The Octet for strings in
C major
C major (or the key of C) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and ...
,
Op. 7, is an
octet
Octet may refer to:
Music
* Octet (music), ensemble consisting of eight instruments or voices, or composition written for such an ensemble
** String octet, a piece of music written for eight string instruments
*** Octet (Mendelssohn), 1825 compos ...
composition for
string instrument
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the ...
s by the Romanian composer
George Enescu
George Enescu (; – 4 May 1955), known in France as Georges Enesco, was a Romanian composer, violinist, conductor and teacher. Regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history, Enescu is featured on the Romanian five lei.
Biog ...
, completed in 1900. Together with the Octet in F major, Op. 17 (1849) by
Niels Gade
Niels Wilhelm Gade (22 February 1817 – 21 December 1890) was a Danish composer, conductor, violinist, organist and teacher. Together with Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann, he was the leading Danish musician of his day.
Biography
Gade was born ...
, it is regarded as amongst the most notable successors to
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sy ...
's celebrated
Octet, Op. 20.
History
![André Gedalge](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Andr%C3%A9_Gedalge.jpg)
Following the completion of his
Second Violin Sonata in 1899, composition of the Octet occupied Enescu for a year and a half. The complexity of a structure spanning forty minutes in performance caused him considerable difficulty, though he found the challenge exciting. "I wore myself out trying to make work a piece of music divided into four segments of such length that each of them was likely at any moment to break. An engineer launching his first suspension bridge over a river, could not feel more anxiety than I felt when I set out to darken my paper". Once he had completed the Octet, Enescu offered it to
Édouard Colonne
Édouard Juda Colonne (23 July 1838 – 28 March 1910) was a French conductor and violinist, who was a champion of the music of Berlioz and other eminent 19th-century composers.
Life and career
Colonne was born in Bordeaux, the son and gran ...
for performance in his
Concerts Colonne
The Colonne Orchestra is a French symphony orchestra, founded in 1873 by the violinist and conductor Édouard Colonne.
History
While leader of the Opéra de Paris orchestra, Édouard Colonne was engaged by the publisher Georges Hartmann to lead a ...
. However, after five rehearsals, the impresario removed it from the program on grounds that it was too risky, a decision that Enescu regarded bitterly. The belated premiere finally took place on 18 December 1909 in the Salle des Agriculteurs in Paris, as part of a festival concert of Enescu's chamber works in the Soirées d'Art concert series. The performers were the combined members of the Géloso and Chailley Quartets, conducted by the composer. Enescu's
Piano Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 16, completed only a few days earlier, also received its premiere on this concert, which also included a performance of his ''Sept chansons de Clement Marot'', for tenor and piano, Op. 15, composed the previous year. The Octet is dedicated to
André Gedalge, one of Enescu's professors at the Conservatory, whose support in convincing the firm of Enoch & Cie to publish the score was deeply appreciated by the composer
The conductor Karl Krueger reported that, when he asked the composer how he felt about having the work played by a larger body of string players, Enescu enthusiastically replied, "That's how it should be!". When Enoch reprinted the score in 1950, Enescu added a new preface in which he endorsed this option, but with some qualifications:
Analysis
Enescu's composition stands in contrast to Felix Mendelssohn's Octet, which sets a soloistic violin part against an accompaniment of the other stringed instruments. Enescu's work on the other hand is "a genuine octet that finds its most natural expression just in its hallucinatory convergent and divergent contrapuntal voices". Stylistically, the Octet stands outside the categories into which most of Enescu's works from before the end of the First World War fall, when he was still working his way through a wide range of styles and influences, including those of
César Franck
César-Auguste Jean-Guillaume Hubert Franck (; 10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890) was a French Romantic composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher born in modern-day Belgium.
He was born in Liège (which at the time of his birth was p ...
,
Ernest Chausson
Amédée-Ernest Chausson (; 20 January 1855 – 10 June 1899) was a French Romantic composer who died just as his career was beginning to flourish.
