Julius Fučík was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, on July 18, 1872. He was a pupil of Antonin Dvořák in composition. After playing the bassoon in the German Opera in Prague in 1893, he became bandmaster of the 86th and 92nd Austrian Regiments in which he won renown throughout Europe. He died in Leitmeritz, Czechoslovakia, on September 25, 1916. Fučík wrote numerous dance pieces and marches for band. The most popular of these is the stirring march, Entrance of the Gladiators, which became popular throughout the world and is still frequently played by salon orchestras as well as bands.
Sir Edward German was born Edward German Jones in Whitchurch, England, on February 17, 1862. He attended the Royal Academy of Music in London where, in 1895, he was elected Fellow. Meanwhile, in 1888-1889 he became the musical director of the Globe Theater in London. The incidental music he wrote there that year for Richard Mansfield’s production of Richard III proved so popular that Sir Henry Irving commissioned him to write similar music for his own presentation of Henry VIII. German subsequently wrote incidental music for many other plays including Romeo and Juliet (1895), As You Like It (1896), Much Ado About Nothing (1898) and Nell Gwynn (1900). He also produced a considerable amount of concert music, including two symphonies and various suites, tone poems, rhapsodies, and a march and hymn for the Coronation of George V in 1911. German was knighted in 1928, and in 1934 he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society. He died in London on November 11, 1936.
German is most famous for his incidental music for the stage. He combined a graceful lyricism with a consummate skill in orchestration. He also possessed to a remarkable degree the capacity of simulating the archaic idioms of old English music of the Tudor and Stuart periods. Thus the greatest charm of his writing lies in its subtle atmospheric recreation of a bygone era; but a lightness of touch and freshness of material are never sacrificed.
Of his incidental music perhaps the most famous is that for Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, introduced at the Lyceum Theater in London in 1892 in Sir Henry Irving’s production. German’s complete score consists of an overture, five entr’actes, a setting of the song “Orpheus and his Lute” and other pieces. But what remain popular are three delightful old English dances from the first act; the style and spirit of old English music are here reproduced with extraordinary effect. The three are: “Morris Dance,” “Shepherd’s Dance,” and “Torch Dance.”
The best sections of his incidental music to Anthony Hope’s Nell Gwynn, produced at the Prince of Wales Theater in 1900, also are revivals of old English dances: “Country Dance,” “Merrymaker’s Dance,” and “Pastoral Dance.” Other delightful dances, often in an old English folk style, are found in his incidental music to As You Like It (“Children’s Dance,” “Rustic Dance,” and “Woodland Dance”) and Romeo and Juliet (“Pavane” and “Torch Dance”).
German also wrote several operettas, the most famous being Merrie England, text by Basil Hood, first performed at the Savoy Theater in London on April 2, 1902. The setting is Elizabethan England, and the plot involves the love affair of Sir Walter Raleigh and the Queen’s Maid of Honor which upsets Queen Elizabeth since she herself has designs on Sir Walter. German’s score is filled with the most delightful old world jigs, country dances, glees, and melodies imitating the style of old-time madrigals. In addition, there is here an impressive patriotic song (“The Yeomen of England”), Queen Elizabeth’s effective air (“O Peaceful England”), a rousing drinking song by Sir Walter Raleigh, a poignant ballad by the Maid of Honor, and an equally moving love duet by the Maid of Honor and Sir Walter Raleigh. Because of its effective music, rich with English flavors, Merrie England has survived as one of the most popular English operettas of the 20th century, and has often been revived in London.
Among German’s many concert works for orchestra one of the most famous is the Welsh Rhapsody (1902). This is a skilful symphonic adaptation of Welsh tunes, the last of which (“Men of Larech”) is utilized by the composer to bring his rhapsody to a powerful culmination. The other Welsh folk songs used earlier by the composer in this rhapsody are “Loudly Proclaim O’er Land and Sea,” “Hunting the Hare,” “Bells of Aberdorry” and “David of the White Rock.”
George Gershwin was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 26, 1898. Though he received serious musical training in piano from Charles Hambitzer, and in harmony and theory from Edward Kilenyi, he early set his sights on popular rather than serious music. When he was fifteen he found a job as song plugger and staff pianist in Tin Pan Alley where he soon began writing songs. The first to get published was “When You Want ’Em You Can’t Get ’Em” in 1916; in the same year another of his songs, “The Making of a Girl” appeared for the first time on the Broadway stage, in The Passing Show of 1916. Gershwin’s first complete score for Broadway was La, La, Lucille, and his first smash song hit was “Swanee,” both in 1919. Between 1920 and 1924 Gershwin wrote the music for five editions of the George White Scandals where he first demonstrated his exceptional creative gifts; his most famous songs for the Scandals were “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise” and “Somebody Loves Me.” For one of the editions of the Scandals he also wrote a one-act Negro opera to a libretto by Buddy De Sylva—originally called Blue Monday but later retitled 135th Street.
