Neix el 1874 en una família jueva Ashkenazy a la Obere Donaustraße 5 del districte de Leopoldstadt a Viena. El pare, d’origen hongarès, tenia una botiga de sabates, la mare, procedent de Praga, professora de piano. Quan va morir el pare va haver de deixar els estudis i treballar d’administratiu a un banc, dedicant-se a la música i la filosofia els vespres.
Va ser pràcticament autodidacta, rebent només classes de contrapunt d’Alexander Zemlinsky que dirigia una orquestra d’aficionats.
1897: Quartet en D, que serà acceptat per ser interpretat. Zemlinksy en mostrarà un esborrany a Barhms, a qui S admirava.
El 1898 es converteix al luteranisme. Sobreviu dirigint corals i orquestrant operetes [i si aquest ofici li va servir per aprendre?] però ja comença a abandonar l’harmonia i el 1908 deixarà la tonalitat. Quan s’interpreten en públic les seves primeres obres el públic reacciona malament.
El 1901 es casa amb Mathilde, la germana de Zemlinsky, amb qui tindrà dos fills. Aniran a viure a Berlin on viuen com poden ajudats per Richard Strauss. El 1903 tornen a Viena. Es guanyarà la vida donant classe d’harmonia i contrapunt, el 1904 Anton Webern i Alban Berg seran deixebles seus.
1902: Pelleas und Melisande, op. 5. A partir dde l’obra de teatre simbolista de Maurice Maeterlinck (1893), que va ser apreciada per Strindberg i Rilke i que també va inspirar Debussy, Fauré, Jean Sibelius i and Mel Bonis. Mélisande [reina?] ha escapat d’una matrimoni infeliç i ha perdut la corona en un rierol. Golaud, net del rei Arkël, la troba i es casen. Però al cap d’un temps Mélisande s’enamora del germà de Golaud, Pélleas. Sospitant, els fa espirar pel seu fill i els descobreix besant-se. Mata Pélleas i fereix Mélisande, que morirà al cap de poc després de donar llum a una nena molt petita. No s’indica l’època, tret corrent dels drames simbolistes.
1903: Gurrelieder (orquestrat el 1910). Basat en un cicle de poemes de l’escriptor danès Jacobsen sobre una llegenda medieval que canta l’amor del rei Waldemar amb la seva amant Tove. La reina Hedwig la farà matar, per gelosia. Waldemar blasfema maleint Déu per haver permès aquesta tragèdia. Torment espiritual i mort. Al final Waldewar s’aixecaran de les tombes, en una meva de renovació còsmica.
1907: Quartet de Corda no. 2, en Fa sostingut menor (amb Soprano), op. 10. Friede auf Erden, op. 13.
Richard Strauss i Mahler reconeixen el seu talent. El darrer li donarà suport. S d’entrada no era entusiasta de Mahler, però després de la tercera simfonia el venerarà.
Expressionisme 1908-1920
Amb les classes amb prou feines sobreviu. Mahler l’ajudarà a pagar el lloguer i li seguirà donant suport públicament, quan s’executen les seves primeres obres plenes de dissonàncies, tot i confessar que no l’acaba d’entendre .
Coneix els pintors Oskar Kokoschka i Gerstl. Es posa a pintar seriosament. La seva dona té una aventura amb Gerstl i fuig amb ell però al cap d’uns mesos torna. Gerstl es suicida. Fa una exposició de pintura. Coneix Kandinsky amb qui mantindrà una amistat tota la vida.
1909: 3 Stücke per a Piano, op. 11. Fünf Orchesterstücke, op. 16. Erwartung per a Soprano i orquestra, op. 17.
El 1910 es dedica a escriure el tractat Harmonielehre i a orquestrar els Gurre-Lieder. Fracassa a l’hora d’obtenir una plaça a l’Akademie für Musik i el 1911 se’n va a Berlin. Amb dificultats al començament, comença a ser conegut.
1910: Die glückliche Hand per a cor i orquestra, op. 18.
1911: Sechs Kleine Klavierstücke, op. 19. Herzgewächse per a Soprano, op. 20.
1912: Pierrot lunaire, op. 21
1913 Skandalkonzert
1913: 4 Lieder per a veu i orquestra, op. 22.
Quan esclata la WWI disminueix l’activitat musical. És cridat a files però al cap d’un temps és llicenciat per mala salut. Escriu el text de Jacobsleiter o comença a compondre la música, hi treballarà fins 1926, deixant l’obra inacabada. Serà completada per seu deixeble Winfried Zillig. Dificultats econòmiques, ha de deixar el pis en no poder pagar el lloguer. Funda un seminari per ensenyar música i després una societat per interpretar obres modernes, on cadascu pagaria el que pogués.
Es formula el serialisme. [En lloc de fer servir les escales tonals, 7 notes triades entre les 12 possibles] es determina una sèrie que farà servir les 12 notes [s’haurà d’estendre més d’una octava si no és un seguit cromàtic].
1920: 5 Stücke per a Piano, op. 23 (1920/23). Serenade, op. 24 (1920/23)
1921: Suite per a Piano, op. 25 (1921/23)
El 1923 mor Mathilde Schoenberg died. Escriu un text “Rèquiem”, que no acabrà de dur a música. L’any següent es casa amb la germana d’un deixeble, Gertrud Kolisch (1898–1967), [24 anys més jove], amb qui tindrà tres fills, Dorothea Nuria (nascuda a Barcelona el 1932, que es casaria amb Luigi Nono), Rudolf Ronald (b 1937) i Lawrence Adam (b 1941).
El 1925 és convidat a fer-se càrrec de les classes magistrals de composició a la Akademie der Künste a Berlin. Per primer cop té unes bones condicions de treball i temps per compondre.
1927 Quartet de corda no. 3, op. 30
1928: Variacions per a orquestra, op. 31. 2 Stücke per a Piano, op. 33 [1928-1931].
1930 Moses und Aron [hi treballarà fins el 1937 però el deixarà inacabat]. 6 Stücke per a cor masculí, op. 35.
Pateix d’asma i es trasllada a Barcelona, (baixada de Briz, cantonada amb Verdi, a Vallcarca, en una torre), on tenia amics com el compositor català Robert Gerhard i el poeta Carles Sindreu, que li feia de professor de tennis. Hi va néixer la seva filla, a qui van posar el nom català de Núria. El 3 d’abril de 1932 es va celebrar un concert en honor seu al Palau de la Música Catalana, on es van interpretar obres com La nit transfigurada o Pel·leas i Melisanda. El concert va ser interpretat per l’orquestra Pau Casals i dirigit pel mateix Arnold Schönberg.
Als USA troba una feina primer a Boston, però els hiverns freds no eren bons per a la seva salut i es trasllada a los Angeles on troba una feina de professor a la UCLA, recomanat per Otto Klemperer, director de la Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Es va com0prar una casa a Brentwood Park, davant d’on vivia Shirley Temple. Es va fer amic de George Gershwin, amb qui jugava a tenis. Convidaven a bon cafè i pastisseria vienesa a músics com Otto Klemperer, Edgard Varèse o actors com Harpo Marx i Peter Lorre.
Alguns compositors de bandes sonores de Hollywood també van estudiar amb ell (NY How Arnold Schoenberg changed Hollywood), George Tremblay, Edward Powell i Leonard Rosenman. Rosenman, autor de 130 obres entre les més conegudes, East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Barry Lyndon, Race with the Devil, i The Lord of the Rings en dibuixos. Va començar a fer-ho quan un dels seus estudiants de piano, James Dean va ser contractat per East of Eden i el va incorporar. The Cobwebb de 1955 és la banda sonora més dodecafònica de Hollywood. “The great man was not displeased to receive these genuflections, although he appeared to resent the idea that his non-tonal vocabulary was useful primarily as an expressive crutch for scenes of tension and terror” [ho havia dit!]
També va influir els músics de jazz. Dennis Sandole, mentor de John Coltrane, havia estudiat a fons la seva Harmonielehre.
1934: Concert per a violí, op. 36. Quartet de corda No. 4, op. 37.
1938: Kol nidré per a cor i orquestra, op. 39
1939: Simfonia de cambra núm. 2, op. 38 (començada 1906)
1941: Variacions sobre un recitatiu, per a orgue, op. 40
1942: Oda a Napoleó Bonaparte, per a veu i Quintet amb piano, op. 41. Concert per a piano, op. 42.
1943: Tema i Variacions per a Banda, op. 43a, Tema i Variacions per a orquestra, op. 43b.
Tot i la vida confortable, durant aquests anys patia pels fets de la guerra i la sort de coneguts. Va admetre tenir depressió. Considerava tornar a emigrar- El 1944 la seva salut es va deteriorar, amb diabetis i l’asma que havia tingut tota la vida, agreujat. Va haver de deixar el lloc a la universitat però com que la pensió era petita, es va veure obligat a seguir donant classes particulars. Vivia com un invàlid. La seva obra va ser reconeguda i el va alegrar la fundació de l’estat d’Israel.
Va morir 13 de juliol de 1951, amb 76 anys, angoixat per la coincidència amb el número 13 (7+6=13).
1945: Preludi al “Gènesi” per a cor i orquestra, op. 44
1946: Trio de corda, op. 45
1947: Un supervivent a Varsòvia, op. 46
1948: 3 Cançons Populars, op. 48
1949: Fantasia per a violí i piano, op. 47. Dreimal tausend Jahre, op. 50a (1949)
(G) Excepcionalment dotat, va anar redescobrint pel seu compte les normes de l’harmonia clàssica i les estenia, gairebé a contracor. Mai va ser ben rebut i va trobar una justificació en la religió. Veia tota la gran música com un anhel de l’ànima per Déu i el geni representant un home del futur que seria més espiritual. Tornà al judaisme amb intensitat i considerà dedicar-se a consolidar l’estat d’Israel. Veia el compositor com a sacerdot de Déu.
De caràcter difícil, però d’una honestedat total.
El pare havia estudiat filosofia i era director d’una escola. Vivien a una barriada de Viena, Liechtental. El seu pare el va iniciar al violí i el piano però veient el seu talent, el van enviar al mestre de capella del barri, Michael Holzer, per estudiar harmonia, cant, viola, orgue i baix continu.
El 1808 fa un examen brillant per a una plaça al cor de nens de la capella imperial i així podrà assistir també a, col·legi Stadtkonvikt. Aquí destacarà en una petita orquestra com a violinista i Salieri s’interessa per ell. Comença a llegir Goethe i fa les primeres composicions.
El 1812 mor la seva mare. El seu pare volia que fos mestre pero Franz sentia que la música era la seva vocació. El 1813 assisteix a una representació d’Ifigènia a Tàurida de Glück, que li causa una gran impressió, allà coneix el poeta Theodor Körner.
1810
D 1, Fantasia en GM a piano a 4 mans
1811
D 9, Fantasia en Gm per a piano a 4 mans
1812 Der Spiegelritter (El cavaller del mirall), òpera inacabada. Quartet de corda D18, D32, D94. Trio D28. Primers lieder.
1813. Sis quartets de corda. D36, D46, D68, D74, D87 Simfonia No1 D82. Òpera Des Teufels Lustschloss
D 48, Fantasia en Cm per a piano a 4 mans, Grande Sonate
El 1814 entra a l’Escola Normal, de la qual n’era director el seu germà Ferdinand per obtenir el títol d’ajudant d’instructor i així integrar-se a l’escola que dirigia el seu pare.
Schubert el 1814
1814
25 Lieder, Gretchen am Spinnrade D118 sobre un poema de Goethe.
Missa D105 FM. Simfonia No2 BbM D 125. Quartets de corda D103, D 112.
1815 Quatre òperes
145 lieder, Erlkönig (El rei dels verns) D328.
Simfonia No3 DM D200, Missa No2 D167 GM, Missa no3 D324 BbM. Quartet de corda D173. D 157, Sonata per a piano EM. D 279, Sonata per a piano en CM.
1816 -1821 Schubertíades
El 1816 es distancia del pare, no vol ser mestre, vol dedicar-se a la composició. El seu amic Franz von Schober l’acull a casa seva. Comença un període en què viurà a casa d’amics, intel·lectuals procedents de la burgesia, tavernes[salons on s’interpretaven les seves cançons], lluny dels salons de l’aristocràcia.
1816 Simfonia No4 Cm “Tràgica” D417, Simfonia No5 BbM D485.
94 Lieder.
Missa No4 CM D452.
Quartet de corda No11, D353 EM. Trio D471. Sonates per violí i piano D384 DM, D385 Am, D408 AM.D 459, Sonata per a piano en EM.
1817.
Trio D581.
42 Lieder: Der Tod und das Mädchen D531, An die Musik D 547, Die Forelle, D550.
Sonata per violí i piano D574 AM.
D 537, Sonata per a piano en Am. D 557, Sonata per a piano en AbM. D 566, Sonata per a piano en Em. D 568, Sonata per a piano en DbM. D 571, Sonata per a piano en F#m. D 575, Sonata per a piano en BM
Deixa les classes amb Salieri. Coneix el baríton Michael Vogl de qui serà amic. Quan Schobert s’ha de fer càrrec del seu germà ha de tornar a casa del seu pare i treballar. Rossini es fa popular a Viena. La seva Obertura Italiana és interpretada en un concert públic i és ben acollida. El comte Johann Esterházy el contracta per 75 florins mensuals com a preceptor musical de les seves filles: Carolina, de tretze anys, i Maria, de quinze. Viurà al castell de Zseliz uns mesos fins que el comte es trasllada a Viena. S’instal·la a casa de Mayhöffer. Els matins es dedica a compondre. Fa classes de música i assisteix a tertúlies a cafès, regades de vi i cervesa. Coneix el mecenes Ignaz von Sonnleithner que es converteix en el seu protector. A l’estiu va a Steyr, acompanyat de Vogl, envoltat de naturalesa.
1818.
Simfonia No6 CM D589.
D 625, Sonata per a piano en Fm. D 664, Sonata per a piano en AM.
Piano a 4 mans: D 602 Tres marxes heroiques. D 608, Rondó en DM, Notre amitié est invariable. D 617, Sonata en BbM. D599 Quatre poloneses. D603. D 624, Vuit Variacions en una Cançó francesa en Em. D 819, Sis Grandes marxes D 733, Tres Marxes Militars. D 968, Allegro moderato en CM i Andante en Am. D 618, Dansa alemanya en GM amb 2 Trios i 2 Ländler en EM.
El 1819 hi ha tot de revoltes socials i compondrà menys. El seu amor de joventut, Therese Grob, es casa i això el deixa en un estat d’ànim pessimista i desconfiat. Les composicions mostren una maduresa consolidada.
1819 D 667, Quintet AM, La truita.
D 675, Obertura en FM per a piano a 4 mans. D 668, Obertura en Gm
Schubertiades. Un grup d’amics i estudiants es trobava per parlar i fer música, sovint a casa d’Ignaz von Sonnleithner a Gundelhof (Brandstätte 5). El 1820 Schubert i quatre dels seus amics van ser arrestats per la policia, que volia controlar els estudiants sospitosos de donar suport a les idees revolucionàries en el marc de les guerres napoleòniques. Un d’ells, Senn, elpoeta de Schwanengesang i Selige Welt, va ser empresonat i desterrat. Schubert era baixet i els seus amics l’anomenaven “Schwammerl” (bolet). Solia beure molt.
1820 Selige Welt (D. 743) i Schwanengesang (D 744), D 703, Quartet de corda núm. 12, D 703, Quartettsatz. D 689, Oratori Lazarus.
Les composicions són més madures, l’oratori Lazarus, la fantasia Wanderer. Es posen en escena dues òperes, Die Zwillingsbrüder (D. 647) i Die Zauberharfe. Tot i això les editorials com Diabelli, encara no confien en ell. Quan Vogl interpreta Der Erlkönig aun concert, és molt ben rebut. Però tots els esforços per tenir èxit als escenaris, fracassen, en part per la popularitat de Rossini.
[De tota la música que escrivia, a banda de les cançons i quartets que tocaven entre amics, que poca arribava al públic! Les simfonies que ara escoltem amb devoció no s’estrenaven]
1821-1828 Maduresa
Els seus lieder i peces per a piano eren escoltats a les trobades d’amics, les Schubertiades, però no arribaven al gran públic. Coneix el pintor Moritz von Schwind que es convertirà en un dels seus grans amics. S’estrena amb èxit Der Freischütz de Weber, cosa que anima Schubert a completar l’òpera Alfons i Estrella que no s’arribarà a estrenar. És acceptat a la Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde i això permetrà que algunes peces es programin als concerts.
1821 Missa núm. 5 en AbM D678. Wanderer Fantasie. D 729, Simfonia No7 EM
D 759. D 708A, Esborrany d’una Simfonia en DM
El 1822 coneix Weber i Beethoven, però no se’n seguirà res tot i que Beethoven el valorà força. Comença a compondre la Simfonia No8 Bm D759, inacabada. Ho fa en secret, sense comentar-ho als amics, com si estigués fascinat amb el que anava construint.
1822 D759, Simfonia No8 en Bm
A començaments de 1823 contrau la sífilis, malaltia que li amargaria els darrers anys de la seva vida.
Segueix component òperes. El cicle de lieder Die schöne Müllerin (La bella molinera) sobre 20 pomes de Wilhem Müller. (WK): “Al començament del cicle, un home jove vaga alegrement pel camp. Arriba a un rierol, que segueix fins al molí. Allà s’enamora d’una bella jove que hi treballa, la “bella molinera” del títol. Intenta impressionar-la, però la seva resposta és ambigua. El jove és aviat substituït en els seus afectes per un caçador vestit de verd, el color d’una cinta que ell va lliurar a la noia. En la seva angoixa experimenta una obsessió amb el color verd, després amb una fantasia de mort en la qual les flors neixen a la seva tomba, per expressar el seu amor etern; en el lied Adelaide, de Beethoven, existeix una fantasia similar. Al final, el jove es desespera i se suïcida ofegant-se al rierol. L’últim número és una cançó de bressol cantada pel corrent.”
1823
D 784, Sonata per a piano en Am.
