Remember the pieces of music you know where at the same time. The most famous classical pieces of music
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Music alphabet or country where sounds live: Major and Minor
Asya sat at the piano and tried to find on the keyboard where all the tones and semitones were hidden. She pressed the keys and thought: "So many sounds are obtained and as soon as they are controlled, it is so difficult to make a melody out of all these sounds!" - she thought and immediately heard Solmina's voice.
I know how to help you find all the tones and semitones and put things in order in your sounds. Listen to the tale about two brothers who helped the king of Soundland and will help you ...
In ancient times, King Ding-Dong the Seventh ruled in a fairyland called Zvuklandiya. More than anything, he loved to sleep and be bored. He used to sit on his throne and get bored ...
Swinging his legs out of boredom,
Out of boredom, he will order cookies to be served,
And the soldiers - to sing a song.
His soldiers were unusual -
All, as one, the singers are excellent.
And for this, by the way,
Dean began - Don to call them Sounds.
The Sounds will sing one song to the king, another.
The King will snore, and Sounds are also on the side.
Sleep until morning.
In the morning they will get up, shout: "Hurray!"
The king will wake up
It will turn from side to side
And everything will start all over again:
Boredom, cookies, soldier singing.
From this life the Sounds have become lazy,
They have completely forgotten how to sing properly.
The king was terribly upset.
He even ceased to be bored.
Makes them sing this and that
And they don't want to.
And then one day two brothers, Lada, arrived in Zvuklandia from the distant land of Ladia. Two brothers, but how different they were. One was a merry giggle dancer, the other - sad, pensive. The merry one was called Major, and the sad one was Minor. Major and Minor learned about the king's misfortune. Word spreads quickly in the Kingdom. They decided to help the king ...
They came to the palace,
They bowed to the king, as expected.
- Hello, Ding-Dong, - they say.
We want to listen to your soldiers.
“Come on,” the king commanded to the sounds.
- Sing all if you please! One or two! One or two!
The Sounds sang, some to the forest, some for firewood.
Brothers could not stand this music,
They shouted in two voices: "Enough!"
Come on, - they say, - Ding-Dong, we will help you out of your sounds, we will put together a fine song.
Arranged Major Sounds in a row -
The result is a SOUND.
The Major commanded them: "Pay for a tone-semitone!" The sounds were quickly calculated:
Tone, tone, semitone,
Tone, tone, tone, semitone.
Sing it, - commanded the Major. The sounds began to sing.
We all stood together in a row.
The result is a scale.
Not easy - MAJOR
Joyful, perky.
Finished Sounds to sing - Minor stepped forward. He commanded: Pay for a tone-semitone! For some reason, the sounds immediately became sad, reluctantly paid off.
Tone, semitone,
Tone, tone, semitone.
Tone, tone.
Sing along! Minor commanded. The sounds began to sing:
We are a MINOR scale
There is a long row of sad sounds.
We sing a sad song
And now we are roaring.
Since then, order has been established in Soundland ...
Dean - Don began to live differently,
I stopped sleeping with new music,
He will be sad - the Minor will appear,
If he wants to have fun, the Major will appear.
The sounds began to live. Okay.
And the songs sounded well.
What an interesting fairy tale, Asya said when Solmina finished reading.
The tale is really interesting. Do you like the brothers from the distant land of Ladia?
Of course we did. The two brothers are somewhat similar, but still so different, Asya said thoughtfully.
Questions and tasks:
1. Try to remember: how to distinguish between brothers?
2. What were each of the brothers' rhymes?
Major and minor
Once upon a time there was only one signor,
He bore the name Major.
Smiled, laughed,
Never missed.
Another signor lived nearby,
It was called Minor,
He often cried, was sad,
I didn't laugh, I didn't joke.
Two neighbors lived together
Both served music,
Only everyone - as best he could,
Both have a lot to do.
Questions and tasks:
Draw funny portraits of two seniors.
What musical instruments do you most associate with a minor or a major?
What in life can be major or minor? (Mood, day, weather, color.)
Are you closer in character to a minor or major mood?
Children are divided into pairs. One paired up is a major, the other is a minor. In the dialogue scene, the children tell each other what the major and the minor have the most important things to do.
Think of a fairy tale about how one day a major and a minor decided to make musical gifts for people.
Sounds of music
Robert Schumann was not only an outstanding composer, but also a pianist, conductor and teacher. From the age of 7, Robert Schumann studied piano, composed, studied at the gymnasium, and later at the university. At the age of 20, he heard the great, world-famous Italian violinist Niccolo Paganini play. N. Paganini's play made such a vivid impression on R. Schumann that he decided to devote himself to music forever. He knew how to see in life the miraculous, the extraordinary, hidden from the views of other people and to embody everything experienced in sounds. R. Schumann wrote a lot of different music - symphonies, choral music, opera, romances, piano pieces; surprisingly similarly, he created portraits of people in music, conveyed their feelings, moods.
A dreamer and inventor, Robert Schumann was very fond of children and wrote a lot for them. In his Album for Youth, he reveals the world of children's joys, griefs, the wonderful world of fairy tales.
Russian composers highly appreciated the work of Robert Schumann. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was especially fond of him. Impressed by his Album for Youth, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote his wonderful Children's Album.
More than 200 years ago in Germany, the great composer Ludwig van Beethoven was born into a poor, almost impoverished family. His father was a degraded man, a drunkard, rude and cruel in the treatment of an exhausted wife and children. Severe and debilitating illnesses haunted Beethoven all his life, undermining his health. He was not yet 30 years old when he felt the first signs of approaching deafness, which then separated him from the outside world with an impenetrable wall. Beethoven was unhappy in love: he dreamed of a good good friend, of a faithful beloved wife, but he died alone. Born into a simple family of peasants, Beethoven hated the rich and noble, heartless, unable to appreciate the real art of aristocrats and understood the needs of simple, small people who could hardly get a piece of bread.
At that time, one could very often meet an organ-grinder playing in the street. The barrel organ is a musical instrument. An old man entered the courtyard with a motley painted box on his shoulder, often with a monkey or other animal sitting on it. It was the organ grinder. Our organ-grinder came with a marmot.
Questions and tasks:
1. Listen to the play by R. Schumann "The Jolly Peasant Returning from Work." What is the mood in the music? Does it correspond to the mood of the painting "Peasant Dance"?
2. What is the difference between the plays "The Merry Peasant ..." and "Groundhog"?
3. Remember the pieces of music you know, written in major and minor.
Presentation
Included:
1. Presentation: 15 slides, ppsx;
2. Sounds of music:
Beethoven. Marmot (performed by the Big Children's Choir), mp3;
Beethoven. Marmot (instrumental) - 2 options, mp3;
Rachmaninov. Italian polka, mp3;
Schumann. Cheerful peasant, mp3;
3. Article for the lesson "Major and Minor", docx;
5. Major and minor. Poem, docx.
Concerts for soloists and orchestra
Each part of this list is accompanied by a playlist with all the works mentioned in it.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Brandenburg concerts
Simultaneously large-scale and compact cycle of six chapters from ten to twenty minutes long. Six completely different concerts, united by a purely Bach's joy of life, each of which became the first of its kind: for example, the Fifth Brandenburg Concert, the first ever concert for clavier and orchestra.
