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In his Tatra Album, originally written for piano four hands, he brought to bear, upon those popular melodies, his own harmonic and contrapuntal ingenuity, while admirably preserving the original spirit. Paderewski listened with rapture, in his young days, to the tunes of Bartek Obrochta and other self-taught fiddlers, and wrote down many of their tunes. Their music, too-vital, vigorous and free, impregnated with gypsy influences-has a peculiar fragrance and original physiognomy. Inhabited by a gifted, highly imaginative, proud, indomitable race, it has developed an art-style all its own which, in the architectural, plastic and decorative fields, is being fostered and promoted by artists. Paderewski, in turn, has been the champion of the Polish mountain-side, to which he paid a tribute in his opera, Manru, and before, in his Tatra Album.īeneath the rugged, rocky peaks of the Tatra Mountains, on the Slovakian border, lay the beautiful valley of Zakopane. Moniuszko, in his songs and operas, remained for ever under the spell of the tunes of Polish borderlands, those songful Dumkas, of which his own airs seem but a prolongatioin. Chopin, brought up in Warsaw, has echoed and idealized the rhythms and soul of the Mazovian plain. The regional aspects of Polish folk-music are interesting in their relation to representative Polish musicians. Recapitulation follows and the piece ends in the jolly mood of the beginning.ĭeux Dances Montagnardes (B-flat major, D major from Tatra Album, Nos. An English horn motive, tinged with gentle melancholy, is resumed by the lower strings after some capricious flute arabesques. The middle section in slower pace and dreamy mood is somewhat in the nature of a solo dance. The Intermezzo is a brisk Mazurka in its first part, verging on the type called in Poland “Oberek.”
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It is redolent, throughout, of the Polish national idiom. It consists of four movements: Thème Varié, Intermède Polonais, Réverie and Cracovienne, the last two intertwined. The Suite from which the Intermède Polonais is extracted, was performed in America for the first time by the New York Philharmonic in 1915, Josef Stransky conducting. Sigismond Stojowski has long been identified with American musical life as a composer, pianist and teacher, in New York City. Thou alone, great prairie, remainest changeless, eternally beautiful and calm. Now all is still and dumb, ended are the struggles: the warriors lie in their graves. Far and wide resounded the battle cries and the clashing of swords. There, the flutes of shepherds mingled with the melancholy songs of the Cossacks, to the accompaniment of lutes and drums. Thy unfathomable vastness have echoed the rustle of the wings of the Hussars and the clatter of their horses’ hoofs. Hail, glorious prairie! I greet thee with song. The following “motto” is affixed to the score: A contrasting second theme in B-flat minor in the woodwinds, supported by a counter-melody in the strings, punctuated by a pulsating accompaniment of harps, seems to suggest some distant cavalcade.
#CHOPIN SCHERZO 2 PROGRAM NOTES FULL#
Some characteristic rumblings announce the appearance of the main theme, Maestoso, E-flat major, 3-4 time, for full orchestra, in martial vein. The strings, divided into eight parts, slowly move in widespread harmony, while the doubling of the melodic outline in the high register by a piccolo lends a peculiar sensation of vastness. In The Prairie, a beautiful slow introduction forms a very natural and picturesque kind of frame. The main outlines of the sonata form, as applied to the overture, are preserved, while a literary program conditions the prevailing moods and symphonic development. Noskowski conceived his two symphonic poems, Morskie Oko , and Step , “in the form of the overture!” The plan is a sort of compromise between absolute and descriptive music. Step has been played by the Boston Symphony Orcehstra under Dr. Of his may works covering a wide range of styles and forms, only the piano-quartette in D minor and the present symphonic poem have been heard in America. Endowed with a fertile imagination, substantiated by solid knowledge, he contributed, more than anyone, by his example and teachings, to the development of young musical Poland. Sigismond Noskowski probably was the first Polish composer of the post-romantic era, fully equipped with modern orchestral technique. Top row: Chopin and Paderewski at twenty. Portraits of Paderewski and Chopin from the program, 1930. Noskowski | Stojowski | Paderewski | Chopin and Others