Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Theodor Grigoriu
Concerto for double chamber orchestra and oboe (1957)
(Concert pentru dublă orchestră de cameră și oboi)- Editions Musicales Transatlantiques (World)
- 2[pic].0+ca.2.2/3100/timp/cel/str(6.6.6.2.2)
- Oboe
- 21 min
Programme Note
The Concerto for double chamber orchestra and oboe (1957) was written at a time when the opportunity appeared for an exhaustive knowledge of Enescu and Bartok’s works, which the history of the 20th-century music defines as imaginary folklore. Like each of my colleagues, I had written several works and although I was protected from the dangers of epigonism a touch of the influence of the two composers may be felt. Messiaen himself openly admits that influences from Bartok, who certainly was more widely circulated than Enescu, exist in his music.
As the Concerto, in addition to other works, was published in Paris by Editions Musical Transatlantiques, its final form was edited on the occasion.
The timbre of the oboe has always seemed fascinating, poetic and suggestive to me, therefore I used it in a work that is ampler than the usual concertos for this instrument, and closer to a concertante symphony. The idea of the work revolves around the analysis and development of a lament, succinctly exposed at the beginning of the work as an introduction, and the three subsequent parts as mere attempts to tone down its tragic immanence. If the sound material of the aforementioned lament is tough and cannot be broken up, it can be melted by a frantic atmosphere.
In other words, from the whole range of emotional moods, it seemed to me that only frenzy could counter the tragic side, defeating it; whether or not this a veracious hypothesis, it explains the psychological plane of the Concerto.
Part I, after the introduction - Largamente, pesante - follows a free sonata form. The initial indication is Moderato affettuoso (quasi una melopeea), and brings two tempos into opposition, a slower and a livelier one respectively, in a melopoeic development that reaches a dramatic, culminating point, with the ideas reprised in reverse. In this part, as shown above, the elements of the initial lament reappear at several moments.
Part II, Adagio sognando, is a reverie, disturbed in its middle, like a nightmare, by the same initial lament. The rhythms of this part, though slow, have an aksak rhythm structure with prolonged bar endings which lend more instability to the musical pulse. An initial clearer section is followed by a more diffuse, almost immaterial one; at this moment the surprise intervenes of the initial lament which is brought back. As in a mirror, the diffuse atmosphere returns, followed by the moments from the beginning of Part II.
Part III, Allegro molto giocoso e capriccioso (quasi una cornamusa), in the form of a rondo, evokes the instrumental world of the bagpipe, the ancestor of the oboe. Other elements, pertaining to a rougher kind of bucolism, appear in this part, such as alphorn sounds, which in the Western Carpathians, for instance, have an important role in communicating at great distances. The serious ideas mingle with the gay ones in a frantic atmosphere leading to the breakup of the tragic expression of the initial lament, which for a brief moment appears bright and invigorating. This part ends with the theme from cornamusa, and the oboe returns to the double staccatura from the beginning.
The above descriptions aims to sooner familiarize the listeners with the thematic plan of the Concerto, as in a large-scale work it takes longer to reveal itself.
- Theodor Grigoriu
As the Concerto, in addition to other works, was published in Paris by Editions Musical Transatlantiques, its final form was edited on the occasion.
The timbre of the oboe has always seemed fascinating, poetic and suggestive to me, therefore I used it in a work that is ampler than the usual concertos for this instrument, and closer to a concertante symphony. The idea of the work revolves around the analysis and development of a lament, succinctly exposed at the beginning of the work as an introduction, and the three subsequent parts as mere attempts to tone down its tragic immanence. If the sound material of the aforementioned lament is tough and cannot be broken up, it can be melted by a frantic atmosphere.
In other words, from the whole range of emotional moods, it seemed to me that only frenzy could counter the tragic side, defeating it; whether or not this a veracious hypothesis, it explains the psychological plane of the Concerto.
Part I, after the introduction - Largamente, pesante - follows a free sonata form. The initial indication is Moderato affettuoso (quasi una melopeea), and brings two tempos into opposition, a slower and a livelier one respectively, in a melopoeic development that reaches a dramatic, culminating point, with the ideas reprised in reverse. In this part, as shown above, the elements of the initial lament reappear at several moments.
Part II, Adagio sognando, is a reverie, disturbed in its middle, like a nightmare, by the same initial lament. The rhythms of this part, though slow, have an aksak rhythm structure with prolonged bar endings which lend more instability to the musical pulse. An initial clearer section is followed by a more diffuse, almost immaterial one; at this moment the surprise intervenes of the initial lament which is brought back. As in a mirror, the diffuse atmosphere returns, followed by the moments from the beginning of Part II.
Part III, Allegro molto giocoso e capriccioso (quasi una cornamusa), in the form of a rondo, evokes the instrumental world of the bagpipe, the ancestor of the oboe. Other elements, pertaining to a rougher kind of bucolism, appear in this part, such as alphorn sounds, which in the Western Carpathians, for instance, have an important role in communicating at great distances. The serious ideas mingle with the gay ones in a frantic atmosphere leading to the breakup of the tragic expression of the initial lament, which for a brief moment appears bright and invigorating. This part ends with the theme from cornamusa, and the oboe returns to the double staccatura from the beginning.
The above descriptions aims to sooner familiarize the listeners with the thematic plan of the Concerto, as in a large-scale work it takes longer to reveal itself.
- Theodor Grigoriu