Alban Berg
"In memory of an angel"
If the opera Wozzeck is one of the highest achievements of the new Viennese school in the field of musical drama, then the Violin Concerto is a masterpiece of lyrical expression. It will not leave you indifferent, although there are no catchy melodies here; but the concert finale is based on a quotation from Bach, organically woven into the fabric of the piece.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Concerto for violin and orchestra
Forget everything you've heard about the ponderousness of Beethoven's symphonies - this concert seems to be talking to you personally, and there is not a penny in it. If you get bored in the middle, you will be rewarded in the finale: he will give you such a beautiful and sad melody that you can hardly resist crying grateful. One of the greatest violin concertos ever.
Johannes Brahms
Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra
While not so many concertos for cello and orchestra have been created as for violin or piano, there are even fewer concertos for violin and cello, and the more valuable each one is. The brightest among them is Brahms' Double Concerto, which has absorbed the best features of his symphonic and chamber works. It is full of the most beautiful melodies and, with all the external restraint, is unusually emotional.
Antonio Vivaldi
"Seasons"
One of the most popular pieces of classical music, an absolute hit known to everyone. Four seasons - four violin concertos, each better than the other.
George Gershwin
Blues Rhapsody
The first successful attempt to cross classics and jazz, which gave rise to more than one new direction and yet remained unique.
Antonín Dvořák
Concerto for cello and orchestra
One of the first large-scale compositions with a cello in the lead role, where the harmony and sophistication of the composition are combined with the incredible accessibility of melodies that fit the ear without any effort.
Felix Mendelssohn
Concerto for violin and orchestra in E minor
Everyone knows the wedding march from A Midsummer Night's Dream, although it is by no means Mendelssohn's main work. He owns excellent Italian and Scottish symphonies, beautiful trios, quartets and oratorios, as well as the Violin Concerto: no less important than Beethoven's, but much more intelligible.
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3
The music of Rachmaninoff and Mahler does not have much in common, but it was Mahler who conducted one of the first performances of the concert. Although the Third Concerto initially remained in the shadow of the famous Second, it also belongs to the highest achievements of the genre and is one of the most serious tests for participants in pianistic competitions. And its main theme is one of the best melodies in all musical literature.
Jan Sibelius
Concerto for violin and orchestra
By the end of the 19th century, the supremacy of the Austro-German tradition in music became questionable: one after another, new national schools - Hungarian, Czech, and Polish - announced themselves. The founder of another, Finnish, and today one of the most advanced in the world, was Sibelius, whose concert is unlike any other and still hits the heart.
Opera: from Monteverdi to Bizet and the masterworks of the 20th century
Georges Bizet
"Carmen"
It is hard to believe that the premiere of Carmen was not successful: hits here follow one another with such a density that no other great opera can boast of. Overture, habanera, Toreador couplets, seguidilla, "Gypsy dance" - just to name a few. One can only envy those who have not heard them yet.
Richard Wagner
"Tannhäuser"
You must have flinched as a child at the sound of "Flight of the Valkyries" and heard a lot of unpleasant things about Wagner. Try to form your own opinion about his music; if Wagner's operas are too long for you, orchestral fragments are enough to start with. The incredibly beautiful overture from the opera "Tannhäuser" is a masterpiece in itself that you will surely enjoy, regardless of sympathy for the socio-political views of the author.
Giuseppe Verdi
"La Traviata"
Don Giovanni, Carmen and La Traviata are among the top three operas in the world. It is impossible to resist the charm of La Traviata, even if you are indifferent to Italian opera: the music is so delightful - light and at the same time permeated with a foreboding of trouble. The famous love story that is born and dies before our eyes.
Claudio Monteverdi
"Orpheus"
It makes no sense to place any of Monteverdi's three operas on any list of the best operas: this Italian genius is so original, who actually founded opera as a genre. Start with "Orpheus", especially since the toccata that opens it sounds from everywhere and you probably know: you will not be able to tear yourself away.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
"Don Juan"
Opera of operas, the main one for all times and peoples. No other great opera has such a balance between the tragic and the comic, the high and the low, the will to live and the inevitability of death. As Svyatoslav Richter said, “Così fan tutte” is a greater mysticism than “Don Juan”. There, the statue is to blame for everything, that it came to life ... And here the woman is to blame for being born into the world at all. "
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
"All women do this" ("Così fan tutte")
The middle-aged cynic Don Alfonso undertakes to prove to two young men that the fidelity of their brides is a relative concept. The guys seem to go to war, return in the guise of strangers in love, and each looks after the other's bride. The girls submit to their new destiny not without pleasure and are going to get married, but then the real suitors return. They decide to play two weddings, although no one looks happy. An opera that women are more mysterious and more unpredictable than men.
Leos Janacek
"The Adventures of a Cheating Fox"
According to the writer Milan Kundera, Janacek accomplished a feat by opening the world of prose for the opera. Indeed, Janáček's melodies are based on human speech in all its psychological nuances. "The Adventures of a Cheating Fox" is the most lyrical opera by a Czech composer, which tells about the coexistence of two worlds - the world of humans and the world of animals - and calls for their rapprochement.
Alban Berg
"Wozzeck"
Music unlike anything you've heard before. On the second or third try, you will find that the language of this opera about the mad soldier is not so strange: the composer simply does not compose melodies, but puts the natural intonations of human speech into the basis of the music. The difference with Janacek, according to Kundera, is obvious: “German Expressionism is distinguished by a preferable attitude to excessive states of mind, delirium, insanity. Janacek's expressionism is a rich fan of emotions, a close opposition of tenderness and rudeness, rage and reassurance. "
Kurt Weill
"Threepenny Opera"
The work, formally belonging to the classics of the twentieth century, was sold to hits, sung dozens of times, starting with the ingenious "Mackie-Knife" - one of the melodic symbols of the century. Although Weill is a major innovator in the field of academic music, no composer of his generation has received such attention from pop and rock artists.
Igor Stravinsky
"King Oedipus"
The dissimilar "Petrushka" and "The Rite of Spring" still do not seem to be the works of two different authors, whereas in the opera-oratorio Oedipus the King you certainly do not recognize the creator of "Petrushka". It is no coincidence that Stravinsky was called a chameleon and a man of 1001 style. In "Oedipus" they sing in Latin, and the music - perhaps the most beautiful in Stravinsky's - goes back to the late Baroque: no Russian archaic, no pancakes.
Dmitry Shostakovich
"Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"
Sex and violence were the main themes of one of the key operas of the 20th century; that is why, shortly after the triumphant premiere in 1934, it was officially banned by Stalin himself in 1936. Pay special attention to the dancing of the guests in the third act and the singing of convicts in the fourth - having heard it once, it is already impossible to forget it.
Richard Strauss
"Electra"
The opera is based on the story of the death of King Agamemnon, who was killed by his wife and her lover. The king's daughter hates her mother and lives in the hope of retribution. Driven by noble motives, the heroine feels like an instrument in the hand of God, and this obsession turns her into a monster. In the first moment of such a dark story, the orchestra unleashes such hopeless music on the audience that the hair stands on end. The opera, which runs for almost two hours without intermission, is like a grandiose symphony, from which you cannot tear yourself away.