Late in 1923, Paul Whiteman, the orchestra leader, commissioned Gershwin to write a symphonic work in a jazz style for a concert Whiteman was planning for Aeolian Hall, in New York. That jazz composition—introduced on February 12, 1924—was the Rhapsody in Blue with which Gershwin achieved world renown, and which once and for all established the jazz idiom and jazz techniques as significant material for serious musical deployment. From then on, until the end of his life, Gershwin continued to write concert music in a popular style—growing all the time in technical assurance, in the command of jazz materials, and in the inventiveness of his melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic writing. In the eyes of the world he assumed a position of first significance among American composers. For the symphony orchestra he wrote the Piano Concerto in F, An American in Paris, Cuban Overture, Variations on I Got Rhythm, and the Second Rhapsody; for solo piano, the three piano preludes; for the stage his monumental folk opera, Porgy and Bess.
While devoting himself to the concert field, Gershwin did not neglect the popular Broadway theater. He produced a library of remarkable songs for such productions as Lady Be Good (1924), Oh Kay! (1926), Funny Face (1927), and Girl Crazy (1930). The best of these included “Fascinating Rhythm,” “Lady Be Good,” “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “Clap Yo’ Hands,” “’S Wonderful,” “I Got Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” and “But Not for Me.” The lyrics for these and other Gershwin song classics were written by his brother, Ira.
In 1930 Gershwin revealed a fresh bent for mockery and satire, together with a new skill for more spacious musical writing than that required for a song, in Strike Up the Band, a satire on war. These qualities in Gershwin’s music came to full ripeness in 1931 with the political satire Of Thee I Sing!, the first musical ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
In 1931, Gershwin wrote his first original score for motion pictures, Delicious. When he returned to Hollywood in 1936 he settled there permanently and wrote the music for several delightful screen musicals, among these being Damsel in Distress, Shall We Dance, and The Goldwyn Follies. The songs he wrote for the last-named revue (they included “Love Walked In” and “Love Is Here to Stay”) were the last pieces of music he was destined to write. He died in Hollywood, California on July 11, 1937, a victim of a cystic tumor on the right temporal lobe of the brain. His screen biography, Rhapsody in Blue, was produced in 1945. In 1951, the screen musical, An American in Paris (whose score included several of Gershwin’s songs as well as the tone poem that gave this picture its title) received the Academy Award as the best picture of the year. Porgy and Bess was adapted for motion pictures, in a Samuel Goldwyn production, in 1959.
It would be difficult to overestimate Gershwin’s importance in American music. To the popular song he brought the technical skill of a consummate musician, endowing it with a rhythmic, melodic and harmonic language it had rarely before known. By that process he often lifted it to the status of true art. To serious music he contributed the vitality and the spirit—as well as the techniques and idioms—of American popular music; serious musicians throughout the world were inspired by his example to create a serious musical art out of the materials of American popular music. Since his untimely death, his artistic stature has grown in all parts of the civilized world. There will be few today to deny him a place of honor among America’s foremost composers.
An American in Paris is a tone poem for symphony orchestra inspired by a European vacation in 1928. It received its world première in New York on December 13, 1928, Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. In this music the composer describes the nostalgia of an American tourist for home, and his experiences as he strolls along the boulevards of Paris. It opens with a “walking theme,” a sprightly little tune for strings and oboe; our American is beginning his stroll. As he walks he hears the piercing warnings of taxi horns: Gershwin’s score calls for the use of actual Parisian taxi horns. The American passes a café, and stops for a moment to listen to the sounds of a music-hall melody, presented by the trombones. Then he resumes his stroll, as a second walking subject is heard in the clarinet. A solo violin (which Deems Taylor interpreted as a young lady accosting our tourist!) provides a transition to two main melodies in both of which the American’s growing feeling of homesickness finds apt expression. The first is a blues melody for muted trumpets; the second a Charleston melody for two trumpets. The blues melody receives climactic treatment in full orchestra. After a hasty recollection of the second walking theme, the composition comes to a vigorous conclusion. As Mr. Taylor goes on to explain, the tourist now decides “to make a night of it. It will be great to get home, but meanwhile, this is Paris!”
