May (Birth) Day for Piano Composers

 Several of Tomoko’s favorite composers were Romantics and were born in May. Here is a sampling of them.

Wagner was born on May 22, 1813, in Leipzig and died in 1883 in Venice. He was particularly known for his Romantic operas.  His lieder that were often performed in the original piano version.

Brahms was born on May 7, 1833, in Hamburg, and died in 1987in Vienna.  His Romantic approach was exhibited in his professional piano composing, performing and conducting. When he toured, he met with several famous peers: Liszt, Wagner, Berlioz, and the Schumans. Most of his music was written for vocal performance, but he also wrote two piano concertos.

Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Russia and died in 1893 in St. Petersburg. A Romantic composer, he was the first internationally renown composers. His piano music was often targeted to the home market, which increased its popularity. Tchaikovsky started piano lessons at age five, and was quite proficient by age ten, but then he was forced to be trained to become a civil servant. As an adult, he received Western musical theory training, which he merged with his Russian musical upbringing.

Massenet was born on May 12, 1842, in Montaud, France and died on 1912 in Paris. Similarly to Wagner, Massenet is most known for his 30+ Romanic operas, altjough he also wrote piano pieces. To earn a living Massenet started as a private piano teacher and a piano accompanist. His first published composition was a substantial piano work in nine sections.

Fauré was born on May 12, 1845, in Pamiers, France, and died in 1924 in Paris. Fauré’s compositions bridged Romanticism and Modernism.  Although not born into a musical family, he showed promise before the age of ten, and he was trained to be a church organist. However, he preferred the piano to the organ. It was only in middle age that he had enough time to compose, escaping from Paris to focus in the countryside.

Here Comes the Bridal Piano

 

In the US, June has been the traditional month for weddings. Music is also a traditional part of weddings, and piano piece figure largely. Here is a sampling, all written by composers whom Tomoko admires.

The traditional standard wedding piece is Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Opus 61: IX. Wedding March.  It is often performed in the movies (perhaps because it is in the public domain). A less known wedding choice composed by Mendelssohn, but very endearing, is his “On Wings of Song.”

Tomoko’s favorite piano composer, Mozart, wrote “Serenade, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, K 525: II. Romanza-Andante.“ Its stately, measured pace give the wedding ceremony sweet gravitas. To set a more lively yet majestic tone, the wedding couple might choose Mozart’s overture to The Marriage of Figaro. Or if the couple wants to exult, they can always choose Mozart’s “Alleluja” from Exsultate, Jubilate, K 165.

Planning an elegant and sophisticated wedding? Then Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Arioso” would set the tone. Tomoko appreciates his timeless structure and use of chords.

Beethoven’s love letter in music, “Fur Elise,” resonates even today, and couples can affirm their own requited love. Tomoko knows that this famous piano piece may serve as a rite of passage for aspiring piano players.

“Claire de lune” from Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque is another favorite (as is Debussy for Tomoko). Its dreamy soft theme creates a lovely background for weddings.

Another romantic choice is Saint-Saens’ “The Swan” from his Carnival of the Animals. Its almost melancholy tone that resolves into a major key reflects the transition from singlehood to couplehood.

Another favorite composer of Tomoko, Edvard Grieg, is known for his “Wedding Day at Troldhauen, Opus 65, No. 6.” It bears a surprising resemblance to The King and I’s “March of the Siamese Children.”

For the bride’s entrance, Strauss’s Radetzky March” Opus 228 makes a bold statement. Strauss’s “Blue Danube” evokes the spirit of Vienna. And while waltzes are not the usual fare at wedding receptions, imagine how lovely the bride and groom would look if this were their first dance.

Tomoko also enjoys the dance music of Brahms. His piece “Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G Minor” strikes a special chord for Tomoko as she married a Hungarian.

The Nationalistic Influence of Albéniz

Several of Tomoko’s favorite piano composers draw largely from their cultural background: Liszt, Chopin, Bartok, to name a few. Another culturally-informed composer of piano music is the lesser known Isaac Albéniz. Tomoko performs “Granada” from his Suite Española in her album "Baroque - 2oth Century."

Isaac Albéniz was born in Catalonia in 1860, and began performing on the piano publicly at age ten. He toured worldwide, facilitated by his customs agent father who traveled frequently. Although he studied in Brussels and later gave concert tours throughout Europe, Albéniz was encouraged to draw from his Spanish heritage. 