Life
Born in Paris into an affluent bourgeois family, Chausson was the sole surviving child of a ...
,
Henri Duparc,
Claude Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...
, and
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...
.
The form is described by the composer as
cyclic
Cycle, cycles, or cyclic may refer to:
Anthropology and social sciences
* Cyclic history, a theory of history
* Cyclical theory, a theory of American political history associated with Arthur Schlesinger, Sr.
* Social cycle, various cycles in s ...
, and divided into four
movements
Movement may refer to:
Common uses
* Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece
* Motion, commonly referred to as movement
Arts, entertainment, and media
Literature
* "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...
:
# Très modéré ()
# Très fougueux (
E major
E major (or the key of E) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, ...
)
# Lentement
# Mouvement de valse bien rythmée
A typical performance of the work takes around 40 minutes.
However, these four sections are linked together to form a single large
sonata-allegro form
Sonata form (also ''sonata-allegro form'' or ''first movement form'') is a musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th c ...
movement. The first movement functions as the
exposition
Exposition (also the French for exhibition) may refer to:
*Universal exposition or World's Fair
*Expository writing
**Exposition (narrative)
*Exposition (music)
*Trade fair
* ''Exposition'' (album), the debut album by the band Wax on Radio
*Exposi ...
and the finale as
recapitulation, while
development
Development or developing may refer to:
Arts
*Development hell, when a project is stuck in development
*Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting
*Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped
* Photograph ...
is pursued in the inner two movements. The idea of cyclically integrating all of the movements of a symphony into a single overarching form can be traced back to
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, and was developed further by
Hector Berlioz
In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...
,
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...
, and
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
. The most likely model for Enescu's organization of the Octet is the latter's
Piano Concerto in E-flat major (1855) which, even more than Liszt's
B-minor Sonata pursues the outline of a sonata form throughout its four movements.
There are between nine and as many as twelve melodic themes used in the work, depending on the analysis The greatest number of them (six or seven) are presented in the exposition of the first part. The second part is a kind of demonic
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 ref ...
, tumultuous and whirling, while the third is a lyrical, slow movement; in both of them new themes are added
Discography
* George Enescu: Octet for Strings in C Major, Op. 7 (version for string orchestra). American Arts Orchestra; Karl Krueger, cond. LP recording, 1 disc: analog, monaural, 12 in. New Records NELP 101 (on label: NRMG 101).
.p. New Records, Inc.,
950
Year 950 ( CML) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* Arab–Byzantine War: A Hamdanid army (30,000 men) led by Sayf al-Dawla raids int ...
* George Enescu: Octet for Strings in C Major, Op. 7. String octet of members of the Uniunea Compozitorilor din Republica Socialista România and the Filarmonica de Stat "Georges Enesco";
Constantin Silvestri
Constantin-Nicolae Silvestri (; 31 May 1913, Bucharest – 23 February 1969, London) was a Romanian conductor and composer.
Early life
Silvestri, born of Austro-Italian-Romanian stock, was brought up mostly by his mother, his father dying fro ...
, cond. LP recording 1 audio disc: analog, 33⅓ rpm, monaural, 12 in. Electrecord ECE 01. Bucharest: Casa de discuri Electrecord,
950s
The 950s decade ran from January 1, 950, to December 31, 959.
Significant people
* Abd al-Rahman III caliph of Córdoba
* Al-Muti caliph of Baghdad
* Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah of Fatimid dynasty
* Pope John XII
* Pope Agapetus II
Pope Agapetu ...
Artia ALP 119.
rague Artia,
.d. Reissued in a coupling with the
Decet for Winds in D Major, Op. 14 (from Electrecord stereo LP STM-ECE 01046), as a "reconditioned recording". CD recording, 1 disc: digital, monaural & stereo, 12 cm. Olympia OCD 445. Electrecord ELCD 122. Bucharest: Casa de discuri Electrecord, 1992.
