Arachnophonia: Elgar’s Cello Concerto, op. 85

Editor’s note: Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student manager Brianna (class of 2023) and features English composer Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto (1919). Thanks, Brianna!

Cello Concerto, Op. 85
Edward Elgar

Elgar

British composer Edward Elgar (1857-1934)

The Elgar Cello Concerto is one of the most famous and recognized concertos written for solo cello. Composed by Edward Elgar in the aftermath of World War I, this concerto first debuted in 1919 (the same year in which it was written).

The work did not become a cornerstone of solo cello repertoire until a recording by Jacqueline Du Pré caught the attention of the public. Her recording was so captivating that Rostropovich is said to have removed it from his own repertoire after hearing her play.

This piece is one of my favorite cello concertos, and while I also believe that no one can play this better than Du Pré, I greatly enjoyed my time learning from this piece. It is absolutely a work that every solo cellist should play at least once in their career!

Arachnopnonia: Tchaikovsky “Souvenir de Florence, op. 70”

Editor’s note: Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item(s) in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student manager Brianna (class of 2023) and features a score and a recording of Tchaikovksy’s string sextet “Souvenir de Florence”. Thanks, Brianna!

Tchaikovsky – Souvenir de Florence, op. 70
Score
CD

Florence, Italy

Souvenir de Florence is a chamber piece written by the great Romantic Era composer Tchaikovsky. It involves 2 violins, 2 violas, and 2 cellos all playing their own parts. I find this composition incredibly interesting because of the moments of chaos created by 6 different parts being played at once, but also because of the brilliant moments where Tchaikovsky blends the sounds of the 6 instruments incredibly well. Tchaikovsky dedicated this piece to the St. Petersburg Chamber Music Society after becoming an Honorary Member.

Souvenir de Florence score first edition

Title page of the first printed edition of Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence score

The principle theme of this piece was written during a visit to Florence, Italy, hence the title which translates to “Memory of Florence”. The first movement, in sonata form, is likely the most memorable of the 4 in the piece as it starts off with a bang and returns to the beginning theme at the end with even more energy. However, my favorite movements are the last two. These movements have distinct Russian folk-like melodies that contrast the music in the first two, and which I think are the most interesting of the 4. As a whole, I think this is my favorite chamber piece I have ever heard. Be sure to pick up the score or find it on a CD at the Music Library!

Arachnophonia: David Popper “40 Studies: High School of Cello Playing, opus 73”

Editor’s note: Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student manager Brianna (class of 2023) and features a collection of studies for cello by Austrian composer David Popper (1843-1913. Thanks, Brianna!

David Popper
40 Studies: High School of Cello Playing, op. 73

David Popper, composer (1843-1913)

David Popper, composer (1843-1913)

I, like most young cellists, have a love-hate relationship with David Popper. Popper was a prominent composer of Romantic-era cello solo music in the 19th century. He wrote four concertos, although his most played solo piece is probably “Tarantella.” What some may not know is that in addition to these concert solo pieces, he wrote a book of etudes dedicated to strengthening cello technique – 40 Studies: High School of Cello Playing. As the description might give away, the music in this book is not meant for performance in a recital or concert series. These etudes focus on playing in different positions, frequent shifting, bow control, and much more, meaning some of them sound very strange and complicated to listeners. Some musicians consider mastery of these etudes (among other things) a hallmark of a professional cellist.

While playing through such a book may sound like every aspiring young cellist’s dream, many of them are harder to play than they appear on paper. Then, considering the book has 40 separate etudes each averaging about two pages, you can only imagine how much time and dedication mastering each and every one might take. It’s a wonderful resource – if you have the patience to spend countless hours on them.

Since I was first assigned an etude out of this book, I have struggled and fumbled my way through roughly a quarter of the 40 available to me until I ended up with something I was happy with. I can’t say that I got as much joy out of this type of practice as I have on recent solo pieces I have rehearsed, but I also must admit that playing through the etudes strengthened my playing more than I could have imagined. Thumb position used to be a region of the cello I never thought I would be able to wander into confidently, but after playing Etude No. 1 and 5, I feel stronger and enjoy going high on the instrument. If you are a cellist and don’t have a copy of this book in your library, consider picking up a copy from the Music Library!

Parsons Playlists: Cellists Solo Essentials

Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today we’re featuring a collection of cello solo essentials curated by Music Library student manager Brianna (class of 2023).

This playlist includes what I find to be the most essential cello solo music to know by heart. These are some of my favorite pieces written for the cello!

Elgar Cello Concerto in E Minor

Lalo Cello Concerto in D Minor

The Swan

Bach Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, Prelude

Cello Playing

Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1

Dvorak Cello Concerto in B Minor

Kodaly Cello Sonata

Saint Saens Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor

Haydn Cello Concerto No. 1 in C Minor

Spotify Playlist:

YouTube Playlist:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU94rco57ZexX2mKkuecxWE5ejZiYnlbo

Arachnophonia: The Shanghai Quartet “The Flowing Stream: Chinese Folk Songs and Tone Poems”

Editor’s note: Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student manager Mandy (class of 2022) and features Chinese folk music as performed by the Shanghai Quartet. Thanks, Mandy!

