by David B. Levy
Festive Overture, Op. 96 (arranged for brass ensemble by Øivind Westby)
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, one of the Soviet Union’s greatest composers, was born in Saint Petersburg on September 12, 1906 and died in Moscow on August 9, 1975. Although he composed in a wide variety of genres, he is best known for his fifteen symphonies, works that stand among the finest examples of the genre from the mid-twentieth century. His Festive Overture, a work that ostensibly was composed to celebrate the thirty-seventh anniversary of the October Revolution, was first performed by the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra on November 6, 1954 under the baton of Alexander Melik-Pashayev. This arrangement was created for the Norwegian Brass Ensemble in 2010 by Øivind Westby.
Shostakovich is not known primarily as an “optimistic” composer. Even in his most triumphant scores, such as the finale of his popular Symphony no. 5, one senses an ironic edge surrounding its bravado fanfares and pounding kettledrums. This composer, who lived through and survived, the vicissitudes of Soviet Russia, was at his most characteristic when expressing melancholy and sarcasm.
None of these traits, however, mark his unabashedly cheerful and glitzy Festive Overture. The piece was written in great haste when Vasili Nebol’sin commissioned his colleague, Shostakovich, to provide a short work suitable to celebrate the thirty-seventh anniversary of the October (1917) Revolution. According to Lev Nikolayevich Lebedinsky (related in Elizabeth Wilson’s 1994 book, Shostakovich: A Life Remembered), the commission was a lucrative one sought after by many composers. Realizing that the date of the concert for which a commemorative piece was required was rapidly approaching, Nebol’sin beseeched Shostakovich to bail him out of his dilemma. Lebedinsky goes on to relate that Shostakovich worked at lightning-quick speed, producing a “brilliant effervescent work, with . . . vivacious energy spilling over like uncorked champagne.”
After a rousing brass fanfare, the music rushes forward, nodding strongly in the direction of Glinka’s popular overture (1842) to Russlan and Ludmilla, in a highly conventional and conservative form and harmony. The Festive Overture is crowned with a amplified return of the fanfare toward the end.
Symphony in D Major, Op. 11, no. 2
Joseph Bo[u]logne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges
Composer and violinist Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges was born in Baillif, Guadeloupe on December 25, 1745 and died in Paris, June 9, 1799. He is one of 18th-century music history’s most intriguing figures, long known mainly to music historians but relatively unknown to audiences until recently. Interest in composers of color has led to world-wide renewed interest in his life and music, both of which have allowed his music to emerge from the relative, and undeserved, obscurity. As a result, audiences are discovering not only a fresh musical voice from the past, but have restored Bologne’s reputation as a master of many skills, including his fame as a champion fencing master. His Symphony no. 2 in D Major is in three movements and dates, as best as we can tell, from the 1770s. Also known for his operas, the composer reused the work in as an overture to his opera, L’amant Anonyme (The Anonymous Lover). It is scored for 2 oboes, 2 horns, and strings.
As a graduate student in musicology, the name of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges was brought to my attention by Professor Barry Brook of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Brook, whose expertise was in 18th-century music, shared with me and my fellow aspiring musicologists the importance of this composer in the development of the genre known as the symphonie concertante; a cross between symphony and concerto for t wo or more instruments. This type of composition was especially popular in Paris, but fine examples stemmed from the pens of Haydn, Mozart, and others.
Bologne was the son of a white planter, George Bologne, and his African slave Nanon. The title Chevalier de Saint-Georges became official when his father acquired the title of Gentilhomme ordinaire de la Chambre du roi. The family resettled in France in 1753, after which Joseph began his tutelage as a champion swordsman, leading eventually to his earning the title of Gendarme de la Garde du Roi as well as the title of Chevalier. After George Bologne returned to Guadeloupe, Joseph, who became the beneficiary of an annuity created by his father, remained in France, becoming the darling of the elite, partly based on his expertise as a fencing master. None other than John Adams dubbed him as “the most accomplished man in Europe in riding, shooting, dancing, fencing, and music.”
