JOURNEY THROUGH MUSIC

Transcription

1 JOURNEY THROUGH MUSIC Sunday 23 April, 7.30pm Ralph Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (15 mins) Sofia Gubaidulina Offertorium (33 mins) Interval: 20 mins Ralph Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 3, A Pastoral Symphony (36 mins) BBC Philharmonic Vassily Sinaisky conductor Vadim Gluzman violin Robin Tritschler tenor

2 ARE YOU READY TO BEGIN YOUR MUSICAL JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY? Our Journey Through Music scheme at Manchester s Bridgewater Hall is an affordable and enjoyable introduction to the world of concert-going and classical music. For young people and children from the age of 8, our special scheme is aimed at making our concerts easily accessible for families and anybody who wants to discover orchestral music or to explore it further. Ready to begin? Join us on this musical journey and discover the unforgettable world of classical music. Three performances will feature a pre-concert session suitable for all ages but every concert in the 2016/17 season is available at a special family-ticket price. Plus choose your seat anywhere in the house for the same price: 7 for children aged 16 and under 12 for accompanying adults 35 family ticket, for 4 people (maximum of 2 adults) These prices include a 2 booking fee so you know there s no extra costs when you book just be sure to book in advance as these are not available on the day. Share your experience using the hashtag #MyJTM

3 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ORCHESTRA WHAT IS AN ORCHESTRA? An orchestra is a group of instrumental players who perform together, usually led by a conductor. The modern symphony orchestra usually has somewhere between 60 and 90 players: around 30 violins, 12 violas, 10 cellos, eight double basses; two or three each of flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons; four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, a tuba, a harp and an assortment of percussion instruments. You can find out more about the instruments, and where they sit, on the next two pages after this. THE CONDUCTOR The person in charge is usually the conductor, who stands at the front and directs the orchestra from a podium, keeping time either by waving a short stick, called a baton, or sometimes just with his or her hands. One of the earliest conductors, the Italian-born Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Lully ( ), kept his orchestra together by banging a big stick on the floor, but one day he accidentally stabbed his foot and soon afterwards died of gangrene. It s not as dangerous these days! Part of the conductor s job is to show the beat (or pulse) of the music so that all the musicians play together in time. He or she also signals when individual musicians or groups have to start or stop playing. All the time conductors are listening to the overall soundbalance, and altering it, to make sure that the important instruments don t get drowned out by less important ones. Otherwise, like lots of people talking loudly at the same time, the result would be chaos! But there s more to it than this. The conductor can also help to reveal the changing moods of the music. If they can create a strong musical image for the listener, the effect can make us feel all sorts of emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, pride and everything in between. The music might energise you, or it might make you feel you ve fallen into a dream. All illustrations: Ben Wright/Nucco Brain 1

4 THE ORCHESTRA ON STAGE Most orchestras have a similar seating plan, with the strings at the front, the woodwind behind them and the brass and percussion further back still. BRASS Like the strings and woodwind, the brass family has four groups. There are French horns (usually four), instruments once associated with hunting, while the trumpets came from military bands, and often have fanfare-like parts. Trombones are played with a movable slide but, in spite of their size, they can play amazingly fast notes; and finally the enormous tuba makes the deepest notes of all. PERCUSSION The percussion section sits at the back of the orchestra and centres around the timpani, or kettledrums between two and four copper drums. They have pedals, which alter their pitch (or notes). The bass drum is hit with just one stick; while the metal cymbals are clashed together, often when the music gets very loud. The side-drum is a small military drum that can play very quietly or very loudly indeed. Sometimes composers ask for a variety of other percussion instruments, such as the xylophone, the marimba or even whistles, whips and sirens. STRINGS String players sit at the front in a semi-circle, usually with the violins on the left and the cellos on the right. Each of the string sections (and also the woodwind, brass and percussion sections) has a principal, who leads the section. The strings divide into four sections: violins, violas, cellos and double basses. The violins are subdivided into first violins and second violins, with the Firsts generally having a slightly more difficult and brilliant part. Violas are bigger than violins, with a deeper, mellower sound. The cellos have a rounded, bass sound. The huge double basses (which are played standing up, or perched on a high stool) add depth to the string sound. The harp is played with fingers instead of a bow, and it has a series of complicated pedals that change its pitch (or notes). WOODWIND The woodwind section sits behind the strings, often in two rows. There are four different instruments, usually in pairs, but in bigger orchestras there can be up to three or four players of each instrument. The metal flutes produce a high, bright, silvery sound. The piccolo is like a small flute and plays very high up. Oboes are black wooden instruments with a detachable reed, which gives them a distinctive sharp-edged sound. Before a concert starts, the whole orchestra tunes up to the note A sounded by the Principal Oboe. A bigger, lower version of the oboe is the cor anglais, or English horn. Clarinets have a more hollow, woody sound. The lowest-sounding member of its family is the bass clarinet. The lowest woodwind instrument is the bassoon, which is long and heavy and has to be supported by a sling round the player s neck. The contra-bassoon is so long that it s bent double. Occasionally a piece will need extra instruments, such as the saxophone, which is more usually found in a jazz band.