The Shanghai Quartet
The Flowing Stream: Chinese Folk Songs and Tone Poems

The Flowing Stream album cover

The Shanghai Quartet is one of my favorite string quartets. After receiving coaching from them, I was not only able to work on my own violin techniques efficiently, but also learned to listen and appreciate string quartet music more actively. This semester, the documentary Behind the Strings, shown at the Richmond International Film Festival featured the Shanghai Quartet, so I got to learn more about each member of the quartet and how they have become so successful today.

Behind the Strings documentary film poster

One of the attributes of the Shanghai Quartet is their Chinese heritage, which I also share similar experiences with. Therefore, in the documentary, I was especially impressed and attracted to the string quartet arrangement they performed based on a number of traditional Chinese folk songs. It is well known that a string quartet is one of the most prominent and common chamber ensemble arrangements in Western Classical music. Collaborating with Chinese folk music, which is largely based on the pentatonic scale and is very different from Western classical music, Shanghai Quartet’s performance illustrates the best possible way of culture integration, as they infuse the music with their personal experiences and emotions growing up in a different cultural background.

Zhou Long, the composer of the album The Flowing Stream: Chinese Folk Songs and Tone Poems, mentioned that “for many years, I have been devoted to merging Eastern and Western cultures through my music. That has meant, specifically, the combining of ancient Chinese musical traditions and western compositional techniques into a coherent and personal statement”. The Shanghai Quartet shared similar experiences and values with Zhou; therefore, they were able to fully support his compositions through their performances.

Chinese folk songs are valued greatly because of their historical and cultural significance. Based on the album’s description, these songs mirror people’s daily lives, thoughts, and sentiments in Chinese culture. Nowadays, these songs are widely re-created and shared in the global music world. One of the songs that I found being the most representative in this album is “Jasmine Flower.” The lyrics are simple, “Jasmine flower, such a beautiful flower, her sweet scent covers all others in the garden…”. In the 2016 Chinese New Year Gala, Celine Dion performed this song with Song Zuying, a Chinese classical/folk singer. Here is a link to the performance:

Here is a link to the version arranged by Zhou Long, as performed by the Shanghai Quartet:

In this version, the first violin starts the main melody, mimicking the soprano vocal line. Then, all four strings pass the melody to each other, accompanied by pizzicatos in the rest of the voices. This arrangement focuses on the aspect that the texture of Chinese folk music is often monophonic, where only one instrument is playing or one voice is leading. To me, hearing Eastern Music performed on Western instruments always creates a different feeling.

There are also four pieces that are created from poems in the Tang Dynasty. Zhou Long composed these four pieces based on four different poems for string quartet and orchestra. The four poems are:

01. I. Hut Among the Bamboo, by Wang Wei (701-706)

02. II. Old Fisherman, by Liu Zongyuan (773-819)

03. III. Hearing the Monk Xun, Play the Qin by Li Bai (701-762)

04. IV. Song of Eight Unruly Tipsy Poets, by Du Fu (712-770)

To me, Zhou Long’s inspirations in these four pieces derived from the original poem verses. He emphasized on the meaning of these verses and added his feelings into his composition. I am able to have visual interpretations from his music. For example, in the first piece – “Hut Among the Bamboo,” the rests between different parts, the pizzicatos, and the shifting harmonics vividly presented an image of being in a bamboo forest alone. Meanwhile, I do find the composition style really similar to some characteristics in Igor Stravinsky’s music, as they are both contemporary pieces.

New CDs added in March!

New CDs for March 2018

Concertos, Chamber and Orchestral Music

Francois Devienne – Flute Concertos Nos. 9-12
Jennifer Higdon – All Things Majestic / Viola Concerto / Oboe Concerto
Jennifer Higdon – Piano Trio / Voices / Impressions

Higdon - All Things Majestic

Sheku Kanneh-Mason – Inspiration

Sheku Kanneh-Mason - Inspiration

Jeffrey LaDeur – Debussy & Rameau: The Unbroken Line
Alon Sariel – Telemandolin

Alon Sariel - Telemandolin

Arnold Schoenberg – String Quartets 2 & 4 / Gringolts Quartet
Kai Schumacher – Beauty in Simplicity

Kai Schumacher - Beauty in Simplicity

Jazz

Behn Gillece – Walk of Fire
Aaron Goldberg – The Now

Justin Kauflin – Dedication
Jimmy McGriff – The Best of the Sue Years, 1962-1965

Jimmy McGriff

Thelonious Monk – Solo Monk
Mostly Other People Do The Killing – Red Hot
Oneness of Juju – Space Jungle Luv

Oneness of JuJu - Space Jungle Luv

Gregory Porter – Nat “King” Cole & Me
Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet – Intents and Purposes

Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet

Opera, Opera Excerpts and Art Songs

Daron Hagen – After Words : 21st-Century Song Cycles

Daron Hagen 21st Century Song Cycles

Choral Music

Benjamin Britten – A Ceremony of Carols / Friday Afternoons / Three Two-Part Songs
Luminos – In Lucem
John Turner – Christmas Card Carols

Luminos - In Lucem

Folk and World Music

The James Connolly Songs of Freedom Band – Songs of Freedom
Various Artists – Andina, the Sound of the Peruvian Andes : Huyano, Carnaval & Cumbia, 1968 to 1978

Andina

Popular Music

Various Artists – Caribbean in America, 1915-1962
Steven Wright-Mark – My Plastic World …

Caribbean in America