Solo. Piano and violin
Charles Ives
"Sonata" Concorde "
More than a sonata, a whole study on the topic: can music express anything beyond what it sounds like? One of the most important piano works of the 20th century remained unfinished only because the author himself decided so: “The sonata seems to me unfinished every time I play it. Perhaps I will not deny myself the pleasure of not finishing it at all. " The sonata is imbued with Beethoven's "theme of fate", which restores order in the midst of chaos, then unfolds the narrative by 180 degrees.
Johann Sebastian Bach
"Well-Tempered Clavier" (HTK)
Probably the most perfect piece in the history of music: two cycles of 24 preludes and fugues in all existing keys are like two colossal Gothic cathedrals, each more beautiful than the other. Almost anyone can pick up the first prelude in C major on the piano; however, gradually the cycle becomes more and more complex. And more and more interesting.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Sonatas and partitas for solo violin
Is it boring to listen to a lonely violin for a long time? Not at all - she can do much more than we can imagine. At the very least, Bach strives to fully embrace its capabilities. The pearl of the cycle is the famous chaconne, the shrill of which there is no music in the world.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 14
Among Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas, Moonlight may not be the best, but certainly the most famous; it has been quoted by many, from Shostakovich to The Beatles. Few writing in the world has outgrown its framework to such an extent, becoming a symbol of unrequited love.
Claude Debussy
Preludes
A compressed encyclopedia of the great composer's work, a bizarre combination of romanticism and impressionism, long-standing traditions of piano music and the paradoxes of the twentieth century. The names of each prelude are not at the beginning, but at the end of the notes, as if they ask the listener riddles, checking whether he correctly captured the mood of the play, be it Sails, Footsteps in the Snow, Mists or Fireworks.
Olivier Messiaen
"Twenty Views of the Baby Jesus"
One of the main opuses of Messiaen, even in the year of his century, was more often played in fragments than in whole: this cycle requires too much dedication. The largest piano work of the era, with which only 24 preludes and fugues by Shostakovich can be compared, is an atypical creation for the middle of the twentieth century: where is irony and reflection, where is rigor and calculated? This is a grand prayer, two and a quarter hours of mostly major music with numerous repetitions.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Sonata No. 11
The well-known Turkish Rondo is actually not an independent piece, but the finale of one of Mozart's sonatas, the other parts of which are no less delightful. As, in fact, and other piano sonatas by Mozart, not to mention his own "Fantasies".
Modest Mussorgsky
Pictures at an Exhibition
This cycle is known primarily in the orchestration of Maurice Ravel, which is perceived today as a genius, but very pop hit. Listen to the original version of Pictures, originally written for piano: you will be amazed at how unusual and not at all hit music it is.
Niccolo Paganini
24 caprices for solo violin
A new word in the discovery of the possibilities of violin and violinists, which for the third century has remained a test for virtuosity. The last, twenty-fourth caprice is better known than others - a short but brilliant theme, variations on which many great composers wrote.
Eric Satie
Gymnopedias and other works for piano
Although Sati is a 20th century composer, many of his works appeared in the previous century: in 1888 hymnopedias were written that anticipated the genre of easy listening. Sati also had the idea of music as an unobtrusive background - today there is nowhere to go from it, but a hundred years ago it was new.
Frederic Chopin
24 preludes for piano
An encyclopedia of musical romanticism and at the same time a motley kaleidoscope of genres: elegy, mazurka, march, song without words and much more. The main means of expressiveness that rivets the listener's attention is the contrast of major and minor in each adjacent pair of preludes.
Robert Schumann
"Kreisleriana"
A cycle of fantasy plays, the name of which was given by the image of Johannes Kreisler - a mad bandmaster invented by Hoffmann, who frightens those around him with his devotion to music. One of the finest works by Schumann, the most romantic composer who ever lived.
Masterpieces of vocal music
Johann Sebastian Bach
Cantatas
In addition to the magnificent Passion and Mass in B minor, Bach wrote over two hundred cantatas. Even more than this entire list, they deserve the words "best music ever." You will fill the playlist many months in advance if you decide to gradually listen to them all. For the impossibility of distinguishing the best from the best, we note three: "Heavens rejoice, earth rejoices" (BWV 31) with a magnificent trumpet solo in the finale, "Who will believe and be baptized" (BWV 37) with a wonderful aria "Faith gives us wings for the soul" and probably the most famous “I've had enough” (BWV 82).
Luciano Berio
Folk songs
A truly universal composition; Berio, the most prominent avant-garde artist of the second half of the twentieth century, processed a number of original songs from Europe and Asia, adding to them a couple of his own. The listener, far from the avant-garde, will be delighted that avant-garde artists also have compositions that seem simple and understandable.
Benjamin Britten
War requiem
An unusual line-up: two orchestras with two conductors, two choirs, three soloists and an organ. The tenor, baritone and chamber orchestra are responsible for the "military" part of the requiem, which is based on the poetry of the poet who died in the First World War. The symphony orchestra, choir and soprano perform traditional parts of the requiem from Requiem æternam and Dies irae to Agnus Dei and Libera me. An amazing result, unlike both the funeral masses of previous eras, and unconventional requiems of the twentieth century.
Antonio Vivaldi
Arias from operas
You should listen at least in order to know: “The Seasons” is not the only and, perhaps, not even the best work of Vivaldi. At least a collection of his arias performed by Magdalena Kozhena will make you forget about the evergreen hit for a while.
Valery Gavrilin
“Russian notebook. German notebooks "
The Russian Notebook reflects the experience of Gavrilin as a folklorist, and this deeply national composition is an analogue of the great cycles of Schubert and Schumann. But with what to compare "German Notebooks", written on the verses of Heine - the most that neither is Schumann's material? How to explain the appearance of such a wonderful cycle as "The First German Notebook" in a sophomore, from whom the professor, under the threat of a deuce, demands "something vocal"? Probably only a miracle.
Georg Frideric Handel
"Messiah"
On the eve of religious holidays "Messiah" is performed all over the world; connected with this is the true story of one orchestra player. To the question "What happened to you?" he replied: “I had a nightmare! I dreamed that I was playing "Messiah" again! Moreover, when I woke up, it turned out to be true! " The best performances of "Messiah" have nothing to do with this reality, it is truly divine music. After completing the "Messiah" in three weeks, Handel said: "I thought that heaven had opened and I see the Creator."
Gustav Mahler
Songs about dead children
One of the most terrifying compositions in the history of music: do we believe in fate or not, but soon after the creation of this vocal cycle, Mahler lost his beloved daughter. Five incredibly beautiful and unspeakably sad songs.
Gustav Mahler
"Song of the Earth"
The first symphony, where they sing from beginning to end, and the large orchestra sounds chamber - so that all the instruments are heard. The author considered the last part - "Farewell" to be suicidal, but one would like to return to it again and again.
Olivier Messiaen
Three small liturgies of the Divine presence
Catholicism, the study of the language of birds and attention to non-European cultures - these features make up the work of Messiaen, a separate direction in the music of the twentieth century. Although Messiaen's language is unlike anyone else's, his music is extraordinarily infectious: listen to the liturgies at least once and you will notice that you are humming them.
