Listening Recommendation: Limoges (Pictures)

Dear Friends,
I hope this finds you well and healthy.
Today, let's talk about the seventh movement of Pictures at an Exhibition: Limoges. The Market- The Great News.

Ligomes is a city in south-central France, about 200 miles south of Paris. I have never been to Limoges, France before, but it looks like a beautiful thriving city. When this pandemic is over, I am looking forward to traveling to various countries, and perhaps I'll add this city to my bucket list.

Limoges Trip Advisor


Ok, back to Pictures: Hartmann's artwork for this movement is lost, and it is beyond my ability to draw, so you will have to use your imagination. Mussorgsky's friend Stasov described it as "French women quarreling violently in the market." I imagine a busy market on a sunny afternoon with full of people and activities as two women argue over a seemingly insignificant matter.

The music is fast paced and busy, and the instrumentation used by Ravel is similar to other lighter movements, such as Tuileries and Unhatched Chicks. This movement ends abruptly, leading directly into the following movement, Catacombs, without a break.

Limoges

Enjoy!

Best,

Kayoko

Listening Recommendation: Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle (Pictures)

Dear Friends,
I hope this finds you well and healthy.
Today, let's talk about the sixth movement of the Pictures at an Exhibition: Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle.

   

This movement represents the contrast between two Polish Jews, Goldberg (rich- left picture) and Schmuyle (poor- right picture).

The movement opens with Goldberg theme, which is stately and distinguished.

Goldberg and Schmuyle

at 0:38, Schmuyle's theme enters. In Ravel's orchestration, it is represented by muted trumpet, adding curious color to the movement.

at 1:10, Schmuyle's theme is joined by Goldberg's theme which creates an interesting and more complex texture.

If you'd like to know about the trumpet excerpt from this movement, check out former NY Philharmonic Principal Trumpet, Philip Smith's video, starting around 2:05
Philip Smith Pictures

Enjoy!

Best,

Kayoko

Listening Recommendation: Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks (Pictures)

Dear Friends,
I hope this finds you well. There are so much sadness, anger, frustrations, and uncertainties surrounding us, and I hope music can bring some comfort in your lives.

Today, let's talk about the fifth movement of the Pictures at an Exhibition: Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks. This is one of my favorite movements, as it always brings a smile to my face when I hear it.
Luckily, Hartmann's artwork for this movement has survived, so you don't have to endure my rendition.

This movement is fast-paced and ornamented with quick grace notes and trills, and it vividly describes a bunch of half-hatched chicks running around frantically.
As heard in Tuileries, Ravel only uses the woodwinds, horns handful of percussion instruments, celeste, harp, and strings without bass to provide lighter texture to this movement.

Let's take a listen:
Unhatched Chicks

I hope this movement has brought a smile to your face as well.
Stay healthy. Stay safe. I'll check in with you in a few days.

Best,

Kayoko

Listening Recommendation: Bydlo (Pictures)

Dear Friends,
I hope this finds you well.

Today, let's talk about the fourth movement of the Pictures at an Exhibition: Bydlo. Bydlo is a Polish word for cattle, and this movement has a complete opposite mood and texture from the previous movement, Tuileries.

Hartmann's work is lost, so I made my own rendition of Bydlo:

*Disclaimer: Please excuse my drawing. I got a B in art class in middle school. As I was working on this, my son asked if I was drawing an elephant. 😭

In this movement, Ravel uses low strings, bassoons, and contrabassoon for an accompaniment:

Let's take a look at the score.

1. con sord.= con sordino (with mute)- This creates a muddy sound in the violoncello (cello) and contrabass (bass). 

2. tenuto= the line under each note indicates these notes to be connected. 

3. It's not showing in this image, but the tempo/style indication (by Mussorgsky) is "Sempre moderato, pesante", which roughly means "maintain moderate tempo (not too fast, not too slow), and heavy/weighed"

Then a tuba enters with a beautiful yet labored solo. Let's take a listen:

Bydlo

This music and the orchestration certainly do provide an imagery of a cattle steadily pulling a heavy cart.

Ok. let's take a moment to talk about the tuba. Ravel personally brought over a "French tuba" for the premiere. Here is a video of musicians of the Utah Symphony speaking about the French tuba.

Utah Symphony French tuba

In some US orchestras, euphonium is used instead of French tuba, and it is either played by a trombone or a tuba player. At CSO, our Principal Tuba Neil Konouchi was planning to use his F-Tuba (smaller than his regular tuba) to play this solo. 

Enjoy!

Stay well, and I'll check in with you in a few days.

Best,

Kayoko

Listening Recommendation: Tuileries (Pictures)

Dear Friends,

Today, let's talk about the second movement of Pictures at an Exhibition: Tuileries (Children Quarreling After Play). Unfortunately Hartmann's artwork that inspired this movement has been lost,  and I'll spare you my own rendition. Instead, you can take a look at pictures of the Tuileries Garden at Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau site: 

Tuilerie's Garden

The music is cheeky, fast paced, and repetitive. Repetitive in a sense that Mussorgsky uses simple motives (for example, notice the first 2 notes) and mockingly uses them throughout the movement. If you ever watch children play, you know they love repeating a funny phrase or word over and over and over again. (<= yes, this observation comes from myself homeschooling my child the past 2+ months.)

In terms of orchestration, Ravel uses woodwinds, 2 horns, harp, triangle, and strings without bass. This instrumentation keeps the texture light and nimble.

Take a listen:
Tuileries

Enjoy!

Best,

Kayoko

Listening Recommendation: The Old Castle (Pictures)

Dear Friends,

Today, let's talk about the second movement of Pictures at an Exhibition: The Old Castle. Hartmann's artwork that inspired this movement did not survive. It is thought to be a watercolor of an Italian medieval castle with a "troubadour singing a song." I will spare you my own rendition of this artwork. (You're welcome)

Ok, let's get back to Ravel's orchestration to The Old Castle.
The bassoon at the beginning of this movement sets the tone: lonely and melancholy. The alto saxophone joins in with a beautiful and sorrowful melody, representing a troubadour singing a song.

The Old Castle

Let's take a moment to talk about saxophones. Besides Pops/Jazz concerts, you rarely see them in orchestral works. There are only a handful of symphonic works that have saxophones. Most notable works besides this piece include Ravel Bolero, Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances, Prokofiev Lt. Kije Suite, and Gershwin American in Paris. It's always a delight to have a saxophone in an orchestra, because it adds an instantly unique timbre to the traditional instrumentation.

Next post, we will talk about the third movement, Tuileries.

Until then, stay healthy!

Best,

Kayoko

Listening Recommendation: The Gnome (Pictures)

Dear Friends,
Today, let's talk about the first movement of Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition, The Gnome.

Hartmann's artwork that inspired Mussorgsky to write this movement is now lost, but Vladimir Stasov (a critic and a champion of Russian music and Mussorgsky's friend) recalls that it was a wooden nutcracker in a form of a gnome with large teeth and crooked legs.

I image it looked like this:

*Please excuse my drawing. I got a B in art class in middle school

In any case, the music reflects erratic behavior of a gnome: rapidly changing tempos, abrupt interjections of forzandi, frequent start and stop depicting erratic movement, dark lurking orchestration by Ravel (prominent use of low strings and woodwinds), and jagged intervals. 

Take a listen:

Gnome

I hope you enjoy this movement. Next time, we'll chat about The Old Castle. Until then, stay healthy!

Best,

Kayoko