Alexander Nevsky Cantata, Op. 78 (1939)

Alexander Nevsky Cantata, Op. 78 (1939)

The great Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein marveled at Prokofiev's genius for film music. In the evening he would watch a series of edited takes a few times, note down the number of seconds that certain events lasted, then go off to his studio and return the next day at noon with the score of that scene perfectly attuned to the screen action. To Eisenstein, Prokofiev was capturing the inner rhythm of the film in his music. Indeed, Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky is one of those very rare occasions when a great film is accompanied by a superb score.

Alexander Nevsky is a serious film made late in the 1930s with an overt propaganda purpose: to raise the morale of the Russia populace in the likely event of a war with Germany. Eisenstein wrote a screenplay about a medieval hero, Grand Duke Alexander of Novgorod, who in 1240 (at the age of 20) had defeated a Swedish army in a battle on the River Neva (for which feat he was dubbed "Alexander of the Neva" or "Alexander Nevsky"). Two years later he defeated a large force of invading German knights in a battle on the frozen surface of Lake Chudskoye.

Though the film was motivated purely by the propaganda needs of the Soviet state, it is nonetheless one of the great achievements in the history of film, an astonishing fusion of image, dialogue, sound effects, and music. Hardly any later scene of armies in hand-to-hand combat could exist without the example of Eisenstein's great battle on the ice.

Alexander Nevsky was so urgently needed in 1938 that entire units of the Russia army were drafted to serve as extras, and the climactic battle scenes were shot during a July heat wave on a vast leveled field covered with sodium silicate to give it the appearance of ice. Soon after it was released, to unprecedented acclaim, the film was withdrawn from circulation upon the signing of the German-Soviet pact of 1939. Possibly this fact motivated Prokofiev to salvage his excellent score by turning it into a cantata for concert use. We are fortunate that he did so, for the resulting score is one of the composer's most satisfying works. Every musical cue in the film is substantially rewritten for the cantata to provide greater continuity and a clearer musical shape. Still, the sections of the cantata follow the sequence of events in Eisenstein's film. The music therefore provides a "mind's eye" illustration of the story.

1. Russia Beneath the Yoke of the Mongols

The film opens on a scene of desolate empty steppes littered with the signs of past battle. Prokofiev's musical equivalent of this desolation is a keening melody played in unison, four octaves apart, with nothing but emptiness in between. The oboes' lamenting tune suggest poignant loss, while the rapid turn figure in the muted violas and violins is an image of the feather-grass blowing on the hillside - the only thing moving.

2. Song about Alexander Nevsky

A tranquil lake scene; Alexander and his comrades are fishing with extended nets. The chorus celebrates Alexander's victory over the Swedes two years earlier.

 Chorus of Russians:
It happened on the Neva River,
On the Neva, the great water.
There was slaughtered in the evil army,
the evil army of the Swedes.

Oh, how we fought, how we slashed!
Oh, we chopped our boats into kinding.
We did not spare our golden blood
in defense of our great Russia land.

Where the axe passed, there was a street,
where the spear flew, an alley.
We mowed down our Swedish enemies
like feather-grass on dry soil.

We shall not yield up the Russia land.
Whoever invades Russia shall be killed.
Russia has arisen against the foe;
arise for battle, glorious Novgorod!

3. The Crusaders in Pskov

The town of Pskov has fallen to the invading Germans. The conquerors, representatives of the Roman form of Christianity, prepare a pyre on which they threaten to burn any citizen of Pskov who fails to convert to their religion. In their heavy metal helmets, the German soldiers look more like robots than human beings. They execute the priests accompanying them, chant in Latin while this gruesome activity is going on. Prokofiev created his own plainsong melody and evidently assembled the Latin sentence, too, with scant attention to sense or grammatical correctness.

 Crusaders:
A foreigner, I expected my feet to be shod in cymbals.

4. "Arise, People of Russia"

Another choral movement accompanies the enthusiastic preparations of the citizens of Novgorod to defend the Motherland. The melody of the contrasting middle section - almost folk-like in directness - becomes the single most important theme of the film score.

5. The Battle on the ice

The longest movement in the cantata, and one of Prokofiev's finest achievements, this is a virtuosic musical depiction of the course of battle. Though it is April, Lake Chudskoye is still frozen solid; the Russian peasants and townspeople await the Germans in the bitter cold. From the distance the crusaders' battle chant can be heard softly on the trombone. Immediately after this, we hear the hoof beats of the German horses trotting implacably forward. A tuba theme hints at the brutal power of the attacking forces. The two armies meet (with slashing musical gestures in trumpets and violins). Though the Germans have the advantage of weight and armor, the Russians hold their ground more bravely than expected. Eventually Alexander challenges the leader of the German band to single combat and defeats him. Now the course of battle changes, and the peasants' folk-like marching song begins to dominate the action.

