|
String Quartet No. 4 (Piston)
String Quartet No. 4 by Walter Piston is a chamber-music work composed in 1951. History Piston's fourth string quartet was commissioned by the Coolidge Foundation in celebration of the centennial of Mills College, and is dedicated to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. It was premiered on May 18, 1952, by the Hungarian Quartet. It is closely related to Piston's Fourth Symphony. Analysis The quartet is in four movements: #Soave ( ) #Adagio (9/8) #Leggero vivace (2/4) #Con fuoco (6/8) The first movement is a sonata-allegro in D major, whose harmonies are pandiatonic rather than triadic. The second theme is given in the high register of the viola, with the other instruments softly accompanying '' sulla tastiera'' (near the fingerboard). The slow movement features the cello in a pensive '' cantilena'', and a shifting, unstable harmony that settles on E minor only at the end. The third movement is a fugal scherzo with a fleetness comparable to Mendelssohn and a dense chromaticism t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Piston
Walter Hamor Piston, Jr. (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976), was an American composer of classical music, music theorist, and professor of music at Harvard University. Life Piston was born in Rockland, Maine at 15 Ocean Street to Walter Hamor Piston, a bookkeeper, and Leona Stover. He was the second of four children. Although his family was mainly of English origin, his paternal grandfather was a sailor named Antonio Pistone, who changed his name to Anthony Piston when he came to Maine from Genoa, Italy. In 1905 the composer's father, Walter Piston Sr, moved with his family to Boston, Massachusetts. Walter Jr first trained as an engineer at the Mechanical Arts High School in Boston, but was artistically inclined. After graduating in 1912, he enrolled in the Massachusetts Normal Art School, where he completed a four-year program in fine art in 1916. During the 1910s, Piston made a living playing piano and violin in dance bands and later playing violin in orchestras led by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scherzo
A scherzo (, , ; plural scherzos or scherzi), in western classical music, is a short composition – sometimes a movement from a larger work such as a symphony or a sonata. The precise definition has varied over the years, but scherzo often refers to a movement that replaces the minuet as the third movement in a four-movement work, such as a symphony, sonata, or string quartet. The term can also refer to a fast-moving humorous composition that may or may not be part of a larger work. Origins The Italian word ''scherzo'' means 'joke' or 'jest'. More rarely the similar-meaning word ''badinerie'' (also spelled ''battinerie''; from French, 'jesting') has been used. Sometimes the word ''scherzando'' ('joking') is used in musical notation to indicate that a passage should be executed in a playful manner. An early use of the word ''scherzo'' in music is in light-hearted madrigals of the early baroque period, which were often called ''scherzi musicali'', for example: * Claudio Monte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doriot Anthony Dwyer
Doriot Anthony Dwyer (; March 6, 1922 – March 14, 2020) was an American flutist. She was one of the first women to be awarded principal chair for a major U.S. orchestra (following hornist Helen Kotas, who was appointed principal horn of the Chicago Symphony in 1941). She was the principal flute for the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1952 until 1990. She was second flute for the National Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She was an Adjunct Professor of Music at Boston University. Early life Doriot Anthony Dwyer was born in Streator, Illinois on March 6, 1922. Her father, Wiliam C. Anthony, played bass and her mother, Edith (Maurer) Anthony, was an accomplished flutist, who played with her sisters on the Chautauqua Redpath circuit. Her father was related to suffragette Susan B. Anthony, though he disapproved of his famous cousin's work. Though Dwyer requested to begin studying the flute at age six, her mother made her wait until age eight. She studied under h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
String Quartet No
String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Strings (1991 film), ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian animated short * Strings (2004 film), ''Strings'' (2004 film), a film directed by Anders Rønnow Klarlund * Strings (2011 film), ''Strings'' (2011 film), an American dramatic thriller film * Strings (2012 film), ''Strings'' (2012 film), a British film by Rob Savage * ''Bravetown'' (2015 film), an American drama film originally titled ''Strings'' * ''The String'' (2009), a French film Music Instruments * String (music), the flexible element that produces vibrations and sound in string instruments * String instrument, a musical instrument that produces sound through vibrating strings ** List of string instruments * String piano, a pianistic extended technique in which sound is produced by direct manipulation of the strings, r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950) , place = Korean Peninsula, Yellow Sea, Sea of Japan, Korea Strait, China–North Korea border , territory = Korean Demilitarized Zone established * North Korea gains the city of Kaesong, but loses a net total of {{Convert, 1506, sqmi, km2, abbr=on, order=flip, including the city of Sokcho, to South Korea. , result = Inconclusive , combatant1 = {{Flag, First Republic of Korea, name=South Korea, 1949, size=23px , combatant1a = {{Plainlist , * {{Flagicon, United Nations, size=23px United Nations Command, United Nations{{Refn , name = nbUNforces , group = lower-alpha , On 9 July 1951 troop constituents were: US: 70.4%, ROK: 23.3% other UNC: 6.3%{{Cite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Expressionist Music
The term expressionism "was probably first applied to music in 1918, especially to Schoenberg", because like the painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) he avoided "traditional forms of beauty" to convey powerful feelings in his music. Theodor Adorno interprets the expressionist movement in music as seeking to "eliminate all of traditional music's conventional elements, everything formulaically rigid". This he sees as analogous "to the literary ideal of the 'scream' ". As well Adorno sees expressionist music as seeking "the truthfulness of subjective feeling without illusions, disguises or euphemisms". Adorno also describes it as concerned with the unconscious, and states that "the depiction of fear lies at the centre" of expressionist music, with dissonance predominating, so that the "harmonious, affirmative element of art is banished". Expressionist music would "thus reject the depictive, sensual qualities that had come to be associated with impressionist music. It would endeavor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
