Classic Ephemera: A Musical Miscellany

by Darren Henley, Tim Lihoreau, Howard Goodall (Foreword by)

Overview

How long did it take Rossini to compose The Barber of Seville? Which composer named five of his children Johann? Why was Elgar depicted on the back of a £20 note? Find out all this and more in this edition of Classic FM's Classic Ephemera, an irresistible compilation of facts, figures, and trivia from the world of classical music. Written by the authors of the Classic FM Pocket Book of Music, Classic Ephemera covers everything from composer biographies to a guide to the 10 most famous operas. Accessible and informative, it contains everything you need to know about classical music and more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781907642098
Publisher:	Elliott & Thompson
Publication date:	07/01/2013
Sold by:	INDEPENDENT PUB GROUP - EPUB - EBKS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Darren Henley is the managing director of Classic FM. Responsible for producing the first Classic FM Hall of Fame in 1996, he looked after the chart for the next 11 years of its life. He was named Commercial Radio Programmer of the Year in 2009 and advises ministers in the Department for Education and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on music and cultural education. He is an honorary fellow of CanterburyChristChurchUniversity. Tim Lihoreau is the creative director of Classic FM and the coauthor of The Classic FM Friendly Guide to Mozart. Howard Goodall is a composer of musicals, choral music, and music for television. He is a presenter and composer-in-residence with Classic FM.

Read an Excerpt

The Classic fm Musical Miscellany

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By Darren Henley, Tim Lihoreau

Elliott and Thompson Limited

Copyright © 2009 Darren Henley and Tim Lihoreau
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-907642-09-8

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CHAPTER 1

"For changing people's manners and altering their customs there is nothing better than music.SHU CHING, 600 B.C."

MUSICAL ERAS

Any music that was composed before 1600 is said to be from the Early or Renaissance period. Gregorian chant falls into this category (named after Pope Gregory who did much to develop church music), lots of which is very beautiful and relaxing.

Music written between, roughly, 1600 and 1750 is described as coming from the Baroque period. Composers who were producing new material at this time include Bach, Handel and Vivaldi.

Now, here's a funny one. Everything we play on Classic FM is classical music. But anything written between roughly 1750 and 1830 is described as coming from the Classical period. This includes the work of Haydn and Mozart. Beethoven, too, wrote some music in the classical period but he also stayed on after the bell had gone for the early Romantic period and wrote some stuff in that one too.

Love features heavily in classical music, just as it does in pop. But, when we are talking about eras, romantic refers to the composers who were writing music from roughly 1830 to 1910, including Schubert, Chopin and Berlioz.

Modern music is another odd one. Anything written after the early 1900s is generally referred to as coming from the Modern period, despite the fact that some of it is now more than a hundred years old. A car of equivalent age would be vintage. In time, we may come to call it '20th and 21st Century' music, to allow for stuff written after the year 2000.

If you imagine that eras in music are like star signs, with Modern as Aquarius (genius or mad, hard to tell), Romantic as Cancer (slushy, doe-eyed, dreamy) and Classical as Gemini (sometimes slushy, sometimes not), then Baroque is clearly the Virgo – neat, tidy, everything in its place, but never too much emotion.

FIVE LINES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

One of the great unsung heroes of classical music – in fact, all music – is Guido D'Arezzo. He was the clever chap who came up with the five lines on which almost all music is now written, called a 'stave'. He thought of it at more or less the same time as somebody in China invented gunpowder.

"Music helps not the toothache.GEORGE HERBERT, POET"

* * *

OPUS

The Italian word for 'work', used, simply, to put together a database of a composer's work in chronological order. So Opus 3 would be the third piece (or a part of the third piece) that a composer had written. Opus numbers tend to follow the published date of a work, not necessarily the date the composer wrote it. Hence, Chopin's published Piano Concertos No. 1 and No. 2 were actually written in the order 2 and 1 (see page 60). Mozart and J.S. Bach have their own numbering systems. Mozart's was done by Ludwig von Köchel, who, being a shy and retiring sort of chap, decided to give each of Mozart's works a Köchel number instead of an Opus number. In J.S. Bach's case, his pieces all have BWV in front of the number. These initials stand for 'Bach Werke-Verzeichnis', which is German for 'Catalogue of Bach's Works', and are not, as some think, a 'best before' date mark.

