Music to Mothers’ Ears

 

Tomoko celebrated Mothers’ Day celebrated recently, and music composers have celebrated mothers throughout the year for centuries. Here is a sampling of pieces that are These pieces are mother-approved.

Robert Schumann’s cycle of eight songs, “Frauen-Liebe und Leben” (“A Woman’s Life and Love”), follows a woman’s life of falling in love, marrying, and, becoming a mother. It has a very happy tone, but Schumann’s wife did not like the distraction of motherhood from her own musical career.

Richard Strauss’s piece “Muttertändelei” (“Mother-chatter”) recounts a mother’s praise of her child. It was written two years after Strauss’s wife gave birth to their son Franz.

Among Dvorak’s collection of gypsy songs is “Songs My Mother Taught Me.” One of his most famous melodies, this piece tells of a mother teaching her children the songs she herself learned from her mother.

Dvorak’s daughter was composer Josef Suk’s mother – and the inspiration for Suk’s piece pieces “About Mother, which were written for his children.

Ravel was another composer who wrote for children. Ma Mere l’Oye (or Mother Goose) His piano duet suite is a piano duet composed for his friend’s children.

Speaking of Mother Goose, Christina Rossetti penned nursery rhymes that were put to music in 1918 by John Ireland to become Mother and Child.  

The 1910 piano piece “Empress of Night” was a husband and wife effort; Amy Beach composed the music and her husband wrote the text. The piece was dedicated to Amy’s mother.

Fall for these September Composers

 It is the start of the school year in many countries, and it is the month that several famous piano composers were born. Here are six examples, each with unique experiences.

Anton Bruckner was born on September 4, 1824, in Ansfelden, Austria. Most of his piano compositions were written for teaching purposes. Besides composing, Bruckner was a well-known organist and taught organ performance.

Antonin Dvorak was born on September 8, 1841, in Nelahozeves, Czech Republic. Known for his Romantic era nationalism in his music, he later became the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in the U.S.

Arnold Schoenberg was born on September 13, 1874, in Vienna. He is known for transforming how musical harmony is treated. Not only did he compose music, but also he taught and wrote, and was a music theorist. Although a teacher, he himself was largely self-taught in terms of learning about music and composition.

Gustav Holst was born on September 21, 1874, in Cheltenham, UK. Like Dvorak, Holst was inspired by—and promoted—English folk songs. He started composing at age 12, but his father wanted him to become a professional pianist; with his poor eyesight and asthma, Holst found piano playing difficult so he stayed with composing.

Dmitri Shostakovich was born on September 25, 1906 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. His mother started giving him piano lessons when he was nine years old. Four years later he composed a funeral march in memory of political murders. He started his professional career as a concert pianist and composer, but was more successful in the latter arena.

George Gershwin was born on September 26, 1898, in New York City. He began as a song plugger and recorded piano rolls, where he discovered jazz. However, he was also influenced by neo-classical composers, including the September composers Shostakovich, and Schoenberg.

Try to Remember the Piano Composers of September

 September is known as the typical month to start the school year. It’s also a popular month for piano composers to be born. Here is a sampling.

September 1, 1854: Engelbert Humperdinck. Known for his opera Hansel and Gretel, Humperdinck first composed it as a set of songs, with piano accompaniment, for his nieces’ puppet show.

September 1, 1661: Georg Bohm. This German organist and composer wrote for the keyboard, and is known for his improvisational style of playing. Bohn and Bach were close friends.

September 4, 1824: Antonin Bruckner. Austrian composer Anton Bruckner starting playing the organ as a child, and gave organ lessons as an adult. He didn’t start composing seriously until almost in his 40s, and was not widely recognized until his 60s. Most of his piano works were written for teaching purposes.

September 8, 1841: Antonin Dvorak. Czech composer Antonin Dvorak also drew on his native Slavic folk dance forms in his piano duet piece Slavonic Dances. Moravian and other Eastern European traditional music forms also inspired him.

September 13, 1819: Clara Schumann. Besides being an accomplished composer, Clara Schumann was the professional pianist in the family. She was also a great business partner and confidante for Schuman, and edited his work after he died.  

September 13, 1874: Arnold Schoenberg. Born to a Jewish family in Austria, Schoenberg largely taught himself how to play the piano, even though his mother was a piano teacher. Later on he too became a music teacher even though he is more known for developing the twelve-tone method of composition.

September 16, 1887: Nadia Boulanger. While she did not think she was an accomplished composer, Boulanger was a gifted composer teacher. Gershwin wanted to study under her, but she refused as she didn’t want to stifle his more popular style. She also performed on the organ and piano.

September 25, 1906: Dmitri Shostakovich. Even as a child, Dmitra showed a gift for the piano and music in general. At age 13 he entered the Petrograd Music Conservatory, and he wrote his first symphony at age 19. Much of his work was theatrical, and he was known for his film music. Nevertheless, he also wrote for the piano, including waltzes.

