I am discovering things about what you do that I had no idea about - authors, painters, people who knew Mendelssohn etc.

I was so happy to receive your comments last week - in fact I had not anticipated the enthusiasm of your replies.  I had nearly finished writing this 2nd blog (stupidly in an email) when my computer jammed and down the pan it went, and I had to start again.   The 'Thought 2 for the Week' at the bottom was written first.  I hesitated about sending it for being too light-hearted because we all know that some difficult days lie ahead.  However, I have decided to leave it there for you to take or leave....it isn't flippant and is a small contribution to keeping your minds working.

Imagine you lived in York or Portsmouth, or the London Borough of Merton, and in one of those areas living alongside you are Beethoven, Haydn, Schubert and Mozart.  This would compare with Vienna in 1790.  The most extraordinary glut of prolific composers in history, in the 38 years from 1790-1828, living in or working in the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, later to become the Austro-Hungarian Empire.   After last week I promised a piece of Schubert and to write something shorter.  Well it isn't! After this week I will move out of Vienna for a while.  

I will avoid giving an extended history lesson which you can all read online and better researched.  Schubert was in awe of Beethoven, and though 27 years his junior, he died aged 31 only a year after his great idol.  He retained a very different and individual style from Beethoven and his fame in Vienna never rose to the same heights.  They are buried alongside each other in the central cemetery in Vienna, to where they were both moved in 1888.  Brahms and Wolf are also there as well as other composers of varying degrees of eminence.  (I have been there twice - 'in the zone').

Schubert's reputation gradually emerged over the 19th and 20th centuries - Artur Schnabel 'discovered' his piano sonatas and recorded them from the 1930s.  To my mind Schubert ranks alongside Beethoven, Mozart and Bach.  His unending melodic invention supported by an outstanding harmonic invention and a highly distinctive textural style, especially in his piano music, are now not questioned.  His operatic and choral writing is less significant.  He was ill for the last six years of his short life (allegedly with syphilis though how secure that diagnosis was cannot be assumed).  Still in those last years he wrote some of his greatest pieces including the C major Quintet (an extended and deeply impassioned 'valedictory' statement to surpass most others), three fine String Quartets, including 'Death and the Maiden', the Octet, the 'Trout' Quintet and two piano trios.  He also through his life wrote over 600 songs (lieder) which set the scene in the highest manner for the Romantic composers who followed him - Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Mahler and R.Strauss amongst others. 

My choice for this week however is the grandest of all his works:  

Symphony No 9 in C major (I grew up with it being No. 9 but some, including Bärenreiter, call it No 8 as No 7 is lost, and some even call it No 7 as No 8 is the 'Unfinished' and not therefore a full symphony, (and No 7 is lost!).  Most online refer to it still as No 9, but don't be put off).  

4 Movements here on Spotify.

https://open.spotify.com/track/3TGREVYL0HbKoRcWdgq8e7?si=Xz7EhnCsRpyWVoqu6fyeIg

https://open.spotify.com/track/5wMDEbdSMMSUaBiXAXmVH4?si=OKDf9l9KTDi5b2W532bZAg

https://open.spotify.com/track/2m6dLRz43PzBWyQcNjVB4S?si=rHoJCnVnSCKUHqlpWx09UA

https://open.spotify.com/track/26tANqldIcKzynlqb4HLyd?si=Bt2Dlpp6RwedoE3kLBEpnw
....and a lot on YouTube

It is called the 'Great C Major' (or the 'Great Sea Monster' by some musicians), which distinguishes it from his earlier C major symphony, No.6.    Orchestral string players will tell you that it is about the most tiring work to play in the repertoire.  What Schumann describes as its 'heavenly length' (I agree with him), gives the strings an exhausting succession of accompanying fast motifs combined with the melodies which abound at frequent intervals.  Despite its length it is nevertheless constructed along Classical lines in the tradition of Haydn and Mozart, with a highly organised and sophisticated sense of structure.  C major often carries with it a sense of stature and grandeur - as with Mozart Piano Concerto No.25 and his final 'Jupiter' Symphony, and sections of Haydn's Creation. This is also the case with Schubert's Symphony from the outset, and very different from his own introspective C major Quintet.  All these pieces are really worth getting to know!

1st Movement  

Two horns introduced the work, followed by a more intense reply from the violas and cellos.  The steady introduction builds and leads to the main fast movement.  It is busy all the time but refined too, without the furioso elements one associates with Beethoven's 9th.  The woodwind take the 2nd main theme ('2nd subject'), but the strings are given little chance to rest.  The movement has an underlying motor rhythm which carries it forward, rather like the depiction of the mill-stream which flows in the piano writing through his song cycle 'Die Schöne Müllerin', or the first of his late F minor Impromptus D.935 - oh what a wonderful piece.  Schubert's music was catalogued by Otto Erich Deutsch, so he has D. numbers instead of Opus (Op). These Impromptus were previously catalogued Op. 142.

2nd Movement

Schubert sets up the accompaniment in the cello/bass before the oboe introduces the main theme - again beautiful, laid back and seemingly uneventful.  The key is A minor and two more thematic ideas follow and these all interweave.  A minor has changed to A major at the end of this first section.  The second main section is then introduced in F major...it just gets better and better.  F major is the flattened submediant of A major (sorry! but look at your list in the Thought 2 for the Week below!).  This was a common device and is typically Schubertian*.  It was something that was in use before him though, especially by Haydn.  And so it progresses like a long lingering summer walk, sometimes disturbed by a lively dog.  The two sections are restated in turn, with the second coming back in A major, preparing for the ending in A minor again.  Organisation of keys was fundamental to all classical music.  I'll labour that point no more.

