Academic literature on the topic 'Sibelius Violin Concerto'

It seems one has to start with Isobel Gowdie. Whatever neophobic propogandists may say, there have been warm receptions for other new works at Promenade Concerts, but the thunderous, ecstatic welcome given to James MacMillan's The Confession of Isobel Gowdie at the 1990 Proms was unprecedented. What made it more remarkable was that this was a capacity Saturday night audience, largely attracted – or so one presumes – by Beethoven's Fourth Symphony and the prospect of hearing the brilliant young Korean violinist Dong Suk-Kang play the Sibelius Violin Concerto. What proportion of that audience was further lured by the picture in the Proms brochure of the good-looking young man, posing moodily in front of the Glasgow Celtic football ground, and the article underneath, with its promise of a heady mixture of catholic-socialist-Scottish indignation, is anybody's guess – but it can't have been the majority.

Background. Rapidness of information flows of contemporary life enforces to concentrate a significant amount of information in small formats. This fact meaningfully increases social and practical significance, cultural and aesthetic value of miniature genres, in particularly, in the musical art. The violin miniature is a historically developed, typologically settled genre of professional musical creativity designed to solo music-making in the conditions of chamber or concert performance. Relevance of the genre is also due to its active inclusion in the programs of competitions and festivals. To the violin miniature genre the such outstanding masters of past were addressing as N. Paganini, H. Wieniawski, P. Tchaikovsky, E. Elgar, J. Sibelius, F. Kreisler, as well as the Ukrainian composers – M. Lysenko, V. Kosenko, L. Revutskyi, B. Liatoshynskyi, etc. True renaissance of violin miniature in Ukraine began in the 70’s of the XX century: about 30 miniatures were created by Yu. Ishchenko, I. Karabits, E. Stankovich, O. Kiva, V. Homoliaka, L. Bulhakov, S. Kolobkov and others. At the end of the XX century the Ukrainian artists written about a dozen miniatures and cycles, among the authors ‒ V. Sylvestrov, M. Skoryk, M. Karminskyi, K. Dominchen, H. Havrylets, O. Krasotov, V. Manyk. The 2000s years for the violin miniature genre became even more productive. Let us note the creative achievements of M. Skoryk, O. Hnatovska, I. Albova and M. Stetsiun. The miniatures by famous Kharkiv composer Liudmila Shukailo, who created a cycle of 10 plays, were an important contribution to the violin repertoire. The objective of the article is to consider the peculiarities of the genre interpretation of violin miniatures in the L. Shukailo’s creativity on the example of her collection «10 pieces for violin and piano». At the present stage the study of the genre of Ukrainian violin miniature is insufficient; in particular, L. Shukaylo’s miniatures were not considered by researchers. The methodological basis of this study is the concept of the genre of miniature by K. Zenkin (1997), E. Nazaikinskyi (2009), N. Ryabukhа (2004), L. Sviridovska (2007), N. Govar (2013), O. Harhai (2013), V. Zaranskyi (2009). The research results. Miniature is a genre that embodies a variety of lyrical emotions and subtle nuances of mental states and also presupposes clearness of a form, laconism and concentration of thought, the elegance of means of artistic expression and the chamber conditions for performance. The latter contribute to the passing of depth of its content and special intimacy of utterance. In the works of L. Shukailo all the characteristics of miniature genre are the means realization the composer’s artistic idea. There are a lot of miniatures for various instruments among her works. This genre attracts the artist with its exceptional feature: it is necessary to outline a specific laconic image without «blurring». Working on the violin miniature, the author seeks to achieve maximum effects by minimal means, taking into account the performing convenience and mobility of the chamber type of music. Creativity by Kharkiv composer Liudmila Shukailo, who for several decades has been working in the Kharkiv Middle Special Music School, attracts the attention of performers and art critics. All the time communicating with children, the composer creates a lot of various pieces for young performers. Thus, the original author’s solution demonstrates in the collection «10 pieces for violin and piano» formed on the principle of «school of playing», that is the increasing of degree of complexity. Most of the pieces have the names corresponding to different style traditions: Baroque (Passacalia), Romanticism (Elegy, Scherzino, Waltz, Intermezzo, Burlesque), some of plays are emphasized separately – «Ballet scene», «Variations» and «Spring duet». It is the contrast of genre attributes that promotes to join diverse miniatures into a cycle. The author traditionally prefers the genre of descriptive (programmed) miniature, because in it, in her opinion, it is