Alfred Schnittke
"The Story of Dr. Johann Faust"
Schnittke's cantata has nothing in common with Goethe's Faust: it is based on the 16th century “The People's Book of Faust”. An ingenious find is Mephistopheles, acting in two guises: the devil seducing (countertenor), the devil mocking and punishing (contralto). Although the planned participation of Alla Pugacheva in the Moscow premiere was canceled, the mounted police were on duty at the hall. The hero's humiliation culminates in a swaggering tango with saxophones, unexpectedly intruding into harsh music.
Dmitry Shostakovich
Symphony No. 14
Although Shostakovich's penultimate symphony is dedicated to Britten, it is more closely associated with Mahler. It is essentially a sequel to his Songs of the Earth, a symphony-cantata with two singers, entirely dedicated to death. Even among Shostakovich's gloomy symphonies, this one is especially full of depression and a sense of loneliness. Two voices unite only to sing in the finale: “Death is all-powerful. She is on guard and at the hour of happiness. "
Franz Schubert
"Winter way"
The pinnacle of world vocal music: 24 songs united by a common bitter mood and gloomy images of nature. The final one, "Organ Grinder", is one of Schubert's most hopeless songs (and he has about 600 of them!): A melancholy melody sounds against the background of the dull, monotonous sounds of a barrel organ.
Great symphonies
Hector Berlioz
Fantastic symphony
One of the first - perhaps the most striking - samples of program music: that is, music that precedes a specific scenario. The story of Berlioz's unrequited love for the Irish actress Harriet Smithson formed the basis of the masterpiece, which includes Dream, Ball, Scene in the Fields, Procession to Execution, and even Dream on Sabbath Night.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 7
Of the three most famous symphonies of Beethoven, it is better to start not with the Fifth with its "theme of fate" and not with the Ninth with its ending "Hug, millions". In the Seventh there is much less pathos and more humor, and the brilliant second part is familiar even to listeners who are far from the classics in the processing of the Deep Purple group.
Johannes Brahms
Symphony No. 3
Brahms's First Symphony was called Beethoven's Tenth Symphony, meaning the continuity of tradition. But if Beethoven's nine symphonies are unequal, then out of Brahms's four symphonies each is a masterpiece. The pompous beginning of the Third is just a bright cover for a deeply lyrical statement, reaching its climax in an unforgettable allegretto.
Anton Bruckner
Symphony No. 7
Mahler is believed to be Bruckner's successor; against the backdrop of his canvases, like a roller coaster, Bruckner's symphonies can seem boring - especially their endless adagios. However, each adagio is followed by an exciting scherzo, and the Seventh Symphony will not let you get bored from the very first movement, brooding and drawn-out. The finale, the scherzo and the adagio dedicated to the memory of Wagner are no less good.
Joseph Haydn
Symphony No. 45 "Farewell"
It seems impossible to write easier than Haydn, but in this deceptive simplicity lies the main secret of his skill. Out of one hundred and four of his symphonies, only eleven are written in minor key, and the best among them is Farewell, in the finale of which the musicians leave the stage one by one. It was from Haydn that the group Nautilus Pompilius borrowed this technique for the song "Goodbye, America".
Joseph Haydn
Symphony No. 90
Against the background of the impetuous Farewell, Haydn's later symphonies are much more balanced and positive. They are full of special warmth, artless beauty and harmony. And, of course, humor: the last part of the symphony is crowned with a “false” ending, which even a sophisticated audience takes for a real one and starts applauding while the orchestra is still playing.
Antonín Dvořák
Symphony No. 9 "From the New World"
Collecting material for the symphony, Dvorak studied the national music of America, but he did without quotation, trying to embody its spirit in the first place. The symphony in many ways goes back to both Brahms and Beethoven, but lacks the pomp inherent in their opuses.
Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 5
Mahler's two best symphonies seem similar to each other only at first. The confusion of the first parts of the Fifth leads to the textbook adagietto, full of vexation, which has been repeatedly used in cinema and theater. And the ominous fanfare of the introduction is answered by a completely traditional optimistic ending.
Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 6
Who would have thought that Mahler's next symphony would be the darkest and most hopeless music in the world! The composer seems to mourn all of humanity: a similar mood is affirmed from the very first notes and only gets worse towards the finale, which does not contain a single ray of hope. Not for the faint of heart.
Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 7
The trilogy ends with a mystery symphony. It is considered to be inconvenient for performance and perception, although it is a real celebration of music: if in the rest of Mahler's symphonies, willy-nilly, you nevertheless look for a conflict, here it is almost impossible to find it. It remains only to guess why, between the extreme parts of the Seventh, there is, as it were, another inner symphony of two octurnes and a central scherzo.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 25
Among Mozart's forty-odd symphonies, only two are written in a minor key, and in the same one: G minor unites a number of his key works. The twenty-fifth and the Fortieth are separated by fifteen years, in the case of Mozart - almost half life. Both are equally sad, but if the Fortieth unfolds thoughtfully and unhurriedly, the Twenty-fifth falls upon you with all the swiftness of the "storm and onslaught" era.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 40
Another super hit, the beginning of which causes involuntary irritation. Try to tune your hearing as if you are hearing The Fortieth for the first time (even better if you are): this will help you experience the ingenious, albeit utterly beaten first part and learn that it is followed by the equally beautiful second, third and fourth.
Sergei Prokofiev
Classical symphony
Prokofiev explained the name of the symphony as follows: "Out of mischief, to tease the geese, and in the secret hope that ... I will beat if over time the symphony turns out to be so classical." After a series of daring compositions that excited the audience, Prokofiev composed a symphony in the spirit of Haydn; it became a classic almost immediately, although his other symphonies have nothing to do with it.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 5
Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony is not as popular as his ballets, although its melodic potential is no lower; from any two or three minutes of her could have made a hit, for example, Paul McCartney. If you want to understand what a symphony is, listen to Tchaikovsky's Fifth, one of the best and most complete examples of the genre.
Dmitry Shostakovich
Symphony No. 5
In 1936 Shostakovich was defamed at the state level. In response, calling on the shadows of Bach, Beethoven, Mahler and Mussorgsky for help, the composer created a work that became a classic already at the time of the premiere. According to legend, Boris Pasternak spoke about the symphony and its author: "He said everything he wanted - and he got nothing for it."
Dmitry Shostakovich
Symphony No. 7
One of the musical symbols of the 20th century and certainly the main musical symbol of the Second World War. An insinuating drum roll begins the famous "invasion theme" illustrating not only fascism or Stalinism, but any historical era, the basis of which is violence.
Franz Schubert. ** Unfinished symphony
The Eighth Symphony is called Unfinished - instead of four parts, there are only two; however, they are so rich and strong that they are perceived as a complete whole. Having stopped work on the work, the composer no longer touched it.
Bela Bartok.
Concert for orchestra
Bartok is known primarily as the author of countless pieces for music schools. The fact that this is far from the whole of Bartok is evidenced by his concert, where parody is accompanied by severity, and sophisticated technique is accompanied by cheerful folk tunes. In fact, it is Bartok's farewell symphony, as well as Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances.
Sergei Rachmaninoff
"Symphonic Dances"
Rachmaninoff's last opus is a masterpiece of unprecedented power. The beginning seems to warn of an earthquake - it is both a harbinger of the horrors of war and the realization of the end of the romantic era in music. Rachmaninov called "Dances" his best and favorite composition.
