The Berserking

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The Berserking is a concerto for solo piano and orchestra by the Scottish composer James MacMillan. The work was commissioned by the Musica Nova Festival and was premiered in Glasgow on 22 September 1990 by the pianist Peter Donohoe and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under the conductor Matthias Bamert. [1]

Concerto musical composition usually in three parts

A concerto is a musical composition generally composed of three movements, in which, usually, one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra or concert band. It is accepted that its characteristics and definition have changed over time. In the 17th century, sacred works for voices and orchestra were typically called concertos, as reflected by J. S. Bach's usage of the title "concerto" for many of the works that we know as cantatas.

Piano musical instrument

The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700, in which the strings are struck by hammers. It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings.

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.

Contents

Composition

Title and inspiration

The Berserkers was inspired by a group of Norse warriors called Berserkers, who were reported to have fought in an uncontrollable, trance-like fury. MacMillan wrote in the score program note:

Norsemen historical ethnolinguistic group of people originating in Scandinavia

The Norse people or Norsemen were a group of Germanic people who inhabited Scandinavia and spoke what is now called the Old Norse language between c. 800 and 1300 AD. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the predecessor of the modern Germanic languages of Scandinavia. In the late eighth century Norsemen embarked on a massive expansion in all directions. This was the start of the Viking Age.

Berserker Norse warrior

In the Old Norse written corpus, Berserkers were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English word "berserk." Berserkers are attested to in numerous Old Norse sources, as were the Úlfhéðnar ("wolf-coats").

Trance abnormal state of wakefulness or altered state of consciousness

Trance is an abnormal state of wakefulness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli but is nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim, or is selectively responsive in following the directions of the person who has induced the trance. Trance states may occur involuntarily and unbidden.

Although deadly in combat, the berserking process was paradoxically a suicidal one since, having lost their senses, they were vulnerable to a more stealthy attack. As a Scot living in the modern world this behaviour seems very familiar! I see its pointlessness as resembling the Scots' seeming facility for shooting themselves in the foot in political and, for that matter, in sporting endeavours. (In fact the initial burst of inspiration for The Berserking came in 1989 after watching a soccer game in which Glasgow Celtic turned in a characteristically passionate, frenzied but ultimately futile display against Partizan Belgrade!). [1]

Structure

The Berserkers has a duration of roughly 33 minutes and is composed in one continuous movement of three connected sections. MacMillan described the form of the piece, writing:

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.

...this piano concerto is not programme music. Instead, the abstract subject matter (in this case misplaced energy) has become the defining element in the work's material and structure. In the opening section there is a sense of swaggering futility in the way the energy is "misdirected" into climaxes without resolutions and maintained in a continual state of hyper-activity and excess.

The middle section is slow, reflective and delicate and has a simple verse and refrain structure like a folksong, creating an aura of traditional Scottish music. The relationship between soloist and orchestra changes from section to section. In the opening fast music they are in argument and opposition most of the time, each striving to dominate. In the slow section the piano is very much to the fore and in the final quick section they become equal partners, much of the time in unison and with frequent interlocking of fragments. The final section eventually reaches a more "meaningful" resolution. After the final climax there emerges something apparently new in piano, celeste and harp; but one can hear the contours of the melodic material from the slow section. The Celtic folk influence returns to leave its mark in the serenity of the final coda. [1]

Instrumentation

The work is scored for solo piano and an orchestra comprising two flutes, piccolo, three oboes (3rd doubling cor anglais), three clarinets (3rd doubling bass clarinet), two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, two trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, three percussionists, celesta, harp, and strings. [1]

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.

Piccolo small flute musical instrument

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.

Oboe musical instrument of the woodwind family

Oboes are a family of double reed woodwind instruments. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. Oboes are usually made of wood, but there are also oboes made of synthetic materials. 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 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

The Berserking received a very positive response from critics. Reviewing a recording of the composition, Andrew Clements of The Guardian wrote:

<i>The Guardian</i> British national daily newspaper

The Guardian is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian, and took its current name in 1959. Along with its sister papers The Observer and The Guardian Weekly, the Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust. The Scott Trust was created in 1936 "to secure the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of the Guardian free from commercial or political interference". The Scott Trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to project the same protections for The Guardian as were originally built into the very structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than to benefit an owner or shareholders.

The Berserking is a piano concerto in everything but name, and a big-boned one at that - half an hour of music in three linked movements. The starting point was a Celtic football match, in which the team produced, in MacMillan's words, "a characteristically passionate, frenzied but ultimately futile display". From that he extended the image to the ancient Celtic warriors, the Berserkers, who would work themselves up for a battle in a similarly unfocused way. That swaggering drive fuels the first movement, while the cool, collected centrepiece is an evocation of Celtic folk music and Hebridean psalmody before the macho energy returns again. [2]

Stephen Johnson of BBC Music Magazine similarly lauded the piece, writing, "The progression from testosterone-fuelled strutting and stamping to sensuous lyrical calm emerges with clarity and drama." [3]

In 2009, the British journalist Simon Heffer declared it "the greatest piece of music written in these islands since the death of Benjamin Britten in 1976." He added, "But what is so marvellous is that its composer is still alive, still creating, and there could yet be even better to come." [4]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 MacMillan, James (1990). "MacMillan, James: The Berserking". Boosey & Hawkes . Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  2. ↑ Clements, Andrew (14 August 2003). "MacMillan: Into the Ferment; The Berserking; Britannia: Roscoe/ BBC Philharmonic/ MacMillan". The Guardian . Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  3. ↑ Johnson, Stephen (20 January 2012). "Macmillan: Britannia; The Berserking; Into the Ferment". BBC Music Magazine . Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  4. ↑ Heffer, Simon (4 July 2009). "James MacMillan and a musical bag of spanners". The Daily Telegraph . Telegraph Media Group . Retrieved December 17, 2015.
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