7
MUSICAL COURIER
April 5, 19 2 3
PRACTICAL INSTRUMENTATION
For School, Popular and Symphony Orchestras
By FRANK PATTERSON Author of The Perfect Modernist
[Fourteenth Installment]
(This series of articles was begun in the issue of January •4)
Copyrighted, 1923, by The Musical Courier Company.
multiplying parts so as to get the requisite weight. It bears a suggestion of chamber music, part writing, with each choir used as a soloist. (Ex. 33.)
The melody is here played: the upper part by two flutes, the middle part by two clarinets, the lower part by two bassoons. The parts for each pair of instruments are written together on one line and marked “a 2,” which means that both play. The accompaniment is on the strings—all of the strings— and, as seen, the avoidance is again observed, even though, in the second bar of the example, it causes an open fifth, an empty triad, a triad without a third.
Here the rhythm is somewhat more developed. A little more weight is in the accompaniment. It is the approach of a climax, which is reached ten bars further on, where the entire orchestra, except trombones and tuba, carries on to a splendid fortissimo. But there is no change in the orchestration until the climax is reached. The effect is produced by a mere crescendo. And notice that the wood (in Ex. 33) is marked forte, while the strings are marked mezzoforte. At the end of the crescendo the wood is marked fortissimo, the strings, trumpets, horns and tympany are marked only forte. The same is true of the fortissimo passage next to be quoted, which appears a few pages further on, page 15 of the miniature score. (See Ex. 34.)
Ex. 34
What amazes one most in such a passage as this is its extraordinary genius and its extreme simplicity. The harmony is of the most ordinary nature —an A minor triad—and so lightly expressed that one wonders that it is sufficient. The melody is written for first and second violins and cello—the counterpoint for two flutes and two oboes on the upper voice, two clarinets and two bassoons on the lower voice—i. e., the entire wood wind concentrated on this octave chromatic. Avoidance is observed in the harmony, leaving in the second bar an open fifth as in the other two examples. Note, too, that the tympany is not written “tr” for trill, but with tremolo sign (crossed tail). This is much the best way.
How Tschaikowsky strengthens his rhythm by the slight change on the second beat of these bars is worthy of consideration. Instead of the dotted eighth and sixteenth, as in the other examples, we have here two eighths with breadth strokes above, representing a slight leaning on the notes, almost an accent. And the counterpoint is marked fortissimo, while the melody and harmony are marked only forte—which means, more than anything else, that the conductor is to see to it that the counterpoint is clearly heard. It is a good plan to mark parts that are intended to be heard with the word “outstanding,” then there can be no mistake as to the composer’s intention.
(To be continued next week)
Bach and Tschaikowsky
How lovely, for instance, and how distinctly modern, is this passage from Bach’s׳ Passion, page 231. (See Ex. 31.)
Clarinets
Ex. 31
This, in color, design, balance, harmony, might have been written yesterday, even today. The moving clarinets, low down, on the dominant seventh chord, the cello pizzicato, the chords on the strings, all taken together give an impression of warmth, sonority and charm that is exquisite. And why is it modern sounding? Because of the motion on the clarinets, the prominent wood effect, which is one of the most marked features of modern tendencies in orchestration.
Yet this statement must be qualified. It is not the mere fact that wood is used, but the way it is used, that gives the modern, and lovely, new color to our music. It has to do, first, with prominence, then with sonority—it has to do with the fact that the wood is not merely a solo voice, not merely a step-child of the strings. Yet again this is to be qualified. For passages for the wood alone (or with horns, which comes to the same thing) are far from being attractive, unless handled with extreme care. Wagner’s long organ-imitations, intended to be religious, are pretty bad, and Lohengrin saw the last of them. Tschaikowsky’s Scherzo of the 4th symphony with its wood and brass effects, its throwing back and forth of the music from choir to choir, is clever, perhaps, and has been much talked of, but is raw and bald, and an amazing example of the inequality of judgment of this greatest of modern symphonists. It is a thing no one is likely to copy.
This same 4th symphony has many passages (especially in the first movement) that are instructive and illustrative of Tschaikowsky’s original and individual method of doing things. It is like the work of no other composer.
It has seemed to the writer that perhaps the best way to present a useful outline of this method of construction would be to treat a single subject in its various repetitions so as to discover how Tschaikowsky gives it in each case its intended significance. This significance has, of course, much to do with the context. Yet the orchestration also has much to do with it.
For this purpose the first bars of the principal subject of the first movement (after the introduction) will be taken. (Ex. 32.)
Ex. 32
Even from this very simple passage there is much to be learned. The sustained quality is very marked, yet there are no sustained chords. The harmony is merely suggested, and with it the rhythm—then the bar is left bare of anything but the melody. But the melody is very sonorous, luscious, and presents a constant flow of sound with no breaks or pauses. Furthermore, the chords are full, from the melody note downward, except where it would conflict with the melody in the lower octave. This is the principle of avoidance (see The Perfect Modernist). It is a principle the use of which depends entirely upon circumstances. No rule or even suggestion can be given for its propriety, but the student can imagine for himself the effect of adding the C in soprano and tenor of the chords in the first bar of this example, and the A flat in the second bar.
The chords are here played entirely by the strings, except the one note for the horn, as indicated on the example. It serves to complete the chords without dividing the strings, which always endangers balance, and it gives a very slight touch of color to a passage that would otherwise be for strings alone.
Our next example immediately follows this (page 7 of the score) and is very characteristic of Tschaikowsky’s habit of pitting choir against choir and