The Concerto in F, for piano and orchestra, was the immediate consequence of Gershwin’s phenomenal success with the Rhapsody in Blue. The Concerto was commissioned in 1925 by the New York Symphony Society and its conductor, Walter Damrosch. They introduced it in Carnegie Hall, on December 3, 1925, with the composer as soloist. This work, like its eminent predecessor, is in a jazz style; but unlike the first version of the Rhapsody in Blue it boasts Gershwin’s own orchestration. (From this time on Gershwin would always prepare his own orchestrations for his serious concert music.) There are three movements. The first (Allegro) begins with a Charleston theme shared by the woodwind and timpani. The main body of this movement is given over to a spicy jazz tune first heard in the bassoon and after that in full orchestra; to a tender melody for solo piano; and to a lilting waltz for strings with decorative treatment by the piano. The second movement (Andante con moto) is lyrical throughout, and at times subtly atmospheric and poetic. Muted trumpet, against harmonies provided by three clarinets, set the romantic stage for the felicitous lyrical thoughts that ensue: a brisk, jazzy, strikingly rhythmic idea for the piano; and a broad, sensual melody for strings. This movement ends in the same sensitive atmospheric mood with which it began. In the finale (Allegro con brio) dynamic forces are released. Main themes from the first two movements are recalled with a particularly effective recapitulation of the second theme of the first movement in the strings.
The Cuban Overture was written in 1932 after a brief visit to Havana and was introduced at the Lewisohn Stadium in New York, Albert Coates conducting, on August 16, 1932. This is a concert overture for orchestra utilizing native percussion Cuban instruments. The work has three sections played without interruption. The first consists of two melodies, a Cuban theme in strings followed by a second lyrical subject which is placed against the contrapuntal background of fragments from the first Cuban theme. A solo clarinet cadenza leads to the middle section which is a two-voice canon. The ensuing finale makes considerable use of earlier thematic material and ends with an electrifying presentation of a fully projected rumba melody in which prominent use is made of Cuban percussion instruments (cuban stick, bongo, gourd, and maracas).
The folk opera, Porgy and Bess, was Gershwin’s last work in the field of serious music—and his greatest. It took Gershwin over two years to write his opera, a period during which he spent some time in the opera’s setting of Charleston, South Carolina, absorbing not only local color but also native Negro music whose style he skilfully assimilated into his own writing. He completed his opera in the summer of 1935; on September 30 its world première took place in Boston; and on October 10, it began its New York run. It cannot be said that either critics or audiences were fully aware at the time that they were hearing a masterwork. Some of the Boston and New York scribes found things to admire in the opera, but most of them were highly critical. Olin Downes said “it does not utilize all the resources of the operatic composer or pierce very often to the depths of the pathetic drama.” Lawrence Gilman found Gershwin’s emphasis on the popular element a disturbing blemish while Virgil Thomson did not hesitate at the time to refer to it as “a fake.” The run of 124 performances in New York (followed by a three-month tour) represented a box-office failure.
Gershwin himself remained convinced he had written a work of first importance, but regrettably he did not live to see his faith in his opera justified beyond his wildest hopes or aspirations. Revived in New York in 1941 it had an eight-month run, the longest of any revival in Broadway history. More important still, many critics revised earlier estimates. Virgil Thomson now spoke of it as “a beautiful piece of music and a deeply moving play for the lyric theater.” Olin Downes said that Gershwin had here “taken a substantial step, and advanced the cause of native opera.” The New York Music Critics Circle singled it out as the most important musical revival of that season.
But still greater triumphs awaited the opera. In 1952, a Negro cast toured Europe under the auspices of the State Department. Before that tour was over, several years later, the opera had been heard throughout Europe, the Near East, in countries behind the Iron Curtain, the Soviet Union and Latin America. Everywhere it enjoyed acclaim realized by few contemporary operas anywhere. There were not many dissenting voices in the universal judgment that Porgy and Bess was one of the most significant operas of the twentieth century, and certainly one of the most popular. And its popularity was further enhanced by the stunning production given it by Samuel Goldwyn in motion pictures in 1959.
The text of the opera was based on the play Porgy, by Dorothy and Du Bose Heyward, produced by the Theater Guild in New York in 1927, which in turn had been adapted from Du Bose Heyward’s novel of the same name. The opera text and lyrics were written by Du Bose and Dorothy Heyward with several additional lyrics by Ira Gershwin. The tragic love affair of the cripple, Porgy, and Bess, a lady of easy virtue, is set in the Negro tenement, Catfish Row, in Charleston, South Carolina. Porgy has found true happiness with Bess for the first time in his life. When Crown, Bess’ old sweetheart returns to claim her, Porgy kills him but manages to elude the law after having been detained a while. Upon returning to Catfish Row he discovers that his Bess had succumbed to the lure of dope, and the gay life in New York offered her by Sportin’ Life. Heartbroken, Porgy jumps in his goat cart to follow Bess to New York and try to bring her back.
The main melodic sections of the opera have provided the material for several delightful suites. The most famous is A Symphonic Picture by Robert Russell Bennett, commissioned by Fritz Reiner, the conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony in 1942. Bennett created out of the score an integrated tone poem faithful to Gershwin’s own harmonic and orchestral intentions. The tone poem (or suite) is made up of the following sequences in the order of their appearance: Scene of Catfish Row with the peddler’s calls; Opening Act II; “Summertime” and Opening of Act I; “I Got Plenty of Nuttin’”; Storm Music; “Bess, You Is My Woman Now”; “It Ain’t Necessarily So” and the finale, “Oh Lawd I’m On My Way.”