easier to specify the content and create the vivid image that is very important for young musicians. The first piece of the collection, “Passacalia”, is stylized in the same named genre (moderate tempo, triple meter, elements of basso ostinato, etc.), however L. Shukailo uses the method of stylization creatively: she interprets this genre in the context of a new round of historical and stylistic development, with the maximum introduction of individual musical thinking. The piece “Ballet scene” marked by bright theatricality. Its waltz theme has a cross-cutting development, creates the illusion of whirling; the accents and underscores of weak shares add to it vividness and capriciousness. The piece “Oh, verbo, verbo” (“Oh, willow, willow”) is the miniature variations on the theme of Ukrainian folk song. The first variation resembles a waltz, the second – the Ukrainian dance “Cossack” with its characteristic rhythm and the third associates with the genre of Toccata due to monotonous rapid movement. The romantic quasi-vocal “Spring duet”, a musical dialogue of violin and piano, requires the ability to «sing» on the instrument, to fill the sound with a beautiful timbre. The next piece, “Allegro”, corresponds to its tempo and characteristic designation. The choice of the tonality of the miniature (“bright” C major), “grateful” for a violinist, adds a festive flavor and reveals the author’s goal: to address the music to beginners, taking into account their perception and performance capabilities. The monotony of the “canter” technical figurations, which is maintained throughout the play, unites “Allegro” with the etude and makes it possible to use it as an etude. Semantics of the next piece, “Elegies” in D minor, fully corresponds to the genre of the sad song. Its lyrical and psychological aura outlines the multifaceted image and its tense development. The contrast to the antecedent sad mood the piece “Scherzino” presents – the miniature with a characteristic for children’s music name. The stroke of staccato, the alternation of ascending and descending melodic movements, unexpected stops create a certain comic effect. Unfolded “Waltz” marked by virtuoso-improvisational character, continues the cycle. Song and recitation “Intermezzo” is characterized by the complication of the figurative and semantic aspects. The miniature has a pronounced lyrical and dramatic orientation. Modern harmonious style is manifested in the extension of tonal-harmonic relations, the introduction of alterated tones, tone oppositions, daring shifts-modulations. The piece is marked by equality of violin and piano parts, which seize the initiative from each other creating the continuity of musical development. The last miniature – “Burlesque”, with Rondo features, performs the final function in the cycle. The piece has virtuosic orientation – fast paced, rapid passages, pizzicato, dynamic contrasts and the solo Cadenza with bright loud double notes. Interpretation of this miniature can be complete only in terms of technical assimilation of all previous material. “Burlesque”, in fact, is a test of skill and can be recommended for performances in open concerts. Conclusions. Violin miniature is a conceptual genre of musical culture, performing self-sufficient artistic function like to other genres and being able to reflect the psychology of an author’s personality. In the Ukrainian composers creativity, the genre of violin miniatures is lifted on great artistic high, as the “10 pieces for violin and piano” by L. Shukailo evidenced, which are characterized by melodicism, clarity and persuasiveness of the creative idea, the logics of the musical language. The composer uses the program descriptiveness, genre stylization and folklore sources expressing in music her own emotions, impressions and feelings. Poetic imagery that fascinates with emotion and extremely romanticized reproduction of reality, as well as interesting findings in the field of form and expressive means give the works of self-containment and artistic value. L. Shukailo’s cycle “10 pieces for violin and piano” can be recommended both, for performing as an indivisible work and for using of the pieces in isolation with a methodical purpose. The cycle is aimed at the formation of not only the technical skills, but also on the possession of the specifics of adequate reproduction of the figurative and semantic content of a musical work. Prospects. The questions of scientific understanding of the individual composer’s style of L. Shukailo require the more detailed musicological analysis. Some of the observations obtained in this article can be applied in the study of a wider range of problems of modern violin art, in particular, the use of the latest composer techniques in the genre of violin miniatures. Further development of the theme will also contribute to the enrichment of the teaching and methodical repertoire in the genre of violin miniature, to identify its new genre varieties and to attract its best samples to the violin performance.