5 BRASS FRENCH HORNS TRUMPETS TROMBONES TUBAS WOODWIND TIMPANI PERCUSSION CYMBALS FLUTES OBOES CLARINETS BASSOONS HARPS STRINGS FIRST VIOLINS SECOND VIOLINS VIOLAS CELLOS DOUBLE BASSES

6 TONIGHT'S MUSIC Ralph Vaughan Williams ( ) Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910) Thomas Tallis was a British composer who lived nearly 500 years ago, in the time of King Henry VIII (the one with the six wives). A Fantasia is just another word for fantasy a piece where a composer just lets their imagination wander and take them wherever they like. So basically, what s happening here is that the 20th-century composer Ralph (he pronounced it Raiph ) Vaughan Williams has taken a tune by Tallis, and seen where his imagination lets him take it. Vaughan Williams wrote it in 1910 to be played in the medieval cathedral in Gloucester and he had the idea of writing the piece just for the string instruments of the orchestra and splitting them into two groups, one of which was close to the audience, and one of which was far away. It s as if Vaughan Williams is summoning up the ghost of Tallis and having a conversation with him sometimes close, sometimes very distant and quiet. In a way, the music travels in time. What to listen for Distant voices: the music begins mysteriously and quietly. The instruments play together like a choir singing a hymn maybe it s the ghost of a choir, floating in the air of the cathedral? Tallis s theme: you can hear it just after the mysterious beginning. The lowest-sounding instruments (cellos and basses) pluck it on their strings this is called pizzicato like it s tiptoeing in. It s quite sad and serious: listen out for bits of it again as the piece continues. Time and space: listen for when the two different groups of instruments play. Are they echoing each other? Answering questions? Having a chat? It s amazing how many different things you can say with music. What else could I listen to? Vaughan Williams was amazing at creating a mysterious, timeless mood as you ll hear in his Pastoral Symphony. Another composer who was very good at doing this was Michael Tippett, so have a listen to his Fantasia concertante on a Theme of Corelli.

7 TONIGHT'S MUSIC Sofia Gubaidulina (born 1931) Offertorium (1980) Vadim Gluzman violin Sofia Gubaidulina is a Russian composer. When she was young, Russia was ruled by a government that didn t allow composers to write music that sounded modern or unusual or to write religious music. Gubaidulina wanted to do all of those things, and she was encouraged (but in secret) by another famous composer, Dmitry Shostakovich. Through him, she learned how to write music that was a bit like a beautiful puzzle so you can t always understand its real meaning at first glance. But if you can feel the emotions (always the best way to listen to music!) you can understand exactly what she means. She wrote this piece in Offertorium means an offering a bit like you might make in church. But there s another reason behind its name: Gubaidulina (like Vaughan Williams in the piece we ve just heard) borrows a tune by a much older composer, Johann Sebastian Bach. And the name of the work from which that tune comes is A Musical Offering. Gubaidulina takes this tune on a strange, wonderful, magical journey. It lasts half an hour and it gets complicated, but don t worry, because we have a guide. A violinist, playing alone ( solo ) leads us through the maze asking questions, stopping to reflect, and speaking his mind (in music, of course). Our soloist today is Vadim Gluzman and as you re about to hear, he s seriously good. Percussion: have a look at all the different instruments in the percussion section at the back of the orchestra. There are bongo drums, bells, a rattling wooden xylophone, a whip (not a real whip this one s made of two planks that snap together) and the tam-tam or gong a huge metal disc that makes a deep, low, shimmering sound. And there are many more, all making a unique sound. The soloist: the solo violinist is like someone wandering through this musical puzzle, reacting to what he sees and hears. Listen for when he s sad, angry, dreamy or playful and when he answers the other instruments in the orchestra. Changing moods: the piece is in three different sections or moods. You can tell when the first one ends because the music seems to vanish away until it s just the violin and a magical-sounding chime. The second one ends about 10 minutes later with loud, crashing music and a mysterious shimmering effect. But how will it all end? And more importantly how does it make you feel? What else could I listen to? The French composer Henri Dutilleux wrote another magical, mystical piece for violin and orchestra called L arbre des songes ( The Tree of Dreams ) and if you like Offertorium you ll probably enjoy that! Interval: 20 minutes (time for an ice-cream!) What to listen for The Musical Offering: it s the very first thing you hear. The tune is shared out between different brass instruments and then the violin joins in. How does he react? The tune will reappear in lots of different disguises; you might spot it or you might not, but see if you can keep it in mind. New sounds: Offertorium is full of surprising sounds! Listen for when the brass instruments make a sort of buzzing sound (they use devices called mutes to do this). The strings play very short fast notes (tremolando) very quietly.

