Sunday, October 24, 2021 by Mary O'Connor | holiday

The final movement is the best-known part of the symphony, thanks to its use in the Julia Roberts movie, Sleeping With The Enemy. It features a four-part structure, which Berlioz described in his own program notes from 1845 as follows:

"He sees himself at a witches' Sabbath, in the midst of a hideous gathering of shades, sorcerers and monsters of every kind who have come together for his funeral. Strange sounds, groans, outbursts of laughter; distant shouts which seem to be answered by more shouts. The beloved melody appears once more, but has now lost its noble and shy character; it is now no more than a vulgar dance tune, trivial and grotesque: it is she who is coming to the Sabbath… Roar of delight at her arrival… She joins the diabolical orgy… The funeral knell tolls, burlesque parody of the Dies irae, the dance of the witches. The dance of the witches combined with the Dies irae."

The Dies irae melody is one of the most-quoted in musical literature, appearing in the works of many diverse composers.

The traditional Gregorian melody has also been used as a theme or musical quotation in a number of  classical compositions, notable among them:

• Charles-Valentin Alkan – Souvenirs: Trois morceaux dans le genre pathétique, Op. 15 (No. 3: Morte)
• Ernest Bloch – Suite Symphonique
• Hector Berlioz – Symphonie fantastique
• Johannes Brahms – Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 118, No. 6, Intermezzo in E-flat minor
• George Crumb – Black Angels
• Michael Daugherty – Metropolis Symphony 5th movement, "Red Cape Tango";Dead Elvis(1993) for bassoon and chamber ensemble
• Luigi Dallapiccola – Canti di prigionia
• Diamanda Galás – Masque of the Red Death: Part I – The Divine Punishment
• Donald Grantham – Baron Cimetiére's Mambo
• Charles Gounod – Faust opera, act 4
• Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 103, "The Drumroll"
• Bernard Herrmann – Jason and the Argonauts (1963) – quoted during the scene of the scattering of the hydra's teeth
• Gustav Holst – The Planets, movement 5, "Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age"
• Arthur Honegger – La Danse des Morts, H. 131
• Aram Khachaturian – Symphony No. 2 in E minor
• Franz Liszt – Totentanz
• Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 2, movements 1 and 5
• Modest Mussorgsky – Songs and Dances of Death, No.3 "Trepak"
• Nikolai Myaskovsky – Symphony No. 6, Op. 23, Piano Sonata No.2, Op.13
• Lionel Newman - Compulsion (1959 film)
• Sergei Rachmaninoff – Symphony No. 1, Op. 13; Symphony No. 2, Op. 27; Symphony No. 3, Op. 44; Isle of the Dead, Op. 29; The Bells choral symphony, Op. 35; Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43; Symphonic Dances, Op. 45
• Ottorino Respighi – quoted near the end of the second movement of Impressioni Brasiliane (Brazilian Impressions)
• Camille Saint-Saëns – Danse Macabre, Symphony No. 3 (Organ Symphony)
• Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 14
• Stephen Sondheim – Sweeney Todd – quoted in the accompaniment to "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" and "Epiphany"
• Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji – Sequentia cyclica super "Dies irae " ex Missa pro defunctis  and eight other works
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Manfred Symphony, Orchestral Suite No. 3
• Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco – 24 Caprichos de Goya, Op. 195: "XII. No hubo remedio " (plate 24)
• Eugène Ysaÿe – Solo Violin Sonata in A minor, Op. 27, No. 2 "Obsession"
• Bernd Alois Zimmermann – Musique pour les soupers du roi Ubu
• Hans Zimmer – "Rock House Jail" from The Rock soundtrack
• Vítězslav Novák – used the theme near the end of his May Symphony
• Hans Huber – used the theme in his third symphony.
• Bathory - on their album Blood Fire Death (1988)
• Alan Menken - The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)
• Death Note (2006)
• The Melvins - on their album "Nude with Boots" (2008)
• Carolina Crown - in its DCI program entitled "Inferno" (2015)

Free sheet music from IMSLP for the basic Dies irae

Free sheet music from IMSLP for the basic Symphonie fantastique (look under Arrangements and Transcriptions)

The basic Gregorian Chant

An animated version of the  Dreams of a Witches' Sabbath from Symphonie fantastique.  Can you hear the Dies irae in this?  It starts around 3:18.

Leonard Bernstein conducts the "Orchestre National de France" in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique
5th Movement

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Friday, October 22, 2021 by Mary O'Connor | history

Franz Liszt was born in Raiding, near Ödenburg, October 22, 1811 and died in Bayreuth, July 31, 1886. He was a Hungarian composer and pianist who was a major influence during the romantic period. Liszt was an outstanding pianist at seven, composed at eight and made concert appearances at nine. In addition to being a piano virtuoso, he was also a critic, conductor, city music director, literary writer and transcriber of the works of other composers. He transcribed Beethoven’s Symphonies for the piano.

Franz Liszt began his career as the outstanding concert pianist of the century, who, along with the prodigious violinist Niccoló Paganini (1782-1840), created the cult of the modern instrumental virtuoso. To show off his phenomenal and unprecedented technique, Liszt composed a great deal of music designed specifically for this purpose, resulting in a vast amount of piano literature laden with dazzling, and other technical marvels. In this vein, Liszt composed a series of virtuosic rhapsodies on Hungarian gypsy melodies, the best-known being the all too familiar Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2. Liszt developed the rhapsody as a form of serious music. This kind of music is worlds apart from the generally more introspective, poetic music of pianist-composer Frédéric Chopin.

Liszt was wildly handsome and hugely talented. He was extremely popular in Paris during the 1830’s. It is said that women actually fainted at his piano recitals. He was the first to position the piano so that its lid reflected the sound and the audience could see his profile as he performed.

Liszt was the first to write a tone poem, which is an extended, single-movement work for orchestra, inspired by paintings, plays, poems or other literary or visual works, and attempting to convey the ideas expressed in those media through music. Such a work is Les Préludes, based on a poem in which life is expressed as a series of struggles, passions, and mysteries, all serving as a mere prelude to . . .what? The Romantic genre of the symphonic poem, as well as its cousin the concert overture, became very attractive to many later composers, including Saint-Saëns, Tchaikovsky, Dvorák, Sibelius, and Richard Strauss.

     Liszt’s birthday

     anniversary of Liszt’s death

    Listen to Liszt’s transcription of Meyerbeer’s Hellish Waltz from Robert du Diable, which probably caused more public commotion than any other piano piece in history.

     Read quotes by and about Liszt

     Liszt was the first recitalist

     In Praise of Pianos and the Artists Who Play Them

     History of the Piano

     Franz Liszt

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Tuesday, October 19, 2021 by Mary O'Connor | humor

Redditor NeokratosRed had an idea: depict the hands of great composers and pianists, according to the characteristics of their music. He shared it on the social media site, and also punted for suggestions of more. 

Whisks for Chopin's elegant pianistic souffles, feather dusters for the gentle impressionism of Debussy, instruments of trade for the composer of the thunderous Hammerklavier sonata.

Piano, and the internet - top marks to the both of you.

via This infographic of composers' hands is painfully (and hilariously) accurate | Classic FM.

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