Battles of the Orchestra and

Soloists(Concerto)
By Xan Chong Zhu Xu,Ngiam Li Qing, Iskandar Arfan Bin Ahmad
Kamsul
CHAPTERS
DEFINITION OF CONCERTO -HISTORY OF CONCERTO

-DEVELOPMENT OF CONCERTO ROMANTIC(PETER ILYICH

DURING THE ROMANTIC AND TCHAIKOVSKY AND FREDERIC
MODERN ERA CHOPIN)

BIBILOGRAPHY
-MODERN(ALBAN BERG AND
GYORGY LIGETI)
 Concerto
• Large-scale composition
for an orchestra with a
soloist or a group of
soloists.
• The solo performers will
alternate between playing
with or alongside the larger
ensemble.
• It comes from Latin text
“concertare” which means
or competition or battle.
 History of Concerto-Baroque
• First indicated concertos in the title of a music print
was the publishing of the Concerti by Andrea and
Giovanni Gabrieli in 1587.
• At first, concerto only involved voices and
instruments in which the instruments had
independent parts.
• The concerto began to take its modern shape,
beginning with the concerto grosso (a group of
soloist-concertino, large ensemble- ripieno) form
developed by Arcangelo Corelli.
• Further on, the birth of solo concerto established the
main format of concerto for the later periods of
music.
History of Concerto-Classical
• During the classical period, most concertos have been written for piano, to
replace the harpsichord. Some composers also composed for cello and
violin.
• It started the tradition of composing for single soloist instead of group
soloist.
• A traditional practice of concerto also established this period.
-3 movements(First and the last in a quicker tempo, while 2nd movement stays slow and lyrical.)
-Sonata Form at the First Movement(Exposition-Development-Recapitulation)
-Cadenza(Virtuosic passages at the end of the First and Last Movement)
 Development of Concerto in Romantic Era
• The concerto in romantic era becomes a representative genre that the
soloist display their virtuosity. Concertos became complex and
ambitious therefore the timespan of concerto increased which could
last half an hour or longer.
• The term concertino start to be smaller pieces that are shorter than a
full concerto, albeit it has never formalized. Which many Concertinos
are still longer than Baroque concertos.
• The number of cello concertos drastically increase in the romantic era,
close to violin and piano.
Development of Concerto in Modern Era
• 20th century, composers started experimenting new musical ideas that were hardly
practice and new musical ideas were used.
- Bartók(Nationalism,Hungarian folk tunes and scales),
-Schoenberg, Berg(development of atonality and the invention of the twelve-tone
technique of composition)
-Debussy(Use of whole tone scales)
-Alberto Ginastera (the use of polyrhythms and complex time signatures)
• These idea expand virtuosic elements of concerto including new and extended
instrumental techniques and focus on previously neglected aspects of sound such
as pitch, timbre and dynamics.
• Some modern concertos changed the group and solo relationship between soloist
and orchestra.
Development of Concerto in Modern Era
• Up to 1950, the concerto of the modern era kept pace with the language and idiom
of modern music. (Deep Purple-Concerto for the band and orchestra,Igor
Stravinsky-Ebony Concerto)
• Neo-Baroque and Neoclassical trends in modern music had also affected the
forms of modern concerto to retake the forms of the Baroque and classical.(Alfred
Schnittke-Concerto Grosso No 1)
• A growth of the concertante repertoire of instruments, some of which had seldom
or never been used in this capacity.(Concerto for wordless coloratura soprano by
Reinhold Glière,Theremin Concerto by Kalevi Aho, Strathclyde Concertos by
Maxwell Davies,Viola Concerto by Gyorgy Ligeti)
 The culture and history of Romantic
concerto
• During the romantic period, most of the concertos are composed in the German
empire which the number reign over other empires at the period.
• Romantic concerto are usually composed by virtuosos at that period to display their
virtuosity(Niccolo Paganini,Franz Lizst,Charles-Valentin Alkan)
• Many composers accepted the movement forms and cycle that by then had been used
by composers in the past, especially “sonata form” in the first movement. However,
some composers also advance with the experimentation of concerto.
-Jan Ladislav Dussek(first composer that omit improvised cadenzas and compose in a
way that isolates soloist and orchestra)
-Carl Maria Von Weber(Insert programmatic and literature ideas into concerto )
 Frédéric Chopin
• Born (year, place): 1st March 1810,
Zelazowa Wola, Poland
• Died (year, place): 17th October 1849,
Paris France
• family: Nicholas Chopin(father), Justyna
Krzyzanowska(mother), Emilia
Chopin(younger sister), Ludwika
Jedrzejewicz(older sister), Izabela
Barcinski(younger sister)
• Health and physiognomy: Diagnose and
treated with tuberculosis
• Personality: complicated, cold, vain,
calculating, snobbish, snide, anti-Semitic
and impossibly hypersensitive
Frédéric Chopin
• Significant places: Congress Poland
• Significant people: Bach, W.A. Mozart, A. Scriabin and S.
Rachmaninoff
• Employers or patrons: Jane Stirling
• Means of earning a living: piano teacher, composer and
concert pianist
• Financial situation: Wealthy
Characteristics of Chopin’s Music
• Style of composition: Impromptu,Take ideas from Bach,Mozart and
John Field
• General characteristics:
• -Endowed popular dance forms with a greater range of melody and
expression
• Exploited the poetic potential of the concept of the concert etude
 Piano Concerto No 1(1830)
• The Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11, is
a piano concerto written by Frédéric Chopin in
when he was twenty years old. It was first
performed on 11 October of that year, at the
Teatr Narodowy in Warsaw, Poland, with the
composer as soloist, during one of his "farewell"
concerts before leaving Poland.It also features
Krakowiak rhythms in chopin’s composition.
• The concerto follows the traditional form of
three movements:
I..Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso – Allegro
con spirito (B♭ minor – B♭ major)
• II.Andantino semplice – Prestissimo – Tempo I
(D♭ major)
• III.Allegro con fuoco – Molto meno mosso –
Allegro vivo (B♭ minor – B♭ major)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3azyotbXgg
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
• Born: Born: May 7, 1840, Votkinsk, Russia.

