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*** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAFouzo3ZHQ Symphony No.5 in E-flat major]] is the main competitor with No.2 for the title of Sibelius' most popular symphony.[[note]]It is also his only multi-movement symphony to have every movement in a major key (The first and third movements are in E-flat, while the second is in G.)[[/note]] From an opening movement that fuses sonata allegro and scherzo in a way that defies analysis to this day, to a serene slow movement framed as a set of variations, to the soaring "swan call" finale that ends with the final cadence being played as six staggered outbursts from the full orchestra, it sticks in the memory long after the final unison E-flat.[[note]]Sibelius came up with this ending while he was making his final revisions on this symphony in 1919.[[/note]]
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*** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAFouzo3ZHQ Symphony No.5 in E-flat major]] is the main competitor with No.2 for the title of Sibelius' most popular symphony.[[note]]It is also his only multi-movement symphony to have every movement in a major key (The (the first and third movements are in E-flat, while the second is in G.)[[/note]] G).[[/note]] From an opening movement that fuses sonata allegro and scherzo in a way that defies analysis to this day, to a serene slow movement framed as a set of variations, to the soaring "swan call" finale that ends with the final cadence being played as six staggered outbursts from the full orchestra, it sticks in the memory long after the final unison E-flat.[[note]]Sibelius came up with this ending while he was making his final revisions on this symphony in 1919.[[/note]]
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*** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAFouzo3ZHQ Symphony No.5 in E-flat major]] is the main competitor with No.2 for the title of Sibelius' most popular symphony.[[note]]It is also his only multi-movement symphony to have every movement in a major key.[[/note]] From an opening movement that fuses sonata allegro and scherzo in a way that defies analysis to this day, to a serene slow movement framed as a set of variations, to the soaring "swan call" finale that ends with the final cadence being played as six staggered outbursts from the full orchestra, it sticks in the memory long after the final unison E-flat.[[note]]Sibelius came up with this ending while he was making his final revisions on this symphony in 1919.[[/note]]
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*** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAFouzo3ZHQ Symphony No.5 in E-flat major]] is the main competitor with No.2 for the title of Sibelius' most popular symphony.[[note]]It is also his only multi-movement symphony to have every movement in a major key.[[/note]] key (The first and third movements are in E-flat, while the second is in G.)[[/note]] From an opening movement that fuses sonata allegro and scherzo in a way that defies analysis to this day, to a serene slow movement framed as a set of variations, to the soaring "swan call" finale that ends with the final cadence being played as six staggered outbursts from the full orchestra, it sticks in the memory long after the final unison E-flat.[[note]]Sibelius came up with this ending while he was making his final revisions on this symphony in 1919.[[/note]]
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Just adding some details about the Finale of Sibelius' Fifth Symphony.
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*** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAFouzo3ZHQ Symphony No.5 in E-flat major]] is the main competitor with No.2 for the title of Sibelius' most popular symphony.[[note]]It is also his only multi-movement symphony to have every movement in a major key.[[/note]] From an opening movement that fuses sonata allegro and scherzo in a way that defies analysis to this day, to a serene slow movement framed as a set of variations, to the soaring "swan call" finale that ends with six sudden outbursts from the full orchestra, it sticks in the memory long after the final unison E-flat.
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*** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAFouzo3ZHQ Symphony No.5 in E-flat major]] is the main competitor with No.2 for the title of Sibelius' most popular symphony.[[note]]It is also his only multi-movement symphony to have every movement in a major key.[[/note]] From an opening movement that fuses sonata allegro and scherzo in a way that defies analysis to this day, to a serene slow movement framed as a set of variations, to the soaring "swan call" finale that ends with the final cadence being played as six sudden staggered outbursts from the full orchestra, it sticks in the memory long after the final unison E-flat.[[note]]Sibelius came up with this ending while he was making his final revisions on this symphony in 1919.[[/note]]
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*** As does [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tELNcBOWoLo this comedic take]], which lampshades just how prevalent PachelbelsCanonProgression is in Western culture.
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*** As does [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tELNcBOWoLo com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM this comedic take]], which lampshades just how prevalent PachelbelsCanonProgression is in Western culture.
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Every other appearance of his name on this page spells out the umlaut. Either spelling is acceptable.
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* The music of the Second Viennese School may be very much an acquired taste (and one many listeners openly resist acquiring), as it takes a sledgehammer to traditional tonality and concepts of melody and harmony, but Alban Berg's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqSSHwFEn_8 Violin Concerto]] still stands as one of the most beloved 20th century examples of the form, straddling traditional diatonicism and the twelve-tone technique pioneered by Berg's mentor, Arnold Schönberg. Inscribed "To the memory of an angel",[[note]] The "angel" in question was Manon Gropius, daughter of Alma Schindler (whose first husband was Music/GustavMahler) and Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius, whose death from polio at the age of 18 sparked Berg into stopping work on his opera ''Lulu'' to compose the concerto. Sadly, Berg only outlived Manon by eight months; he did not live to see the concerto performed - or to finish ''Lulu''.[[/note]] its first movement opens with a slow sonata allegro and leads into a light-hearted scherzo with two trios. The second movement opens with a pseudo-cadenza of stunning virtuosity that calls on the soloist to perform such feats as left-handed pizzicato and two- or even three-voice counterpoint, but things calm down for the work's emotional heart: a chorale on the hymn "Es ist genug",[[note]] The first four notes of the opening phrase of "Es ist genug" are, not coincidentally, the top four notes of the "tone row" Berg uses as the basis for the concerto's melodic writing.[[/note]] with the clarinets at one point playing the harmonies used by [[Music/JohannSebastianBach Bach]] in his setting of the hymn in the cantata ''O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort'' (BWV 60). The hymn tune is passed to various sections of the orchestra, with the first violins eventually playing in unison with the soloist until they fall silent one by one to lead into a reverent coda, the music ultimately settling into the rising and falling perfect fifths with which it began.
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* The music of the Second Viennese School may be very much an acquired taste (and one many listeners openly resist acquiring), as it takes a sledgehammer to traditional tonality and concepts of melody and harmony, but Alban Berg's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqSSHwFEn_8 Violin Concerto]] still stands as one of the most beloved 20th century examples of the form, straddling traditional diatonicism and the twelve-tone technique pioneered by Berg's mentor, Arnold Schönberg.Schoenberg. Inscribed "To the memory of an angel",[[note]] The "angel" in question was Manon Gropius, daughter of Alma Schindler (whose first husband was Music/GustavMahler) and Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius, whose death from polio at the age of 18 sparked Berg into stopping work on his opera ''Lulu'' to compose the concerto. Sadly, Berg only outlived Manon by eight months; he did not live to see the concerto performed - or to finish ''Lulu''.[[/note]] its first movement opens with a slow sonata allegro and leads into a light-hearted scherzo with two trios. The second movement opens with a pseudo-cadenza of stunning virtuosity that calls on the soloist to perform such feats as left-handed pizzicato and two- or even three-voice counterpoint, but things calm down for the work's emotional heart: a chorale on the hymn "Es ist genug",[[note]] The first four notes of the opening phrase of "Es ist genug" are, not coincidentally, the top four notes of the "tone row" Berg uses as the basis for the concerto's melodic writing.[[/note]] with the clarinets at one point playing the harmonies used by [[Music/JohannSebastianBach Bach]] in his setting of the hymn in the cantata ''O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort'' (BWV 60). The hymn tune is passed to various sections of the orchestra, with the first violins eventually playing in unison with the soloist until they fall silent one by one to lead into a reverent coda, the music ultimately settling into the rising and falling perfect fifths with which it began.
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* The music of the Second Viennese School may be very much an acquired taste (and one many listeners openly resist acquiring), as it takes a sledgehammer to traditional tonality and concepts of melody and harmony, but Alban Berg's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqSSHwFEn_8 Violin Concerto]] still stands as one of the most beloved 20th century examples of the form, straddling traditional diatonicism and the twelve-tone technique pioneered by Berg's mentor, Arnold Schoenberg. Inscribed "To the memory of an angel",[[note]] The "angel" in question was Manon Gropius, daughter of Alma Schindler (whose first husband was Music/GustavMahler) and Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius, whose death from polio at the age of 18 sparked Berg into stopping work on his opera ''Lulu'' to compose the concerto. Sadly, Berg only outlived Manon by eight months; he did not live to see the concerto performed - or to finish ''Lulu''.[[/note]] its first movement opens with a slow sonata allegro and leads into a light-hearted scherzo with two trios. The second movement opens with a pseudo-cadenza of stunning virtuosity that calls on the soloist to perform such feats as left-handed pizzicato and two- or even three-voice counterpoint, but things calm down for the work's emotional heart: a chorale on the hymn "Es ist genug",[[note]] The first four notes of the opening phrase of "Es ist genug" are, not coincidentally, the top four notes of the "tone row" Berg uses as the basis for the concerto's melodic writing.[[/note]] with the clarinets at one point playing the harmonies used by [[Music/JohannSebastianBach Bach]] in his setting of the hymn in the cantata ''O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort'' (BWV 60). The hymn tune is passed to various sections of the orchestra, with the first violins eventually playing in unison with the soloist until they fall silent one by one to lead into a reverent coda, the music ultimately settling into the rising and falling perfect fifths with which it began.
