The Mannheim Rocket

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The Mannheim Rocket is a short orchestral composition by the American composer John Corigliano. The work was commissioned by the Mannheim Orchestra, which first performed the work on March 26, 2001. The piece is dedicated to Susan Carlyle. [1]

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.

Contents

Composition

The Mannheim Rocket is composed in a single movement and has a duration of roughly 11 minutes. The piece was inspired by the so-called "Mannheim crescendo" or "Mannheim rocket"—a musical technique perfected by the Mannheim Orchestra in the 18th century in which "a rising figure (a scale or arpeggio) speeded up and grew louder as it rose higher and higher." Corigliano first heard the term in a music history class during his Freshman year at college. Despite its actual meaning, the composer recalled in the score program note, "As a young music student, however my imagination construed a very different image — that of a giant 18th-century wedding-cake-rocket, commandeered by the great Baron Von Münchausen, and its marvelous journey to the heavens and back. It was this image that excited me when I was asked to write a work for the Mannheim Orchestra: I knew I had to recreate the rocket of my young imagination and travel with it through its adventures." [1] [2]

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.

Baron Munchausen German soldier

Baron Munchausen is a fictional German nobleman created by the German writer Rudolf Erich Raspe in his 1785 book Baron Munchausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia. The character is loosely based on a real baron, Hieronymus Karl Friedrich, Freiherr von Münchhausen.

The music thus opens with a quote from the Symphony in E-flat by Johann Stamitz, who was one of the originators of the "Mannheim rocket." Afterward, the music freely quotes German music from the succeeding centuries. [1]

Johann Stamitz Czech composer and violinist

Jan Václav Antonín Stamic was a Czech composer and violinist. His two surviving sons, Carl and Anton Stamitz, were scarcely less important composers of the Mannheim school, of which Johann is considered the founding father. His music is stylistically transitional between Baroque and Classical periods.

Instrumentation

The work is scored for a large orchestra comprising three flutes (doubling piccolo), three oboes, three clarinets (doubling bass clarinet), three bassoons (doubling contrabassoon), four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, four percussionists, harp, piano, 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 Mannheim Rocket has been praised by music critics. Edward Seckerson of Gramophone wrote, "This 10-minute crowd-pleaser takes the 18th-century concept of a rising scale or arpeggio propelled faster, louder and higher into space, and turns it into something which might easily have emanated from the imagination of Baron Munchausen and found favour with Gerard Hoffnung." He added, "This rocket-propelled wedding-cake climbs through 200 years of German music: Stamitz, Brahms, Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel , Wagner's Valkyries… and, more contentiously, the Mastersingers." [3] Andrew Clements of The Guardian compared the work favorably to Corigliano's Symphony No. 2, writing, "The scoring is virtuosic and at least the music does not pretend to have any more profound aspirations." [4]

<i>Gramophone</i> (magazine) UK monthly magazine published in London devoted to classical music, particularly to reviews of recordings

Gramophone is a magazine published monthly in London devoted to classical music, particularly to reviews of recordings. It was founded in 1923 by the Scottish author Compton Mackenzie. It was acquired by Haymarket in 1999. In 2013 the Mark Allen Group became the publisher.

Gerard Hoffnung German-born British musical humourist

Gerard Hoffnung was an artist and musician, best known for his humorous works.

Johannes Brahms German composer and pianist

Johannes Brahms was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. His reputation and status as a composer are such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Corigliano, John (2000). "The Mannheim Rocket". G. Schirmer Inc. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
  2. ↑ Siegel, Steve (April 7, 2012). "Corigliano's 'Mannheim Rocket' set for take-off". The Morning Call . Retrieved May 19, 2016.
  3. ↑ Seckerson, Edward (June 2004). "Corigliano: Symphony No 2; The Mannheim Rocket: Helsinki Philharmonic/ Storgards". Gramophone . Retrieved May 19, 2016.
  4. ↑ Clements, Andrew (November 1996). "Corigliano: Symphony No 2; The Mannheim Rocket: Helsinki Philharmonic/ Storgards". The Guardian . Retrieved May 19, 2016.
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