Much less is known of his early musical training, although evidence suggests he was already known in musical circles as early as early as 1764, based largely on his skill as a violinist and composer. He soon became the leader (concertmaster) of a new orchestra, the Concerts des Amateurs. This opportunity led to his composition of two concertos for violin that demonstrated his extraordinary skills as a virtuoso. Under his guidance, the orchestra of the Amateurs became on of Europe’s leading ensembles.
His success led in 1776 to a proposal that Joseph be named director of the Paris Opéra, but racism reared its ugly head as a faction petitioned Queen Marie Antionette refused to be governed by a mulatto. Louis XVI decided to nationalize the institution, thus blunting Saint-Georges’ critics. As a result, the composer turned his attention increasingly toward the composition of operas. But by the 1780s, he again took up the mantle of orchestra leader and founded the Concert de la Loge Olympique, the organization that commissioned none other than the illustrious Joseph Haydn to compose his six “Paris” Symphonies (nos. 82-87). While music, opera, and fencing remained central to Saint-Georges’ life, he also became a strong advocate for equality for black people in France and England. He thus was, and once again has become, a symbol for racial equality. A man of myriad talents once again is receiving richly-deserved recognition as an important cultural figure.
His Symphony no. 2 is a cheerful work in three movements. The outer movements are exuberant representatives of the popular galant style of the Classical era, while the central slow movement, a rondo in the minor mode, adds a touch of pathos.
Symphony no. 31 in D Major, Hob. I:31 (Horn Signal)
Joseph Haydn
[Franz] Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Lower Austria on March 31, 1732 and died in Vienna on May 31, 1809. His long and productive career spanned the end of the Baroque Era to the onset of the Romantic. Famed for his incomparable contribution to the development of the symphony and string quartet, Haydn composed an enormous amount of music in other genres, including concertos, sonatas, and sacred choral music. His Symphony no. 31 in D Major was composed in 1765 for his patron, Nikolaus Esterhazy. The exact date of the first performance is undocumented, but its unusual scoring for four horns, instead of the normal two, was due to the addition of two more hornists to the Esterhazy Orchestra. It is scored for flute, 2 oboes, 4 horns, and strings.
Joseph Haydn was one of the most fortunate composers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in that, starting in 1761, he enjoyed the steady patronage of the wealthy and powerful Esterhazy family of Hungarian Princes, for whom he composed an astonishing large number of compositions. It mattered little to the younger Haydn that his workload was exceedingly heavy and that his compositions were the sole property of his employer. Greater artistic freedom would come his way eventually, as Haydn’s reputation throughout Europe grew.
Hunting was one of the most popular activities of 18th-century nobility, and the horn was the musical instrument most closely associated with this activity. The other use of the horn (actually Posthorn) was to signal the arrival of the mail coach. Several signals were commonly used to indicate various stages of the hunt. When applied to symphonic writing, composers such as Haydn often deployed horns in their scoring with the deliberate intention of evoking the idea of hunting in the ears and imaginations of their audiences. His Symphony no. 31, popularly known as “Hornsignal” is a clear example of such usage. It is helpful to bear in mind that the horns of Haydn’s day were valveless, meaning that the pitches available to them were based on the physical properties of the overtone, or harmonic, series, whereby horns could play melodies only in the highest registers, where the overtones are closer together. The hornist could also insert one of his hands in the bell of the instrument to change pitches, but this technique also affected the tone color of the affected notes.
Haydn’s Symphony no. 31 is in four movements. In addition to the prominent role given to the horns, Haydn makes frequent use of the “concertante” style of composition, whereby solo parts were assigned to the section leaders of the orchestra (violin, cello, bass), as well as to the flute and oboes. Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy provided Haydn with a first-class group of musicians, and Haydn frequently rewarded the virtuosi of his orchestra with solo passages. Nowhere is this practice more obvious than in the work’s finale, which comprises a dance-like theme with seven variations, each of which features soloists from the orchestra. As a special treat, the movement ends with what was known in 18th-century German dance music as a faster-moving Kehraus, punctuated here by a return of the horn signal heard at the beginning of the first movement.