El 1824 torna uns mesos a Zselz convidat pel comte Esterházy, i després torna a Viena, primer a casa el pare i després a casa de Schwind. La malaltia sembla que remet i torna a les reunions felices amb els amics.
1824
Rondó per violí i piano D895, Bm. D 803, Octet en FM. D 804, Quartet de corda no 13 Am “Rosamunde”. D 810, Quartet de corda no 14 Dm, “La Mort i la donzella”.
Piano a 4: D 818, Divertissement à la hongroise en Gm. D 812, Sonata en CM, Magnífic Duo. D 813, Vuit Variacions en un tema original en AbM. D 814, Quatre Ländler.
1825 D 840, Sonata per a piano en CM. D 845, Sonata per a piano en Am. D 850, Sonata per a piano en DM Gasteiner Piano a 4: D 859, Grande Marche Funèbre en Cm. D 885, Grande Marche Héroique en Am.
1826
D 887, Quartet de corda no15 GM.
D 894, Sonata per a piano en GM, Fantasia
Piano a 4: D 824, Sis Poloneses. D 823, Divertissement sur des motifs originaux français en Em.El 1827 aspira a director de la capella de la cort però és rebutjat. Tot i les trobades amb els amics, aquests darrers dos anys pateix depressió i la seva solitud es tradueix en una música molt personal i madura. L’afectà la mort de Beethoven i es proposà música més ambiciosa. [feta per a ell, i no per passar-ho bé a les Schubertíades].
Es publica la primera part del cicle Winterreise sobre poemes de Wilhem Müller, el mateix del cicle de Die schöne Müllerin. “Estranger vaig arribar, estranger me’n vaig” de nit, a l’hivern, després de ser rebutjat per l’estimada. Solitud i desesperació a través de paisatges desolats, rierols glaçats, camins coberts de neu.
1827 Fantasia en CM per a violí i piano D934. D 872, “Deutsche Messe”
D 899, Quatre impromptus per a piano. D 935, Quatre Impromptus, per a piano.
Piano a 4: D 908, Vuit Variacions en un tema de Hérold Òpera Marie. D 928, Kindermarsch GM. D 968B, Deux March Caractéristiques en CM.1828
El 1828, potser pressentint que ja no viuria molt més escriu molta música. El quintet per a dos violoncels D956 la mort i la donzella, el cicle Schwanengesang. El 26/3, en l’aniversari de la mort de Beethoven, va poder fer un concert amb les seves obres i va tenir força èxit. Volia estudiar més harmonia i contrapunt.
Visita el metge Ernst Rinna que li podria haver confirmat que no li quedava gaire temps. Els símptomes que presentava semblen indicar enverinament per mercuri, que era un tractament habitual er la sífilis. 5 dies abans de morir, el seu amic violinista Karl Holz el visità amb els membres del quartet per fer tocar música per a ell. Va demanar el Quartet de Beethoven No. 14 in C#m, Op. 131 i Holz comentà “el rei de l’harmonia ha enviat al rei de la cançó una proposta amistosa per la travessa”. Moria el 19 de novembre de 1828 amb 38 anys a casa del seu germà Ferdinand.[
De la gran quantitat de lieder, el famós Ave Maria o Ellens Gesang III (Cants d’Elena III, D. 839), Ständchen (Serenata, D. 889), An die musik (A la música, D. 547), Die Forelle (La truita, D. 550).
Els seus cicles de lieder, Die schöne Müllerin (La bella molinera, D. 795), Winterreise (Viatge d’hivern, D.911), Schwanengesang (El cant del cigne, D. 957), Erl-König (El rei dels alisos), cicle estrenat en el Kärntherthor Theater el 7 de març de 1821, pel baríton]
rt’s Schwanengesang (“Swan Song”) is a posthumously compiled song collection, not a cohesive cycle like Winterreise, but it shares themes of longing, heartbreak, and existential reflection. Unlike Winterreise, the songs in Schwanengesang come from two poets, Ludwig Rellstab and Heinrich Heine, with a final piece by Johann Gabriel Seidl, covering a range of emotional landscapes.
The Rellstab songs (the first seven in the collection) often center on themes of unfulfilled love and longing, with the natural world mirroring the protagonist’s feelings, somewhat in the style of Schubert’s earlier romantic settings. The Heine songs (songs 8-13) delve into darker, more psychologically complex territory, reflecting bitterness, betrayal, and a haunting, surreal quality. For instance, “Der Doppelgänger” is one of the most intense songs, where the protagonist encounters his spectral double, a striking image of despair and self-recognition.
The last song, “Die Taubenpost,” written by Seidl, has a lighter, wistful tone that contrasts with the previous songs, expressing an idealized longing and hope. Thematically, Schwanengesang reflects many of Schubert’s core preoccupations: the transience of love, the inevitability of sorrow, and the mystery of the human condition. Together, these songs represent a kind of final statement, or “swan song,” from Schubert, who died shortly after composing them.
1828.
Quintet en CM D956. Trios D897, D898, D929. D 950
Missa núm. 6 en EbM. D 936A
Esborrany d’una Simfonia No10 DM. D 944, Simfonia No9 en CM “la gran”.
D 958, Sonata per a piano en Cm. D 959, Sonata per a piano en AM. D 960, Sonata per a piano en BbM. D946 Drei Klavierstücke.
Piano a 4: D 940, Fantasia en Fm. D 947, Allegro en Am, Lebensstürme. D 951, Rondó en AM. D 952, Fuga en mi menor per a duet d’orgue o piano a 4 mans
casesGaleria Recordo les novel·les de Fenimore Cooper sobre el Far West que li agradava llegir
[Un dels trets que m’ha semblat identificar en unes quantes obres de Schubert és la contraposició de dos motius, un que expressa tensió i conflicte, i l’altre una alegria feliç i serena. L’efecte és molt intens. Ho tenim molt clarament a la cançó Erlkönig, i al segon moviment de la sonata D566. [veure playlist: D328 Erlkönig, Candó D531 i Quartet D810 Der Tod und das Mädchen, Sonata per piano D566, Quintet la truita D667.1, Trio D898.2. Simfonia no8 D759.1, D784.3, Sonata D840.1, Rondo D850.4, Sonata D894.1, Winterreise D911 Gute Nacht, Andante Simfonia 6, Trio D929, Trio D956.2 D956.4, Fantasia D940, D947.]
1685 Neix a Eisenach (100 km W de Leipzig) en una família amb 200 anys d’antecedents musicals. El seu pare tocava el violí i després va tenir el càrrec de trompetista de la ciutat [encara avui a Polònia un trompetista toca des de la torre de l’ajuntament]
La casa on va néixer i actualment museu
Horari d’escola, catecisme, gramàtica i caligrafia. Els dies de la setmana amb els símbols dels planetes. Educació obligatòria entre els 5 i els 15 anys. Podien triar entre escola alemanya o la llatina, més prestigiosa, on va anar Bach. Classe de 6-9, o 7-10 a l’hivern, i a la tarda, de 1 a 3. Es registren moltes absències, 96 mitges classes; o estava malalt, o ajudava al seu pare. Va saltar la sexta i va entrar directament a quinta, amb 7 anys.
Plaça i església.
El 1694 mor la seva mare i el 1695 el seu pare. Es trasllada a Ohrdruf, a casa del seu germà Johann Christoph, 14 anys més gran, organista a l’església de Sant Miquel. Aprèn a tocar l’orgue. Obté una beca per estudiar a la prestigiosa Escola de sant Miquel a Lüneburg prop de Hamburg, 340km al nord. Canta al cor, estudia les obres de Schultz, Pachelbel, Froberger i Buxtehude. Estudia amb l’organista Georg Böhm.
D’Arnstadt a Weimar (1703-08)
Set mesos com a violinista a l’orquestra de la cort ducal de Joan Ernest III a Weimar . El prestigi com a teclista fa que el cridin a Arnstadt a inspeccionar i inaugurar l’orgue de la St. Bonifatius-Kirche a Arnstadt. 14/08/1703 nés nomenat organista. Compon les primeres obres. Viatge a Lübeck per conèixer i estudiar amb Buxtehude.
L’escultura de la plaça evoca un Bach de 18 anys
[Són d’aquesta època alguns corals per orgue, els BWV 541 750 582 562 i 565, i notablement BWV992 Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo fratello dilettissimo potser amb motiu de l’allistament del seu germà Johann Jacob.]
El 1707 agafa el lloc d’organista a l’església de Sant Blai de Mühlhausen. Es casa Maria Barbara, la seva cosina en segon grau que cantava al cor, amb qui tindrà 7 fills dels que en sobreviuran 4, entre ells Wilhelm Friedemann i Carl Philipp Emanuel que arribaran a ser importants compositors.
Un Bach de 22 anys a Muhlhausen, a l’església de Sant Divi-Blasi
Escriu la cantata inaugural Gott ist mein König, BWV 71, i també les primeres cantates religioses de Bach: BWV 4, 106, 131, 150.
1698: orgue BWV 570
1699: orgue BWV 551, 700, 724
1700: orgue BWV 568, 750, 766
1701: orgue BWV 741
1703: orgue BWV 531, 569
1704 orgue BWV 533, 563, 565, 588, 589, 719, 721, 723, 725, 737, 739, 742, 770, Clave Capriccio per la marxa d’un germà estimat BWV 992
1706: Orgue BWV 765
1707 orgue BWV 582, 722, clave Toccatas BWV 911-916, Quodlibet BWV524 [que recorda una òpera de Mozart]
Weimar 1708-1717
Càrrec d’organista de la cort del duc Guillem Ernest de Saxònia-Weimar. El duc és un coneixedor de la música italiana i Bach podrà estudiar obres de Vivaldi, Corelli, Albinoni, Couperin i Händel. Comença a compondre alguns dels preludis i fugues del clave ben temperat BWV 846-893 i l’Orgelbüchlein BWV599-644 per que estudii el seu fill gran Wilhelm Friedemann. El 1714 ascendeix a konzertmeister de la cort. Comença un cicle de cantates, una cada mes: BWV 182, 12, 172, 18, 21, 54 i 185. En morir el mestre de capella Drese, Bach aspirava a succeir-lo però el duc nomenarà el fill de Drese. Bach, descontent, accepta una oferta a Köthen. (El duc s’hi oposa i empresona Bach durant tres setmanes). En un viatge a Dresde havia de competir amb Louis Marchand, un famós organista francès. Diuen que la nit abans, quan Marchand el va sentir assajar, va marxar a correcuita per no quedar en ridícul.
1715: Motet BWV 228, Sonata per violí i clave BWV 1023
1717: Orgue BWV 690, 694, 695, 696, 697, 698, 699
Köthen (1717-23)
El príncep Leopold, ell mateix un violinista expert, li dóna el títol de kapellmeister, un bon sou, i li deixa temps per compondre. No és dels nobles més rics però és un gran amant de la música. Bach acompanya el príncep quan viatja als banys termals de Karlsbad. Compon música profana ja que el príncep és calvinista i no fa servir música als oficis. Bach se sentirà ben tractat però troba a altar expressar la religiositat musicalment. Mantindran una bona relació quan se’n vagi a Leipzig.
Suites per a orquestra
les sis Suites per a violoncel sol
les Sonates i partites per a violí so
els Concerts de Brandenburg
la primera part d’El clavecí ben temprat
El 1721 mor Maria Barbara. Es torna a casar aviat amb Anna Magdalena, una bona cantant, amb qui tindrà tretze fills, sis dels quals sobreviuran. Aquesta etapa es deteriora quan la nova esposa del príncep que no té interès per la música, n’allunya el seu espòs.
1713: Canon BWV 1073
1714: teclat Suites angleses 1 i 2 BWV 806-807
1717: Clave Fantasia cromàtica BWV 903, Preludi i fuga BWV 904, Sis petits preludis BWV 933-938, Sonates per flauta i bc BWV 1034-1035
1719: teclat 15 Invencions i 15 simfonies BWV772-801, Partita per flauta BWV 1013
1720: clave Preludis (dels 12) BWV 924-830 999, Suite per llaüt BWV 997, Sonates i partitas per violí BWV 1001-1006, Sis suites per a cello BWV 1007-1012, Sonates per violí i clace BWV 1014-1018.
1721: Concerts de Brandeburg BWV 1046-1051
1722: orgue BWV 573, 728, (740, 745), 6 Suites franceses per clave BWV 812-817, 818, El Clave ben Temperat I 1-24 BWV 846-869. [Mozart va arranjar 5 fugues al KV405]
Leipzig (1723-1750)
El 1723, amb 38 anys, es presenta a la plaça de Kantor a l’església de Sant Tomàs a Leipzig, un càrrec depenent de l’ajuntament de la ciutat que estava dividit entre monàrquics i representants de la classe mercantil. Una de les posicions musicals més prestigioses d’Alemanya. Bach havia de compondre pels oficis de Sant Tomàs i ensenyar els alumnes de la Thomasschule. Va tenir freqüents conflictes amb l’ajuntament quant a les condicions de treball. Els dos primers anys compon dos cicles sencers de cantates, una per setmana, que culminaven en les dues passions.
A partir de 1729 assumeix la direcció del Collegium Musicum, i recupera la música instrumental que havia compost a Köthen.
Malgrat totes les enrabiades i decepcions acaba tenint un reconeixement, el 1736, el rei de Polònia i elector de Saxònia el va nomenar compositor de cort. Amb aquesta ocasió, va viatjar a Dresden per oferir a la cort un concert amb el nou orgue de la Frauenkirche, que va deixar admirats tots, en particular el comte de Kayserling, ambaixador rus, a petició del qual va escriure més tard les Variacions Goldberg, per a Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (1727-56), protegit de Kayserling.
El maig de 1747 visita Frederic el Gran a Berlín el maig de 1747 que li proposarà improvisar sobre el tema de l’ofrena musical. A casa tenia la seva esposa que l’adorava i una colla de fills que a mesura que es feien grans, tocaven música amb ell.
Evocació d’un vespre a casa de Bach
Els últims anys els gustos musicals anaven canviant i ja no era tan admirat. Va començar tenir problemes de visió i dues operacions del cirurgià anglès John Taylor el van deixar cec. El testimoni del seu deixeble Johann Christoph Altnickol explica que just abans de morir va recuperar la vista per uns instants i va dir “Magdalena, on ara vaig veuré colors més bonics i sentiré la música que fins ara només hem pogut somiar. I els meus ulls veuran el Senyor!”. Va demanar que cantessin alguna cosa i van cantar el coral “Tots els homes han de morir”. Moria amb 65 anys un 28 de juliol de 1750.
La seva música va seguir essent valorada per un cercle d’entesos a Berlín. El seu deixeble Johann Philipp Kirnberger. Sara Levy, deixeble del fill de Bach i tia àvia de Mendelsohn, que acollia un prestigiós saló musical. La Princesa Anna Amalia de Prússia, estudiant de Kirnberger interessada en contrapunt i també compositora.
1723: Motet BWV 227, 230, Suites angleses per clave 3-5 BWV808- 811, Suite per clave 819.
1724: Orgue BWV 537, 539, Passió segons Sant Joan BWV 245, Suite per Orquestra 1 BWV 1066
1725: Motet BWV029, 6 partites per clave BWV 825-830
1726: Orgue BWV 726, Motet BWV 225, clave dels 12 Petits preludis BWV 939-942, 943, Suite per Orquestra 4 BWV 1069
1727: Passió segons Sant Mateu BWV 244, suite per llaüt BWV 995, Concert per flauta, violí i orquestra BWV 1044, Canon BWV 1074
1729: Motet BWV 226, 229, Sonata per violí i clave BWV 1019
1730: Triosonates per orgue BWV525-530, BWV 583, 586, 587, 590, , BWV 529 Sonata per viola de gamba (orig orgue), Sonata per flauta i bc BWV 1030, Concerts per violí i orquestra BWV 1041-1043, Concerts per clave BWV 1063-1065, Suite per Orquestra 3 BWV 1068
1732: Sonata per violí i clave BWV 1021, Concert per clave BWV 1061
1733: Magnificat BWV 243, Overtura a la francesa clave BWV 831, Concerto italiano clave BWV 971
1734: Oratori de Nadal BWV 248, Corals BWV 250-252, 260, Canon BWV 1075
1736: Suite per llaüt BWV 1006, sonata per flauta i bc BWV 1032, Concert per clave BWV 1060, 1062
1738: Misses BWV 233, 234, 235, 236, Concerts per clave BWV 1052-1058, Suite per Orquestra 2 BWV 1067
For Bach is of the very front rank of composers since 1700 whose entire work was geared, one way or another, towards the spiritual and the metaphysical – celebrating life, but also befriending and exorcising death. He saw both the essence and practice of music as religious, and understood that the more perfectly a composition is realised, both conceptually and through performance, the more God is immanent in the music. (p.45).
Al museu Bach d’Eisenach s’indica que a l’inventari de llibres que es va fer després de la seva mort hi havia 52 llibres de teologia en 81 volums.
Gardiner explica que el paper per escriure partitures era més gruixut i car, i que Bach l’aprofitava tot el que podia. Tenia una ploma especial de 5 punte sper traçar el pentagrama. Tinters amb tinta negra, sèpia i vermella. Plomes i ganivets per esmolar-les, i sorra per assecar la tinta.
El museu Bach de Leipzig explica dificultats per determinar les partitures. La tinta que feia servir al cap del temps és corrosiva pel paper. Els originals de Bach del baix continu, sovint no tenen tots els detalls. Les còpies de les parts tenen més detalls però són susceptibles de tenir més errors.
BWV 008 BWV 0008 – Kantate ‘Liebster Gott’, que escoltava a Leipzig un desembre de 2012.
BWV 1046-1051 Els concerts de Brandeburg que reproduïa mentalment a l’autobús a l’adolescència.
BWV 988 Les variacions Golderg que escoltava als 18 anys una vegada i altra en versió de Wilhem Kempf.
BWV 1001-1006 Partites per violí en versió de Henryk Szering
NOTES GARDINER
Gardiner diu que era una mica com un entrenador de futbol, que havia de tenir en compte si tenia algún intèrpret malalt, com els jugadors lesionats, o si necessitava negociar amb els stadtpfeiffer per disposar de trompetes si era una ocasió que requeria una música més brillant.
