Happy Birthday Gustav Mahler! 7 July 1860

 

Happy Birthday Johannes Brahms! 7 May 1833

 

*Beethoven’s birthday is unknown; December 17th, 1770 is his baptismal date

The Other Prodigy and His Childhood Polonaise

When one thinks about musical prodigies, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart may come to mind. A composer, pianist, and overall musical genius from as early as age four, Mozart came packaged with an eccentric personality typical of prodigies: unnervingly stoic as a child and whimsically erratic as an adult. With that in mind, it is easy to overlook another prodigy in the world of classical music: Fryderyk Chopin.

Though Chopin, melancholic and delicate, lacks the eccentricities typical of geniuses, he is undoubtedly one. Like Mozart, the pianist and composer was talented in music from a young age. At the age of seven he wrote a Polonaise in G Minor that was published by his father. Around that time he was also already giving concerts and winning the attention and gifts of aristocrats.

Though Chopin’s childhood polonaise lacks the sophistication and refinement typical of his adult self, it is a rare peek into his child mind and the musical gears that were undoubtedly already turning in it. The piece has an innocent quality that is absent from Chopin’s mature works. Whenever I play any of Fryderyk Chopin’s music, I always feel as if he is a dear friend and I am speaking with him. When I play Chopin’s childhood polonaise, unlike our normal conversations he is seven years old.

Chopin vs. Schumann's Kreisleriana

As much as I enjoy Robert Schumann’s music, I understand why it rubbed Fryderyk Chopin the wrong way. Case in point, Schumann dedicated his Kreisleriana, Op. 16 to Chopin, who commented unfavorably on it. Even though this assessment likely discouraged Schumann, as he was an admirer of Chopin’s genius, it is hardly surprising. By this time, both composers had already struck out and developed their own unique styles, and Schumann’s Kreisleriana in particular strikes me as very anti-Chopin.

Though Schumann and Chopin were born in the same year, they are different as night and day, with Schumann’s wildly bipolar nature contrasting against Chopin’s delicate melancholy. They hardly met, as Chopin was in the French school of Romanticism and Schumann was in the German school, but their fleeting conversations were fraught with tension. To someone like Fryderyk Chopin, who favored grounded refinement and thematic unity in his music, Robert Schumann’s Kreisleriana may have come across as confused and jarring in its wild themes and dramatic dynamic changes.

I personally enjoy both composers, though I prefer Chopin due to mostly personal reasons. Nevertheless, I find it fascinating how Chopin and Schumann both represent the evolving world of Romanticism, one that is elegant and sophisticated as well as stormy and untameable.

A Curious Dedication

The romantic Romantic in me still gets emotional over Fryderyk Chopin dedicating his Op. 10 Etudes to Franz Liszt. It’s a very touching gesture when you consider that Chopin and Liszt were opposites in so many ways, their friendship fraught with jealousy and tension from the beginning. Liszt was as extroverted and gregarious as Chopin was introverted and intimate, so they were bound to clash even as they respected each other. Chopin could’ve dedicated his Op. 10 to anyone but he dedicated it to Liszt, which speaks volumes on their relationship.

One of the Etudes in the Opus, No. 12 in C Minor, is nicknamed “Revolutionary” because its composition coincides with Poland’s failed 1831 November Uprising against Russian rule. We don’t know whether the revolution was on Chopin’s mind as he composed this piece, but if it was, it must have been very personal given Chopin’s deep love for his home country.

Chopin dedicating his Op. 10 Etudes to Liszt, therefore, may have gone something like this: “Franz, I don’t know why I’m your friend and I can’t stand you, but these Etudes are very personal to me and I want you to know how I feel. I don’t know why I’m doing this, but I’m trusting you with my heart and soul.”

I think that’s beautiful.

Debunking Myths About Classical Composers

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was not poisoned, nor was he forced to commit suicide because he was gay. He died of cholera from an epidemic that hit St. Petersburg.

Felix Mendelssohn was not exactly a nice man. He was very volatile and savage at times and most likely threatened to commit suicide if the singer Jenny Lind did not return his affections and agree to start an affair with him (this was when Lind was already married).

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was not poisoned by Antonio Salieri out of jealousy. That comes from the movie Amadeus. Mozart and Salieri respected each other, and even though the cause of Mozart’s death is still debated it is almost certain that he died of illness.

Johannes Brahms was not forced as a teenager to play the piano in brothels in order to provide for his family. This is almost certainly just a rumor because minors were not allowed in brothels, and Brahms was from a reasonably well-off family. He played in taverns for extra cash, but not brothels.

It’s less dramatic and romantic this way, but it’s the truth.