Check out: Three great numbers to learn are: Beethoven's Opus 67, Mozart's K622, and Tchaikovsky's Opus 20 – great to drop in at parties. (They are better known as Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, Mozart's Clarinet Concerto and Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake).

OLDEST ORCHESTRA

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the very first symphony orchestra was the Gewandhaus Orchestra, which began playing in Leipzig, Germany, in 1743.

"Why should the devil have all the good tunes?

ROWLAND HILL, INVENTOR OF THE 'PENNY BLACK' STAMP"

* * *

"You have Van Gogh's ear for music.BILLY WILDER, FILM DIRECTOR AND WRITER"

THE INSTRUMENTS OF THE ORCHESTRA

Imagine. Four different types of instruments – some thirty string players alone, as well as ten or so brass, around the same number of woodwind and a liberal sprinkling of percussionists. Seventy-odd different players in all, spread out over a space the size of a tennis court, being told what to do by a guy (or girl) who needn't ever have played a note in his (or her) life. Shouldn't work, should it? But it does. Amazingly.

The human windmill waving the stick in front of the orchestra is the conductor. A passable conductor can be the difference between a bad and a good performance. A great conductor can be the difference between a good and an unforgettable one. (Every now and again in the papers, you will see reviews of concerts where a 'golden silence' occurred at the end of a work, when everyone was just too overwhelmed to start clapping). If you can't quite work out exactly what it is that conductors do, imagine them in the same category as those seemingly imperceptible tights for women which support the bottom – without them, things tend to go pear-shaped.

The illustration above shows how orchestras are conventionally set out on stage, although conductors are free to indulge in a game of musical chairs and move everyone around if they so wish.

* * *

CHANGING THE HILDEGARD

Hildegard of Bingen, one of the foremost early composers, not to mention one of the very few famous women composers, wasn't born in Bingen. Nor did she live or die in Bingen. She was actually from Rupertsberg, just down the road. Maybe Bingen just rolled off the tongue easier.

"Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.GROUCHO MARX, ACTOR AND WRITER"

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A LICENCE TO PRINT MONEY

The English composers Thomas Tallis and William Byrd became rich men when Queen Elizabeth I granted them the exclusive right to print sheet music and manuscript paper in England for 21 years from 1575.

"The good singer should be nothing butan able interpreter of the ideas of the master, the composer. In short, the composer and the poet are the only true creators.GIOACHINO ROSSINI, COMPOSER"

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SINGERS

Sopranos are the highest female voices, providing not only the female lead but also, more often than not, the love-interest for the male tenors in opera. Sopranos often heard on Classic FM include Maria Callas, Renée Fleming, Lesley Garrett, Anna Netrebko and Angela Gheorghiù. Mezzo-sopranos, such as Cecilia Bartoli, have voices that are slightly deeper.

Altos are usually female singers who either can't sing as high as sopranos, or who can but want a quiet life, free from throat strain. Just as violas are the slightly lower, some would say duller, versions of violins, so the altos are ... well, let's leave it there, shall we? Men can be altos too, but ... well, again, let's just leave it there.

Tenors are generally the 'heroes' of the opera world, getting many of the best male arias. The most well-known are The Three Tenors – José Carreras, Placido Domingo and the late Luciano Pavarotti – a trio who became multi-millionaires on the back of their stadium concerts around the globe.

Baritones are male singers whose voices are higher than basses, but lower than tenors. So if you can't reach the high notes and have only ever been able to get the low notes first thing in the morning, best become a baritone. The international superstar Bryn Terfel is a fine example of a bass-baritone, whose voice, predictably, lies somewhere between a bass and a baritone.