Albéniz wrote mainly for the piano. One of his main piano compositions was Suite Española, written during his middle period. It lightly paints a music picture of various Spanish regions and their musical styles. The suite is known for its delicate intricate melodies and dramatic transitions. The piece that Tomoko performed, “Granada,” reflects a Romantic sensibility. It has been transcribed for guitar, and considered a staple in that form ever since its original composition was launched in 1887. 

Albéniz is known for his rebirth of Spanish nationalism, which evoked Spanish melodic elements but did not slavishly replicate Spanish folk music. 

Tomoko considers folk music as the soul of a culture, and a musical inspiration for composers.

As Fresh as Fauré

Gabriel Fauré and Tomoko shared several details in life. Both played the organ for Catholic mass. Both taught piano after than graduated from college. Tomoko enjoys both Romanticism and modernism, which Fauré bridged. And Tomoko performs Fauré’s compositions.

Fauré was born in 1845 in southern France, and was trained in religious music. One of his teachers, Camille Saint-Saëns, introduced Fauré to contemporary music; they stayed friends until Saint-Saëns’ death sixty years later. Saint-Saëns also inspired Fauré to travel abroad, during which time he met Liszt and Wagner. In his turn, decades later, Fauré taught future composers Ravel, Roger-Ducasse and Boulanger among others.

 Fauré started composing under Saint-Saëns but was waylaid by the Franco-Prussian War in which he fought. Not surprisingly, his compositions had a dark hue. Nor did he ever compose for the organ. He mainly wrote for piano, although one of his first masterpieces was a violin sonata. He also created art songs, operas, chamber works, and incidental music for plays. Fauré was considered a modernist with his harmonies, and his composition style maintained a freshness throughout his life.

One of Fauré’s pieces that Tomoko enjoys playing is Sicilienne, which was originally a work for cello and piano and eventually was arranged for a full orchestra as a four-movement suite. This piece, one of his most famous, reflects several of Fauré’s signature stylistic details. He uses modal effects in a mixed major-minor scale, giving rise to medieval-sounding cadences, and his altered chords lead to harmonic ambiguities. The result iss slightly haunting.

Tomoko too maintains a fresh attitude in her teaching and her performance, which keeps her spirit young.

Singing Sibelius

Sibelius was one of the featured composers at Tomoko’s November concert. Miwako Isano sang soprano, and Tomoko accompanied her.

Sibelius is considered Finland’s greatest composer and helped develop his country’s national identity, even though his songs were written in his mother tongue Swedish. He drew upon the Finnish landscape in his tone poems, and he captured the spirit of Finland in his patriotic works. 

Jean Sibelius was born in 1865 and died in 1957. Sibelius’s family vacationed on the coast each summer, which started his love of nature: picturesque, primitive and sublime. 

Although he started with piano, Sibelius turned to the violin and considered going professional, but he chose to become a composer instead.

Varen flyktar hastigt (Spring flies fast), Opus 13 No. 4 was one of a set of seven songs with lyrics by Runeberg, published in 1982; the opus was his first publication with his name on the title page. The song elegantly captures the essence of Nordic seasons. Sibelius had just returned to Finland from Vienna, and wanted to express Finnish culture in his music through incorporating the tonalities of traditional folk music such as natural-minor tonics and accentuating Finnish language rhythms. At that time Finland underwent a national romanticism, partly in protest to Russia’s looming preoccupation of the country.

The end of the 19^th century marked the most productive time for Sibelius in composing songs that were performed the most often in Europe at the time and globally since then. The songs were generally melancholy and even chilling in effect.  

The duet performed two songs from the 1899 Opus 36: Demanten pa massnon (The diamond on the March snow) and Säf, säf, susa (Reed, reed, rustle). The former uses a diatonic approach to express the transition of seasons. The latter bemoans the cruel treatment of a young woman in love, using a metaphor of crashing nature. 

Their final selection was the last song in the Opus 37 five-series set, published in 1901. Flickan kom ifran sin alskings mote (The girl returned from meeting her lover). The song expresses a traditional sense of lost innocence and sexual change. It also became one of Sibelius’s most celebrated pieces. 

Even though Sibelius touted Finnish nationalism, his songs resonate universally.