Tonight is Halloween and I am going to continue writing about this topic, like in the post I wrote last week.
Aforetime, it was believed that the spirits of the dead would get up and raise from the graves to "visit" the world of the living for one single night. During the Romantic era, Death was an attractive subject for all kind of artists: writers, painters, musicians... They would get carried away by the land of the fantastic and unreal things and with their works, they wanted to move us to other distant and unknown worlds.
H. Berlioz (1803-1869) wrote his "Symphony fantastique" op. 14 in 1830. It has 5 parts and each of them was assigned with a title and a text that introduces the music that is coming right behind, so the listeners have a preconceived idea. The last 2 movements, 4. Marche au suplice and 5. Songe d'une nuit de Sabbat have explicit references to the topic of the dead and some other strange beings.
Listening to this composition, one can actually have a clear picture of the story that is told in the titles and texts. The truth is that all of them are very suggestive and, besides, Berlioz was a very gifted orchestrator, taking advantage of the colors of each instrument. Thanks to his ability his music reaches the audience successfully.
In "Pictures at an Exhibition" (1874), composed by M. Mussorgsky (1839-1881), the author got his inspiration in 10 paints and drawings of his friend
Viktor Hartmann (1834-1873), who just passed away the year before. Originally, it was written for piano solo, but it is very know the version made by M. Ravel (1875-1937).
Among the 10 pieces, there are 2 that are directly related with Halloween: 8. Catacombs y 9. The hut on hen's legs (home to Baba Yaga, a wicked witch that likes to eat children).
"Night on Bald Mountain" (1867) was written by Mussorgsky too. The composer used a story of Nikolai Gógol (1809-1852) where a countryman witnesses a witches coven during the night in the mountain.
About this piece, I wrote a few lines in this post about Disney and the music.
Here is an orchestral version and here is the Disney fragment (in the long film "Fantasy" of 1940), images are gothic and terrifying!
A. Lyadov (1855-1914) was a Russian composer barely know, nowadays, but I believe that his music should rank higher: it is very interesting and of a remarkable quality. He wrote several compositions that are related to the topic of these days: Baba Yaga op. 56, Kikimora op. 63 and From the Apocalypse op. 66.
All of them are easy to find (once more, YouTube comes to the rescue!).
El third movement of G. Mahler's (1860-1911) first symphony "Titan" starts with the melody of "Frère Jacques" (or "Bruder Martin", in German). In a funeral march pace, it sounds gloomy and mournful. This is a highly recommended video with Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel (1981) where he rehearses the piece in front of a crowded auditorium.
In the first post about music and Halloween I briefly mentioned a German legend about Faust, who was a savant that would make a deal with the Devil himself! Faust character has been used in several literary works* and musical pieces (like those of Wagner, Berlioz, Gounod o Liszt).
* Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's (1749-1832) is the most popular, but we can take a look of Thomas Mann's (1875-1955) Doktor Faustus too.
Next, in the second half of this post about Halloween, I would like to focus in a type of musical composition called "Requiem", or masses for the dead, they were composed as a tribute to the deceased ones. The name comes from the first phrase of the Introito because it starts with "Requiem aeternam dona eis".
Many, many composers have written one or more masses to the dead: H. I. Biber (1644-1704), J. D. Zelenka (1679-1745), M. Haydn (1737-1806), L. Cherubini (1760-1842), H. Berlioz (1803-1869), A. Bruckner (1824-1896), R. Schumann (1810-1856), G. Fauré (1845-1924), C. Gounod (1818-1893), M. Duruflée (1902-1986), G. Verdi (1813-1901), A. Dvorak (1841-1904), G. Ligeti (1923-2006), I. Stravinsky (1882-1971), A. Schinittke (1934-1998), etc., just to name some of them.
One of the oldest Requiem is Missa pro defunctis of J. Ockeghem (c. 1410-1497), composed in 1461.
Spanish C. de Morales (1500-1553) wrote more than one Missa pro defunctis. These are early models of Requiem were intended just for singers (no instruments taking part in the homage).
The most celebrated is, without a doubt, the one composed by W. A. Mozart (1756-1791). His Requiem KV 622 was the last work he created. Actually, Mozart died before he could finish it. It became famous, partly, thanks to the film "Amadeus" (1984), even though there are some inaccurate facts. For me, it is surprising how all the energy in the "Dies Irae" falls into the emotional "Lacrimosa".
The development and evolution of the musical language allowed that the Requiem composed after the earlier ones were longer, more complex and dense. Instruments were added to the voices. And occasionally, some of those masses were not addressed to the churches or cathedrals, walking away from their original purposes.
Renowed "Ein Deutsches Requiem" op. 45 of J. Brahms (1833-1897) is different because it was composed for the Lutherans and it was not exclusively focus from the liturgical approach.
B. Britten (1913-1976) is the composer of "War Requiem" op. 66. The piece was devoted to the fallen in the Second World War. On the other hand, "A World Requiem" op. 60 written by J. Foulds (1880-1939), was dedicated to those that had died during First World War. While listening to these music, I feel like the composers try to make us think over the futility of wars and would like us to consider peace as the right tool to live.
I promised to offer a SURPRISE this week, but (believe me!) I have been extremely busy and I couldn't prepare it properly. I am very sorry, I will put it off for a few weeks and try to make it happen on another occasion. But I can assure you: it will be very special.
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the music I pointed out in the sections of the post, and have a spooky night!
See you around!
Comments