Com un gran jugador d’escacs, podia considerar tots els possibles desenvolupaments possibles a partir d’un situació determinada, i triar el millor.
Xostakóvitx és un dels músics més importants del segle XX, amb una producció formidable que inclou quinze simfonies, quinze quartets de corda, dues òperes, una opereta, sis concerts, música de cambra, cicles de cançons, música per a piano, cantates, oratoris, amb un inconfusible llenguatge musical, sovint inquietant, sarcàstic i amarg, i sempre vinculat fortament a les circumstàncies que va viure (i que va patir) durant tota la seva vida. Les seves nombroses partitures cinematogràfiques, una extensa música teatral incidental i tres ballets són de qualitat més variable. Després d’un període avantguardista inicial, Xostakóvitx es va adherir al romanticisme musical, en la línia de Mahler. No obstant això, va fer algunes incursions en el terreny de l’atonalitat. La seva música sol incloure contrastos aguts i elements grotescs. Autor prolífic, en tots els gèneres musicals va aportar un llenguatge no solament personal i distintiu, sinó també renovador i brillant com pocs, la qual cosa li ha fet entrar directament en la història de la música.
Inicis fins 1926
En aquests immediats anys prerevolucionaris, Dmitri va créixer en un entorn privilegiat en comparació amb la gran majoria de ciutadans. La família tenia dos cotxes, una datxa, un piano de la marca Diederichs i comptaven amb un tutor alemany, servents i una mainadera. Era un noi tranquil amb afició a la natura i a caminar, va assistir a l’escola comercial privada Maria Xidlovskaia del 1915 al 1919, juntament amb nens de la intel·lectualitat, com els Trotski, Kustódiev, Kàmenev i Kérenski. La mare, Sofia Vassilievna, va descobrir molt aviat les qualitats privilegiades del seu fill per als assumptes musicals, i es convertí ella mateixa en la seva primera professora de piano. Tan aviat com va començar, els seus dots musicals van florir. En un sol mes ja podia tocar peces simples de Mozart i de Haydn. A mitjan agost de 1915, un mes després d’haver començat les lliçons, la mare de Xostakóvitx el va portar a classes de piano amb el professor més important de Petrograd, Ignatiy Glyasser. Segons sembla, podria tocar tot El clavecí ben temperat.
El 1919 entra al Conservatori dirigit per Alexander Glazunov, que aviat va reconèixer el talent de DX, com a pianista i compositor. Xostakóvitx va ser membre actiu del Cercle de Joves Compositors (1921-1924) i també del Cercle Anna Fogt (1921-1925), dues associacions seguidores de les tendències musicals contemporànies de l’Oest.
Durant els anys posteriors a la Revolució Russa de 1917 fins al final de la Guerra Civil i a la introducció de la Nova Política Econòmica de Lenin el 1921, moltes institucions van quedar sense fons econòmics: el Conservatori no en va ser una excepció i les classes sovint tenien lloc a temperatures gelades. La família de Xostakóvitx, que abans havia estat benestant, també en va patir les conseqüències. El pare de Xostakóvitx va morir de pneumònia el febrer de 1922 i la família va haver de mantenir-se amb la mare mecanografiant i la germana gran donant classes particulars de piano. Sempre va ser un noi malaltís i la primavera de 1923 va desenvolupar tuberculosi i va haver de ser operat dels ganglis limfàtics. Després de completar l’examen final de piano del Conservatori el juny, encara amb el coll embenat, va anar a fer-se cures en un sanatori de Gaspra, a Crimea. Aquest viatge va estimular l’amor pels viatges que va durar la major part de la seva vida (generalment preferia viatjar al sud a la primavera, però passar els mesos d’estiu al nord de Rússia). Allà va conèixer Tatiana Glivenko, filla d’un filòleg de Moscou de qui es va enamorar i amb qui es va escriure gairebé tota la vida.
(1) 1926-1936
La primera simfonia és el treball de graduació i va tenir un gran èxit. La dècada següent a la seva graduació va ser triomfant. El jove Xostakóvitx es va convertir ràpidament en un dels compositors mascota del règim comunista, rebent encàrrecs per a partitures de cinema, música incidental i ballets.
El 1927 va ser un any ple d’esdeveniments per al compositor. Xostakóvitx va tenir una trobada amb Prokófiev, que realitzava la primera de moltes visites a Rússia abans del seu retorn definitiu nou anys després. Xostakóvitx va tocar la seva Primera Sonata per a piano recentment acabada, que va ser una de les poques obres de la generació més jove de compositors soviètics que va impressionar Prokófiev. Després d’aquesta visita, i amb l’encoratjament de Iavorski, Xostakóvitx va produir el seu encara més extrem Aforismes op.13, una sèrie de peces de gènere perversament maltractades que semblen intents d’escandalitzar els sarcasmes de Prokofiev.[2]
A la primavera va començar una llarga amistat amb el musicòleg Ivan Sol·lertinski, que seria el seu millor amic fins a la seva mort el 1944.[16] Les visions contundents de Sol·lertinski sobre la tradició simfònica van ser factors vitals en el desenvolupament de Xostakóvitx amb el neoclassicisme germànic postmahlerià de Hindemith i Krenek.[2] Amb l’ànim de Sol·lertinski, va fer un estudi profund de la música de Mahler i, en fer-ho, va descobrir l’afinitat del compositor més important de la seva carrera, que tindria una gran influència en la seva música a partir de la Quarta Simfonia.
L’estiu del 1927, Xostakóvitx s’allotjava a Dietskoïe Selo quan va conèixer a Nina Varzar, una pianista amb talent, però també estudiant de matemàtiques i física a qui, de forma similar a Xostakóvitx, li agradava l’esport, en particular el patinatge sobre gel i l’escalada alpina. Es van casar el 1932, «sense dir ni una paraula a ningú».
L’ôpera “El nas” sobre l’obra de Gógol és qualificada de formalista, que tant podia significar que era un conservador acadèmic rutinari de la música burgesa, com un radical que utilitzava recursos formals i avantguardistes. En qualsevol cas, el terme equivalia a una acusació d’incomprensible pel “poble” per estar ideològicament mal pensada, segons el criteri del Partit Comunista liderat per Stalin. Després de superar l’examen obligatori d’ideologia marxista, Xostakóvitx va continuar el postgrau al Conservatori fins a l’1 de gener de 1930, i complint els requisits dels estudiants va presentar com a treball final la Tercera Simfonia, subtitulada El primer de maig, composta a mitjans de 1929.
Públicament va criticar la música occidental i el jazz. Però quna va semblar que afluixava el control va escriure la primera jazz Suite.
Durant aquest temps es va dedicar intensament a compondre l’òpera Lady Macbeth de Mtsensk, que es va estrenar el 1934 i va tenir un èxit immediat, encara que després va ser prohibida en el seu país durant vint-i-sis anys, uns personatges mesquins i sense escrúpols en un fosc lloc de la Rússia més profunda, on tot és fàstic i sexualitat reprimida. El resultat és una obra que reivindica la llibertat sexual mentre les instàncies oficials tractaven el sexe com una cosa exclusivament orientada a la fecunditat.
El 1936 va acabar-se-li la tranquil·litat. El 26 de gener, Stalin i un grup d’oficials del Partit van assistir a la representació de la nova producció del teatre Bolxoi de Lady Macbeth, i el resultat va ser un article condemnatori que va aparèixer a la revista comunista Pravda el 28 de gener, amb un famós article titulat Caos en comptes de música. L’article criticava durament a Xostakóvitx per la confusió de la seva música, en lloc de promoure la música natural i humana, i li deixava ben clar quines serien les conseqüències si no corregia els seus errors.
Op. 16: Tahiti-Trot for orchestra (1928) [després d’escoltar la cançó una sola vegada va guanyar una juguesca escrivint, de memòria, una reorquestració]
Op. 15: The Nose, satirical opera in three acts (and an epilogue) after Gogol (1927–1928); also a suite for orchestra (see Op. 15a)
Op. 29: Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, opera in four acts after Leskov (1930–1934); later revised as Katerina Ismailova (see Op. 114); also a suite for orchestra (see Op. 29a)
Cambra
Two Pieces for string quartet (1931) (arranged from Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and from The Golden Age)
Després de la crítica i l’amenaça, en una època de purgues i execucions, mira de fer obres més accessibles amb les simfonies mentre que amb la música de cambra pot experimentar més lliurement. El treball més significatiu d’aquesta època va ser la Sisena Simfonia, composta entre l’abril i l’octubre de 1939. En aparença semblava que a Xostakóvitx li començaven a anar bé les coses. El Quintet per a piano i corda, per la seva bellesa, impecable factura i força expositiva, va obtenir un gran èxit des del dia de la seva estrena, rebent el 1941 ni més ni menys que el Premi Stalin, a més d’haver estat guardonat amb l’Ordre de la Bandera Roja.
Esclata la guerra i pateix el setge de Leningrad que inspirarà la setena simfonia. Es trasllada a Moscú. Dóna classes per tenir ingressos. 8a simfonia fosca, com un memorial, la novena no és el cant a la victòria que esperava el règim.
El 1948 torna la repressió a les arts, la música havia de ser quelcom que un obrer pogués xiular anant a la fàbrica. Va haver de deixar de donar classes. El 1951 el compositor es va convertir en diputat del Soviet Suprem.
Op. 64a: Suite from Zoya, for chorus and orchestra (1944, arranged by Levon Atovmyan), Op. 75a: Suite from The Young Guard (1951, arranged by Levon Atovmyan), Op. 76a: Suite from Pirogov, for orchestra (1947, arranged by Levon Atovmyan), Op. 78a: Suite from Michurin, for chorus and orchestra (1964, arranged by Levon Atovmyan), Op. 80a: Suite from Meeting on the Elbe, for voices and orchestra (1948), Op. 82a: Suite from The Fall of Berlin, for chorus and orchestra (1949, arranged by Levon Atovmyan), Ballet Suite No. 1, for orchestra (1949, arranged by Levon Atovmyan), Ballet Suite No. 2, for orchestra (1951, arranged by Levon Atovmyan), Ballet Suite No. 3, for orchestra (1953, arranged by Levon Atovmyan), Ballet Suite No. 4, for orchestra (1953, arranged by Levon Atovmyan)
El 1953 va morir Stalin i la figura de X es rehabilita. Es casa per segona vegada però es divorcia als tres anys. Rep premis a la URSS i a l’estranger. El 1958 apareixen símptomes de poliomelitis. Cedeix a la pressió d’afiliar-se al partit comunista. A canvi, pot programar obres que estaven prohibides. Es casa per tercer cop.
Orquestra
Simfonia núm. 10, op 93, 1953 [una peça fosca, que alguns interpreten com una crítica a l’època de Stalin]
Simfonia núm. 11, op 103, 1957 [40 aniversari de la revolució d’octubre, Rússia, un poble que ha patit massa]
Quartet Movement in E♭ major (surviving movement of an early version of the String Quartet No. 9; circa 1960)
Op. 94: Concertino in A minor for two pianos (1953)
Tarantella for two pianos (1954)
Variations VIII, IX, and XI for the Eleven Variations on a Theme by Glinka (1957)
(4) 1963 – 1975
Amb la salut cada cop més feble, la poliomelitis li debilita les mans. La majoria dels seus últims treballs –la Catorzena i Quinzena simfonies, i els últims quartets– són foscos i introspectius. Van atraure moltes crítiques favorables d’Occident. Gràcies a grans solistes com Mstislav Rostropóvitx, David Óistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter i directors com ara Ievgueni Mravinski i Kiril Kondraixin, les seves obres s’interpretaven i es gravaven cada vegada amb més freqüència. Mor el 1975 de càncer de pulmó.
Orquestra
Simfonia núm. 14, op 135, 1969 . onze escenes de poemes vinculats a quatre autors, Lorca, Apollinaire, Küchelbecker i Rilke, que tracten la idea de la mort
Adagio. “De profundis” (Federico García Lorca)
Allegretto. “Malagueña” (Federico García Lorca)
Allegro molto. “Loreley” (Guillaume Apollinaire)
Adagio. “Le Suicidé” (Guillaume Apollinaire)
Allegretto. “Les Attentives I” (On watch) (Guillaume Apollinaire)
Suite for Variety Orchestra (8 movements) (post-1956), [abans confosa amb la Suite per jazz orquestra no.2] [amb sentit de l’humor]
Op. 85a: Suite from Belinsky, for chorus and orchestra (1960, arranged by Levon Atovmyan), Op. 89a: Suite from The Unforgettable Year 1919, for orchestra (1953, arranged by Levon Atovmyan), Op. 97a: Suite from The Gadfly, for orchestra (1955, arranged by Levon Atovmyan), Op. 99a: Suite from The First Echelon, for chorus and orchestra (1956), Op. 111a: Suite from Five Days, Five Nights, for orchestra (1961), Op. 114a: Suite of Five Fragments from the opera Katarina Izmailova, for orchestra (1963), Op. 116a: Suite from Hamlet, for orchestra (1964, arranged by Levon Atovmyan), Op. 120a: Suite from A Year Is Like a Lifetime, for orchestra (1965)
Neix a Nàpols el 1685, que pertanyia al regne d’España, fill d’Alessandro Scarlatti, també músic. Als 15 anys ja té una posició d’organista. El seu pare l’envia a Venècia i el valora: “an eagle whose wings are grown; he must not remain idle in the nest, and I must not hinder his flight”. Va fer amistat amb Händel amb qui competí a l’orgue i el clavicèmbal. H hauria estat superior en l’orgue però no al clave.
El 1709 a Roma entra al servei de la reina de Polònia a l’exili Maria Casimira. Després a la cappela Giulia de St. Pietro.
Lisboa, Sevilla, Madrid
El 1719 s’estableix a Lisboa, al servei de la princesa Maria Magdalena Barbara. “In Lisbon, Scarlatti was impressed with the talent of Carlos Seixas, whom Don Antonio had suggested as a pupil. Portuguese legend holds that Scarlatti recognized the young man, then 16, as his superior; however improbable that may be, it is likely that it was Seixas who set him on a new path, the combination of elements of art and folk music. Meanwhile, another royal pupil was showing exceptional musical talent: Maria Barbara, who later, as Queen of Spain, was an indulgent and generous protectress and patron of Scarlatti, was beginning to ‘surprise the amazed intelligence of the most excellent Professors with her Mastery of Singing, Playing and Composition’”Torna a Roma per casar-se amb Maria Caterina Gentili.
El 1729 se’n va a Sevilla i després el 1733 Madrid, seguint al servei de la princesa Maria Magdalena que ara s’ha emparentat amb la família reial española.
“Clark has tried to isolate the folk elements in some of the sonatas that reflect the ‘tunes sung by the carriers, muleteers, and common people’ to which Scarlatti, a southern Italian, must have been susceptible.” “Scarlatti gave a warm welcome to his guest, who was better placed than anyone to appreciate the introduction into the sonatas of ‘many passages … in which he imitated the melody of tunes sung by carriers, muleteers, and common people’”.
[ la meva llista]
happy to be freed from that routine, he now became involved in the highly cultivated, private entertainments that Ferdinando and Maria Barbara held in their apartments, sheltered from the jealousy and resentment of Elisabetta Farnese, Philip V’s second wife. One of those taking part in these entertainments was Farinelli, risking losing the favour of the queen who had brought him to Spain and had succeeded, through the great singer’s virtuosity, in her intention of rousing Philip V from his lethargy and depression. Farinelli’s presence may have been the stimulus for the cantatas which Boyd assigns to Scarlatti’s maturity.
El 1739 mor la seva dona i es casa amb la jove Anastasia Ximenes, de Cadis.
[ Sembla que les sonates les improvisava, i una llegenda diu que le spublicava per pagar deutes: One charming legend has this work as the happy consequence of Scarlatti’s known weakness for gambling: the queen and Farinelli (who told Burney that he helped his friend in similar predicaments) are supposed to have offered the money to pay off the composer’s debts in exchange for written copies of the sonatas which Scarlatti had largely improvised in the princely apartments. The survival of the treasure that has come down to us in the royal manuscripts, inherited by Farinelli on Maria Barbara’s death, would thus be due to another, special act of ‘obedience’.]
Antoni Soler va ser el seu deixeble i potser es va encarregar de compilar algunes de les sonates.
Una placa al carrer Leganitos mostra on va viure. Els seus descendents encara viuen a Madrid.
La música es basava en la improvisació sobre un baix: not only because of the pre-eminence of the Essercizi and sonatas in his work but because even in their most developed form these pieces relate to a single stylistic model, identified by Ralph Kirkpatrick as the basso continuo. The practice of improvising an accompaniment on a bass line was a stock-in-trade of every professional musician; in the case of Scarlatti, a keyboard player of astounding virtuosity and immense creativity, the habit of condensing, of translating contrapuntal implications into harmonic structures, meant that routine formulas were gradually left behind.
Es va fer construir un instrument capaç de fer diverses veus: The document confirms that the harpsichord was ‘invented by the maker of this will’, indicates that it was built in Madrid by Don Diego Fernández and provides details of enormous interest: ‘it plays the pianos and fortes with a quill’, is ‘an eight-foot instrument’ and uses ‘three types of string, of copper, steel and gut, which play together, separately and mixed, according to the attached plan of its various registers’. All this would be extraordinary enough if it did not also have, hidden in the feet of the legs that support the instrument at each end of the keyboard, springs to engage the registers with ten stops to a pedal so that they can be operated separately or together, with ‘movable lead knobs’ used to engage one or two registers while the feet are operating the others. The registers are: (1) 4′ [ottavina], full register; (2) Archlute, full register; (3) Left hand harp, half register with gut strings; (4) Left hand 4′, half register; (5) Archlute and 4′, full register; (6) Harp and harpsichord, full register; (7) Harpsichord sounding as flute, full register; (8) Right hand, 4′, half register; (9) Right hand, harp, half register with gut strings; and (10) Harp, full register with gut strings. Sacchi relates that: By chance the queen, in talking with Farinelli, mentioned that she would like to have a harpsichord with more various tones [voci], and asked him if he had ever seen such a one. He replied that he had not. But then, leaving the queen without saying anything further, he consulted Fernández, whose talent he knew, and after they had designed the work together and executed it, he arranged for it to be found as a surprise by the queen in her apartments.This revolutionary instrument was thus the product of a passing dissatisfaction on the part of Maria Barbara and the inspiration of a hugely talented courtier and a great craftsman.
