1790s

Dougie MacLean | Ca’ the Yowes

“Technically, Dougie MacLean is a ‘Scottish singer-songwriter.’ But that minimal moniker doesn’t tell half the tale … the Perthshire native can look back on a hugely successful recording career with more than 15 albums,” (Seven Days). “MacLean toured as a member of the rocking Scottish folk supergroup the Tannahill Weavers in the 1970s and was briefly a member of Silly Wizard, another legendary traditional band from Scotland. But his popularity was assured in the early 1980s with his solo album, Craigie Dhu. This recording contains MacLean’s ballad ‘Caledonia,’ a love song to his homeland that has become a veritable Scottish national anthem.

… MacLean sings and plays his own pretty compositions as if each song were a lullaby for a loved one, or for his own pleasure, as if he doesn’t have a care in the world. His vocals are silky and crystal-clear, his guitar work unhurried and graceful. His is not music for the cynical. If you dislike the texture and sentiment of, say, James Taylor’s ‘Sweet Baby James’ or Cindy Kallet’s ‘Working on Wings to Fly,’ MacLean’s sound may not be for you. He has a deep sentimental streak, which seems indigenous in Scotsmen who write folk songs — or folk ballads, or something more acoustic-music specific than just ‘songs.’ But to his fans, that sweetness is one of the reasons so much of his work is memorable. His recordings could also function as master classes in how to accompany a voice with acoustic guitar.”

“Ca’ the Yowes,” from 1995’s Tribute, indeed features a gentle lullaby feel, starting in C minor. At 1:59, the tonality shifts to D minor underneath an instrumental interlude. At 2:58, the tune passes back into C minor in advance of more vocal verses; the beginning of the D minor section seems more difficult to discern than its end. According to the Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary, ca’ the yowes tae the knowes means ‘drive the ewes to the knolls.’ The tune was based on a poem written by Robert Burns in 1789.

Ludwig van Beethoven | Piano Sonata 5, Op. 10 #1, Third Movement

“Beethoven was a classical musician. He used the same grammar rules that you can find in Haydn’s works,” (Jaime Kardontchik, “Modulation in Beethoven’s Sonatas“). “So why does his keyboard music sound so vastly different from Haydn’s or Mozart’s music? For one thing, he was a son of the French Revolution with its Republican ideas of Liberty, Fraternity and Equality. He was an eighteen year old teenager when in 1789 the French Revolution shattered the pillars of the old monarchical world and he enthusiastically embraced these new ideas.

But what made in the end his keyboard music so distinctive is that papa Haydn and the younger Mozart grew up with and perfected the technique of playing and composing for the 4.5-octave harpsichord … Mozart died prematurely in 1791. The young Beethoven grew up together with this new and different keyboard instrument, the forte-piano. He extracted from the forte-piano every new sound possible as the piano makers were improving the instrument and expanding its range up to the present 7.5-octave piano as it is known today. Beethoven loved its sound, however imperfect the instrument was in his time; he understood the almost unlimited possibilities it opened for the expression of new musical ideas, took the risk, and bet on it. And two hundred years later, we are happy he did so. But historical circumstances and technical developments are clearly not enough to explain the individual and his contribution: he was simply Beethoven.”

After a start in C minor, a modulation into the relative major key (Eb) is in effect between 0:33 – 1:11). The 1798 sonata’s sprightly prestissimo movement continues to transition between the two relative keys throughout, passing through other keys (C major included) in the process.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Deis Irae (from the Requiem Mass in D Minor, 1791)

The Requiem Mass in D minor (K. 626) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was left unfinished at the composer’s death on December 5, 1791. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg in 1792; von Walsegg had commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the February 14 anniversary of his wife’s death. The lyrics of “Dies Irae” (Day of Wrath) are derived from a thirteenth century Latin hymn.

Süssmayr must have completed a great deal of this movement; as Classic FM reports, “In July 1791 an ‘unknown, gray stranger’ turned up at the composer’s door saying he represented someone who wanted a Requiem from Mozart on the understanding that he not seek to learn the identity of his patron.

Spooked by the commission, Mozart threw himself obsessively into the work. But it was all too much. He was only able to complete the Requiem and Kyrie movements, and managed to sketch the voice parts and bass lines for the Dies Irae through to the Hostias.”

There are several short sections: D minor, F major, C minor, and finally returning to D minor. Many thanks to regular contributor JB for this submission!

Flash Mob, Turin, Italy | Mozart’s “Ave Verum Corpus”

Of all the things we’re missing now, the feeling of participating in a flash mob (as a planful participant or an unwitting audience member) might be among the most difficult to recall. This 2013 a cappella performance of Mozart’s “Ave Verum Corpus” (1791), nothing less than a pillar of the choral repertoire, resounds beautifully in the setting of a soaring Italian atrium.

Dr. Jimbob’s Mozart page (written by Dr. James Chi-Shin Liu, an internist with a specialty in performing arts medicine as well as an extensive scholarship of music!) has this to say about the piece: “Mozart’s setting is far from pedestrian or undistinguished…Artur Schnabel famously described as too simple for children and too difficult for adults (after all, simple music like this exposes any lapses of rhythm, intonation, or ensemble). And the music seems to encompass a universe of feeling in forty-six short bars.”

This rendition begins with an extended D major drone as the shoppers gradually figure out that a performance is afoot; the performance itself begins at 2:18. At 3:23, the piece’s dominant key of D major gives way to F major, returning to D major at 3:57. The choir returns to the D major drone, gradually tapering down to nothing and transitioning to applause, before the shoppers go on about their day.

Franz Schubert | Moment Musical #3 in F Minor (Vladimir Horowitz, piano)

Here’s a later performance by of Franz Peter Schubert‘s “Moment Musical #3 in F Minor” by legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz. Limelight Magazine called Horowitz “a Russian-born pianist who left for the West at age 21, where he was described as a ‘tornado unleashed from the steppes’…Most famous for his performances of Romantic piano repertoire…”

There are several passing keys of the moment in the piece, but the main transition into F major is at 1:50.