Prokofiev's Symphony

For my final project I chose to write this essay analyzing the piece Symphony No. 1 (In Memoriam Dresden, 1945) by Daniel Bukvich. There are several aspects that drew me to this piece. I originally heard this piece last summer at a concert performed here at UNI when I came to visit. I have always been intrigued by history and this song portrayed a very deep historical meaning.

In 1978, Daniel Bukvich composed a piece named “Symphony No. 1 (In Memoriam Dresden, 1945)”. The composition depicts the 1945 allied bombings of Dresden, Germany. Mr. Bukvich needed to compose a song for his master’s thesis dealing with contemporary notation, he chose to base it off of the bombings of Dresden. The four different movements describe four different stages of the bombings. Different sounds and notations are also used to recreate the setting of the panic and fear that was felt at the time.

From this semesters listing list my favorite piece that we learned about was definitely Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Reed Pipes” form The Nutcracker suite. This was my favorite for two main reasons: it is a piece from the famous ballet The Nutcracker and it has simple, interesting, and recognizable melody. I have always loved going to the ballet, especially when I was a little girl, and The Nutcracker is a classic ballet that I have seen multiple times before. This piece of music from the ballet is the song that I have always been able to recognize and connect with this certain ballet. The “Dance of the Reed Pipes” is organized in three-part (trinary) form. The main form or statement of this piece is the three flutes playing a staccato melody that is repeated multiple times.

Born Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich on the 25th September, 1906, in St. Petersburg, Russia, the composer began his descent into classical music at the age of 9, before later moving on to study at the Petrograd conservatory. Throughout his life he compiled 15 symphonies, 15 string quartets and 36 film scores as well as many other compositions. Within his musical work and the course of his career Shostakovich managed to both adhere to traditions set within classical music as well as dissent from them, I will be exploring these.

Afterwards, Anderson goes back in time and reveals how the life of a genius, Shostakovich, was affected by a series of war conflicts including a revolution and World War I. Then, in October 1917, he also witnessed the birth of a Communist Russia after Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized power. For a brief period, this new government supported and encouraged artists to develop their talents. The city became a place where “new art, new music, and new drama had to be found for a new world where workers ruled” (p. 37).

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The second concert film watched in class was Symphony No.9 in E Minor “From the New World”, composed by Antonin Dvorak. The piece was performed by the Vienna Philharmonic. The piece follows the standard form from the Classical era, featuring four movements. The first and last movements are in Sonata-Allegro form, while the second and third are in ternary form.

The first three movements contrasts the peaceful life before the war, with the bloodshed of the war. The movement starts out peaceful and serene. It turns dissonant, as Shostakovich attempts to express the grief of the war. A shift occurs during the fourth movement. This movement portrays the Russian victory over Nazi Germany’s attempt to take Leningrad. This movement is filled with loud, dissonant chords, and fast woodwind passages intended to show the Russian spirit fighting for Leningrad. The movement ends bombastically, ending in loud major chords. This is intended to show the Russian defeat of the German forces. Soviet Russia used Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony as propaganda. It appealed to the Russian spirit, and invoked a nationalist spark. In an interview with The New York Times, Shostakovich explains his symphony: “The exposition of the first movement tells of the happy, peaceful life of people sure of themselves and their future. … In the development, war bursts into the peaceful life of these people. … I am trying to convey the image of the war emotionally. … The fourth movement can be described by one word - victory.” As expressed by Shostakovich, the intention of this symphony is to portray the emotions of the war. The piece is considered one of the leading symphonies of all

Ta-Ta-Ta-Taaa. Ta-Ta-Ta-Taaa. The famous motif and most iconic statement from Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, it was viewed as if “fate [was] knocking at the door”. My first experience with classical music was watching the film, Disney’s “Fantasia 2000”, featuring the world-renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I had never heard an orchestra before, but it lured me in like a duck to water. The TV had my undivided attention; I could not look away. I kept watching it over and over again, enjoying the music with the same enthusiasm.

One Classical Evening was arranged by selecting composers, one from each of the classical music eras. We begin with an overture

While I sit amongst the ranks of a stringed beast, my orchestra, I appreciate the small failures made by myself and my fellow musicians as we fly through the twists and turns of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.2, The Little Russian. A missed accidental in measure thirty-one or an unfavorable bowing in need of correction ten measures after G help the ensemble to advance as a whole. My great gratitude for failure did not carry on outside the ranks of a symphony. Failure was the devil in music, a tritone, under my bed. My dad always told me, “Experience is what you have right after you needed it.” I never found the value of a major seventh chord until it was placed within the sheet music of my life.

The general plan of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies includes a very 'pessimistic' first movement, a sad, peaceful second movement, an allegro movement (often in dance form) and a fourth movement full of vigor.  His 6th symphony, the Pathetique, is an exception.  The themes are broad, decorative, and striking. The orchestration is rich - but without any attempt at spectacular effects.  The last movement is slow and mournful, and recent research reveals the reason.  The Pathetique was only partly finished when news spread of a homosexual 'encounter' Tchaikovsky had with a fellow student. Some believe that the composer finished the symphony as a farewell to life. The scoring is for the standard symphonic orchestra with winds, brass, strings, timpani, and other percussion instruments. It was premiered in St. Petersburg with Tchaikovsky himself leading the orchestra.

As noted by Robert Hughes, "Beethoven was not only the embodiment of all that was before him, but also of that which was yet to come" (Hughes 486). The truth of this may be seen by comparing Beethoven's 5th Symphony in C Minor to Haydn, the father of Symphony, and his 95th in C Minor. While Haydn's symphony is both playful and dramatic, Beethoven's symphony is grander both in terms of scale and vision. He expands the size of the orchestra to incorporate the sounds swirling around, underlying, and depicting the arrival of Fate in a rhythm-driven, thematic symphony that takes Haydn's form and runs with it as though to the top of a mountain peak. This paper will analyze the symphonies by movement, according to form, size, structure, tonalities, melodies, orchestral sound and overall mood and effect.

Beethoven’s symphony No. 5 in c minor, Op. 67, I has four movements allegro con brio, andante con moto, scherzo allegro, and allegro. The first movement is a sonata that contains a motif and fortissimo phases using imitation and sequence with a constant flowing melody. The second movement contains two themes in alternation. The first theme starts later followed by the second which later dies of as a third theme is born followed by fortissimo The third movement contains a scherzo and trio and is in ternary form the theme is immediately stated and continually gets revived. The fourth and final movement starts immediately after the third and is a variation of a sonata. The piece has strong cadence and recapitulates only to finish in an extremely

Three years later in 1866 he and his family had moved to Moscow with a professorship of harmony at a new conservatory. Even by this time very little of his music had pleased the conservative musical establishment or the more nationalist group. It was not until 1868 when his 1st Symphony had a good public reception when heard in Moscow.