Puzzle Canon “celebrates the aesthetic value of symmetry in music. We hope to introduce you to a centuries-old, little-known but fascinating tradition, by featuring outstanding examples by both well-known and obscure composers. On this site, compositions of precise symmetry are featured …”
The site features an a cappella piece Johannes Brahms, improbably arranged for four soprano parts: “The four-voice, posthumously published modulating canon “Mir lächelt kein Frühling” is much like a round, but each new entry enters a melancholy semitone lower than the last. Once all the voices have entered and as each of these voices makes its way through the 16-measure melody, what we hear is a four-measure unit or iteration descending each time by semitone.”
“The pianist and composer Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944) was admired by the British Queen Victoria, for whom she often performed at The House of Windsor.” (I Care If You Listen). In 1913, France awarded her the Légion d’Honneur. But after her death, Chaminade was virtually forgotten. “George Bizet, a household friend at the Chaminade residence in Vésinet, a stylish suburb of Paris, lovingly called her ‘My little Mozart’. He advised her parents to send young Cécile to the Paris Conservatoire to study piano and composition. Papa, director of an insurance company and amateur violinist, refused permission, however: ‘Bourgeois girls are predestined to become wives and mothers.’”
Nonetheless, Chaminade gradually built a career in France as a composer and a performer. Eventually, she wrote 400 works and “not only succeeded in getting all her four hundred works performed, but also got them published – not a matter of course for a female composer at the time.” Despite her father’s reductionist attitude towards her career, after his death in 1887, Chaminade “had to support herself and her mother with her compositions and recitals, and this may be the reason why she concentrated on chamber music hereafter. The often-heard assessment that her music ‘doesn’t transcend the level of salon music’ is an affront. Yes, her writing is easily accessible and shies away from the drastic dissonances Wagner or Schönberg offer, but it is very well made and shows a remarkable control of classical counterpoint.”
Chaminade’s Concertino in D Major for Flute and Piano, Op. 107 (1902) is so prominent in the flute literature that among flutists it’s generally referred to simply as “The Chaminade.”Originally written for flute and piano, it was later also arranged for flute and orchestra. The piece was dedicated to the prominent French flutist and educator Paul Taffanel.
Beginning and ending in D Major as advertised, it cycles through quite a few other tonalities along the way, as this score-based video illustrates.
From the CBC’s feature on Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto (1866): “It’s among the most popular works in the entire classical repertoire, a favorite of concert pianists headlining with symphony orchestras the world over … The concerto was an immediate success and has been a staple of the repertoire ever since, its penetration into pop culture later being confirmed by its use on The Simpsons, Mad Men and numerous films. Its most famous performance happened at the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958 — the height of the Cold War — when pianist Van Cliburn played it in the final round. It took approval by then Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev for the jury to award the first prize to an American.”
Radio Free Europe reports that after Russia’s name, flag, and anthem were banned from all major sporting competitions from 2021 to 2023 by the World Anti-Doping Agency due to violations, Russian nationals competing in the Olympics instead heard a fragment of the Concerto when Russian athletes at those events won a gold medal.
After pizzicato strings and a soaring flute begin the piece gently in Db major, the piano states the theme. After an early transition section starts at 1:08 with a mischievous sense of mystery, we land in D major at 1:24 for a full feature by the woodwinds. Thereafter, plenty of other dramatic shifts continue, with the orchestra refusing to take a back seat to the piano in most sections.
UK composer Benjamin Britten’s classic educational work, “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra,” originated “in an educational film titled Instruments of the Orchestra,” (LeoQuirk.com). “Following World War II, initiatives to better the British people included introducing public secondary schools, health and food support for underprivileged children, and widespread democratization of high art, with the goal of nourishing a moral and productive populace. To this effect, the BBC, the primary radio station of the time, maintained relatively high percentages of classical music on the air. They created such programs as orchestral concerts and music talks for schools, preceded with introductions of each instrument and their sound for recognition during the piece of music.
Britten chose to use Henry Purcell’s Rondo theme from his Abdelazer Suite as a basis for the work and, though some thought this was an easy way out of composing, his choice to reference a British composer was praised by others as a demonstration of his skill in the art of variation, and a link as being the greatest British composer since Purcell. Here is Purcell’s original theme.”
The University of Kentucky breaks down the careful introduction of each instrument family — many of which are accompanied by key changes. “The theme is first played by the full orchestra, then by the various families of instruments (woodwinds, brass, strings, percussion, and full orchestra again). Next, Britten shows off the individual instruments by having them play a variation of the theme … There are thirteen variations. Finally, the composition ends with a new tune, first introduced by the piccolo and then played in a fugue (a sort of counterpoint that Britten called “a race between the instruments”) by each of the other instruments of the orchestra until the brass instruments again play the main theme to close the work.”
