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Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer. His best-known orchestral compositions - Capriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter Festival Overture, and the symphonic suite Scheherazade - are staples of the classical music repertoire.
Rimsky-Korsakov employed Western musical techniques when he became a professor of musical composition at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1871. He undertook a rigorous three-year program of self-education and became a master of Western methods.
For much of his life, Rimsky-Korsakov combined his work with a career in the Russian armed forces - first as an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, then as the civilian Inspector of Naval Bands. He developed a passion for the ocean in childhood from reading books and hearing of his older brother's exploits in the navy. This love of the sea may have influenced him to write two of his best-known orchestral works, the Song of India and Scheherazade. As Inspector of Naval Bands, Rimsky-Korsakov expanded his knowledge of woodwind and brass playing, which enhanced his abilities in orchestration.
Rimsky-Korsakov left a considerable body of original Russian compositions. He is considered "the main architect" of what is considered the "Russian style". His influence on younger composers was especially important, as a professional composer who became the norm in Russia by the closing years of the 19th century.
Bumblebee, from “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”, 1899–1900
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Capricio Espagnol, Op.34, Mvts. Alborada, Variazioni, Alborada, Scena e canto gitano, Fandango asturiano, 1887
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Russian Easter Festival Overture, Op.36, 1888
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Scheherazade, Op.35, Mvts. The Sea and Sinbad's Ship, The Legend of the Kalendar Prince, The Young Prince and Princess, Festival at Baghdad. The Sea. Ship Breaks upon a Cliff Surmounted by a Bronze Horseman, 1888
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Song-of-India (excerpt), 1898
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Trombone-Concerto, Mvts. Allegro vivace, Andante cantabile, Allegro, 1877
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The Snow Maiden, Song and Dance of the Birds, 1880-81
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All were produced with virtual instruments.
Public Domain
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Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Antonín Dvořák was a musical inventor. He used a great variety of instruments and he combined them well in rhythms of folk music of Moravia and Bohemia. He followed the examples of his predecessor Bedřich Smetana t ultimately led to his notable success.
Dvořák displayed his musical gifts at an early age as a talented violin student. The first public performances of his works were in Prague in 1872 and 1873, when he was 31 years old. In 1882 Dvořák submitted scores of his works to competitions in Germany. In 1877, after his third win, Johannes Brahms recommended Dvořák to his publisher, Simrock, who commissioned what became the Slavonic Dances. The sheet music's high sales and critical reception led to his international success.
In March 1890 a London performance led to many other performances in the United Kingdom, the United States, and eventually Russia. In the United States, Dvorak wrote his two most successful orchestral works: the Symphony From the New World, which spread his reputation worldwide, and his Cello Concerto that was highly regarded. On a summer holiday in Spillville, Iowa, in 1893, Dvořák wrote a famous piece of chamber music, his String Quartet in F major, Op. 96, the American. While he remained at the American Conservatory for a few more years, pay cuts and an onset of homesickness led him to return to Bohemia in 1895.
Four Slavonic Dances, Op.46 (1878)
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Symphony No. 9, Op.95 "From the New World" (1893)
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Cello Concerto in B minor, Op.104 (1894-95)
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String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96 "American“ (1893)
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Serenade for Strings in E major, Op.22 (1875)
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Romantic Pieces, Op.75 (1887)
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All were produced with virtual instruments.
Public Domain
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Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909)
The music by Albéniz as conductor, performer and composer significantly raised the profile of Spanish music and encouraged his music in his own country. Albéniz's works were originally composed for the piano, but they have been transcribed to the classical guitar which we use here in Songs of Spain, published in 1892 and 1898.
Contains: Asturias, Sevilla, Cadiz, Granada, Rumores, Torre-Bermeja
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Francisco Tarrega (1852-1909)
Tárrega preferred small intimate performances over the concert stage. He is considered to have laid the foundations for the 20th-century classical guitar and for increasing interest in the guitar as a recital instrument. The city of Granada inspired him to write “Recuerdos de la Alhambra”, which he first dedicated to his wife Concepción in 1899.
Contains: Recuerdos de la Alhambra, Study-in-e-minor, Lagrima, Gran-jota-de-concierto, Estudio-de-velocitá
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Moreno Torroba (1891-1982)
Torroba was not only a prolific guitar composer, but one of the leading advocates of the zarzuela, the light Spanish opera form characterized by a blend of sung and spoken dialect. As conductor and impresario, he travelled widely, visiting the United States and Latin America. Moreno Torroba’s musical vocabulary avoided twentieth century lines. He preferred melodic music with tonal harmony.
Contains: Mazurca-de-las-sombrillas, Romance-de-los-pinos, Romancillo, Torija elegía
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Eric Keller, Prof., hon. emeritus, Université de Lausanne
BachsUncannyIntuition.pptx (PowerPoint)
To hear the sounds, use the PowerPoint version (above, free downlad and free use).
The PDF text below does not contain sounds.
Bach’s Uncanny Intuition (PDF)
John Sebastian Bach wrote two different types of music. On the one hand, he wrote many exceptional pieces of "general music". His compositions are numerous (tot. 1128), as was also the grand variety of music that he presented.
On the other hand, he wrote certain short pieces that seemed to be ordered somehow. Toward the end of his life he had supervisory and teaching in a prestigious live-in choir in Leipzig. It was likely that this last section of his life, he authored these music pieces.
We wished to study J.S. Bach's emotional composition as it was reflected in this teaching corpus. An IBM research group in San Jose in California argued that “the majority of emotions can be best explained in terms of the arousal and valence divisions using the two-dimensional model”, i.e. the Circumplex Model.
An analysis package called "Vokaturi" calculates the parameters of the Circumplex Model1. This package2 permits to identify four main levels (happiness, sadness, anger and fear) in any speech or music data base. I linked Bach's melodies to this analysis system, and a numerical estimation of the degree of happiness, sadness, anger and fear were produced.