Però ell seguí component amb el seu instrument: So, while Cristofori’s and Fernández’s instruments remain legitimate and interesting options, Scarlatti’s sound world is firmly rooted in the instrument on which the young virtuoso had called up the thousand devils which so astounded Roseingrave, and which now allowed the aging maestro to interpret the songs of Iberian muleteers and carriers in the variety of approaches that give the sonatas their exceptional vitality.
La música és més harmònica que melòdica: The part played by melody in Scarlatti’s keyboard interests is marginal, given the prevalence of harmonic and rhythmic ideas in his harpsichord music. The internal structure of the sonatas is a confirmation of what is almost disavowal of melody, paradoxical for a Neapolitan but enormously significant for a composer for whom the harpsichord held no secrets. It is misleading to focus on the role of thematic elements when analysing the sonatas: Scarlatti’s approach is based rather on following the conventional harmonic span of each binary piece… so many openings, seemingly promising thematic development, give way immediately to as many ‘original and happy freaks’, based principally on lively rhythmic ambiguities and harmonic manipulations.
En la música vocal, tenim òperes [ no es conserven], cantates com els que feia el seu pare, la Contesa delle Stagioni i algunes peces religioses, com un stabat mater i un Salve Regina. No són tan originals com les sonates: It should occasion no surprise that Scarlatti’s vocal music shows little of the harmonic daring and few of the ‘happy freaks’ that characterize his mature harpsichord sonatas. The keyboard music of this period – Scarlatti’s perhaps more than most – sprang directly from the composer’s fingers in the act of improvising.
[La poesia lírica grega, i la xinesa, expressen sentiments universals com l’efímer i la brevetat de la vida, o l’amor]. (Brit): A la Iliada trobem els déus manipulant els humans a través de les seves emocions. (CGPT)En general a l’èpica no hi trobem una descripció dels pensaments interiors però s’infereix a partir de les accions. [com la tristesa i ira d’Aquiles per la mort de Patrocle, l’enveja en les discussions per armes i esclaves, el desig d’Ulisses per seguir el cant de les sirenes]. El mateix passaria a les tragèdies. A la literatura cavalleresca, la Divina Commedia o el romanç amorós, els personatges encarnen virtuts, defectes o sentiments però sense arribar a una descripció. En Shakespeare i Cervantes hi trobem monòlegs que revelen els sentiments i conflictes interiors.
Però no és fins al s18 que apareix la novel·la amb Pamela (1740) i Clarissa (1748) de Samuel Richardson que, en forma epistolar, els personatges descriuen les seves emocions. Al s19 amb Jane Austen, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, George Eliot, i en especial la “Madame Bovary” de Gustave Flaubert, la vida interior interior dels personatges és explorada en detall. Al s20, James Joyce (Ulysses, 1922) i Virginia Woolf (Mrs. Dalloway, 1925) intenten seguir instant a instant el Corrent de consciència.
[llegint podem suposar les emocions dels personatges i empatitzar] Poesia per tema
Gèneres
Llibres
Les llibreries solen presentar les obres de ficció en les categories:
Literatura
Ficció històrica
Ciència ficció i fantasia. Arthur C. Clarke. Isaac Asimov. Robert Heinlein. Becky Chambers.
Thriller i suspens:
Romàntica
Misteri i crim: Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes. Philip Marlowe. John Le Carré.
Joves (Young Adult)
Amb les possibilitats d’autopublicació del llibre electrònic l’oferta s’ha diversificat en milers de microgèneres, acció i aventura, bèliques, històries nàutiques, epistolars, gòtica, mèdiques, Far West, Feel Good, Religiosa i espiritual, rural, sàtira i humor, terror, vida urbana. [Hi ha com una coevolució en que els autors s’adapten a les tendències dels lectors i aquestes van trobant els seus nínxols particulars.
(CGPT) Amazon parteix de la classificació de la indústria de publicació BISAC, que té unes 4000 categories , i segons estudis d’indústries orientades a KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) com KPD Rocket o Kindlepreneur, l’hauria expandit fins a unes 16000. Els autors inclouen les paraules clau que guien els potencials lectors cap al nínxol corresponent.
(NewYorker 2021 sobre com Amazon ha canviat la manera d’escriure novel·les. Vox 2024 sobre la indústria de generar novel·les assistit per intel·ligència artificial. )
Cinema
Als videoclubs, i ara a venda de dvds, hi havia categories com
Acció i aventura: Die Hard 1988
Animació: Tom&Jerry, Jungle Book
Ciència ficció: Blade Runner
Comèdia
Drama
Fantasia
Infantil i familiar
Policíaques
Romàntiques
Terror i sobrenatural
Thriller
Igual que amb Amazon i el Kindle, Netflix classifica uns 4000 films i 2000 programes de televisió en unes 3000 categories.
[Podem especular que cada gènere serveix a un determinat tipus d’emoció. La ficció romàntica a l’amor, acció i bèl·lica a la ira, el thriller i el terror a la sorpresa, en ocasions a tendències violentes i sàdiques, l’eròtica al plaer sensual, les policíaques, una barreja d’interès humà i intel·lectual, el drama per l’empatia, i experimentar les penes i alegries dels personatges. A la ciència ficció vivim móns millors o pitjors que el que vivim, proveïnt una fuga de la realitat que ens sembla grisa i poc interessant. A vegades la manipulació emocional és molt òbvia. Moltes pel·lícules d’acció comencen presentant un personatge que comet accions abominables, fent créixer el desig que algú li trenqui la cara. I quan finalment l’heroi se’l carrega en la lluita final, sentim una satisfació (la catarsi d’Aristòtil). És un recurs barat aixecar l’interès de l’espectador amb el risc d’una catàstrofe, un terratrèmol, un avió oi vaixell que s’estavellarà. L’amenaça a la destrucció de tot el món és gairebé sinònim de film dolent. O bé quan es pretén commoure l’espectador amb situacions òbviament emotives com les malalties d’algú estimat, a les novel·les o sèries d’hospitals, per exemple. Isabel Coixet a “Cosas que nunca te dije”.
El consum de ficció associat a les emocions encaixa bastant amb la teoria de Freud que els nostres desigs es desplacen al pla imaginari.
I una classificació per estats d’ànim o activitats:
Chill
Happy
Sad, “coping loss”
Party, “dancing”
Workout
Focus
Romantic
Sleep
Després aquestes es desgranen en potser 5000 subcategories diferents que els permeten fer playlists ajustades als interessos de cada usuari i, més important, al seu estat emocional del moment, amb la qual cosa té informació sobre l’estat d’ànim dels seus 200M d’usuaris.
Segons l’article del MIT, hi ha 6291 microgèneres.
Assaig de playlist:
Mysterium tremens: Bach, Passions. Rèquiem de Mozart
[Omès per la Britannica] (CPGT) Hi ha estudis amb evidències de com la música indueix a diferents emocions en funció del tempo, el ritme, la tonalitat major o menor, les melodies previsibles o inesperades, harmonia consonant o dissonant, la dinàmica. [De sempre s’ha fet servir tambors per animar els soldats dels exèrcits, balades per la tendresa, música alegre per la dansa] (Estudis de Gabrielsson and Lindström 2001, Juslin and Laukka 2003, Koelsch et al. 2005, Hunter, Schellenberg, and Schimmack 2008).
Plató a la República descriu quines emocions corresponen a cada escala (Música a l’antiguitat). Les modernes també tenen associat un aspecte emocional.
Podríem assajar una taula d’adjectius com la que fem servir a l’hora d’avaluar els vins?
el ritme, lent ràpid, pesant o lleuger (avancem ràpid, un pas tranquil però ferm, o ens arrosseguem), obstinato que indica un destí indefugible.
el volum, fort o fluix
seguit i decidit, dubitatiu
“textura espessa” / clara, segons si hi ha molta densitat d’instruments i so, o bé si hi ha silencis (immobilitat intercalada)
la melodia i l’harmonia,
Tant la música com la dansa expressen emocions, estats d’ànim, són reconeixibles frases que evoquen una explosió d’energia i alegria vs fatiga i tristesa, afecte suau o agressió furiosa. Es poden fer correspondre amb les emocions bàsiques identificades pels psicòlegs? Podem assajar quina mena de moviment o frase musical hi associaria un músic o coreògraf?
Sorpresa: interrupció del moviment, salt, o caiguda /
Ira: moviment d’aproximació, braços agressius / ritme brusc, volum alt
Disgust: moviment d’allunyament, evitar mirada / to menor? final brusc?
tristesa: moviment lent, cercles dubitatius, caiguda a terra
Por: semblant al disgust?
A les coreografies de ballet hi ha un repertori de gestos que vénen del llenguatge emocional, recollir-se amb els braços creuats, acollir amb els braços oberts, assenyalar, mirar …
Després potser hi hauria músiques i moviments que suggeririen sentiments i emocions que no hem tingut mai de manera natural, com un nou món a descobrir.
Podríem concebre un projecte semblant al dels temes de la poesia lírica? Intentar classificar frases musicals i de dansa d’acord amb la mena d’emoció que expressen?
[ Certa música ens fa ballar, l’Ave Maria de Schubert ens posa la pell de gallina i gairebé ens fa saltar les llàgrimes potser un sentiment alhora de bellesa i de com n’és de fràgil]
[Els balls de saló, tenen emocions associades? El tango i els flamenc són més seriosos i passionals. El blues, més íntim i sensual. En el swing, es somriu. ]
Neix en una família d’origen flamenc. Tant el seu pare com al seu avi tenien feina com a músics a la cort del príncep arquebisbe de Colònia, amb seu a Bonn. El pare era un personatge mesquí, addicte a la beguda que intentà explotar el talent del seu fill com a concertista de piano fins i tot falsificant la seva edat per tal que semblés més un infant prodigi.
(Groove)The comparative brevity of Beethoven’s formal education, combined with the fact that most of his out-of-school hours must have been devoted to music, explains some of the gaps in his academic equipment, such as his blindness to orthography and punctuation and his inability to carry out the simplest multiplication sum.
Christian Gottlob Neefe, organista de la cort no només el formarà musicalment sinó culturalment, donant-li a conèixer l’obra de pensadors i escriptors.
El 1783 és contractat com a músic a la cort. Amplia el seu cercle d’amistats amb famílies cultes com els Ries, von Breuning, Karl Amenda i el doctor Franz Gerhard Wegeler.
1787 – 1801 Viena
Fa un primer viatge a Viena per conèixer Mozart (Gr però només s’hi estarà dues setmanes). Mor la seva mare. El seu pare entra en depressió i augmenta el seu alcoholisme. Ludwig s’haurà de fer càrrec de la família tocant el violí i donant classes. Té el suport de la família Brening i del comte Waldstein. El pare morirà el 1792.
G. From 1789, when the musical life of the town under the new elector was fully resumed, Beethoven played the viola in the orchestras both of the court chapel and of the theatre, alongside such fine musicians as Franz Ries and Andreas Romberg (violins), Bernhard Romberg (cello), Nikolaus Simrock (horn) and Antoine Reicha (flute); some of these were to remain almost lifelong friends. […] But for Beethoven the chief excitements of this year may have been outside Bonn itself. As Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, the elector had to preside for many weeks over its sessions at Mergentheim, and he saw to it that he had his orchestra with him. The players’ journey up the Rhine was accompanied by much revelry and clowning; in later years Beethoven retained many happy memories of this, as well as one curious memento (a mock diploma). An ambitious series of concerts was given at Mergentheim, and Beethoven also seized the opportunity of going with friends to Aschaffenburg, a summer palace of the Electors of Mainz, to visit the famous pianist Sterkel. It is said that Sterkel’s light touch and graceful, fastidious style were a revelation to Beethoven. But when Sterkel challenged him to play his own Righini variations, doubting his ability to do so, it was Beethoven’s turn to cause amazement, particularly since he improvised extra variations in a style that imitated Sterkel’s.
Es trasllada a Viena. Coneix Haydn amb qui farà classe però la relació no és fàcil. Es formarà amb Albrechtsberger, expert en contrapunt. Beethoven deia admirar Händel. Guanya fama com a concertista. S’enfronta en un duel musical amb Steibelt interpretant i millorant a vista les seves obres. Entre els concerts i clases a famílies acomodades, millora la seva posició econòmica i el 1801 té resolts els problemes econòmics i viu còmodament amb servei.
G. His entry into Viennese circles was unobtrusive, and the sporadic entries in the little diary that he had started on his journey and kept at least until 1794 are the best guide to his immediate preoccupations. They show him looking for a piano and for a wig-maker, buying clothes, noting the address of a dancing-master, and the like. […] When Haydn left for England in 1794, he passed Beethoven on to another tutor, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, the Kapellmeister at the Stephansdom and the best-known teacher of counterpoint in Vienna.[…] A third name is often linked with Haydn’s and Albrechtsberger’s: that of the imperial Kapellmeister Antonio Salieri. It was Salieri’s genial custom to offer free tuition to impecunious musicians, especially in the setting of Italian words to music; and it is usually stated that Beethoven availed himself of this informal help soon after his arrival in Vienna. […] The aristocracy based on the Austrian capital surpassed all others of Europe in its devotion to music, and much of its time and a considerable part of its fortunes – a ruinous amount in some cases – was spent in the conspicuous indulgence of this taste. Not only did these aristocrats welcome virtuosos to their town palaces and country estates, but some of them, such as Prince Lobkowitz, kept private orchestras and even – like the Esterházys – opera companies as well. If their support was not on quite so lavish a scale, at least they employed a wind band or, like Prince Karl Lichnowsky and the Russian Count Rasumovsky, a quartet of string players. The Court Councillor von Kees was among the many who organized private concerts; a large library of music was assembled by the Baron van Swieten, a patriarch whose distinction it was to cultivate the music of Bach and Handel and introduce it to Viennese audiences. [….] t in the salons the stunning effect of Beethoven’s solo playing, and particularly perhaps of his improvising, was immediately recognized. […] It is tempting to draw a connection between the selfconsciousness of this undertaking and a change in his working methods which coincided with it. Beethoven had always made sketches of the compositions that he was engaged in writing, and as time went on they became more voluminous. But hitherto they had been written on loose single leaves or bifolia of music paper. From the middle of 1798 he began to make his sketches in books of music paper. The first two of the sketchbooks contain sketches for four of the quartets that he was now writing, as well as for a considerable number of other works that he completed, revised or attempted to write in the same months.[…] Other friendships formed around this time were ultimately more fateful for Beethoven. In May 1799 the Countesses Therese and Josephine von Brunsvik, then 24 and 20, came to Vienna from Hungary on a short visit with their widowed mother, who wished them to take lessons from Beethoven.[…] On 2 April 1800 Beethoven gave his first concert for his own benefit, in the Burgtheater. The music included, besides a Mozart symphony and numbers from Haydn’s Creation, two new works by Beethoven, the Septet (op.20) and the First Symphony. The former soon became one of his most popular works; the reception of the latter was appreciative, although the heavy scoring for the wind was remarked on.
“Sotmetiment a les formes clàssiques. Fins al 1800, les seves obres no es distingeixen, formalment, de les de Haydn i de Mozart, però tenen trets originals molt característics; les obres més destacables són les primeres sonates per a piano, els dos primers concerts per a piano i orquestra, la primera simfonia, els quartets opus 18, i el cèlebre Septet opus 20. Cap a la fi d’aquesta època se li manifestà la sordesa, que acabà esdevenint total.”
Then from 1800 to 1802 he produced at high speed a series of increasingly experimental pieces which must be seen in retrospect as a transition to the middle period. It is in this sub-period that the relative effects of genre and familiarity are especially clear. In 1798 and 1799 the piano sonatas are fluid and visionary but the earliest string quartets are relatively stiff. By 1800 the quartet writing moves more easily but the first of his symphonies is still decidedly conservative. /// Cminor. As has been mentioned above, when Haydn heard the op.1 trios he praised them but thought the public would not understand or accept the third, in C minor. One suspects that Haydn himself may have been put off by the extremes of tempo, dynamics, texture and local chromatic action in this piece, and still more by the resulting emotional aura. He would not have been the last listener to find something callow and stagey, which is to say essentially impersonal, in these insistent gestures of pathos and high drama. Beethoven of course paid no attention to his advice and published increasingly sophisticated C minor items in nearly every one of his composite sets of works over the next eight years (opp.9, 10, 18, 30). In these years C minor was practically the only minor key he used for full-length pieces (though D minor is used for the impressive slow movements of op.10 no.3 and op.18 no.1, as well as for the ‘Tempest’ Sonata op.31 no.2). The most successful early embodiments of Beethoven’s ‘C minor mood’ are no doubt the Sonate pathétique op.13 (1797–8) and the Third Piano Concerto (?1800–03). Still to come were the 32 Variations on an Original Theme, for piano, the Coriolan Overture, the Fifth Symphony and the last piano sonata. /// Novelties of conception can be detected all along. They are multiplied in the Sonate pathétique of 1798 – the integration of the introduction into the first movement proper, the perfectly managed bold modulations in the second group, the prophetic breakdown on the dominant in the middle of the rondo; not to speak of the overall coherence of mood which has made the Pathétique the most famous piece in Beethoven’s early output. Another famous early piece, the first movement of the Quartet in F op.18 no.1, is his first exhaustive study in motivic saturation. The turn-motif of bars 1–2 forces its way into every available nook and cranny of the second group, the transitions, the development and coda. (When Beethoven revised op.18 no.1, after having given a fair copy of it to Amenda, he reduced the appearances of the turn-motif by nearly a quarter.) /// The last two quartets of op.18, composed around 1800, show a rather new treatment of the traditional four-movement form (one that had recently been essayed by Haydn in several of his op.76 quartets). The first movements are not extensive and decisive but instead swift, bland and symmetrical, so that the later movements all seem (and were surely meant to seem) weightier or more arresting. The most visionary of these later movements is the composite finale of the Quartet in B op.18 no.6, where a slow, strange-sounding chromatic labyrinth entitled ‘La malinconia’ alternates with a swift, limpid little dance evocative of the Viennese ballrooms. /// It is perhaps at this time that one first begins to be aware of the striking individuality of all Beethoven’s pieces, a characteristic that has often been noted. Prime examples are the so-called ‘Pastoral’ Sonata in D op.28 (also the locus classicus for successive thematic fragmentation in a development section), the Sonata in E op.31 no.3, and those great and deserving favourites of the Romantic era, the Pathétique, the ‘Moonlight’ and the D minor op.31 no.2. /// The opening reverie of the ‘Moonlight’ is such a startling conception, even today, that Beethoven’s very careful plotting of the sequence of the movements in this sonata seems to pale by comparison. Unprecedented for a sonata opening is the half-improvisatory texture, the unity of mood, and especially the mood itself – that romantic mestizia which will have overwhelmed all but the stoniest of listeners by the end of the melody’s first phrase. An equally bold and emotional, but also more intellectual, experiment marks the opening of op.31 no.2. Here the first theme in a sonata form movement consists of antecedent and consequent phrases of radically different characters: a slow improvisatory arpeggio and a fast, highly motivic agitato. Both of these ideas can be heard echoing in the later movements of the sonata.