* George Enescu: Octet for Strings in C Major, Op. 7. "Voces" String Quartet of Iasi; Iasi String Quartet. Ion Baciu, cond. LP recording 1 audio disc: analog, 33⅓ rpm, stereo, 12 in. Electrecord ST-ECE 01856. Bucharest: Electrecord, 1977. Reissued, coupled with the Decet for winds in D, Op. 14, performed by the Winds of the Iasi Moldova Philharmonic. LP recording 1 audio disc: analog, 33⅓ rpm, stereo, 12 in. Electrecord ST-ECE 61856. Bucharest: Electrecord,
efore 1987 Reissued on CD, 1 audio disc: stereo, 12 cm. Marco Polo 8.223147.
.p. Pacific Music, 1988.
* George Enescu: Octet for Strings in C Major, Op. 7;
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...
: Sextet from ''
Capriccio'', Op. 85;
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...
: Two Pieces for String Octet, Op. 11.
Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Ensemble. CD recording, 1 disc: digital, stereo, 12 cm. Chandos CHAN 9131. Colchester: Chandos Records Ltd, 1993.
* George Enescu: Octet for Strings in C Major, Op. 7; Felix Mendelssohn: Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20. Le Quatuor Alcan; Le Quatuor Québec. CD recording, 1 disc: digital, stereo, 12 cm. CBC Records MVCD 1063. Toronto: Société Radio-Canada / Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1993.
* George Enescu: Octet for Strings in C Major, Op. 7; Decet for Winds in D Major, Op. 14. René Ceistian Popescu, Liviu Morna, Nioara Moroianu, and Adriana Winkler, violins; Gabriel Bălă and Florin Matei, violas; Marin Cazacu and Dan Joiţoiu, cellos; Horia Andreescu, cond. Recorded by Electrecord in Tomis Studio, Bucharest, March 1995. Issued under licence. CD recording, 1 disc: digital, stereo, 12 cm. Olympia OCD 445. Olympia Explorer Series. London: Olympia Compact Discs Ltd, 1995.
* Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20; George Enescu: Octet in C major, Op. 7. Christian Bor, Ida Levin, Nicholas Kitchen, Lynn Chang, violins; Marcus Thompson, Hsin-Yun Huang, violas; Ronald Thomas, Yeesun Kim, cellos. Recorded at
Methuen Memorial Music Hall
Methuen Memorial Music Hall, initially named Searles Organ Hall, was built by Edward Francis Searles to house "The Great Organ", a very large pipe organ that had been built for the Boston Music Hall. The hall was completed in 1909, and stands at ...
, Methuen, MA, January, 1998. CD recording, 1 disc: digital, stereo, 12 cm.
Boston Chamber Music Society BCMR 05-CD.
ass. Boston Chamber Music Society, 1998.
* George Enescu: Octet in C major, Op. 7; Decet in D major, Op. 14. Ensembles of "George Enescu" Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra; Cristian Mandeal, cond. CD recording, 1 disc: digital, stereo, 12 cm. Arta Nova Classics 74321 63634 2.
ermany Arte Nova Classics, 1999.
* George Enescu: Octet for Strings in C Major, Op. 7; Decet for Winds in D Major, Op. 14. Viotta Ensemble; Micha Hamel, cond (Op. 14 only). Recorded at Maria Minor, Utrecht, 2 October 1999 (Octet) and 10 February 2001 (Decet). CD recording, 1 disc: digital, stereo, 12-cm. Ottavo OTR C20179. The Hague: Ottavo Recordings, 2001.
* George Enescu: Octet for Strings in C Major, Op. 7 (version for string orchestra); Quintet for Piano and Strings, Op.29.
Kremerata Baltica
Kremerata Baltica is a chamber music, chamber orchestra consisting of musicians from Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania). It was founded by Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer in 1997. Gidon Kremer is an artistic director of Kremerata Baltic ...