George Gershwin himself prepared an orchestral suite from his opera score in 1936, and conducted it in performances with several major American orchestras in 1936-1937. This manuscript, long forgotten, was found in the library of Ira Gershwin, and was revived in 1959 by Maurice Abravanel and the Utah Symphony. Now named Catfish Row, to distinguish it from other suites prepared by other musicians, it had five sections: “Catfish Row,” “Porgy Sings,” “Fugue,” “Hurricane,” and “Good Morning, Brother.”
Beryl Rubinstein transcribed five of the principal melodies from the opera for piano, and Jascha Heifetz for violin and piano.
The three piano Preludes are famous not only in their original version but also in transcriptions for symphony orchestra. The first prelude, in B-flat major, is rhythmically exciting, highlighting the basic elements of the tango and the Charleston. The second, in C-sharp minor, is the most famous of the set. This is an eloquent three-part blues melody. The concluding prelude, in E-flat major, once again like the first one has greater rhythmic than melodic interest, a lively expression of uninhibited good feelings. Besides transcriptions for orchestra by Roy Bargy, Gregory Stone and several others, these preludes have been adapted for violin and piano by Heifetz, for trumpet and piano by Gregory Stone, and for saxophone and piano by Sigurd Rascher.
The Rhapsody in Blue was Gershwin’s first work for symphony orchestra and it is the composition with which he first won fame, fortune, and artistic significance. It was commissioned by Paul Whiteman for an all-American music concert planned by that bandleader for Aeolian Hall, New York, on February 12, 1924. With the composer at the piano, the Rhapsody appeared as the tenth and penultimate number of a long program, but it was the work that gave Whiteman’s concert its main interest and significance. The critics the following day were divided in their opinion. On the one hand, Henry T. Finck considered it superior to the music of Schoenberg and Milhaud; equally high words of praise came from Gilbert W. Gabriel, William J. Henderson, Olin Downes, Deems Taylor, and Carl van Vechten. In the opposite camp stood Pitts Sanborn and Lawrence Gilman who described the work as “meaningless repetition” and “trite, feeble, and conventional.”
But the opposing opinions notwithstanding, the Rhapsody in Blue immediately became one of the most famous pieces of serious music by an American. It was transcribed for every possible instrument or groups of instruments; it was adapted several times for ballet; it was used in a motion picture. Royalties from the sale of sheet music and records brought in a fortune. Through the years it has never lost its popularity; it is still one of the most frequently performed American symphonic works.
Its prime significance rests in the fact that it decisively proved that it was possible to produce good music within ambitious structures utilizing idioms and techniques of American jazz. The Rhapsody in Blue was by no means the first composition to do so; it was preceded by works by Erik Satie, Stravinsky, and Milhaud among others. But due to its enormous popular appeal it was the most influential composition of all in convincing the world’s foremost composers that jazz could be used with serious intent. Undoubtedly it was largely as a result of the triumph of the Rhapsody in Blue that world-famous composers like William Walton, Constant Lambert, Maurice Ravel, Kurt Weill and Paul Hindemith among many others produced serious jazz music.
Much has been said about its diffuseness of structure, and the inept way its material is developed. But for all its faults, the Rhapsody in Blue remains a vital, dynamic and at times an inspired piece of music. It is filled with wonderful lyricism; its rhythmic cogency is irresistible; its identity is completely American.
The work opened with an ascending seventeen-note slide by the clarinet which culminates in the saucy, first theme. A transition in the wind instrument leads to another brisk, jaunty idea for piano. After some development, and several ascending chords in the piano we get to the heart of the rhapsody and to one of the most famous melodies in all contemporary symphonic music: a spacious, rhapsodic song for the strings. The full orchestra repeats it. Two earlier themes are now briefly recalled, the first theme by the full orchestra, the second by the piano. A brief, dramatic coda brings the rhapsody to an exciting conclusion.
For the Paul Whiteman concert of 1924, Ferde Grofé provided the orchestration from a two-piano version handed him by the composer. Gershwin later prepared his own orchestration, and it is this version that is now given by all the major symphonic organizations.
The Second Rhapsody for orchestra succeeded the more popular Rhapsody in Blue by eight years; it was first performed by the Boston Symphony under Koussevitzky on January 29, 1932. Gershwin originally called this work Rhapsody in Rivets because the opening measures present a strongly rhythmic subject in solo piano suggesting riveting. This “rivet theme” is then taken over by the full orchestra, after which we hear a rumba melody. These ideas are then developed. A piano cadenza brings on a spacious melody, first in strings, and then in brass. All this material is amplified before the rhapsody is swept to an exciting end.
This rhapsody was the outgrowth of a six-minute sequence written by the composer for the motion picture, Delicious. The sequence was intended to describe the sights and sounds of a city. In the picture only one of the six minutes of this music was retained, but Gershwin liked the rest of it well enough to expand it into a major symphonic work.
