My goal is to be familiar and know what repertoires are playing in concerts hall. In the United States, there are 5 big Orchestras; New York Philharmonic (1842), Boston Symphony Orchestra (1881), Chicago Orchestra (1891), Philadelphia Orchestra (1900), and Cleveland Orchestra (1918), and I used these as my references.
Each Orchestra has own their homepage, and their schedule could be found on the page.
Below schedules are from 2009, fall semester to 2010 spring semester.
BSO (2009- 2010)
Stravinsky- Symphony of psalms
Carter – Mosaic, for harp and ensemble
Debussy- Dances sacree et profane, for harp and orchestra
Ravel – La Valse
Stravinsky – Scherzo fantastique
Shostakovich- Symphony No. 10
Martino – The Frescoes of piero della Francesca
Stravinsky – Capriccio for piano and orchestra
Thomas – Helios Choros 2 ( Sun God Dancers)
Carter- Eight Etudes and a Fantasy, for wind quaetet
Stravinsky- Petrushka (1947)
Stravinsky- Symphony in Three Movements
Bartok- Divertimento for string Orchestra
Dvorak- Symphony No.8
Carter- Dialogues, for piano and orchestra
Berg- Three Pieces for Orchestra, Op.6
Prokofiev- Violin Concerto No.1
Rimsky – Korsakov- Scheherazade
Debussy- Jeux
Ligeti- Concerto Romanesc
Shostakovich- Piano Concerto No.1
Barber – Summer Music for wind Quintet
Bartok – Concerto for Orchestra
NYP (2009- 2010)
Schoenberg: Verklarte Nacht ( Transfigured Night)
Bartok: Music for String, Percussion and Celesta
Copland: Appalachian Spring Suite
Webern: Im Sommerwind
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.2
George Benjamin: Dance Figures (Nine choreographic scenes for orchestra)
Barber: Violin Concerto
Hindemith: Symphony in E- flat
Magnus Lindberg- Feria
Elliott Carter:Au Quai
Bruch- Scottish Fantasy
Stravinsky- Les Noces
Stravinsky- Symphonies of Wind Instruments,Jeu de Cartes, Symphony of Psalms, the Firebird, Petrushka (1911 original version), Le roi des etoiles, Violin Concerto, Oedipus Rex, Orpheus, Renard, The Soldier's Tale, Symphony in C, Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra
Ligeti: Le Grand Macabre (Semi- staged)
Shostakovich-piano Quintet
Stravinsky- Symphony in Three Movements Concerto for Piano and Wind, The Rite of the Spring
Magnus Lindberg- Arena
Sibelius- Violin Concerto
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (2009-2010)
Shostakovich- Symphony No.15 in A Major, Op.141
Hindemith- Symphony Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber
Bernstein- Divertimento for Orchestra
Barber-Knoxville: Summer of 1915
Williams-“Hedwig’s Theme” from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer;s Stone Suite
Stravinsky- Dumbarton Oaks
Schoenberg- Chamber Symphony No.1
Bartok- Divertimento for String Orchestra
Rimsky-Korsakov- Flight if the Bumblebee from The Tale of Tsar of Saltan
Scriabin- Sonata No.10
Barber- Sonata
Bartok- Bluebeard’s Castle
Berg- Violin Concerto
Stravinsky- The Rite of Spring
Bartok- Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra
Stavinsky- The Firebird[complete ballet]
Rimsky-Korsakov- Capriccio espagnol
Berg- Three Pieces for Orchestra
Stravinsky- Ode, Apollo(Ballet in Two Scenes), Oedipus rex
Schostakovich- Symphony No.11(the year1905)
Berg- Adagio from the Chamber Concerto
Scheonberg- Chamber Symphony No.9 (arr.Webern)
Copland- Suite from Appalachian Spring
Shostakovich- Piano Trio No.2 in E Minor, Op. 67
Shostakovich- Sonata in D Minor
Piazzolla- Le Grand Tango
Stravinsky- Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
Prokofiev- Symphony No.4
Stravinsky- Le Chant du rossignol
Piazzolla- The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
Nielsen- Symphony No.5
Shostakovich- symphony No.6
Bartok- String Quartet No.1, Op.7
Bartok- Concerto for Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra
Hindemith:sonata1
Franck: Symphony in D minor
Mussorgsky/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition
Shostakovich: Symphony No.5
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
Gershwin: “Ballet for Fred and Ginger” from Shall We Dance?
Barber: Adagio for Strings
Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No.1
Copland: Suite from Appalachian Spring
Messiaen: L’Asxension
Prokofiev: Suite from Romeo and Juliet
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.1
Berg: Suite from Lulu
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Glinka: Kamarinskaya, Fantasy fir Orchestra on Two Russian Folksongs
Copland: Variations on a Shaker Melody, from Appalachian Spring
Johnson:” Life Every Voice and Sing”
Franck: Symphony in D minor
Walker: Violin Concerto(world premiere)
Martinu: Symphony no.3
Rimski-Korsakov : Sheherazade
Barber: Night Flight
Stravinsky: Suite from The Firebird (1911 original)
Barber: Overture to The School for Scandal
Hindemith: Klein Kammermusik (Quintet for Wind Instruments), Op.24
Deak-: Bye Bye, for flute and percussion
Barber: Summer Music, Op. 31 for wind quintet
Poulenc: Sextet, for piano and winds
Shostakovich: Symphony No.11 (“The Year 1905”)
Sibelius: Symphony No.2
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Stravinsky: Petrushka
Sheng: The Phoenix
Musorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
What I felt from this research is that Stravinsky music is so popular in any concert hall. Even some of certain repertoire is shared everywhere such as Petrushka or the Rite of Spring.
Except him, Bartok, Berg, or Shostakovich is also popular in concert halls, even if the repertoire is not exactly the same.
