Matinées musicales
Matinées musicales | |
---|---|
by Benjamin Britten | |
Form | suite |
Composed | June 1941 |
Performed | 27 June 1941 |
Matinées musicales is a 1941 composition by Benjamin Britten using music composed by Gioachino Rossini in and around the 1830s. The suite is a successor to Britten's earlier suite based on Rossini, Soirées musicales (1937).
History
In 1935 Benjamin Britten had composed the music for a five-minute short film by Lotte Reininger, called The Tocher.[1] Using themes from works by Rossini composed a little over a century earlier, Britten wrote a score for boys' voices, woodwind, piano and percussion.[2] He later reworked the music for a full orchestra and added two more movements based on Rossini. The expanded suite, titled Soirées musicales, was premiered in 1937 and was used by the choreographer Antony Tudor for a new ballet, Soirée musicale, the following year.[3][4]
In 1941 Lincoln Kirstein wanted a new ballet for a South American tour by the American Ballet. Britten composed another suite after Rossini called Matinées musicales, joined it to the Soirées musicales music and added the overture to La Cenerentola as a finale. The resulting ballet, choreographed by George Balanchine, was called Divertimento.[5] The premiere of Soirées musicales had taken place close to home (London);[3][6] the first performance of the music of Matinées musicales took place on 27 June 1941 in the Theatro Municipal (Rio de Janeiro), under the ballet orchestra's conductor, Emanuel Balaban.[3]
Music
The music is inspired by compositions of Gioachino Rossini in the same way the Soirées were. And again there are five sections:
- March (from William Tell, act 1, "Pas de six")
- Nocturne (from Rossini's Soirées Musicales, nr. 10 "La pesca")
- Waltz (from Rossini's Soirées Musicales, nr. 4 "L'orgia")
- Pantomime (from Rossini's Soirées Musicales, nr. 2 "Il rimprovero")
- Moto perpetuo (Gorgheggi e solfeggi)
Orchestration
- 2 flutes and 1 piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons
- 4 horns (of which 2 ad lib), 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, 1 bass trombone or tuba
- timpani, 2 percussionists (for a snare drum, tenor drum, bass drum, woodblock, triangle, suspended cymbal, tambourine), 1 harp or piano, 1 celesta or piano
- violins, violas, cellos, double basses
References and sources
References
- ^ The Tocher Archived 2020-02-21 at the Wayback Machine, British Film Institute
- ^ Roseberry, pp. 234–235
- ^ a b c Brett, Philip, Heather Wiebe, Jennifer Doctor, Judith LeGrove, and Paul Banks. "Britten, (Edward) Benjamin", Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, 2001. Retrieved 15 June 2021 (subscription required) Archived 15 May 2021 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ All Star Dancing Matinee", The Times, 28 November 1938, p. 10
- ^ White, p. 40
- ^ "National Programme" Archived 2021-06-16 at the Wayback Machine, Radio Times, 10 January 1937, p. 66
Sources
- Roseberry, Eric (2008). "The concertos and early orchestral scores". In Mervyn Cooke (ed.). Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-52-157476-1.
- White, Eric W. (1983). Benjamin Britten: His Life and Operas. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-52-004893-5.
- v
- t
- e
- Paul Bunyan (1941)
- Peter Grimes (1945)
- The Rape of Lucretia (1946)
- Albert Herring (1947)
- The Little Sweep (1949)
- Billy Budd (1951)
- Gloriana (1953)
- The Turn of the Screw (1954)
- Noye's Fludde (1958)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960)
- Owen Wingrave (1971)
- Death in Venice (1973)
- Curlew River (1964)
- The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966)
- The Prodigal Son (1968)
- Plymouth Town (1931)
- Night Mail (1936)
- The Prince of the Pagodas (1956)
- Sinfonietta (1932)
- Simple Symphony (1934)
- Soirées musicales (1937)
- Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (1937)
- Mont Juic (1937)
- Sinfonia da Requiem (1940)
- Matinées musicales (1941)
- The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946)
- Piano Concerto (1938, rev. 1945)
- Violin Concerto (1939, rev. 1958)
- Young Apollo (1939)
- Diversions for Piano Left Hand and Orchestra (1940 rev. 1954)
- Cello Symphony (1963)
- Our Hunting Fathers (1936)
- The Company of Heaven (1937)
- Les Illuminations (1939)
- Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (1943)
- Saint Nicolas (1948)
- Spring Symphony (1949)
- Nocturne (1958)
- Cantata academica (1959)
- War Requiem (1961)
- Cantata misericordium (1963)
- Children's Crusade (1969)
- Phaedra (1975)
- Beware! Three Early Songs (1922–26)
- Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (1940)
- The Holy Sonnets of John Donne (1945)
- Britten's Purcell realizations (1945)+
- 5 Canticles (1947–75, including Canticle I: My beloved is mine and I am his, Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac (1952), Canticle III: Still falls the rain (1954) and Canticle IV: The Journey of the Magi (1971)
- A Charm of Lullabies (1947)
- Winter Words (1954)
- Songs from the Chinese (1957)
- Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente (1958)
- Songs and Proverbs of William Blake (1965)
- The Poet's Echo (1965)
- Who Are These Children? (1969)
- A Birthday Hansel (1975)
- Friday Afternoons (1932–1935)
- A Boy was Born (1933)
- Te Deum in C (1934)
- Advance Democracy (1938)
- A Ceremony of Carols (1942)
- Hymn to St Cecilia (1942)
- Festival Te Deum (1944)
- Rejoice in the Lamb (1943)
- Five Flower Songs (1950)
- Hymn to St Peter (1955)
- Missa Brevis (1959)
- A Hymn of St Columba (1962)
- The Golden Vanity (1966)
- Children's Crusade (1968)
- Sacred and Profane (8 medieval lyrics) (1974)
- Jubilate Deo (1961)
- String Quartet in D major (1931)
- Phantasy Quartet (oboe quartet, 1932)
- String Quartet No. 1 (1941)
- String Quartet No. 2 (1945)
- Prelude and Fugue on a Theme of Vittoria (organ, 1946)
- Six Metamorphoses after Ovid (oboe, 1951)
- Fanfare for St Edmundsbury (three trumpets, 1959)
- Cello sonata (1961)
- Nocturnal after John Dowland (guitar, 1963)
- Cello suites (1964, 1967, 1972)
- String Quartet No. 3 (1975)
- Homage to Paderewski (1941)
- Variations on an Elizabethan Theme (1953)
- War Requiem (1989 film)
- Benjamin Britten (train)
- Benjamin Britten Academy
- Britten Inlet
- Britten Hall
- Britten Sinfonia
- Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century
- Britten's Children
- Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
- English Opera Group
- The Dark Tower
- Scallop (2003)