Mirror Assemblies MA110 Festivals Title Target Age Range Learning Intentions Resources Key Vocabulary Suggested music The Tradition of the Vienna New Year s Day Concert 5-11 I know that there is a special concert in Vienna every New Year s Day. I am beginning to recognise how music can create a happy mood. I can name a composer who wrote music that is often played in the Vienna New Year s Day Concert. Accompanying ppt slides. Orchestra Conductor, philharmonic, Musikverein, operettas, encores, choir, choristers, accompaniment, rustic, ¾ time, Waltz, polka, quadrille, regimented, spontaneous, Champagne Polka by Johann Strauss Slide 1 Today we are going to be learning about Vienna New Year's Concert with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The Vienna New Year's Concert (Neujahrskonzert der Wiener Philharmoniker) is an annual concert of classical music performed by the Vienna Philharmonic on the morning of New Year s Day in Vienna, Austria. The concert starts at the at 11:15 in the morning in the Musikverein, which is in the picture above. Musikverein Photo: Andreas Praefcke - Self-photographed, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50224 The orchestra performs the same concert programme on 30 December, 31 December, and 1 January but only the last concert is regularly broadcast on radio and television. On the first day of 2018 the entire concert was televised and seen by as many as 50 million viewers in 90 different countries. Slide 2 On the first day of 2018 the entire concert was televised and seen by as many as 50 million viewers in 90 different countries. As it is only a small concert hall the cameras cannot move freely around the hall and some are controlled remotely.
Even the musicians are squashed on the stage. Sometimes the Vienna Boys choir sing from a small balcony above the orchestra. Slide 3 The first New Year's Concert took place at the start of the second world war and when people were constantly worried. The Vienna Philharmonic sent a signal to the residents of Vienna that there was still time to appreciate music and dance. Clemens Krauss conducted the 1936 and 1941 concerts until the end of the war. Some conductors and musicians were not allowed to perform whilst Hitler was in power. Slide 4 Johann Strauss was born in 1804, but only lived to the age of 45. He was famous for his waltzes, and he popularized them alongside Joseph Lanner and his sons. Johann Strauss the Father, took lessons in the violin and viola. He also studied music whilst working as an apprentice and eventually managed to secure a place playing in a local orchestra. He also joined a string quartet playing Viennese Waltzes and rustic German dances. In 1825, he decided to form his own orchestra and began to write music (chiefly, dance music) for it to play. At this time composers could earn enough money to live on by writing and performing their own music. His waltzes were gradually developed from a rustic peasant dance into one which posterity would recognize as the Viennese Waltz as seen in Strictly Come Dancing. They were written in three-four time with a short introduction. Slide 5 Johann Strauss the father s most famous piece is the Radetzky March (named after Joseph Radetzky von Radetz). Along with the Blue Danube waltz by his son Johann Strauss Junior, the pieces became unofficial Austrian national anthems.
Slide 6 The Radetzky March was first performed on 31 August 1848 in Vienna, and it soon became quite popular among regimented marching soldiers. When it was first played in front of Austrian officers, they spontaneously clapped and stamped their feet when they heard the chorus. This tradition, with quiet rhythmic clapping on the first repetition of the melody, followed by thunderous clapping on the second, is kept alive today by audience members who know the custom when the march is played in music venues. This photo shows the conductor conducting the audience in their clapping and not wanting them to clap too loud too soon! It is always played as the last piece at the New Year s Day Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Slide 7 Johann Strauss Junior was the son of Johann Strauss the father. He also was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dances and operettas He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas and quadrilles and other types of dance music, and a ballet. In his lifetime, he was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely then responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century. Strauss had two younger brothers, Josef and Edward, who became composers of light music as well, although they were never quite as well known as their elder brother. Slide 8 Another composer of dances and other light music was Francesco Suppé Demelli who was born in 1819. He spent his childhood in Zara, now Zadar where he had his first music lessons and began to compose at an early age. As a boy he had no encouragement in music from his father, but was helped by a local bandmaster and by the Spalato cathedral choirmaster. He was invited to Vienna to conduct in the theatre, without pay at first, but with the opportunity to put on his own operas there. Eventually, Suppé wrote music for over a hundred theatre productions. Suppé composed about 30 operettas and 180 ballets, and other stage works. Although the bulk of his music has sunk into relative obscurity, a few pieces are still played at the New Year s Day concert and in classical music concerts especially as encores.
Slide 9 Clemens Krauss had been the main conductor for the Vienna Philharmonic but when he died the orchestra debated about who should conduct them. In 1955, they decided to ask the concertmaster Willi Boskovsky to direct the New Year's Concerts. This choice turned out to be a stroke of genius, with Boskovsky going on to conduct the concert 25 times, and is credited with making this concert famous around the world. Slide 10 Johann Strauss, Jr., first worked with the musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic for the waltz "Wiener Blut", for the Vienna Opera Ball, which was held in the main hall of the Musikverein on April 22, 1873, and he personally conducted its first performance at this event as was his custom, with violin in hand. He next worked with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1873, when Strauss performed works by his father and Josef Lanner, as well as his own "Blue Danube" Waltz as part of a gala concert. Slide 11 I mentioned the Vienna Boys' Choir earlier. It is one of the best-known boys choirs in the world. The boys are selected mainly from Austria, but also from many other countries. A selection of the boy choristers sometimes sings at the New Year s Day Concert. There are approximately 100 choristers between the ages of ten and fourteen. The boys are divided into four touring choirs, named after Austrian composers Bruckner, Haydn, Mozart and Schubert, which combined perform about 300 concerts each year before almost 500,000 people. Each group tours for about nine to eleven weeks. The choir started in 1498, instructing court officials to employ a singing master, two basses and six boys. The role of the choir was to provide musical accompaniment for the church mass. Today we have been learning about the Vienna Philharmonic and its New Year s Day Concert. Who can name a composer who wrote music that is performed at this New Year s Day concert? (Johann Strauss, Father, Johann Strauss Junior/son, Edward Strauss, Josef Strauss, Franz von Suppe)
Who can tell me a fact about the New Year s Day concert? Can anyone name the March that we heard about? Or the famous waltz? When listening to the music coming into assembly today, how did the music make you feel? When you get home see if you can remember any of the facts you have learned today to tell your family.