1st symphony (Schmidt)

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The symphony in E major for large orchestra is the first symphony by the composer Franz Schmidt . It was composed between 1896 and 1899 and was premiered in Vienna in 1902. In 1899 she was awarded first prize in the composition competition of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna.

Sentence names

  1. Very slowly. Very lively
  2. Slowly
  3. Fast and easy. Slowly but not slowly
  4. Lively, but not too fast

The playing time is approx. 45 minutes.

History of origin

The first sketches for Franz Schmidt's symphonic debut were made in 1896, parallel to the composer's entry as a cellist in the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera ( Vienna Philharmonic ). The main work fell in 1899, and the composition was finished in time to be submitted anonymously for the Society of Friends of Music Awards. Schmidt gave the score the poetic catchphrase “I sing like the bird that lives in the branches”. The jury unanimously awarded him the first prize - after the premiere by the Wiener Concertverein under the composer's own direction (December 16, 1900), the Philharmoniker also included the work in their subscription concerts. Thus one can speak of Franz Schmidt's first great compositional success. Like all later symphonies, the E major symphony combines a classic four-movement design with a romantic tonal language. (The four movements are given in all Schmidt symphonies, even if they are partly veiled.)

analysis

The first movement begins with a slow introduction, set in chords in dotted rhythms, clearly approximating the model of the baroque “French overture”, crowned by a cantilena of the solo trumpet. The main movement, “very lively”, is composed in the regular sonata form.

The second movement (“slow”) begins with a distinctive modulation section that gently leads to the keynote A-flat. The clarinet melody begins in A flat minor, only gradually does the events clear up in major regions. The “Magyar character” of the topic is typical for Schmidt and can be demonstrated in many later, especially slow melodies, as already emphasized by biographer Norbert Tschulik. The middle section of the three-part movement (in the basic key of the symphony, E major) sounds like the pastoral intermezzo of a melancholy "song", the theme of which initially returns in E minor (beginning in the English horn), then is brought to a great emotional heightening, before concluding in A flat major conciliatory.

This is followed by a Scherzo (“fast and easy”) with a trio that sounds like the “echo of an Austrian country man”.

The finale (“lively, but not too fast”) shows the composer's mastery of craftsmanship. Baroque contrapuntal techniques appear to be confidently mixed with refined variation techniques. A chorale-like episode is immediately subjected to a character variation: the wind instruments, who had initially exposed the chorale theme, now play around it in a flowing eighth note movement, while it sounds in the strings, pizzicato. Another episode transforms the main theme of the movement, which is initially introduced (imitatively in 3/2 time) into a cheeky gigue rhythm. With this, Schmidt ingeniously draws the bow back to the beginning of the symphony, which also transforms baroque gestures. The romantic tone of the work is never irritated by all these witty historical references. Schmidt evidently continues the symphonic tradition of Johannes Brahms and his antipode Anton Bruckner in an independent way, but he also helps, which has so far hardly been noticed, to pave the way for the spirit of the coming neoclassicism thanks to an eminent mastery of form.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Norbert Tschulik: Franz Schmidt. Lafite, Vienna 1972
  2. ^ Harald Truscott: The Music of Franz Schmidt. Vol. 1. The Orchestral Works. Toccata Press, London 1984, p. 42.