Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints, Op. 211 (1965), is a concerto in one movement written for xylophone and orchestra by the Armenian-American composer Alan Hovhaness. [1]
He wrote it while studying Oriental musical styles in Japan during his career. Much of the 15-minute work contains many themes of modal Japanese music, especially the last 3 minutes. Due to the richer and fuller sound, many soloists opt to play the solo part on marimba rather than xylophone.
The piece begins with a series of cadenzas for the soloist, all in free time ( senza misura ). Under each cadenza, violins and violas hold a soft chord containing many fourths and half-steps, and the basses and cellos are given a series of notes on which they are instructed to improvise until a cutoff. In between each cadenza, oboes and flutes play a dissonant glissando pattern all in free time until another cutoff.
The concerto develops into an eerie slow adagio, with shimmering chords in the string section and ending with another cadenza. A dark section in 6/8 ensues, with the xylophonist taking over and playing an extended solo completely in 32nd notes before the orchestra comes in with another free time cadenza.
The piece then launches into a march-like tempo, and the theme is completely stated by xylophone and taiko drums, with timpani playing a repeated rhythm that occurs on a different beat every time. A 6/8 dance comes back, and then a cadenza in time occurs with a flute playing the melody over the soloist. A series of loud crescendos and climaxes in free time bring the soloist into his/her final cadenza before a fast 3/4 comes in, with a fierce taiko rhythm and full orchestra build up to the end.
In music, a cadenza is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing virtuosic display. During this time the accompaniment will rest, or sustain a note or chord. Thus an improvised cadenza is indicated in written notation by a fermata in all parts. A cadenza will usually occur over either the final or penultimate note in a piece, the lead-in, or the final or penultimate note in an important subsection of a piece. It can also be found before a final coda or ritornello.
A concerto is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typical three-movement structure, a slow movement preceded and followed by fast movements, became a standard from the early 18th century.
Alan Hovhaness was an American composer. He was one of the most prolific 20th-century composers, with his official catalog comprising 67 numbered symphonies and 434 opus numbers. The true tally is well over 500 surviving works, since many opus numbers comprise two or more distinct works.
The Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 of Jean Sibelius, originally composed in 1904 and revised in 1905, is the only concerto by Sibelius. It is symphonic in scope and included an extended cadenza for the soloist that takes on the role of the development section in the first movement.
Concerto in F is a composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and orchestra which is closer in form to a traditional concerto than his earlier jazz-influenced Rhapsody in Blue. It was written in 1925 on a commission from the conductor and director Walter Damrosch. It is just over half an hour long.
The Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 107, was composed in 1959 by Dmitri Shostakovich. Shostakovich wrote the work for his friend Mstislav Rostropovich, who committed it to memory in four days. He premiered it on October 4, 1959, at the Large Hall of the Leningrad Conservatory with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky. The first recording was made in two days following the premiere by Rostropovich and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Aleksandr Gauk.
Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Cello Concerto No. 2, Op. 126, in 1966 in the Crimea. Like the first concerto, it was written for Mstislav Rostropovich, who gave the premiere in Moscow under Yevgeny Svetlanov on 25 September 1966 at the composer's 60th birthday concert. The concerto is sometimes listed as in the key of G, but the score gives no such indication.
Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, his last notable work, is a cornerstone of the solo cello repertoire. Elgar composed it in the aftermath of the First World War, when his music had already gone out of fashion with the concert-going public. In contrast with Elgar's earlier Violin Concerto, which is lyrical and passionate, the Cello Concerto is for the most part contemplative and elegiac.
Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, was composed in 1805–1806. Beethoven was the soloist in the public premiere as part of the concert on 22 December 1808 at Vienna's Theater an der Wien.
The Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191, is the last solo concerto by Antonín Dvořák. It was written in 1894 for his friend, the cellist Hanuš Wihan, but was premiered in London on March 19, 1896, by the English cellist Leo Stern.
The Fantasy for piano, vocal soloists, mixed chorus, and orchestra, Op. 80, usually called the Choral Fantasy, was composed in 1808 by then 38-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven.
The Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by György Ligeti is a violin concerto written for and dedicated to the violinist Saschko Gawriloff. A performance of the work lasts about 28 minutes.
Philip Glass's Violin Concerto No. 1 was commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra for soloist Paul Zukofsky and premiered in New York City on 5 April 1987. The work was composed with Glass's late father in mind. The piece quickly became one of Glass's most popular works. It is usually around 25–30 minutes in duration when performed.
The Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra is a double timpani concerto written by Philip Glass in 2000. It is paired with the Cello Concerto on Vol. I of Glass' Concerto Project, a set of eight concerti by the composer. A typical performance of the work lasts 25–28 minutes. It was written for Jonathan Haas and later recorded by Evelyn Glennie, and was premiered by Haas and Svet Stoyanov with the American Symphony Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, conducted by Leon Botstein. The work was commissioned jointly by the American Symphony Orchestra, the Peabody Symphony, the Milwaukee Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony and the Phoenix Symphony. In 2004, a transcription for wind ensemble was written by Mark Lortz, which debuted at Peabody Institute in 2005.
The Symphony No. 1, Op. 17, Exile is the first symphony by the American composer Alan Hovhaness. The piece was composed in 1936 and was premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Leslie Heward in 1939. The work commemorates the genocide of the Armenian people, including Hovhaness's paternal family, during the Ottoman Turkish occupation of World War I. The symphony is dedicated to English writer and philosopher Francis Bacon.
The Violin Concerto is a concerto for violin and orchestra in two movements by the American composer Christopher Rouse. The work was commissioned for violinist Cho-Liang Lin by the Aspen Music Festival and School and funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. It was completed August 18, 1991 and is dedicated to Cho-Liang Lin.
Scottish composer James MacMillan composed his Viola Concerto in 2013. The work was jointly commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Its world premiere was given by the violist Lawrence Power and the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Vladimir Jurowski in the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 15 January 2014. The piece is dedicated to Lawrence Power.
A percussion concerto is a type of musical composition for a percussion soloist and a large ensemble, such as a concert band or orchestra. Two notable figures in the genre are the percussionists Colin Currie and Evelyn Glennie, who have separately commissioned and premiered numerous entrees to the repertoire. Two common subsets of the percussion concerto are the timpani concerto and the marimba concerto.
Divertimento, or Divertimento for Orchestra, is a suite of eight orchestral bagatelles by American composer Leonard Bernstein. Completed in 1980 and written to celebrate the centenary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, it is well-known for featuring the notes B and C in most of its melodic material.