Chamber Music Treasures
Johannes Brahms
Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 3
A chamber ensemble is one of the finest types of music-making: a violin sonata, a piano trio or a string quartet can often express much more than a ballet or symphony. A synonym for chamber music is the name of Brahms, for whom each chamber piece is a masterpiece. Including this sonata, an unforgettable beginning of which is born from a phrase, as if interrupted in mid-sentence.
Ludwig van Beethoven
String Quartet No. 11 "Serioso"
Beethoven's later quartets are one of the pinnacles of chamber music. Before that, the composer had not written them for almost fifteen years, pausing after the brilliant quartet in F minor with the subtitle "Serioso" - "Serious". Despite its laconicism, it is incredibly rich in ideas and mood swings, especially the fast part, the intonation of which rushes non-stop between interrogative and affirmative.
Johannes Brahms.
Quartet for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello No. 1
Another pearl, where each of the chapters is full of surprises, especially the last two: isn't this jubilant march in the middle of the lyrical part surprising? Doesn't the final Hungarian Style Rondo leave any of the Hungarian Dances far behind? The quartet was created by Brahms long before his First Symphony, but four instruments have been gifted with such a wealth of melodies and accords that it would have been enough for an entire orchestra.
Antonín Dvořák
Quintet for piano, two violins, viola and cello No. 2
Dvořák's second quintet was created in 1887, a quarter of a century after the Brahms quartet. Another late romantic composition, even more contrasting and even more densely flavored with Eastern European motifs - there is a place here for both Ukrainian dumka and Bohemian dances. There are three main characters here: the cello and the viola, whose solos open the first and second movements, and the piano, which connects the fabric of the quintet with invisible threads.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 21
The saddest music ever.
Cesar Franck
Sonata for violin and piano
One of the best violin sonatas ever written, it is quite a romantic piece, striving with all its might beyond romanticism. Without a doubt, you will remember the amazingly beautiful first phrase the first time, and not only her.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
"In memory of the great artist"
For many, Tchaikovsky - "The Nutcracker", "The Sleeping Beauty", the First Piano Concerto. The trio "In Memory of the Great Artist" has nothing in common with these works - a tragic, deeply intimate statement, devoid of any ponderousness and pomp. You have never heard such a Tchaikovsky.
Dmitry Shostakovich
String Quartet No. 8
The title "In memory of the victims of fascism and war" is just a cover for the true name that Shostakovich had in mind: "In memory of the author of this quartet." By no means the last work of the composer, nevertheless, became his monument to himself: a mournful epitaph, layered with quotations from the best works of Shostakovich.
Franz Schubert
Piano Trio No. 2
Schubert's chamber compositions are no less expressive and heartfelt than vocal ones. An example of this is the trio for piano, violin and cello: the main theme of its second movement is remembered from the first time and for life, check it out.
Classics of the XX century
Charles Ives
"Unanswered question"
A small masterpiece is the key to all the music of the twentieth century: the strings play one thing, the flutes another, the trumpet another. There is no catchy melody, but it sounds beautiful and bewitching.
Arnold Schoenberg
Serenade
Another, along with "Wozzeck", is an example of "dodecaphony with a human face." Although hardly anyone will succeed in humming a few bars of the serenade, it is full of drive and humor: among the instruments there is a guitar and a mandolin, which add some informality and even nationality to the chilly sound of the ensemble.
Arnold Schoenberg
"Lunar Pierrot"
If the serenade is an example of a strict, prevailing style, then Pierrot Lunar is just his quest: Schoenberg has not yet discovered dodecaphony, but has already abandoned key, major and minor. To the accompaniment of a small ensemble, the vocal part sounds in the manner of speech singing - in the middle between singing and excited human speech. One of the most revolutionary works of the 20th century.
Pierre Boulez
"A hammer without a master"
The musician who created the reference recordings of Schoenberg's works responded to his death with an article with the defiant title "Schoenberg is Dead." And three years later, “The Hammer Without a Master” appeared for voice and ensemble, a kind of “Moonlight Pierrot” of the second half of the twentieth century. Stravinsky, who defined "Pierrot of the Moon" as the solar plexus of new music, later would not hesitate to call "The Hammer Without a Master" the best contemporary work, sounding "as if ice cubes were clashing in a glass."
Claude Debussy
"Afternoon of a Faun"
The day of the premiere of the work - December 22, 1894 - became the birthday of musical impressionism. Faun begins with an unforgettable flute solo that has opened up new horizons in world music.
Zoltan Koday
"Dances from Galanta"
A spectacular piece based on authentic folk melodies, where slow tempos are replaced by such fast ones that it will take your breath away. This change of pace is a characteristic feature of the verbunkos, a Hungarian dance performed at recruiting points and on seeing off the army. Fifteen minutes of pure joy.
Darius Millau
"World creation"
The French composers from the Six group offered a European version of what Gershwin succeeded in: combining classical tradition with jazz and big city sounds, turning his face to simple forms and catchy melodies. Millau was particularly successful with his ballets The Bull on the Roof and The Creation of the World. "How, and this is also a classic !?" - you ask. Of course, yes.
Arthur Honegger
Pacific 231
Another musical symbol of the 20th century in general and technical progress in particular. Having finished an energetic orchestral piece, the author jokingly gave it the name of the most powerful steam locomotive in the world. The audience took the joke seriously when they heard in the Pacific a sound portrait of a steam locomotive that accelerates, hums and then slows down; great music that gives a lot of room to the imagination.
Krzysztof Penderecki
Lamentation for the victims of Hiroshima
The play, like Pacific 231, was first glorified by its title. Written in the most advanced language for the middle of the twentieth century, the score was not successful under the original name "8.37", but under the new name it became very popular, although not a single note has changed. As positive as "Pacific" is, just as depressing is "Cry", although you certainly should get to know him.
Sergei Prokofiev
"Romeo and Juliet"
The best of the musical incarnations of Shakespeare's tragedy, numbering several hits - first of all, the well-known theme "Dance of the Knights" (popular under the name "Montagues and Capulets"). It is surprising that the Bolshoi Theater, commissioned by which the ballet was written, at first rejected it, considering the music unstable and unthinkable for the theater.
Maurice Ravel
"Bolero"
Drum roll, flute plays a deceptively simple theme that is gradually picked up by other instruments in the orchestra. It seems to be a simple scheme, but the listener will still be left with an open mouth, even if he knows "Bolero" by heart.
Maurice Ravel
Waltz
A typical Viennese waltz gradually emerges from the indistinct hum. The dancers are spinning faster and faster, and at last the spring bursts at this enraged music box. An eerie and perfect depiction of the end of a beautiful era, which was replaced by the century of world wars.
Arvo Pärt
"Fratres"
Pärt is the most performed contemporary composer, his works are performed around the world hundreds of times a year. In the mid-1970s, Pärt moved from the avant-garde to quiet, slow music, which proved to be extremely in demand: many of Pärt's lovers are far from the classics and perceive his opuses as a kind of musical soothing. The reference composition is "Fratres", which sounds differently in each of the numerous editions, but does not lose the intonation of the sad question mark.
Steve Reich
"Different Trains"
Another living classic, once known as an avant-garde artist. "Other Trains" is a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust: Reich contrasts the trains of his childhood, on which he crossed America more than once, with others that sent his European peers to concentration camps. The work was written for a string quartet and a phonogram, which includes the sound of wheels, locomotive whistles, stories of Holocaust survivors. Fragments of human speech, recorded in notes, became the basis of instrumental parts. Ideal for the first meeting with Reich.
