Laboring Music

 Labor Day celebrates workers, which includes pianists and other musicians. Here is a sampling of classical music that honors labor. While most of these pieces were not originally composed for the piano, arrangements for piano are usually available.

Probably the most renown piece that celebrates labor is Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, which honors those who fought in WWII. In response, Joan Tower wrote Fanfares for the Uncommon Woman, which is scored identically to Copland’s Fanfare. Copland also honored cowboys in his ballet Rodeo; the selection “Hoe-Down” is frequently performed on the piano.

For most of civilization, farming has been the job of the majority of people. Schumann's “The Happy Farmer” is one piece from his collection Album for the Young,  which was written for his own children to teach them about the piano. All the pieces are relatively easy to play, unlike the work of the farmer.

Traditionally, learning a job was done through apprenticeships. Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice musically demonstrates how a little knowledge can do damage.

Satie's Sonatine Bureaucratique is a humorous parody of Clementi's Sonatina Op. 36 No. 1. It musically depicts the daily life of the Parisian bureaucrat.

Another pointed message about labor is conveyed in Antheil’s Ballet Mecanique. It was written the same year as Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and focuses on urban labor. In this case, the repetitiveness of factory work is emphasized.

On the other hand, Verdi’s Il Trovatore is best known through its “Anvil Chorus”, sung by gypsies who are proud of their hard work.

The sometimes-troubling life of the worker is depicted in music as well. Mozart’s Figaro, a valet, has trouble with his Count master in The Marriage of Figaro. Later, in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Figaro becomes a barber, but still has troubles with the Count.  Bizet’s Carmen follows the deeper troubles of a seductive cigarette worker.

Workers’ hard labor often led to unionization. Arnold’s Peterloo Overture was written for the 1968 centenary of the Trade Union Congress.

This Labor Day, we honor the labor of pianists and other musicians everywhere who make our labor a little easier to bear.

Animated Piano

Tomoko enjoys films, and appreciates the music that is incorporated into them. 

One specialized type of film is animated films, which started almost as early as “real life” films. As examples,, Gertie the Dinosaur in 1914 and the first feature-length animated film el Apostol in 1917 greatly attracted audiences. These silent films were often accompanied by piano and organ music, and classical pieces were sometimes used because of their familiarity. Even modern animated films, especially cartoons, continue to incorporate classical pieces. Here is a sampling.

One of most well known cartoons that used classical music was Bugs Bunny’s What’s Opera Doc?, which featured Wagner’s Tannhӓuser chorus. Wagner is less well known for his piano compositions. For instance, his Wesendonck Lieder for piano and voice were studies for Tristan and Isolde.

Several other classical piano pieces have become tropes for cartoons because of their vivid connotations:

·         Rachmaninov’s Prelude in C# Minor

·         Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody

·         Mendelssohn’s “Spring Song” from Leider ohne Worter

·         Rimsky’ Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumble Bee

Probably the first full-length animated movie that comes to mind when linked to classical music is Disney’s 1940 Fantasia. Piano composers who were featured in that movie included:

·         Johann Sebastian Bach with his organ music Toccata and Fugue in D minor

·         Tchaikovsky with his Nutcracker Suite; Percy Grainger arranged the Flower Waltz for piano, and Mikhail Pletnev adapted seven segments of the Nutcracker into a concert suite for piano

·         Paul Dukas with his Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which he also transcribed for two pianos

·         Stravinski with his Rite of Spring, which was also composed as a two-hand and four-hand arrangement

·         Mussorgsky with his Night on Bald Mountain, for which he had written a version for piano and orchestra

·         Franz Schubert with his Ave Maria, for which Franz Liszt arranged in three versions for piano.

 Animated films have helped to popularize classical piano, including exposing children at an early age, to animate their interest. Tomoko would approve.