The following are the tendencies that we identified in J.S. Bach's teaching corpus:
Happiness: His melody sequences show a multi-step degradation from happiness to sad.
Sadness: In the initial set, unusually slow and highly marked melodies are in evidence, in the second condition, his enunciation is rising or emphatic, in the third condition, strong-weak syncopations are heard, and in the final sequence, a complex pattern is presented.
Anger: Three of the four conditions are exceptionally rapid and threatening.
We conclude that the Vokaturi examination has documented a systematic use of certain distinctions by J.S. Bach. Furthermore, a number of J.S. Bach's previously unsuspected interests have been brought to the fore in this study.
1 Seemo: A Computational Approach to See Emotions. Conference Paper · April 2018
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Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
1. Trio Sonatas (1705)
Each of Vivaldi's 12 trio sonatas captures a special blend of moods. Most are happy, while some others are pensive.
For my own enjoyment I listen to just one or two sonatas at a time.
The sonatas date to the first part of Vivaldi's life. He was 27 when these sonatas were published, a coming star in Venice. They sparkle with melodies and life.
My NeoClassix adaptations are a bit special.
Vivaldi wrote these sonatas for two violins and “continuo”, typically a harpsichord or an organ. But for high-quality automatic renditions, we must use instruments that are pleasant with commonly available technology. Current favourites are pianos, harpsichords, harps, guitar and flutes. The present adaptations are built with a flute, a piano and a harpsichord.
I created two adaptations, one for "pleasant listening" and another for a "recreation of a tonality that Vivaldi could have heard himself".
For "pleasant listening" (first selection), I used the same combination of sound fonts that I used for the O'Carolan Memories (above), tuned to the equal temperament frequency of 440 Hz.
For the harpsichord version (second selection) I used an instrument produced in Sicily in 1697 by Grimaldi, tuned to a Werkmeister III setting1 at 432 Hz (available from Pianoteq). This gives an attractive mellow tone to these compositions.
This series is dedicated to my wife Elena who assisted me throughout numerous attempts to achieve a satisfactory rendition of this series.
Go to Trio Sonatas
2. La stravaganza series
La stravaganza [literally 'Extravagance' or 'Eccentricity'] concerts were written in 1712–1713. They were first published in 1716 in Amsterdam and were dedicated to Venetian nobleman Vettor Delfino, who had been a violin student of Vivaldi's. The concertos were originally scored for solo violin, strings, and basso continuo, but for our virtual instruments, we made these changes: the dominant section is performed by either flutes, guitars or trumpets. The remaining scores in the 440 Hz sections are performed by a modern piano, and the 432 Hz versions are performed by a clavichord.
Go to "La stravaganza" series
3. Early Concerts
Vivaldi passed through various musical epochs. Some of his early successes date from the 1720's, and we selected a few for you.
Go to Concerts from the 1720's
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1a. Trio Sonatas in MP3 – 440 Hz first, 432 Hz second
1. Trio Sonata in G minor, RV 73
2. Trio Sonata in E minor, RV 67
3. Trio Sonata in C major, RV 61
4. Trio Sonata in E major, RV 66
5. Trio Sonata in F major, RV 69
6. Trio Sonata in D major, RV 62
7. Trio Sonata in E-flat major, RV 65
8. Trio Sonata in D minor, RV 64
9. Trio Sonata in A major, RV 75
10. Trio Sonata in B-flat major, RV 78
11. Trio Sonata in B minor, RV 79
12. Trio Sonata in D minor, RV 63 'La Follia'
1b. Trio Sonatas in flac – 440 Hz first, 432 Hz second
1. Trio Sonata in G minor, RV 73
2. Trio Sonata in E minor, RV 67
3. Trio Sonata in C major, RV 61
4. Trio Sonata in E major, RV 66
5. Trio Sonata in F major, RV 69
6. Trio Sonata in D major, RV 62
7. Trio Sonata in E-flat major, RV 65
8. Trio Sonata in D minor, RV 64
9. Trio Sonata in A major, RV 75
10. Trio Sonata in B-flat major, RV 78
11. Trio Sonata in B minor, RV 79
12. Trio Sonata in D minor, RV 63 'La Follia'
2a. "La stravaganza" series in MP3 – 440 Hz first, 432 Hz second
Concerto Opus 4, B♭ major, RV383
Concerto Opus 4, E minor, RV279
Concerto Opus 4, G Major, RV301
Concerto Opus 4, C Major, RV357
2b. "La stravaganza" series in flac – 440 Hz first, 432 Hz second
Concerto Opus 4, B♭ major, RV383
Concerto Opus 4, E minor, RV279
Concerto Opus 4, G Major, RV301
Concerto Opus 4, G Major, RV301
3a. Concerts from the 1720's in MP3 – 440 Hz first, 432 Hz second
Concerto 107 in G minor, RV107
Concerto for Two Trumpets in C major, RV537
Concerto "La Tempesta di Mare" in F major, RV433
Piccolo Concerto in C-major, RV443
Lute Concerto in D major, RV93
3b. Concerts from the 1720's in flac – 440 Hz first, 432 Hz second
Concerto 107 in G minor, RV107
Concerto for Two Trumpets in C major, RV537
Concerto "La Tempesta di Mare" in F major, RV433
Piccolo Concerto in C-major, RV443
Lute Concerto in D major, RV93
The original sheet music is here:
https://imslp.org/wiki/Trio_Sonata_in_C_major,_RV_82_(Vivaldi,_Antonio).
MIDIs by Dillon Upton (1992).
1 "Werckmeister (III): 'correct temperament' based on 1/4 comma divisions". Wikipedia, citing 1681-1691.