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* The music of the Second Viennese School may be very much an acquired taste (and one many listeners openly resist acquiring), as it takes a sledgehammer to traditional tonality and concepts of melody and harmony, but Alban Berg's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqSSHwFEn_8 Violin Concerto]] still stands as one of the most beloved 20th century examples of the form, straddling traditional diatonicism and the twelve-tone technique pioneered by Berg's mentor, Arnold Schoenberg.Schönberg. Inscribed "To the memory of an angel",[[note]] The "angel" in question was Manon Gropius, daughter of Alma Schindler (whose first husband was Music/GustavMahler) and Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius, whose death from polio at the age of 18 sparked Berg into stopping work on his opera ''Lulu'' to compose the concerto. Sadly, Berg only outlived Manon by eight months; he did not live to see the concerto performed - or to finish ''Lulu''.[[/note]] its first movement opens with a slow sonata allegro and leads into a light-hearted scherzo with two trios. The second movement opens with a pseudo-cadenza of stunning virtuosity that calls on the soloist to perform such feats as left-handed pizzicato and two- or even three-voice counterpoint, but things calm down for the work's emotional heart: a chorale on the hymn "Es ist genug",[[note]] The first four notes of the opening phrase of "Es ist genug" are, not coincidentally, the top four notes of the "tone row" Berg uses as the basis for the concerto's melodic writing.[[/note]] with the clarinets at one point playing the harmonies used by [[Music/JohannSebastianBach Bach]] in his setting of the hymn in the cantata ''O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort'' (BWV 60). The hymn tune is passed to various sections of the orchestra, with the first violins eventually playing in unison with the soloist until they fall silent one by one to lead into a reverent coda, the music ultimately settling into the rising and falling perfect fifths with which it began.
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* AwesomeMusic/LouisVierne
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* Louis Vierne was one of many French organists and composers to study under Charles-Marie Widor (see corresponding entry), and while he is justly remembered as an outstandingly talented performer,[[note]] He famously suffered a fatal stroke or heart attack (eyewitness accounts disagree on which it was) while preparing for an improvised encore after a performance on the instrument with which he was most closely associated, the organ at Notre-Dame de Paris, a performance which audience members described as one of his very best.[[/note]] he also left a truly awesome body of work as a composer.
** Vierne wrote two sets of 24 pieces in all the major and minor keys for organ, reminiscent of Bach's ''The Well-Tempered Clavier''. One of the most stunning pieces from the earlier set, entitled ''Pièces en style libre'' ("Pieces in free style"), is No.21 in B-flat major, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30NDWwZlhcI Carillon de Longpont.]] The motoric ostinato which dominates the piece is based on the melody of the chapel bells from the Chateau de Longpont, and Vierne's treatment of it radiates grandeur and splendour from every note.
** Vierne's second set of 24 pieces in all the major and minor keys for organ, ''Pièces de fantaisie'', is so vast he had to publish it as four separate sets of six, every one a winner. In the first set, following the buoyant Prélude, the eerie Andantino, the unsettled Caprice, the jaunty Intermezzo, and the solemn Requiem Aeternam (the main theme of which quotes the "Dies irae" plainchant theme), the final piece is the triumphant [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6MGxWcbVH8 Marche Nuptiale,]] a recessional march that swells with pride and majesty from the opening block chords in the manuals through to the double octave triplets in the pedal in the final measures. The return of the opening melody in the pedal three-quarters of the way into the piece is especially powerful.[[note]] Although the heavy use of dissonance adds a slightly sinister edge to the piece, perhaps motivated by Vierne's own unhappy experience with the institution of marriage; his wife had an affair that produced a child, and they separated after just ten years on condition that Vierne never re-marry.[[/note]]
** The second set of ''Pièces de fantaisie'' opens with the doleful Lamento (notable for its very forward-looking harmonic language) and the graceful Sicilienne (which has a truly radiant final-measure minor-to-major transition), and also includes the serene Clair de Lune (one of the most frequently performed and recorded pieces across all four suites, it is also forward-looking in its harmonies and features two-voice counterpoint in the pedals in its centre section). The other three pieces in the set are where the true awesome appears:
*** The exuberant [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKvi9qDRnkY Hymne au Soleil]] shines every bit as brightly as the celestial body to which it pays tribute, the four-voice chords in the manuals in the outer sections filling every inch of the room (or church) with a melody that returns in glorious fashion in the piece's final third.
*** The restless [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r3TztF0KDM Feux-follets]] darts in and out, suddenly building and just as quickly cutting off, painting a compelling musical picture of the will-o'-the-wisp, lights that flicker and flash and then vanish just as swiftly as they appear, leaving us wondering if we imagined them.
*** The set finishes off with the brutal [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apVX6hgVd7s Toccata,]] the first of the ''Pièces de fantaisie'' to fall squarely under OminousPipeOrgan. Technically demanding and emotionally dark, with perpetual motion semiquavers over octave hops back and forth in the pedals, it charges along like a runaway train, retreats into the shadows for the softer yet more ominous centre section, and finally re-emerges, culminating in a dense double note passage in both hands followed by block chords over a virtuoso pedal passage, its fires burning brightly to the very end.
** In the third set of ''Pièces de fantaisie'', the first three pieces are the reverent Dédicace, the playful Impromptu (another of the most frequently performed and recorded pieces across all four suites, it has a real sense of fun even before it hops from minor to major for the coda), and the shimmering Étoile du soir. The second three pieces are where things really take off:
*** The spooky [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbzrmdpFwDw Fantômes]][[note]] Vierne expressly instructed that this piece was for concert performances only, not church services.[[/note]] opens with two heavy, dissonant chords posing the question of "the Evoker": "Who then prepares the future?" (the future of music, specifically). The bulk of the piece is a five-way attempt to answer this question. A recurring arugment sets "the Young Esthete", whose parallel octave arabesque theme states that the future is his since he is free, against "the Old Pedant", whose Gregorian chant-inspired theme claims that the future is his as he guards the traditions. They are interrupted twice, first when "the Negro" and his sprightly theme suggest that the future belongs to the dancer, and second when "the Monkey" and "the Beggar" alternately declare that future is in the hands of, respectively, fancy and misery (the latter represented by a hurdy-gurdy-like rendition of "O Sole Mio"), all while "the Evoker" repeats the question. But it is Fate itself that has the final, hushed word about the future: "It is nowhere and everywhere."
*** With the towering [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDF1NS9MiL0 Sur le Rhin,]] another sterling example of OminousPipeOrgan, Vierne pays homage to the river separating France and Germany. The outer sections feature a theme that is equal parts majestic and intimidating, and in the conclusion of the piece, it is accompanied by parallel octaves in the pedal, all building up to a spectacular block chord passage in which the minor key clouds finally part for what is easily the most transcendent major resolution of the six that appear across all four sets.[[note]] The other five - the Andantino and Requiem Aeternam from the first set, the Lamento and Sicilienne from the second set, and the Impromptu from the third set - either represent sorrowful works finding inner peace in their final measures or allow a light-hearted piece to become even more so for its conclusion.[[/note]]
*** By far the most well-known piece in the collection is the sparkling [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkUPuxnJfyk Carillon de Westminster]]. Vierne starts with [[WestminsterChimes the full set of melodies played by the famous "Big Ben" chimes]][[note]] Well, nearly; he gets the "half hour" chime slightly wrong, reversing the second and third notes of the first phrase and starting the second phrase on the dominant, not the tonic, but the difference, whether an honest mistake or a deliberate choice by Vierne (the fact that in the four appearances of the first three "quarters", he does get the two "half hour" phrases correct once each, seems to point to the latter), almost doesn't matter.[[/note]] and constructs a spectacular virtuoso toccata around it that builds to a conclusion every bit as monumental as the clock tower to which it pays homage, especially as the "hour chimes" are condensed into a twelve-note figure that booms forth from the pedal in the coda.
** The fourth set of ''Pièces de fantaisie'' gets going even sooner than the first three. After opening with the charming Aubade and the haunting Résignation, Vierne finishes off the set of twenty-four pieces in style:
*** The gargantuan [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N21ZWmCyOsk Cathédrales,]] the longest of the ''Pièces de fantaisie'' in most renditions, opens with a pedal theme that returns in the piece's climax, every bit as glorious and majestic as the cavernous interiors of Gothic cathedrals - particularly Vierne's beloved Notre Dame de Paris - to which it pays homage, ultimately giving way to a serene coda that almost functions as a benediction after all that has gone before.
*** The flighty [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-leGqzFrPpQ Naïades]] is a contender for the title of most technically demanding piece across all four sets. It features a perpetual motion triplet figure that swoops and soars, occasionally played in counterpoint with a songlike figure as the water spirits represented by the piece call out to passing sailors before swimming down below the sea's surface and then up again.
*** The sinister [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpPJSzjSJJM Gargouilles et Chimères]] pays tribute to the exterior of the Gothic cathedrals from two pieces earlier, opening with gloomy parallel chords in the manuals that mark yet another foray into OminousPipeOrgan, and featuring faster outbursts based on three melodic ideas that are as compelling as they are grotesque.
*** Though somewhat overshadowed by the other tribute to English bells, the majestic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qhEgE7-K34 Les Cloches de Hinckley]] is still a worthy finale to the massive ''Pièces de fantaisie'' collection. It takes its cue from the descending scale played by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDmxijjYThw the church bells in the village of Hinckley]] and sculpts a whirlwind of organ brilliance around it, anchored by a chorale-like melodic figure and culminating with ''28'' consecutive rapid descending scales in the right hand over block chords in the left hand and, eventually, half speed descending scales in the pedal.
** Among his organ symphonies, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r45Yrhn0P0 the first movement of his Third]], with the opening motif popping up again and again throughout, is brilliantly written to show off the instrument's range and the organist's talent,[[note]]Yes, the opening and closing is played in three-octave unison, meaning the organist is following the melodic line ''with his feet''.[[/note]] making OminousPipeOrgan a thing of beauty and majesty in and of itself.
** Vierne wrote two sets of 24 pieces in all the major and minor keys for organ, reminiscent of Bach's ''The Well-Tempered Clavier''. One of the most stunning pieces from the earlier set, entitled ''Pièces en style libre'' ("Pieces in free style"), is No.21 in B-flat major, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30NDWwZlhcI Carillon de Longpont.]] The motoric ostinato which dominates the piece is based on the melody of the chapel bells from the Chateau de Longpont, and Vierne's treatment of it radiates grandeur and splendour from every note.
