We spent the last two installments of this project discussing music performed by
a solo instrument. Now, we should look at the most common form of intimate
recital music – music for two, three or four players.
Like painters, composers want to exploit as large a palette
as possible. This palette, as we saw in our earlier illustrations, consists
primarily of tonal colours and stylistic or virtuoso colours like dynamics.
Where much can be said and attempted with a single
performer, much like in the case of “the one man show” in theatre, a composer
is limited to a single voice, a single line. This is precisely why performing
music with more than one musician is a logical progression – we can now not
only increase the tonal palette by adding instruments that extend the range of
tones, we can also use these instruments to convey concurrent themes, that
serve to enhance the musical message.
Musical Democracy
But like any great idea, there are drawbacks, and the main
drawback here is “playing together”.
Music now becomes a democratic endeavour, where the ideas of more than one performer
now need to coalesce into a singular vision of the piece. It makes intuitive
sense that a small group of performers (two, three or four) is an environment
where this level of harmony and cohesion is most easily achievable.
Case in point: the most common form of musical duo (or duet) follows the formula “piano and
(your instrument here)”. And with that, we launch into a new discussion on
“democracy at work”, and it has to do with who gets “top billing” – are these
works “for instrument with piano accompaniment”, works for “piano featuring an
additional instrument” or pieces where the instruments are true equals?
In principle, the idea behind having two performers is that
they are assigned different “roles” and different “lines”. The device that we
recognize most often – from our experience with songs – is that one role
provides the main message, whilst the other is confined in a supporting or
background role. In the case of a duet featuring, say, piano and violin, we can
readily imagine the violin playing the dominant musical idea – it has, after
all, the higher pitched voice – with the piano playing a complimentary role,
providing the “baseline”. There are indeed many pieces of the repertoire where
this is exactly what happens.
More often than not, however, a duet is about “passing the
baton” in some sort of “relay” scenario. At times, the violin plays the
principal theme seconded by the piano, and at other times the piano carries the
load with the violin emphasizing certain passages or enhancing them with its
own colours.
The best duets are therefore the ones where the load is
shared equally, where the emphasis is on piano “and” instrument, and it matters
little whether it’s “cheese and macaroni” or “macaroni and cheese”.
We may call them duos and duets, but the bulk of music for
two performers of significance are rightly called sonatas, and like we saw when
we analyzed Mozart’s Turkish Rondo
piano sonata, a sonata is a piece made up of several movements of alternating
and contrasting character.
This is not to say that the duo repertoire is exclusively
made up of sonatas, but these are the pieces you are most likely to encounter
in recital or in recordings.
Duo combinations are, well, as varied as there are
combinations of instruments – they can be two of the same instrument, or two
different instruments. They can exploit the same range of tones, or different
ranges. It’s really up to the composer to “pick and choose” what makes most
sense.
The piano duet is a particular example that has this unique
twist – two pianists can be playing on the same instrument (what we call “piano
4-hands”) or they can be playing on two different pianos (or, aptly, “two
pianos, 4-hands”).
Three’s Company
They were three of the world’s most formidable musicians,
and in 1949 they were invited to perform together during a series of four
concerts in Chicago. Pianist Arthur Rubinstein, cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, and
violinist Jascha Heifetz drew great crowds, and the newly-formed threesome was
so successful that one critic referred to them as “The Million Dollar Trio.”
Rubinstein reported later that Heifetz was particularly
perturbed by the billing in the
concert programs because Rubinstein’s name always came first, followed by Heifetz and then Piatigorsky. Heifetz wondered
why the billing couldn’t rotate so that each of them would be mentioned first
at one time or another.
Rubenstein apparently said that he didn’t mind, but as far
as he knew, all trios are written for piano, violin, and cello, and
traditionally one advertises the names of the players in exactly that order. As
Heifetz insisted, Rubinstein lost his temper, “Jascha,” he shouted, “even if
God were playing the violin, it would be printed Rubinstein, God, and Piatigorsky,
in that order!”
So much for democracy!
When Rubenstein says that trios are mainly scored for piano,
violin and cello, he’s not strictly right, though the vast majority of trios
written in the classical and romantic periods have done just that. However,
since any combination of three instruments can be featured in a trio, we have
great examples of works that feature a wide range of instruments and colours. Brahms wrote a late trio for piano,
clarinet and violin that is quite exquisite!
Another form of trio, that is most common in jazz, is what
we’ll call the rhythm trio: piano,
bass and drums.
Unlike in the case of duos or duets where works that adhere
to the sonata formula are called sonatas and not duets, sonatas rarely retain
that name when we have three performers – they are called trios.
Four is a Magic Number
Have you heard the term “magic number”? Magic numbers are
quite the rage in professional sports – people who follow team standings as
seasons near completion figure out how many wins are needed to “clinch” first
place or a spot in post-season play. That’s one form of magic number.
In Physics, magic numbers have to do with atomic
configurations, and how many electrons are needed to fill up a particular
energy level.
There’s something about “magic numbers” – they seem to
indicate the “right number” It’s the “Goldilocks” principle – not too much, not
too little, just right.
I can’t rightly explain why four is the “magic number” of
performers you need to create music. It just is. Quartets are the epitome
of chamber music combinations, providing the right number of individual voices
to perform a work of music, the right number of people to have in a group to
still achieve “democratic results” without the need for coercion or persuasion.
The prevalent combination for a quartet is what we’ve come
to call a string quartet – two
violins, a viola and a cello. From a tonal perspective, this combination
achieves breadth and balance. From a harmony perspective, it provides so many
possibilities – concurrent lines, alternating voices at different registers. No
wonder so many composers – from the Classical all the way to Contemporary, have
penned so many works for that combination!
Joseph Haydn, the
great master of the Classical era, is often called the “father of the String
Quartet”. He composed 83 and perfected the genre, I suspect his studies in quartet harmony informed his symphonies (he wrote 104 of those!) as well as
vehicles for private performance by the “academy musicians” that were under his
charge in the court of Esterhazy.
Haydn isn’t alone – Beethoven, Mozart, Dvorak and Shostakovich
are but a few of the composers over the ages that have contributed to the genre
(all four combined, however, didn’t compose as many as Haydn…).
Johannes Brahms wrote string quartets too, but he also
composed piano quartets – where he
adds a viola to the standard piano trio. In fact, those three piano quartets
are probably performed more often than his string quartets!
Again, we rarely talk of sonatas for quartet – they are just
quartets. There are, however, a curious set of pieces that the great Italian
opera master Gioacchino Rossini
(then a teenager) write for two violins, cello and double bass which he called sonate a quattro.
Exploring the chamber repertoire - Some Listener Guides
Listener Guide #11 - "Piano, Piano": Our look at duets begins with some works for two pianists. Works by Busoni, Arensky, Schubert and Bartok. (
ITYWLTMT Podcast #184 - 6 Feb 2015)
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