No, dear readers, I have not forgotten about you. I have been lost in Elgarland, trying to understand this 1st symphony. Today's blogpost is from the note I just wrote for the Philharmonia, as we prepare to tackle this massive work next week:
"Elgar's language is ripe with half-diminished 7th chords and German +6 chords. Extreme chromaticism is mixed with "noble" diatonic passages in ways which I find most challenging to understand. Influences range from Wagner to Strauss to Brahms (compare the last mvmts of Elgar 1 and Brahms 3). I think of the pressure on Elgar to produce an important "British" symphony, how long it took him to write one; he was actually older than Brahms was when he wrote his own 1st symphony. Among many fascinating aspects of the work, I am finding the implications of half-diminished 7th's and how they distort and expand the architectural/harmonic design of sonata-allegro form especially compelling. That may sound like a pretty obscure path to wander down, but it is one which I find important to travel in order to grasp Elgar's design, especially in the sprawling 1st movement.
At times I wish all music were as immediately effective as Act 1 duet from Madama Butterfly (even though it was cut and pasted together in an effort to create a convincing dramatic/lyric narrative), or as compactly constructed and direct in impact as Dvorak 9. But it isn't, and the expansion of post-Wagnerian chromatic vocabulary altered symphonic design irrevocably. Rachmaninoff tried the symphonic form 3 times, and only succeeded in the 2nd (in my opinion). Elgar waited till he was 50, and built an extraordinary work of great power and beauty, but his language takes more effort to understand. I hope you will find it worth the effort."
I have a lot more to say about the half-dim 7th chord thing, but not now. Now it is time to congratulate my former student JUNGHYUN CHO for winning the Blue Danube International Opera Conducting Competition - WOO-HOO!!! No one is more deserving; am so proud of him and happy for him.
Have a great weekend! - MG
"Elgar's language is ripe with half-diminished 7th chords and German +6 chords. Extreme chromaticism is mixed with "noble" diatonic passages in ways which I find most challenging to understand. Influences range from Wagner to Strauss to Brahms (compare the last mvmts of Elgar 1 and Brahms 3). I think of the pressure on Elgar to produce an important "British" symphony, how long it took him to write one; he was actually older than Brahms was when he wrote his own 1st symphony. Among many fascinating aspects of the work, I am finding the implications of half-diminished 7th's and how they distort and expand the architectural/harmonic design of sonata-allegro form especially compelling. That may sound like a pretty obscure path to wander down, but it is one which I find important to travel in order to grasp Elgar's design, especially in the sprawling 1st movement.
At times I wish all music were as immediately effective as Act 1 duet from Madama Butterfly (even though it was cut and pasted together in an effort to create a convincing dramatic/lyric narrative), or as compactly constructed and direct in impact as Dvorak 9. But it isn't, and the expansion of post-Wagnerian chromatic vocabulary altered symphonic design irrevocably. Rachmaninoff tried the symphonic form 3 times, and only succeeded in the 2nd (in my opinion). Elgar waited till he was 50, and built an extraordinary work of great power and beauty, but his language takes more effort to understand. I hope you will find it worth the effort."
I have a lot more to say about the half-dim 7th chord thing, but not now. Now it is time to congratulate my former student JUNGHYUN CHO for winning the Blue Danube International Opera Conducting Competition - WOO-HOO!!! No one is more deserving; am so proud of him and happy for him.
Have a great weekend! - MG
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