;
Gidon Kremer
Gidon Kremer ( lv, Gidons Krēmers; born 27 February 1947) is a Latvian classical violinist, artistic director, and founder of Kremerata Baltica.
Life and career
Gidon Kremer was born in Riga. His father was Jewish and had survived the Holoc ...
, cond. Octet recorded at Angelika-Kauffmann-Saal, Schwarzenberg, Austria, June 2000. Quintet recorded at Probesaal der Philharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Luswigshafen, Germany, November 2001. CD recording, 1 disc: digital, stereo, 12 cm. Nonesuch Records 79682-2.
.p. Nonesuch Records, 2002.
* George Enescu; Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Octets for Strings.
Christian Tetzlaff
Christian Tetzlaff (born 29 April 1966) is a German violinist.
Biography
Tetzlaff was born in Hamburg. His parents were amateur musicians and met in a church choir. He began playing the violin and piano at the age of 6, and made his concert debu ...
,
Isabelle Faust
Isabelle Faust (born 19 March 1972) is a German violinist who has worked internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. She received multiple awards.
Life and career
Faust was born in Esslingen on 12 March 1972. She received her first vio ...
,
Antje Weithaas,
Lisa Batiashvili
Elisabeth Batiashvili ( ka, ელისაბედ ბათიაშვილი; born 7 March 1979), professionally known as Lisa Batiashvili, is a prominent Georgian violinist active across Europe and the United States. A former New York P ...
(Enescu), Katherine Gowers (Mendelssohn), violins; Rachel Roberts, Ori Kam (Enescu),
Antoine Tamestit
Antoine Tamestit (born 1979) is a French violist.
Tamestit studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, and further with Jesse Levine at Yale University, and with Tabea Zimmermann. He won the 2001 Primrose International Viola Competition, the 2003 Yo ...
(Mendelssohn), violas; Quirine Viersen,
Tanja Tetzlaff
Tanja Tetzlaff (born 1973) is a German cellist. She played first as an orchestra member, but then as a soloist, a founding member of the Tetzlaff Quartet, a string quartet led by her brother Christian Tetzlaff, and as a chamber musician. She h ...
(Enescu),
Gustav Rivinius
Gustav Rivinius (born in 1965 in Saarland) is a German cellist and professor for cello at the Hochschule für Musik Saar.
Life
Rivinius began his cello studies at the age of six with Hermann Dirr in Munich. Later he studied in Saarbrücken for s ...
(Mendelssohn), cellos. Recorded live at the Hydroelectric Power Station, Heimbach, Germany, during the
Spannungen
Spannungen ("Tensions" or "Voltages") is an annual summer festival for chamber music in Heimbach, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, founded by pianist Lars Vogt in 1998. It is subtitled Musik im Kraftwerk Heimbach (Music in the Heimbach power p ...
chamber music festival, 11 June (Enescu) and 12 June (Mendelssohn), 2008. CD recording, 1 audio disc: digital, stereo, 12 cm. Avi-Music 42 6008553163 9 (on container: 8553163). Cologne: Avi-Music, 2009.
* George Enescu: Octet for Strings in C Major, Op. 7, arranged for orchestra by
Lawrence Foster
Lawrence Foster (born October 23, 1941) is an American conductor of Romanian ancestry. He is currently the artistic director and chief conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and the music director of the Marseille Opera and th ...
.
Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo The Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra (french: Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, OPMC) is the main orchestra in the Principality of Monaco. The orchestra gives concerts primarily in the Auditorium Rainier III, but also performs at the Salle ...
; Lawrence Foster. With Enescu: Violin Sonata No. 3.
Valeri Sokolow, violin; Swetlana Kosenko, piano. CD recording, 1 disc: digital, stereo, 12 cm. Virgin Classics 50999 519312 2 3. Classics 50999 519312 2 3.
ngland Virgin Classics, 2009.