The original 1946 short film, Instruments ofthe Orchestra:
Comedian John Hodgman came up with a new take on the piece’s narration in the 2010s. An excerpt from his performance with The Boston Pops:
Kai Christensen of Earsense.orgdescribes the context for Beethoven’s String Quartet, Opus 18 #4: “Beethoven worked painstakingly for two years to produce his first string quartets, Op. 18, published in 1801 in the fashion of the time as a set of six. Pre-dating them are the complete string quartets of both Haydn and Mozart, Haydn having written his last two complete quartets in the same years, finishing in 1799. Just as later composers were daunted by the supreme achievements of Beethoven before them, so Beethoven was acutely aware of the rich legacy of quartet literature already preceding him.”
“String quartet: A composition for solo string instruments, usually two violins, viola, and cello; it is widely regarded as the supreme form of chamber music. (Grove Music Online). That’s the textbook definition. Beethoven inherited the string-quartet tradition from his predecessors and shaped it into something unsurpassed in virtuosity, invention, and expressiveness. The definition could well read, ‘Beethoven’s quartets are widely regarded as the supreme form of chamber music.’ He wrote 16 string quartets, and they reveal his evolution as a composer and a man. It’s all there: earthy wit (yes, Beethoven could crack a joke), volatile temper (his fury was state of the art), and personal sorrow (he had plenty to weep about).”
One of several modulations in this movement alone, there is an emphatic shift from Eb major (complete with a plagal cadence at 2:11) to G minor at 2:19. This energetic yet precise performance is by The Dover Quartet, which The Chicago Tribune reviewed as possessing “expert musicianship, razor-sharp ensemble, deep musical feeling and a palpable commitment to communication …”
From James MacKay’s paper “Another Look at Chromatic Third-Related Key Relationships in Late Haydn: Parallel Keys and Remote Modulation in Selected String Quartet Minuets” in the journal HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America 8.2 (Fall 2018): ” … third-related shifts in Haydn’s instrumental music occur earlier than 1790, especially in his string quartet Minuet-Trio movements, often built around a parallel major-parallel minor pairing of keys and their relatives. For instance, in Haydn’s String Quartet in F major, Op.50 no. 5 (Der Traum), third movement, Haydn effects a chromatic third modulation in two stages: touching briefly upon the parallel key (f minor) in the trio, then moving immediately to its relative major, A-flat (i.e. flat III of F major).”
Haydn, who lived from 1732-1809, wrote this string quartet (one of his six “Prussian” quartets dedicated to King Frederick William II of Prussia) in 1787. A nephew of Frederick the Great, Frederick William was one of the most notable patrons of music in eighteenth-century Germany and also an avid amateur cellist, according to the classical record label Hyperion.
This performance is by the Festetics Quartet, known for performing on period instruments. The third movement of this complete four-movement video begins at the 11:43 mark. At 13:20, the shift to Ab major is complete (note: the tuning in this performance is a far cry from A440!)
According Dr. Jimbob’s Page, “Franz Peter Schubert lived from 1797 to 1828 in and around the Austrian capital of Vienna. He spent much of his life redefining the art song … Schubert also strove to make the piano part more than a harmonic accompaniment for the singer but rather an independent voice and sometime Greek chorus in its own right … Schubert came across (Wilhelm Müller’s) Schöne Müllerin (The Fair Maid of the Mill) poems in late 1822 …
Schubert spent his brief life making fruitless attempts to create a hit opera. He died disappointed and largely unknown, but posterity would come to recognize that with Die schöne Müllerin, Schubert perfected the genre of song cycle (and may have created its greatest example on his first try). Schubert also created a miracle of collaboration. Poet and composer, text and music, singer and pianist are true equals in the result, each informing the other, each completing the other, indeed each necessary for the other to make any sense. There’s a touching irony that this tale of frustrated love and missed connections has gone on to inspire great partnerships in the time since its creation.”
This version was performed by German tenor Fritz Wunderlich (whose name, according to one translation, means whimsical) and German pianist Hubert Geisen. Wunderlich died from an accident in his 30s, while Geisen was already 65 when the duo began its short but productive partnership. The combination left a huge impression on Geisen, who later wrote in his autobiography:
“Over the last years I often had to think about what made Wunderlich’s voice so unforgettable to his audience – especially in Lieder singing. I have worked with many singers, and I know some of them shared my opinion on how to perform a Schubert Lied, but I also know they thought that our work together was a burden. I was once called a ‘slave-driver’ … I did not ‘teach,’ but tried hard to improve what was already there – which makes quite a difference. That is why I refuse being called a ‘teacher’ of a singer like Wunderlich.”