The basses are the lowest of the male singers, the ones who sound like they've just got up after a heavy night on the sauce. In opera, they don't get as many of the hero roles as the tenors: if this seems unfair, listen to Lee Marvin singing in Paint your Wagon and ask yourself – would you elope with him? Incidentally, bass is pronounced 'base'. Again, quite apt if you remember Lee Marvin's character.

The girls aren't the only ones who can sing high in classical music. Counter-tenors, such as James Bowman or Andreas Scholl, have voices that are higher than tenors. However, they hit the high notes without having had to resort to surgery. This was not the case with castrati, who were castrated to ensure that their voices never broke. The practice was worryingly fashionable in the 18th century, when the desire for a voice which was a cut above meant a cut below. Castrati were even resident in the Vatican. Alessandro Moreschi, who died in 1922, was the last known castrato and became rather famous in the process. He was the director of the Sistine Chapel Choir in Rome. Nowadays, we're all for loving music, but castration really is a snip too far.

If you hear somebody talking about a singer, no matter what type their voice, or whether they are male or female, performing an aria, this basically means they are singing a 'song'. Most of the big hits from operas are arias. They are the solos or set pieces performed by singers playing the big roles.

There is a simple way to spot a singer from among a crowd of other classical musicians: they will be obsessed about protecting their throat and so will be wearing a scarf tied tightly around their necks in even the most sub-tropical of summery conditions. They are also often to be seen carrying bundles of sheet music under their arms, as they take any opportunity to learn their part for their next performance.

"One should try everything once, except incest and folk-dancing.ARNOLD BAX, COMPOSER"

* * *

GIOVANNI DA PALESTRINA (1525-1594)

The composer Palestrina wasn't called Palestrina. Sorry to shock you, but it's true. His name was Giovanni Pierluigi. He became known as Giovanni da Palestrina – John from Palestrina – because that was the small town near Rome which he called home.

Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli – literally 'the Mass for Pope Marcellus' – was never actually listened to by its dedicatee. Pope Marcellus reigned for a mere 55 days before he died, never having got around to hearing the piece that carries his name.

Check out: the Missa Brevis – a small and perfectly formed place to start.

"I don't mind what language an opera is sung in so long as it is a language I don't understand.SIR EDWARD APPLETON, PHYSICIST"

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OPERA

Operas tend to be big on great tunes, passion, sorrow, romance and drama. Sadly, they are rarely big on plot. Opera storylines tend to centre around either unrequited love, or bizarre 'what-do-you-mean-you're-really-a-horse-in-disguise?' madness. Broadly speaking though, most opera storylines go something like this: Man falls in love with woman. Woman turns out to be either related or someone she claimed not to be. Man and woman's love doomed. Cue angst (in song). Woman (can be man – doesn't matter) dies horrific death, preferably involving consumption. Remaining lover dies. Big song. The end. Everyone goes down the pub.

In fact, opera is really what classical music would be like if Quentin Tarantino had invented it. But despite the high body count, it has given us some of the most spectacular and beautiful pieces anywhere in classical music. You will find the potted plots of ten famous operas spread throughout the pages of this book.

"No good opera plot can besensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.W. H. AUDEN, POET"

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10 DONS IN OPERA

Don Alfonso
Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia
Don Alvaro
Verdi: La Forza del Destino
Don Basilio
Rossini: The Barber of Seville
Don Carlos
Rameau: Les Indes Galantes
Don Curzio
Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro
Don Fernando
Beethoven: Fidelio
Don Giovanni
Mozart: Don Giovanni
Don José
Bizet: Carmen
Don José Martinez
Delius: Koanga
Don Quixote
Purcell: Don Quixote

"In opera, anything that is too stupidto be spoken is sung.VOLTAIRE, PHILOSOPHER"

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SINGING FOR YOUR SUPPER

The Austro-Hungarian Emperor Leopold II loved the premiere of Cimarosa's opera The Secret Marriage so much that he invited the whole cast and orchestra to dinner, before demanding that they stage the whole performance from beginning to end once again.