Opus 10: Three Piano Sonatas (1798): Piano Sonata No. 5 in C minor [és una marxa lenta amb un obstinato que de sobte es dispara amunt com si voléssim amb la imaginació], Piano Sonata No. 6 in F major, Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major
Opus 14: Two Piano Sonatas (1799): Piano Sonata No. 9 in E major (Also arranged by the composer for String Quartet in F major (H 34) in 1801, Piano Sonata No. 10 in G major
Opus 27: Two Piano Sonatas (1801): Piano Sonata No. 13 in E-flat major ‘Sonata quasi una fantasia’, Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor ‘Sonata quasi una fantasia’ (“Moonlight”)
La sonata 13, Op.27 no1 en Eb és la que m’agrada més. El primer moviment ple de variacions.El segon no és un temps lent sinó una mena de giga melencòlica. El lent serà el tercer, una marxa meditativa. Un final feliç 4/4 que frena just abans d’acabar per retrobar la meditació del tercer.
Es trasllada a les afores de Viena a Heiligenstadt. Solia passar els estius en contacte amb la natura, a les afores de Viena, Oberdöbling, Unterdöbling, Mödlinq, Hetzemdorf o Nussdorf. En una carta a Wegeler de 19 de juny de 1800 escrivia: “la meva orella ha començat a debilitar-se de tres anys ençà, i la causa primera d’aquesta malaltia deu venir de les meves entranyes … Puc dir amb tota franquesa que la meva vida és ben miserable. Durant aquests darrers dos anys, he defugit tota societat, perquè m’és impossible de dir a la gent: ‘sóc sord'”. El 1802 s’adona que la vida que podia esperar, no serà possible. La sordesa l’aïlla socialment en no poder admetre què li passa. Arriba a considerar el suïcidi però alhora sent que té moltes coses a dir musicalment. Escriu el seu estat d’ànim en una carta que no arribarà a enviar i que es trobarà al seu escriptori quan morirà, l’anomenat testament de Heiligenstadt .
Carta a Breitkops i Härtel de 1809: Per aquesta raó em plauria que em féssiu arribar, per etapes, les partitures dels mestres que tingueu, com per exemple, el Rèquiem de Mozart, les misses de Haydn, especialment totes les partitures de Mozart, Haydn, Bach, Joahnn Sebastian Bach, Emanuel.
Enamorament de la comtessa Giuletta Guicciardi. The ‘dear charming girl’ who was brightening Beethoven’s days was no doubt the Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. She was now not quite 17: too young, and perhaps too spoilt, to take Beethoven’s devotion very seriously, though no doubt she was flattered for a time by the attentions of a famous composer, a man much admired by her cousins. Much, probably too much, has been made of the fact that it was to her that he dedicated the ‘Moonlight’ Sonata (op.27 no.2), written in 1801.
S’enamora de Josephine Brunsvick, jove vídua, però el caràcter complilcat de Beethoven i la diferència de classe social l’impedeixen tenir una relació plena. Acaba Fidelio, escriu els quartets Rasumovsky que seran molt admirats. Però a banda dels donatius dels amics aristòcrates i ingressos per obres publicades, no té uns ingressos fixos. Fent servir una oferta de Kassel aconsegueix un contracte a Viena: “A document dated 1 March 1809 guaranteed that its three signatories would provide Beethoven with an annuity for as long as he remained domiciled in Vienna; since it covered accidents and old age it also amounted to an insurance policy and a pension. The signatories were the Archduke Rudolph (1500 florins) and the Princes Lobkowitz (700 florins) and Kinsky (1800 florins). There were, as will be seen, difficulties in ensuring the regularity and the full value of the payments, but once those problems were overcome Beethoven was relieved from any rational grounds for financial worry.”
El 1812 fa una estada al balneari de de Teplice a Txèquia. Allà va escriure la carta a “l’estimada immortal“. [ a l’edició de les cartes és a la p.45, atribuida a 1801 a Giulietta Guicciardi, però recera més recent mostra que correspondria a Antonie Brentano, an aristocratic Viennese lady ten years younger than Beethoven who at 18 had married a Frankfurt businessman, Franz Brentano ] . La impossibilitat de consolidar una relació suposarà un daltabaix emocional. [ sordesa avançada, sense ingressos fixes, sense consolidar una relació ] Una vegada passejava amb Goethe quan es van creuar amb l’emperadriu. Goethe els cedia el pas saludant i Beethoven va tirar pel dret, orgullós.
MÚSICA
“Continguts expressius densos i canvis bruscos de tonalitat. En la segona etapa reformà l’estructura clàssica de la simfonia, substituint el minuet per un scherzo que permetia una major llibertat en la composició. És el moment de les simfonies tercera a la vuitena, del seu Concert per a violí, dels tres darrers per a piano i orquestra, dels tres quartets Rassumovski, opus 59, i de l’òpera Fidelio. D’aquesta època, són també algunes de les seves sonates més famoses: l’Appassionata, opus 57, per a piano, i la Sonata a Kreutzer, opus47, per a violí i piano.”
The middle period begins with a famous series of compositions in the heroic vein (1803–8): the ‘Eroica’ Symphony, Leonore (Fidelio) and others. The music of the sub-period 1809–12 follows the same general stylistic impetus, but becomes rather less radical and turbulent as it becomes more and more effortless in technique. Most of Beethoven’s orchestral music dates from the middle period.
SONATES DE PIANO
After he wrote his first 15 sonatas, he wrote to Wenzel Krumpholz, “From now on, I’m going to take a new path.” Beethoven’s sonatas from this period are very different from his earlier ones. His experimentation in modifications to the common sonata form of Haydn and Mozart became more daring, as did the depth of expression. Most Romantic period sonatas were highly influenced by those of Beethoven. After 1804, Beethoven ceased publishing sonatas in sets and only composed them as a single opus. It is unclear why he did so.
Woo80 32, Variacions en Cm , 1806 [ Sense número d’opus. Peça popular però de la qual el mateix Beethoven no en enia una gran opinió. Les havia escoltat molt a Solius i m’agradaven molt]
1803. Simfonia Eroica. But something else was evidently pressing: the inner demand to complete a great instrumental work. The writing of the Third Symphony, the Sinfonia eroica, was the major effort of the summer of 1803, which was spent in Oberdöbling. The symphony was originally entitled simply ‘Bonaparte’, in tribute to the young hero of revolutionary France, who was almost exactly Beethoven’s age. But this idealization of Napoleon as a heroic leader gave way to disillusionment when the First Consul proclaimed himself Emperor in May 1804. The story of Beethoven’s rage when the news of this reached Vienna is well known: he went to the table where the completed score lay, took hold of the title-page and tore it in two. On its publication in 1806 the symphony was given its present title of ‘heroic symphony’, and was described as having been ‘composed to celebrate the memory of a great man’. The ‘great man’ may well have been Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, who was an esteemed friend of the symphony’s dedicatee, Prince Lobkowitz, and who in fact died a hero’s death in 1806. / The ‘Eroica’ Symphony was not the only work by Beethoven from these years that appears to reflect or embody extra-musical ideas of heroism. A similar spirit pervades the so-called Waldstein Sonata (op.53), for instance, composed immediately after the symphony in the last months of 1803, and the ‘Appassionata’ Sonata (op.57), begun in the following year. Even the string quartets of this period, the three of op.59 completed in the summer of 1806 and dedicated to Count Rasumovsky, are cast in the same mould.
EL nou iudeal simfònic. The sketches show a minimum of false starts and detours. The most radical ideas were present from the start, if in cruder form, and work seems to have proceeded with great assurance. This is striking indeed, for however carefully one studies Beethoven’s evolving style up to 1803, nothing prepares one for the scope, the almost bewildering originality and almost continuous technical certainty manifested in this symphony.
In the first movement, one must marvel at the expansion in dimensions on every level; at the projection of certain melodic details of the main theme into the total form – the bass C (D ) instigating moves to the keys of the supertonic and the flat seventh degree in the recapitulation, the violins’ G–A returning vertically as the famous horn-call dissonance; at the masterly coagulation of diverse material into the second group; and at the whole concept of the panoramic development section, with its passage of deepening breakdown redeemed by the introduction of a new theme (if it is indeed really new). The moving thematic ‘liquidation’ at the end of the Marcia funebre, the four alla breve bars in the da capo of the scherzo, the novel structure of the finale, the powerful fugatos throughout – none of these could have been predicted. Also astonishing is the quality of ‘potential’ that informs the main themes of the three fast movements. Two of them require (and in due course receive) horizontal or vertical completion, and the other is presented in a state of almost palpable evolution.
These themes were made to order for the new ‘symphonic ideal’ which Beethoven perfected at a stroke with his Third Symphony and further celebrated with his Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Ninth. The forcefulness, expanded range and evident radical intent of these works sets them apart from symphonies in the 18th-century tradition, such as Beethoven’s own First and Second. But more than this, they all contrive to create the impression of a psychological journey or growth process. In the course of this, something seems to arrive or triumph or transcend – even if, as in the Pastoral, what is mainly transcended is the weather. This illusion is helped by certain other characteristic features: ‘evolving’ themes, transitions between widely separated passages, actual thematic recurrences from one movement to another, and last but not least, the involvement of extra-musical ideas by means of a literary text, a programme, or (as in the ‘Eroica’) just a few tantalizing titles.
In technical terms, this development may be viewed as the projection of the underlying principles of the sonata style on the scale of the total four-movement work, rather than that of the single movement in sonata form. This view takes account of the impression Beethoven now so often gives of grappling with musical fundamentals. He had the power – and it must be called an intellectual power – of penetration into the gestural level below sonata form.
The conception of this symphonic ideal, and the development of technical means to implement it, is probably Beethoven’s greatest single achievement. It is par excellence a Romantic phenomenon, however ‘Classical’ one may wish to regard his purely musical procedures. It is also a feature that has offended certain critics, especially in the early part of the 20th century, and set them against Beethoven. The composer himself was capable of producing a cynical and enormously popular travesty of his own symphonic ideal, in the ‘Battle Symphony’ of 1813.
Beethoven immediately capped this work with the delightful Eighth Symphony (1812), a salute to the symphonic ideal of the previous age. It has a comical slow movement and a slowish minuet in place of the now customary scherzo. Flashes of middle-period power occur only in the outer movements. Beethoven could hardly have planned a more genial gesture of farewell for a time to the symphony and to the decade of work produced under its aegis.
Op. 37, 1803 , Piano Concerto No. 3, c minor. The score was incomplete at its first performance. Beethoven’s friend, Ignaz von Seyfried, who turned the pages of the music for him that night, later wrote: I saw almost nothing but empty pages; at the most, on one page or another a few Egyptian hieroglyphs wholly unintelligible to me were scribbled down to serve as clues for him; for he played nearly all the solo part from memory since, as was so often the case, he had not had time to set it all down on paper.
[ sordesa avançada, sense ingressos fixes, sense consolidar una relació ] However the turmoil of the summer of 1812 is to be understood, it proved to be a profound turning-point in Beethoven’s emotional life. It initiated a long period of markedly reduced creativity, and there is evidence that he became deeply depressed. Henceforth Beethoven accepted the impossibility of achieving a sustained relationship with a woman and entering into a shared domestic routine, though he was scarcely reconciled to it; even in 1816, as will be seen, he had by no means overcome his longing.
1814. Recupera certa popularitat amb un concert sobre la victòria de Wellington (o simfonia de la batalla) i les simfonies 7 i 8. Es recupera Fidelio. Amb el Congrés de Viena de 1814 repren més activament la composició (sonata piano op.90) i prepara concerts amb les obres populars. From the point of view of Viennese popular acclaim and fame the year 1814 must be regarded as the high-water mark in Beethoven’s life. Not only were his compositions applauded by large audiences, but he also received in person the commendations of royal dignitaries. Es recupera econòmicament. Alhora, però, degut a la sordesa, deixa de tocar el piano en públic.
El 1815 quan mor el seu germà comença una batalla legal per guanyar la custòdia del seu nebot [ possiblement com a substitució de no haver pogut formar una família ]. Això l’ocuparà moltíssim temps i diners en batalles legals fins al final de la seva vida.
Segueix essent considerat però comença a quedar en segon pla per l’ascens de popularitat de Rossini. These were indeed unhappy years for Beethoven. He was now thoroughly out of sympathy with the kind of music being written and being applauded in Vienna. The aristocratic milieu that had welcomed and sheltered him in his earlier years in Vienna had been shattered by the military, political and financial upheavals of the Napoleonic wars, with the result that he had lost or broken with almost all his high-born friends apart from the Archduke Rudolph. In spite of his popular successes in 1813 and 1814, his general acceptance as the greatest living composer, and a resurgence of Viennese performances of his works from 1816 onwards (testifying to their growing status as part of the standard repertory), Beethoven found no wide public in Vienna that he could respect, and daydreams of journeys abroad – to England, even to Italy – filled his mind.
Els últims anys Beethoven són difícils, per l’aïllament de la sordesa i per la mala salut. Es relaciona amb amics propers escrivint en llibretes. La novena simfonia, de 1823, serà un gran èxit.
A partir de 1818 la sordesa és gairebé total. his deepening deafness. By 1818 he was virtually stone deaf, so conversation had to be carried on with pencil and paper. This was the start of the ‘conversation books’, nearly 140 of which have survived.
Malgrat tot, recupera una mica l’activitat creadora amb la formidable sonata Hammerklavier (1818) i comença a escriure la Missa Solemnis. Trteballa en una obra de gran envergadura, la que serà la novena simfonia. Des de la seva joventut a Viena que volia escriure una peça basada en l’oda de Schiller. Hi treballa tot el 1823. Té problemes de diners ja que els editors han deixat de confiar en ell perquè no respectava els compromisos d’exclusivitat. The difficulties were increased by the illness and death on 6 August 1823 of Wenzel Schlemmer, who had been Beethoven’s chief copyist for a quarter of a century and on whom he relied greatly.
1824. L’estrena de la simfonia serà un gran èxit: Beethoven responded by agreeing to give a concert. It took place in the Kärntnertortheater on 7 May 1824 and consisted of the op.124 overture, the Kyrie, Credo and Agnus Dei from the mass, and the Ninth Symphony. The theatre was crowded and the reception enthusiastic. Many years later the pianist Thalberg, who was among those present, recalled that after the scherzo had ended Beethoven stood turning over the leaves of the score, quite unaware of the thunderous applause, until the contralto Caroline Unger pulled him by the sleeve and pointed to the audience behind him, to whom he then turned and bowed (Schindler and Mme Unger also remembered the moving incident, though they placed it at the end of the concert). A second performance of the symphony and the Kyrie of the mass (with some other pieces) 16 days later was much less successful.
Els darrers anys es dedica als quartets: The impetus to complete it and to compose others was provided by a commission from Prince Nikolay Golitsïn, a music lover and cellist of St Petersburg. In a letter of 9 November 1822 Golitsïn invited Beethoven to compose ‘one, two or three new quartets’ for whatever fee was thought proper; they were to be dedicated to the prince. In his reply of 25 January 1823 Beethoven accepted the invitation, fixing his honorarium at 50 ducats per quartet and promising to complete the first by the end of February or by the middle of March at latest.
1826 La relació amb el seu nebot Karl s’havia complicat, amb B reclamant gelosament més atenció. Karl intentarà suïcidar-se. B aconseguirà que sigui acceptat a un regiment per seguir una carrera militar.
Tornant de casa el seu germà a Gneixendorf enmalalteix.
Meanwhile news of the seriousness of his condition, and exaggerated reports about his financial needs, had spread far and wide. The firm of Schott sent him a dozen bottles of Rhine wine; the Philharmonic Society of London resolved to provide £100 for his relief. There were occasional letters from Karl, now with his regiment, and some entertainment for the sick man was provided by Breuning’s 13-year-old son Gerhard, who called daily. There was also a stream of other visitors.
When it was clear that the end was near Breuning drafted a simple will, which bequeathed Beethoven’s whole estate to Karl; on 23 March Beethoven copied and signed it (‘luwig van Beethoven’) with great difficulty. He died at about 5.45 p.m. on 26 March. The funeral on 29 March was a public event for the Viennese; the crowd was estimated at 10,000 (fig.10). The funeral oration, written by Franz Grillparzer, was delivered at the graveside in the cemetery at Währing by the actor Heinrich Anschütz. In 1888 Beethoven’s remains were removed, together with Schubert’s, to the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) in Vienna, where they now rest side by side.
Mor el 26 de març de 1827.
MÚSICA
“Absoluta llibertat melòdica i formal. En l’última fase de la seva vida, creà les darreres sonates per a piano, com l’Hammerklavier, opus 106, els últims quartets, la Gran Fuga per a corda, opus 133, la Missa Solemnis en re major i la Novena Simfonia, en l’últim moviment de la qual introdueix, per primer cop, la veu humana (amb text de Schiller). La seva influència sobre generacions venidores fou inesborrable, car promogué la transformació de la música occidental, de la qual és, potser, el compositor més representatiu.”