• Died: November 6, 1893, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

• Parents: Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky (Father)

• Alexandra Andreyevna d'Assier (Mother)

• Health and physiognomy: Tchaikovsky were prone to immense angst,

self-doubt and bouts of depression. As an artist, he doubted his work. As
a gay man living in 19th century Imperial Russia, he also experienced
extreme self-loathing and constant fear of being outed over his sexuality.

• Personality: a deeply sensitive and emotional child who exceled in

foreign languages and music from an early age.
 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
• Personality: a deeply sensitive and emotional child
who exceled in foreign languages and music from an
early age.

• Patrons: But surely the strangest and saddest

composer-patron relationship was that of Tchaikovsky
and his devoted patron, Nadezhda von Meck. A wealthy
widow when she first contacted the composer by letter
in late 1876, von Meck supported him with an annual
stipend of 6,000 rubles.
Characteristics of Tchaikovsky’s Music
• Although Tchaikovsky's music is overtly romantic in many ways, he
had strong ties to the Classical era, and his favorite composer was
Mozart

• Style of compositions: Tchaikovsky's complete range of melodic

styles was as wide as that of his compositions. Sometimes he used
Western-style melodies, sometimes original melodies written in the
style of Russian folk song; sometimes he used actual folk songs.
 Piano Concerto No 1(November 1874 and
February 1875)
• The Piano Concerto No. 1 in B♭ minor, Op. 23, was revised in
1879 and in 1888. It was first performed on October 25, 1875,
in Boston by Hans von Bülow after Tchaikovsky's desired
pianist, Nikolai Rubinstein, criticised the piece.
•The concerto follows the traditional form of three movements:
I. Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso – Allegro con spirito (B
♭ minor – B♭ major)
II. Andantino semplice – Prestissimo – Tempo I (D♭ major)
III. Allegro con fuoco – Molto meno mosso – Allegro vivo
(B♭ minor – B♭ major)
•A standard performance lasts between 30 and 36 minutes, the
majority of which is taken up by the first movement.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pqvCIFJS2E
 The culture and history of Modern Concerto
• No country or empire reign the numbers of concerto composed, and composers start
to give their compositions as “Concerto” when it does not contain soloist-orchestra
structure.(Concerto for Orchestra-Bartok,Concerto for Cootie-Duke Ellington)
• From 1950 on, the pronounced swing of the avant-garde music, composers tended
to do away with everything traditionally identified with “concerto,” including the
title itself.
• At the first few decades of 20th Century,several piano concertos for left hand are
composed to dedicate to the concert pianist,Paul Wittgenstein who lost his right
hand during the First World War.
• Most modern concertos remained the basic idea of group–solo relationship.
 ALBAN BERG
Born:9th February 1885,Vienna.

Died:24th December 1935,Vienna.

Personal life: Vienna's cultural elite during the heady fin de

siècle period.

Family: Johanna Berg(Mother),Konrad Berg(Father),Albine

Berg(Daughter),Helene Nahowski(Wife)
Health and physiognomy: He faced his first asthma when he
was 15 years old. This will haunt him for years to come.
However, his death was caused by blood poisoning which
comes from furuncle at his back.

Personality:Fastidious,Perfectionist,Passion For Literature.

 
 ALBAN BERG
Career: Composer for the upper members of the Vienna
society,Lecturer or figure of the Second Viennese School.