RECORD BREAKER

The biggest selling classical CD of all time is The Three Tenors Live in Concert, which was recorded live in Rome in 1990.

"You don't need any brains to listen to music.LUCIANO PAVAROTTI, TENOR"

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TENOR AT THE MOVIES

When you're famous for one thing, it can seem like a good idea to try your hand at something else, to see if you can become celebrated for that too. So it was, in 1982, for Luciano Pavarotti when he made an ill-fated bid to achieve stardom as a film actor. Pavarotti played the male lead role in a romantic comedy with the unlikely title, Yes, Giorgio. The movie told the tale of an international opera star, by the name of Fini, who suddenly loses his voice. Thanks to the medical expertise and love of a young lady doctor, called Pamela, his vocal cords perk up and all is well in the world. Pavarotti's character is heard to utter a chat up line that deserves to achieve immortality: 'Pamela, you are a thirsty plant. Fini can water you'. The New York Times review of the film notes: 'Yes, Giorgio is rated PG ("Parental Guidance Suggested"). Its sexual innuendoes will not disturb children, although adults may find them alarming.'

"If you think you've hit a false note, sing loud. When in doubt, sing loud.ROBERT MERRILL, BARITONE"

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CROSSOVER CLASSICAL MUSIC

The boundaries of what is, and what isn't, classical music can sometimes become quite blurred. A singer might have a selection of popular operatic arias in his repertoire, which he sings in an operatic style. These fall comfortably into the definition of being classical music and, although he does not perform in full operas, we would be happy to agree that this is genuine classical music. But at the same time, a singer might also perform what are essentially pop songs in an operatic style. This definitely doesn't make them opera and they shouldn't really be thought of as classical music in its strictest sense. However, many crossover performers have enjoyed huge success in selling records and at getting audiences along to large-scale live concerts. For many people, they offer a route into listening to classical music, and they should hold no threat to the core classical music world. Crossover classical music comes at the point where pop music and classical music collide. Sometimes it doesn't quite work, but sometimes this fusion can create quite a stir.

" The opera house is an institution differing from other lunatic asylums only in the fact its inmates have avoided official certification.ERNEST NEWMAN, MUSIC CRITIC"

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CHART TOPPER

When the Salford-born tenor, Russell Watson, released his first album The Voice in 2001, it topped the UK's classical music chart for an entire year until the release of his second album, Encore, which replaced The Voice in the top spot.

INSTRUCTIONS

The Italian word adagio is a composer's way of telling a performer to play their music slowly. It is slower than andante but faster than largo. Slow movements, in general are often simply called 'adagios' because so many bear this marking.

At the other end of the scale, allegro is another instruction from a composer to a performer. The message is to play fast – not, however, as fast as presto but faster than allegretto(which means allegro-ish). Probably the most famous allegro of all is the 'da da da DER ...' of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5.

Allegro is not to be confused with Allegri or the Austin Allegro. The first is a composer born in the 16th century, best known for his choral masterpiece Miserere. The second is a 1970s car often favoured by aunties and geography teachers. Paradoxically neither of these groups is exactly renowned for being fast.

Legato is another order composers like to issue to musicians – this time they are asking the performer to play smoothly. The opposite is staccato – a rather spikier sound.

So why are all these instructions in Italian? Well, Italy was once the centre of the music industry and therefore all the composers wrote their directions in Italian. This continues today, meaning that a German composer writing for a Spanish pianist and a Dutch violinist would still tell them what speed to play in Italian. Odd, but true.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from The Classic fm Musical Miscellany by Darren Henley, Tim Lihoreau. Copyright © 2009 Darren Henley and Tim Lihoreau. Excerpted by permission of Elliott and Thompson Limited.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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