Archive for the ‘FMR scripts’ Category

D minor

D MINOR 

Part 1 Toccata in D minor on organ (2 bars)

Part 2 Toccata in D minor on organ (next 2 bars)

Part 3 Toccata in D minor on organ (next 2 bars)

Massive arpeggio

Hello and welcome.

Phantom laugh

Sorry about that. After that introduction there can be little doubt about which key we’re exploring in this Keynotes programmes. Yes, it’s D minor. That was Bach’s Toccata in D minor – well, the beginning of. Like C minor, D minor is a serious key. But, where with C minor’s weighty dialectic one senses that things may improve through the efforts of mankind – that is, C minor is humanist – with D minor there is no such expectation. Where C minor is Nietzsche, D minor is Sartre. D minor is a fatalist. (I hope you are taking notes.) That said, there is a capricious rather sinister flip side to D minor, a product no doubt of its missing sense of a future.

Phantom laugh

Sorry about that. Let’s start with Dvorak. This sunny composer caught the D minor bug. Here is his 7th Symphony, last movement showing D minor’s darker side. Though this being Dvorak, the sun does peep through at times.

Dvorak – 7th Symphony 4th movement

The final movement of Dvorak’s D minor 7th symphony. That was Dvorak taking things unusually seriously, imitating Brahms, I think. So let’s have Brahms and see what he was imitating. A very true piece of D minor – the first movement of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No 1. It doesn’t get more serious than this, in my view.

Brahms – Piano Concerto No 1 1st movement

The opening 5 minutes of Brahms’ Piano Concerto in D minor. I think that within the confines of a whole D minor programme that’s about as much as we can take. Let’s have something lighter now; something to cleanse the emotional palate. Some tick tock Baroque; the regularity in JS Bach’s Prelude in D minor.

JS Bach – Prelude in D minor

Thank you for ending on a major chord, Mr Bach, we needed it. The Prelude in D minor by JS Bach. For Mozart D minor was the darkest of keys. The fateful key. Don Giovanni gets his comeuppance in D minor.

Mozart Don Giovanni excerpt

The Requiem is in D minor.

Mozart Requiem excerpt

For this programme I have chosen the 3rd movement of the D minor Piano Concerto Number 20. In this unsettled Allegro Mozart tries to exorcise his demons by ending with a trite almost cocky tune in D major but it is not antidote enough – the taste of D minor lingers.

Mozart – 20th Piano Concerto 3rd movement

Many composers have taken on D minor to express their deepest and most serious thoughts. Think of Beethoven – the Choral Symphony, Franck’s Symphony, the 9th symphony of Bruckner, Mahler’s 3rd Symphony, Schumann’s 4th symphony, Brahm’s 3rd Violin Sonata, we heard Dvorak’s 7th Symphony earlier. I’m going to bypass the 1st movement of any of these works in case the roof of the studio collapses under the weight of them given the heaviness we have already subjected ourselves to. So let’s take a Scherzo from one of them: also in D minor but a different feel to D minor. Let’s hear the orchestra banging about in D minor in the Scherzo from Beethoven’s D minor 9th Symphony.

Beethoven – 9th Symphony 3rd movement

The Scherzo from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Playfulness as befits a Scherzo, but somehow very serious at the same time. Now here’s another composer banging about in D minor. We’re shifting to the capricious rather sinister side of the key’s nature. This is the weird 3rd movement of Mahler’s 7th Symphony.

Mahler – 7th Symphony 3rd movement

Ghostly banging about in the 3rd Movement of Mahler’s 7th Symphony, also known as Symphony of the Night. And now the D minor phantoms are released….

Phantom laugh

….the demons that Mozart dreaded. Two composers for the theatre put their phantoms of the night in D minor. Who are they?

Sullivan – Ruddigore excerpt

Lloyd Webber – Phantom excerpt

Paintings that come to life in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Ruddigore and the Phantom of the Opera by Lloyd Webber: demonstrably D minor demons. And I think I know where Lloyd Webber got his D minor idea from.