8 TONIGHT'S MUSIC Ralph Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 3, A Pastoral Symphony (1922) 1 Molto moderato (Very moderate speed) 2 Lento moderato (Moderately slow) 3 Moderato pesante (Moderate and heavily) 4 Lento (Very slow) Robin Tritschler tenor You ve almost certainly heard about the First World War at school or on TV. When it broke out, 103 years ago, everyone in Britain was affected. Even though he was a musician, Vaughan Williams wanted to do his bit, but he was too old to be a soldier (he was over 40) so he trained as an ambulance driver. He dodged the bullets, struggled through the mud and saw terrible things while helping wounded and dying soldiers. And although he never talked about it much, he did put the experience into his music. Just not quite the way you might expect! He wrote A Pastoral Symphony in 1922, four years after he came back from the war. A symphony is the biggest and most complex kind of music that a composer can write for an orchestra. Like a novel, it tells a story, using tunes (themes) instead of characters, usually spread over four separate (but related) pieces called movements. And pastoral means something to do with the countryside: Vaughan Williams grew up in very beautiful countryside, in the Cotswold Hills. This piece might sound surprisingly quiet for a symphony about the war, but then Vaughan Williams had heard enough explosions to last him a lifetime. And even if someone s quiet, they can still have something important to say

9 TONIGHT'S MUSIC What to listen for 1 Molto moderato (Very moderate speed) The music begins without fanfare and the woodwind instruments ripple like a gently flowing stream. The leader of the orchestra (on violin) plays solo and the string instruments and the horns play quietly, creating a misty sound. It s like flying over fields and hills, stretching away as far as the eye can see. How does it make you feel? Happy? Sad? The wonderful thing about music is that it can do both at once. 2 Lento moderato (Moderately slow) The music is peaceful and mysterious again (a bit like the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis). The soldiers in the war often used brass instruments (bugles, a bit like small trumpets) to signal to each other, and Vaughan Williams once heard a bugler practising on a summer evening. So listen out for the horn and the trumpet: memories or ghosts? 3 Moderato pesante (Moderate and heavily) Now things get a bit livelier. Symphonies often have a movement that s a bit like a dance just to liven things up but imagine dancing in thick mud! The flute and the crashing cymbals brighten things up! 4 Lento (Very slow) The timpani at the back of the orchestra rumble quietly like distant thunder and a voice sings a slow, beautiful tune. Yes, a human voice a singer. Can you see him? Is he really there? And how does the orchestra respond? Keep listening, right to the end, and you might just hear him again. He isn t singing any words maybe because there aren t any words to express the way Vaughan Williams feels What else could I listen to? Vaughan Williams wrote nine symphonies (he finished the last one when he was 86!) and they all have a story to tell. After this one, the Fifth is probably the most peaceful, but you might also like the Sinfonia Antartica a musical picture of the Antarctic, complete with penguins! Notes Richard Bratby

10 JOURNEY THROUGH MUSIC PRE-CONCERT SESSION We have a special pre-concert introduction at this upcoming concert. Join us a bit earlier on the concert night to discover more about the orchestra and the music being performed. Friday 26 May 2017 Concert Fantastique Music by Arvo Pärt, Berlioz & Dutilleux Pre-concert session, 6.30pm bbc.co.uk/journeythroughmusic #MyJTM