CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE GRADUATE RECITAL

Transcription

1 CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE GRADUATE RECITAL An abstract submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Music, Performance By Hannah Mae Lachman December 2007

2 The abstract of Hannah Mae Lachman is approved: Date Dr. Dmi ry achmanov, D.M.A. Date Franc;oise Regnat, Chair Date California State University, Northridge 11

3 Acknowledgement Thank you to Franvoise Regnat, for her support in times of trial, and for helping me stretch and grow as a musician and as a performer.... to Dr. Heinen and Dr. Rachmanov, my graduate committee, for the work they did to help me achieve my degree.... to my sister, Rose, for ushering for my performances and for being my fiercest fan.... to Rina Schloss, for accompanying me on the Piano Concerto No.3, by Bela Bartok.... to my parents, for giving me the means, knowledge, strength and freedom to follow my heart.... to the rest of my family, especially my wonderful grandparents, for showing me how to love. If I have not love, I am a clanging gong or a crashing cymbal.... to Dr. Hao Huang and Dr. Bostrom, for their compassionate mentoring.... to my boyfriend, Jared, for helping me believe in myself.... to the First Baptist Church of Corona, for letting me practice on the beautiful grand ptano.... to family, friends, students, and everyone who came to see my performances. It meant a lot to me to have them there. lll

4 Table of Contents Signature page....ii Acknowledgement Page....iii Abstract.... v IV

5 ABSTRACT GRADUATE RECITAL By Hannah Mae Lachman Master of Music, Performance Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Fantasie inc minor, K. 475 The fantasy is a form that has been in existence since the Renaissance period. Its genesis is improvisational and purely instrumental, with an emphasis on invention and freedom of form. However, the piece may take on any shape from through-composed material to more structured forms. Mozart wrote three fantasies for piano: two in C minor-k. 475 and K. 396-as well as a fantasy in D minor, K The Fantasia inc minor, K. 475 was written as an introduction to the Sonata in C minor, K Unlike earlier fantasies, the piece is barred throughout except for one cadenza. However, as Mozart moves effortlessly from one contrasting section to another, the changing of time signatures and tonalities provides the sense of freedom associated with fantasies. Mozart's Fantasia in C Minor, K. 475, begins with a chromatic and harmonically charged theme in unison octaves. The opening is dark, laborious, and sustained, exhibiting harmonic and motivic development. The second half of this opening section, however, is its lighter counterpart; an Alberti bass supports a more lyrical melody. It also stays more tonally consistent, resting in D Major until the transition to the second section of the piece. Following the opening section, there is a modulatory allegro section that has a more aggressive approach to the piano. It ends on the dominant of B-flat, which is the key of the following andantino trio. This section ends in a brief development which v

6 the opening motive and first theme. The recapitulation is standard for sonata allegro form. A false second development section becomes a coda based on the second theme and echoing the opening chords. The second movement, in C minor, is much more chromatic than the first, with more complicated rhythms as well. Its opening character is mournful and lonely. This is contrasted with a singing melody in the dominant key. The movement, in a straightforward AB form, ends in suspense by delaying the resolution of the dominant chord to E-flat, as the melody reaches into the upper range of the piano. The finale begins with a dramatic chord followed by a brilliant run, both in the same dominant tonality that was left unresolved from the previous movement. harmonic tension is finally resolved at the entrance of the melody in E-flat. The The movement has a dance-like character, and is very fast. The theme is treated as a conversation between upper and lower voices by means of imitation. In the second theme, the two voices have different themes that are played in counterpoint, accompanied by a trill. The development section begins in E-flat minor, but moves through the more remote key of B Major with the second theme, and treats the first theme fugally in the key of G Major. At the recapitulation, the melody is doubled at the octave. The coda begins poco andante, before returning to the opening tempo. The improvisational quality of this section provides a break from the consistent tempo of the rest of the movement, yet it functions to reinforce thee-flat tonality of the movement and of the piece. Samuel Barber, Nocturne (Homage to John Field) John Field ( ) was a composer and pianist from Dublin, Ireland. Although he wrote several types of compositions for piano, he is most often remembered Vll

7 as the first composer to write nocturnes, a form later used more famously by Chopin. A nocturne is a piece that evokes a sense of night; most often sweet, lyrical, and romantic, it can sometimes exhibit a wilder or darker side. Field's nocturnes are single-movement piano pieces in ABA form that maintain the same mood throughout. At the time Field was writing, the latest innovations in the technology of the piano, such as the sustain pedal, allowed him more musical freedom by sustaining the sounds of the broken chord accompaniments. Like Field, Barber's Nocturne delivers a sense of improvisation and discovery throughout. Written in 1959, it is one of only six solo piano pieces that Barber wrote. The work employs an accompaniment that is mostly tonal, with a melody that is serial in nature. Despite the atonal melody, however, the piece maintains a sense of tonality and lyricism. It is reminiscent of many European influences for the form and character, including some of Barber's favorite composers, Chopin, and Faure. Barber's language is often regarded as a conservative compared to other styles of his contemporaries. In his Nocturne, the elements of late romanticism, such as dissonance and chromaticism, are met with the simplicity and straightforwardness of the American sensibility. It is this melding of influences apparent in Barber's writing that creates a new romanticism with lasting appeal. Frederic Chopin, Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat Major, Op. 61 While a polonaise rhythm is often used in the Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat Major, Op. 61, this piece is more of a fantasy because of the improvisational quality of the sound and form. The two forms may initially seem incompatible, as the polonaise is a heroic and public dance and the fantasy is a private and emotional experience. Chopin's V111

