I have recently been to a concert of orchestra music. I cannot say that I am a true connoisseur of orchestra music, but the pieces I was listening to have really won my heart.
The first piece I was listening to was “Fabric” by Henry Cowell, who is known as the composer who likes rhythm. He used a lot of rhythmic materials in this piece, which influenced my perception of the composition and accelerated the perception of time.
Cowell Henry Dickson
I knew before the concert that Cowell Henry Dickson was an American pianist, composer, and musicologist. He performed in the USA and Europe as a pianist and a propagandist of new American music. He was also one of the first representatives of American avant-gardism; he experimented in the field of harmony and instrumentation.
He was the inventor of unusual technical methods: keystrokes with a fist or a forearm, creating “tone cluster” – a “sound cluster”, and tweaks of strings. In the concert, I heard the dissonant polyphony – tone clusters – together with the use of old instruments. I was amazed by Cowell’s set of compositions of different stylistics. However, first of all, I was surprised by the new sound combinations and unusual pieces of music.
“A cluster, obviously, must be measured to show its size, and this may be easily done as intervals are measured, using the distance between the outside members of the clusters. Thus, a cluster of three consecutive chromatic tones may be called a cluster major second; a cluster of four consecutive tones may be called a cluster minor third, etc.”.
Another innovation of Cowell, which I heard during the concert, was “elastic” music which used the principle of free moving of composition’s whole fragments. Moreover, I felt and distinctly heard when and how the outstanding composer designed the instruments playing different rhythms simultaneously. I was delighted because I was listening to the famous “Rhythmicana” which Cowell composed together with an orchestra. Thus, the sound expressive experiments in the compositions for a piano reached their culmination in the middle of the concert.
Another masterpiece that I listened to was “La Histoire du Soldat” by Igor Stravinsky. “La Histoire du Soldat” is a French name of Stravinsky’s composition since the libretto was originally written by the French writer Charles Ferdinand Ramuz. Everything that was especially remarkable in the creativity of the early Stravinsky was present: a change of rhythms, angularity, and theatricality in “La Histoire du Soldat”.
A march, a tango, a rag-time, a pastoral, a bewitching final choral – everything sounded organic and was surprisingly bright.
“The challenge of “L’Histoire du Soldat” (“The Soldier’s Tale”) is deciding on the balance of dance, acting and narration, which alternate and mingle within the musical framework”.
Speaking of Xenakis’s “Palimpsest”, it is necessary to say that it was characterized by the tough organization. Xenakis’s play was very interesting because of its structure and rhythm, not without pleasure traced an event on layers. As well as all the listeners, I was captivated by the music.
The picture (sound and rhythmic) which went in different layers of fabric was listened to and felt; the performers gave me the chance to trace it, precisely enough, otherwise, I think, the composition could seem chaotic. The texture was basically polyphonic, or, better to say, multilayered.
The compositional development was connected with superposition (sometimes with phase displacement) and difficult interaction of drawings in different impressive layers; thus, these pictures were characterized by the similarity or incomplete similarity (rhythmic and prosodic). Many phases were characterized by a very difficult polyrhythmic picture. The rhythm was very unsteady.
“As the climax is reached all the wind and strings join in unison rhythm and pitch, playing a slowly rising scale figure which gradually moves out of phase and back in again. As they re-approach unity, their sound is obliterated by a final sortie on the percussion, followed by a last failing outburst from the piano”.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to say that I was really amazed by the concert of the symphony orchestra music. It was so captivating and harmonious that I felt the music inside of me; it touched not only my ears, but every cell of my body. The melodies were as if penetrating into me. I am really happy that I had a chance to enjoy the outstanding music, which made me perceive it from another perspective. It was a really interesting life experience. I also understood that orchestra music is still alive and highly appreciated by music fans.