Beethoven's Shadow

One of the most interesting things to me about Romanticism as a musical movement was the different ways different composers lived under Beethoven’s legacy. Ludwig van Beethoven, probably the greatest composer the world has ever saw and will ever see, was the most instrumental figure in the transition between Classicism and Romanticism. He cast a long shadow that composers of the Romantic Era worked to come to terms with.

The Schumann Ballade

 

Chopin’s second Ballade is less well-known than his first and has often been criticized as “less ingenious”. I can see where this sentiment is coming from because I too prefer Chopin’s Ballade No. 1, but I find his Ballade No. 2 – which I fondly call the “Schumann Ballade” – to be a hidden gem.

Happy Birthday Gustav Mahler! 7 July 1860

 

Watching Musicals As A Classical Music Enthusiast

When I watched Cats about a month ago, I realized that classical music remains with us always in a variety of modern musical forms, including musical theatre.

The Overture to the hit Broadway musical Cats, to me at least, borrows both resonant and/or tonal elements from the Classicism and Romanticism movements, as well as dissonant and/or atonal elements from later composers such as Debussy and to an extent 20th-century composers such as Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern. The beginning of the Overture contains almost exclusively musical tension for a solid third of the two-and-a-half minute long piece, leaving the audience waiting and waiting for resolution and when it finally arrives around the 1:10 mark it’s glorious.

That’s just one example of how classical music influences modern musical theatre, and musical theatre is just one modern musical form that has influences from classical music. I am glad that I can appreciate modern music as someone who also has a background in classical music, because this allows for me to enjoy the music through an interesting lens.

Originally posted March 30, 2019 on WordPress

Chopin's Waltz

When I was a kid of about ten I had a classical music interactive activity book. My favorite composer was Chopin (who’s still my favorite composer) but what’s interesting is that his page showed a scene of him playing the piano for his lover George Sand and a puppy, who was dancing to the music.

The sheet music on Chopin’s piano was titled “Little Dog Waltz”, and when you used the interactive pen to tap on the sheet music, Chopin’s “Minute Waltz” Op. 64 No. 1 in D Flat Major would play.

That’s why, for the longest time, I thought Minute Waltz was called Little Dog Waltz, and I didn’t realize that it was called Minute Waltz until probably high school. It’s a fun picture though, a little dog dancing to Chopin’s Minute Waltz.

Originally posted March 23, 2019 on WordPress

To be loved is to be changed

 

The Erlking

I remember when I was a mere fourth-grader this one time my elementary school music teacher had to use the room of one of the school’s least favorite teachers because the music teacher’s room was being used for some activity. That classroom smelled bad – it wasn’t horrible but it was unpleasant.

Said music teacher was planning on teaching us about Franz Schubert’s Erlkönig and he did it even though he had to improvise with the new room’s equipment.

The music teacher proceeded to have us listen to “Erlkönig” while showing us an English guide/translation of the piece.

I remember everyone complaining about the bad smell of the room but still being extremely shocked (as in audible gasps) during that last line of the song where the child dies.

Therefore, I associate “Erlkönig” with the slightly off, somewhat musty, stale, and sweaty smell of that classroom and honestly that’s probably what an erlking smells like.

I also associate the piece with me and my classmates being extremely shocked so there’s that.

Originally posted March 16, 2019 on WordPress

Liszt’s Consolation

When I discovered Franz Liszt’s Consolation No. 3 (S. 172), I was very pleasantly surprised by how tenderly beautiful and generally amazing-sounding it was. I absolutely love it and it’s a refreshing change from Liszt’s usual complicated ferventness (not saying that’s bad of course). I feel like when Liszt is quieter he is very nice too, and I kind of wish that his quiet pieces like this Consolation were more well-known.

This is just the romantic in me speaking, but what made me quite emotional upon discovering the piece was the knowledge that Liszt composed it shortly after Frédéric Chopin’s death. The piece is so sweet that I couldn’t help but have my heart warmed with the thought that Liszt actually did care about Chopin – the two Romantic composers were friends at one point, sure, but their friendship was tense, characterized by a grudging admiration of each other, and by around 1845 they had fallen out. The fact that Franz Liszt composed this Consolation shortly after Chopin’s death, however, just makes me think that Liszt and Chopin’s relationship was sweeter than it seemed to be, and that thought is simply romantic.

Originally posted March 9, 2019 on WordPress

Ballade No. 1: A Musical Journey

Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23 is a work that I tend to describe loudly as amazing and sublime. It may not be my all-time favorite Chopin piece but it’s definitely up there. Not only does it sound beautiful, I think it’s an amazingly put together musical journey from the very beginning to the very end. The beginning is iconic and it only gets better from there. Interestingly enough that Ballade is one of the few classical music pieces I describe as a musical journey, but I think that description fits perfectly. You go through the piece, feeling many emotions throughout, but it’s beautiful from start to finish.

Originally posted March 2, 2019 on WordPress

The Classical Composer Zodiac