** Vierne's second set of 24 pieces in all the major and minor keys for organ, ''Pièces de fantaisie'', is so vast he had to publish it as four separate sets of six, every one a winner. In the first set, following the buoyant Prélude, the eerie Andantino, the unsettled Caprice, the jaunty Intermezzo, and the solemn Requiem Aeternam (the main theme of which quotes the "Dies irae" plainchant theme), the final piece is the triumphant [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6MGxWcbVH8 Marche Nuptiale,]] a recessional march that swells with pride and majesty from the opening block chords in the manuals through to the double octave triplets in the pedal in the final measures. The return of the opening melody in the pedal three-quarters of the way into the piece is especially powerful.[[note]] Although the heavy use of dissonance adds a slightly sinister edge to the piece, perhaps motivated by Vierne's own unhappy experience with the institution of marriage; his wife had an affair that produced a child, and they separated after just ten years on condition that Vierne never re-marry.[[/note]]
** The second set of ''Pièces de fantaisie'' opens with the doleful Lamento (notable for its very forward-looking harmonic language) and the graceful Sicilienne (which has a truly radiant final-measure minor-to-major transition), and also includes the serene Clair de Lune (one of the most frequently performed and recorded pieces across all four suites, it is also forward-looking in its harmonies and features two-voice counterpoint in the pedals in its centre section). The other three pieces in the set are where the true awesome appears:
*** The exuberant [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKvi9qDRnkY Hymne au Soleil]] shines every bit as brightly as the celestial body to which it pays tribute, the four-voice chords in the manuals in the outer sections filling every inch of the room (or church) with a melody that returns in glorious fashion in the piece's final third.
*** The restless [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r3TztF0KDM Feux-follets]] darts in and out, suddenly building and just as quickly cutting off, painting a compelling musical picture of the will-o'-the-wisp, lights that flicker and flash and then vanish just as swiftly as they appear, leaving us wondering if we imagined them.
*** The set finishes off with the brutal [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apVX6hgVd7s Toccata,]] the first of the ''Pièces de fantaisie'' to fall squarely under OminousPipeOrgan. Technically demanding and emotionally dark, with perpetual motion semiquavers over octave hops back and forth in the pedals, it charges along like a runaway train, retreats into the shadows for the softer yet more ominous centre section, and finally re-emerges, culminating in a dense double note passage in both hands followed by block chords over a virtuoso pedal passage, its fires burning brightly to the very end.
** In the third set of ''Pièces de fantaisie'', the first three pieces are the reverent Dédicace, the playful Impromptu (another of the most frequently performed and recorded pieces across all four suites, it has a real sense of fun even before it hops from minor to major for the coda), and the shimmering Étoile du soir. The second three pieces are where things really take off:
*** The spooky [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbzrmdpFwDw Fantômes]][[note]] Vierne expressly instructed that this piece was for concert performances only, not church services.[[/note]] opens with two heavy, dissonant chords posing the question of "the Evoker": "Who then prepares the future?" (the future of music, specifically). The bulk of the piece is a five-way attempt to answer this question. A recurring arugment sets "the Young Esthete", whose parallel octave arabesque theme states that the future is his since he is free, against "the Old Pedant", whose Gregorian chant-inspired theme claims that the future is his as he guards the traditions. They are interrupted twice, first when "the Negro" and his sprightly theme suggest that the future belongs to the dancer, and second when "the Monkey" and "the Beggar" alternately declare that future is in the hands of, respectively, fancy and misery (the latter represented by a hurdy-gurdy-like rendition of "O Sole Mio"), all while "the Evoker" repeats the question. But it is Fate itself that has the final, hushed word about the future: "It is nowhere and everywhere."
*** With the towering [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDF1NS9MiL0 Sur le Rhin,]] another sterling example of OminousPipeOrgan, Vierne pays homage to the river separating France and Germany. The outer sections feature a theme that is equal parts majestic and intimidating, and in the conclusion of the piece, it is accompanied by parallel octaves in the pedal, all building up to a spectacular block chord passage in which the minor key clouds finally part for what is easily the most transcendent major resolution of the six that appear across all four sets.[[note]] The other five - the Andantino and Requiem Aeternam from the first set, the Lamento and Sicilienne from the second set, and the Impromptu from the third set - either represent sorrowful works finding inner peace in their final measures or allow a light-hearted piece to become even more so for its conclusion.[[/note]]
*** By far the most well-known piece in the collection is the sparkling [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkUPuxnJfyk Carillon de Westminster]]. Vierne starts with [[WestminsterChimes the full set of melodies played by the famous "Big Ben" chimes]][[note]] Well, nearly; he gets the "half hour" chime slightly wrong, reversing the second and third notes of the first phrase and starting the second phrase on the dominant, not the tonic, but the difference, whether an honest mistake or a deliberate choice by Vierne (the fact that in the four appearances of the first three "quarters", he does get the two "half hour" phrases correct once each, seems to point to the latter), almost doesn't matter.[[/note]] and constructs a spectacular virtuoso toccata around it that builds to a conclusion every bit as monumental as the clock tower to which it pays homage, especially as the "hour chimes" are condensed into a twelve-note figure that booms forth from the pedal in the coda.
** The fourth set of ''Pièces de fantaisie'' gets going even sooner than the first three. After opening with the charming Aubade and the haunting Résignation, Vierne finishes off the set of twenty-four pieces in style:
*** The gargantuan [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N21ZWmCyOsk Cathédrales,]] the longest of the ''Pièces de fantaisie'' in most renditions, opens with a pedal theme that returns in the piece's climax, every bit as glorious and majestic as the cavernous interiors of Gothic cathedrals - particularly Vierne's beloved Notre Dame de Paris - to which it pays homage, ultimately giving way to a serene coda that almost functions as a benediction after all that has gone before.
*** The flighty [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-leGqzFrPpQ Naïades]] is a contender for the title of most technically demanding piece across all four sets. It features a perpetual motion triplet figure that swoops and soars, occasionally played in counterpoint with a songlike figure as the water spirits represented by the piece call out to passing sailors before swimming down below the sea's surface and then up again.
*** The sinister [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpPJSzjSJJM Gargouilles et Chimères]] pays tribute to the exterior of the Gothic cathedrals from two pieces earlier, opening with gloomy parallel chords in the manuals that mark yet another foray into OminousPipeOrgan, and featuring faster outbursts based on three melodic ideas that are as compelling as they are grotesque.
*** Though somewhat overshadowed by the other tribute to English bells, the majestic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qhEgE7-K34 Les Cloches de Hinckley]] is still a worthy finale to the massive ''Pièces de fantaisie'' collection. It takes its cue from the descending scale played by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDmxijjYThw the church bells in the village of Hinckley]] and sculpts a whirlwind of organ brilliance around it, anchored by a chorale-like melodic figure and culminating with ''28'' consecutive rapid descending scales in the right hand over block chords in the left hand and, eventually, half speed descending scales in the pedal.
** Among his organ symphonies, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r45Yrhn0P0 the first movement of his Third]], with the opening motif popping up again and again throughout, is brilliantly written to show off the instrument's range and the organist's talent,[[note]]Yes, the opening and closing is played in three-octave unison, meaning the organist is following the melodic line ''with his feet''.[[/note]] making OminousPipeOrgan a thing of beauty and majesty in and of itself.
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* Even its fans would acknowledge that 20th century classical music is an acquired taste, but here is one 20th century piece made from purest awesome: Music/LeonardBernstein's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vgQYd-oz9Q 1st Movement]] of the ''Chichester Psalms''.
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* Even its fans would acknowledge that 20th century classical music is an acquired taste, but here is one 20th century piece made from purest awesome: Music/LeonardBernstein's that doesn't mean the work of pianist, conductor, teacher, and - most importantly for this page - composer Music/LeonardBernstein isn't awesome incarnate.
** The spellbinding [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vgQYd-oz9Q 1st Movement]] com/watch?v=srb2EyvTSGw Symphonic Dances]] from ''Theatre/WestSideStory'' are an arrangement for concert performance of nine passages from Lenny's score for said 1957 musical. The range of emotions packed into its twenty minutes includes the simmering tension of the ''Chichester Psalms''.Prologue, the optimism of "Somewhere", the playful Scherzo that builds into the sheer exhilaration of the Mambo (and yes, the orchestra really are instructed to shout "MAMBO!"), the passion of the Cha-Cha and Tony and Maria's meeting scene, the juxtaposition of the relaxed "Cool" fugue and frenzied Rumble... all building to a sombre yet hopeful finale that recalls "Somewhere" and ends by contrasting a C-flat major chord in the upper instruments against a unison F in the lower instruments, as though the peace the gangs have made is fragile and temporary.
** In 1965, Walter Hussey, the Dean of Chichester Cathedral, commissioned a choral work from Bernstein for the 1965 Southern Cathedrals Festival. The result was a piece made from purest awesome: the ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1axCTkIfP9Q Chichester Psalms]]'', a setting of six excerpts from the Book of Psalms in the original Hebrew. After a short introduction from Psalm 108 that builds in energy, we dive into the giddy, joyful first movement, a setting of Psalm 100 in 7/4 time that sounds like 4/4 time with the last half beat clipped, as though the music is so eager to get going that it keeps skipping ahead. The second movement juxtaposes a serene, solo alto-led rendition of Psalm 23 with a rumbling, bass voice-dominated "interruption" on Psalm 2; while the former seems to win out, the "interruption" keeps peeking through the final measures as a sign of internal conflict. The third movement goes from a bustling introduction to a gentle setting of Psalm 131, its 10/4 metre evoking images of swaying palms. A coda on the first verse of Psalm 133 brings back the main themes from the introduction to tie everything together in time for a reverent "Amen".
