Tag: Europe

Charles-Marie Jean Albert Widor (1844 – 1937) was a French organist, composer and teacher,” (Regent Classic Organs). “He was born in Lyon, to a family of organ builders, and initially studied music there. In 1863 he moved to Brussels to study organ technique with Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens and composition with François-Joseph Fétis. After this term of study Widor moved to Paris, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Widor wrote music for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles and composed four operas and a ballet. He is probably most notable for his works for the organ which include ten Organ Symphonies, three Symphonies for orchestra with organ, Suite Latine, Trois Nouvelles Pièces, and six arrangements of works by Bach. Many would say that the ten organ symphonies are his most significant contribution to the organ repertoire.

The most famous of the ten organ symphonies is Symphony for Organ No. 5 in F minor, Op. 42, No. 1. This was composed by Widor in 1879, with numerous revisions published by the composer in later years. The full symphony lasts for about 35 minutes. The first movement of the 5th Symphony is a set of variations on a theme … which starts gently and has a number of points with dramatic dynamic contrast.”

Beginning in F major, the Symphony’s first movement, Allegro, features many passing keys of the moment, but there is a clear, sustained shift to D major at 2:29.

Paul Lewis: “I have been concentrating on (studying) the last six years of (Schubert’s) life, basically from the time that he received his diagnosis of syphilis. This perhaps was his death sentence, when he came to the realization that he wouldn’t live long,” (Classical Scene). “There was something that changed in the music at that point, not to say in any way that the music prior to that point was shallow at all, or lacking in emotional depth, but there was a different kind of darkness that came through …

Schubert’s music is full of nostalgia. There’s a lot of looking backwards. When we listen to the way he combines and contrasts major and minor tonalities, often placing a major tonality in the context of a minor one, the major seems sadder in a way because you have the feeling that you’re looking into the distance at something you can’t have anymore. That to me is a sort of overriding feeling there when he contrasts these two tonalities.

But in the slow movement of the b-flat (1828), towards the end when you come out of the c-sharp minor into the c major, there’s something different: it’s not just sadness. Rather it’s like seeing the light somewhere—going towards something different.” That modulation occurs at the 26:22 mark.

“In 1841, at the height of his mastery, Mendelssohn wrote three variation cycles for piano in quick succession,” (Long + McQuade). “The first of them, the ‘Variations Serieuses’ Op. 54, should probably be regarded as his most important piano work. It formed part of an anthology of works by renowned composers of the time, proceeds from the sales of which were intended for the erection of a monument in Bonn” for Mendelsossohn’s German colleague, Beethoven.

“At that time there was something of a production line of so-called “Variations Brillantes” for piano; Mendelssohn gave his seventeen Variations in D minor op. 54 the title ‘Variations Serieuses’ to distance himself from these. The beautiful main theme has an earnest, poignant character that is sustained throughout all the transformations.”

Beginning in D minor, the tonality flips over to the relative F major after the completion of the first eight measures (0:20). Continuously shifting variations on the theme continue from that point.

“Franz Liszt’s Vallée d’Obermann (‘Obermann’s Valley’) is a virtual tone poem for solo piano,” (The Listeners’ Club). The Hungarian composer “wrote this music in the 1830s at a time when he lived in Switzerland with the countess Marie d’Agoult, with whom he had eloped. The piece was later revised and published as part of the first of a collection of three suites titled Années de pèlerinage (‘Years of Pilgrimage’).

Vallée d’Obermann begins with a gloomy and desolate descending theme in the pianist’s left hand, accompanied by hollow triplets in the upper register. Chromaticism and wrenching dissonances evoke a sense of aimless wandering, exhaustion, and angst. These opening bars bring to mind Liszt’s description of Obermann as ‘the monochord of the relentless solitude of human pain.’ This initial motif forms the seed out which the entire piece develops, using the process of thematic transformation that we find throughout Liszt’s orchestral tone poems. Through this metamorphosis, Vallée d’Obermann briefly transcends the darkness of E minor and floats into the celestial sunshine of C major. In its final moments, the music surges upward to an exhilarating climax.”

“In a letter Liszt once confessed that, ‘My piano is the repository of all that stirred my nature in the impassioned days of my youth. I confided to it all my desires, my dreams, my sorrows. Its strings vibrated to my emotions, and its keys obeyed my every caprice.’” (Classic FM).

The transition from E minor (and transient departures from that key) to C major falls at the 4:48 point. The lighter mood is further accentuated at that point by a noticeably higher range and softer dynamic — for awhile, at least!