3rd Movement

Symphonies evolved during the 18th century from the dance suites of the Baroque time, and the Minuet and Trio in a steady 3/4 was one such dance.  It found its way into symphonies, usually the 3rdmovement out of 4, after a 2nd slow movement (Beethoven reversed these two movements in his 9thSymphony).  Composers from 1800 onwards ± took the opportunity to retain the form, but sped it up to a lively scherzo (Beethoven did this in most of his symphonies starting with No.1 in 1800).  There is always a central and contrasting 'Trio' section and here Schubert jumps with an enchanting surprise into A major from the C major opening.  We are back on our summer walk with another fine melody. The Trio ends and the whole of the opening section is repeated.

4th Movement

This is where the going gets tough for the strings (already very tired) with a repetitive fast triplet motor rhythm which keeps them occupied for much of the movement of over 1500 bars, if you include the first section repeat.  But it is propelled forwards as elsewhere and bathed in an almost constant melodic glow.

*I have been trying to find some definition as to what 'Schubertian' actually amounts to.  I think my answers would be too long so perhaps you can let me know what you think it is!

Other Schubert listening

1. The Song: Im Frühling, D. 882 (achingly beautiful - can hardly listen to it!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2Wn02JSomU  Elly Ameling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyFT2ajTWuE  Ian Bostridge

https://open.spotify.com/track/4E8YpAoExbgRBhRCMGovDx?si=h7k5w-QMStSLXHWLtTtd7w

2. Piano Impromptu in F minor, D. 935 (the same comment!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1rCDLGcVhs  Alfred Brendel - top Schubert interpreter.  (Notice the plasters on his right hand.  He usually wore them!)

3. Quintet in C, D.956 (if you have 50 minutes - his last major work in 1828

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc3iX7x73JY  Borodin Quartet + extra cello

Thought 1 for the Week

We are entering more challenging times and the mood has changed even since last week.  I know we are thinking of each other, and especially those of us who may be feeling more vulnerable.  One of the characteristics of our choirs is the friendliness which goes with the dedication and seriousness of what we do, and that has shone through in the last week.  Our medics are under increasing pressure.  It will be so good to resume.

Thought 2 for the Week:  Neapolitan 6th

I know some of you laugh when I tell you that a Neapolitan 6th is the flattened 6th above the supertonic first inversion chord in a minor scale (almost always minor, so let's assume so for the purposes of this explanation).  I am going to explain it in stages and excuse me if I seem patronising by starting at the very basics.  It will help some, and those who know this can skip forward. 

Degrees of the scale.

Every note in a major and minor scale has a title.  If you start at the bottom, this is what they are called, rising as in Doh re mi.

Tonic

Supertonic

Mediant

Sub-dominant

Dominant

Sub-mediant

Leading note

Tonic

Now start with the scale of A minor, which, in theory, is all white notes but is adjusted outside the key signature....e.g. G raised to G# in the harmonic minor scale.   The 3rd note above A is C, and the 5thnote above is E, and the three notes ACE played together with A at the bottom is known as the root position chord.  If you now have the same 3 notes, but have C as the lowest of them with the A and the E somewhere above (doesn't matter where as long as they are higher), then you have a 1st inversion.  If you now have the same 3 notes, but have E as the lowest of them with the A and the C somewhere above, then you have a 2nd inversion. 

Now you can go step by step to a Neapolitan 6th

1.      Play a chord of A minor in root position A-C-E

2.      Move up one white note to the supertonic B and play the same chord on the white notes B-D-F (It makes a diminished 5th interval but ignore that)

3.      Play that same chord in 1st inversion with D at the bottom and B above it somewhere D-F-B

4.      Change the B to B flat.  There is your Neapolitan 6th!  You are playing the supertonic chord in A minor in first inversion with the flattened 6th above the bass note D.  

Here are some further examples; most you have sung some of this music recently, and I hope you have access to at least one of these works.

i)       Bach: St John Passion Peters Edition No.67, (Barenreiter No.39) bar 9, 1st note D flat.  We are in C minor, D is the supertonic, F is the bass note in 1st inversion, and D flat is the flattened 6th above it.  Same as sopranos sing in bar 45.

ii)      Schubert: Mass in G  Agnus Dei (final movement).  Bar 3 first orchestral chord (the key is E minor).  Also bars 17....in B minor,

and bar....A minor.  Also Credo bar 87 soprano C natural.

iii)      Bach: Mass in B minor opening Kyrie bar 6 the C natural, and the same in bar 31, and the G natural in the altos bar 34 (though this time Bach has shifted the bass part up from B to C#, but it is still technically a Neapolitan based on the note B.  C# is just a 'passing note'.)

Bach B minor Mass...the 2nd Kyrie, the second note each voice part sings (it starts in F# minor for basses, goes into C# minor for tenors, and repeats that sequence for altos and sopranos.

Roll-your-own Neapolitan 6th

Look at that St John Passion chorus again.  On the first chord of bar 30 change the soprano note to A flat.  Voila! 

or:  Schubert Mass in G Credo bar 111 change the C# to C natural.

or:  Bach B minor Mass...the 2nd Kyrie, the second note each voice part: you could change them all to a semitone higher, but not so interesting.

Once you 'get it' you can smell these things from afar.  I used to ask my Youth Choir in Canterbury to count them and one 12-year-old found about 10 in a chorus of Haydn!

We are all missing our concerts now which is very sad.  I hope you enjoy listening to these works.  If you are busy or in a hurry then listen to the Schubert symphony later.  It deserves your attention!

Keep well and keep in touch,

Richard