** The spellbinding [[https://www.youtube.
** In 1965, Walter Hussey, the Dean of Chichester Cathedral, commissioned a choral work from Bernstein for the 1965 Southern Cathedrals Festival. The result was a piece made from purest awesome: the ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1axCTkIfP9Q Chichester Psalms]]'', a setting of six excerpts from the Book of Psalms in the original Hebrew. After a short introduction from Psalm 108 that builds in energy, we dive into the giddy, joyful first movement, a setting of Psalm 100 in 7/4 time that sounds like 4/4 time with the last half beat clipped, as though the music is so eager to get going that it keeps skipping ahead. The second movement juxtaposes a serene, solo alto-led rendition of Psalm 23 with a rumbling, bass voice-dominated "interruption" on Psalm 2; while the former seems to win out, the "interruption" keeps peeking through the final measures as a sign of internal conflict. The third movement goes from a bustling introduction to a gentle setting of Psalm 131, its 10/4 metre evoking images of swaying palms. A coda on the first verse of Psalm 133 brings back the main themes from the introduction to tie everything together in time for a reverent "Amen".
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* Austrian-born Arnold Schoenberg is one of the most influential composers from the early 20th century, if also one of the most divisive; he founded the Second Viennese School that effectively tore down conventional tonality, melody, and harmony and replaced it with a musical language that emphasised each tone of the scale equally. His vocal-heavy ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGWai0SEpUQ A Survivor from Warsaw]]'' is a bleak piece was written in tribute to Holocaust survivors.
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* Austrian-born Arnold Schoenberg is one of the most influential composers from the early 20th century, if also one of the most divisive; he founded the Second Viennese School that School, which effectively tore down conventional tonality, melody, and harmony and replaced it them with the twelve-tone technique, a musical language that emphasised emphasises each tone of the scale equally. equally.[[note]] Strictly speaking, this approach was not completely new, having originally been codified by Schoenberg's fellow Austrian Josef Matthias Hauer in 1919, but Schoenberg is regarded as having popularised it.[[/note]]
** Even in the decades since his death, Schoenberg's iconoclastic approach to tonality has struggled to gain mainstream acceptance, which may be why his most frequently performed and recorded work is one of his earliest: the lush ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq7-VuPcA_Y Verklärte Nacht]]'', a half-hour string sextet in one movement inspired by the poem of the same name by Richard Dehmel in which a woman confesses to her lover that she is pregnant by another man.[[note]] If the music wasn't controversial enough, adapting a poem that dared not to condemn sex outside marriage was even more so.[[/note]] It places one foot in traditional tonality, recognisably moving from D minor to D major to signify the woman's lover happily accepting her pregnancy, but its advanced metric and harmonic language - including an inverted ninth chord that wasn't classified by any contemporary harmony texts, leading to a joke that it didn't even ''exist'' - makes it clear that Schoenberg had a wealth of ideas about how to move music forward from the very start.
** His vocal-heavy ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGWai0SEpUQ A Survivor from Warsaw]]'' is a bleak piece was written in tribute to Holocaust survivors.
** Even in the decades since his death, Schoenberg's iconoclastic approach to tonality has struggled to gain mainstream acceptance, which may be why his most frequently performed and recorded work is one of his earliest: the lush ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq7-VuPcA_Y Verklärte Nacht]]'', a half-hour string sextet in one movement inspired by the poem of the same name by Richard Dehmel in which a woman confesses to her lover that she is pregnant by another man.[[note]] If the music wasn't controversial enough, adapting a poem that dared not to condemn sex outside marriage was even more so.[[/note]] It places one foot in traditional tonality, recognisably moving from D minor to D major to signify the woman's lover happily accepting her pregnancy, but its advanced metric and harmonic language - including an inverted ninth chord that wasn't classified by any contemporary harmony texts, leading to a joke that it didn't even ''exist'' - makes it clear that Schoenberg had a wealth of ideas about how to move music forward from the very start.
** His vocal-heavy ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGWai0SEpUQ A Survivor from Warsaw]]'' is a bleak piece was written in tribute to Holocaust survivors.
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First, Schoenberg's name is spelled with a second E, not a U. Second, his influence goes far beyond the Second World War years. He's the oldest of the three main Second Viennese School composers, and the other two were dead by the end of the war (one didn't even live until the outbreak), so calling him one of the most influential composers of "WWII" is misleading.
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* Austrian-born Arnold Schoenburg is one of the most influential composers from the WWII period. In particular his vocal-heavy ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGWai0SEpUQ A Survivor From Warsaw]]'' is a bleak piece was written in tribute to Holocaust survivors.
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* Austrian-born Arnold Schoenburg Schoenberg is one of the most influential composers from the WWII period. In particular his early 20th century, if also one of the most divisive; he founded the Second Viennese School that effectively tore down conventional tonality, melody, and harmony and replaced it with a musical language that emphasised each tone of the scale equally. His vocal-heavy ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGWai0SEpUQ A Survivor From from Warsaw]]'' is a bleak piece was written in tribute to Holocaust survivors.
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* Austrian-born Arnold Schoenburg is one of the most influential composers from the WWII period. In particular his vocal-heavy ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGWai0SEpUQ A Survivor From Warsaw]]'' is a bleak piece was written in tribute to Holocaust survivors.
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** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRpzxKsSEZg In the Hall of the Mountain King]]. After the inexorable buildup, when the music finally swells and crashes, you can almost feel every cymbal crashing in your face. For a slightly different taste - but no less awesome by any means - the cover by the band [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGigthgbpDI Apocalyptica]] deserves a standing ovation every time.
** Grieg's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKfGDqXEFkE Piano Concerto in A minor]] is perhaps one of the most familiar concerti ever written, filled with Grieg's hallmark memorable melodies (the second movement is especially lovely). Rachmaninoff liked this piece so much he based his own first piano concerto on it (see corresponding entry).
** Grieg's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKfGDqXEFkE Piano Concerto in A minor]] is perhaps one of the most familiar concerti ever written, filled with Grieg's hallmark memorable melodies (the second movement is especially lovely). Rachmaninoff liked this piece so much he based his own first piano concerto on it (see corresponding entry).
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** Grieg's incidental soundtrack to Creator/HenrikIbsen's ''Theatre/PeerGynt'' has surpassed its source material outside Norway to become some of the most instantly recognisable classical music ever written, especially [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRpzxKsSEZg In the Hall of the Mountain King]]. After the inexorable buildup, when the music finally swells and crashes, you can almost feel every cymbal crashing in your face. For a slightly different taste - but no less awesome by any means - the cover by the band [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGigthgbpDI Apocalyptica]] deserves a standing ovation every time.
**Grieg's The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKfGDqXEFkE Piano Concerto in A minor]] is perhaps one of the most familiar concerti ever written, filled with Grieg's hallmark memorable melodies (the as he pays tribute to the piano concerto of Music/RobertSchumann in the same key. Like Schumann, Grieg opens with an attention-grabbing cascade down the piano's register, after which the orchestra and piano pass the first theme back and forth until a transitory passage leads to a more lush second movement is especially lovely). theme; the first theme rises to epic levels in the virtuosic solo cadenza. After a serene, Beethovenian slow movement, it's off to the races for the energetic finale - energy that subsides for a charming F major interlude that re-appears in A major for the majestic final pages. Rachmaninoff liked this piece Grieg's concerto so much he based his own first piano concerto on it (see corresponding entry).it.
** Grieg was first and foremost a nationalist composer, celebrating the folk music traditions of his native land, and some of the most striking examples come in the four [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ckVfgSYBdg Norwegian Dances]] for piano duet. From the furious No.1 in D minor with its relaxed centre section, to the buoyant No.2 in A major with its frenzied centre section, to the boisterous No.3 in G major with its solemn centre section, to the effusive No.4 in D major with its dignified centre section, they are four glorious homages to all things Norwegian. For added awesome, try [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax3tdHwqvvo Hans Sitt's orchestral version.]]
**
** Grieg was first and foremost a nationalist composer, celebrating the folk music traditions of his native land, and some of the most striking examples come in the four [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ckVfgSYBdg Norwegian Dances]] for piano duet. From the furious No.1 in D minor with its relaxed centre section, to the buoyant No.2 in A major with its frenzied centre section, to the boisterous No.3 in G major with its solemn centre section, to the effusive No.4 in D major with its dignified centre section, they are four glorious homages to all things Norwegian. For added awesome, try [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax3tdHwqvvo Hans Sitt's orchestral version.]]
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* Percy Grainger was born in Australia and spent the majority of his life in the United States, but he is most closely associated with his settings of English folk dances, many of which he arranged (or, to use his preferred phrase, "dished up") for anything from solo piano to wind bands to full orchestras to organ... each arrangement revealing new facets of the music.
** Whatever one may think of Morris dancing, Grainger's settings of melodies intended to accompany it are sure to put a smile on any listener's face. The sprightly [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojWtrtSSw00 "Country Gardens"]] is his most famous folk dance setting, followed closely by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uJyjkWhP5Q "Shepherd's Hey"]] (which finds time to quote "Country Gardens" near the halfway mark), both pieces conjuring up vivid musical pictures of a sunny day's drinking and dancing in a rural English village.
** Grainger was also inspired by traditional Irish music. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66wSECRpWIY "Molly on the Shore"]] is a delightfully lively setting of two reels, "Temple Hill" and "Molly on the Shore", and will leave you breathless trying to keep up. But if you want a more reverent Grainger, try his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-1Vvrgk6os "Irish Tune from County Derry",]] better known as "Danny Boy" and just as sure to make listeners misty-eyed as his folk dance settings are to make them smile.