Bach  Toccata Part 1

Phantoms in films always play the organ and they always play Bach’s Toccata in D minor, don’t they?

Phantom laugh

Well, he seems to agree. Now, let’s extricate ourselves from gloom and phantasms. Here’s a Scherzo in D minor that is truly light hearted and playful.

Litolff – Scherzo

The Scherzo from Concerto Symphonique No 4 by Henri Litolff. And Francis Poulenc was also able to lighten D minor – try the 1st movement of his Double Piano Concerto. Now listen to what D minor did to Frederick Chopin. Chopin’s Prelude in D minor is an angry existentialist tirade. You feel that if the usually wispy Frederick could have ripped the keys from the piano and flung them at the fates he would have done.

Chopin – Prelude in D minor

Tearing the keys off the piano: Chopin’s Prelude in D minor. The D minor Prelude is the last in Chopin’s set of 24 preludes. It is also the last in Shostokovitch’s set of 24 preludes and fugues in all the keys. Shostokovitch put extra effort into his last P&F. They are thematically linked and just as we think the Fugue is ending, he introduces a theme from the prelude at double speed and then combines it with the fugue theme (which first appeared in the Prelude) in a massive climax to his whole magnum opus. Shostokovich’s Fugue in D minor.

Shostokovitch – Fugue in D minor

A round of applause, please, for Shostokovitch and the culmination of his P&Fs – the Fugue in D minor. Let’s have a Schubert song now. Here’s a young woman sitting at her spinning wheel having a tête-à-tête with – well, this is Schubert and this is D minor – it’s a tête-à-tête with Death.

Schubert – Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel

Schubert’s Gretchen playing her spinning wheel in D minor. Some listeners may wonder why there have been so few Schubert lieder or any other lieder in these Keynotes programmes. The reason is quite simple. Singers seem hardly ever to sing the songs in the original key. They so often transpose them into keys that suit their voices that amateurs like me are left with no sense of the original key. But to make up for the deficit I’m going to take us out of D minor for a moment into the sunny key of G major. A breath of fresh air will do us some good. Here are some G major roses on the heath.

Schubert – Heiden roslein

Heiden Roslein by Schubert and, if you don’t know what happened to those G major roses, I’d better not disabuse you, but is was something very D minor-ish. More G major next time on Keynotes. I’m  ending the programme with Richard Strauss who, in his Burlesque in D minor, takes the key by the scruff of the neck and says “Laugh, damn you!”. Enjoy the timpani solos.

R Strauss –  Burlesque

The first part of Richard Strauss’ Burlesque for piano and orchestra. Let’s hear how the piano and timpani take leave of each other at the end of the work.

R Strauss Burlesque ending

Well, that little drum stoke signals the end of our D minor programme. I hope you have not become demented by D minor. Do come back next week – I promise a major key for you in our final Keynotes programme. From me and from D minor….

Phantom laugh

…..and from him and from Keynotes, Goodbye.

 

F minor

F minor

Part1 Cymbal crash and racing music Mahler 1st Symphony Finale

Part 2 Noisy clashing music from Vaughan Williams 4th symphony

Part 3 Beethoven Pastoral Symphony loudest bit of Storm

I imagine that after that introduction that one or two listeners have already switched off. Welcome to you and thanks for staying! When I was preparing this series of programmes, I planned to miss out the key for this programme, F minor. I knew I’d end the hour with a tension headache. But in the interests of artistic integrity, I overcame my feelings and here we are. F minor it is. F minor is a dysphoric key, a dysthymic key. Let me interpret for all non-psychiatrists. It don’t feel so good, all is wrong with the world and it can’t be put right; indeed F minor hasn’t the wit to do so. It complains and mopes. Every now and then there’s a little backbone and some beauty, it must be admitted. But never the strength of the other unhappy flat keys D minor and C minor, or the gentle accepting sadness of G minor or A minor. So we’re in for an unhappy time, but once again appeal to artistic integrity – yours, dear listener. Let’s start with an overture. Beethoven’s Egmont Overture in F minor, which, to keep us sane, ends with a triumphant piccolo-led F major.

