Campane di Ravello

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Campane di Ravello (A Celebration Piece for Sir Georg Solti) is a short orchestral composition by the American composer John Corigliano. The work was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the 75th birthday of its then music director Georg Solti. Its world premiere was given by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Kenneth Jean on October 9, 1987. [1] [2]

Orchestra large instrumental ensemble

An orchestra is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which mixes instruments from different families, including bowed string instruments such as violin, viola, cello, and double bass, as well as brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments, each grouped in sections. Other instruments such as the piano and celesta may sometimes appear in a fifth keyboard section or may stand alone, as may the concert harp and, for performances of some modern compositions, electronic instruments.

John Paul Corigliano is an American composer of classical music. His scores, now numbering over one hundred, have won him the Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, and an Oscar. He is a distinguished professor of music at Lehman College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and on the composition faculty at the Juilliard School.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra American symphony orchestra in Chicago, IL

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) was founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891. The ensemble makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival. The music director is Riccardo Muti, who began his tenure in 2010. The CSO is one of five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five".

Contents

Composition

Campane di Ravello is cast in a single movement and has a duration of roughly three minutes.

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession. A movement is a section, "a major structural unit perceived as the result of the coincidence of relatively large numbers of structural phenomena".

A unit of a larger work that may stand by itself as a complete composition. Such divisions are usually self-contained. Most often the sequence of movements is arranged fast-slow-fast or in some other order that provides contrast.

Background

Campane di Ravello was Corigliano's first commission as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's newly appointed composer-in-residence. His inspiration for the piece came while he vacationed in Ravello, Italy, as the composer recalled in the score program notes:

Artist-in-residence programs exist to invite artists, academicians, and curators to reside within the premises of an institution.

Ravello Comune in Campania, Italy

Ravello is a town and comune situated above the Amalfi Coast in the province of Salerno, Campania, southern Italy, with approximately 2,500 inhabitants. Its scenic location makes it a popular tourist destination, and earned it a listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.

Italy republic in Southern Europe

Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern and Western Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 (116,350 sq mi) and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe.

On Sundays, the multitude of churches in Ravello and the surrounding towns play their bells, each in a different key and rhythm. The cacophony is gorgeous, and uniquely festive. My tribute to Sir Georg attempts to make the sections of the symphony orchestra sound like pealing bells: that tolling, filigreed with birdcalls in the woodwinds, provides the backdrop for a theme that grows more and more familiar as it is clarified. At the end, it is clear and joyous – a tribute to a great man. [1]

The music contains subtle melodic references to the song "Happy Birthday to You." [2] [3] [4]

Happy Birthday to You Birthday song

"Happy Birthday to You", also known as "Happy Birthday", is a song traditionally sung to celebrate the anniversary of a person's birth. According to the 1998 Guinness World Records, it is the most recognized song in the English language, followed by "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow". The song's base lyrics have been translated into at least 18 languages. The melody of "Happy Birthday to You" comes from the song "Good Morning to All", which has traditionally been attributed to American sisters Patty and Mildred J. Hill in 1893, although the claim that the sisters composed the tune is disputed.

Instrumentation

The work is scored for a large orchestra consisting of piccolo, three flutes, three oboes, cor anglais, three clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, six percussionists, harp, piano, and strings. [1]

Piccolo small musical instrument of the flute family

The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The modern piccolo has most of the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written. This gave rise to the name ottavino, which the instrument is called in the scores of Italian composers. It is also called flauto piccolo or flautino.

Western concert flute transverse woodwind instrument made of metal or wood

The Western concert flute is a transverse (side-blown) woodwind instrument made of metal or wood. It is the most common variant of the flute. A musician who plays the flute is called a flautist, flutist, flute player, or (rarely) fluter.

Oboe musical instrument of the woodwind family

Oboes belong to the classification of double reed woodwind instruments. Oboes are usually made of wood, but there are also oboes made of synthetic materials. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. A soprano oboe measures roughly 65 cm long, with metal keys, a conical bore and a flared bell. Sound is produced by blowing into the reed at a sufficient air pressure, causing it to vibrate with the air column. The distinctive tone is versatile and has been described as "bright". When the word oboe is used alone, it is generally taken to mean the treble instrument rather than other instruments of the family, such as the bass oboe, the cor anglais, or oboe d'amore

Reception

Reviewing a television broadcast of the world premiere, described the piece as "a mini-tone poem, a sly arrangement of 'Happy Birthday.'" [2] Lawrence A. Johnson of the Chicago Classical Review also praised the piece, writing, "Corigliano's brief curtain-raiser cleverly melds gently discordant tolling wind and brass chords into an off-center fanfare in which strains of 'Happy Birthday' gradually emerge from the hurly-burly." [3]

However, the music was criticized by Antony Bye of BBC Music Magazine , who remarked, "compare Stravinsky's Birthday Greeting with Corigliano's Campane di Ravello – 'A Celebration Piece for Sir Georg Solti' to discover the difference between real genius and mere talent." [5] John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune similarly remarked, "Corigliano went on to write bigger and more substantial scores than this four-minute piece d'occasion once he became the orchestra's first composer in residence shortly after the premiere of his little happy-birthday ode. That familiar tune gradually emerged from a haze of bell-like dissonances before being taken up by the full orchestra." [4]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Corigliano, John (1987). "Campane di Ravello (A Celebration Piece for Sir Georg Solti)". G. Schirmer Inc. Retrieved March 6, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Henken, John (December 28, 1987). "TV REVIEWS : 'Solti at 75'--Excerpts of a Celebration". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved June 17, 2016.
  3. 1 2 Johnson, Lawrence A. (September 20, 2015). "With storm clouds on the horizon, CSO closes opening week with Italian flavor". Chicago Classical Review. Retrieved June 17, 2016.
  4. 1 2 Rhein, John von (September 20, 2015). "CSO high and dry at Symphony Ball gala, not so much at park". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved June 17, 2016.
  5. ↑ Bye, Antony (20 January 2012). "Corigliano: Creations; To Music; Voyage; Campane di Ravello - A Celebration Piece for Sir Georg Solti; Elegy; Promenade Overture". BBC Music Magazine . Retrieved June 17, 2016.
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