** But Grainger didn't need existing melodies to be awesome; he could just as easily create his own. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2lCIeCbLZE "Colonial Song"]] starts with the hallowed atmosphere of "Irish Tune from County Derry" but builds in grandeur to a remarkable coda that, in the solo piano version, makes clever use of half-pedalling in the final measures. The merry [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzIJ-Ag0bto "Handel in the Strand"]] combines a melody based on Handel's "Harmonious Blacksmith" variations with an effervescent portrait of the music halls to which London's Strand was once home. And [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trNErmvQbdg "The Immovable Do"]] is more than just a wordplay-inspired title;[[note]] "Immovable Do" refers to a solfege system in which "Do" always represents a pitch of C; this contrasts with "Movable Do", in which "Do" is the tonic of the scale, as in "Doh, a Deer". In Grainger's composition, it also refers to a drone on C that sounds continuously throughout.[[/note]] the climax three-quarters of the way through is one of his most rousing musical moments.
** Whatever one may think of Morris dancing, Grainger's settings of melodies intended to accompany it are sure to put a smile on any listener's face. The sprightly [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojWtrtSSw00 "Country Gardens"]] is his most famous folk dance setting, followed closely by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uJyjkWhP5Q "Shepherd's Hey"]] (which finds time to quote "Country Gardens" near the halfway mark), both pieces conjuring up vivid musical pictures of a sunny day's drinking and dancing in a rural English village.
** Grainger was also inspired by traditional Irish music. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66wSECRpWIY "Molly on the Shore"]] is a delightfully lively setting of two reels, "Temple Hill" and "Molly on the Shore", and will leave you breathless trying to keep up. But if you want a more reverent Grainger, try his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-1Vvrgk6os "Irish Tune from County Derry",]] better known as "Danny Boy" and just as sure to make listeners misty-eyed as his folk dance settings are to make them smile.
** But Grainger didn't need existing melodies to be awesome; he could just as easily create his own. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2lCIeCbLZE "Colonial Song"]] starts with the hallowed atmosphere of "Irish Tune from County Derry" but builds in grandeur to a remarkable coda that, in the solo piano version, makes clever use of half-pedalling in the final measures. The merry [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzIJ-Ag0bto "Handel in the Strand"]] combines a melody based on Handel's "Harmonious Blacksmith" variations with an effervescent portrait of the music halls to which London's Strand was once home. And [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trNErmvQbdg "The Immovable Do"]] is more than just a wordplay-inspired title;[[note]] "Immovable Do" refers to a solfege system in which "Do" always represents a pitch of C; this contrasts with "Movable Do", in which "Do" is the tonic of the scale, as in "Doh, a Deer". In Grainger's composition, it also refers to a drone on C that sounds continuously throughout.[[/note]] the climax three-quarters of the way through is one of his most rousing musical moments.
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* Mention the name of Rome-born, London-based composer Muzio Clementi to most pianists, and they'll probably think of pieces for beginning students (the Op.36 sonatinas, especially No.1 in C major,[[note]] Which received a savage parody by Erik Satie in the ''Sonatine bureaucratique'', a musical portrait of a dull white-collar worker with copious references to, if not always direct quotes from, the Clementi sonatina.[[/note]] are often among the first multi-movement pieces piano students learn). Which is unfortunate, as his contributions to music history are many; he made numerous pioneering developments in piano-building technology, served as Music/LudwigVanBeethoven's publisher in the United Kingdom, and founded the Philharmonic Society of London (now the Royal Philharmonic Society), which commissioned Beethoven's Symphony No.9. As a composer, he is most well-known for writing over a hundred piano sonatas, and while they may not have revolutionised the form the way Beethoven's sonatas did, they are still irresistibly charming.
** Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart may have said in a letter to his father that Clementi was technically accomplished but expressively sterile, but he was clearly a fan of the extroverted [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnMFaEpfeiE Sonata in B-flat, Op.24 No.2,]] as he lifted the opening melody of the first movement for the main theme of the overture to ''Theatre/TheMagicFlute''. The appeal of Clementi's sonata continues through a dignified slow movement and a spritely finale.
** Perhaps Clementi's greatest achievement as a composer is his last piano sonata, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsO4krTdsjk Op.50 No.3 in G minor]] (''Didone abbandonata''). It stands out as his only programmatic sonata, a purely instrumental setting of Pietro Metastasio's operatic libretto about the suicide of Dido, Queen of Carthage, after her new husband, Aeneas of Troy, [[Literature/TheAeneid flees with his fellow Trojan refugees and without so much as a word of explanation or farewell.]] The music spans the range of emotions felt by Dido before her suicide, including rage, jealousy, and despair, making the listener feel every bit of her pain before she ends it all.
** Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart may have said in a letter to his father that Clementi was technically accomplished but expressively sterile, but he was clearly a fan of the extroverted [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnMFaEpfeiE Sonata in B-flat, Op.24 No.2,]] as he lifted the opening melody of the first movement for the main theme of the overture to ''Theatre/TheMagicFlute''. The appeal of Clementi's sonata continues through a dignified slow movement and a spritely finale.
** Perhaps Clementi's greatest achievement as a composer is his last piano sonata, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsO4krTdsjk Op.50 No.3 in G minor]] (''Didone abbandonata''). It stands out as his only programmatic sonata, a purely instrumental setting of Pietro Metastasio's operatic libretto about the suicide of Dido, Queen of Carthage, after her new husband, Aeneas of Troy, [[Literature/TheAeneid flees with his fellow Trojan refugees and without so much as a word of explanation or farewell.]] The music spans the range of emotions felt by Dido before her suicide, including rage, jealousy, and despair, making the listener feel every bit of her pain before she ends it all.
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** Copland's Rodeo - especially the Hoedown - is often cited as uplifting souls and generating tears.
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** Copland's Rodeo ballet ''Rodeo'' - especially the Hoedown [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsReWx9XdNs Hoedown]] - is often cited as uplifting souls and generating tears.[[note]] Although a generation of TV viewers can't help hearing "Beef - it's what's for dinner!" over the last few measures.[[/note]]
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Looks as though it's slightly favoured to write out the "oe" in Schoenberg rather than use an O with an umlaut over it - in English, anyway (I'm sure they use the umlaut in German).
* The music of the Second Viennese School may be very much an acquired taste (and one many listeners openly resist acquiring), as it takes a sledgehammer to traditional tonality and concepts of melody and harmony, but Alban Berg's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqSSHwFEn_8 Violin Concerto]] still stands as one of the most beloved 20th century examples of the form, straddling traditional diatonicism and the twelve-tone technique pioneered by Berg's mentor, Arnold Schoenberg. Inscribed "To the memory of an angel",[[note]] The "angel" in question was Manon Gropius, daughter of Alma Schindler (whose first husband was Music/GustavMahler) and Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius, whose death from polio at the age of 18 sparked Berg into stopping work on his opera ''Lulu'' to compose the concerto. Sadly, Berg only outlived Manon by eight months; he did not live to see the concerto performed - or to finish ''Lulu''.[[/note]] its first movement opens with a slow sonata allegro and leads into a light-hearted scherzo with two trios. The second movement opens with a pseudo-cadenza of stunning virtuosity that calls on the soloist to perform such feats as left-handed pizzicato and two- or even three-voice counterpoint, but things calm down for the work's emotional heart: a chorale on the hymn "Es ist genug",[[note]] The first four notes of the opening phrase of "Es ist genug" are, not coincidentally, the top four notes of the "tone row" Berg uses as the basis for the concerto's melodic writing.[[/note]] with the clarinets at one point playing the harmonies used by [[Music/JohannSebastianBach Bach]] in his setting of the hymn in the cantata ''O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort'' (BWV 60). The hymn tune is passed to various sections of the orchestra, with the first violins eventually playing in unison with the soloist until they fall silent one by one to lead into a reverent coda, the music ultimately settling into the rising and falling perfect fifths with which it began.
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* Alexander Scriabin is in a class apart among his contemporaries. In his youth, he composed in a Romantic vein inspired by Chopin and Liszt, but by the end of his short life, he was writing dissonant, atonal music closer in spirit to Schönberg. He was guided by his keen synaesthesia, which caused him to associate the tones of the scale to colours, so that in his mind, a musical composition doubled as a work of visual art.[[note]] Scriabin's diagnosis as a synaesthete has been called into question by later researchers.[[/note]]
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* Alexander Scriabin is in a class apart among his contemporaries. In his youth, he composed in a Romantic vein inspired by Chopin and Liszt, but by the end of his short life, he was writing dissonant, atonal music closer in spirit to Schönberg.Schoenberg. He was guided by his keen synaesthesia, which caused him to associate the tones of the scale to colours, so that in his mind, a musical composition doubled as a work of visual art.[[note]] Scriabin's diagnosis as a synaesthete has been called into question by later researchers.[[/note]]
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* Flemish composer Johannes Ockeghem's ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPBxSbM9cSo Missa prolationum]]'' is one of the masterpieces of late 1400s polyphony, consisting almost entirely of progressive canons, starting with the voices pairing off to sing unison mensuration canons (in which the voices sing the same melody, but in different time signatures, so that they get further out of time with each other as the music unfolds), then gradually widening the interval between the voices by one step per movement, until they are separated by an octave by the "Osanna" in the Sanctus. Even more remarkably, he notated the canons by writing out the melodies ''once'' and using the relative positions of the C clefs to indicate which voice started on which note, and different time signatures to indicate which voice sang at which speed. And it isn't just an intricately-constructed contrapuntal tapestry; the melodies, which are all believed to be Ockeghem's own (departing from the usual practice of using Gregorian chant or secular melodies as the foundation of counterpoint), are absolute delights that are sure to carry the listener to realms of pure bliss.
