''Musique funèbre'' ( pl, Muzyka żałobna; ''Funereal Music'' or ''Music of Mourning'') is a composition for string orchestra by the Polish composer Witold Lutosławski, completed in 1958.

History

Lutosławski began composing ''Musique funèbre'' in late 1954 and completed it in 1958. The piece is scored for a small

string orchestra A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first ...

of four violins, two violas, two cellos, and two basses. Its first performance occurred on March 26, 1958 in

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...

by the National Polish Radio Orchestra under the direction of Jan Krenz, who commissioned the piece to honor its dedicatee,

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as H ...

. It received a notable performance later that year at the Warsaw Autumn Festival . In 1959 it won both the Polish Composers' Union Prize as well as First prize from the UNESCO International Composers' Council. Recent performances include : *In 2014 it was performed at least twelve times in countries such as China (Hongzhou); France (Paris); Germany (Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, Rostock); United Kingdom (London); and United States (Chicago) *In 2013 (Lutosławski's centennial) it was performed at least twenty-nine times in fifteen countries including Austria (Vienna); Finland (Helsinki); France (Paris); Germany (Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Erfurt, Leipzig, Munich); Japan (Tokyo); Luxemburg (Luxemburg); Mexico (Guanajuato); Netherlands (Amsterdam); Poland (Warsaw); Portugal (Belém); Slovenia (Ljubljana); Spain (Madrid); Switzerland (Lucerne, Warth-Weiningen); United Kingdom (London, England; Edinburgh, Scotland; St Asaph Cathedral, Wales); United States (Cleveland, Philadelphia)

Structure

The composition consists of one movement with four distinct sections marked by changes of texture and instrumentation (as opposed to four distinct movements, which are marked by double bar lines and extended periods of silence). These four distinct sections are: #Prologue #Metamorphoses #Apogeum #Epilogue It has a duration of c. 13'30".

Prologue

Typical of 20th-century music, the piece uses mixed meter, in this case beginning in 5/2 then shifting for a measure (bar) to 3/2 with a steady pulse of half-note (minim) = 88. Within such a fluid meter Lutosławski begins by presenting the principal twelve-tone idea horizontally and unambiguously in the first cello ↑B↓B↑E↓E↓A↓A↑D↓D↓G↓G↑C Significantly, the

twelve-tone row In music, a tone row or note row (german: Reihe or '), also series or set, is a non-repetitive ordering of a set of pitch-classes, typically of the twelve notes in musical set theory of the chromatic scale, though both larger and smaller sets ar ...

consists of only two intervals: tritones and (descending) half-steps . Both of these intervals are associated with lament and funeral topics. Lutosławski initially treats the row canonically, answering this ''dux'' with a ''comes'' in the second cello, whose time interval is one beat (half-note, minim) and pitch interval is six half-steps (semitones) higher. Lutoslawski's Funeral Music, mm. 1-8.jpg

Metamorphoses

This section features a technique that Lutosławski would later call "chain form," which also occurs in his "Passacaglia" from his Concerto for Orchestra. Chain form describes a technique in which a composer "braids" two independent strands of music. In Metamorphoses, Lutosławski braids three strands—an early example of what he would later call "chain form" . In any event, the row from the Prologue undergoes twelve transformations. The series is successively presented a fifth lower according to the circle of fifths. The texture thickens as a result of increasingly intense uses of “foreign” sounds entwining these pitches, which take on the role of a cantus firmus, with an ever-expanding range of sounds.

Apogeum

Although the apogeum is relatively short, clocking in at less than one minute and consisting of a mere twelve bars, it is nevertheless structurally significant. It consists of a succession of 32 twelve-tone chords. Significantly, "It is in chords such as these that Lutosławski found the key to his future development" . By this Thomas is referring to Lutosławski's future preference for writing twelve-tone chords that present systematic vertical intervallic configurations. In any event, in this piece the wide registration gradually collapses inward onto a single pitch that initiates the final section.

Epilogue

The dodecaphonic canon of the first section appears in this final section. As the final movement, its canons mirror symmetrically the canons of the first movement, thus clearly honoring Bartók's preferences for such palindromic structures. The symmetry is reinforced as the canons of the final section reverse the order of the first section .

References

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External links

*http://onpolishmusic.com/tag/muzyka-zalobna/ *http://www.lutoslawski.org.pl/en/composition,49.html *http://woven-words.co.uk/essays/musique_funebre *http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/work/7734 {{DEFAULTSORT:Musique funebre Compositions by Witold Lutosławski 1958 compositions Compositions for string orchestra twelve-tone compositions serial compositions