Després de 1812 hi ha certa pausa, com si estigués exhaust. No és només que els darrers anys hagués produït obres d’enorme envergadura, l’eroica, les simfonies, i estava ocupat amb múltiples preocupacions.
Beethoven’s concern for lyricism deepened throughout the late period.
There is also a growing interest in folklike melody, hardly surprising in one who made arrangements of over 150 folksongs for Thomson in these years. The song cycle An die ferne Geliebte op.98 (1816) marks Beethoven’s closest approach to Goethe’s ideal of the Volksweise as a basis for song composition. // In the most general sense, variation may also be said to inspire the transcendent fugal finales of the Hammerklavier Sonata and the Quartet in B (the ‘Grosse Fuge’).//Related to this general tendency is Beethoven’s frequent avoidance in the late music of obvious dominant effects, his characteristic undercutting of tonic triads by 6-4 chords, and his somewhat wayward experiments with the church modes. As noted above, his early plans for a ninth symphony include a ‘pious song … in the ancient modes’.// Yet ultimately Beethoven’s real concern with fugue, as with variation and lyricism, was to mould these elements so that they could be embedded integrally into the global concerns of the sonata style.
The sonatas op.90, op.102 nos.1 and 2, and op.101 – stand closer to Romantic music of the 1830s than any other Beethoven pieces. .. All four sonatas carry on much further than before Beethoven’s search for more fluid solutions to the problem of the form of the total sonata, in terms of the weight, balance and mood of the various movements. …The Sonata in Bb op.106, arbitrarily, but not inappropriately called the ‘Hammerklavier’ (both op.101 and op.109 are also subtitled ‘für das Hammerklavier’), occupied Beethoven from late 1817 to late 1818; it was his first really large project in five years. Like the ‘Eroica’ Symphony, it occupies a pivotal position in his output, though the differences between the two works are striking. The ‘Eroica’ is one of the most popular and ‘available’ of his compositions, while the Hammerklavier is probably the most arcane. In different ways each represented a breakthrough for Beethoven, one like the crest of a great wave and the other like the breaking of a dam. And while both were works of revolutionary novelty, the Hammerklavier also paradoxically represents a reaction, in that Beethoven reverted to the traditional four-movement pattern in place of the fluid formal experiments of the sonatas of 1814–16, and turned away from their tone of lyrical intimacy…. Beethoven had never written a work that depended so thoroughly, in all its aspects, on a single musical idea. The extremity of its conception, and of its demands on the performer, are as much a part of the character of this piece as are ideas of heroism in the ‘Eroica’.
In the three sonatas of 1820–22 Beethoven returned to the proportions and preoccupations of the sonatas of 1814–16. Of all his works, the Sonata in E op.109 is perhaps the most original in form, in respect both to its first movement and to the total aggregate.
Between October 1822 and February 1824 Beethoven completed three works which are in one way or another as gigantic as the Hammerklavier Sonata: the Diabelli Variations, the Mass in D (Missa solemnis) and the Ninth Symphony. .. Mass and symphony stand together as the crowning statement about non-musical ideas in Beethoven’s later life – a ‘religious’ statement to match or, rather, to supplant the ‘heroic’ statement made in the ‘Eroica’ Symphony and Leonore nearly 20 years earlier. Between the two late works there are many parallels of musical gesture and language. .. Unorthodoxies are multiplied in the Gloria and Credo (always the problematic movements for composers of masses). It is particularly in these two central movements that the traditions of the Viennese mass are made to accommodate older traditions deliberately resuscitated; Beethoven rubs shoulders with Haydn (the Haydn of the masses), Palestrina, Handel and Bach. Sublimity, awe and pathos are evoked unforgettably, but they are perhaps evoked too frequently and in too rapid a succession to leave a satisfactory total impression. One can feel this even while acknowledging Beethoven’s strenuous efforts at organization: the use of recurring themes for ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo’ and ‘Credo, credo’, the powerful tonal dynamic, and the weighting effect of the tremendous fugues ‘In gloria Dei Patris’ and ‘Et vitam venturi’.
9ª: In the face of this, the first movement of the Ninth provides a magnificent reassertion of the traditional dynamic – though with a difference. During the famous and much imitated introduction, the main theme (another ‘evolving’ theme, one which seems to evolve out of timeless infinity) grows up over a hollow dominant 5th, A–E; then at the recapitulation this returns fortissimo as a tonic D–A with F in the bass: an enhanced recapitulation from which all sense of bluster has been filtered away and replaced by what Tovey called catastrophe, and others brutishness. // After completing the Ninth Symphony in early 1824, Beethoven spent the two and a half years that remained to him writing with increasing ease, it seems, and exclusively in the medium of the string quartet. The five late string quartets contain Beethoven’s greatest music, or so at least many listeners in the 20th century came to feel.
In the Quartet in B op.130, the confrontation of themes in different tempos gives the opening movement an elusive, even whimsical feeling. A deliberate sense of dissociation is intensified by the succession of five more movements, often in remote keys, with something of the effect of ‘character pieces’ in a Baroque suite. The feverish little Presto is followed by movements labelled by Beethoven Poco scherzando, Alla danza tedesca and Cavatina – and then by the ‘Grosse Fuge’, which seems to bear on its convulsive shoulders the responsibility for asserting order after so much disruption earlier in the piece… Stravinsky the ‘Grosse Fuge’ was ‘this absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary for ever’. // As though in reaction to this study in musical dissociation, Beethoven next wrote the most closely integrated of all his large compositions. From this point of view, the Quartet of Cminor op.131 may be seen as the culmination of his significant effort as a composer ever since going to Vienna. The seven movements run continuously into one another, and for the first time in Beethoven’s music there is an emphatic and unmistakable thematic connection between the first movement and the last – not a reminiscence, but a functional parallel which helps bind the whole work together.
//The Hammerklavier Sonata of 1818 represented a kind of breakthrough, but only after the matter of his nephew’s guardianship was settled by the courts did Beethoven’s compositional energies flow easily again, in the unbroken series of late-period masterpieces written from 1820 to 1826.
DARRERES SONATES DE PIANO
Beethoven’s late sonatas were some of his most difficult works and some of today’s most difficult repertoire. Yet again, his music found a new path, often incorporating fugal technique and displaying radical departure from conventional sonata form. The “Hammerklavier” was deemed to be Beethoven’s most difficult sonata yet. In fact, it was considered unplayable until almost 15 years later, when Liszt played it in a concert.
He was neither good-looking nor equipped with more than a very rudimentary education; it was by the force of his character that he produced such a powerful effect on those around him… A basic problem, it seems, was his ineptness at reading his own motives and interpreting those of others; thus misunderstandings were frequent, which his hot temper magnified into quarrels, even fisticuffs. But typically these were followed by reconciliations and scenes of penitence or remorse. Però fascinava la gent; tot al llarg de la seva vida competien per ajudar-lo i fer-li serveis. // Li interessaven les dones i sempre n’estava festejant alguna, però sovint sense possibilitats reals ja que eren de classe superior // tot i ser conscient que necessitava el suport dels aristòcrates for his financial support, he resolutely declined after his departure from Bonn to ‘play the courtier’ or to show the deference and obedience normally expected from musicians in circles of the nobility. He was often most unwilling, for instance, to perform on the piano if called on unexpectedly by his hosts to do so; sometimes he refused outright, and even left the soirée in a temper. He would also break off playing if people showed their inattention by chattering. The formal court etiquette that surrounded the Archduke Rudolph was especially irksome to him, and in the end it was Rudolph who surrendered by giving orders that the rules were not to be applied to Beethoven. Even in matters of dress Beethoven seems to have been unwilling to show the conformity expected of him, though in his earlier years in Vienna he was often smartly turned out.
Déu i la naturalesa
In matters of religion his views, as might be expected, were idiosyncratic and somewhat incoherent. It was not a subject that he discussed much with others. He was brought up in the tolerant Catholicism of the late 18th century, but the formal side of religion held little interest for him, though he went to some trouble while composing the Missa solemnis to ensure that he fully understood the words of the Mass. The deity of his faith was a personal God, a universal father to whom he constantly turned for consolation and forgiveness. That much is clear from the many private confessions and prayers scattered throughout his papers. Among philosophical books he was moved by the moral reflections of Kant. Perhaps more surprisingly, he found certain oriental writings on the immaterial nature of God sympathetic to him, and he copied out a number of their texts. He even framed some ancient Egyptian inscriptions on the nature of the deity and kept them on his writing-desk.
He also felt the presence of God in the beauty of nature, and sought to worship him in the countryside, having been greatly influenced by Christian Sturm’s Betrachtungen der Werke Gottes in der Natur. Beethoven’s love of the country was an enduring characteristic. He left Vienna for some months almost every summer and settled in one of the outlying villages such as Mödling or Heiligenstadt, or in the spa of Baden somewhat further afield. There he would take long, solitary walks in the woods and find refreshment of spirit. ‘No-one’, he wrote to Therese Malfatti in 1810, ‘can love the country as much as I do. For surely woods, trees and rocks produce the echo which man desires to hear’
Vida diària
Yet in relation to the thing about which he cared most – composing, and presenting his works to the public – Beethoven could hardly be said to be ill-organized. He had a regular domestic routine, rising early, making coffee by grinding a precise number of coffee-beans, and then working at his desk until two or three o’clock, when he had a meal. The morning’s work was interrupted, though also in a sense maintained, by two or three short excursions out of doors, during which he continued to make sketches on music paper. Several of these ‘pocket’ sketchbooks have survived, together with a much larger number of ‘desk’ sketchbooks in which Beethoven worked when at home. The significance of these volumes, with page after page of seemingly illegible entries, was not understood by his contemporaries, who regarded his devotion to them as yet one more sign of his eccentricity. Only later did it come to be recognized that the sketchbooks provide a unique documentation, although a somewhat fragmentary and at times enigmatic one, of his creative processes.
Llegat
Va començar a ser mitificat en vida. // In the benevolent formulation of his patron Count Waldstein, Beethoven went to off to Vienna to receive ‘Mozart’s spirit from Haydn’s hands’. Such early consecration is a powerful trope in myths of the great artist. // The decisive turn to this latter view was helped by Wagner’s influential monograph of 1870, written for Beethoven’s centenary, in which he glorified Beethoven’s deafness as a trait of enhanced interiority — the deaf composer forced to listen inwardly.
El sXIX el va mitificar com a romàntic. La crítica del sXX el va voler situar com a clàssic al costat de Haydn i Mozart. S’han estudiat els seus quaderns d’esbossos i la seves transaccions econòmiques. Although the Beethoven myth has been dressed down in the academy, it remains alive as ever in mainstream commercial culture. A good deal of its vitality stems from the kitsch industry: the standard image of Beethoven’s face and mane – the ‘Lion King’ of Western music – is reproduced ubiquitously, while the opening motive of the Fifth Symphony is still Western art music’s most recognizable roar.
La influència musical
The sheer drama and scope of Beethoven’s most ambitious works fostered an overriding perception that his music coheres organically even to the point of inevitability. Beethoven’s art registered as a sublime force of nature: here was a music that fully embodied the recently propounded shift in aesthetics from mimetic imitation of the products of nature to expressive emulation of her processes. The overmastering coherence felt in Beethoven’s music became an imposing measure of the greatness of musical artworks. Not only individual works but whole genres in his output came to assume a wholeness and totality, as well as a sense of teleology: the symphonies, the string quartets and the piano sonatas are all treated as coherent narratives of creative development. Playing these ‘cycles’ in their entirety continues to be a standard test for ambitious performers. // Mainstream symphonic composers above all chafed under the magnitude of Beethoven’s accomplishment; as Schubert put it, ‘who would be able to do anything after Beethoven?’. Few escaped this stifling anxiety, and for some, like Brahms, it was practically overwhelming. // Hermenèutica, buscant el missatge. Beethoven was to exercise a more subtle and no less pervasive influence within mainstream music criticism and theory. From the beginning, his music seemed to demand a more serious and attentive manner of listening. In several landmark reviews, E.T.A. Hoffmann lauded the deep coherence in Beethoven’s music, noting that, as in the case of Shakespeare, the music’s underlying unity could easily elude those critics attuned to conventional surfaces. Music critics could no longer hope to judge this music competently at a first hearing; according to A.B. Marx, whose editorship of the Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung did so much to promote the music of Beethoven, critics needed to learn how to divine the Idea embodied in each of Beethoven’s works. A hermeneutic imperative quickly gathered strength in the face of his music, one which has not abated. His works have been heard to be telling us something, as a kind of secular scripture in need of hermeneutic mediation.
The Beatles: A Solius hi havia el single a Hard day’s Night que en terry li havia regalat al pare. El primer disc que vaig comprar amb els meus estalvis el Sgt.byrd purcell morley dowland beatles rollings
27/01/1756, Salzburg, Austria – 5/12/1791, Vienna, Austria (35 anys) | Llista d’obres
1763 – 1772 Viatges amb el pare | 1773 – 1777 Cort de Salzburg | 1778 – 1779 Tour per Europa | 1779 – 1787 Viena | 1788 – 1791 Darrers anys
(0) Infantesa 1756 – 1762
Neix a Salzburg, un arxiprestat del Sacre imperi romà. El pare, Leopold, és compositor i mestre de música. Nen prodigi, toca el clavecí i el violí i esbossa les primeres composicions als 5 anys.
(1) Viatges 1763 – 1773
El pare s’endu de gira els dos germans, Nannerl i Wolfang, per lluir-los com a nens prodigi en concerts que havien de finançar els nobles del lloc. Comencen a Munich amb el príncep elector Maximilian III of Bavaria, les corts imperials de Viena i Praga, Mannheim, Paris, Londres ( coneix Johann Christian Bach), Dover, la Haia, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Mechelen, Paris, Zurich, Donaueschingen i Munich. S’estaran a Viena el 1767 i 1768 abans de començar un tour per Itàlia de 1769 a 1771.
Primeres simfonies amb 8 any, arranjaments de concerts per piano i orquestra, potser a mitges amb el seu pare.
1767: 4 concerts per a piano i orquestra. Els estudis han determinat que es tracta d’orquestracions d’obres d’altres autors [ jo els he escoltat amb devoció]
A Bologna coneix Giovanni Battista Martini. Roma, a la capella Sixtina, escolta el Miserere de Gregorio Allegri, del qual el vaticà tenia prohibit divlgar la partitura i la transcriurà de memòria. A Milà, amb 14 anys escriu l’òpera Mitridate, re di Ponto . Leopold intenta que l’arxiduc Ferdinand el contracti però l’emperadriu no vol Maria Teresa no vol mantenir gent no productiva.
Milanese Quartets, K. 155–160 (1772–1773) this cycle, in three movements, is interesting as far as these works can be considered precursors of the later—more complete—string quartets.
String Quartet No. 3 in G major, K. 156/134b (1772)
String Quartet No. 4 in C major, K. 157 (1772–73)
String Quartet No. 5 in F major, K. 158 (1772–73)
String Quartet No. 6 in B♭ major, K. 159 (1773)
String Quartet No. 7 in E♭ major, K. 160/159a (1773)
Viennese Quartets, K. 168–173 (1773) Much more stylistically developed. In Vienna Mozart is believed to have heard the op. 17 and op. 20 quartets of Joseph Haydn, and had received from them a deep impression.
Amb 17 anys ocupa el càrrec de músic de la Cort a Salzburg, governada per l’arquebisbe Colloredo . Aquest volia “modernitzar” la Cort amb música italiana. S’hi estarà fins el 1777, 21 anys.
1 Violin Concerto No. 1 in B-flat major, K. 207, 1773
2 Violin Concerto No. 2 in D major, K. 211, 1775
3 Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, “Strassburg”, K. 216, 1775
4 Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, K. 218, 1775
5 Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, “Turkish”, K. 219, 1775
(i dos més d’atribució dubtosa) [ — ]
ALTRES
Serenade No. 6 in D major, “Serenata Notturna”, K. 239 (1776)
Symphony No. 37 in G major, K. 444 (1783)For years this was categorized as a Mozart symphony, but later scholarship determined that it was actually composed by Michael Haydn (Symphony No. 25), and Mozart wrote only the slow introduction for it.
Arguably the most widely played concertos for horn, the four Horn Concertos are a major part of most professional horn players’ repertoire. They were written for Mozart’s lifelong friend Joseph Leutgeb. The concertos (especially the fourth) were written as virtuoso vehicles that allow the soloist to show a variety of abilities on the valveless horns of Mozart’s day.
The Horn Concertos are characterized by an elegant and humorous dialogue between the soloist and the orchestra. Many of the autographs contain jokes aimed at the dedicatee.
Haydn Quartets, K. 387, 421, 428, 458, 464, 465, Op. 10 (1782–1785) Mozart returned to the quartet in the early 1780s after he had moved to Vienna, met Haydn in person, and developed a friendship with the older composer. Haydn had just published his set of six quartets, Op. 33, which are thought to have been a stimulus to Mozart in returning to the genre. These quartets are often regarded as among the pinnacles of the genre.
MÚSICA PER A FESTES: Mozart left a huge production of dances for orchestra in different genres, including more than 100 minuets, two quadrilles, over 30 contra dances, over 50 allemandes (Teitsch, Ländler, or German Dances), a gavotte (French folk dance) and ballet and pantomime music. In his production of minuets, Mozart generally followed Haydn’s example, preferring the slow character of the dance. Allemandes written between 1787 and 1791 were mainly for public balls in Vienna.
Great Mass in C minor, K. 427 (1782–3; unfinished falta el Credo i l’Agnus Dei. mostra la influència de Bach i Händel que Mozart estava estudiant en aquesta època)
Prussian Quartets, K. 575, 589, 590, Op. 18 (1789–1790) Mozart’s last three quartets, dedicated to the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm II, are noted for the cantabile character of the parts for cello (the instrument played by the king himself), the sweetness of sounds and the equilibrium among the different instruments.