The Variations on I Got Rhythm, for piano and orchestra, was written for a tour of one-night stands made by Gershwin throughout the United States in all-Gershwin programs. Its first performance took place in Boston on January 14, 1934. The main subject is a famous Gershwin song, “I Got Rhythm” which Ethel Merman made famous in the musical comedy Girl Crazy. The symphonic work begins with a four-note ascending phrase from the first measure of the song’s chorus, presented by solo clarinet. The theme is then taken over by solo piano and after that by full orchestra, after which the entire chorus is presented by the piano. In the ensuing variations the composer changes not only the basic structure of the song, melodically and rhythmically, but also its mood and feeling, traversing the gamut of emotion from melancholy to spirited gaiety.
Still another remarkably effective symphonic adaptation of “I Got Rhythm” was made by Morton Gould, and introduced by him with his orchestra over the CBS radio network in 1944.
Gershwin wrote two marches, both with satirical overtones, which are often given at “pop concerts.” Each was meant for a musical comedy. “Strike Up the Band” comes from the musical comedy of the same name, produced on January 14, 1930 starring Clark and McCullough. This was a stinging satire on war and international diplomacy, with America embroiled in a conflict with Switzerland over the issue of chocolates. The march, “Strike Up the Band,” helps deflate some of the pomp and ceremony of all martial music.
“Wintergreen for President” comes from Of Thee I Sing, the epoch-making satire on politics in Washington, D.C., first produced on December 26, 1931. “Wintergreen for President” is the music accompanying a political torchlight parade whose illuminated signs read “Even Your Dog Loves Wintergreen” and “A Vote for Wintergreen Is a Vote for Wintergreen” and so on. The march music carries over the satirical implications of this procession by quoting such tunes as “Hail, Hail the Gang’s All Here,” “Tammany,” “A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight” and “Stars and Stripes Forever.” This music even carries a hasty recollection of Irish and Jewish music to suggest that Wintergreen is a friend of both these people.
Gershwin’s greatest songs are often performed in orchestral transcriptions at all-Gershwin concerts and other “pop performances,” sometimes singly, and sometimes in various potpourris. Besides songs already mentioned in the first part of this section, Gershwin’s greatest ones include the following: “Bidin’ My Time” from Girl Crazy; “I’ve Got a Crush On You” from Strike Up the Band; “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” from Shall We Dance; “Liza” from Show Girl; “The Man I Love,” originally meant for Lady Be Good but never used there; “Mine” from Let ’Em Eat Cake; the title song from Of Thee I Sing; “Soon” from Strike Up the Band; “That Certain Feeling” from Tip Toes; and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” from Shall We Dance. Among those who have written orchestral medleys of Gershwin’s songs are Nathan van Cleve, Fred von Epps, Claude Thornhill, David Broekman, Irving Brodsky, George B. Leeman, and Nathaniel Finston.
Henry Franklin Belknap Gilbert was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, on September 26, 1868. He attended the New England Conservatory, and studied composition privately with Edward MacDowell, before playing the violin in various theaters. For many years music was a secondary pursuit as he earned his living in a printing establishment, a real-estate agent, factory foreman, and finally an employee in a music-publishing firm. A hearing in Paris of Gustave Charpentier’s opera, Louise, proved such an overpowering experience that it inspired him to devote himself henceforth to music alone. In 1902 he helped found in America the Wa-Wan Press which promoted nationalism in American music and published Gilbert’s first works. In these a strong emphasis was placed by the composer upon American folk music and American folk idioms. In 1903 he wrote Humoresque on Negro Minstrel Tunes. After that came his famous Comedy Overture on Negro Themes (1905), the symphonic ballet The Dance in Place Congo (1906), the Negro Rhapsody (1913), and Indian Sketches (1921). Here native elements were skilfully fused into a style that was Romantic to produce music that remains appealing for its freshness and vitality. Towards the end of his life, Gilbert was an invalid. Nevertheless, in 1927, he traveled to Germany in a wheel-chair to attend a performance of his Dance in Place Congo at the Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music in Frankfurt. He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 19, 1928.
The Comedy Overture on Negro Themes (1905) is one of Gilbert’s most frequently performed compositions. It is made up of five sections played without interruption. The composer goes on to explain: “The first movement is light and humorous, the theme being made from two four-measure phrases taken from Charles L. Edwards’ book Bahama Songs and Stories.... This is followed by a broader, and somewhat slower, phrase. I have here used the only complete Negro tune which occurs in the piece ... formerly used as a working song by roustabouts and stevedores on the Mississippi River steamboats in the old days.... Next comes a fugue. The theme of this fugue consists of the first four measures of the Negro Spiritual ‘Old Ship of Zion.’... It is given out by the brass instruments and interspersed with phrases from the roustabouts’ song.... After this a short phrase of sixteen measures serves to reintroduce the comic element. There is a repetition of the first theme and considerable recapitulation, which leads finally to the development of a new ending or coda, and the piece ends in an orgy of jollity and ragtime.”