In my master`s thesis project, I studied different ways to practise the Sibelius violin concerto to become a better violinist.The work describes my personal journey with the Sibelius violin concerto: how in one year, I studied to play the first movement of the concerto. Through this process and this project, I was able to see what my skills as a violinist are and what things I still need to develop. For the study, I got help from my colleagues, who are Finnish violinists, and I interviewed them. I was especially interested in their technical development during their studies so that I could connect the information to my own violin playing. I wanted to improve my technical skills to practise the Sibelius violinconcerto. Other things that I used to study the concerto were literature and recordings to get new ideas and support for my thinking. Also, music courses and master classes were important sources of information for this investigative work. After one year practising the concerto, my technical and musical skills became better. Preparing adifficult romantic concerto raised my level as a violinist. Through the videos I made aboutpractising the Sibelius violin concerto, it was possible to start to develop my performance skills. All the methods and literature I used gave me a more professional view of my violin playing and musicianship. After this research, I can start to work with my art now that I have so many usefultools for practising and performing.   In my master`s thesis project, I studied different ways to practise the Sibelius violin concerto to become a better violinist. The work describes my personal journey with the Sibelius violin concerto: how in one year, I studied to play the first movement of the concerto. Through this process and this project, I was able to see what my skills as a violinist are and what things I still need to develop. For the study, I got help from my colleagues, who are Finnish violinists, and I interviewed them. I was especially interested in their technical development during their studies so that I could connect the information to my own violin playing. I wanted to improve my technical skills to practise the Sibelius violin concerto. Other things that I used to study the concerto were literature and recordings to get new ideas and support for my thinking. Also, music courses and master classes were important sources of information for this investigative work. After one year practising the concerto, my technical and musical skills became better. Preparing a difficult romantic concerto raised my level as a violinist. Through the videos I made about practising the Sibelius violin concerto, it was possible to start to develop my performance skills. All the methods and literature I used gave me a more professional view of my violin playing and musicianship. After this research, I can start to work with my art now that I have so many useful tools for practising and performing.

abstract: Playing an orchestral reduction is not always the most joyous of times for pianists. As pianists, we have to express a reduced idea of all the instruments and orchestral textures that are in the full score. However, in many cases, there are often omissions, errors or discrepancies in the existing published reductions. These reductions are made by a variety of people: editors, conductors, pianists, but rarely by the composer, and often do not reflect the composer's true intentions. While many reductions are technically playable, including the reduction of the Sibelius Violin Concerto that will form the basis of this paper, the arrangement of the orchestration can be obscured or inaccurate to the point where the violin soloist may not be receiving the best representation of the actual orchestration. A piano reduction should as closely as possible represent the original intention of the composer, both for the sake of the audience and the performers. The pianist should be able to provide the proper support and orchestration of any reduction for the instrumentalist or vocalist so that the same performance style and technique can be used while performing with either a piano reduction or a full orchestra. This research document contains a detailed examination of the various orchestral reductions of the Sibelius Violin Concerto, culminating in a new version by the author. In this discussion, the author will present a basic understanding of how to orchestrate at the piano through an in-depth explanation of piano skill and technique, practice techniques such as listening to a recorded version of the full orchestration while playing the piano, and ways to study and revise an existing piano reduction. The current published reductions of the Sibelius Violin Concerto contain many errors and discrepancies and will be contrasted with the author's own reduction, available for comparison and study in the appendix. This new revised reduction will clearly show the orchestral instruments represented throughout the score, demonstrate new techniques for various orchestral textures, and will yield a playable product that more closely represents the composer's original intentions.
Dissertation/Thesis
D.M.A. Music 2011