Igor Stravinsky
"Parsley"
One of the most perfect expressions of the Russian spirit in music: Shrovetide, barrel organ, accordion, gypsies, trained bear, "Along St. Petersburg", "Oh you, my canopy, canopy", carnival, fun, pancakes.
Igor Stravinsky
"Sacred spring"
The complete opposite of "Petrushka": paganism, fear of death, slow gloomy round dances, sacrifice in the hope of appeasing the elements, completely blowing away the consonance - one of the most revolutionary and scandalous scores in the history of music.
Alfred Schnittke
Concerto grosso No. 1
The visiting card of the main Soviet composer after Shostakovich: elements of mutually exclusive styles merge here into a single whole. “As part of the Concerto grosso, I introduced a brisk children's chorale, a nostalgic-atonal serenade - a trio guaranteed to be genuine Corelli (made in the USSR) and my grandmother's favorite tango, played by her great-grandmother on the harpsichord.”
Alfred Schnittke
"Revision tale"
An ideal way to get to know Schnittke's music for those who find it too complicated. The combination of the harpsichord with pop instruments creates a multifaceted space, where there is a place for Beethoven's "theme of fate", and parodies of Haydn, whose intonations are brought to sweetness, and the shadows of Mozart and Tchaikovsky, dancing tango and cancan.
Just masterpieces
Johann Sebastian Bach
Orchestra suites no. 2 and 3
Compared to the HTK, two suites sound like light music, especially since each contains at least one greatest hit: "Joke" and "Aria", respectively, which have long been sold out in ringtones and TV and radio screensavers. However, this could have happened with other fragments of these suites, which are replete with bright melodies.
Johannes Brahms
"Hungarian Dances"
If the symphony orchestra plays an encore, in one case out of three the conductor will choose the First Hungarian Dance; in extreme cases - the fifth. Two dozen miniatures for two pianos, later arranged for orchestra, were created on the basis of authentic Hungarian melodies; the result is 21 exemplary encore.
Edvard Grieg
"Peer Gynt"
Ibsen's drama Peer Gynt is world famous, and the music by Grieg, written for its premiere, is even more popular: The Song of Solveig and In the Cave of the Mountain King, you undoubtedly know. Do not deny yourself the pleasure of listening to "Pera Gynt" in its entirety.
Alexander Scriabin
"Prometheus"
In his last and, perhaps, his most significant symphonic work, Scriabin strove to express the idea of the triumph of the spirit, to achieve the utmost radiance. Therefore, "Prometheus" (aka "The Poem of Fire") was written not only for orchestra, piano, organ and choir, but also for a light keyboard that immerses the concert hall in the radiance of one color or another. However, the music of Prometheus itself is literally overflowing with sunlight.
Bedrich Sour Cream
"My motherland"
The cycle of symphonic poems is a musical portrait of the Czech Republic, its history, nature and legends. Especially popular is the Vltava, in which one can hear the flow of the river, and hunting in the forest on its banks, and night dances of mermaids. The main theme goes back to the 17th century Italian song "La Mantovana". Later, the same melody formed the basis for the hymn of Israel.
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov
"Scheherazade"
First, the author gave the parts of the suite the names: "The Sea and the Sindbad's Ship", "The Fantastic Story of Prince Kalender", "The Tsarevich and the Princess", "The Baghdad Holiday. Sea. The ship crashes against the rock with the bronze rider. Conclusion ”, but later decided to remove them. Nevertheless, they are well known, and listening to music we involuntarily associate the violin with the voice of Scheherazade, the exclamations of the wind instruments with the storm at sea, the flute solo with the ship of Sinbad the sailor. One of the best examples of program music.
Richard Strauss
"Don Quixote"
Of the works of Strauss, the most famous is the poem "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", the introduction of which serves as a screen saver for the program "What? Where? When?". However, Don Quixote, where a cello sings on behalf of the famous knight, is much richer in unexpected twists and, like few other music in the world, resembles an exciting movie.
So, the focus of our attention today is the most famous classical pieces of music. For several centuries classical music has been exciting its listeners, causing them storms of feelings and emotions. It has long been a part of history and is intertwined with the present with thin threads.
Undoubtedly, in the distant future, classical music will be no less in demand, since such a phenomenon in the musical world cannot lose its relevance and significance.
Name any classic piece - it will be worthy of the first place in any music chart. But since the most famous classical musical works cannot be compared with each other, due to their artistic uniqueness, the opuses named here are presented only as works for acquaintance.
"Moonlight Sonata"
Ludwig van Beethoven
In the summer of 1801, the brilliant work of L.B. Beethoven, who was destined to become famous all over the world. The title of this work, "Moonlight Sonata", is known to absolutely everyone, from old to young.
But initially, the work had the title "Almost Fantasy", which the author dedicated to his young student, beloved Juliet Guicciardi. And the name by which it is known to this day was invented by the music critic and poet Ludwig Rellshtab after the death of L.V. Beethoven. This work belongs to one of the most famous pieces of music by the composer.
By the way, an excellent collection of classical music is represented by the editions of the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" - compact books with discs for listening to music. You can read about and listen to his music - very convenient! Recommended order discs of classical music directly from our page : press the “buy” button and immediately go to the store.
"Turkish March"
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
This work is the third part of Sonata No. 11, it was born in 1783. Initially, it was called "Turkish Rondo" and was very popular among Austrian musicians, who later renamed it. The name "Turkish March" was also assigned to the work because it is consonant with Turkish janissary orchestras, for which the sound of drums is very characteristic, which can be traced in the "Turkish March" by V.A. Mozart.
"Ave Maria"
Franz Schubert
The composer himself wrote this work to the poem "The Virgin of the Lake" by W. Scott, or rather to a fragment of it, and was not going to write such a deeply religious composition for the Church. Some time after the appearance of the work, an unknown musician, inspired by the prayer "Ave Maria", set its text to the music of the genius F. Schubert.
"Impromptu Fantasy"
Frederic Chopin
F. Chopin, the genius of the period of romanticism, dedicated this work to his friend. And it was he, Julian Fontana, who disobeyed the instructions of the author, published it in 1855, six years after the death of the composer. F. Chopin believed that his work was similar to the impromptu of I. Mosheles, a disciple of Beethoven, a famous composer and pianist, which was the reason for the refusal to publish Fantasia-Impromptu. However, this brilliant work has never been considered plagiarism, except for the author himself.
"Flight of the Bumblebee"
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov
The composer of this work was a fan of Russian folklore - he was interested in fairy tales. This led to the creation of the opera "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" on the plot of A.S. Pushkin. Part of this opera is the interlude "Flight of the Bumblebee". Masterfully, incredibly vividly and brilliantly imitated in the work the sounds of the flight of this insect N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov.
"Caprice No. 24"
Niccolo Paganini
Initially, the author composed all his caprices solely to improve and hone the skill of playing the violin. Ultimately, they brought a lot of new and unknown things into violin music. And the 24th caprice, the last of the caprices composed by N. Paganini, carries a swift tarantella with folk intonations, and is also recognized as one of the works ever created for the violin, which has no equal in complexity.
