Harmonie CD

Harmonie CD Notes

Works from the Harmonie Tradition

Prior to the Enlightenment, wind bands held socially prominent positions in the cities, courts, and churches of Western Europe. Symbolic of spiritual ideals, wind instruments were associated with religious rituals and high social status.

In shifting away from spiritual values to humanistic ones, the Enlightenment ushered in a new attitude toward music. Wind instruments with strong spiritual associations, such as the trumpet, lost favor with a public which sought music emanating from the soul of man rather than music evoking the deity. Harmoniemusik consisted of "modern" oboes, bassoons, French horns, and clarinets, which were free from old spiritually symbolic overtones. Eventually, Harmoniemusik found itself amidst the highest levels of society. Throughout the second half of the eighteenth century and into the early decades of the nineteenth, discerning royalty and aristocrats in central Europe would maintain a "Harmonie" or wind ensemble whose main function was to perform Tafelmusik: background music during dinner.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) — Serenade in C minor, K. 388

While Mozart certainly composed Tafelmusik, the three great wind serenades of his early Vienna years (the "Gran Partita," K. 361; "Serenade in E flat," K. 375; and "Serenade in C minor," K 388), represent the Tafelmusik tradition, but far transcend its modest purpose. Mozart's writing for winds conveys his deep awareness of the individual voices and colors of wind instruments.

The "Serenade in C minor," K. 388, stands apart from Mozart's other wind works in its intense, serious character. Within the first 20 bars of its opening, it is obvious that this piece is destined for symphonic attentiveness rather than background dinner entertainment. Relentless in its drive, the theme in C minor rages and pleads before giving way to a joyous theme in E flat. The urgency returns again in the opening key to close the "Allegro" movement. The "Andante" in E flat is elegant and noble, gaining in intensity as it progresses through the sonata form. In the "Menuetto in Canone," Mozart's masterful contrapuntal skills become evident. Beginning with a canon or "round" in two parts, Mozart turns the "Menuetto" into a four-part canon at the trio. He goes even further by developing the theme in retrograde (backwards), inversion (mirror image), and a combination of the two. The final "Allegro" movement (theme and variations) begins in C minor where the third movement ends. This movement, in its drama and intensity, contains the strongest of the similarities to "Don Giovanni," which can be heard throughout the "Serenade." The horn phrase, which relieves tension through the transition from minor to major, is the same phrase that appears in "Don Giovanni" at a similar point in the drama. The street-band rout concluding the "Serenade" is similar to the conclusion of the opera, bringing a return to the reality of everyday life.

The compositional date for the "Serenade in C minor" is not known. It is possibly the work referred to in Mozart's letter to his father on July 27, 1782: "I have had to compose a serenade in a great hurry, but only for wind instruments." The "serenade," however, could also refer to the "Gran Partita" or an arrangement of "Die Entfuhrung". Mozart's arranging of K.388 for string quintet (K. 406/K. 516b) in 1787, the date of "Don Giovanni," coupled with the passages reminiscent of that work, may argue for a later date.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) — Octet, Op. 103

Bonn's musical life in the late 1780's mirrored that of Vienna with its cosmopolitan ragout of early-Classic and Classic styles. As a young composer, Beethoven had opportunities to hear works by Mozart, Haydn, Gluck, Cimarosa, Salieri, Pergolesi, Gossec, and others. He easily integrated and accepted the language of his contemporaries and predecessors. The "Octet," Op. 103, is heavily indebted to Mozart.

The Austrian Archduke Maximilian Franz (Elector of Cologne, who resided at Bonn), had eight excellent wind players who regularly entertained him at his table. It was for these wind players (pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns) that Beethoven wrote his "Octet." It was probably written in 1792, and left behind for the players to perform when Beethoven traveled to Vienna. The "Octet" is a charming and agreeable work. The "Allegro" opens with a short motif comprised of three pitches that propels the movement forward with its repetition. The "Andante" is beautiful in its melancholic simplicity. Whimsical octave leaps create the delightful character of the "Menuetto." The joyful "Finale" would aid the digestion of any dignitary with its playful manner.

The "Octet" was never published during Beethoven's lifetime, though Beethoven arranged the "Octet" for a string quartet in 1796 (published in 1797 as Op. 4). The wind version was published in the early 1830's without an opus number. Twenty years later it received its misleading opus number 103.

Carl Reinecke (1824-1910) — Octet, Op. 216

Carl Reinecke was associated with the Leipzig Conservatory where he began teaching in 1860. Later he was director from 1897 until his retirement in 1902. During his tenure, the Conservatory came to be one of the most renowned in Europe, taking as its mission to perpetuate the example of the Classical composers and to act as guardian of the German musical tradition back through Bach and beyond. (In more innovative circles Leipzig was often regarded as a bastion of music reaction.)

Reinecke's first teacher was his father, a respected music theoretician. Carl Reinecke's own teaching survives in his canons, nursery rhymes, and exercises for young pianists, which have become classics because of their charming melodies and lack of sentimentality.

As a composer, Reinecke was best known for his many piano compositions. He was master of the so-called "Hausmusik" and of the simpler forms popular at the time. He wrote concertos for flute and for harp and piano, symphonies, operas, and musical fairy tales (under the name Heinrich Carsten). Reinecke's "Octet," Op. 216, was inspired and performed by Paul Taffanel's Parisian ensemble, hence the flute, oboe, 2 clarinet, 2 bassoon, 2 horn scoring of the "Octet." Composed in 1892, the "Octet" represents a mature example of his art, conveying his self-imposed responsibility as representative of the Classic tradition with the "beautiful, gentle, legato and lyrical touch," of which Liszt's daughter Cosima often spoke. "His chamber music is distinguished," as Reinhold Sietz has written, "and the later works in particular attain a Brahmsian majesty and warmth within a variety of forms."