Classical Top 10

This evening I’m thinking about some of my favorite classical music. What makes the music most interesting to me is the story behind them…

1. The first piece is “Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini” by Sergi Rachmaninoff. The piece is a set of 24 variations on the twenty-fourth and last of Niccolo Paganini’s Caprices for solo violin. The piece contains three sections, each corresponding to three movements of a concerto. The 18th variation is the most prolific, and is often fractured in classical music compilations and in movies without the rest of the work (”Somewhere in Time” and “Ronin” to name a couple). This variation, on first listening doesn’t appear to contain the original theme. Rachmaninoff inverted the score of the original theme to obtain the theme for this variation. The piece is one of several by Rachmaninoff to quote the “Dies Irae” plainchant (or plain-song–a chant) melody (its believed this is a reference to the legend that Paganini sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for his violin-playing skills and the love of a woman). The 18th variation begins about 14:20 into the piece. Incidentally, “Dies Irae” is a Latin hymn describing the Day of Judgment.
2. The third movement from Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony, “Eroica.” Originally written as a tribute to Napoleon, Beethoven changed the name of the symphony to “Eroica” when he discovered what a scumbag Napoleon was. This movement is a scherzo. It’s a fast movement in 3/4 time and in this symphony essentially represents a peasant dance.
3. “The Toreador Song” from the opera “Carmen” by Georges Bizet. Where Beethoven’s 3rd is my favorite symphony, “Carmen” is my favorite opera. Carmen is a gypsy who entices a soldier, Don Jose, to help her escape imprisonment by the police guard. Although her “love” for Don Jose may have been genuine at the time, she soon grows board with the young soldier and rejects him. Later when Don Jose finds Carmen at a bullfight on the arm of Escamillo, a matador, he confronts her, and in the operas final moments, stabs her and confesses his crime. “The Toreador Song” is our introduction to Escamillo as he enters a bar. The song, in French, speaks of the thrill of the bullfight, the majesty of the matador and the honor of the bull.
4. The next piece is commonly called “The Habanera,” and is also from the opera “Carmen.” This is Carmen speaking to Don Jose and telling him the meaning of love. She says, in the first line,
   

   “L’amour est un oiseau rebelled, Que nul ne peut apprivosier, Et c’est bien en vain qu’on l’appelle, a’il lui convient de refuser.” 

   Which means, “Love is a rebellious bird that nobody can tame, and it’s all in vain to call it if it chooses to refuse.” Which, of course, foreshadows the tragic end to the opera. Teresa Berganza performs my absolute favorite rendition.

5. “Jupiter, the bringer of Jollity” from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets.” As you listen to this piece, think of every movie soundtrack you’ve ever heard. You’ll discover that all the great movie music comes from Holst. “Jupiter” was written in the early 1900’s and bears Holst’s love of English folks song and dance. I hear some “western” theme music in there somewhere (think “The Magnificent Seven”)
6. Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F” was sent into outer space on the Voyager spacecraft. Imagine an alien race that finds this unmanned spacecraft with plates depicting a human male and female and the location of earth. What will these beings think when they hear this music? This is Baroque at it’s best!
7. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s, “Eine Kline Nachtmusic” (literally, “A little night music”, or, less literally, “A little serenade”), is one of Mozart’s most popular compositions. It was written in 1787 in Vienna. The work was written for a chamber ensemble of two violins, viola, and cello with optional double bass (it is often performed today with more than one person to a part). The opening tune of the first movement is the most widely recognized.
8. The “Anvil Chorus” from Giuseppe Verdi’s, “Il Trovatore” (The Troubadour) was written in the 1850s and depicts Spanish gypsies striking their anvils at dawn and singing the praises of hard work, good wine and their gypsy women. Note the clanging anvils during the refrain of this chorus. Translated, the chorus says,
   

   See how the clouds melt away from the face of the sky when the sun shines,
   its brightness beaming;
   just as a widow, discarding her black robes,
   shows all her beauty in brilliance gleaming.
   So, to work now! Lift up your hammers!
   Who turns the gypsy’s day from gloom to brightest sunshine?
   His lovely gypsy maid!
   Fill up the goblets!
   New strength and courage flow from lusty wine to soul and body.
   See how the rays of the sun play and sparkle
   and give to our wine gay new splendor.
   So, to work now! …

9. “Bolero” by Maurice Ravel was written for a large orchestra. It premiered at the Paris Opera in 1928. The piece has a very simple structure and consists almost entirely of a single melody, repeated over and over again, orchestrated differently each time, but otherwise unchanging. It begins quietly and as the melody is passed between instruments, the accompaniment gradually becomes thicker and louder (a crescendo). I love the finale when the entire orchestra is playing.
10. Beethoven’s 6th Symphony. The first movement is my favorite, entitled, “awakening of cheerful feeling on arriving in the country.” Whereas “Eroica” fulfils the symphony’s potential for tragic poetry, the 6th symphony is a translation of peace, tranquility and serenity. Due to his growing deafness, which began in 1802, Beethoven sought refuge in nature, which certainly inspired this work. You can hear this piece in the movie “Soylent Green”…it’s playing as Edward G. Robinson dies.