碩士
實踐大學
音樂學系碩士班
103
The purpose of this study lies in the Finnish composer Sibelius "Violin Concerto in D minor" for music analysis and techniques discussed. In the beginning of the biography text of Sibelius described his outstanding performance to music and great contribution to his Finnish homeland. In the research of "Violin Concerto in D minor", first described the background of the piece which Sibelius wrote when the composer faced with hardships, and then described there are two versions in early 1903 (draft) and 1905 (completed), universal popular since the 1905 edition in the history of music has an important position. 　　The author will make music for "Violin Concerto in D minor", respectively, from each movement to explore important passages and themes, harmony, scale, texture, motivation. Then the author will re-explore this song for tips on scales and arpeggios, double-stop, polyphonic, legato, staccato, tremolo strings and change across the strings combine techniques such as changing the difficult position of the face, with its own practice and play the song's experience to provide training methods. Attention to the song needed a base of technology in the hope that readers will be able to explore this music analysis and skills, in addition to the surface to get music on Sibelius "Violin Concerto in D minor" enhance familiarity and practice playing this song when the first large develop.

碩士
國立東華大學
音樂學系
106
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) was a Finnish composer of Nationalism in the late 19th century and early 20th century. In the early 20th century, he composed his only violin concerto "Violin Concerto in D minor". After the first performance in 1903, it was retracted and revised. It was not until 1905 that it was republished. It has become a definitive version. Author discusses the life and musical style of Sibelius and puts forward personal practice method and interpretation through the analysis of this work. This thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter researches motivation, narrative data sources and discussion of the benefits of the data. The second chapter explores the life and music style of Sibelius. The third chapter analyzes the work. The fourth chapter is focused on interpretation and performance practice. The fifth chapter is conclusion. Hopefully this thesis will enable readers to have a deeper understanding of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D minor.

This book highlights the unique insights that Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D Minor (op. 47) offers into the composer’s musical imagination, violin virtuosity, and connections between violin-playing traditions. It discusses the concerto’s cultural contexts, performers who are connected with its early history, and recordings of the work. Beginning with Sibelius’s early training as a violinist and his aspirations to be a virtuoso player, the book traces the composition of the concerto at a dramatic political moment in Finnish history. This concerto was composed when Finland, as an autonomous Grand Duchy within the Russian Empire, was going through a period of intense struggle for self-determination and protest against Russian imperial policies. Taking the concerto’s historical context into consideration leads to a new paradigm of the twentieth-century virtuoso as a political figure, which replaces nineteenth-century representations of the virtuoso as a magical figure. The book explores this paradigm by analyzing twentieth-century violin virtuosity in terms of labor, recording technology, and gender politics, especially the new possibilities for women aiming to develop musical careers. Ultimately, the book moves away from the compositional context of the concerto and a reading of the virtuoso as a political figure to reveal how Sibelius’s musical imagination prompts thinking about the long ecological histories of musical transmission and virtuosity.

This chapter reflects on the legacies of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D Minor (op. 47), noting the establishment of the Sibelius Violin Competition and listing violin concertos composed by Finnish composers after Sibelius. It discusses concerto writing as an exploration of the relationship between soloist and orchestra. By situating virtuosity as a trope in relational thought within philosophical discourses on human tendencies, this chapter argues that a politics of possibility emerges because the element of risk in a virtuoso’s performance is haunted by a moral drama played out on public stages with uncertain outcomes. This chapter, and the book as a whole, ends by moving away from a political view of the concerto to the question of how performing traditions are formed over time. The chapter concludes with a reading of the Sibelius violin concerto within the long ecological histories of musical transmission.

