Music Appreciation Workshop 2009

This is the post where news, information and source material for further research related to our Music Appreciation Workshop will be periodically published. I hope you'll be checking it out every now and then, making our meetings at school to be more dynamic and productive.

The first piece follows (inherited from 2008's course, but good anyway!) :
Click here to download the notes on history of European art music to your computers. These notes provide a very helpful frame for our listening at the workshop, so please print them out and keep them at hand in your folders.

See you at school!


Update March 19th:

I'm posting now a very interesting link to a page on Baroque music. I hope you'll thoroughly explore it and take notes. I'll be waiting for your feedback.

M.


Update April 8th:

I've had some time to extensively browse the link on Baroque I've referred on the previous update, and I can assure you it is well worth while. If you want some extra marks (and credits!) I propose you take your time and go through it as much as you can. You should then be able to produce some written work answering to questions such as:

• What are the characteristics of Baroque Music?
• What is the historical context in which Baroque Music developed?
• What were the circumstances in which Baroque composers worked?
• What do words like “counterpoint” and “fugue” mean?
• What are the differences between the “pure” Baroque style and the “Gallant” style? Could you tell one style from the other?
• Who should be the most important of “pure” Baroque composers? Could you tell why?
• Produce a list, as large as you can, of Baroque composers. Read about the lives and circumstances of those quoted as the most relevant and write your impressions and eventual conclusions.

We will be listening to lots of Baroque music from many of the famous as well as from the less well known Baroque composers, so your list and your readings may prove to be very helpful!

Bear in mind that NO copy-paste is conditio sine qua non for obtaining extra marks/credits!

M.

Update June 18th:

As from now on, I'll be posting in advance information relevant to the topic we'll be treating in our workshop sessions. I sincerely hope you'll find the material interesting. The texts refer to the audio samples included. It is all meant to be enjoyed. Of course, if you collect the printed material posted in these issues, enriched by your own personal comments and elaborations, the resulting folder might end up being a valuable asset as well as an excellent excuse for me to award you extra credits... ;-)

Here goes the first text and a corresponding music sample. Vyšehrad here I come!

See you at school,

M.

Update June 24th:

Here goes the second issue: text and corresponding music samples for the 1st movement, the2nd movement (my favourite) and the 3rd movement.
If you've forgotten the password, either just ask me at school or post me an e-mail if you're in a hurry to enjoy this wonderful KV 313 flute concerto on your ipods or similar!

I'll be seeing you,

M.

Update September 21st:

In our first meeting after this holiday week we'll be listening to some Mozart... Franz XaverMozart... Surprised? Franz was Wolfgang's younger son, and also a musician.

The piece I've chosen to introduce you to this very fine composer is his piano quartet in g minor, opus 1; chamber music, of course (do you remember what "chamber music" is all about? hummm...). Take a peek at the CD cover:

I've collected some interesting information about Franz Xaver and I'm posting it up for your consideration. Further research on your part is expected, and I'll be looking forward to reading your elaborations, always eager to award extra credits for those wonderful folders I imagine you are producing!

Here it goes:

"...Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart was born in Vienna, five months before his father's death.

He received excellent musical instruction from Antonio Salieri and Johann Nepomuk Hummel, and studied composition with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and Sigismund von Neukomm.He learned to play both the piano and violin. Like his father, he started to compose at an early age. "In April 1805, the thirteen-year-old Franz Xaver Mozart made his debut in Vienna in a concert in the Theater an der Wien."
Franz Xaver became a professional musician and enjoyed moderate success both as a teacher and a performer. Unlike his father, he was introverted and given to self-deprecation. He constantly underrated his talent and feared that whatever he produced would be compared with what his father had done.
Needing money, in 1808, he travelled to Lemberg, where he gave music lessons to the daughters of the count Baworowski. Although the pay was good, Franz felt lonely in the town of Pidkamin , near Rohatyn, so in 1809, he accepted an offer from the imperial representative, von Janiszewski to teach his daughters music in the town of Burshtyn. Besides teaching, he gave local concerts, playing his own and his father's pieces. These concerts introduced him to the important people in Galicia (Halychina).
After two years in Burshtyn, he moved to Lemberg where he spent more than 20 years teaching (e.g. Julie von Webenau) and giving concerts. Between 1826 and 1829, he conducted the choir of Saint Cecilia, which consisted of 400 amateur singers. In 1826, he conducted his father's Requiem during a concert at the Greek Catholic cathedral of Saint George. From this choir, he created the musical brotherhood of Saint Cecilia, and thus the first school of music in Lemberg. He travelled throughout what is now Ukraine.
In the 1820s, Franz Xaver Mozart was one of 50 composers to write a Variation on a theme of Anton Diabelli for Part II of the Vaterländischer Künstlerverein. Part I was devoted to the 33 variations supplied by Beethoven, which have gained an independent identity as his Diabelli Variations, Op. 120.
In 1838, he left for Vienna, and then for Salzburg, where he was chosen the Kapellmeister of the Mozarteum. From 1841, he taught the pianist Ernst Pauer. He died on 29 July 1844 in the town of Karlsbad, where he was buried.
He never married, nor did he have any children. His estate was executed by Josephine de Baroni-Cavalcabò, the dedicatee of his cello sonata and a longtime patroness.
His musical style was an early Romanticism.
The shadow of his father loomed large over him even in death. The following epitaph was etched on his tombstone:

"May the name of his father be his epitaph, as his veneration for him was the essence of his life."

_______

A bit sad, wouldn't you think? Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed the reading. Only tomorrow we'll be listening to his wonderful music.

See You,

M.