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The Lighter Classics in Music by David Ewen

1894. He began his music study in Kansas City: piano with his mother;

800 words  |  Chapter 5

violin and several other instruments with his father; and harmony with Carl Busch. While still a boy he wrote and had published several compositions. He came to New York in 1916, worked for a while as copyist at G. Schirmer, then during World War I served for a year in the United States Army. After the war he spent several years in Paris studying composition with Nadia Boulanger; during this period he was twice the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1926-1927 he received honorable mention for his first symphony, in a contest sponsored by _Musical America_; in 1930 he received two awards from RCA Victor, one for _Sights and Sounds_, an orchestral tone poem, the other for his first successful and widely performed work, the symphony _Abraham Lincoln_. Since then Bennett has worked fruitfully in three distinct areas. As a composer of serious works he has produced several operas (including _Maria Malibran_), symphonies and other significant orchestral compositions. As an orchestrator for the Broadway theater, he has been involved with some of the foremost stage productions of our times including musicals by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Lerner and Loewe, and many others. He has also written compositions of a more popular nature, compositions which, while fully exploiting the resources of serious music, are nevertheless filled with popular or jazz materials. Among the last are his effective symphonic adaptations of music from George Gershwin’s _Porgy and Bess_; _Oklahoma!_ and _South Pacific_ of Rodgers and Hammerstein; and _Kiss Me Kate_ of Cole Porter. In each instance, the main melodies are brilliantly orchestrated and skilfully combined into an integrated synthesis so that each becomes a coherent musical composition. The _March_, for two pianos and orchestra, (1930) makes delightful use of jazz melodies and rhythms. There are here four connected movements, each in march time. The first movement, in a vigorous style, leaps from one brief motive to another without any attempt at development. In the second, a sustained melody, first for solo oboe and later for the piano with full orchestra, is placed against a shifting rhythm. The third is a serious recitative culminating in an episode in which the classic funeral march is given sophisticated treatment. The fourth movement begins with a _marche mignonne_ and concludes with a forceful, at times overpowering, statement of the funeral-march theme of the third movement. While the _Symphony in D_ (1941) is scored for symphony orchestra and has been played by many leading American orchestras, it is music with its tongue in the cheek, and is consistently light and humorous. This symphony was written to honor the Brooklyn Dodger baseball team (that is, when they were still in Brooklyn)—ironically enough an ode to a colorful team by a composer who has been a lifelong rooter of its most bitter rival, the New York Giants (once again, when they were still at the Polo Grounds). There are four brief movements. The first, subtitled “Brooklyn Wins,” “means to picture the ecstatic joy of the town after the home team wins a game,” as the composer has explained. This is followed by a slow (_Andante lamentoso_) movement, appropriately designated as “Brooklyn Loses”—music filled with “gloom and tears, and even fury.” The third movement, a scherzo, is a portrait of the club’s then (1941) president, Larry MacPhail, and his pursuit of a star pitcher. “We hear the horns’ bay call—then we hear him in Cleveland, Ohio, trying to trade for the great pitcher, Bob Feller. He offers Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Bridge as an even trade, but the Cleveland management says ‘No’ in the form of a big E-flat minor chord. After repeated attempts we hear the hunting horns again, as he resumes the hunt in other fields.” The finale is a choral movement, and like that of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, an ode to joy. “It is purely fictitious, this text, but it speaks for itself. The subtitle of this finale is ‘The Giants Come to Town.’” Bennett has written two delightful orchestral compositions derived from the songs of Jerome Kern. One is _Symphonic Study_, a synthesis of some of Kern’s best-loved melodies, and _Variations on a Theme by Jerome Kern_. Both of these compositions are discussed in the section on Kern. Bennett’s symphonic treatment of George Gershwin’s _Porgy and Bess_, entitled _Symphonic Picture_, is commented upon in the Gershwin section, specifically with _Porgy and Bess_; Bennett’s symphonic treatment of the music of Cole Porter’s _Kiss Me Kate_, and of _Oklahoma!_ and _South Pacific_ is spoken of in the sections devoted to Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers, respectively. Bennett has also orchestrated, and adapted into a symphonic suite, the music from Richard Rodgers’ _Victory at Sea_, described in the Richard Rodgers section. Hector Berlioz Hector Berlioz was born in Côte-Saint-André, France on December 11,