La Canzone napoletana: 1830 – 1960 es va consolidar en un festival de la mare de Déu de Piedigrotta. Amb temes que es van fer molt populars com n ‘O sole mio, Torna a Surriento, Funiculì, funiculà o Santa Lucia. Emigrants italians les van fer famoses arreu del món, com Enrico Caruso. Gabrielle d’Annunzio va compondre en dialecte napolità els versos de Vucchella. Roberto Murolo. Als ’50 Renato Carosone. Peppino di Capri.
(un comentari al swingdic de greuges on sortia un indi de Bollywood imitant Elvis Presley, agost 2019: El que és interessant notar a partir d’aquest vídeo, és quanta música arreu del món ha volgut imitar o s’ha inspirat en música que ve del jazz. Perquè Elvis es va inspirar en el R&B (El seu èxit Hound Dog va ser tret d’un tema de Big Mama Thornton). Sense exagerar gaire, podríem dir que la major part de la música que durant els darrers 100 anys ha fet ballar i emocionar Amèrica i Europa, i bona part d’Àsia i Àfrica segueix un fil que es remunta al jazz. Perquè del jazz en va sortir el R&B dels 50. I amb la influència Gospel, va néixer el soul amb gent com Otis Redding i James Brown. R&B era el que escoltaven els Beatles i els Rollings que després van crear el Pop (els Beatles tenen una versió molt divertida del “Ain’t She Sweet” que a vegades hem ballat). Als ’70 DJs com DJ Kool Herc a les festes del Bronx, manipulant dos tocadiscos que reproduïen fragments curts de discos de soul obtenia loops que feien una base rítmica i d’acompanyament (com una versió de pobre dels riffs dels arranjaments de les big bands) i un MC anava improvisant frases (l’equivalent al solo). Neixia el Hip hop que es faria famós amb el Rappers Delight de Sugar Hill Gang. I als ’80, a Detroit, Afrika Bambaata i altra gent incorporaven la tecnologia de Kraftwerk per obtenir el fons a base de caixes de ritme com el Roland TR808 i sintetitzadors. I tenim el Techno. Pràcticament tot el que escoltem és un descendent, tant llunyà com vulgueu, del jazz. En aquest experiment han agafat una peça de Louis Armstrong, li han tret el fons i li han afegit una base de hip hop. I Armstrong sembla ben bé que estigui rapejant.
On August 11, 1973 in the Bronx, New York history was about to be made. DJ Kool Herc (now known as the first DJ & founding father of hip hop) & his sister Cindy began hosting back to school parties in the recreation room of their building. It was these gatherings that would spark the beginning of a new culture we know today as Hip-Hop. One night during history of rapDJ Kool Herc’s set he tried something new he called “merry go round”. He used two turntables playing the same break beat section of the James Brown record “clap your hands”. When one turntable would finish playing the section he would switch to the other turntable and play the same section. This allowed him to extend that section of the song as long as he wanted. This technique is now referenced to as looping and is used by record producers in almost every beat.
From emcee to rapper
how-did-rap-start
Left – (Coke La Rock) Right – (DJ Kool Herc)
As DJ Kool Herc continued to do more parties he realized that speaking on the mic was just as important to keeping a party live as DJing was. In order to keep up with the demands of the crowd he reached out to his good friend Coke La Rock to be the first dedicated MC of these parties. During one of these parties Coke La Rock spit his very first bar, ” There’s not a man that can’t be thrown, not a horse that can’t be rode, a bull that can’t be stopped, there’s not a disco that I Coke La Rock can’t rock”. This one bar made Coke La Rock the very first rapper in Hip-Hop and birthed a new genre of music we know today as Rap music.
The first mainstream rap song emerges
Within the next few years DJ’s & Rappers was popping up at every block party to showcase their talent but record companies considered rap music a fad & was not compelled to invest into it. Rap music finally reached mainstream recognition in 1979. The first rap song to get commercially released was “King Tim III (Personality Jock)” by the Fatback Band. However this song was pushed to the b-side of the tape but after getting a huge response from the clubs it was later released on the a-side and became a top 30 hit on r&b charts.
In the winter of that same year a rap group emerged called Sugar Hill Gang suger-hill-gang-rappers-delightcomprised of Englewood, New Jersey natives Michael “Wonder Mike” Wright, Henry “Big Bank Hank” Jackson, and Guy “Master Gee” O’Brien. They released a rap song titled “Rappers Delight“. This song was over 14 minutes long and used the “Good Times by Chic” sample in the background. Rappers Delight went on to achieve the top 40 billboard spot in 1980.
Afrika Bambaataa, who, together with Arthur Baker, a DJ from Boston, created an electrofunk which was similar to techno, was into the same things as Atkins. Bam: “This is [Kraftwerk] the music for the future and for space travels — along with the funk of what was happening with James Brown and Sly Stone and George Clinton. Of course, I was listening to a lot of Yellow Magic Orchestra and Gary Numan, as well as Dick Hyman’s Moog sound, and music from John Carpenter’s Halloween. When you put all that together, then you get electrofunk, which is what we were doing.”
In 1981, the label owner Tommy Boy introduced Baker to Bambaataa who then was a musician and a DJ, leader of the Zulu Nation group, who took away talented boys from the hands of the street and taught them scratching, breakdance, graffiti and rapping — everything that would later become hip-hop. The heavyset Bam enjoyed the glory of the first guy in the Bronx River: he wore fashionable clothes and futuristic cyclops glasses, and on stage he transformed into the father of the hip-hop nation in Samurai armour of the 18th century. Hip-hop then was slow rhyming with slow funk breaks. Bambaataa and Baker dreamt of enriching the sound, and both wanted to engage Kraftwerk into it while remaining in the history. Bam: “I don’t think they even knew how big they were among the black masses back in ’77 when they came out with Trans-Europe Express. When that came out, I thought that was one of the best and weirdest records I ever heard in my life.”
According to one legend, Arthur Baker figured out what the next single should be while having lunch on the terrace or in the park. Trans-Europe Express, even four years later was all around buildings, constantly played in this area. At the same time, Baker went to a music shop for something new — his friends who worked there pointed to the Numbers single, for some reason released only in North America; the yellow 45’ with a throbbing rhythm sold in the Bronx like hotcakes. The musicians were severely limited in time and money: without a decent sampler or drum machine. Baker found an announcement in a newspaper: “TR-808 to rent, Joe.” They gave a twenty to Joe, played Numbers and tried to imitate the rhythm pattern. The tune from Express was played from start to finish by a keyboardist they knew. Baker realised that he could get a lawsuit from Dusseldorf and even asked to write an extra tune instead of the German one, but the owner of the label, after hearing the draft, dispelled doubts: “Oh just use the Kraftwerk melody on it.” Almost all the authors of the greatest hits later acknowledged that they didn’t believe in success, didn’t think about the future of their records; they didn’t hope for anything. Baker claims that he foresaw the future of the single during the first session: “Sweetheart, we’ve just made musical history”. With these words he brought the Planet Rock single home.
Enrique Granados Campiña (27 July 1867 – 24 March 1916)
Manuel de Falla 23 November 1876 – 14 November 1946
Nacionalismes Rússia
Borodin 12 November 1833 – 27 February 1887
Mikhail Glinka 1804 – 15 February [O.S. 3 February] 1857
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov[a 1] (18 March [O.S. 6 March] 1844 – 21 June [O.S. 8 June] 1908
Modest Mussorgsky 1839 – 28 March [O.S. 16 March] 1881
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)
Alexander Scriabin 25 December 1871] – 27 April [O.S. 14 April] 1915
CANVIS EUROPA INICI XX
Mahler 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911
Primera avantguarda Europa, sales de concerts amb debat:
Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich
Debussy, Satie, Ravel, Saint-Saens, Charles Ives
Bela Bartok, Zoltan Kodaly, Edvard Grieg, Jan Sibelius, Carl Nielsen
Richard Strauss, Alban Berg, Paul Hindemith, Arnold Schönberg, Anton Webern
Música avantguarda subvencionada després WWII: Luciano Berio, G Ligeti, Martinu, Messiaen, Penderecki, Boulez, Xenakis, John Cage
Segona avantguarda: Britten, Morton Feldman, Elliot Carter, Francis Poulenc, Aaron Copland, Kurt Weil, Heitor Villalobos
Noves músiques 80-2000: Benet Casablancas, Toru Takemitsu, Carles Viarnés, Hans Zender, Hans Otte
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), del barroc, que fou qui l’inicià. Pare de Domenico.
Domenico Cimarosa (1749 1801) : Il Matrimonio Segreto, Concerts per a Oboè, Rèquiem
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, (1710–1736): La serva padrona
Niccolò Piccinni (1728-1800)
Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816)
“L’escola napolitana d’òpera bufa va utilitzar personatges més humans, hereus de la commedia dell’arte, amb la creació de duets, trios, quartets, quintets, etc. i els amplis concertants al final dels actes, que després de Mozart, Rossini i Donizetti ja no es tornarien a sentir”.
Alemanya i Àustria sXVIII
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788)
(Franz) Joseph Haydn 31 March[n 2] 1732 – 31 May 1809)
Wolfang Amadeus Mozart 27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791
Henry Purcell (1659-1695) Dido i Eneas (que tant havia escoltat)
The Fairy-Queen was first performed on 2 May 1692 at the Queen’s Theatre, Dorset Garden in London
Händel 1685 – 1759
Barroc Alemanya
Heinrich Schütz 1585 1672
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 -1750) [Leipzig, Cort Frederic el gran]
Georg Philipp Telemann 1681 – 1767
Jan Dismas Zelenka; 16 October 1679 – 23 December 1745)
Cort Española barroc
Scarlatti (Naples, 26 October 1685 – Madrid, 23 July 1757)
Antonio Soler (1729 – 1783)
Barroc Itàlia
Antonio Vivaldi 1678 – 1741 [ all-female music ensemble of the Ospedale della Pietà]
Tomaso Albinoni 1671 – 1751
Giuseppe Tartini (8 April 1692 – 26 February 1770)
Gabrieli
Frescobaldi
Dario Castello 1590 1630
Monteverdi 1567 1643
Gesualdo 1566 1613 (His most well-known music was published in Naples in 1603 and from the castle of Gesualdo (with printer Giovanni Giacomo Carlino) in 1611. The most notoriously chromatic and difficult portions of it were all written during his period of self-isolation. Castell Avellino)
Giovanni Battista Fontana 1589 1630 (Roma Venecia Padova)
Elizabethan England
Dowland 1563 1626
Byrd 1543 1623 Will You Walk the Woods so wild
Hume 1569 1645
Morley 1557 1602
España sXVI
Luis Milan 1500 1561
Diego Ortiz 1510 1570 [anotar la preferida], Jordi Savall
Antonio de Cabezón 1510 1566
4/3/1678 Venècia 28/7/1741 Viena. [ wikipedia, diccionari Grove ]
1678 Venècia, virtuós del violí, probablement patia d’asma
1703-1715 Ospedale
1703 és ordenat capellà, amb 25 anys. Li diran il Prete Rosso, pel color dels cabells.
Contractat com a mestro di violino a l’Ospedale della Pietà (ara és un hotel de 5 estrelles, el Metropole, al costat de Chiesa della Pietà – Santa Maria della Visitazione. Hi havia 4 institucions per a orfes mantinguda per la República. Els nois aprenien un ofici i les noies, música). Vivaldi havia de compondre música per les ocasions, fer assajar el cor i l’orquestra i ensenyar teoria.
Despite his frequent travels from 1718, the Ospedale paid him 2 sequins to write two concerti a month for the orchestra and to rehearse with them at least five times when in Venice. The orphanage’s records show that he was paid for 140 concerti between 1723 and 1733.
1723 Op.8 Il Cimento dell’armonia e dell’invenzione 12 Concerts, (amb les quatre estacions, 269, 315, 293, 297), La tempesta di mare 253, Il piacere 180, Per Pisensel 242, 332, 236, 454, La caccia 362, 210, 178.
1727 Op. 9 La Cetra, 12 concerts, per a violí, 181a 345 334 263a 358 348 359 238 530 300 198 391
1730? (entre 1720 i 1730) 6 cello sonatas: (01 Cello Sonata No 3 RV43 in A minor, 05 Cello Sonata No 5 RV45 in E minor, 09 Cello Sonata No 9 RV49 in G minor)
1740 Viatja a Viena esperant el favor de l’emperador i estrenar òperes pero aquest mor i els teatres tanquen.
1740 sonates cello 47 41 43 45 40 46
Morí, pobre, el 1741
[El Grove el descriu com un home amb molta vanitat i molta preocupació pels diners. A l’època se’l valorava més com a violinista virtuós més que no pas com a compositor. S’ha estudiat la seva influència en Bach.]
Selecció
Concerto f|r 2 Mandolinen G-dur RV 532: 1. Allegro
Concerto C-dur “con molti istromenti” RV 558: 1. Allegro molto
Concierto, F.III, 2 (P.411) RV 531 dos cellos
Concierto, F.IX, 1 (P.75)
Concierto (L’Inquietude) F.I, 10 (P.208)
Konzert in F dur fur Sopraninoblockflote und Saiteninstrumnete F.VI. 4 – I. Allegro RV 443
b.04 – Sonata No 12 in D minor ‘La Follia’ op 1 RV 63 – Adagio- Tema con 19 variazioni (basat en Corelli)
23-SONATA 4 AL SANTO SEPOLCRO RV.130-Largo molto
MÚSICA SACRA
Hi ha tres Laudate Pueri, dos Nisi Dominus, dos Dixit Dominus, tres Salve Regina
RV601 Magnificat OC20
RV587 Kyrie Eleison OC20
RV591 Credo OC20
RV594 Dixit Dominus OC20
RV626 In furore iustissima irae OC21
RV629 Longe mala, umbrae, terrores OC21
RV625 Clarae stellae OC21
RV623 Canta in prato OC21
RV638 Filieae mastae Jerusalem OC21
RV630 Nulla in mundo pax sincera OC21
RV595 Dixit Dominus OC22
RV593 Domine ad adjuvandum OC22
RV605 Credidi propter quod OC22
RV598 Beatus vir OC22
RV664Judita Triumphans 1 OC 23 i 24
RV627 In turbato mare OC25
RV641 Non in pratis aut in hortis OC25
RV621 Stabat mater OC25
RV631 O qui coeli terraque serenitas OC25
RV612 Deus tuorum militum OC25
RV596 Confitebor tibi OC25
RV795 Beatus vir OC26
RV617 Salve regina OC26
RV606 Laudate Dominum OC26
RV604 In exitu Israel OC26
RV608 Nisi Dominus OC26
RV607 Laetatus sum OC27
RV601 Laudate Pueri OC27
RV633 Vestro Principi divino OC27
RV639 Jubilate Gloria OC27
RV600 Laudate Pueri OC28
RV637 Cur sagittas, cur tela OC28
RV620 Sanctorum meritis OC28
RV616 Salve Regina OC28
RV602 Laudate Pueri OC29
RV618 Salve Regina OC29
RV635 Ascende laeta OC29
RV613 Gaude mater Ecclesia OC29
RV634 Vos aurae per montes OC29
RV589 Gloria OC30
RV803 Nisi Dominus OC30
RV642 Ostro picta OC30
RVAnh23 Gloria OC30
Nisi Dominus (Psalm 126), R.608
Cum dederit dilectis suis somnum; Ecce haereditas Domini, filii: Merces, fructus ventris.
que a partir d’una traducció anglesa seria:
Quan ha atorgat el son a aquells que estima, vet aquí l’herència dels Senyor, els fills, una recompensa, el fruit del ventre.
I que no es correspon del tot amb la traducció del salm a la Bíblia interconfessional (on és el salm 127 seguint una numeració diferent de la Vulgata) on sembla que el que Déu atorga fins quan dormen és el pa.
Coses de les dificultats de les traduccions. segurament la més moderna és més fidel que no el text en llatí de la Vulgata. Però va servir per inspirar Vivaldi.
Si Jahvè no construeix la casa,
és inútil l’afany dels constructors.
Si Jahvè no guarda la ciutat,
és inútil que vigilin els guardes.
Es inútil que us lleveu tan de matí,
i aneu tan tard a reposar,
per menjar el pa que us guanyeu a dures penes. Fins quan dormen, Déu el dóna als seus amics.
La millor herència són els fills, do de Jahvè,
els descendents són la millor recompensa;
els fills que heu tingut quan éreu joves
són com les fletxes en mans d’un guerrer;
feliç l’home que se n’omple el buirac:
si discuteix amb algú davant la gent,
no haurà de retirar-se avergonyit.
He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the piano trio[2] and his contributions to musical form have earned him the epithets “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet”. Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their remote estate. Until the later part of his life, this isolated him from other composers and trends in music so that he was, as he put it, “forced to become original”. Yet his music circulated widely, and for much of his career he was the most celebrated composer in Europe. He was a friend and mentor of Mozart, a teacher of Beethoven, and the older brother of composer Michael Haydn.
1732: Neix a Rohrau. Infantesa humil, passava gana
1740: 8 anys cor Sant Esteve a Viena
1749: 17 anys, acomiadat, comença a fer de freelance. Aconsegueix alguns patrons
According to Pohl, it was in the spring or summer of 1750 that Haydn occupied his most frequently described early lodgings: a ‘miserable little garret without a stove’ (Griesinger) in the so-called Michaelerhaus, attached to the Michaelerkirche. At this time ‘his entire life was devoted to giving lessons, the study of his art, and performing. He played in serenades and in orchestras for pay, and devoted himself diligently to composition, for “when I sat at my old, worm-eaten clavier, I envied no king his good fortune”’. Here occurred the first of many strokes of luck through which, in addition to his genius and unremitting labour, he gradually improved his professional lot. Griesinger writes: In the same house … lived as well the famous poet Metastasio. He was raising one Fräulein Martinez; Haydn was engaged to give her lessons in singing and on the clavier, in return for which he received free board for three years.
1750s: comença a compondre quartets de corda pel baró Fürnberg.
1757: 25 anys, Kapellmeister amb el Comte Morzin
1760: 28 anys Es casa.
Simfonies Morzin: “His pre-Esterházy symphonies (most composed for Count Morzin) comprise nos.1, 37 and 18 (the earliest); 2, 4–5, 10–11, 17, 19–20, 25, 27, 32, 107; and possibly 3 and 15.”
