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Romantic Programme Symphonic Poem ("Vltava" (Ma Vlast) -…
Romantic Programme
Symphonic Poem
Features
Developed from Concert Overture
Inspired by a picture, story, poem etc
Sometimes called a Tone Poem
Single movement with freer structure + tonal plan
"Danse Macabre" - Saint-Saens 1874
Inspired by poem "Dance of Death" by Henri Cazalis
Orchestration
Double woodwind + piccolo
4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba
Xylophone, 3 timpani, triangle, cymbal, bass drum, harp
Strings + solo violin
Harp = chiming of the clock at midnight
Violin often associated with the figure of Death
Scordatura: Non-standard tuning (E->Eb)
Xylophone = rattling of dancing skeleton bones
Use of percussion for orchestral colour/timbre
Texture
(+ Harmony)
Initially sparse
Creating an atmosphere
Soft horn + muted strings
Starts with D (dominant)
D major chord bar 5
Soft solo bass line
Solo violin bar25
Double stopping
Uses tritone
Open strings - as if tuning up
Feeling of modality
Eg. Gminor7-Fminor7 evokes sound of Phrygian mode
Modal colouration to main violin solo melody
Overall G minor
"Vltava" (Ma Vlast) - Smetana 1874
Orchestration
Double woodwind + piccolo
4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba
Timpani, triangle, bass drum, cymbal, harp
Strings
Uses upper/lower limits of register
Auxiliary instruments
Eg. Bar 287-295 very high piccolo adds tension
Uses instruments to represent different elements of the narrative
Eg. Flutes + clarinets play complementary melodic ideas representing the two sources of the river
Fast rhythms + scaling movement = running water
Bar 1-15 alternating flutes play melody
Bar 16-35 clarinets play idea in inversion + sources intertwine
Bar 40-55 main river theme played by 1st oboe + 1st violins
Increased orchestra allows greater timbral freedom + textural complexity
Instrumentation + dynamics are used to create drama
Eg. Bar 271-281 increased brass + percussion + fortissimo dynamics = fast flowing water
Uses overlapping, contrasting musical ideas
Typical feature of Romantic music
Eg. Bar 80-117 horns + trumpets play hunting calls + fanfares while strings play river semi-quavers
Incorporated Nationalism
National myths + folk music
Eg. Bar 122-137 woodwind + string melody in parallel 3rds resembles a polka
Eg. "Dance of the Water Sprites" is inspired by Czech folklore
Harmony + Tonality
Frequent + remote modulations
Eg. Bar 56 implied modulation to the mediant
(E minor -> G major)
Eg. Finishes in tonic major to give a triumphant feel
More chromaticism + chromatic chords
(augmented 6ths, diminished 7ths, secondary dominants)
Eg. Bar 229-238 enharmonic shift from Eb major to B major
Structure
Follows narrative rather than strict structure
8 sections
Coda
The Broad River
St Johns Rapids
Moonlight and Dance of the Water Sprites
Rustic Village Wedding
The Forest and Hunting
The Two Sources of Vltava
Vltava
Ends with a prolonged cadence that moves to a tonic pedal
Represents river flowing into the distance
Follows the journey of the eponymous
river in Prague
Texture
Initially monophonic
"Night on Bare Mountain" - Mussorgsky 1867
Program
Story of a witches Sabbath on St Johns Eve
4 Images
Assembly of the witches
Satan's cortege
Back mass
Sabbath
About
One of the easiest Russian tone poems
Reworked by Mussorgsky
Reorchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov
Music
Whirling strings motif
Uses triplets + scaling pattern
Textural + timbral effect = Whirling winds
Unaccompanied violins
Building layers of texture + layered ostinati
Repeated up a semitone bar36
Creates tension
Ascending mountain?
High woodwind shriek
Contrasting dynamics
First melodic idea
Introduced by lower brass = raw, brash, ugly timbre
Rhythmically slower
Conjunct movement
Doubled in 8ves = highly projected + sounds fuller
Accompanied by dissonant quaver chords in strings + woodwind
Different, contrasting rhythmic ideas
Horn drone
Sounds modal
Relates to folk music or old-fashioned religious music
Ending
Tubular Bells - Funeral mood
Harp glissandi - Exotic sound
General
Lots of percussion inc. Orchestral bass drum
Few different ideas
Same material repeated
Faster
Reorchestrated
Developed
For narrative or drama
Using full range of orchestra
Eg. Screaming piccolos
Full of contrast in rhythm, dynamics, texture
Virtuosic
Uses a lot of D minor harmonic + chromatic scales
Use of modes in melody - Feeling of the strange
"Scheherazade" - Rimsky-Korsakov 1888
Based on story of "1000 & 1 nights"
Explores colourful, dramatic, elaborate orchestration
Evokation of the East + Orientalism
Examples
3rd movement
Bar1-4 chromatic chords progression
G major - E minor
Includes Russian submediant
1st movement
Solo oboe based on Aeolyian mode