Dance in Place Congo (1906) is both a ballet and a tone poem for orchestra. Its first version was a pantomime ballet, but soon thereafter the composer adapted his score into a composition for orchestra. The tone poem—describing the barbaric revels on a late Sunday afternoon of slaves in Place Congo, a section on the outskirts of New Orleans—opens in a dark mood which achieves a climax with an outcry in the orchestra. At this point a bamboula melody is heard in full orchestra. It is permitted to gain in intensity until it acquires barbaric ferocity. When the passions are spent, a beautiful romantic section unfolds, occasionally interrupted by a recall of the bamboula theme. Various Negro songs and dances are then presented over an insistent rhythm. The somber mood of the opening is brought back to conclude the composition.
The Indian Sketches for orchestra (1921) presents several facets of American-Indian life. “They are,” explains the composer, “for the most part not musical pictures of definite incidents so much as they are musical mood pictures.” There are six sections. The first, a prelude, is music of savage power. This is followed by the subjective music of the “Invocation,” a prayer or supplication of the Great Spirit. “Song of the World” briefly develops a cry of the Kutenai Indians, and “Camp Dance” is a scherzo portraying the lighter side of Indian life. “Nocturne” is a romantic description of the dark forests alive with the distant sounds of birds and animals. The suite concludes with the “Snake Dance,” suggested by a prayer dance for rain of the Hopi Indians in Arizona.
Don Gillis was born in Cameron, Missouri, on June 17, 1912. He was graduated from Christian University at Fort Worth, Texas in 1936, after having engaged in various musical activities including the direction of a band and a symphony orchestra, and the writing of two musical comedies produced at the University. Following the completion of his education he became a member of the faculty of Christian University and Southwest Baptist Seminary; served as a trombonist and arranger for a Fort Worth radio station; and played the trombone in the Fort Worth Symphony. In 1944 he became a producer for the National Broadcasting Company in New York, taking charge of many important programs including those of the NBC Symphony.
As a composer of symphonies and other orchestral compositions Gillis reveals a refreshing sense of humor as well as a delightful bent for whimsy, qualities which make some of his works ideal for programs of light music. He has often drawn inspiration and materials from American folk music and jazz, consistently producing music that combines sound musical values with sound entertainment. “My feeling,” he has said, “is that music is for the people and the composer’s final aim should be to reach them. And since the people whistle and sing, I should like them to whistle and sing my music.” Thus Gillis aims for simplicity, sincere emotions, and sheer fun. “I have tried to write so that there will be a feeling of enjoyment in the fun of the thing.”
Portrait of a Frontier Town, a suite for orchestra (1940), is a tuneful composition consisting of five short movements. The title of each of these provides the clue to the programmatic content of the music. The first, “Chamber of Commerce,” portrays the activities of such an organization in a typical American town. “Where the West Begins” tells of the opening of the West through two significant musical subjects, the first for strings, and the second for oboe, flute, and clarinet. “Ranch House Party” is described in the score as “brightly—in a gay manner.” A jovial melody first given by the full orchestra gives prominent attention to percussion instruments. This is followed by a mood picture, “Prairie Sunset” in which the English horn, answered by the clarinet, presents the main melody. The suite concludes with “Main Street Saturday Night,” in which gaiety and abandon alternate with suggestions of nostalgia.
Symphony No. 5½ (1947), is one of the composer’s wittiest works which he himself subtitled as “a symphony for fun.” It consists almost entirely of jazz melodies, some treated in burlesque fashion; the work also quotes some famous melodies in a facetious manner. The four movements have whimsical titles: “Perpetual Emotion,” “Spiritual?”, “Scherzophrenia” and “Conclusion.”
Alberto Ginastera was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on April 11, 1916. He was graduated with honors from the National Conservatory in his native city where, in 1953, he became professor. In 1946 he visited the United States remaining a year on a Guggenheim Fellowship. Ginastera’s music combines musical elements native to Argentina with modern techniques and idioms, and includes ballets, chamber music, a Pastoral Symphony and other works for orchestra, and pieces for the piano.
The Dances from the ballet, Estancia (1941) is among his most popular works. The ballet, choreography by George Balanchine, was first introduced by the Ballet Caravan. It describes life on an “estancia,” an Argentine ranch, tracing the activities of its principal character through a single day from dawn of one day to dawn of the next. The orchestral dances are rich in native melodies and rhythms, presenting the various dance sequences in “stylized version.” Two dances are especially popular: “Dance of the Wheat” and “Malambo.”