1761 VICE KAPELLMEISTER ESTERHAZY
1761: Esterhazy. Count Morzin soon suffered financial reverses that forced him to dismiss his musical establishment, but Haydn was quickly offered a similar job (1761) by Prince Paul Anton, head of the immensely wealthy Esterházy family. Haydn’s job title was only Vice-Kapellmeister, but he was immediately placed in charge of most of the Esterházy musical establishment, with the old Kapellmeister Gregor Werner retaining authority only for church music. When Werner died in 1766, Haydn was elevated to full Kapellmeister.
(el comte, en veure Haydn petit i moreno va preguntar “qui és aquest moro?”, i Haydn va dir qui era. Si tu ja ets al meu servei! com és que no et coneixia? Et cal un bon vestit, sabates amb taló, i una perruca.
1761 Simfonies Matí, migdia, vespre
Simfonies amb Esterhazy: Haydn’s years as Esterházy vice-Kapellmeister (1761–5) were his most productive as a symphony composer, with about 25 works (nos.6–9, 12–16, 21–4, 28–31, 33–4, 36, 39–40, 72, 108(B)); nos.35, 38 and 58–9 from about 1766–7 are similar. They exhibit great variety of style, subject matter and orchestral treatment, although the common notion that they constituted a distinctly ‘experimental’ phase is untenable. Their stylistic élan and virtuoso brilliance are attributable to the splendour of the court and the professional players now at Haydn’s disposal. One finds works for connoisseurs (nos.6–8, 13, 21–2, 31), others that seek to entertain (nos.9, 16, 33, 36, 72, 108) and still others that combine both stances (nos.34, 39–40). A few present an apotheosis of the chamber symphony: at ease, yet refined and profound (nos. 28–9, 35). Extra-musical aspects are present not only in the Matin–Midi–Soir trilogy (see §3(i)) but also nos.30 (‘Alleluja’), 31 (‘Hornsignal’), and perhaps 22 (‘The Philosopher’) and 59 (‘Fire’, a modern nickname deriving from its supposed origin as incidental music). Although a few symphonies are still in three movements (nos.9, 12, 16, 30), four is now the norm. Concertante scoring is prominent not only in nos.6–8 but in nos.9, 13, 14, 16, 31, 36, 72 and 108; a special effect found in this period alone is the use of four horns rather than the usual two (nos.13, 31, 39, 72).
Les sonates de piano d’aquest període segurament estaven pensades per a clavicèmbal i per ser interpretades per dames cultes a casa. Sonata no.2 in B (with its astonishing Largo) [HobXVI2, sonata 11, 1760] are more intellectually difficult and stylistically uncompromising than all the early quartets and most of the early symphonies; many works are small and unpretentious and were presumably written for students and amateurs. At least 12 weighty connoisseurs’ sonatas originated in the late 1760s and early 1770s, including nos.19, 20, 45, 46 and seven lost works. Two sets in mixed style followed, nos.21–6 (1773) and 27–32 (1774–6); they include serious works such as the boldly formed nos.22 in E and 26 in A, the passionate no.32 in B minor and the through-composed no.30 in A, as well as numerous lighter works, especially in the 1774–6 set. In 1780 followed Haydn’s first publication with Artaria, the heterogeneous nos.35–9 and 20, including the ‘easy’ no.35 in C, the virtuoso no.37 in D and the serious no.36 in C minor. The three modestly scaled sonatas nos.40–42 (published 1784) are miracles of popular appeal allied with high art, especially no.40 in G. Except for no.51 in D, for Mrs Schroeter, Haydn’s last five sonatas eschew any pretence of modesty. In the late 1780s he composed no.48 in C, with a fantasy-like slow variation movement and a dashing sonata-rondo finale, and the intimate no.49 in E for Mme Genzinger; its brilliant first movement has an unusually long coda and the ABA Adagio is richly expressive, with continual variations of the theme. From London come two virtuoso sonatas for Jansen: nos.50 in C and 52 in E. The former features a remarkable first movement which, though in sonata form, is based on continual variation of a basic motif; the latter is on the largest scale throughout and features a slow movement in the remote key of E major (a tonal relation adumbrated in the development of the first movement and wittily ‘cancelled’ at the beginning of the finale).
Trios de piano 1 – 17, predomina el paper del piano, que a l’època no sonava gaire fort i podia ser fàcilment eclipsat pel violí i cello.
Haydn’s piano trios have been undervalued, in part because of the great distance between their original generic identity and today’s conceptions. 18th-century keyboard trios (like violin sonatas) were understood as ‘accompanied sonatas’: the keyboard dominates, the cello mainly doubles the left hand of the piano in a pitch-class sense, and even the violin is generally more accompanimental than soloistic, although it often receives sustained melodies in second themes, slow movements, minuet trios and rondo episodes. Nevertheless the strings are essential, for integration of the texture, tone colour and rhythmic definition.
[període Sturm und Drang] 1770
1769 Quartets Op.9
Simfonies Sturm und Drang: Haydn’s symphonies of the years around 1770 (nos.26, 41–9, 52, 65) are widely described as exemplifying his Sturm und Drang style; those of 1773–4 (nos.50, 51, 54–7, 60, 64), while less extreme, have many points of contact with it. The most commonly cited feature is the minor mode – of Haydn’s ten symphonies in the minor, six fall between 1765 and 1772 – although most works remain in the major, and most of the novel stylistic features are independent of mode. These include remote keys (no.45, ‘Farewell’, in F minor and major, and no.46 in B major), rhythmic and harmonic complexities, expansion of outward dimensions and harmonic range, rhythmic instability, extremes of dynamics and register, greater technical difficulty, increased use of counterpoint (e.g. in the canonic minuet of no.44, ‘Mourning’), musical ideas that seem dynamically potential rather than self-contained, and contrast within themes instead of merely between them. The slow movements and finales become more nearly comparable to the first movements in size and weight; in the former the violins play con sordino and the tempo is usually slowed to Adagio. No.26 (‘Lamentatione’) has religious associations and no.49 (‘La passione’) may have as well. The programmatic nos.45–6 (they seem to be a pair) are integrated in a through-composed, end-orientated manner not seen again until Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
simfonia 44, Farewell 45
1771 piano sonata Cm XVI/20 L33, indicacions de dinàmica que revelarien que ja són per a ser interpretades al fortepiano.
1772 Quartets del sol Op.20
1761 amb el príncep Paul Anton Esterhazy i Nikolaus Esterhazy. Tenia la responsabilitat de compondre, dirigir l’orquestra i muntar òperes.
Simfonies 1775 1780. From about 1775 (in some respects 1773) to 1781 Haydn again changed his orientation. Symphonies nos.53, 61–3, 66–71 and 73–5 are primarily in a light, even popular style (only no.70 is an exception), perhaps reflecting his resumption of operatic composition in 1773; indeed nos.53, 62, 63 and 73 include adaptations of stage-music (see §3(iii)), as had nos.50 (1773) and 60 (1774) before them. This stylistic turn has been interpreted as a kind of relaxation, or even as an outright selling out, but it is better understood as representing the distinct artistic stance of entertainment. They are easy (as Haydn was to say of nos.76–8), but superbly crafted, and abound in striking and beautiful passages, not to mention witty and eccentric ones: works of comic genius that approach the buffa stage. The slow movements exhibit new formal and stylistic options (the hymn-like no.61, the exquisitely ‘popular’ theme in no.53, the play of comic and serious in no.68, the ethereal dream in no.62), while the finales adumbrate rondo and hybrid forms. Slow introductions become important about 1779 and begin to create tangible links to the allegros (nos.53, 71 and 73).
1779 renegocia el contracte que li permet compondre per a altres (fins ara tot era propietat dels Esterhazy) i això es tradueix en menys òperes, més quartets i simfonies.
Simfonies 1780-1785 During the 1780s Haydn’s style changed again, as he began to sell his symphonies abroad, in ‘opus’ format (see §3(iv) above). Although in many respects nos.76–81 (1782–4) are still ‘easy’, they include superb movements such as the opening Vivace of no.81 and the finales of nos.77 (with its contrapuntal development) and 80 (with its cross-rhythm theme). In nos.78 and 80 Haydn returns to the minor, although from no.80 on he usually ends such movements in the major, and places the entire finale in the major as well. The Paris symphonies (nos.82–7) are the grandest he had yet composed. Nos.87, 83 and 85 (1785) already have a new esprit, a combination of learned and popular style, consistency of musical argument and depth of feeling; see the slow movements of nos.83 and 87 and the outer movements of no.85 (the opening Vivace is particularly graceful and harmoniously constructed). In nos.82 and 86 (1786) the trumpets and drums lend added brilliance and the outer movements are on a still larger scale; the Capriccio of no.86 is one of Haydn’s most original slow movements. All these features characterize nos.88 and 90–92 as well (no.89 falls off somewhat). Nos.88 and 92 are the best-known: the former boasts concentrated, in part contrapuntal, outer movements, while the gorgeous Largo theme is set off by entries of the trumpets and drums (withheld from the first movement for this purpose); the latter features an unusually close integration of slow introduction and Allegro, a beautiful Adagio, rhythmically intricate trio and Haydn’s sprightliest and wittiest finale to date.
1781 Quartets op.33, Russos (el 1782 Mozart dedica a Haydn els seus 6 quartets) Haydn. Quartets de corda
1784 Quartet Op. 42
1787 Quartets OP. 50 Prussian
Trios 18 a 23
The effort to hear Haydn’s 27 late piano trios (hXV:5–31, 1784–96) with 18th-century ears is worth making: after the quartets they comprise his largest and greatest corpus of chamber music.
No.12 in E minor (1788–9) [XV 12, 25] has an opening movement of astonishing seriousness with vast expansions towards the end, while the beautiful siciliano slow movement and the ebullient rondo finale are both in E major. No.14 in A (1789–90)[ XV 14 25 includes his first slow movement in a remote key (E major, or VI, adumbrated by B major in the development of the first movement).
Viatges a Londres 1791-1792 i 1794-1795
1790 és famós a tot Europa però està reclòs a Esterhazy. Mor el príncep Nikolaus i el successor mira de reduir despeses. Se li rebaixa el sou però pot viatjar i se’n va a London contractat per l’empresari Salomon [com els productors de jazz]. He spent some of the time in the country (Hertingfordbury), but also had time to travel, notably to Oxford, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University.
In the 1790s, stimulated by his England journeys, Haydn developed what Rosen calls his “popular style”, a method of composition that, with unprecedented success, created music having great popular appeal but retaining a learned and rigorous musical structure.[n 27] An important element of the popular style was the frequent use of folk or folk-like material, as discussed in the article Haydn and folk music. Haydn took care to deploy this material in appropriate locations, such as the endings of sonata expositions or the opening themes of finales. In such locations, the folk material serves as an element of stability, helping to anchor the larger structure.[57] Haydn’s popular style can be heard in virtually all of his later work, including the twelve London symphonies, the late quartets and piano trios, and the two late oratorios.
Trios 24 a 31: From London, nos.24–6 (1794–5), dedicated to Schroeter, include no.25 (with the famous ‘Gypsy Rondo’) and no.26 in the special key of F minor: following a concentrated and brooding Allegro and a gorgeous Adagio in F major (identical in substance with the Adagio of Symphony no.102), the minuet-finale is anything other than anticlimactic. It begins dissonantly on a dominant 9th and this instability is maintained throughout: there is no tonic cadence until the very last bar of the A section, just before the double bar, and in the reprise even this cadence is deceptive, leading to a substantial coda. Rosen praises its ‘intimate gravity … a melancholy so intense it is indistinguishable from the tragic’, while Landon conjectures that the work may represent Haydn’s farewell to Mrs Schroeter (the key is suggestive). By contrast, nos.27 in C and 29 in E (1795–6), dedicated to Jansen, are difficult and extroverted; no.29 is particularly original in construction, and both have rollicking finales that outdo any earlier ones.
1791 Orfeo i Eurídice. Un encàrrec. Algun problema entre el rei i el príncep de Gal·les va impedir que s’estrenés. Va quedar inèdita fins 1951.
1793 Quartets Opus 71, 74 Apponyi
Simfonies London, 93-104 Haydn’s London symphonies (nos.93–104) crown his career as a symphonic composer. Not only do they outdo the Paris symphonies stylistically, but he produced them in person for rapturous audiences; this interaction stimulated him to ever bolder and more original conceptions. Nos.95–6 (1791) most nearly resemble the preceding symphonies, although no.95 in C minor has a gripping opening movement dominated by a striking unison motto, an ominously terse minuet and a brilliant sonata-fugal finale in C major (possibly influenced by the finale of Mozart’s ‘Jupiter’). Those given in 1792 (nos.93–4, 97–8) respond to Haydn’s public: in no.94 the famous outburst in the Andante is actually the least remarkable ‘surprise’; the opening Vivace reaches new heights of tonal wit and expansive brilliance, and the concluding sonata-rondo is the first to exhibit the blend of rhythmic vitality, playful surprise, larger scale and underlying cogency of argument that distinguish Haydn’s London finales. These last features are found in nos.97–8 as well, along with a new romanticism in the opening movement of no.97 (the breathtaking diminished 7th chord in bar 2, which returns at several key points, and the remote flat-side modulations in the recapitulation); in no.98 Haydn composed an extended fortepiano obbligato for himself in the coda of the finale.
TRIOS
Three trios (H. XV:18–20) dedicated to Princess Maria Anna, wife of Prince Anton Esterházy:
No. 32 in A major, Hoboken XV:18 (1793)
No. 33 in G minor, Hoboken XV:19 (1793)
No. 34 in B♭ major, Hoboken XV:20 (1794)
Three trios (H. XV:21–23) dedicated to Princess Maria Josepha, wife of Prince Nicholas Esterházy:
No. 35 in C major, Hoboken XV:21 (1794)
No. 36 in E♭ major, Hoboken XV:22 (1794)
No. 37 in D minor, Hoboken XV:23 (1794)
Three trios (H. XV:24–26) dedicated to Rebecca Schroeter:
1795 Torna a Viena, ara cèlebre
La Creació
Les estacions
Concert per a trompeta
Últimes sis simfonies. The last six symphonies are even more brilliant (clarinets are added, except in no.102); Haydn’s determination to conquer new territory with each work is palpable. No.99 in E is his most elaborate symphonic essay in remote tonal relations; it also features a particularly warm slow movement (in G major), with extensive wind writing (much commented on at the time). No.101 (‘Clock’) has by far the longest minuet and trio Haydn ever composed and a particularly brilliant rondo finale. No.100 (‘Military’) rapidly became his most popular, owing to the slow movement based on a romance (from the lyre concerto hVIIh:3), overlaid by massive percussion outbursts that audiences found deliciously terrifying. No.102 is the least ‘characteristic’ of these six, yet one of the greatest; its most remarkable movement is the Adagio (identical in musical substance to that in the F minor Piano Trio hXV:26), in which the exposition is repeated in order to vary the instrumentation, with muted trumpets and drums. No.103 (‘Drumroll’) offers Haydn’s most telling invocation of the sublime in instrumental music, by means of an astonishing double annunciation: first the ‘intrada’ fortissimo drum roll, then the mysterious bass theme (resembling the ‘Dies irae’), which dominates the Allegro as well and, even more astonishingly, interrupts the recapitulation near the end. No.104 begins with a massive dotted motif on the 5th D–A, which some commentators describe as dominating the entire symphony (fig.13); the first movement is one of Haydn’s freest and the finale has greater relative weight than that in any other of the London symphonies.
No. 38 in D major, Hoboken XV:24 (1795)
No. 39 in G major, Hoboken XV:25 (1795) “Gypsy”
No. 40 in F♯ minor, Hoboken XV:26 (1795)
Two stand-alone trios (H. XV:31, 30):
No. 41 in E♭ minor, Hoboken XV:31 (1797) “Jacob’s Dream”
No. 42 in E♭ major, Hoboken XV:30 (1797)
Three trios (H. XV:27–29), known as the “Bartolozzi Trios,” dedicated to Theresa Jansen (Bartolozzi):
No. 43 in C major, Hoboken XV:27 (1797)
No. 44 in E major, Hoboken XV:28 (1797)
No. 45 in E♭ major, Hoboken XV:29 (1797
1803 Físicament malalt, pero segueix tenint idees: [Haydn said] “I must have something to do—usually musical ideas are pursuing me, to the point of torture, I cannot escape them, they stand like walls before me. If it’s an allegro that pursues me, my pulse keeps beating faster, I can get no sleep. If it’s an adagio, then I notice my pulse beating slowly. My imagination plays on me as if I were a clavier.”[n 16] Haydn smiled, the blood rushed to his face, and he said “I am really just a living clavier.”
Es compra la casa amb jardí a Viena [foto]. Die Phantasie spielt mich, als wie ein Klavier.
Mausoleu a l’església d’Eisenstadt
Conservatori a Eisenstadt
La seva rutina:
0630 llevar-se
0800 Esmorzar i tocar el piano
1130 Visites
1400 Dinar
1600 Escriure música
2000 Passeig
2200 Sopar
2330 Dormir
Of these, a particularly important one was with Maria Anna von Genzinger (1754–93), the wife of Prince Nikolaus’s personal physician in Vienna, who began a close, platonic, relationship with the composer in 1789. Haydn wrote to Mrs. Genzinger often, expressing his loneliness at Esterháza and his happiness for the few occasions on which he was able to visit her in Vienna; later on, Haydn wrote to her frequently from London. Her premature death in 1793 was a blow to Haydn, and his F minor variations for piano, Hob. XVII:6, may have been written in response to her death [vol 11 18m]
Perhaps more than any other composer’s, Haydn’s music is known for its humor.[53] The most famous example is the sudden loud chord in the slow movement of his “Surprise” symphony; Haydn’s many other musical jokes include numerous false endings (e.g., in the quartets Op. 33 No. 2 and Op. 50 No. 3), and the remarkable rhythmic illusion placed in the trio section of the third movement of Op. 50 No. 1.[54] Much of the music was written to please and delight a prince, and its emotional tone is correspondingly upbeat.
