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Berceuses Du Chat
The ''Berceuses du chat'' (Russian: ''Kolibelniye'', English: ''Cat Lullabies'') is a cycle of four songs for contralto and three clarinetists composed by Igor Stravinsky in 1915. The work is usually referred to by its French title. Although it is usually sung in Russian, Stravinsky assisted his friend, the Swiss author C.F. Ramuz, to make a translation into French at the time of publication. The titles of the four songs are: # ''Spi, kot'' (''Sleep, Tom-Cat'') # ''Kot na pechi'' (''The Tom-Cat on the Stove'') # ''Bay-Bay'' (''Lullaby'') # ''U kota, kota'' (''O Tom-Cat, Tom-Cat'') Scoring ''Berceuses du chat'' is set for contralto and three clarinettists: E clarinet; B and A clarinet; A clarinet and B bass clarinet. History The ''Berceuses du chat'' were composed in 1915, while Stravinsky was living in Switzerland during World War I.Walsh, Stephen. ''Stravinsky: A Creative Spring: Russia and France, 1882-1934.'' (London: Jonathan Cape, 2000). They are based on Russian folk s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century and a pivotal figure in modernist music. Stravinsky's compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and first performed in Paris by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes: ''The Firebird'' (1910), ''Petrushka'' (1911), and ''The Rite of Spring'' (1913). The last transformed the way in which subsequent composers thought about rhythmic structure and was largely responsible for Stravinsky's enduring reputation as a revolutionary who pushed the boundaries of musical design. His "Russian phase", which continued with works such as '' Renard'', ''L'Histoire du soldat,'' and ''Les noces'', was followed in the 1920s by a period ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz
Charles Ferdinand Ramuz (24 September 1878 – 23 May 1947) was a French-speaking Swiss writer. Biography He was born in Lausanne in the canton of Vaud and was educated at the University of Lausanne. He taught briefly in nearby Aubonne, and then in Weimar, Germany. In 1903, he left for Paris and remained there until World War I, with frequent trips home to Switzerland. As part of his studies in Paris he wrote a thesis on the poet Maurice de Guérin. In 1903, he published ''Le petit village'', a collection of poems. In 1914, he returned to Switzerland. He wrote the libretto for Igor Stravinsky's ''Histoire du soldat''. He died in Pully, near Lausanne in 1947. His likeness and an artistic impression of his works appear on the 200 Swiss franc note (no longer in current use). The Foundation C.F. Ramuz in Pully awards the Grand Prix C. F. Ramuz. Works *''Le petit village'' (1903) *''Aline'' (1905) *''Jean-Luc persécuté'' (1909) *''Aimé Pache, peintre vaudois'' (1911) *'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war. Prior to 1914, the European great powers were divided between the Triple Entente (comprising France, Russia, and Britain) and the Triple Alliance (containing Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy). Tensions in the Balkans came to a head on 28 June 1914, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pyotr Kireevsky
Pyotr Vasilievich Kireevsky (russian: Пётр Васи́льевич Кире́евский, 23 February 1808 in Dolbino, Likhvinsky Uyezd, Kaluga Governorate – 6 November 1856) was a Russian folklorist and philologist many of whose materials remain unpublished to this day. Kireevsky was an ardent Slavophile like his elder and more famous brother Ivan Vasilievich (although Schelling thought Pyotr the more original of the two). He spent his entire life collecting folk songs and lyrics. Some of these were contributed by Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Aleksey Koltsov, and Vladimir Dahl. During his lifetime, Kireevsky printed only the first volume of his collection, containing "spiritual lyrics". Ten other volumes were brought out posthumously, between 1860 and 1874, under the supervision of Pyotr Bessonov. Another anthology was published in 1911; it was used by Igor Stravinsky to arrange his libretto for the ballet ''Les Noces ''Les Noces'' (French for The Wedd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pribaoutki
''Pribaoutki'' () is a cycle of four songs composed by Igor Stravinsky in 1914 to Russian texts by Alexander Afanasyev. Its Russian title has no direct English equivalent, although Richard Taruskin suggests "nonsense rhymes" or "jingles." (The French subtitle appearing in the score, ', is descriptive, not a translation.) ''Pribaoutki'' takes about four minutes to perform. Songs The titles of the four songs are: # "Kornílo" ("Uncle Kornilo") # "Natashka" ("Little Natalie") # "Polkovnik" ("The Colonel") # "Starets i zayats" ("The Old Man and the Hare") Instrumentation ''Pribaoutki'' is written for low voice and instrumental ensemble. Stravinsky is said to have preferred a male singer, although the work is commonly performed by mezzo-soprano or contralto. The eight-member ensemble consists of: flute, oboe (doubling English horn), clarinet, bassoon, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. History ''Pribaoutki'' was composed between June and September 1914, just as World War I w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School. As a Jewish composer, Schoenberg was targeted by the Nazi Party, which labeled his works as degenerate music and forbade them from being published. He immigrated to the United States in 1933, becoming an American citizen in 1941. Schoenberg's approach, bοth in terms of harmony and development, has shaped much of 20th-century musical thought. Many composers from at least three generations have consciously extended his thinking, whereas others have passionately reacted against it. Schoenberg was known early in his career for simultaneously extending the traditionally opposed German Romantic styles of Brahms and Wagner. Later, hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Society For Private Musical Performances
The Society for Private Musical Performances (in German, the ) was an organization founded in Vienna in the Autumn of 1918 by Arnold Schoenberg with the intention of making carefully rehearsed and comprehensible performances of newly composed music available to genuinely interested members of the musical public. History In the three years between February 1919 and 5 December 1921 (when the ''Verein'' had to cease its activities due to Austrian hyperinflation), the organization gave 353 performances of 154 works in 117 concerts that involved a total of 79 individuals and pre-existing ensembles. Circumstances permitting, concerts were given at the rate of one per week, with each programme consisting entirely of works from the period "Mahler to the present". The range of music included was very wide, the "allowable" composers not being confined to the Schoenberg circle but drawn from all those who had (as Schoenberg himself put it) "a real face or name". During the Society's first tw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
