Encore Livestream: Kodaly & Schubert - Listen Notes - Experienced Listener

ZOLTÁN KODÁLY
(1882 – 1967)
COMPOSER PROFILE
• Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, music
educator and linguist
• Played a prominent role in Hungarian public life, held
several public posts and was a member or head of
numerous boards and committees
• Much of the music he composed was based on folksongs
he collected on his travels around Hungary
• He formed the ethnomusicological branch of the
Hungarian Academy of Arts and Sciences
THE DANCES OF GALÁNTA
Inspired by his pleasant childhood experiences, Kodály
returned to Galánta as an adult in 1905 and transcribed
at least 150 melodies from the region. These songs,
together with an album of old Hungarian folk music that
was compiled in the 1800s, comprise the main source
material for the Dances of Galánta. They were written as
a follow-up to the successful Dances of Marosszék of a
year before, which were composed initially for piano and
then orchestrated.
On one level, the Dances of Galánta are a medley of folk
tunes, skilfully wrought into a suite lasting around 15
minutes, making it the perfect filler for a typical concert
programme. On another, more symbolic level, they form
a symphonic poem celebrating the resurgence of a
Hungarian nation after years of Austrian oppression.
The Dances of Galánta unfolds in five sections. In its length
and breadth (typically a quarter of an hour in performance),
the suite could be compared to a brief symphony of the
Classical era. In capturing and transmuting ethnographic
musical sources, “dances” such as these are not always for
dancing; instead, we can listen as we would to the dances
of a concerto grosso that come together in a well-paced
suite of movements.
The music is episodic, sometimes in ternary form but also
adding short new episodes. As with any folk music, there
is much repetition of melodic and rhythmic ideas and the
main solos are given to the violin or clarinet/tárogató. As a
device to build tension, the violins often play busy stepwise
semiquavers over a pedal point. Syncopated rhythms
are common in the faster dances, with the ‘short-longshort’
figure being a favourite. Dramatic dynamic contrast
features often in the first sections.
DID YOU KNOW?
A typical Google search for ‘Kodály’ will yield the top
results for him as an educator, not a composer. He is often
referred to as the most important and influential music
educationalist of the 20th century.
OTHER FOLK INSPIRED MUSIC
YOU MIGHT ENJOY:
Aaron Copland excerpts from Rodeo (Western folk tunes)
Frederic Chopin various mazurkas (Polish folk dances)
Bela Bartok Three Rondos or excerpts from 15 Hungarian
Peasant Songs
A common misunderstanding is to attribute Kodály with the
creation of the hand signs that accompany pitch and singing.
These signs were actually developed by John Curwen, a
British priest and music educator. Kodály made use of them
along with other physicalisations of musical language to help
young children understand pitch and embody rhythm.
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FRANZ
SCHUBERT
(1797 – 1828)
COMPOSER PROFILE
• An Austrian composer from the Romantic period
• Won a place in the Vienna Imperial Court chapel choir
at age 10
• After leaving school in 1815, Schubert followed his
father into teaching. He did not enjoy this job, and he
spent all of his free time composing.
• The same year he started teaching, he wrote his
famous ‘Gretchen am Spinnrade’ (‘Gretchen at her
spinning wheel’)
• He composed 145 lieder (songs), his Second and Third
Symphonies, two sonatas and a series of miniatures for
solo piano, two mass settings and other shorter choral
works, four stage works, and a string quartet
• The only public concert Schubert gave was on
26 March, 1828. It was such an artistic and financial
success that Schubert at last purchased a piano
• He died in 1828 at age 31, of typhoid from drinking
tainted water
SYMPHONY NO.9 ‘THE GREAT’
The title ‘The Great’ was applied by a 19th-century
publisher to distinguish between this symphony and
Schubert’s earlier work of 1818. Today, ‘The Great’ has
become an accepted part of the work’s title. Schubert’s
Ninth Symphony has four movements:
I. Andante
II. Andante con moto
III. Scherzo (Allegro vivace)
IV. Allegro vivace
The first movement, Andante (C major) starts with an
unaccompanied theme from unison horns for eight bars.
This is followed by the strings playing a rhythmic triple
figure. The theme is then passed around the orchestra.
The section continues to explore themes and assembled
rhythmic material.
Finally, as the Andante moves towards its close, you can
hear a fragment of what is to become the Allegro first
subject or theme. As the Andante is brought to a full
orchestral close, the Allegro section follows immediately.
Strings, trumpets, and timpani introduce the Allegro’s
first theme. Then, as the theme continued, it is linked by
triplets in the woodwind.
After seventeen bars, Schubert introduces a second
theme – dotted crotchet-quaver – rising and falling, with
the woodwind and horns playing a triplet rhythm. Finally,
the movement’s third theme is introduced by oboes and
bassoons, accompanied by violin arpeggios, and it then
develops.
The final Coda of this section is marked ‘Piu Moto’ (more
movement). It starts with the second theme in the strings,
with an accompanying triplet figure. The movement ends
with the introductory horn theme played by the full orchestra.
The second movement, Andante con moto is slow, however
the ‘con moto’ direction creates a march-like character. It
is possible that Schubert was influenced by the Allegretto
movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.
This movement has four sections – A minor, F major, A
minor and A major – and four main themes. Beethoven’s
movement also opens in A minor. The oboes play the
theme first, followed by the clarinets, violins and violas,
moving to an orchestral climax. Next, the oboes and
clarinets enter with the second theme. This theme is
slightly slower, but within six bars, the strings break in with
a third theme, with a military feel.
The second and third themes are developed and enriched
until four minims and a descending third in the lower
strings introduce the fourth theme. Lyrical and more
sonorous, this theme is played by the bassoons, second
violins and basses, with a syncopated counterpoint in the
cellos. The movement ends quietly, with harmony from the
three trombones.
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The third movement, Scherzo opens in C major, with the
first theme played by staccato strings. A second feature of
the movement is the waltz themes that keep appearing –
the first of these constitutes the second theme.
The second section opens in A-flat major and starts with
dotted minim chords in the woodwinds and brass, with a
staccato string accompaniment. The section ends with
two sforzando chords back in C major.
The Trio section starts in A major. Horns, clarinets,
bassoons and trumpets playing in octaves for eight
bars and the movement’s fourth theme is played by a
woodwind choir. The theme is doubled in thirds and
sixths, a harmony Schubert liked to use throughout the
symphony. Next, the flutes and bassoons reprise the Trio’s
opening theme. The Trio repeats back to the Scherzo to
finish that movement.
The final movement, Allegro vivace, has two main themes.
This movement opens in the symphony’s tonic key of C
major. This movement is in Sonata form and has two main
themes. The first theme begins with a call to attention,
with fortissimo C’s in octaves. The second theme also has
a running rhythm in the strings while the woodwinds play
the melody.
There are extensions of this theme until both main
themes are heard again in their entirety – the
development section deals with fragments of
the themes instead of the entire theme itself.
The recapitulation repeats all the elements of
the two themes. A coda section expands some of the
melodic material with a short episode where strings,
horns and bassoons play an accented C for four bars
with the full orchestra answering in different keys. The
coda is unusually long, being 180 bars. The movement’s
introductory rhythm returns before a sforzando C major
chord that fades away to the end.
DID YOU KNOW?
In March 1827, Schubert was a torchbearer at
Beethoven’s funeral.
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