8 masterful control of this juxtaposition, however, results in a complex and evocative depth of form. One of the last pieces he composed, the Polonaise-Fantaisie has a more intentional approach to ornamentation that is typical of his most mature writing. The piece opens with a tonic minor chord followed by an arpeggio. Harmonic complexity is further explored in the improvisatory introduction as the melody slowly develops. The melody is built as if the piece is being written backwards; the first melodic material is a descending fourth, which is developed into a motive. This motive is gradually expanded and moved to different registers before developing into the complete theme, which is exposed with the classic polonaise rhythm. A second section where the drier texture allows the polonaise rhythm to come out follows the opening thematic material. A brief development in E-flat major leads to a return of the opening theme A flat minor, accompanied by triplets. This triplet pattern in the left hand becomes more prominent later in the piece. The second half of this piece begins as a slow hymn in the remote key of B Major that uses motives of the first theme, followed by an improvisatory section with an arialike theme. Trills delay the resolution back to B major, with a short return of the work's opening statements in the new tonality. A return of the aria-like idea builds up to the climax of the piece at the arrival of the first theme, accompanied by full chords in the right hand and parallel octaves in the left hand. The left hand melody is a transformation of the triplet melody that accompanied fragments of the theme earlier in the piece. At this point there is more development of a motive from the hymn-like opening of the second half of the piece. As the texture becomes thinner, the melody diminishes as well until it is reduced to simply reinforcing the A-flat Major tonality. IX

9 Karol Szymanowski, Etude No. 3, Andante Szymanowski is often thought of as "the continuation of Chopin's Polish voice into the 20 1 h century" (Polish Piano Music, Introduction by Robert Rirnm, Dover ed., 1999). Despite a wide musical experience, including travels to Italy, Africa, and the Middle East, and eye-opening visits with Debussy, Ravel, and Stravinsky, Szymanowski's heart always remained in Poland. This slow etude, the most popular of a set of four etudes written in 1902, explores quality and depth of the sound as a performance technique. It opens with a simple eighth-note accompaniment and a dolorous, song-like melody. In the development, the sense of grief and emotional distress is depicted by rolling arpeggios in the bass like a crash of cymbals, growing to the passionate and cathartic climax. The transition back to the opening material has the solemn quality of a funeral procession. The theme fades away to the end of the piece like a song of mourning that is moving into the distance. Robert Muczynski, Toccata Toccatas have been composed since the Renaissance period, where they existed as pieces refreshingly free from the existing models that tended to structure composition, such as cantusfirmus and dance forms. Muczynski's Toccata uses the interval of a fourth and driving rhythms to achieve a powerful mechanical effect. Changing time signatures provide variation and shifts in accents for the otherwise relentless pace of the piece that is so common to the formal toccata. Although not strictly serial, Muczynski employs a tone row and its various permutations throughout the piece. The tone row is often broken into sets of four or eight notes that are then mirrored or inverted. The Toccata is in sonata allegro form, with a linear first theme and a rhythmic second theme. While the first X

10 theme is built on melodic fourths, the second theme employs harmonic fourths with a chromatic accompaniment. Overall, the texture is contrapuntal. However, full chords appear in the transitional and the development sections, and parallel lines lead the transitions into the following sections. Muczinsky said that this piece expresses his rage after a car accident. One can easily see the unpredictable nature of that anger in the rumbling first theme as well as the disruptive chords in the transitions and development. But it is also possible to see the more subtle emotions that result from such an experience: the static chords and melodies seem to arrest time, and the constant inverting of intervals are like remembering an event that is rift with confusion and distress. Bela Bartok, Piano Concerto No. 3 Bela Bartok wrote his Piano Concerto No. 3 at the end of his life as a gift for his wife, Ditta. It was unfinished at the time of his death, so his student, Tibor Serly, completed the final details. The concerto is more graceful and nostalgic than Bartok's previous two piano concertos, perhaps reflecting his emotional state as he faced the end of his life as well as his hope for political rest in his homeland, Hungary. Overall, the piano and orchestra are used to complement each other, creating a lighter texture than in other concertos where the two are seen to be competing. The light, clear first theme of the first movement is in the style of a Hungarian folk song. By contrast, the second theme is less lyrical, with arpeggios that move quickly through registers. The development section transforms the first theme by inversion. At the recapitulation, the original melody is harmonized with intervals of fourths and fifths. There is no cadenza, ensuring that the piano does not overshadow the orchestra. XI

11 The second movement begins adagio religioso. In the first section, the orchestra and the piano alternate playing increasingly chromatic chord progressions in reference to Beethoven's "Heiliger Dankgesang" from his String Quartet in A minor, Op The second section is a more lively contrast to the holy character of the first section, with an explicit imitation of the birdcall of the North Carolinian rufous-sided towhee bird. Bartok was inspired by the ideas of nature, art, and science, and found a deep sense of healing in the sounds of birdsongs. This movement gives poignant insight to the end of Bartok's life, as it expresses profundity and contentment as well as the physical and emotional distress of dying towards the end of the movement. It ends, however, in a state of hope through a new tonality and the rush of joy in the following movement. The finale has a brazen and playful character, moving easily from Hungarian dance rhythms to a four-voice fugue shared between the piano and orchestra, to a waltz. Though there is less changing of meters than in the previous two movements, the overall rhythmic texture is one of syncopation and dance rhythms. The presto section at the end of the movement begins with ominous swells of sound that gradually build to a double octave trill in the piano. The piece finishes with a return to the more rhythmic, chordal material of the beginning of the movement. Xll