String Quartet (Ravel)
Maurice Ravel completed his String Quartet in F major in early April 1903 at the age of 28. It was premiered in Paris in March the following year. The work follows a four-movement classical structure: the opening movement, in sonata form, presents two themes that occur again later in the work; a playful scherzo second movement is followed by a lyrical slow movement. The finale reintroduces themes from the earlier movements and ends the work vigorously. The quartet's structure is modelled on that of Claude Debussy's String Quartet, written in 1893, although Ravel's musical ideas strongly contrast with Debussy's. Debussy admired Ravel's piece rather more than did its dedicatee, Ravel's teacher Gabriel Fauré. Background Ravel attended the Paris Conservatoire, but his unconventional ideas had incurred the displeasure of its ultra-conservative director Théodore Dubois and some other faculty members. His friend and teacher Gabriel Fauré continued to encourage and advise him, and Ravel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
String Quartet (Debussy)
Claude Debussy completed his String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 (List of compositions by Claude Debussy, L.91), in 1893 when he was 31 years old. It is Debussy's only string quartet. Background That year Debussy had abandoned the opera ''Rodrigue et Chimène''. He planned to write two string quartets, only one of which materialized. The string quartet was to be dedicated to composer Ernest Chausson, whose personal reservations eventually diverted the composer's original intentions. The quartet received its premiere on December 29, 1893 by the Ysaÿe Quartet (1886), Ysaÿe Quartet at the Société Nationale in Paris to mixed reactions. Analysis The work is in four movements: Its sensuality and impressionistic tonal shifts are emblematic of its time and place while, with its cyclic structure, it constitutes a final divorce from the rules of classical harmony and points the way ahead. After its premiere, composer Guy Ropartz described the quartet as "dominated by the influence of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Minor
A minor is a minor scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats and no sharps. Its relative major is C major and its parallel major is A major. The A natural minor scale is: : Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary. The A harmonic minor and melodic minor scales are: : : Well-known compositions in A minor *Johann Sebastian Bach ** Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041 *Ludwig van Beethoven ** Violin Sonata No. 4, Op. 23 ** String Quartet No. 15, Op. 132 ** Bagatelle in A minor, "Für Elise" * Johannes Brahms **Double Concerto, Op. 102 * Frédéric Chopin ** Étude Op. 10, No. 2 ** Étude Op. 25, No. 4 ** Étude Op. 25, No. 11, ''Winter Wind'' ** Mazurka Op. 17, No. 4 ** Mazurka Op. 59, No. 1 ** ''Boléro'', Op. 19 ** Prelude No. 2 in A minor, Op. 28/2 ** Waltz in A minor, Op. 34, B. 150 * Franz Liszt ** Transcendental Étude No. 2, ''Fusà ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pizzicato
Pizzicato (, ; translated as "pinched", and sometimes roughly as "plucked") is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument. The exact technique varies somewhat depending on the type of instrument : * On bowed string instruments it is a method of playing by plucking the strings with the fingers, rather than using the bow. This produces a very different sound from bowing, short and percussive rather than sustained. * On keyboard string instruments, such as the piano, pizzicato may be employed (although rarely seen in traditional repertoire, this technique has been normalized in contemporary music, with ample examples by George Crumb, Toru Takemitsu, Helmut Lachenmann, and others) as one of the variety of techniques involving direct manipulation of the strings known collectively as "string piano". * On the guitar, it is a muted form of plucking, which bears an audible resemblance to pizzicato on a bowed string instrument with its relatively short ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duple Meter
Duple metre (or Am. duple meter, also known as duple time) is a musical metre characterized by a ''primary'' division of 2 beats to the bar, usually indicated by 2 and multiples (simple) or 6 and multiples (compound) in the upper figure of the time signature, with (cut time), , and (at a fast tempo) being the most common examples. Shown below are a simple and a compound duple drum pattern. : \new Staff : \new Staff Though it must, the upper figure being divisible by 2 does not of itself indicate duple metre. The most common time signature in rock, blues, country, funk, and pop is .Schroedl, Scott (2001). ''Play Drums Today!'', p. 42. Hal Leonard. . Although jazz writing has become more adventurous since Dave Brubeck's'' Time Out'', the majority of jazz and jazz standards are still in four time. Duple time is common in many styles including the polka, notorious for its obvious "oom-pah" duple feel. Compare to the waltz. Quadruple metre Quadruple metre (also ''quad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Staccato
Staccato (; Italian for "detached") is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence. It has been described by theorists and has appeared in music since at least 1676. Notation In 20th-century music, a dot placed above or below a note indicates that it should be played staccato, and a wedge is used for the more emphatic staccatissimo. However, before 1850, dots, dashes, and wedges were all likely to have the same meaning, even though some theorists from as early as the 1750s distinguished different degrees of staccato through the use of dots and dashes, with the dash indicating a shorter, sharper note, and the dot a longer, lighter one. A number of signs came to be used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to discriminate more subtle nuances of staccato. These signs involve various combinations of dots, vertical and horizontal dashes, vertical and horizontal wedges, and t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