Significant places: Vienna

Significant people: Arnold Schoenberg(Who taught him the

twelve-tone technique and Berg admired him as a father
figure all life long.)
Means of earning a living: From his wife’s family which his
father in-law is a high ranking-Austrian composer

Financial situation: He was born in a middle class, but the

death of his father has caused him to be stuck in poverty.
This condition changed when he married Helene Nahowski.

 
 Characteristics of Berg’s Music
• Style of composition: Expressionism
[Late-Romantic Lyricism combined with twelve tone-technique]
(Wozzeck,Lulu)

General characteristics:
Semanticized his music by means of tone anagrams and cryptograms. He
took great pleasure in musically symbolizing names by means of tonal
letters.
 Violin Concerto-To A Memory of An
Angel(1935)
• Final complete work of Alban Berg which is dedicated to the late-
Manon Gropius,.
• The concerto contains two movements(I. Andante-Allegretto and
II. Allegro-Adagio),it appears uncommon instrument as
doublings(the cor anglais,piccolo and alto saxophone).The first
movement interpret life and the second movement interprets the
death and transfiguration.
• The work contains late-romantic elements with the use of twelve-
tone technique which he uses a tone row that only contains thirds.
• In the final Adagio section of the 2nd movement, Berg quotes J.S.
Bach’s cantata “O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort,” BWV 60. He also
quotes a Carinthian folk song “Ein Vogel auf’m
Zwetschgenbaum, which both quotes are tonal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0GzNmf_AUw
WALTER GROPIUS,ALMA MAHLER AND
YOUNG MANON GROPIUS
 György Ligeti
Born: 28 May 1923 in Transylvania, Romania
Died:12 June 2006 in Vienna, Austria

Family:Leopold Auer(Violinist,great-granduncle),
Alexander Ligeti(Bank clerk, father),Iloma
Sogomy(ophthalmologist, mother) Ágnes
Heller(Philosopher,second cousin),Lukas
Ligeti(percussionist and composer, son),Vera
Spitz(scholar of psychoanalysis, wife),

Health and physiognomy: Deteriorated since

millennium and his family refuse to confess the
causes of his death.
 György Ligeti
Personality: anti-idealogue,sceptical to tradition,
workaholic

Significant places: Cologne Electronic Music School(his

study with electronic devices on creating sound textures
and interacting with other avant-garde composers)

Means of earning a living:

Instructor of Form Analysis, Harmony and Counterpoint in
Budapest Music Academy(1950-1956)
Composer in residence for Stanford University(1972-2006)
Professor of Composition in Hochschule für Musik und
Theater Hamburg(1973-1988)

Financial situation: Wealthy

Characteristics of Ligeti’s Composition
• Style of composition:
-Micropolyphony(polyphony texture through a collection of rich and
dense stacked pitches)
-Imitation of flageolet
• General characteristics:
-Creates an analogous synesthetic perception to listener from his
imagination of music.
-Pieces of experimenting language(vowels, consonant) devices into
composition.
 Cello Concerto (July-December 1966)
• Contains two movements, which Ligeti
separates the whole piece into 27 sections.
• Is an anti-concerto to which Ligeti confess that
the soloist and orchestra unitize instead of
competing.The cellist serves as the foundation
of the sections while performing virtuosic
passages. The written virtuoso and capriccio
passages are improvisational-like.The
instrumentalist are also treated
• Whisper-like music occurs the composition
which symbolize the piece.This idea was taken
from Alban Berg’s Lyrische Suite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbYp34aqkiU
WORDS ON THE
CONCERTOS
 BIBILOGRAPHY
Internet articles
• S. Newman,William,Concerto Styles (Concerto-Britannica)[Cited July 20th,1998]
from https://www.britannica.com/art/concerto-music
• Concerto – Wikipedia
fromhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerto
• Chopin, Frederic-Wikipedia
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin
• Piano Concerto No 1(Chopin)-Wikipedia
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No._1_(Chopin)
• Ilyich Tchaikovsky,Pyotr-Wikipedia
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Ilyich_Tchaikovsky
. Ligeti,Gyorgy-Wikipedia
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gy%C3%B6rgy_Ligeti
. Berg,Alban-Wikipedia
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alban_Berg
• Hog,Lizz,Analysis of Berg’s Violin Concerto(Lizz Hogg)[Cited 2011]
from https://ff5974.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/MUS347W-7.pdf
 BIBILOGRAPHY
Book
• Floros,Constantin,Gyorgy Ligeti:Beyond avant-garde and postmodernism(PL Academic Research Publishing,2014).
• Floros,Constantin,Alban Berg:Music as Autobiography(PL Academic Research Publishing,2014)
• P.Keefe,Simon,The Cambridge Companion to the Concerto(Cambridge University Press,2005)
D.Lindeman,Stephan,The nineteenth-century piano concertos