Today's lecture

Today's lecture is going to be about a group that is performing on campus this quarter and off campus in Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall downtown. The off campus concert will count for extra credit - as reflected in the updated syllabus - and will be worth 4 extra credit points (the equivalent of 2 quiz questions)! The conductor has graciously offered 50 free tickets to our class! I will take down names at the end of class today for those that would like to attend. To find directions to the hall, click on the link in the syllabus. If you decide to go to the concert and are not on my 50 person list, you can buy tickets HERE (student tickets are only $10!)

The lecture today will be about the off campus concert which is this Saturday, January 15th, and will be brief in order to hand out concert coupons, which will not be good for admission to the off campus concert - just to be clear. Below are notes from the conductor about the concert this Saturday. See you in class!

Unlike Mozart, who died penniless and debt-ridden, Beethoven was always good at making money and his Symphony No. 1 is one of a great many compositions commissioned by wealthy aristocrats (in this case, Baron Gottfried van Swieten).  The piece remains a work of Classical style and is not as well-known as Beethoven's great Romantic symphonies - however, the ideas presented in this first symphony clearly look forward to similar ones in the later symphonies.  The third movement is entitled "Minuetto" despite moving at a much faster tempo than the Minuets of Beethoven's classical predecessors, and is essentially an early version of Beethoven's famous scherzos found in the later symphonies (especially the 9th).  The first and last movements begin with trickery meant to mislead the listener's ear, another hallmark of Beethoven's works.  As with many classical symphonies, it requires great virtuosity of string playing to perform.

The debilitating insanity that overcame Robert Schumann towards the end of his life is well known in music history.  His Cello Concerto comes near the end of his compositional output, and we can already hear the strains of his mind in this music.  The piece is restless and full of odd interjections that seeming come out of nowhere.  It nevertheless is full of exciting and beautifully romantic material, and moves through all three movements without any pause whatsoever - something that had become a bit of a custom for Schumann, especially in his orchestral works.  His wife Clara was immediately delighted upon seeing the concerto's score, but it was nevertheless premiered four years after his death in 1860.

The Serenade No. 1 is a monumental work, a piece that marks Schumann's friend Johannes Brhams' first foray into symphonic writing.  Always conscious of the shadow cast over him by the previous great German symphonic master, Ludwig van Beethoven, Brahms took over 21 years to complete his First Symphony, and was equally cautious in the completion of this orchestral serenade.  Originally scored for a nonet of strings and winds, the Serenade looks back to the classical serenade of Brahms' predecessors, which began and ended with a march.  The classical serenade was meant for a chamber venue, where the small ensemble would march in, play their performance, and march out.  The middle movements are explorations of other conventional classical movement styles (Minuet, Scherzo, etc.) that are given an appropriately forward-looking Brahmsian treatment of harmony and form.  A favorite of SMCO brass players, the great force of the musical phrases of Brahms' First Serenade are a stunning contribution to the German symphonic repertoire.