After a recital together just before Wunderlich’s untimely death, Geisen recalls saying “‘Fritz, you sang so wonderfully, and we formed such an integrated whole – I think you are complete now. I cannot tell you anything anymore.’ He was furious at me and shouted: ‘What are you talking about? I will be your pupil as long as you live! You will tell me everything you know, and every time I sing a little worse, you will have to play even better, so they won’t notice … ‘”
The twelfth of the cycle’s twenty songs, “Pause” starts in Bb major, then transitions through G minor (0:50), F major (1:17), Db major (1:33), F major (1:50), and reverts to Bb major (1:56). There’s a transition to Ab major from 2:38 – 3:22, then an unsettled section until 3:41, where there’s a final return to Bb major.
“As the composer recalled at an 81st birthday celebration held at the Library of Congress,” reports NPR, “on the same tiny stage where ‘Appalachian Spring’ premiered in 1944…’I was really putting Martha Graham to music. I had seen her dancing so many times, and I had a sense of her personality as a creative office. I had — really in front of my mind I wasn’t thinking about the Appalachians or even spring. So that I had no title for it. It was a ballet for Martha, was actually the subtitle that I had.’
By the time he received the $500 commission to create his ballet for Martha Graham, Aaron Copland was one of America’s most important composers. Throughout the 1920s and early ’30s, he created work in a modernist style, music that was prickly and angular, frequently utilizing elements of jazz. But by the early ’40s, he moved towards a more populist style, with such pieces as ‘Fanfare for the Common Man,’ ‘Lincoln Portrait’ and ‘Rodeo.'”
In an interview with the BBC, Copland said he made use of folk music was because it was free. “The principal attraction for me in a folk song was that it was an easy way to sound American.” The piece premiered in October 1944. The Graham company toured with the ballet; on 1945’s V-E Day, Copland won a Pulitzer Prize for the work.
Beginning in A major, movement 2 of “Appalachian Spring” transitions to C major at 0:26, but reverts to A major at 0:48. By 1:28, F major is in play, and not for the last time — and the movement touches on other keys as well.
Here’s the entire piece, conducted by the composer in 1980:
According to the Grove Dictionary of Music, “Salomon Jadassohn was born to a Jewish family living in Breslau, the capital of the Prussian province of Silesia. This was a generation after the emancipation of the Jews in Central European German-speaking lands and during a time of relative tolerance.” Jadassohn attended Leipzig Conservatory in 1848, just a few years after it had been founded by Felix Mendelssohn. Jadassohn studied privately with pianist and composer Franz Liszt.
MusicWeb International reports that Jadassohn “later taught at the (Leipzig) Conservatory; his list of pupils reads like a Who’s Who of notable composers including Grieg, Delius and Busoni … As a composer he was prolific, having four symphonies, two piano concertos and a substantial assemblage of chamber works to his name.”
“Elegie,” a movement from the “Serenade for Flute and Piano,” Op. 108 (1890), straddles the line between G minor and Bb major throughout, then transitions to G major between 1:28 and 1:48.
Though probably best known for his lieder, Austrian composer Franz Schubert also wrote symphonies, wonderfully intricate miniatures for solo piano, two masses, and more. Classic FM details Schubert’s popularity: “…musical soirees known as Schubertiads became all the rage, during which Schubert might sing some of his own songs while accompanying himself at the piano.”
However, his public’s fondness for the music translated into neither rapidly growing fame nor consistent financial compensation during the composer’s lifetime. Schubert heard only some of his later works in performance, reports Classic FM: “With little money and nothing much more than his ‘groupies’ to support him, Schubert began to produce a seemingly endless stream of masterpieces that for the most part were left to prosperity to discover, including the two great song cycles, the Eighth (‘Unfinished’) and Ninth (‘Great’) Symphonies, the Octet for Wind, the last three string quartets, the two piano trios, the String Quintet, the ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy and the last six sonatas for solo piano.” The exact cause of death is not known, but many historians have suggested mercury poisoning. Duncan, Edmondstoune’s Schubert (1905) suggests that the last musical work Schubert requested to hear was Beethoven’sString Quartet No. 14, Op. 131. Violinist Karl Holz, Beethoven’s secretary, commented: “The King of Harmony has sent the King of Song a friendly bidding to the crossing.”
The Piano Trio 2 in E-flat Major was written in 1827, when Schubert was only 30. It was to be the last year of his life. The Trio begins with a more positive mood, but its fourth movement is far more complex, perhaps following the trajectory of its creator’s health. Starting in Eb major, there’s a shift at 1:15 to C minor, then a passage through a Bb major section. 2:46 starts with a bang and continues through a tour of myriad keys. 4:00 brings a profound jump to B minor, an extraordinary step indeed in comparison with the home key; from there, the piece continues onward through similarly varied and unpredictable territory.
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