Beethoven – Egmont Overture

From F minor to F major in Beethoven’s Egmont Overture. If there’s an unhappy key, you can be sure that Tchaikovsky wrote in it – and he wallowed in F minor. Unassuaged Fate toys with this tortured soul in the first movement of his 4th Symphony. There are moments of respite but F minor dominates.

Tchaikovsky  – 4th Symphony 1st movement

Part of the 1st movement of Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony in F minor. We’ll have another 4th Symphony later in the programme. Let’s have a little respite and peace. I’m going to play our Bach and Shostokovitch Preludes back to back as they are similar in feel. F minor producing parallel inspirations over the centuries.

Bach Prelude Book 2

Shostokovitch F minor Prelude Shostokovitch’s very similar Prelude in F minor on the piano. What next? Well, hold on a musical moment, here comes Franz Schubert, on his pogo stick.

Schubert – Moment Musicale

The F minor Moment Musicale by Schubert. Back now to the typical restlessness of F minor with the 1st movement of the Appassionata Sonata by Beethoven.

Beethoven -  Appassionata Sonata 1st movt

A  section of the 1st movement of Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata in F minor. That mood is also found in Chopin’s F minor Prelude. It’s an angry outburst. It sputters and hisses like a pot on the boil. Irritable, restless. F minor.

Chopin  – Prelude

F minor’s angry restlessness in  Chopin’s Prelude in the key. By one of those wonderful coincidences without which the world would be so much the poorer, our last 3 composers of the programme have names beginning with V – Vaughan Williams, Verdi and Vivaldi. But before we get there, I want to show you how Chopin, whose Prelude we’ve just heard, brought his lyricism to bear on F minor and pulled its sting, making the key sing. Here’s part of the his 2nd Piano Concerto in F minor.

Chopin – Piano Concerto 2, 1st movement

Quite a lot of restlessness nonetheless. I think that 1st movement of Chopin’s 2nd Piano Concerto in F minor only sounds so nice because he makes a lot of use of the wonderful key of A flat major which, through also having 4 flats, is closely related to F minor. Now here’s a surprise. A light-hearted piece in F minor. Paul Dukas cast his Sorcerer’s Apprentice in F minor. A piece that is amusing for us as observers but pretty serious for the drowning trainee, one would think. Maybe Dukas sensed that. We pick it up where the broom starts to come to life..

Dukas – Sorcerer’s Apprentice

We started Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice where the broom came to life and ended where the broom had been split in two and was about to come to life in multiple forms. And now

Fiddler excerpt

It’s a

Tradition

For Jewish songs in musicals to be in F minor. I suspect it’s a combination of the pentatonic scale

Scale

that underpins the folk music of European Jewry and the vocal range of the average cantor. Whatever it is, here are two examples from the musicals: The Sabbath Prayer from Fiddler on the Roof and Fagin Reviewing the Situation in Oliver!. Fagin also ‘Pick’s a pocket or two’ in F minor. It’s

Tradition

After all….

Sabbath Prayer

Reviewing the Situation

I fiddled with Fagin a bit at the end there to emphasise my point. We heard Fagin thinking it out again from Lionel Bart’s Oliver! and the Sabbath Prayer from Fiddler on the Roof. For those who only know the Vaughan-Williams of the Greensleeves and Tallis Fantasia or The Lark Ascending, this next piece will come as something of a shock. This is his 4th Symphony. The conductor Edgar Cree claimed to have heard the composer imply that this music is atonal. I don’t think it is. It’s merely an expression of toothache, perfectly described by dissonances galore and F minor. We’ll hear part of the 1st movement.

Vaughan-Williams 4th Symphony 1st movement.

