#post romantic

As a grand send-off to Russian week, I wanted to share this monumental work by Nikolai Myaskovsky. The Symphony no.6 in eb minor is the most ambitious of all his symphonies (a rare case of a 20th century prolific symphonist, he wrote 27 in total), and is written in the scale of late Romanic symphonists (especially Mahler). It is an interesting mix of Post-Romanticism and Soviet Modernism, where textures and colors can get brutal and murky, or more lyrical and luscious. The intensity of emotions in the work is likely the composer’s response to increasing political hostility, and the death of his father and other family members to post-war famines. This symphony is like a large-scale memorial to the victims of WWI, and the Revolution and Civil wars, the darkest times happening immediately after each other. The first movement is a large-scale sonata form that is full of restless pulsations. The second as whirlwinds surrounding a calmer section based on Dies Irae. The third revises the main melody of the first movement into something more glorious, before falling apart and dissipating into despair. Despite the general gloominess, solemnity, and violence that happens in the music, the ending includes a chorus singing an old Russian hymn “How Soul Left the Body”, and the orchestra drifts off in a peaceful air, maybe hoping for a better future, or maybe looking back at better times.

Strauss - Overture for the Prologue of Ariadne auf Naxos (1912)

Holst - The Planets (1916)

This might shock you, but I used to not like the Planets. I’d first heard it years ago, back in high school, and felt cold to it. I also thought it was too long. I tried listening to it a few more times over the years and it never clicked with me. So I shrugged it off as some “overrated’ music, maybe it’s only popular because of the program, or because of intro to music appreciation, or because of band students. Yesterday I was driving to work, and the Planets was playing on Sirius classical radio. I rolled my eyes and changed to my city’s classical station, but they were playing some Baroque concerto I wasn’t in the mood for, so I stuck around with the planets for the ten minute drive. I was taken in by the hypnotic and dream-like orchestration, and then colorful, fun music. So I admit I was wrong, the Planets is a great work for orchestra, and funny enough it is one of those pieces that the composer didn’t like. Holst grew to resent the Planets for taking so much attention from his other music. He was inspired by astrology, and had fun telling friend’s fortunes by palm reading and by the alignment of the planets. He was interested in the idea of the planets having an effect on the human psyche. Around that time he attended the English premiere of Schoenberg’s 5 Pieces for Orchestra, op. 16, and he bought a copy of the score. These inspirations came together and he wrote “Seven Pieces for Orchestra” based off of the astrological planets [excluding the sun and moon, and including Uranus and Neptune]. The suite has two points of focus; the first is Earth, so the order goes in the planets closest to Earth first. The second is Jupiter, which is in the middle of the suite, and acts as a mirror [for example, the suite opens loud and ends softly, Venus is serene while Uranus is vulgar, Mercury is a fun scherzo while Saturn is brooding]. It opens with Mars, an unrelenting war march with an ostinato building in intensity under brass fanfare. This dramatic writing will be the most obvious inspiration for later sci-fi film and tv soundtracks, especially John Williams’ iconic work for Star Wars. Venus is a stark contrast, opening with a calm solo horn, pentatonic winds, almost ‘pastorale’ [if the pasture were crushed under the pressure of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid]. After a wind chorale, the strings come in overhead, playing a gorgeous though angular melody. The work is also decorated with celesta chimes. Mercury is a quick scherzo, bouncing around with fluttering melodies overhead. The use of the triangle makes me think of servants in an English manor home being called. The middle section has a “grand” chorale elaboration of the theme. Jupiter is probably the most famous moment of the suite, opening with a three-note motif repeated in the strings, racing over each other as the brass introduces the grand melody. This has a great feeling of an “expanding” organic entity of sound. Timpani, brass, strings, winds, the entire orchestra blasts off with fun. The three-note theme is repeated over different modulations, then becomes the subject of what feels like a pub-song melody. After a breather, we get a new theme, a dignified and regal “chorale”. Then we bring back the energy of the opening, and the climax feels like a distortion of time as the main themes overlap, and we end on an exclamation of the three notes. Saturn was Holst’s personal favorite movement. Another stark contrast, it opens with a very quiet ostinato, like the ticking of a clock, but dull. That becomes the base for a slow build up to a crushing large climax, awe at the expanse of time itself, thinking that we are only a blip of eternity. After the echoes of the bells and the universal clock drift away, we get the gorgeous hypnotic passage I mentioned earlier, beautiful wind and string writing over soft organ droning, now seeing the beauty in this magnificence of being present in the moment of eternity. Uranus is described as a “vulgar magician”, so we get a lot of whimsical fun, shades of Dukas’ sorcerer, and we get a lot of orchestral color with modal writing, a lot of sonic “fire” and sparks. Especially the theatrical organ glisando, and the silly use of the xylophone. Finally, we get the most haunting planet, Neptune. The farthest from the sun, astronomers say that the sun looks like a bright star from this distance. Mysterious, cold, eerie. That is the music here, in unusual keys. Halfway through, we hear the moaning of a wordless choir of women, hidden off stage. They sing through, until the music drifts away [it’s instructed to slowly close the door]. This was the first major ‘fade away’ in music history, and Holst’s daughter Imogen recalls that the effect was so ethereal, you couldn’t tell the difference between the music and silence. This is probably my favorite movement of the suite for its haunting atmosphere, and the disturbing feeling of not knowing what rests beyond. 

Movements:

1. Mars, the Bringer of War

2. Venus, the Bringer of Peace

3. Mercury, the Winged Messenger

4. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity

5. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age

6. Uranus, the Magician

Jean Sibelius ( 8 December 1865 - 20 September 1957 )

Johan Halvorsen

" La Mélancolie "