Finale variation in the form of a rondo for orchestra. By Tim Munro. Picture someone you know. Perhaps an old friend, someone you miss. Think of their characteristics that make you smile: maybe a word they use often, maybe a crinkle in their forehead, maybe a way they wear their hair. What music would you match to these qualities? Here in vivid detail runs the landscape, the dances, the songs, and the joys and sorrows of its people.
Born November 22, , Lowestoft, England. Died December 4, , Aldeburgh, England. Benjamin Britten grew up on the rural English coast. He lived and breathed music, but heard little outside his home. The experience knocked him sideways. Later, Britten took composition lessons with Bridge. Britten was challenged to find his own musical voice through a finely honed technique. The two became friends, playing tennis, heading off on frequent road trips.
Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge is a sweetly generous thank you note, a portrait of a treasured friend. Here is Bridge as Britten knew him, a man of deep intensity and seriousness, of boyish enthusiasm and energy.
His subtle harmonies shift like sand, his string ensemble produces countless colors. And there is a strain of melancholy living just below the surface of the music. Listening guide. Introduction and theme.
Variation 1: Adagio. Variation 2: March. Variation 3: Romance. The serious Bridge shows his tender side. Variation 4: Aria Italiana. The first of three parody variations. Bach, hardened into brittleness—an oddball dance.
Variation 6: Wiener walzer. Britten and Bridge playing late-night waltzes after several beers, perhaps? Variation 7: Moto perpetuo.
Variation 8: Funeral march. Variation 9: Chant. Variation Fugue and finale. Scoring : Strings. Approximate performance time : 25 minutes. Born March 7, , Ciboure, France.
Died December 28, , Paris, France. A London apartment, Ravel asks for another. Then another. Ravel was internationally famous, but he nursed scars, from the First World War, from the death of his mother.
In , an episode of depression forced him to temporarily abandon a long-promised sonata for violin and piano. Tzigane begins with a long, rhapsodic violin solo. The full force of her personality seems to have made up for any technical shortcomings. First performance, version for orchestra : October 19, , in Amsterdam, by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Pierre Monteux conducting, with Samuel Dushkin as soloist.
Scoring : Solo violin, 2 flutes second doubling piccolo , 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, trumpet, percussion glockenspiel, suspended cymbal, triangle , harp, celesta, strings. Approximate performance time : 10 minutes. Bridge was deeply touched by the variations that Britten dedicated to him with the words "To F.
A tribute with affection and admiration. First, it is a stunning showcase of possibilities for string orchestra rich in texture, sonority, technique and expressive affect. For this alone it is already original. Second, it works as a delicious suite of musical selections regardless of their unifying relationship to Bridge's theme. Britten offers a panoply of styles and genres, again, in highly original treatments: march, slow movement Romance, Italian operatic aria, Viennese Waltz, moto perpetuo, funeral music, otherworldly chant, a brilliantly polyphonic fugue and a luscious Mahler-esque conclusion for a really ravishing summary.
The music reveals Britten's encyclopedic musical awareness even at such a young age, as well as highlighting his imagination and wit. But wait, there's more! The variations, as the title suggests, are all cleverly both obviously and subtly related to a theme by Bridge such that the richness of diversity in style and mood is magically bound together with an artistic unity that, whether apparent, is vividly within the music for the curious and patient to discover.
The piece lent more than just a theme to Britten's variations because Bridge's piece is itself a theme, a variation and a musical bridge. Britten uses not just the theme, but parts of the variation and the contrasting bridge to build his series of musical tableaux.
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