Alexander Glazunov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on August 10, 1865. As a boy he studied music privately while attending a technical high school. At fifteen he became a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov in harmony, counterpoint and orchestration. Such was his progress that only one year later he completed a gifted symphony which was performed in St. Petersburg in 1882 and acclaimed by several eminent Russian musicians. Between that year and 1900, Glazunov produced most of the works which won him renown not only in Russia but throughout the rest of the music world: symphonies, string quartets, numerous shorter orchestral works, and compositions in a lighter style. Here he was the traditionalist who placed reliance on palatable melodies, sound structures, and heartfelt emotion. For these reasons much of what he has written falls gracefully into the light-classic category. After 1914 he wrote little, nothing to add to his stature. Meanwhile he achieved renown first as professor then as director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He also made successful appearances as conductor following his debut at the Paris Exposition in 1899; his first appearance in the United States took place in Detroit on November 21, 1929. In 1928, Glazunov left his native land for good, and from then until his death on March 21, 1936 his home was in Paris.
The Carnival Overture, or Carnaval, op. 45 (1894) is a brilliant picture of a festival. It opens with a lively dance melody in violins and woodwind. This is followed by a more stately melody in woodwind and violins against a counter-melody in cellos and bassoons. A brief transition leads to the main body of the overture built out of two basic ideas. The first is a gay dance tune in flutes and clarinets; the second provides a measure of contrast through a more reflective subject for oboes, clarinets, horns, and cellos.
From the Middle Ages—a suite for orchestra, op. 79 (1902)—evokes the settings and backgrounds of the middle ages in four sections. The first is a “Prelude,” portraying a castle by the sea, the home of two lovers. Death plays the violin in the second movement, a “Scherzo”; he urges the people to dance to his abandoned fiddling. In the third part, “Serenade,” a troubadour sings his tune. The suite ends with “The Crusaders,” in which soldiers are marching off to war, while priests chant a solemn blessing.
The original title of Ouverture solennelle, op. 73 (1901) was Festival Overture; the music throughout has a festive character. After preliminary chords, woodwind and horns present a subject soon taken over and amplified by the strings. The main part of the overture begins with an expressive and soulful melody for the violins. The second theme is first given by the clarinets against a vigorous accompaniment. After the first theme receives elaboration, the overture concludes with a forceful coda.
The orchestral suite Raymonda, op. 57a, comes from the score to a ballet with choreography by Marius Petipa; it was introduced in St. Petersburg on January 17, 1898. The composer’s first work for the stage, this ballet has for its central character the lovely Raymonda, betrothed to a knight. After the knight has gone off to join the Crusade and fight the Saracens, Raymonda is wooed by a Saracen. When she rejects him he makes an attempt to abduct her. Just then the knight returns, and slays the culprit. The lovers thus reunited, are now able to celebrate their nuptials.
The orchestral suite is a staple in the light-classical repertory. It consists of the following sections: I. “Introduction.” Raymonda’s sorrow at the absence of her lover. A scene in Raymonda’s castle where pages indulge in athletics. II. “La Traditrice.” The dance of pages and maidens. III. “Moderato.” Fanfares announce the arrival of a stranger. Joy and general animation. As Raymonda enters, girls throw flowers in her path. IV. “Andante.” Raymonda is playing the lute outside the castle in the moonlight. Raymonda dances. VI. “Entr’acte; Valse fantastique.” Raymonda dreams she is in fairyland with her beloved. VII. “Grand Pas d’action.” At a feast given by Raymonda at her castle the Saracen appears, woos her, and is spurned. VIII. “Variation.” Raymonda defies the Saracen, who now tries to dazzle her with his wealth. IX. “Dance of the Arab Boys.” “Dance of the Saracens.” X. “Entr’acte.” The triumph of love and the festivities attending the nuptials.
Scènes de ballet, suite for orchestra, op. 52 (1894) is made up of eight parts. The first, “Préamble,” has an extended introduction to a main section in which the main subject is given by the violins. “Marionettes,” offers a lively theme for piccolo and glockenspiel with which this section opens and closes; midway comes a trio with main theme in first violins. The third part is a “Mazurka” for full orchestra. The fourth is a “Scherzo,” its principal idea in muted strings and woodwind. An expressive melody for cellos and violins is the heart of the fifth section, “Pas d’action,” while the sixth, “Dame orientale” is a sensuous, exotic dance melody set against the insistent beats of a tambourine. The ensuing “Valse” begins with an introduction following which the main waltz melody is presented by the violins. The suite concludes with a dashing “Polonaise” for full orchestra.
The orchestral suite, The Seasons, op. 67—like that of Raymonda—comes from a ballet score. The ballet—choreography by Marius Petipa—was first performed in St. Petersburg in 1900. The scenario interprets the four seasons of the year in four scenes and an apotheosis. First comes Winter and her two gnomes; they burn a bundle of faggots, whose heat causes Winter to disappear. Spring now arrives with Zephyr, Birds and Flowers. All of them join in a joyous dance. When Summer comes he is in the company of the Spirit of the Corn. Various flowers perform a dance, then fall exhausted on the ground. Satyrs and fauns, playing on pipes, try to recapture the Spirit of the Corn who is protected by the flowers. In the Autumn scene, Bacchantes perform a dance in the company of the Seasons. The Apotheosis presents an idyllic scene with stars shining brightly in the sky.