Suddenly in the spring sunshine the ice of the lake cracks under the heavy armor of the mounted Germans, and most of the invading army sinks to its death in the icy waters. The battle ends with unexpected suddenness; the astonished peasants look out at what little remains of the enemy force, as the orchestra plays a poignant phrase from the fourth movement.

 Crusaders:
A foreigner, I expected my feet to be shod in cymbals.

May the arms of the cross-bearers conquer!
Let the enemy perish!

6. The Field of the Dead

Night is falling. Many Russians lie dead or wounded where they have fallen. A young woman is heard, singing of her search for her brave lovers. She has vowed to marry whichever of two men has proven the bravest in battle. Both men are injured but alive; she helps them off the field.

7. Alexander's Entry into Pskov

The victory has been complete. Alexander's troops return to Pskov in triumph, bringing their captives with them. Weddings are arranged, the dead are mourned, and traitors are punished. But most of all, everyone celebrates the end of the fighting in a choral paean.

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O Magnum Mysterium

O Magnum Mysterium is a responsorial chant from the Matins of Christmas. A number of composers have reworked the chant into a contemporaneous setting; the settings by Victoria, Gabrieli, Palestrina, Poulenc and Lauridsen are particularly notable. A setting by Peter Maxwell Davies was created for Cirencester Grammar School. The Lauridsen version has also been transcribed for band by H. Robert Reynolds.

Latin text

O magnum mysterium,

et admirabile sacramentum

ut animalia viderent Dominum

natum, jacentem in praesepio!

Beata Virgo, cujus viscera

meruerunt portare

Dominum Christum.

V. Ave, Maria, gratia plena. Dominus tecum.

Literal translation

O great mystery,

and wonderful sacrament,

that animals should see the new-

born Lord, lying in their manger!

Blessed is the Virgin whose womb

was worthy to bear the

Lord Jesus Christ.

V. Hail, Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with you.

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Pavane by Faure

The Pavane in F-sharp minor, op. 50, is a composition for orchestra and optional chorus by the French composer Gabriel Fauré and dates from 1887. Obtaining its rhythm from the slow processional Spanish court dance of the same name, the Pavane ebbs and flows from a series of harmonic and melodic climaxes, conjuring a cool, somewhat haunting, Belle Époque elegance. The piece is scored for only modest orchestral forces consisting of strings and one pair each of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns. A typical performance lasts around seven minutes.

When Fauré began work on the Pavane, he envisaged a purely orchestral work to be played at a series of light summer concerts conducted by Jules Danbe. After Fauré opted to dedicate the work to his patron, Countess Élisabeth Greffulhe, he felt compelled to stage a grander affair and thus he added an invisible chorus to accompany the orchestra (with additional allowance for dancers). The choral lyrics were based on some inconsequential verses, à la Verlaine, on the romantic helplessness of man, which had been contributed by the Countess' cousin, Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac.

The orchestral version was first performed at a Concert Lamoureux under the baton of Charles Lamoureux on November 25, 1888. Three days later, the choral version was premiered at a concert of the Société Nationale de Musique. In 1891, the Countess finally helped Fauré produce the version with both dancers and chorus, in a "choreographic spectacle" designed to grace one of her garden parties in the Bois de Boulogne.

From the outset, the Pavane has enjoyed immense popularity, whether with or without chorus. It entered the standard repertoire of the Ballets Russes in 1917, where it was alternatively billed as Las Mininas or Les Jardins d'Aranjuez. Fauré's example was imitated by his pupils, who went on to write pavanes of their own: Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte and Debussy's Passepied from his Suite bergamasque.

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Song for Athene

Song for Athene

This seven-minute choral elegy had a similar inspiration to that of Tavener's Requiem, which began as the Little Requiem for Father Malachy Lynch -- born from a musical phrase that came to the composer's mind as he left the funeral. In this case, the idea came to Tavener as he left the funeral of Athene Harides, daughter of family friends who was killed in a cycling accident. "Her beauty," Tavener wrote, "both outward and inner, was reflected in her love of acting, poetry, music, and of the Orthodox Church." (Tavener himself had converted to Orthodoxy in 1977.)

Song for Athene is a mixture of lines from Shakespeare's Hamlet and words from the Orthodox liturgy, both set to monodic chant. The composer also makes use of a continuous "ison," or drone. Surely the most notable performance to date was that at the Westminster Abbey funeral services for Princess Diana of Wales in 1997; it was sung as her coffin was carried from the nave.

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"So you want to write a fugue?"

So You Want to Write a Fugue

So you want to write a fugue?
You've got the urge to write a fugue,
You've got the nerve to write a fugue.
So go ahead and write fugue.
You've got the nerve to write a fugue.
So come along and write a fugue.
Go ahead, write a fugue.
Oh, come along and write a fugue that we can sing.
Go ahead; write a fugue that we can sing.
Write a good fugue, one that we can sing.
And write a good fugue, one that we can sing.
Come along; write a fugue that we can sing.
Write a good fugue, one that we can sing.
Come, write a fugue, come write a fugue for singing.
Come, write a fugue, come along and write a fugue for singing.
Come, write a good fugue.

