Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Smith Music Hall [PAGE 8]

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"At last the strings give gently with the bow of the chord of A-flat and doze upon it. Only the drums preserve the rhythm amid the general stagnation of the orchestra. These drum notes are C's; the tonality of the movement is C minor; but the chord of A-flat sustained for a long time by the other instruments seems to introduce a different tonality, while the isolated hammering of the C on the drums tends to preserve the feeling of the foundation tonality. The ear hesitates—where will this mystery of harmony end?—and now the dull pulsations of the drums, growing louder and louder, reach with the violins, which take part in the movement with a change of harmony, into the chord of the dominant seventh, G, B, D, F, while the drums roll obstinately their tonic C; the whole orchestra, assisted by the trombones, which have not yet been heard, bursts in the major into the theme of a triumphal march, and the Finale begins . . . this gigantic chant of victory in which the soul of the poet-musician, henceforth free from earthly shackles and terrestial sufferings, seems to mount radiantly towards heaven/

INTERMISSION

Variations on a Theme by Josef Haydn, "Chorale Di St. Antoni," Opus, 56a Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Before undertaking so spacious* a work as a symphony, Brahms tried his apprentice hand on three orchestral works, the Serenades in D Major and A Major, and the Variations on a Theme by Haydn, which, originally written by Brahms as a duet for two pianos, was instrumented by him in 1874. Brahms evidently believed that the theme was an invention of Josef Haydn, but it appears that the old composer borrowed the melody from an old chorale. It occurs in the second of four movements of a Divertimento which Haydn composed for two oboes, two horns, three bassoons and serpent. On the title page of the manuscript, preserved in Berlin, there is the inscription: "Divertmento, with the chorale of St. Anthony." The work consists of the theme, eight variations and a finale. "In these Brahms displays the same ingenuity and wealth of imagination that he shows in the variations for piano. Within the limited tonality of one key and its minor he creates an impression of Kaleidoscopic shiftings of color by a clever manipulation of the devices of composition and orchestration. Many of the sections are of the Mozart-like suavity which is so often the mood of Brahms, and there is a cumulative brilliancy in the several last variations leading to a powerful climax. The theme {Andante, B-flat, 2-4) is given out by wind instruments, the violoncellos and double-basses doubling the contra-bassoon part, pizzicato, Var. I. (Poco pin anvmato.) The strings enter with a figure partly in eighth notes and partly in triplets. The wind instruments suggest the melody of the theme. Var. II. (Pm vivace, B-flat Minor.) Clarinets and bassoons play the most important part in this variation. Var. III. (Con moto, B-flat Major.) Oboe and bassoon work out the theme, with a contrapuntal accompaniment moving beneath them in the lower strings. Violins and violas take up the material, with sixteenth-note embroidery by flutes and bassoons. Var. IV. (Andante con moto, B-flat Minor, 3-8.) Over a moving figure in the violas, an oboe and horn in octaves give the theme. It is en intrusted to the strings, with figuration by flutes and clarinets. Var. V. (Vivace, B-flat Major, 6-8.) The melody is. played lightly by the woodwind, and then transferred to the strings. Var. VI. (Vivace, 2-4.) Strings suggest the theme, pizzicato, over a new rhythmical figure in bassoons and brass. Var. VII. (Grazioso, 6-8.) Flute and violas sing the melody, with first violins and clarinets playing a descending scale against it. The first violins then have a melody. Var. VIII. (Presto non troppo, B-flat Minor, 3-4.) Muted strings give out a figure upon which this variation is based.