The orchestral suite adapted from the ballet score by the composer for concert purposes is one of his best known compositions. It consists of the following sections: I. “Winter: Introduction; The Frost; The Ice; The Hail; The Snow.” II. “Spring.” III. “Summer: Waltz of the Cornflowers and Poppies; Barcarolle; Variation; Coda.” IV. “Autumn: Bacchanale—Petit Adagio. Finale—The Bacchantes and Apotheosis.”
The Valse de concert Nos. 1 and 2, D major and F major respectively, opp. 47 and 51, are among the composer’s most delightful shorter pieces. The first waltz, written in 1893, begins with a brief introduction after which the principal waltz melody is heard first in violas and clarinets, and subsequently in violins. A second theme is then offered by the clarinets against plucked strings, after which the first waltz reappears. The second waltz came one year after the first. This also has a short introduction in which the main waltz melody is suggested. This melody is finally given by the strings. While other thematic material occasionally intrudes, the main waltz subject dominates the entire composition.
Reinhold Glière was born in Kiev, Russia, on January 11, 1875. He was graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1900. After two years in Berlin, he returned to his native land to become professor of composition at the Kiev Conservatory; from 1914 to 1920 he was its director. After 1920 he was a member of the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory. Glière’s most famous works are his third symphony (named Ilia Mourometz) introduced in Moscow in 1912, and the ballet, The Red Poppy. But he wrote many other works—orchestral, chamber, and vocal, as well as ballets. On two occasions he received the Stalin Prize: in 1948 for his fourth string quartet, and two years later for his ballet, The Bronze Horseman. He died in Moscow on June 23, 1956.
Two excerpts from the Soviet ballet, The Red Poppy, are perhaps the composer’s best known compositions. The ballet was first presented in Moscow on June 14, 1927 with extraordinary success. Its setting is a port in China where coolies are exploited. When a Soviet ship comes to port, its captain falls in love with a Chinese girl, Tai-Hao. She is ultimately killed by the port commander while she is trying to escape from China on the Soviet ship. Her last words urge the Chinese to fight for their liberty, and she points to a red poppy as a symbol of their freedom.
The most celebrated single excerpt from this ballet is the Russian Sailors Dance, for orchestra, with which the third act comes to a whirlwind conclusion. The main melody is a simple Russian tune that appears first in lower strings. It is then subjected to a series of variations, and is permitted to gain momentum through acceleration of tempo and expanding sonorities until an orgiastic climax is reached. Less popular, but still often performed, is the “Dance of the Chinese Girls” from the same ballet. A repeated descending interval leads to an Oriental dance in the pentatonic scale; in this dance percussion instruments and the xylophone are used prominently and with telling effect.
Michael Glinka was born to prosperous landowners in Novosspaskoye, in Smolensk, Russia, on June 1, 1804. His academic education took place at a private school in St. Petersburg, while he studied music with Carl Meyer, Carl Boehm and John Field. From 1824 to 1827 he worked in the office of the Ministry of Communications in St. Petersburg. Further music study then took place in Italy and Germany. After returning to his native land in 1834, he was fired with the ambition of writing a national Russian opera. That opera was A Life for the Tsar, produced in 1836, an epoch-making work since it is the foundation upon which all later Russian national music rests. Glinka’s second national opera, Ruslan and Ludmila, produced in 1842, successfully carried on the composer’s national ideals further. In the last years of his life Glinka traveled a great deal, spending considerable time in Paris, Warsaw, and Spain. He died suddenly in Berlin, Germany, on February 15, 1857.
It is impossible to overestimate Glinka’s significance in Russian music. His national operas were the source from which the later nationalists, the “Russian Five” derived their direction and inspiration.
In Jota aragonesa, a “caprice brilliant” for orchestra (1845) Glinka is stimulated by Spanish rather than Russian folk music. This is the first Russian composition to make serious use of Spanish folk idioms. It was written during the composer’s visit to Spain in 1845 where he was fascinated by Spanish folk songs and dances. Within a fantasy form, Glinka poured melodies and dance rhythms closely modeled after the Spanish in which the background, culture, and geography of that colorful country have been fixed.
Kamarinskaya (1848), also for orchestra, is a fantasy in the field in which Glinka was both an acknowledged master and a significant pioneer—Russian folk music. This composition is based on two Russian folk songs heard by the composer in Warsaw: “Over the Hills, the High Hills” (which appears in strings following a brief introduction), and a dance tune, “Kamarinskaya” (first heard in violins).