The 1st movement of Vaughan Williams’ F minor 4th Symphony. That was our first F minor V. Here’s the second – Verdi. Who’s the nastiest character in all Verdi Opera and all Shakespeare? Iago, of course, from Otello or Othello, and what’s his key as he praises his cruel God? – F minor.

Verdi – Otello

Iago’s Credo – I believe, in F minor from Otello by Verdi. If that was a cold, callous and cruel person, we move now on to something perhaps less unkind. Winter and our 3rd V: Vivaldi. A different kind of F minor restlessness with a rub of the hands and a stamp of the feet but at least in familiar territory, that of the Seasons.

Vivaldi – Winter 1st movement

The 1st movement of Winter in F minor by Vivaldi, the Seasons.  I implied earlier that we’d end the programme with the 3 Vs. But I can’t really leave you with either toothache, cruelty or cold fingers, so I’m going to end with some T. T for Tavener. John Tavener’s Song for Athene uses F minor and a deep F in the basses that goes on all the way through the piece. I suspect the cantors are back with F being the lowest note that most basses can get a real resonance from. For me the F minor expresses a person in the spiritual wilderness and then the music changes into F major and suddenly it’s heavenly. A reminder perhaps that in our F minor times, F major is not impossibly far away.

Tavener Song for Athene

John Tavener’s Song for Athene. And with that we seem to have said goodbye to F minor, so it just remains for me to say Goodbye from Keynotes and me. Goodbye.

 

B minor

B minor

[Short B minor motivs as introduction – Elgar Violin Concerto, Mendelssohn Hebrides Overture, Schubert Unfinished Symphony 1st movement, Liszt Piano Sonata]

Ah, yes. Good evening. There’s a very special sense to tonight’s key of B minor. Did you feel it in the introduction? B minor is a reflective key. It has a mature view of the world and, without losing hope, knows that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. It’s in late middle age, seated in a chair on the verandah with a glass of red wine. A grandchild is dandled absent-mindedly on the knee while past success and failures are mused upon.

Who better to express this than the prematurely aged Johannes Brahms. His Clarinet Quintet. The intimacy of a string quartet, the mellowness of the clarinet – and B minor. The first movement.

Brahms Clarinet Quintet 1st movement

It is characteristic of a good B minor piece that there is a short phrase or motiv stated right at the start. We heard some of them in the introduction to this programme. Schubert’s 8th Symphony – the Unfinished – does it in the cellos and basses.

Schubert Unfinished Symphony 1st movement

Elgar’s Violin Concerto also starts with a defining motiv. Its energy rises and then falls back. The time for triumphs is past. No Pomp and Circumstance here.

Elgar Violin Concerto 1st movement

I’d better play something more upbeat before we all nod off to sleep on our verandahs. Here are Brunnhilde and her sisters riding the skies in their helicopters. But I have a bit of a surprise for you. You had no idea that the Valkyries were closet troglodytes, did you? Fasten your seatbelts. We’ll be coming down in Scotland

Wagner Ride of the Valkyries – these two pieces are spliced where Wagner has oscillating F sharp to G motes in the strings and so does Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn Hebrides Overture

Bit of bumpy ride but we got there. Note that the Hebrides Overture which is where we ended also has a motiv.

Anyway, it’s time to brush ourselves down, straighten out the tie and get serious again. Shostokovitch P&F in B minor. The Prelude imitates the clipped rhythms of some Baroque dances. The Fugue is more relaxed.

Shostokovitch P&F in B minor

Staying in Russia but moving to Tchaikovsky who couldn’t resist a minor key. His last utterance, the 6th Symphony, is in B minor; the key chosen perhaps, not on its own merits, but because he could exploit the lowest notes of the bassoons in the opening and in the last movements. Also when the 1st movement gets going, he uses the strained upper register of the violas to set forth the main theme and its associated defeated anxiety – pure psychiatry. Here are those 2 movements.

