Good afternoon and thanks for tuning in to Little Rock Public Radio and Classical KLRE-FM, 90.5. I'm Eric Harrison, I write about arts and culture at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and I’ll be your host for the next two hours.
You're listening to ‘Major and Minor Masterpieces,’ where we will focus each week on a broad range of classical music, from chamber music to choral works to full symphonies and maybe even a touch or two of opera.
Today’s show examines musical expressions of national pride from three locations in Europe.
Edward Elgar composed five marches that he titled “Pomp and Circumstance,” which together form his opus 39, and left sketches for a sixth, later completed by Anthony Payne in 2005–06. He dedicated each march to a musical friend.
You’ll hear the first four marches on today’s program. The first, in D major, is, of course, the best known, performed at royal coronations and just about everybody’s graduation ceremony. (It made its debut in that capacity at Yale University in 1905, a ceremony Elgar attended and at which he received an honorary doctorate of music.). A hymn, "Land of Hope and Glory," was written to fit the music of the march’s trio section and is always heard on the Last Night of the Proms — the annual series of Promenade concerts in London. There is probably no more prominent expression of British national pride except the national anthem, “God Save the King.”
The second march is in a minor, the third in c minor. The fourth, in G major, is frequently used as a recessional at coronations, most recently that of King Charles III, and was also the recessional for his wedding to the late Princess Diana Spencer.
Let’s hear a performance of Marches 1-4, with James Judd conducting the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
(EDWARD ELGAR’S “POMP & CIRCUMSTANCE”)
James Judd conducted the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in the Pomp & Circumstance Marches 1-4 by Edward Elgar on Major and Minor Masterpieces on Little Rock Public Radio and classical KLRE-FM, 90.5.
(SOUNDBITE OF WOJCIECH “BOITEG” CIESLINKSKI’S “FIRST VIOLIN”)
—PROGRAM BREAK—
[EDUCATIONAL SEGMENT]
SARAH BUFORD, PRODUCER:
Hey listeners, welcome to Major and Minor Masterpieces. I’m your producer, Sarah Buford, and it's time for our show’s little educational session, in which we break down some of the terminology we use when describing classical music and its history.
This week, we’ve got another word that may help listeners understand its meaning if you’ve studied other languages like Spanish or more particularly, French. “Etude” in French means to study. But it’s also a musical term. Eric, what does “etude” mean in the musical world?
ERIC HARRISON, HOST:
Well Sarah, “etudes” are pieces that first and foremost are created to allow a player to develop a particular technique. Almost every piano student has tackled the set of etudes by Carl Czerny, a friend and pupil of Ludwig van Beethoven.
In the 19th century, composers Frederic Chopin, Franz Liszt and Claude Debussy, among others, elevated the form into concert pieces that go far beyond mere exercises. Chopin, for example, composed 27 etudes in three sets, the most famous of which is probably his so-called “Revolutionary" Étude, (Op. 10, No. 12).
Composers Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Charles Ives subsequently composed sets of piano etudes for concert performance; cellists diligently practice and perform etudes by David Popper; and Mauro Giuliani and Heitor Villa-Lobos notably composed etudes for the guitar.
SARAH: Thanks, Eric for this quick “study” in… etudes. Now let’s get back to this week’s edition of Major and Minor Masterpieces.
[END OF EDUCATIONAL SEGMENT]
(SOUNDBITE OF WOJCIECH “BOITEG” CIESLINKSKI’S “FIRST VIOLIN”)
ERIC: Bedrich [pronounced Vee-drick] Smetana cemented his reputation as the father of Czech music with the suite of six symphonic poems titled “Má vlast”
(“My Homeland,” sometimes translated as “My Fatherland”). They depict Smetana’s beloved Bohemian landscape, culture and history, and the work has come to represent the unquenchable Czech spirit.
Smetana was born in Bohemia in 1824, when it was a province politically, culturally and linguistically dominated by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although he spent much of his early career in Sweden, he kept in touch with the wider musical world through his friend and teacher, Franz Liszt. He returned to Prague in 1861 and took a leading role in establishing a Czech-Bohemian national style of composition, including several operas (most prominently “The Bartered Bride”), but also through the form LIszt pioneered, the symphonic poem.
“Vyšehrad,” the first of the six pieces that make up “Ma Vlast,” depicts a bard singing of the great rock of that name that stands above the city of Prague that is the site of a massive castle. The second, “Vltava” (better known by its German title, “Die Moldau”), is frequently performed by itself, and evokes the river that flows through the Czech countryside, from its springs as in the hills of South Bohemia, through the turbulent St. John’s rapids, passing forests and meadows, a hunt, a wedding and a bevy of water sprites, until it joins the Elbe and ultimately the sea.
The third movement, “Šárka," celebrates a legendary Czech warrior princess. The fourth, “From Bohemian Fields and Groves,” depicts country life, and includes a birdsong and a
lusty village polka. The fifth, “Tabor,” is set in the historic town that was the center of the 15th-century Hussite Rebellion, a political and religious movement dedicated to Bohemian independence. And the last, “Blaník," refers to the White Mountain, a sort of Czech Valhalla.
Let’s hear the Czech Philharmonic and conductor Jiri Belohlavek perform “Ma Vlast” by Bedrich Smetana.
(BEDRICH SMETANA’S “MA VLAST”)
Jiri Belohlavek conducted the Czech Philharmonic in “Ma Vlast” by Bedrich Smetana on Major and Minor Masterpieces on Little Rock Public Radio and classical KLRE-FM, 90.5.
And now for this week’s lagniappe: Ludwig van Beethoven playing around with a British national theme — his Variations on “Rule Brittania.” Alfred Brendel is the pianist.
(LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN’S “RULE BRITTANIA”)
You’ve heard Alfred Brendel perform Beethoven’s Variations on “Rule Brittania.
(SOUNDBITE OF WOJCIECH “BOITEG” CIESLINKSKI’S “FIRST VIOLIN”)
Thanks for tuning in this week to Major and Minor Masterpieces. I've been your host, Eric Harrison, of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Our producer is Sarah Buford. And our transition and credit music is by our friend Wojciech Chiselinski.
Tune in again next week for Major and Minor Masterpieces on Little Rock Public Radio and classical KLRE-FM, 90.5.