Сlarinets in Carl Maria von Weber’s Early Operas

В статье проанализированы партии кларнетов в ранних операх Карла Марии фон Вебера — композитора, позднее создавшего для этого инструмента ряд произведений, которые до сих пор входят в его концертный репертуар. Работа Вебера с кларнетом до сольных сочинений (первое из них, Концертино, было написано в 1811 году) показывает освоение им опыта предшественников и процесс поиска собственного пути в композиции. Первые оперы Вебера, не без оснований считающиеся незрелыми и малоудачными сочинениями, обычно не попадают в поле зрения исследователей, но тем интереснее оказывается проследить, как он использует в этих операх инструмент, который в будущем станет столь важным для его творчества. Если в «Немой лесной девушке», первой из сохранившихся опер Вебера, кларнет звучит редко и характерные черты его тембра лишь едва заметны, то в последовавшем за ней «Петере Шмоле» эти черты проявляются уже более ярко и разнообразно. Наконец, в истории создания «Сильваны», оперы в общем не показательной в смысле использования кларнета, содержится любопытный сюжет, через который соединяются ранние оперы Вебера и его сольные кларнетные сочинения. The article examines clarinet parts in early operas by Carl Maria von Weber, who later created several works for this instrument, that still remain in its concert repertory. Weber’s work with this timbre before turning to solo works (the first one, Concertino, was written in 1811) shows his learning from the experience of his predecessors and searching for his own way in composing music. Weber’s first operas, considered with good cause immature and unsuccessful works, do not usually fall within the attention of scholars, but it is nevertheless interesting to trace in this operas his use of the instrument that would later become so important for his creative work. In Das stumme Waldmädchen, his first surviving opera, the clarinet plays only rarely and its distinctive features are just barely perceptible, but in the following Peter Schmoll these features are revealed in a more vivid and diverse manner. Finally, the history of Silvana that is generally not exemplary for clarinet use, contains a curious case that connects Weber’s early operas and his solo clarinet works.

Paul Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber for Orchestra: A Historical and Analytical Perspective

A now standard component of orchestral and wind band repertoire, Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber was originally intended to be ballet music. This study examines the history and background surrounding Paul Hindemith's orchestral piece and demonstrates how Hindemith crafted each movement based off Weber's original piano duets and incidental orchestral music. The study was undertaken as limited information exists about the piece in its entirety, and much of what has been written primarily concerns itself with grammatical and contextual aspects of Hindemith's title. Existing analyses either only focus on a singular movement, or are limited; presumably, due to a prevailing notion that Hindemith simply orchestrated the piano pieces. Potentially exacerbating the issue may be the fact that it was not known for nearly twenty years after Symphonic Metamorphosis was premiered which Weber duets Hindemith reworked. This analysis, coupled with the background information provided, shows that Hindemith's settings transcend mere orchestrations and, in some cases, exhibit qualities of original composition. The analysis thoroughly delineates Weber's Turandot overture and three piano duets, part by part and hand by hand, to show exactly where and how Hindemith altered the original writings. The differences in overall form, measure numbers, tempi, meter, and harmony are listed. In addition, it is revealed which thematic additions, alterations, and omissions Hindemith includes.

Carl Maria von Weber

With a career that began at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, just as a concept of a unified German identity was emerging, Carl Maria von Weber (b. 1786–d. 1826) earned a great deal of fame writing songs for soldiers and students. Since then, Weber’s three late operas, and specifically his Der Freischütz (1821), have long been recognized as central to a narrative surrounding the emergence of a German operatic style. Indeed, Richard Wagner recognized Weber’s influence in his own writings, and later, the hyper-nationalistic elements of Germany laid great credence to that influence in their conception of a culturally superior German art and culture. However, in the late 20th century, critics started to isolate and study the aspects of Weber’s style that he had borrowed from foreign cultures. One particularly striking example is Weber’s adoption of the traditional formal conventions of the Italian Scena (Basevi’s la solita forma) in the 19th century. Despite Weber’s own overt statements against the Italian style, scholars have noted the clear influence of Italian opera on his works. Similarly, many of the very elements that would be cited as prototypically German in Weber’s works—the systems of thematic reference and motivic organization, the greater role of the orchestra in the texture, and the greater demands placed on the singer in terms of volume—are all increasingly cited as French in origin. Thus, the historical understanding of who Weber was and the character of his nationalist identity remains in flux, and Der Freischütz, Euryanthe, and Oberon retain a place in the operatic repertoire. On the other hand, Weber’s prominence as a musician and composer of symphonies, chamber music, and German Art songs has undergone a different path of study. As an early Romantic composer of piano sonatas, linking the delicate ornamentation of Frédéric Chopin (b. 1810–d. 1849) with the Viennese classicism of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (b. 1756–d. 1791), Weber has maintained his position on the edge of the mainstream repertoire in this genre, too. His compositions for clarinet as well as his bassoon and horn concertos also remain important parts of those instruments’ repertoires. Yet perhaps his biggest exposure results from the performance of his operatic overtures on the concert stage. In all, looking at individual genres, Weber’s impact is easy to underestimate, but taken as a whole, as an accomplished composer, pianist, conductor, and writer, his works and career made a tremendous impact on classical music in the 19th century.

Abu Hassan

A primeira parte deste texto comenta a vida de Carl Maria von Weber e as cir- cunstancias em que foi concebido seu “Singspiel” Abu Hassan, terminando com a tradução dos diálogos e canções desta obra.

The School of Abbé Vogler

Chapter 1 tracks a line of improvisational influence that issued from the organ playing and theoretical teachings of Georg Joseph (Abbé) Vogler, whose most famous students were Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer. Although Vogler was in many respects a product of eighteenth-century aesthetic and theoretical dispositions, he also had a progressive, even experimental streak that manifested itself in his improvisations. He anticipated the figure of the modern virtuoso by touring and playing organ concerts that featured dramatic improvisations depicting biblical narratives. Most important, he made keyboard improvisation an integral part of his pedagogical method, requiring students to improvise simultaneously with him and with each other. While Vogler instructed his students in thoroughbass methods, his improvisational teaching featured freer types of contrapuntal and figural elaboration that influenced their performances and compositions. Vogler’s approach to improvisation encouraged harmonic experimentation that influenced Weber’s and Meyerbeer’s expanded use of tonality.

The Opera as a Fragment in the Literary Reception of Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz (Adam Mickiewicz, Heinrich Heine, Théophile Gautier)

Summary This article examines the influence of early 19th-century operatic culture on Romantic literature by focusing on the cultural, literary and transmedial (cross-genre) reception of one of the most popular works of the early Romantic opera, Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber. More specifically, the analysis deals with that aspect of its influence which can be described as fragmentary reception. The article argues that examples of such fragmentary reception can be found in the works of Adam Mickiewicz, Heinrich Heine and Théophile Gautier. However, the central argument of this study is that the emergence of this type of trans-media links was, in a large measure, determined by a peculiar, fragmentary reception of operas. That model of reception had been popularized by a variety of trend-setting, opinion-making agents and institutions (the critics, the press), and enforced by mechanisms of socio-cultural and technological change (resulting in the broadening of the media landscape and the aesthetic sensibility of the general public). The article also claims that this reception model of the opera not only reinforced some structural elements of the operatic work itself but also prompted the writers to explore new ways of structuring their texts (a development encouraged by the upgrade of the fragment by the Romantic aesthetics). Thus early 19th-century socio-cultural and transmedial reception patterns of the opera can be seen as a spur to creativity and literary experimentation – a conclusion which casts doubt on the traditional view that it was a period when aesthetic idealism ruled supreme.