Tchaikovsky – 6th Symphony 1,4

After that all that’s needed is a glass of contaminated water to round off the evening. Let’s save ourselves from the abyss with some lively Chopin. His 3rd Piano Sonata is in B minor. The final movement is a hell-for-leather dance;

Chopin – 3rd Piano Sonata 4

Now that’s what I call piano music! I think we should stick with Chopin. Here’s his Prelude in B minor. A melancholy tune for the left hand and halting sighs in the right.

Chopin – Prelude in B minor

Earlier we visited the seashore of Western Scotland. Now we’re going to the land where coral’s lie. B minor suits this particular strand (excuse the pun) in Elgar’s character and singing his song is Dame Janet Baker whose voice just oozes B minor.

Elgar – Where Corals Lie

We move to inland water and call Tchaikovsky in again. Swan Lake – the best known bit – is in  B minor. It soundssweet enough with the oboe ( I wonder, in parenthesis, if he had Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony in mind when he constructed this – listen and wonder with me) – sweet enough, but tragedy waits. In performance the lighting of the opening always gives this aspect away – green, yellows, brown. Dirty colours. No limpid lake this. Not in B minor.

Tchaikovsky – Opening of Swan Lake.

I haven’t forgotten our boost of Bach. The B minor Ps and Fs are the last in each set of 24. We’ll hear the pair from Book 2 – chosen because they’re quite upbeat and we need that. The fugue is a tuneful dance – no academics here.

Bach – P & F in B minor Book2

Bach and B minor – Is there a connection? No, I don’t think so. What? Pardon? The B minor Mass, you say? Never heard of it! Anyway Masses are too weighty for me, so I’m afraid I’m bypassing it. All complaints to the management.

I remain on the light side. Here are 3 characters from Gilbert and Sullivan contemplating decapitation. One of the cleverer songs, both in lyrics and music – from The Mikado

G&S – I am so Proud, The Mikado

The bassoons are back baring their bottom Bs. Why else did Grieg choose tonight’s key for his Hall of the Mountain King? Another cave, by the way.

Grieg – In the Hall of the Mountain King (Peer Gynt)

Earlier I cravenly sidestepped Bach’s B minor Mass – a pinnacle of Baroque art. To make amends I end this programme with a pinnacle of Romantic art – specifically the art of the Piano Sonata. Liszt’s monumental essay in this form is in B minor – and it begins, as we might expect, with a motiv – a descending scale – thereby claiming to be the last word on the key. And tonight it is. The pianist has to be Jorges Bolet. See you next week.

Liszt – Piano Sonata

E keys

E minor and E major

Four chords that start Mendelssohn’s A Midsummernight’s Dream Overture

Yes, tonight 2 keys share the spot light. One a minor, one a major. E minor, the key of folk song and guitars; and E major, a key the colour of liquid chocolate, a sharp key that thinks it’s a flat key.

E minor first then: a key for guitars and folksy types. Let us start in Spain. Granados, Albeniz, Tarrega and Turina all on the guitar.

Granados Andaluza

Albeniz Asturias

Tarrega Mazurka

Turina Fandanguillo

Staying Latin for the next item but this time interpreted by a couple of folksy North Americans

Simon and Garfunkel El Condor Paso, Scarborough Fair

A parkful of appreciation for Simon and Garfunkel. And here are 4 more guys performing in E minor. One can’t imagine this piece in any other key but E minor:

The Beatles: Eleanor Rigby

The Beatles and a string quartet playing Eleanor Rigby. And now some Bohemian folk songs as seen from North America: the E minor 3rd movement of one of the most famous E minor works, Dvorak’s New World Symphony.

Dvorak 9th Symphony 3rd movement

A change of mood: Chopin’s Prelude in E minor. The right hand laments slowly over shifting harmonies in the left.

Chopin Prelude in E minor

Earlier we had S&G, Simon and Garfunkel; now we are going to have some G&S, Gilbert and Sullivan. I think Arthur Sullivan caught a whiff of the story-telling intrinsic to folk songs when he wrote denouement songs for contraltos in the Savoy operas. Dame Hannah explains the curse of the Murgatroyds in Ruddigore in E minor Little Buttercup tells all in HMS Pinafore. And even Anna Russell in her spoof of G&S has dandelion singing in E minor. Here’s ‘A many years ago when I was young and charming’ (weren’t we all?) from HMS Pinafore.