This chapter focuses on musical and political life in Helsinki from 1880 to 1905, considering the importance of both the educator Martin Wegelius and the composer-conductor Robert Kajanus to the development of the city’s music institutions. It emphasizes Finland’s status as an autonomous Grand Duchy within the Russian Empire, the Finnish nationalist movement, and the protest against Governor-General Bobrikov’s implementation of Russification policies, which is the historical context for a political reading of the Sibelius violin concerto. This chapter also discusses the development of comparative research and cross-border interactions (mostly between Finland and Russia) as part of Sibelius’s cultural milieu. It highlights that both nationalist and cosmopolitan outlooks shaped Sibelius’s career, as well as Helsinki’s musical life generally.

This chapter argues that an appreciation of both regional and transnational violin-playing styles is needed for a profound understanding of the Sibelius violin concerto. Sibelius’s musical ideas and performers’ interpretations of the violin concerto are shaped by different violin-playing traditions. This argument also offers perspectives on how pedagogy shapes musical transmission and performance style by focusing on Leopold Auer’s influence on the violin playing of the twentieth century. Leading into the main concerns of the fifth chapter, the argument concludes by noting that Auer’s teaching practice coincided with women’s emerging political voices. He accepted many women violinists into his class in the St. Petersburg Conservatory, women who went on to forge careers as virtuoso violinists and to champion Sibelius’s violin concerto internationally.

This chapter presents an overview of Sibelius’s early musical training, especially as a violinist. It highlights the life-long persistence of Sibelius’s violin training in his musical imagination. It introduces key questions that are pursued throughout the book: What is the labor of virtuosity? How are performing traditions formed over time? What are the cross-genre musical influences in Sibelius’s violin concerto? The discussion in this chapter unfolds in relation to philosophical discourses on beauty and statehood, as well as on the idea of the virtuoso’s political potential, which builds on nineteenth-century views on the redemptive potential of civic action and on military-heroic symbolism in performance.

This chapter explores the intersection of music and phenomenology as potentially fertile ground for the study of consciousness. Taking the philosophy of Edmund Husserl as a touchstone, and the Violin Concerto, Op. 47 of Jean Sibelius as a case study, the chapter considers how phenomenological concepts such as epoché, noesis, eidos, and the transcendental subject all find resonances within a formal analysis of this musical work. The chapter also juxtaposes Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology and his critique of the ‘natural attitude’ against Daniel Dennett’s physicalist account of consciousness and Wilfrid Sellars’ concept of the ‘scientific image’. In negotiating a pathway between these positions, the chapter considers whether music—and its determination of an autonomous aesthetic sphere—may offer a productive alternative perspective to the often competing claims of philosophy and science in our understanding of consciousness.

This chapter discusses Sibelius’s compositional processes in relation to his Violin Concerto in D Minor (op. 47). It considers concerto models, Sibelius’s study of folk traditions, and the composer’s revision process. It argues that compositional processes are shaped by performers, performance environments, cross-genre interests, and critics, as well as by the composer’s imagination. This chapter highlights violinists such as Wilhelm Burmester, alongside critics, especially Karl Flodin, who are part of the concerto’s compositional and revision history. The chapter also outlines the main structural and melodic features of the revised concerto.

Records are instrumental in analyzing the history of performing traditions from the twentieth century onward and they have implications for theorizing virtuosity. There is a rich archive facilitating the comparison of different recorded interpretations of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D Minor (op. 47). This chapter discusses select recorded examples of Sibelius’s violin concerto beginning with Jascha Heifetz’s 1935 recording, which is a key moment in the history of this work. It then turns to examples of particular historical interest by Anja Ignatius, Ida Haendel, and Haimo Haitto. Key topics include musical biography, the child prodigy, and women virtuosos carving out a new vista of gender equality in the twentieth century. The discussion highlights issues around interpretation that inform listening to recordings and studying the concerto as a performer.