"Vocalise, opus 34, no. 14"
Sergei Vasilyevich Rahmaninov
This work concludes the 34th opus of the composer, which combines fourteen songs written for voice with piano accompaniment. Vocalise, as expected, does not contain words, but is performed on one vowel sound. S.V. Rachmaninov dedicated it to Antonina Nezhdanova, an opera singer. Very often this piece is performed on a violin or cello, accompanied by piano accompaniment.
"Moonlight"
Claude Debussy
This work was written by the composer under the impression of the lines of a poem by the French poet Paul Verlaine. The name very clearly conveys the softness and touching melody, which affects the soul of the listener. This popular work of the genius composer C. Debussy sounds in 120 films of different generations.
As always, the best music is in our group in contact .
Music has an amazing power of influence on a person and therefore it is one of the wonderful and very powerful means of his inner development. He experiences music the way he would experience real events in his life, and getting to know music is an opportunity to gain positive life experiences.
“Any form of communication with music teaches you to hear music, continuously improving the ability to listen attentively and ponder over it,” said the well-known teacher D.B. Kabalevsky. But the most active and accessible form of communication with music, awakening thoughts and feelings, are the moments when a person acts as a listener. It is at these moments that the greatest attention, concentration and tension of mental strength is required from him. Listening is the main musical activity. And therefore it is necessary to use every opportunity in order to form a musical taste, the ability to compare, contrast, distinguish and recognize what was heard.
Raphael. Parnassus. Apollo and the muses.
What can you hear in music besides the music itself? If you ask: what can be seen in the artist's painting? What can you read about in the book? What can you see in the movie? In all these cases, the answer will be more or less specific, because the content of these works of art is quite certain. It reflects some aspect of people's life, the state of the nature around them, it can be re-expressed in words.
But if you imagine the performance of an orchestra or a musician performing an instrumental piece. Is it right to ask: what are they playing about? A question that doesn't fit with music. Why, then, for what and for whom does the music sound? Of course, for those who listen to it. This means that you can hear something in music. This is what attracts a person to her.
Like any other work of art, music makes us feel excitement, sometimes experience some unusual, strong feelings. If music were an empty play of sounds, it would not find a spiritual response, a person would remain indifferent, indifferent to it. This means that music contains something important, meaningful for a person, that is, it is meaningful.
What is this content and how is it manifested? primarily in that. that music is able to convey this or that state of mind of a person, to express his feelings, experiences. Sometimes the composer initiates the audience into his idea. Then he in one way or another explains the content of the work, for example, gives it an appropriate title. If the content of works for instruments or orchestra is conveyed mainly only by the expressive means of the music itself, which I will try to talk about separately, then in vocal, theatrical works, word, action, dance, and stage decoration are already involved in this.
And how much can be expressed with the help of sounds alone? What exactly? Are they able to paint any picture, convey movement, tell about people's lives? To do this, you need to turn to the music itself and try to "hear" the content that is in each piece.
T.A. Chekhova in her work offers the following tips for beginners and not very experienced listeners:
1. At first, it is better to choose short pieces, until you have developed the skill of “listening to the sounds”.
2. For listening it is necessary to choose compositions of both vocal (for voice) and instrumental (for various musical instruments) music. It should be remembered that the text in vocal works helps to understand the content, and the works of programmed instrumental music with a certain plot, expressed in the title of the work, are easier for perception and it is better to start gaining experience in listening to music with them.
3. During the sounding it is necessary to carefully monitor what is happening in the music from the very beginning to the very end, covering the ear with sound after sound, without losing sight of anything.
4. From time to time, you should definitely return to listening to familiar works in order to learn how to easily and quickly recognize them, to imagine their sound mentally (with an "inner" voice).
5. In some cases, you can pick up an illustration that suits your mood or draw your own "musical picture". Lines of literary, especially poetic, works, which can be found in a wide variety of famous writers and poets, will also help to awaken imagination and imagination. Reflecting on why these, and not other lines are so in tune with the musical, will also help to hear more.
6. Some musical compositions have the same names, but in their mood, feelings are completely different. You should especially listen to the sound of such works, memorize them and note for yourself this dissimilarity. (Try to distinguish between characters and images).
P. Picasso. Three musicians
To determine the nature of the work, its emotional-figurative perception, you can first use the dictionary of aesthetic emotions that exist in music as signs of the nature of sound, which is proposed by the scientist, teacher and psychologist V.G. Razhnikov.
JOY: fun, festive, loud, sparkling, cheerful, lively, fervently, bright, radiant
Solemn: majestic, victorious, inviting, enthusiastic, graceful, life-affirming
GENTLE: affectionately, cordially, touching, friendly, trusting, sweet, good-natured
QUIET: peaceful, serene, good-natured, light, transparent, benevolent
EXCITED: worried, worried
HEAVY: awkward, angular
DANGEROUS: dynamic, tragic
POETICALLY: dreamily, melodiously, sincerely, tremulously, cordially
A good example of this is, say, the album "The Four Seasons" by P.I. Tchaikovsky. Where every month has its own character and mood. Sound pictures of nature, created by talented composers, can be compared to the pages of famous artists, describing the beauty of the surrounding world in poetry. A captivating moonlit night, full of magical charm, mysterious and enigmatic - this is the image of the play "Moonlight" by C. Debussy. The unhurried approach of morning is conveyed by the introduction to Mussorgsky's opera "Dawn on the Moskva River".
Debussy - Moonlight
Music is available to both the fabulous, the fantastic and the real world, in which people live, everyday events take place, and various actions are performed. How is he represented in music? In the first case, the works of the Russian composer, musical storyteller, Rimsky-Korsakov will be very suitable. For example, his operas "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", "Sadko", "The Snow Maiden", "The Golden Cockerel", the "Scheherazade" suite. There are many fairy-tale images among the plays of Mussorgsky, united under the general title "Pictures at an Exhibition", by Anatoly Lyadov - the fairy-tale picture "Magic Lake".
I. Levitan. Forest Lake
Can music convey a person's character? For a start, you can get acquainted with the characters from "Carnival" by the German composer Schumann. if we compare the musical portraits of Florestan and Eusebius, it becomes clear how opposite they are: Florestan is impetuous, always in motion. while eusebius is calm, inclined to dreaminess. At the carnival, familiar masks also flicker - an angular, slightly funny Pierrot and an easy, with a jumping gait, Harlequin.
Eusebius (from Carnaval) - Eusebius
Another carnival is known in the musical literature ... The French composer Saint-Saens called it "Carnival of Animals".
And in the orchestral work of O. Messiaen "The Awakening of Birds" the various sounds of a summer forest filled with the voices of birds are very accurately conveyed, portraits of "forest singers" are created.
Anton Arensky has a suite "Silhouettes". The suite includes five portrait sketches, written in an elegantly casual manner, attracting sound images with subtlety and wit.
Can music give an idea of an event? From a piece of music you can learn about the events of the distant past. One of them was captured in music by Rimsky-Korsakov. His "Cut at Kerzhenets" is a vivid picture of a brutal battle.