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"Best known" is an exaggeration. And saying "'Organ' symphony" is a misnomer is inaccurate.
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** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWCZq33BrOo Symphony No. 3 in C minor]], best known as the ending theme in ''Film/{{Babe}}'' and commonly referred to as the "Organ" symphony because it uses that instrument.[[note]]This is a misnomer however, since it is a symphony ''with'' an organ, not a symphony ''for'' an organ.[[/note]] The most awesome moment is the entrance of the organ in the second half of the second (and final) movement, going from near silence in the orchestra to the full organ in an instant; it also marks the point where the music shifts to C major.
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** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWCZq33BrOo Symphony No. 3 in C minor]], best known as the ending theme in ''Film/{{Babe}}'' and commonly referred to as the "Organ" symphony because it uses that instrument.[[note]]This is a misnomer however, since it is a symphony ''with'' an organ, not [[note]]Although the term "organ symphony" usually refers to a symphony ''for'' an organ rather than ''with'' an organ.[[/note]] The most awesome moment is the entrance of the organ in the second half of the second (and final) movement, going from near silence in the orchestra to the full organ in an instant; it also marks the point where the music shifts to C major. It was memorably used as the ending theme in ''Film/{{Babe}}''.
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** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWCZq33BrOo Symphony No. 3 in C minor]], commonly referred to as the "Organ" symphony because it uses that instrument.[[note]]This is a misnomer however, since it is a symphony ''with'' an organ, not a symphony ''for'' an organ.[[/note]] The most awesome moment is the entrance of the organ in the second half of the second (and final) movement, going from near silence in the orchestra to the full organ in an instant; it also marks the point where the music shifts to C major.
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** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWCZq33BrOo Symphony No. 3 in C minor]], best known as the ending theme in ''Film/{{Babe}}'' and commonly referred to as the "Organ" symphony because it uses that instrument.[[note]]This is a misnomer however, since it is a symphony ''with'' an organ, not a symphony ''for'' an organ.[[/note]] The most awesome moment is the entrance of the organ in the second half of the second (and final) movement, going from near silence in the orchestra to the full organ in an instant; it also marks the point where the music shifts to C major.
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** By far Dukas' most well-known and beloved composition is his musical interpretation of Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe's poem ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNaNDXyXRFo L'apprenti sorcier]]'' ("The Sorcerer's Apprentice"), a piece that was a hit with audiences even before being immortalised forty years later in the third segment of Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}'' with WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse in the title role. From the haunting opening measures, to the immediately hummable theme as the apprentice brings the broom to life, to the orchestral frenzy as he is then forced to splinter the broom with an axe - only to create hundreds of brooms that cause the music's energy to build even higher, to the outburst of the final measures, it sticks in the memory even without the animated accompaniment.
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** By far Dukas' most well-known and beloved composition is his musical interpretation of Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe's poem ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNaNDXyXRFo L'apprenti sorcier]]'' ("The Sorcerer's Apprentice"), a piece that was a hit with audiences even before being immortalised forty years later in the third segment of Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}'' ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'' with WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse in the title role. From the haunting opening measures, to the immediately hummable theme as the apprentice brings the broom to life, to the orchestral frenzy as he is then forced to splinter the broom with an axe - only to create hundreds of brooms that cause the music's energy to build even higher, to the outburst of the final measures, it sticks in the memory even without the animated accompaniment.
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** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5pnoSgIuVo Night on Bald Mountain]]", used for a memorable (if nightmare-inducing) segment of the original ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}''. There's also the even rarer [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqNzOG34fKQ original version]] that included the operatic vocals and it actually sounds even better.
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** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5pnoSgIuVo Night on Bald Mountain]]", used for a memorable (if nightmare-inducing) segment of the original ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}''.''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}''. There's also the even rarer [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqNzOG34fKQ original version]] that included the operatic vocals and it actually sounds even better.
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* Respighi's ''Pini di Roma'' - so awesome, it influenced Music/JohnWilliams (and even more awesome when it accompanies [[Disney/{{Fantasia}} humpback whales flying into the Aurora Borealis]]). Of special note is the final movement, [[http://youtu.be/TQwGTe_MueM "I pini della Via Appia" (The Pines of Appian Way)]], which has been described as follows:
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* Respighi's ''Pini di Roma'' - so awesome, it influenced Music/JohnWilliams (and even more awesome when it accompanies [[Disney/{{Fantasia}} [[WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}} humpback whales flying into the Aurora Borealis]]). Of special note is the final movement, [[http://youtu.be/TQwGTe_MueM "I pini della Via Appia" (The Pines of Appian Way)]], which has been described as follows:
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** ''Theatre/TheRiteOfSpring'' shocked its first audiences with its [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooi7eomsTuc musically violent depiction]] of a VirginSacrifice. It's now regarded as one of the greatest works of its era, and rightly so. Creator/WaltDisney liked it so much he made it the only work by a living composer to be incorporated into ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}''.[[note]] Though Stravinsky did not approve of how the music was used.[[/note]]
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** ''Theatre/TheRiteOfSpring'' shocked its first audiences with its [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooi7eomsTuc musically violent depiction]] of a VirginSacrifice. It's now regarded as one of the greatest works of its era, and rightly so. Creator/WaltDisney liked it so much he made it the only work by a living composer to be incorporated into ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}''.''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}''.[[note]] Though Stravinsky did not approve of how the music was used.[[/note]]
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And don't link to the Awesome Music/ subpage. Link to the main creator page.
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* While AwesomeMusic/JohnWilliams got his start in film scores, during the 21st century he branched into concert pieces. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2E-PHhxtYg Highwood's Ghost: An Encounter for Cello, Harp, and Orchestra]] is a haunting piece that makes you feel uneasy and yet enthralled.
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* While AwesomeMusic/JohnWilliams Music/JohnWilliams got his start in film scores, during the 21st century he branched into concert pieces. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2E-PHhxtYg Highwood's Ghost: An Encounter for Cello, Harp, and Orchestra]] is a haunting piece that makes you feel uneasy and yet enthralled.
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* While AwesomeMusic/JohnWilliams got his start in film scores, during the 21st century he branched into concert pieces.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2E-PHhxtYg Highwood's Ghost: An Encounter for Cello, Harp, and Orchestra]] is a haunting piece that makes you feel uneasy and yet enthralled.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2E-PHhxtYg Highwood's Ghost: An Encounter for Cello, Harp, and Orchestra]] is a haunting piece that makes you feel uneasy and yet enthralled.
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* While AwesomeMusic/JohnWilliams got his start in film scores, during the 21st century he branched into concert pieces.
**pieces. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2E-PHhxtYg Highwood's Ghost: An Encounter for Cello, Harp, and Orchestra]] is a haunting piece that makes you feel uneasy and yet enthralled.
**
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** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2E-PHhxtYg Highwood's Ghost: An Encounter for Cello, Harp, and Orchestra]] is a haunting piece that makes you feel haunted.
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** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2E-PHhxtYg Highwood's Ghost: An Encounter for Cello, Harp, and Orchestra]] is a haunting piece that makes you feel haunted.uneasy and yet enthralled.
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* While AwesomeMusic/JohnWilliams got his start in film scores, during the 21st century he branched into concert pieces.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2E-PHhxtYg Highwood's Ghost: An Encounter for Cello, Harp, and Orchestra]] is a haunting piece that makes you feel haunted.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2E-PHhxtYg Highwood's Ghost: An Encounter for Cello, Harp, and Orchestra]] is a haunting piece that makes you feel haunted.
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* Alexander Scriabin is in a class apart among his contemporaries. In his youth, he composed in a Romantic vein inspired by Chopin and Liszt, but by the end of his short life, he was writing dissonant, atonal music closer in spirit to Schönberg. He was guided by his keen synaesthesia, which caused him to associate the tones of the scale to colours, so that in his mind, a musical composition doubled as a work of visual art.[[note]] Scriabin's diagnosis as a synaesthete has been called into question by later researchers.[[/note]]
** Among Scriabin's early piano works, one of the most frequently performed is the technically brutal [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7SW49y4WQE Etude in D-sharp minor, Op.8 No.12,]] a frenzy of double octaves, repeated notes, stretches of up to a perfect eleventh, and acrobatic leaps in both hands. It was one of Russian virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ClDFmFmr0k favourite encores,]] and his performance must be seen, as well as heard, to be believed.
** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAnVrdQ3qFk The Poem of Ecstasy]]'', described by the author Henry Miller as "like a bath of ice, cocaine, and rainbows", stands at the border between "middle Scriabin" and "late Scriabin". Although this paean to the creative spirit and its place in the cosmos follows a traditional sonata form outline, it takes a bolder approach to harmony based around whole tone scales, allowing Scriabin to cloud the listener's sense of tonality. The climactic final C major chord, for which the orchestra is joined by organ and low bells, may go on for over 15 seconds in many performances and recordings, but such a transcendent buildup requires something unique as a resolution, and Scriabin more than delivers.
** Scriabin's synaesthetic approach to music receives its most intense realisation with ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GEwho6Dbnc Prometheus: The Poem of Fire]]'', the score of which includes instructions for lights of various colours to fill the performance space as the piece unfolds courtesy of an instrument of his own design called the ''clavier à lumières'', a keyboard that projects coloured light according to the notes that are played.[[note]] The ''clavier à lumières'' has been only very occasionally used in performances of the work, with many different approaches taken to the integration of coloured lights with the music over the years.[[/note]] The music itself, which is only loosely inspired by the myth of Prometheus, is a stellar example of Scriabin's later, dissonant style, with the only conventionally tonal moment coming with the final F-sharp major chord for piano and full orchestra.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj1luIOQHLw Piano Sonata No.9]] (''Black Mass'')[[note]] Scriabin did not confer this nickname (a counterpoint to Sonata No.7, which he called ''White Mass''), but he approved of it.[[/note]] exemplifies the atonal style of Scriabin's final years, its heavy use of chromaticism and minor ninths creating a sense of unease from the very opening measures. The piece builds in intensity and menace until it climaxes with a grotesque march, then recedes back into the shadows whence it emerged.