Give no mind to what we've told you.
Give no heed to what we've told you.
Pay no mind to what we've told you.
Just forget all that we've told you and the theory that you've read.
Pay no mind; give no heed to what we've told you.
Oh, give no mind to what we've said.
For the only way to write one is to plunge right in and write one.
So just forget the rules and write one.
Have a try, have a try, have a try.
Plunge right in, have a try. Try to write one.
Yes, try to write fugue.
Have a try, plunge right in and write one.
Yes, write a fugue that we can sing.
Yes, just forget all that we've told you.
For the only way to write one is to plunge right in and write one.
Yes, plunge right in, have a try.
Oh yes!
Why don't you?
Why don't you write a fugue?
For the only way to write one is to plunge right in and write one.
Just ignore the rules and try.

And the fun of it will get you,
And the joy of it will fetch you,
It's a pleasure that is bound to satisfy, so why don't you try?.
For the only way to write one is to plunge right in.
And the fun of it will get you,
And the joy of it will fetch you.
You'll decide that John Sebastian must have been a very personable guy.

But never be clever for the sake of being clever,
For a canon in inversion is a dangerous diversion.
And a bit of augmentation is a serious temptation,
While a stretto diminution is an obvious solution,
While a stretto, stretto, stretto diminution is a very, very obvious
solution.
So never be clever for the sake of being clever, for the sake of showing
off.
Never be clever for the sake of showing off!

So you want to write a fugue?
But never be clever for the sake of showing off.
You've got the urge to write a fugue. You've got the nerve to write a
fugue.
So go ahead and try to write one, try to write one.
No, never be clever for the sake of being clever.
But do try to write a fugue that we can sing.
Write us a good fugue, one that we can sing.
Oh, come and try.
Oh, why don't you try?
Oh, won't you try and write one we can sing.
So write a fugue that we can sing.
Now, why don't you try to write one?
Yes, come, let's try.
Write us a fugue that we can sing. Now come along.

It's rather awesome, isn't it?
And when you've finished writing it I think you'll find a great joy in it.
(Hope so.)
Well, nothing ventured nothing gained, they say.
But still it is rather hard to start.
Well?
Let us try.
Right now?
Yes. Why not?
Now we're going to write a fugue.
We're going to write a good one.
We're going to write a fugue
right now.

It's a fun song. Gould recorded the first nine of fifteen fugues from Bach's great treatise on fugue composition, The Art of the Fugue in 1962 on the organ of All Saints's Church at Kingsway, Toronto which established him as somewhat of an expert in this area.

So You Want To Write a Fugue was conceived as the finale to a 1963 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television show entitled "The Anatomy of Fugue." The following year the standard version was recorded and appeared in the form of a flexible film record in a special edition devoted to Baroque music in the magazine Hi-Fi Stereo Review. (That would be a nice piece of Gouldinailia.) It was published in 1964 by G. Schirmer in New York for piano or string accompaniment. The song was reissued on The Glenn Gould Silver Jubilee Album of 1980.

Bach composed The Art of the Fugue during the last two years of his life and died before completing it 1750. The Art of the Fugue tries to teach by example some of the basic precepts of fugal composition. The organ was somewhat an uncharacteristic instrument for Gould although he studied it since his childhood. His recording of The Art of the Fugue using and organ, and his composition of this song using fugue motifs highlights an on-going academic question about whether or not Bach's Art of the Fugue was developed with keyboard instruments in mind or whether it was more general than that.

The song is in the form of a fugue and uses fugue devices in its composition. The theme on which the fugue is constructed, in this case "So you want to write a fugue" is the subject. The fugal answer, where the subject is repeated with different emphasis, is the imperative "So write a fugue that we can sing." The counter-answer, the continuation of the original subject are heard in new stanza's sung behind the answer.

Four traditional devices for composers to add interest to a fugue are mentioned in it. Inversion refers to a device where the composer repeats a phrase in the fugue, but inverts the notes - where the listener expects a note to go up two tones, it goes down two tones and so on for each note in the phrase. The rhythm stays the same. The result is a theme which is unfamiliar but familiar. Diminution is doubling the playing speed of a section while augmentation is halving the speed of a section. Stretto means to start the answer before the subject is finished, that is, to begin the echoing response of the original fugue theme or subject, before that subject is finished.

So You Want to Write a Fugue is sung in a madrigal-type round with four singers all repeating small variations of the base lyrics. The careful listener of the polyphony can likely pick out variants to the above lyrics as the singers repeat and repeat again their lyrics. It's another example of his multiple layered "voiced-over" pieces where the listener is expected to follow two or three lines of sound at once.

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