Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler is born in Austria in 1860. He is famous for his nine(ten) symphonies and many songs. His symphonies are very long and large, for example, 3^rd symphony is over 100 minutes, and 8^th symphony was played by over 1000 people before. And other symphonies are about from 60 minutes to 90 minutes. Considering almost classical symphonies are within 30 minutes, we can listen to two or three classical symphonies during listening to his one symphony. I can’t listen to his symphony concentrating from start to finish. His one more symphony’s character is with vocal. 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 8^th and 9^th symphony has vocal part. It is very powerful and moving. I like best 5^th symphony which is famous for 4^th movement. 4^th movement “Adajetto” is used in “Death of Venice.” Adajetto is very beautiful, quite and calm movement, it is played by only strings and harp. I feel relaxing during listening to this music.

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky is the main modern composer, he is born in 1882. His main pieces “The rite of spring,” “Firebird” and “Petrushka” (these three pieces are called “three main ballet music) give much effect on classical music. Especially, valuation of the rite of spring is spirited for its novelty. In these piece, many novel techniques, expressions and orchestration. For example, complex rhythm , many discords and polyphony. Because of using these techniques, he could make pieces terrible and suspenseful instead of expressing beautiful melody.

And, he is called a chameleon because his style often change. He stopped using complex rhythm , many discords and polyphony at his middle period, then he write classical and baroque music. And he try to seek new expressions at his latter period, so he use novel techniques again.

Saint-Saens

This week I’ll introduce a person of many talents. He is not only classical composer, he is also good at playing piano, playing organ, astronomy, mathematics, poetry and philosophy. Especially, they say that his poetry is excellent. Therefore, his personality is very bending. For example, he said to a certain pianist “I wonder a low level of pianist like you could become pianist.” But his works is very excellent, especially, “Symphony No.3” is the most famous and popular work. I like this piece better than any other pieces. The strong point of this symphony is using organ in 2^nd movement and 4^th movement effectively (this symphony is divided to two sections, but each section is divided to two sections, actually, this symphony has four movements). The impact of organ in 4^th movement is over powering, so I recommend you to listen to this symphony in the hall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCKiZRWyv20&feature=fvw

Ａｋｉｒａ Ｉｈｕｋｕｂｅ

I’ll introduce this week a composer graduated from Hokkaido University. Akira Ihukube is a Japanese famous composer of classical music. He is famous for “The theme of Godzilla.” His works is very different from works of foreigners. He composes originating from Japanese folk songs and he take a serious view of character of Japanese music. So, his works have Japanese character. We can watch a lot of obstinate in his music. This many uses of obstinate is sometimes criticized by his master because it is a weak point of modern music. However, he emphasized that this obstinate has very importance in asia music. In fact, this obstinate makes his works unique, characteristic and powerful, and in the theme of godzilla this obstinate is used.

Ｅｒｉｃ Ｓａｔｉｅ

　Eric Satie is composer born in France. He is often called “eccentric of music scene” or “heretic of music scene” but his achievements have a lot effects to western music. Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel are influenced by his works. His style is impressionism, so he was not watched in those days. But he was watched by Ravel and others in 20^th century, his works became to be acclaimed .

His is famous of funny names of his works. For example, Bureaucratic sonatine” ,”Flabby prelude for a dog” ,”Three short pieces in shape of a pear” , ”Dried fish of an embryo” and ”Fanfare for waking the king of the monkeys), for 2 trumpets.”

And, his music is called “music of furniture.” He intend to make music like back ground music because it is important factor for him who often plays at bar to play not marked like future. “Gymnopedie” and “Gnosiennes” indicate his unique style.

Ｆｒｅｄｅｒｉｃ Ｃｈｏｐｉｎ

Frederic Chopin is main composer in early romantic music. He is born at Poland. The most of his pieces is a piano solo, so he is often called “a poet of piano.” He wrote a lot of piano soli and a lot of pianist (amateur and professional) like to play his music today. His main are Nocturne in E flat major, 12 etude op.10-3 E major, 12 etude op.10-12 C minor, fantasie in F minor, heroic poronaize, fantaisie-impromptu in C sharp minor.

They say Chopin is weak but his pieces are not only delicate, his pieces are sometimes also powerful. A etude “revolution”, prelude in D minor(op.24-28) and scherzo in B minor is powerful and passionate pieces. They are written during Revolution Warsaw because he like his country Poland in those days Poland is dominated by Russia. He want to fight as soldier but he is not allowed because he is weak. So, he decided to describe his passion in piano.

He likes his country Poland very much. In 1831 he moved to Paris, but he always feel nostalgia. Therefore he have a strong rebellious spirit to the great powers that dominate Poland.

W.A.Mozart

In first post I'll write about W.A.mozart. He is the most famous composer over the world. He is born in 1791 at Salzburg. He wrote a lot of symphonies, concerts and sonates, they are sumed up more 700　before he died in 35 old. He can compose quickly. His main works are symphony No.40,41,39,38,25, concert for piano No.20, The marrige of Figaro and The magic flute. I like symphony No.41 and concert for bassoon most. The concert for bassonn is not famous, but this music is very nice music because this concert is said the best concert for bassoon. This concert makes use of the abiity of bassoon Maximumly.