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Turangalîla-Symphonie
The ''Turangalîla-Symphonie'' is the only symphony by Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992). It was written for an orchestra of large forces from 1946 to 1948 on a commission by Serge Koussevitzky in his wife's memory for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Along with the ''Quatuor pour la fin du temps'', the symphony is one of the composer's most notable works. The premiere was in Boston on 2 December 1949, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. The commission did not specify the duration, orchestral requirements or style of the piece, leaving the decisions to the composer. Koussevitzky was billed to conduct the premiere, but fell ill, and the task fell to the young Bernstein. Bernstein has been described as "the ideal conductor for it, and it made Messiaen's name more widely known". Yvonne Loriod, who later became Messiaen's second wife, was the piano soloist, and Ginette Martenot played the ondes Martenot for the first and several subsequent performances. From 1953, Yvonne's sister Jeanne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serge Koussevitzky
Sergei Alexandrovich KoussevitzkyKoussevitzky's original Russian forename is usually transliterated into English as either "Sergei" or "Sergey"; however, he himself adopted the French spelling "Serge", using it in his signature. (SeThe Koussevitzky Music Foundations official web site Retrieved 5 November 2009.) His surname can be transliterated variously as "Koussevitzky", "Koussevitsky", "Kussevitzky", "Kusevitsky", or, into Polish, as "Kusewicki"; however, he himself chose to use "Koussevitzky". (russian: Серге́й Алекса́ндрович Кусеви́цкий, links=no; ''Sergey Aleksandrovich Kusevitsky''; 4 June 1951) was a Russian-born conductor, composer and double-bassist, known for his long tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949. Biography Early career Koussevitzky was born into a Jewish family of professional musicians in Vyshny Volochyok, Tver Governorate (present-day Tver Oblast), about 250 km northwest of Moscow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harawi (Tristan Trilogy)
''Harawi - Chant d'amour et de mort'' ( French: Harawi - A Song of Love and Death) are a song cycle for "grand, dramatic" soprano and piano whose music and libretto were composed by Olivier Messiaen in 1945. They are considered to be the first part of the his ''Tristan'' trilogy, a collection of works inspired by the myth of Tristan and Iseult. The cycle of twelve songs, written in the composer's native language of French and occasionally featuring words in Quechuan languages, is the last of three song cycles for soprano and piano that Messiaen wrote. They received their première on 27 June 1946 in Brussels with the composer himself at the piano and his preferred singer Marcelle Bunlet as vocalist. A typical performance lasts about 50 minutes on average. Analysis Messiaen, the son of two writers, had written two song-cycles beforehand (Poèmes pour Mi and Chants de Terre et de Ciel) but these were composed on personal levels. Several sources of inspiration had led to Mes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serge Koussevitsky
Sergei Alexandrovich KoussevitzkyKoussevitzky's original Russian forename is usually transliterated into English as either "Sergei" or "Sergey"; however, he himself adopted the French spelling "Serge", using it in his signature. (SeThe Koussevitzky Music Foundations official web site Retrieved 5 November 2009.) His surname can be transliterated variously as "Koussevitzky", "Koussevitsky", "Kussevitzky", "Kusevitsky", or, into Polish, as "Kusewicki"; however, he himself chose to use "Koussevitzky". (russian: Серге́й Алекса́ндрович Кусеви́цкий, links=no; ''Sergey Aleksandrovich Kusevitsky''; 4 June 1951) was a Russian-born conductor, composer and double-bassist, known for his long tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949. Biography Early career Koussevitzky was born into a Jewish family of professional musicians in Vyshny Volochyok, Tver Governorate (present-day Tver Oblast), about 250 km northwest of Moscow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, the BSO performs most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at Tanglewood. Since its founding, the orchestra has had 17 music directors, including George Henschel, Serge Koussevitzky, Henri Rabaud, Pierre Monteux, Charles Munch, Erich Leinsdorf, William Steinberg and James Levine. Andris Nelsons is the current music director of the BSO. Seiji Ozawa has the title of BSO music director laureate. Bernard Haitink had held the title of principal guest conductor of the BSO from 1995 to 2004, then conductor emeritus until his death in 2021. The orchestra has made gramophone recordings since 1917 and has occasionally played on soundtrack recordings for films, including ''Schindler's List''. History Early year ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Bloch
Thomas Bloch (born 1962 in Colmar, France) is a classical musician specializing in the rare instruments ondes Martenot, glass harmonica, and Cristal Baschet. Receiving a First Prize for ondes Martenot at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (with Jeanne Loriod) and a master's degree in Musicology at the University of Strasbourg, Bloch has performed over 2500 times and appeared on over eighty recordings. Notable collaborations (concerts or recordings) include Radiohead, John Cage, Daft Punk, Damon Albarn / Gorillaz, Philip Clemo, Marianne Faithfull, Tom Waits and Bob Wilson Biography Bloch obtained a master's degree in Musicology at the University of Strasbourg where he studied with Marc Honegger. He currently lives in Paris, France. He is acknowledged as an expert in the following rare instruments: the glass harmonica, the ondes Martenot and the Cristal Baschet. He has given thousands of performances in forty countries and taken part in more than eig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ondes Martenot