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1. Chapter 1 2. introduction, random phrases bring up the image of various attitudes and 3. 1884. He acquired his musical training in Prague and with Felix Mottl in 4. Introduction there appear fragments of the first dance; these same 5. 1894. He began his music study in Kansas City: piano with his mother; 6. 1803. As a young man he was sent to Paris to study medicine, but music 7. 1918. Early music study took place with private piano teachers, and 8. 1833. He was trained in the sciences, having attended the Academy of 9. introduction or coda, originated as a piece for piano duet: the 10. 1886. While attending the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he 11. 1899. He made his stage debut in 1911 in a fairy play, and for the next 12. 1884. In the compositions written in Rome under the provisions of the 13. 1836. After attending the Paris Conservatory from 1848 on, he became an 14. 1873. The plot revolves around a peasant boy whom a Marquis is trying to 15. episode depicts a pair of lovers in a secluded corner; the principal 16. 1931. He died in Worcester, England, on February 23, 1934. 17. 1902. The opening brisk, restless music is recalled after a full 18. 1916. He was graduated with honors from the National Conservatory in his 19. 1865. As a boy he studied music privately while attending a technical 20. 1612. During the struggle between Russia and Poland, Romanov becomes the 21. introduction, a vigorous Mazurka melody unfolds. This leads to a second 22. 1870. A prodigy pianist, he attended the Berlin High School for Music, 23. 1878. He came from a distinguished musical family. His uncles were Sam 24. 1875. The _Bacchanale_ takes place at the beginning of Act 3 in which a 25. 1872. After studying music with private teachers in New York, he 26. introduction, the cellos and violas in unison offer the strains of 27. 1734. After receiving some music instruction in his native town, he came 28. 1755. The general belief is that it was used by a certain Richard 29. introduction in which a stately idea is offered by the woodwind. In the 30. 1882. After receiving some piano instruction from his mother he was sent 31. introduction. The second, “The Cowherd’s Tune,” begins with a slow, 32. 1930. It is not quite clear who actually wrote this song. It was 33. 1832. Hérold died of consumption in Paris on January 19, 1833 before 34. 1854. He attended the Cologne Conservatory where his teachers included 35. episode in which is described the descent of the fairies who provide a 36. 1859. He was graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1882 37. 1885. Precocious in music he completed a piano sonata when he was only 38. introduction and the coda came the succession of lilting, lovable, 39. 1895. The son of a choirmaster, he himself was a boy chorister, at the 40. 1809. His grandfather was the famous philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn; his 41. 1756. The son of Leopold, Kapellmeister at the court of the Salzburg 42. 1858. While studying medicine, he attended the Berlin High School for 43. 1920. Ochs died in Berlin on February 6, 1929. 44. 1834. For nine years he attended the Milan Conservatory where he wrote 45. 1916. He continued to develop his own personality, formulating his 46. 1900. It was a blood and thunder drama set in Rome at the turn of the 47. 1873. He attended the St. Petersburg Conservatory for three years, and 48. 1909. He also distinguished himself as a conductor, first at the Bolshoi 49. introduction are amplified and developed. A brilliant coda leads to the 50. 1829. He studied the piano with Alexandre Villoing after which, in 1839 51. episode now appears in woodwind and violins after which the folk song 52. 1897. In 1897 Sousa was a tourist in Italy when he heard the news that 53. 1899. A century was coming to an end, and with it an entire epoch. This 54. 1898. Between 1876 and 1881 he was principal of, and professor of 55. 1889. After the operatic pretension of the _Yeomen of the Guard_ which 56. 1887. Because the Murgatroyd family has persecuted witches, an evil 57. introduction after which comes the brisk melody for woodwind followed by 58. introduction—with forceful chords in full orchestra—leads to a beautiful 59. introduction. The second aria is Philine’s polonaise, “_Je suis 60. 1843. “The Flying Dutchman” is a ship on which the Dutchman must sail 61. 1896. After completing his music study at the Prague Conservatory, and 62. 1872. After attending the Royal College of Music, he studied composition 63. episode. A third popular orchestral excerpt from this opera is the 64. 1809. Little is known of his career beyond the fact that his music 65. 1901. Zeller died in Baden near Vienna on August 17, 1898.

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