* George Enescu: Octet for Strings in C major, Op. 7.
Vilde Frang
Vilde Frang Bjærke (born 19 August 1986) is a Norway, Norwegian classical music, classical violinist.
Early life and education
Born in Oslo, Norway, Frang began playing the violin by the Suzuki method at the age of four. In the years 1993–2 ...
, Erik Schumann, Gabriel Le Magadure, Rosanne Philippens, violins;
Lawrence Power
Lawrence Power is a British violist, born 1977, noted both for solo performances and for chamber music with the Nash Ensemble and Leopold String Trio.
Career
Power started out as a violist (rather than beginning studies on the violin and switc ...
, Lily Francis, violas;
Nicolas Altstaedt
Nicolas Altstaedt (born 1982) is a German classical cellist.
Biography and career
Altstaedt was born in Heidelberg, Germany. As a soloist, conductor, and artistic director, he performs repertoire spanning from early music to the contemporar ...
, Jan-Erik Gustafsson, cellos. Recorded at Schloss Elmau, Germany, October 2017. With Bela Bartok: Violin Concerto No 1 Sz.. 36, BB 48a.
Vilde Frang
Vilde Frang Bjærke (born 19 August 1986) is a Norway, Norwegian classical music, classical violinist.
Early life and education
Born in Oslo, Norway, Frang began playing the violin by the Suzuki method at the age of four. In the years 1993–2 ...
, violin;
Mikko Franck
Mikko Franck is a Finnish conductor and violinist.
Biography
Franck was born in Helsinki. He began learning the violin at the age of 5 and started violin studies at the Sibelius Academy in 1992. The Academy let Franck conduct an orchestra in 19 ...
, conductor;
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France is a French radio orchestra, affiliated with Radio France. The orchestra performs principally at the auditorium of the Maison de la Radio in Paris, along with several concerts at the Philharmonie de Pa ...
. Recorded at Auditorium de Radio France, Paris, September 2017. Warner Classics, 2018.
References
Cited sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
* Ashley, Tim. 2009.
Enescu: String Octet (orch. Foster); Violin Sonata (Virgin Classics). ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' (Thursday 12 March).
*
Calvocoressi, M. D. 1933.
Music in the Foreign Press. ''
The Musical Times
''The Musical Times'' is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom and currently the oldest such journal still being published in the country.
It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainze ...
'' 74, no. 1079 (January): 45-48.
* Malcolm, Noel. 1990. ''George Enescu: His Life and Music'', with a preface by Sir
Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name:
* Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor
** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England
** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to the v ...
. London: Toccata Press. .
*
* Șorban, Elena Maria. n.d.
Codes for Perceiving Enescu's Music for the Use of Young Audience: Applications upon the String Octet Op. 7. Academia.edu.
External links
*
/nowiki> Enescu: String Octet in C Major, Op. 7]
* ,
Janine Jansen
Janine Jansen (born 7 January 1978) is a Dutch violinist and violist.
Early life and education
Jansen was born in Soest in the Netherlands and came from a musical family. Her father plays organ, harpsichord and piano; from 1987 to mid-2011 he ...
(violin), Boris Brovtsyn (violin), Julia-Maria Kretz (violin),
Alexander Sitkovetsky
Alexander Sitkovetsky (born 1983) is a British violinist.
Biography Family
Sitkovetsky was born in Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city ...
(violin),
Amihai Grosz (viola),
Julian Rachlin
Julian Rachlin (born 8 December 1974) is a Lithuanian-born violinist, violist and conductor.
Background and early life
Born in Vilnius, he emigrated in 1978 with his musician parents to Austria. In 1983, he entered the Konservatorium Wien and st ...
(viola), Maarten Jansen (cello), (cello), 2009 recording
{{Authority control
Compositions by George Enescu
1900 compositions
Compositions for octet
Compositions in C major
Music dedicated to students or teachers