** Among Scriabin's early piano works, one of the most frequently performed is the technically brutal [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7SW49y4WQE Etude in D-sharp minor, Op.8 No.12,]] a frenzy of double octaves, repeated notes, stretches of up to a perfect eleventh, and acrobatic leaps in both hands. It was one of Russian virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ClDFmFmr0k favourite encores,]] and his performance must be seen, as well as heard, to be believed.
** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAnVrdQ3qFk The Poem of Ecstasy]]'', described by the author Henry Miller as "like a bath of ice, cocaine, and rainbows", stands at the border between "middle Scriabin" and "late Scriabin". Although this paean to the creative spirit and its place in the cosmos follows a traditional sonata form outline, it takes a bolder approach to harmony based around whole tone scales, allowing Scriabin to cloud the listener's sense of tonality. The climactic final C major chord, for which the orchestra is joined by organ and low bells, may go on for over 15 seconds in many performances and recordings, but such a transcendent buildup requires something unique as a resolution, and Scriabin more than delivers.
** Scriabin's synaesthetic approach to music receives its most intense realisation with ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GEwho6Dbnc Prometheus: The Poem of Fire]]'', the score of which includes instructions for lights of various colours to fill the performance space as the piece unfolds courtesy of an instrument of his own design called the ''clavier à lumières'', a keyboard that projects coloured light according to the notes that are played.[[note]] The ''clavier à lumières'' has been only very occasionally used in performances of the work, with many different approaches taken to the integration of coloured lights with the music over the years.[[/note]] The music itself, which is only loosely inspired by the myth of Prometheus, is a stellar example of Scriabin's later, dissonant style, with the only conventionally tonal moment coming with the final F-sharp major chord for piano and full orchestra.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj1luIOQHLw Piano Sonata No.9]] (''Black Mass'')[[note]] Scriabin did not confer this nickname (a counterpoint to Sonata No.7, which he called ''White Mass''), but he approved of it.[[/note]] exemplifies the atonal style of Scriabin's final years, its heavy use of chromaticism and minor ninths creating a sense of unease from the very opening measures. The piece builds in intensity and menace until it climaxes with a grotesque march, then recedes back into the shadows whence it emerged.
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*** But Biber saves the best for last with a passacaglia that marks one of the seminal moments in solo violin repertoire (it is sometimes claimed to be the first solo violin composition). The ground bass, a simple four-note descending scalar figure from the first line of a hymn to the Guardian Angel, provides the foundation for an extraordinary contrapuntal masterpiece that calls upon every bit of technical and interpretive skill the violinist possesses, building to a triumphant final shift from G minor to G major.
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*** But Biber saves the best for last with a passacaglia that marks one of the seminal moments in solo violin repertoire (it is sometimes claimed to be the first solo violin composition). The ground bass, a simple four-note descending scalar figure from the first line of a hymn to the Guardian Angel, provides the foundation for an extraordinary contrapuntal masterpiece that calls upon every bit of technical and interpretive skill the violinist possesses, building to a triumphant radiant final shift from G minor to G major.
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* Bohemian composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber was widely regarded as the greatest violin virtuoso of the middle Baroque era, experimenting with techniques that are now routine but were at the time revolutionary, such as moving the fingers as high as the sixth or seventh position, playing two-voice counterpoint using double stops, and ''scordatura'', the practice of tuning the strings to pitches other than the standard G-D-A-E. The music he wrote to perform himself is packed with awesome, but he was far from a one-trick composer who only composed for violin.
** The most celebrated of Biber's violin compositions are the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XckvLWrXc3w Rosary Sonatas,]] a collection of fifteen sonatas for violin and basso continuo, one for each of the Christian Mysteries, and a passacaglia for solo violin to round things off. The sonatas are meditative rather than programmatic, but not without exception, and they represent the apex of Biber's use of ''scordatura'', with no two sonatas tuning the strings the same way.[[note]] Unless one counts the passacaglia, which shares the standard tuning with the first sonata.[[/note]] The alternate tunings are used more for the effect looser and tighter strings have on the violin's timbre than for the additional harmonic possibilities (which Biber merely saw as a nice bonus), and they add an extra dimension of challenge to simply reading the score,[[note]] ''Scordatura'' is typically notated as if the strings were conventionally tuned, so that the notes on the printed page are not what the performer and listener will hear.[[/note]] never mind the vast technical demands involved in performing it.
*** Among the sonatas for the five Joyful Mysteries, the high point is the single-movement Sonata IV ("The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple"), an elaborate Chaconne over a bass ostinato with a solo part full of ebb and flow that requires considerable technical and emotional skill to successfully perform.
*** Highlights from the sonatas for the five Sorrowful Mysteries include some of the most vividly programmatic moments in the cycle, including percussive outbursts in Sonata VII ("The Scourging at the Pillar") representing the whip hitting Jesus' body before the Crucifixion, and strident chords and tremolos in Sonata X ("The Crucifixion") as Jesus is nailed to the Cross and Jerusalem is rocked by an earthquake at the moment of His death. However, the less resonant ''scordatura'' for these sonatas keeps the atmosphere subdued, reminding us that the sonatas are intended as contemplative first, programmatic second.
** The most celebrated of Biber's violin compositions are the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XckvLWrXc3w Rosary Sonatas,]] a collection of fifteen sonatas for violin and basso continuo, one for each of the Christian Mysteries, and a passacaglia for solo violin to round things off. The sonatas are meditative rather than programmatic, but not without exception, and they represent the apex of Biber's use of ''scordatura'', with no two sonatas tuning the strings the same way.[[note]] Unless one counts the passacaglia, which shares the standard tuning with the first sonata.[[/note]] The alternate tunings are used more for the effect looser and tighter strings have on the violin's timbre than for the additional harmonic possibilities (which Biber merely saw as a nice bonus), and they add an extra dimension of challenge to simply reading the score,[[note]] ''Scordatura'' is typically notated as if the strings were conventionally tuned, so that the notes on the printed page are not what the performer and listener will hear.[[/note]] never mind the vast technical demands involved in performing it.
*** Among the sonatas for the five Joyful Mysteries, the high point is the single-movement Sonata IV ("The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple"), an elaborate Chaconne over a bass ostinato with a solo part full of ebb and flow that requires considerable technical and emotional skill to successfully perform.
*** Highlights from the sonatas for the five Sorrowful Mysteries include some of the most vividly programmatic moments in the cycle, including percussive outbursts in Sonata VII ("The Scourging at the Pillar") representing the whip hitting Jesus' body before the Crucifixion, and strident chords and tremolos in Sonata X ("The Crucifixion") as Jesus is nailed to the Cross and Jerusalem is rocked by an earthquake at the moment of His death. However, the less resonant ''scordatura'' for these sonatas keeps the atmosphere subdued, reminding us that the sonatas are intended as contemplative first, programmatic second.
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* Bohemian composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber was widely regarded as the greatest violin virtuoso of the middle Baroque era, experimenting with techniques that are now routine but were at the time revolutionary, such as moving the fingers as high as the sixth or seventh position, playing two-voice counterpoint using double multiple stops, and ''scordatura'', the practice of tuning the strings to pitches other than the standard G-D-A-E. The music he wrote to perform himself is packed with awesome, but he was far from a one-trick composer who only composed for violin.
** The most celebrated of Biber's violin compositions are the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XckvLWrXc3w Rosary Sonatas,]] a collection of fifteen sonatas for violin and basso continuo, one for each of the Christian Mysteries, and a passacaglia for solo violin to round things off. The sonatas are meditative rather than programmatic, but not without exception, and they represent the apex of Biber's use of ''scordatura'', with no two sonatas tuning the strings the same way.[[note]]Unless one counts The first sonata and the passacaglia, which shares passacaglia are the only pieces in the set to use standard tuning with the first sonata.tuning.[[/note]] The alternate tunings are used more for the effect looser and tighter strings have on the violin's timbre than for the additional harmonic possibilities (which Biber merely saw as a nice bonus), and they add an extra dimension of challenge to simply reading the score,[[note]] ''Scordatura'' is typically notated as if the strings were conventionally tuned, so that the notes on the printed page are not what the performer and listener will hear.[[/note]] never mind the vast technical demands involved in performing it.
***Among High points from the the sonatas for the five Joyful Mysteries, Mysteries include the high point is feather light passagework in Sonata I ("The Annunciation") depicting the rustling of Gabriel's wings as he appears to Mary, and the single-movement Sonata IV ("The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple"), an elaborate Chaconne over a bass ostinato with a solo part full of ebb and flow that requires considerable absolute technical and emotional skill mastery to successfully perform.
***Highlights from the The sonatas for the five Sorrowful Mysteries use less resonant ''scordatura'' tunings to keep the atmosphere subdued; the effect is particularly powerful in Sonata VI ("Christ on the Mount of Olives") as it creates a suitably reverent mood for Jesus' prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane. These sonatas also include some of the most vividly programmatic moments in the cycle, including percussive outbursts in Sonata VII ("The Scourging at the Pillar") representing the whip hitting Jesus' body before the Crucifixion, body, and strident chords and tremolos in Sonata X ("The Crucifixion") as Jesus is nailed to the Cross and Jerusalem is rocked by an earthquake at the moment of His death. However, the less resonant ''scordatura'' for these sonatas keeps the atmosphere subdued, reminding us that the sonatas are intended as contemplative first, programmatic second.death.