The ondes Martenot ( ; , "Martenot waves") or ondes musicales ("musical waves") is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. A player of the ondes Martenot is called an ondist. The ondes Martenot was invented in 1928 by the French inventor Maurice Martenot. Martenot was inspired by the accidental overlaps of tones between military radio oscillators, and wanted to create an instrument with the expressiveness of the cello. The ondes Martenot is used in more than 100 orchestral compositions. The French composer Olivier Messiaen used it in pieces such as his 1949 symphony ''Turangalîla-Symphonie,'' and his sister-in-law Jeanne Loriod was a celebrated player of the instrument. It appears in numerous film and television soundtracks, particularly science fiction and horror films. Jonny Greenwood of the English rock band Radiohead is credited with bringing the ondes to a large ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yvonne Loriod
Yvonne Louise Georgette Loriod-Messiaen (; 20 January 1924 – 17 May 2010) was a French pianist, teacher, and composer, and the second wife of composer Olivier Messiaen. Her sister was the Ondes Martenot player Jeanne Loriod. Biography Loriod was born in Houilles, Yvelines to Gaston and Simone Loriod. Initially receiving piano lessons from her godmother, she later studied at the Paris Conservatoire and became one of Olivier Messiaen's most avid pupils. She also studied with Isidor Philipp, Lazare Lévy then Marcel Ciampi. She went on to become a nationally acclaimed recording artist and concert pianist and premiered most of Messiaen's works for the piano, starting in the 1940s. Messiaen said that he was able to indulge in "the greatest eccentricities" when writing for piano, knowing that they would be mastered by Loriod. Both she and her sister Jeanne often performed as the soloists in his ''Turangalîla-Symphonie''. Loriod also orchestrated part of Messiaen's final orchestra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically and melodically he employs a system he called ''modes of limited transposition'', which he abstracted from the systems of material generated by his early compositions and improvisations. He wrote music for chamber ensembles and orchestra, vocal music, as well as for solo organ and piano, and also experimented with the use of novel electronic instruments developed in Europe during his lifetime. Messiaen entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 11 and studied with Paul Dukas, Maurice Emmanuel, Charles-Marie Widor and Marcel Dupré, among others. He was appointed organist at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris, in 1931, a post held for 61 years until his death. He taught at the Schola Cantorum de Paris during the 1930s. After the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ondes Martenot
The ondes Martenot ( ; , "Martenot waves") or ondes musicales ("musical waves") is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. A player of the ondes Martenot is called an ondist. The ondes Martenot was invented in 1928 by the French inventor Maurice Martenot. Martenot was inspired by the accidental overlaps of tones between military radio oscillators, and wanted to create an instrument with the expressiveness of the cello. The ondes Martenot is used in more than 100 orchestral compositions. The French composer Olivier Messiaen used it in pieces such as his 1949 symphony ''Turangalîla-Symphonie,'' and his sister-in-law Jeanne Loriod was a celebrated player of the instrument. It appears in numerous film and television soundtracks, particularly science fiction and horror films. Jonny Greenwood of the English rock band Radiohead is credited with bringing the ondes to a large ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tristan And Iseult
Tristan and Iseult, also known as Tristan and Isolde and other names, is a medieval chivalric romance told in numerous variations since the 12th century. Based on a Celtic legend and possibly other sources, the tale is a tragedy about the illicit love between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Iseult. It depicts Tristan's mission to escort Iseult from Ireland to marry his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall. On the journey, Tristan and Iseult ingest a love potion, instigating a forbidden love affair between them. The story has had a lasting impact on Western culture. Its different versions exist in many European texts in various languages from the Middle Ages. The earliest instances take two primary forms: the courtly and common branches. The former begins with the 12th-century poems of Thomas of Britain and Béroul, while the latter reflects a now-lost original version. A subsequent version emerged in the 13th century in the wake of the greatly expanded Prose ''Tris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ginette Martenot
Ginette Martenot (1902–1996) was a French pianist, and an expert and leading performer on the twentieth-century electronic instrument the ondes Martenot, which was invented by her brother Maurice. At the age of sixteen, she entered the Paris Conservatory, where she studied counterpoint and fugue with the composer Arthur Honegger. She gave the first performance (and subsequently made recordings) as solo ondist in Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie, with Yvonne Loriod taking the solo piano part. Martenot taught the composer Serge Nigg Serge Nigg (6 June 1924 – 12 November 2008) was a French composer, born in Paris. Biography After initial studies with Ginette Martenot, Nigg entered the Paris Conservatory in 1941 and studied harmony with Olivier Messiaen and counterpoint .... Massin, Brigitte. "Nigg, Serge"Grove Music Online(subscription access) References External links(in French) 1902 births 1996 deaths Musicians from Paris Conservatoire de Paris alumni Ondists ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serialism
In music, serialism is a method of Musical composition, composition using series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres or other elements of music, musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though some of his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as a form of atonality, post-tonal thinking. Twelve-tone technique orders the twelve notes of the chromatic scale, forming a tone row, row or series and providing a unifying basis for a composition's melody, harmony, structural progressions, and variation (music), variations. Other types of serialism also work with set (music), sets, collections of objects, but not necessarily with fixed-order series, and extend the technique to other musical dimensions (often called "parameter (music), parameters"), such as duration (music), duration, Dynamics (music), dynamics, and timbre. The idea of serialism is also applied in various ways in the visual arts, design, and architectu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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