"Slaughter at Kerzhenets"
Listening to and hearing music are two different things. The content of music is as rich and varied as the content of other forms of art. Only it is revealed with the help of expressive means characteristic of music. Unlike non-musical sounds, musical sounds have a precise pitch and a certain duration. In addition, they can have different colors, sound loud or quiet, and be performed quickly or slowly. Melody and accompaniment to it, mode and harmony, meter and rhythm, register and timbre, dynamics and tempo - all these are the expressive means of musical art. Learning to hear and distinguish them, to understand the language of music in which the composer speaks to the listener, is just as necessary as to understand the literary text, the means of painting. Then the content of the works of musical art will be revealed in all its richness.
Music has an amazing power of influence on a person and therefore it is one of the wonderful and very powerful means of his inner development. He experiences music the way he would experience real events in his life, and getting to know music is an opportunity to gain positive life experiences.
“Any form of communication with music teaches you to hear music, continuously improving the ability to listen attentively and ponder over it,” said the well-known teacher D.B. Kabalevsky. But the most active and accessible form of communication with music, awakening thoughts and feelings, are the moments when a person acts as a listener. It is at these moments that the greatest attention, concentration and tension of mental strength is required from him. Listening is the main musical activity. And therefore it is necessary to use every opportunity in order to form a musical taste, the ability to compare, contrast, distinguish and recognize what was heard.
Raphael. Parnassus. Apollo and the muses.
What can you hear in music besides the music itself? If you ask: what can be seen in the artist's painting? What can you read about in the book? What can you see in the movie? In all these cases, the answer will be more or less specific, because the content of these works of art is quite certain. It reflects some aspect of people's life, the state of the nature around them, it can be re-expressed in words.
But if you imagine the performance of an orchestra or a musician performing an instrumental piece. Is it right to ask: what are they playing about? A question that doesn't fit with music. Why, then, for what and for whom does the music sound? Of course, for those who listen to it. This means that you can hear something in music. This is what attracts a person to her.
Like any other work of art, music makes us feel excitement, sometimes experience some unusual, strong feelings. If music were an empty play of sounds, it would not find a spiritual response, a person would remain indifferent, indifferent to it. This means that music contains something important, meaningful for a person, that is, it is meaningful.
What is this content and how is it manifested? First of all, the fact that music is able to convey this or that state of mind of a person, to express his feelings, experiences. Sometimes the composer initiates the audience into his idea. Then he in one way or another explains the content of the work, for example, gives it an appropriate title. If the content of works for instruments or orchestra is conveyed mainly only by the expressive means of the music itself, which I will try to talk about separately, then in vocal, theatrical works, word, action, dance, and stage decoration are already involved in this.
And how much can be expressed with the help of sounds alone? What exactly? Are they able to paint any picture, convey movement, tell about people's lives? To do this, you need to turn to the music itself and try to "hear" the content that is in each piece.
T.A. Chekhova in her work offers the following tips for beginners and not very experienced listeners:
1. At first, it is better to choose short pieces, until you have developed the skill of “listening to the sounds”.
2. For listening it is necessary to choose compositions of both vocal (for voice) and instrumental (for various musical instruments) music. It should be remembered that the text in vocal works helps to understand the content, and the works of programmed instrumental music with a certain plot, expressed in the title of the work, are easier for perception and it is better to start gaining experience in listening to music with them.
3. During the sounding it is necessary to carefully monitor what is happening in the music from the very beginning to the very end, covering the ear with sound after sound, without losing sight of anything.
4. From time to time, you should definitely return to listening to familiar works in order to learn how to easily and quickly recognize them, to imagine their sound mentally (with an "inner" voice).
5. In some cases, you can pick up an illustration that suits your mood or draw your own "musical picture". Lines of literary, especially poetic, works, which can be found in a wide variety of famous writers and poets, will also help to awaken imagination and imagination. Reflecting on why these, and not other lines are so in tune with the musical, will also help to hear more.
6. Some musical compositions have the same names, but in their mood, feelings are completely different. You should especially listen to the sound of such works, memorize them and note for yourself this dissimilarity. (Try to distinguish between characters and images).
P. Picasso. Three musicians
To determine the nature of the work, its emotional-figurative perception, you can first use the dictionary of aesthetic emotions that exist in music as signs of the nature of sound, which is proposed by the scientist, teacher and psychologist V.G. Razhnikov.
JOY: fun, festive, loud, sparkling, cheerful, lively, fervently, bright, radiant
Solemn: majestic, victorious, inviting, enthusiastic, graceful, life-affirming
GENTLE: affectionately, cordially, touching, friendly, trusting, sweet, good-natured
QUIET: peaceful, serene, good-natured, light, transparent, benevolent
EXCITED: worried, worried
HEAVY: awkward, angular
DANGEROUS: dynamic, tragic
POETICALLY: dreamily, melodiously, sincerely, tremulously, cordially
A good example of this is, say, the album "The Four Seasons" by P.I. Tchaikovsky. Where every month has its own character and mood. Sound pictures of nature, created by talented composers, can be compared to the pages of famous artists, describing the beauty of the surrounding world in poetry. A captivating moonlit night, full of magical charm, mysterious and enigmatic - this is the image of the play "Moonlight" by C. Debussy. The unhurried approach of morning is conveyed by the introduction to Mussorgsky's opera "Dawn on the Moskva River".
Music is available to both the fabulous, the fantastic and the real world, in which people live, everyday events take place, and various actions are performed. How is he represented in music? In the first case, the works of the Russian composer, musical storyteller, Rimsky-Korsakov will be very suitable. For example, his operas "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", "Sadko", "The Snow Maiden", "The Golden Cockerel", the "Scheherazade" suite. There are many fairy-tale images among the plays of Mussorgsky, united under the general title "Pictures at an Exhibition", by Anatoly Lyadov - the fairy-tale picture "Magic Lake".
I. Levitan. Forest Lake
Can music convey a person's character? For a start, you can get acquainted with the characters from "Carnival" by the German composer Schumann. If we compare the musical portraits of Florestan and Eusebius, it becomes clear how opposite they are: Florestan is impetuous, always in motion, while Eusebius is calm, inclined to dreaminess. At the carnival, familiar masks also flicker - an angular, slightly funny Pierrot and an easy, with a jumping gait, Harlequin.
Eusebius (from Carnaval) - Eusebius
Another carnival is known in the musical literature ... The French composer Saint-Saens called it "Carnival of Animals".
And in the orchestral work of O. Messiaen "The Awakening of Birds" the various sounds of a summer forest filled with the voices of birds are very accurately conveyed, portraits of "forest singers" are created.
Anton Arensky has a suite "Silhouettes". The suite includes five portrait sketches, written in an elegantly casual manner, attracting sound images with subtlety and wit.
Can music give an idea of an event? From a piece of music you can learn about the events of the distant past. One of them was captured in music by Rimsky-Korsakov. His "Cut at Kerzhenets" is a vivid picture of a brutal battle.
Listening to and hearing music are two different things. The content of music is as rich and varied as the content of other forms of art. Only it is revealed with the help of expressive means characteristic of music. Unlike non-musical sounds, musical sounds have a precise pitch and a certain duration. In addition, they can have different colors, sound loud or quiet, and be performed quickly or slowly. Melody and accompaniment to it, mode and harmony, meter and rhythm, register and timbre, dynamics and tempo - all these are the expressive means of musical art. Learning to hear and distinguish them, to understand the language of music in which the composer speaks to the listener, is just as necessary as to understand the literary text, the means of painting. Then the content of works of musical art will be revealed in all its richness.