Quiz: Mystery scores

[lukeottevanger]

No.

[(poco) Sforzando]

No.

Is it part of an opera or orchestral work?

Is it an arrangement or original writing for the piano?

Does it only look like piano writing and is actually for another instrument?

[lukeottevanger]

It is a piano solo piece, one of only a very small number by Berlioz. I can't swear that it doesn't appear in another form somewhere else, but the editor's notes on the piece at the front of the edition don't mention this.

[(poco) Sforzando]

It is a piano solo piece, one of only a very small number by Berlioz. I can't swear that it doesn't appear in another form somewhere else, but the editor's notes on the piece at the front of the edition don't mention this.

Not the Album Leaf from 1844? That is the only piano solo piece I see referenced in Grove from 1981.

[lukeottevanger]

There are three piano pieces in my 'complete Berlioz piano music' score, published in 1984 - none of them date from 1844! Nor are any of them called 'Album Leaf'.....so we can fairly safely say 1) no it's not and 2) Grove is wrong. 

[(poco) Sforzando]

There are three piano pieces in my 'complete Berlioz piano music' score, published in 1984 - none of them date from 1844! Nor are any of them called 'Album Leaf'.....so we can fairly safely say 1) no it's not and 2) Grove is wrong. 

Or 3) I missed it in the work list or 4) it was only discovered after Groves came out in 1981 (the Messe Solennelle is listed there as "lost," which we know is no longer true). But I don't have any further resources to track down the contents of your volume, and so must bow out of this one.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Souvenirs--Betises--Improvisations? (1842)

[lukeottevanger]

No. But you're both in the right decade, if that helps. When I get home in a couple of hours I will post the answer to this one and maybe some others too.

As I said before, some of my previous set came from big popular favourites. One of the most famous of all, the Orff, was identified fairly quickly, but an equally famous one remains. The seventh one, I think.

[Mark G. Simon]

355 is the second movement of Haydn's Symphony no. 6 Le Matin

[lukeottevanger]

Well done! As with the Saint Saens one, I was hoping someone would think this was a concerto  No such luck....

[Mark G. Simon]

The interesting thing about that example is that Haydn is clearly trying to write something for which there was no means of notating until the time of Penderecki. The series of repeated notes for the solo violin is probably intended to accelerate in a non-measured fashion (I assume the asterisks in the score explain that), something that would be handled today with the Penderecki "feathered beaming" which widen as the figure accelerates.

[lukeottevanger]

The interesting thing about that example is that Haydn is clearly trying to write something for which there was no means of notating until the time of Penderecki. The series of repeated notes for the solo violin is probably intended to accelerate in a non-measured fashion (I assume the asterisks in the score explain that), something that would be handled today with the Penderecki "feathered beaming" which widen as the figure accelerates.

Can't remember what the footnote says - I'll check later.

[lukeottevanger]

The footnote says the four semiquavers (sixteenths for those of delicate sensitivities like Sforzando) stand for eight demis (32nds), and refer to another source from Salzburg for more on this.

OK, the Berlioz is a 'Rustic Serenade' originally titled 'Rustic Serenade to the Virgin'; it dates from 1845 and is based on the 'Theme of the Roman Pifferari' which was apparently popular in Naples especially over the novenario (nine days before Christmas). As I said, Scarlatti uses this theme in the sonata K 513 too.

[greg]

The interesting thing about that example is that Haydn is clearly trying to write something for which there was no means of notating until the time of Penderecki. The series of repeated notes for the solo violin is probably intended to accelerate in a non-measured fashion (I assume the asterisks in the score explain that), something that would be handled today with the Penderecki "feathered beaming" which widen as the figure accelerates.

Interesting....... i think i know what you mean by this explanation, although i've never heard the symphony. Just checked back, i see- just what i thought- no accompaniment or other voices with it.

[Mark G. Simon]

The footnote says the four semiquavers (sixteenths for those of delicate sensitivities like Sforzando) stand for eight demis (32nds), and refer to another source from Salzburg for more on this.

well then, H.C. Robbins Landon is a party pooper, that's what he is. I liked thinking of it as Haydn's attempt to write a accelerando.

[(poco) Sforzando]

The footnote says the four semiquavers (sixteenths for those of delicate sensitivities like Sforzando) stand for eight demis (32nds), and refer to another source from Salzburg for more on this.

OK, the Berlioz is a 'Rustic Serenade' originally titled 'Rustic Serenade to the Virgin'; it dates from 1845 and is based on the 'Theme of the Roman Pifferari' which was apparently popular in Naples especially over the novenario (nine days before Christmas). As I said, Scarlatti uses this theme in the sonata K 513 too.

Ah. Here's the problem. Hugh MacDonald in Grove's says Berlioz wrote nothing for solo piano, and that this collection of three pieces from 1844 is actually for the "orgue-mélodium" (harmonium). Groves does however list a Feuillet d'Album for piano from 1844, which was not published in the Breitkopf Berlioz edition but which does appear in the New Berlioz Edition, vol. 13.

- Sfz of the most delicate sensibilities

[lukeottevanger]

Ah. Here's the problem. Hugh MacDonald in Grove's says Berlioz wrote nothing for solo piano, and that this collection of three pieces from 1844 is actually for the "orgue-mélodium" (harmonium). Groves does however list a Feuillet d'Album for piano from 1844, which was not published in the Breitkopf Berlioz edition but which does appear in the New Berlioz Edition, vol. 13.

Interesting - and as you hint, self-contradictory. Berlioz wrote nothing for piano.....but there is a Feuillet d'Album! One website I've seen does list these three pieces as composed for harmonium in 1844, but in that case I find it inexplicable that the edition I have seems to be unequivocal, giving a date of composition of 1845, separately (so it can't be a misprint), for each piece, and not mentioning the harmonium at all!

[(poco) Sforzando]

Was I right about the Ernest Bloch a few pages ago?

[(poco) Sforzando]

Interesting - and as you hint, self-contradictory. Berlioz wrote nothing for piano.....but there is a Feuillet d'Album! One website I've seen does list these three pieces as composed for harmonium in 1844, but in that case I find it inexplicable that the edition I have seems to be unequivocal, giving a date of composition of 1845, separately (so it can't be a misprint), for each piece, and not mentioning the harmonium at all!

http://www.usd.edu/smm/Exhibitions/BeethovenBerlioz/BBHarmonium.html

[lukeottevanger]

Was I right about the Ernest Bloch a few pages ago?

Yes - sorry, I thought I'd confirmed. I updated the list, if that's any consolation! 

Still very surprised no one's got the very famous one I pointed out to you a few posts back.