So,I would like to present brief biography of Igor Stravinsky, and his works, The Rite of The Spring, and Petrushka, which is my purpose that focus on becoming familiar with mordern music, and Bela Bartok's biography and his musical charateristcs.
Igor Stravinsky
1.Russian composer, pianist, and conductor.
2.His teacher: Rimsky –Korsakof
3.Biography- 1. Russia 2. Switzerland, 3. France, 4. America
4.Stylistic period- 1. Russian, Neoclassical 3. Serial
5.Characteristic- Rhythm, Neoclassicism..
6. His works - Capriccio for piano and orchestra Ode, Apollo(Ballet in Two Scenes), Oedipus rex The Rite of the Spring Petrushka
The Rite of the Spring
It is ballet music by Russian composer, Igor Stravinsky. The characteristic of the music is innovative complex rhythmic structures, timbres, and use of dissonance. His beginning idea was that the wise elders are seated in a circle and are observing the dance before death of the girl whom they are offering as a sacrifice to the god of Spring in order to gain his benevolence. This piece was made between 1912 and 1913 for Serge Diahilev’s Ballets Russes.
The intensely rhythmic score and primitive scenario was enough new to shock audiences, and as one of the example, there is the episode that Paris police arrived by intermission because of the happening from the chaos.
- The Two Parts
First Part: A Kiss of the Earth (Première Partie: L'adoration de la Terre)
• Introduction
• The Augurs of Spring [: Dances of the Young Girls] (Les Augures Printaniers: Danses des Adolescentes)
• Ritual of Abduction (Jeu du Rapt)
• Spring Rounds (Rondes Printanières)
• Ritual of the Two Rival Tribes (Jeux des Cités Rivales)
• Procession of the Oldest and Wisest One [the Sage] (Cortège du Sage)
• The Kiss of the Earth (The Oldest and Wisest One) [(The Sage)] (Adoration de la Terre (Le Sage))
• The Dancing Out of the Earth, OR The Dance Overcoming the Earth (Danse de la Terre)
Second Part: The Exalted Sacrifice (Seconde Partie: Le Sacrifice)
• Introduction
• Mystic Circle of the Young Girls (Cercles Mystérieux des Adolescentes)
• The Naming and Honoring of the Chosen One (Glorification de l'Élue)
• Evocation of the Ancestors OR Ancestral Spirits (Evocation des Ancêtres)
• Ritual Action of the Ancestors (Action Rituelle des Ancêtres)
• Sacrificial Dance (The Chosen One) (Danse Sacrale (L'Élue
Musical characteristics Stravinsky’s music is harmonically adventurous, with dissonance, which has color and musical energy. He used asymmetrical rhythms, percussive dissonance, polyrhythms, polytonality, layering of ostinati (constantly repeated ideas), and melodic fragments that makes complex webs of interactive lines, and is influenced by primitivism.
Ex) An example of primitivism
The music is used as a standard of dance troupes, and as also was soundtrack of Disney’s animation, Fantasia, has getting more popular to people(1940).
Petrushka
The story is a Russian traditional puppet, Petrushka, who is made of straw and with a bag of sawdust as his body, but comes to life and have advanced emotions. It is similar with Pinocchio. Stravinsky wrote the music between 1910-1911 for sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. This is characterized by Petroshka chord, which is most well –known name to people, a bitonality device presenting the appearance of the main character. The Petrushka chord is consists of C major and F# major triads together.
It has four sections.
Part I: The Shrovetide Fair
• Introduction (at the Shrovetide Fair)
• The Charlatan's Booth
• Russian Dance
Part II: Petrushka's Cell
• Petrushka's Cell
Part III: The Moor's Room
• The Moor's Room
• Dance of the Ballerina
• Waltz - The Ballerina & the Moor
Part IV: The Shrovetide Fair (Evening)
• Dance of the Wet Nurses
• Peasant With Bear
• The Jovial Merchant with Two Gypsy Girls
• Dance of the Coachmen and Grooms
• The Masqueraders
• The Fight - The Moor and Petrushka
• Death of Petrushka
• Apparition of Petrushka's Double
Bella Bartok
He is a Hungarian composer and pianist, and his collection and analytical study of folk music shows one of the founders of ethnomusicology. He was born in Austria –Hungary on March, 25, 1881 with notable musical talent. In 1908, folk music and the contemporary resurgence influenced his music, and made him feel travel to collect the Magyar folk melodies. He could collect the folk song melodies based on pentatonic scales similar to those in Oriental folk traditions.
The breakdown of the diatonic system of harmony and the revival of nationalism are his musical characteristics, and Milhail Glinka and Antonin Dvorak in the last half of the 19th century also joined the trend. One of his characteristic style is Night Music, used in slow movements of multi- movement. Eerie dissonances are used to sound nature and lonely melodies.
Bibliography
Wekipedia. Igor Stravinsky. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Stravinsky.
Wekipedia. The Rite of String. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rite_of_Spring.
Wekipedia. Petrushka. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrushka.
Wekipedia. Bela Bartok. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bela_bartok.
Boston Symphony Orchestra. Complete Season. http://bso.org/bso/mods/complete_season.jsp?id=bcat13760008.
Cleveland Orchstra. Concert Listing. http://www.clevelandorchestra.com/html/Performance/ViewByMonth.asp?season=WinterSeason.
New York Philharmonic. Concerts & Tikets. http://nyphil.org/attend/season/index.cfm?page=eventsByMonth&dateRequest=12/1/2009&seasonNum=9.
Chicargo Symphony Orchestra. Season and Tickets. http://www.cso.org/ Philadelphia Orchestra. Concerts & Subscription. http://www.philorch.org/calendar.html?full_filter=all.