** The most celebrated of Biber's violin compositions are the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XckvLWrXc3w Rosary Sonatas,]] a collection of fifteen sonatas for violin and basso continuo, one for each of the Christian Mysteries, and a passacaglia for solo violin to round things off. The sonatas are meditative rather than programmatic, but not without exception, and they represent the apex of Biber's use of ''scordatura'', with no two sonatas tuning the strings the same way.[[note]]
***
***
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* Bohemian composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber was widely regarded as the greatest violin virtuoso of the middle Baroque era, experimenting with techniques that are now routine but were at the time revolutionary, such as moving the fingers as high as the sixth or seventh position, playing two-voice counterpoint using double stops, and ''scordatura'', the practice of tuning the strings to pitches other than the standard G-D-A-E. The music he wrote to perform himself is packed with awesome, but he was far from a one-trick composer who only composed for violin.
** The most celebrated of Biber's violin compositions are the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XckvLWrXc3w Rosary Sonatas,]] a collection of fifteen sonatas for violin and basso continuo, one for each of the Christian Mysteries, and a passacaglia for solo violin to round things off. The sonatas are meditative rather than programmatic, but not without exception, and they represent the apex of Biber's use of ''scordatura'', with no two sonatas tuning the strings the same way.[[note]] Unless one counts the passacaglia, which shares the standard tuning with the first sonata.[[/note]] The alternate tunings are used more for the effect looser and tighter strings have on the violin's timbre than for the additional harmonic possibilities (which Biber merely saw as a nice bonus), and they add an extra dimension of challenge to simply reading the score,[[note]] ''Scordatura'' is typically notated as if the strings were conventionally tuned, so that the notes on the printed page are not what the performer and listener will hear.[[/note]] never mind the vast technical demands involved in performing it.
*** Among the sonatas for the five Joyful Mysteries, the high point is the single-movement Sonata IV ("The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple"), an elaborate Chaconne over a bass ostinato with a solo part full of ebb and flow that requires considerable technical and emotional skill to successfully perform.
*** Highlights from the sonatas for the five Sorrowful Mysteries include some of the most vividly programmatic moments in the cycle, including percussive outbursts in Sonata VII ("The Scourging at the Pillar") representing the whip hitting Jesus' body before the Crucifixion, and strident chords and tremolos in Sonata X ("The Crucifixion") as Jesus is nailed to the Cross and Jerusalem is rocked by an earthquake at the moment of His death. However, the less resonant ''scordatura'' for these sonatas keeps the atmosphere subdued, reminding us that the sonatas are intended as contemplative first, programmatic second.
*** The sonatas for the five Glorious Mysteries open with Biber's most remarkable use of ''scordatura''; in Sonata XI ("The Resurrection"), the centrepiece of which is a jubliant setting of the hymn "Surrexit Christus hodie", the two middle strings (usually tuned to D and A) are swapped to create not just the visual image of crossed strings below the violin's bridge, but a sonority almost unique in the history of violin music. The aria and variations in Sonata XIV ("The Assumption of the Virgin") offer another stellar example of Biber's mastery of the possibilities of a ground bass.
*** But Biber saves the best for last with a passacaglia that marks one of the seminal moments in solo violin repertoire (it is sometimes claimed to be the first solo violin composition). The ground bass, a simple four-note descending scalar figure from the first line of a hymn to the Guardian Angel, provides the foundation for an extraordinary contrapuntal masterpiece that calls upon every bit of technical and interpretive skill the violinist possesses, building to a triumphant final shift from G minor to G major.
** Among Biber's surviving vocal works, the most jaw-droppingly awesome is the ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IWpwbw6-So Missa Salisburgnensis]]'', a gargantuan setting of the Latin Mass in which Biber took full advantage of the multiple organs and possible locations for choirs and orchestras in Salzburg's cathedral. The work is scored for ''two'' eight-voice choirs, two groups of two violins and four violas, a woodwind section of four recorders, two oboes, and two clarions, two groups of four trumpets and a set of timpani, an additional brass section of two cornets and three trombones, and ''two'' organs and basso continuo for a total of ''53'' "voices".[[note]] This makes it an example of the "Colossal Baroque", an artistic movement that is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.[[/note]] Any live performance is guaranteed to be a musical and spiritual experience unlike any other.
** The most celebrated of Biber's violin compositions are the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XckvLWrXc3w Rosary Sonatas,]] a collection of fifteen sonatas for violin and basso continuo, one for each of the Christian Mysteries, and a passacaglia for solo violin to round things off. The sonatas are meditative rather than programmatic, but not without exception, and they represent the apex of Biber's use of ''scordatura'', with no two sonatas tuning the strings the same way.[[note]] Unless one counts the passacaglia, which shares the standard tuning with the first sonata.[[/note]] The alternate tunings are used more for the effect looser and tighter strings have on the violin's timbre than for the additional harmonic possibilities (which Biber merely saw as a nice bonus), and they add an extra dimension of challenge to simply reading the score,[[note]] ''Scordatura'' is typically notated as if the strings were conventionally tuned, so that the notes on the printed page are not what the performer and listener will hear.[[/note]] never mind the vast technical demands involved in performing it.
*** Among the sonatas for the five Joyful Mysteries, the high point is the single-movement Sonata IV ("The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple"), an elaborate Chaconne over a bass ostinato with a solo part full of ebb and flow that requires considerable technical and emotional skill to successfully perform.
*** Highlights from the sonatas for the five Sorrowful Mysteries include some of the most vividly programmatic moments in the cycle, including percussive outbursts in Sonata VII ("The Scourging at the Pillar") representing the whip hitting Jesus' body before the Crucifixion, and strident chords and tremolos in Sonata X ("The Crucifixion") as Jesus is nailed to the Cross and Jerusalem is rocked by an earthquake at the moment of His death. However, the less resonant ''scordatura'' for these sonatas keeps the atmosphere subdued, reminding us that the sonatas are intended as contemplative first, programmatic second.
*** The sonatas for the five Glorious Mysteries open with Biber's most remarkable use of ''scordatura''; in Sonata XI ("The Resurrection"), the centrepiece of which is a jubliant setting of the hymn "Surrexit Christus hodie", the two middle strings (usually tuned to D and A) are swapped to create not just the visual image of crossed strings below the violin's bridge, but a sonority almost unique in the history of violin music. The aria and variations in Sonata XIV ("The Assumption of the Virgin") offer another stellar example of Biber's mastery of the possibilities of a ground bass.
*** But Biber saves the best for last with a passacaglia that marks one of the seminal moments in solo violin repertoire (it is sometimes claimed to be the first solo violin composition). The ground bass, a simple four-note descending scalar figure from the first line of a hymn to the Guardian Angel, provides the foundation for an extraordinary contrapuntal masterpiece that calls upon every bit of technical and interpretive skill the violinist possesses, building to a triumphant final shift from G minor to G major.
** Among Biber's surviving vocal works, the most jaw-droppingly awesome is the ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IWpwbw6-So Missa Salisburgnensis]]'', a gargantuan setting of the Latin Mass in which Biber took full advantage of the multiple organs and possible locations for choirs and orchestras in Salzburg's cathedral. The work is scored for ''two'' eight-voice choirs, two groups of two violins and four violas, a woodwind section of four recorders, two oboes, and two clarions, two groups of four trumpets and a set of timpani, an additional brass section of two cornets and three trombones, and ''two'' organs and basso continuo for a total of ''53'' "voices".[[note]] This makes it an example of the "Colossal Baroque", an artistic movement that is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.[[/note]] Any live performance is guaranteed to be a musical and spiritual experience unlike any other.
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Here's a less zero-context entry on Ligeti.
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* Gyorgi Ligeti's "Atmospheres" is a haunting tune used as the overture in ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''.
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* Gyorgi Hungarian-American composer György Ligeti is one of the most fascinatingly avant-garde composers of the second half of the twentieth century, with his techniques of "micropolyphony" (in which individual ''members'', rather than sections, of an orchestra or choir have their own melodic lines) creating walls of sound in which melody, harmony, and rhythm dissipate so that shifts in timbre carry the music as different performers enter and exit.
** The haunting orchestral work ''Atmosphères'' is one of Ligeti's"Atmospheres" is a haunting tune used most enduring compositions thanks to its use as the overture in ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''.''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', and it represents one of the high points of his use of micropolyphony and varying timbre for musical effect. You may not find yourself humming it, as there's no melody to hum, but it never quite leaves you.
** If you'd rather listen to something more transparent, try [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6LmG9myHxA "The Devil's Staircase",]] the thirteenth entry in Ligeti's second book of piano études. It is effectively a musical equivalent of Creator/MCEscher's ''[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/66/Ascending_and_Descending.jpg Ascending and Descending]]'', rising higher and higher and yet turning in circles at the same time, until the person running up the endless staircase finally collapses from exhaustion.
** The haunting orchestral work ''Atmosphères'' is one of Ligeti's
** If you'd rather listen to something more transparent, try [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6LmG9myHxA "The Devil's Staircase",]] the thirteenth entry in Ligeti's second book of piano études. It is effectively a musical equivalent of Creator/MCEscher's ''[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/66/Ascending_and_Descending.jpg Ascending and Descending]]'', rising higher and higher and yet turning in circles at the same time, until the person running up the endless staircase finally collapses from exhaustion.
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Leaving aside the fact that this example skirts zero-context, non-generic titles go in quotes, film titles go in italics, and if the film has a page, which this one does, link to it.
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* Gyorgi Ligeti's Atmospheres is a haunting tune used as the overture in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
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* Gyorgi Ligeti's Atmospheres "Atmospheres" is a haunting tune used as the overture in 2001: A Space Odyssey.''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''.
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* Gyorgi Ligeti's Atmospheres is a haunting tune used as the overture in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
