Uneasy, 5. March-like, 6. Dreaming, 7. Gently Rocking,
8. Passacaglia.
Maybe the most important thing about this work is the importance of Benjamin Britten as a
composer, not a guitar composer mind you. He is a central figure of 20th-century classical music
and can not be ignored by non-guitarists. His prominence combined with brilliant composing,
virtuosity, and highly interpretative natural inherent to the score makes this work a masterpiece.
Rarely has a guitar work attracted so many musicians from outside the guitar world. In general,
up to the point of the Segovia years little solo music had been written for the guitar by composers
who were not players themselves. There are exceptions of course but in general, the prominent
composers of past eras wrote little for our confusing and quiet little instrument. Therefore, this
work really is a monumental achievement even in a century when many important composers
started considering the instrument. So, it was not entirely new for a big composer to write for us
but it was an important step. Other composers took note of this, if Britten has written for the
instrument maybe we should too. Let’s take a look at some performances of the work.

itten structured the work so that the variations came first, with the theme itself arriving right at the
end as sleep falls. Arnold Whittall recognises the difference between the Nocturnal and the work
preceding it. But the Cantata misericordium is far too gentle a work to assert, while Nocturnal is
very precisely constructed, not in the least vague about its essential processes.