September 26, 1898: George Gershwin. Like Schoenberg, Gershwin’s family was Jewish. Interestingly, Gershwin and Schoenberg were friends and tennis partners in the States. His first compositions were Broadway theater works, but he composed and performed popular, jazz and classical genres.

Past into the Future: Video Games and Classical Music

 

Music has been associated with games for millennia with fighting songs and victory anthems. Music has also played a key role in video games. Particularly as technical advances have enabled video games to include whole symphonic music, classical pieces have been incorporated (and public domain status has also helped in terms of copyright and royalties). Especially as San Diego Comic-Con is happening, now is a good time to sample classical piano pieces that have been used in video games. Even Tomoko might be surprised at the ways that her favorite composers have been integrated into this recent game format.

Starting with the obvious, Eternal Sonata is an RPG (role-playing games) about a composer’s life, its premise being Chopin’s dying dream. Among the pieces featured in this game is a remixed version of Chopin’s “Revolutionary” etude, Opus 10, no. 12 in C minor, used in the game’s final battle scene.

Another natural use of classical music is experienced in the video game franchise Civilization. Ever since the first game in 1991, famous classical pieces have served as thematic ties for events and leaders. Pieces range from Gregorian chants to Romantic Age compositions by Brahms, Dvorak and Saint-Saens to underscore the historic period.

On the other hand, Debussy is probably not the first name that comes to mind, particularly for sinister games. Nevertheless, his Claire de Lune is featured in the game The Evil Within. The piece is used as a counter to horror, reassuring the player that safety is nearby.

Speaking of dark games, Schubert’s “Ave Maria” (aka “Ellen’s Third Song” from Seven Songs from Walter Scott’s The Lady of the Lake) starts the game Hitman: Blood Money. Its peaceful tone is almost an ironic counterpoint to this violent game.  

On a more positive note, Mozart and Bioshock? 2013’s Bioshock Infinite includes a visit to a Hall of Heroes memorial, which mood is accentuated with a section from Mozart’s Requiem in D minor.

Disney characters rule in the game Kingdom Hearts. It’s not surprising, then, that the game’s music would draw from Disney’s movie Fantasia, specifically Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain.

Speaking of kingdoms, in the game Earthworm Jim 2, the main character must save the princess from an archvillain.  Beethoven’s third movement rondo “Moonlight” from his Piano Sonata no. 14 in C# minor plays in the background. The sonata’s first movement underscores Jim’s floating through a creature’s intestine. This sonata may never feel the same after that experience.

The game Grand Theft Auto III uses a clever ploy: the car’s classical music radio state, complete with a parodied culture vulture DJ. The player drives around creating chaos, accompanied by background music from Le Nozze di Figaro, La Traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor, Rigoletto, and Don Giovanni.

You never know where classical music will pop up; it’s that popular.

For Freedom and Independence

 

In July several countries celebrate the spirit of freedom and independence: National Canada Day on July 1, the U.S. Independence Day on July 4, France’s Bastille Day on July 14, to name a few. Such patriotic fervor has long time roots. And it reverberates today as much as ever in our hearts.

 Tomoko places a high value on freedom and independence. She was a very brave young woman seeking opportunity when she left Japan for the United States, and she was worked hard as an independent woman, breaking ground as the first Asian woman teacher at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, for instance.

Composers have also revered freedom and independence through their piano music.

One of Tomoko’s favorite composers, Frederic Chopin, was one of the first composers to incorporate nationalistic elements into his compositions: mainly through the folk idiom of his mazurkas and polonaises.

Another Polish composer, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, was also inspirited by Polish folk music such as his Polish Fantasy for piano and orchestra. Paderewski became a diplomat and spokesman for Polish independence.

The founder of the Russian national school of composition, Mikhail Glinka highlighted Russian culture in his subjects and melodies, as exemplified in his Capriccio on Russian themes for piano duet.

Czech composer Antonin Dvorak also drew on his native Slavic folk dance forms in his piano duet piece Slavonic Dances. Moravian and other Eastern European traditional music forms also inspired him.

Another one of Tomoko’s favorite composers, Franz Liszt, was known as a Hungarian nationalist. In that vein, he based his Hungarian Rhapsodies for piano  on traditional  art songs performed by Romani band.

Following Liszt’s model, Hungarian Bela Bartok, was inspired by Magyar folk melodies, which were well times with his society’s interested in traditional nature culture. An interesting example are 80 folk tunes collected in the two-volume set For Children.

Edvard Grieg helped create a national identity through his compositions, which were inspired by Norwegian folk music. Grieg recorded many of his own piano works.  

Finlandia is the ultimate patriotic song, composed by Jean Sibelius.

Tomoko enjoys the freedom and independence that are expressed in these European piano composers. In that respect, their value of traditional musical form expresses a sense of communal  culture and independence that transcends any nationalism.

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