Quiz: Mystery scores

[lukeottevanger]

There is a dance-rhythm in that fragment alright...

Okay. Nuff guessed. I'm off! Goodnight, all!

Goo'night. I'm off too, I think....

[(poco) Sforzando]

Yes, that's better - the score doesn't split between op 23a and 23b as you do, so you'd have been better to stick just to op 23! But, yes this is the end of the first dance and the beginning of the second.

The Nutcracker Tarentella comes before the 'Sugar Plum' and after the great Intrada (an incredible piece), as part of the Pas de deux sequence. But as you say, it isn't this one.

Nonetheless, think dance and it may help you find this tarantella. A clue to the other piece is found in the prompt to the post.

It's only eight in the evening here!

[Guido]

...the great Intrada (an incredible piece)

I like this movement a much as the next man, but why would you class it as 'an incredible piece'?

[(poco) Sforzando]

Johan guessed at Sfz 29 with such certainty I assumed he was right. but this is Berio's Sequenza XI, I think.

Sorry, I missed this. It is of course for guitar, and the words "Keep going" in my prompt were intended as a clue to Berio (from the Sinfonia).

[lukeottevanger]

@ Guido, re the Tchaikovsky - It's so very powerful, crushing almost, in its special kind of desperate passion, and yet, unlike many such things, it is utterly, classically poised and chaste. The intense urge behind this music is the desire to exalt beauty and the feminine (the standard choreography emphasizes this) - so to me the music simply expresses a kind of desperate love of what is good in the world. There aren't many other pieces I can think of that attain this special kind of poise between passion and clarity - Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel has one such passage (it is one of my scores above); I suppose one could put certain moments in Bruckner into this bracket, though I think that's a slightly different case.

[Guido]

Very interesting. It's been a while since I listened to this piece... maybe its time to hear it again.

[(poco) Sforzando]

While Europe sleeps:

And some further clues on the 4 older ones of mine unguessed:

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,3125.msg181076.html#msg181076

Sfz14 - This was arranged by a modern composer, but it's old music.
Sfz18 - Not only did he publish widely on Mozart, but he was also deeply involved with the major orchestra of his rather small country. This particular piece dates from 1957.
Sfz19 - If you visit the Wikipedia article for this composer, you'll find he is considered best known for his operas.
Sfz24 - Like a passage in a work by a composer this composer was obsessed with, this piece is an ecstatic personification of a season.

[lukeottevanger]

Well, 30 = Schumann, Fantasy op 17

[lukeottevanger]

Good morning, everyone, btw!

I have to go to work in a short while, so won't be able to follow up on these tantalising clues till later..

[karlhenning]

And a belated good morning to you, Luke!

[(poco) Sforzando]

Well, 30 = Schumann, Fantasy op 17

So it appears, and so it is. But I need something more specific.

Let's see if revealing a bit more of Sfz24 helps.

[BachQ]

Good morning, everyone, btw!

Good morning to you, our dear, dear Luke ..........

[(poco) Sforzando]

Good morning to you, our dear, dear Luke ..........

This is sounding like the bit from Peter Grimes where all the good townspeople go around singing Good morning! to each other. Anybody have any guesses on the scores? 

[lukeottevanger]

Oh, the Schumann's the original ending to the last movement, isn't it? With the reminiscence of the first movement....

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Re the Schumann Fantasy - the ending quotes Beethoven's beautiful song-cycle 'An die ferne Geliebte' ('Nimm' sie hin denn, diese Lieder').

Oh, and - hello, everyone!

[(poco) Sforzando]

That's right. In the later version, Schumann apparently got "cold feet" and replaced the reminiscence of the first movement with a continuation of the arpeggios through to the end - and this is the more familiar version usually heard today, even though it is probably less imaginative.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Regarding Sfz31: Although when this score was first recorded timpani (and possibly some other percussion - can't recall) were added, as originally conceived the instrumental forces were limited to piano and harp.

[greg]

sfz 29- Berio- Sequenza for guitar (i didn't look at the replies!)  0:)

[lukeottevanger]

All fascinatingly detailed in Rosen's Romantic Generation. The self-quotation of the first movement's quasi-Beethoven-quotation, which is itself also a 'Clara' cipher ('now take these songs...' thus taking on a personal significance) - this seems to have been revealing too much for Schumann.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

All fascinatingly detailed in Rosen's Romantic Generation. The self-quotation of the first movement's quasi-Beethoven-quotation, which is itself also a 'Clara' cipher ('now take these songs...' thus taking on a personal significance) - this seems to have been revealing too much for Schumann.

I once borrowed Rosen's book from the library, and dipped into it here and there. But it's really a book to own. I do have The Classical Style, fortunately...