Sullivan – A many years ago

So now you know everything. Litttel Buttercup telling of her nursing troubles. Sullivan’s music and Gilbert’s words. E minor evinced a manic playfulness in young Felix Mendelssohn. Here’s a piano piece: The Introduction and Allegro Capriccioso which starts in a thoughtful E major before the ebullience of his view of E minor escapes.

Mendelssohn Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso

E minor according to Felix Mendelssohn. And if you want further evidence look no further than the Overture to A Midsummernight’s Dream that started this programme, and there’s a piano Scherzo in E minor as well.

Arguably his most satisfying symphony, Tchaikovsky’s 5th starts in a lugubrious E minor but ends in a triumphant E major. To move from the one key to the other, I shall juxtapose the introduction to the 1st movement with the last movement which starts with the same theme in E major, but then has to fight through E minor again to reach the major. Then we shall have truly arrived in E major territory.

Tchaikovsky 5th symphony 1st movement intro and 4th movement

So here we are unequivocally in E major. 4 sharps, but don’t be caught out. E major is a flat key in disguise. It has the rich fullness one associates with keys which boast multiple flats. The composer who taps this vein puts his tune right in the centre of the audible range of frequencies. Here is Chopin’s Prelude to illustrate E major’s sonority.

Chopin Prelude in E major

Mellow, mellow, mellow – you’ll agree? Bring on a French Horn and a sleeping draught:

Mendelssohn Nocturne from A Midsummernight’s Dream

A rich bed of music produced by a sleeping draught in the Nocturne from Mendelsshohn’s A Midsummernight’s Dream.

Beethoven in his 3rd Piano Concerto travels all the way from C minor to cast his slow movement in rich E major. Give me excess of it……..

Beethoven 3rd Piano Concerto 2nd Movement

The rich E major of the 2nd movement of Beethoven’s C minor 3rd Piano Concerto.With a sleeping draught and that rich food i feel quite sleepy. So before we nod off completely here’s Shostakovitch’s Fugue in E major. It runs around the floor like a little animal.

Shostakovitch Prelude in E major

Bach’s Prelude in E major is not exactly dignified either!

JS Bach Prelude in E major

Beofre we go to Brahms, here’s another piece that puts the tune right in the middle of the piano and that’s why it bacme so famous:

Chopin Etude in E

I’m ending with Brahms. He produces the most chocolaty of brown textures, the warmest of burgundy woollen jerseys in the central part of the slow movement of his 4th Symphony in E minor. One can almost feel the fuzzy E major warmth coming from the radiating strings.

Brahms 4th Symphony 2nd movement

Mmmmmm…. I could do with a few more chords like that!

Final chords from Mendelssohn Nocturne

These two extra chords were from Mendelssohn, but what heard before that was the 2nd movement of Brahms’ 4th Symphony. Worth a second look definitely.

But now I am going to go out as I came in.

Midsummernight’s dream overture 1st chord

Good bye from E major

Midsummernight’s dream overture 2nd chord

Goodbye from E minor

Midsummernight’s dream overture 3rd chord

And good bye from me, Tony Westwood and Keynotes

Midsummernight’s dream overture final chord

 

 

 

 

A flat major

A flat major

Hello and welcome. You’re in for an expansive treat, a gentle treat, an unhurried treat today. Nothing frenetic, nothing tortured. No galloping major this. We are in thrall of A flat major.

Apart from our statutory Bach, Chopin and Shostokovitch, we have more Chopin, Elgar, Schubert and lots of Beethoven. Also Brahms, Mahler. I’ve got a little Liszt, as well.

When Beethoven writes a slow movement in A flat the world slows down; an unhurried lyricism takes over. The best examples are in his Piano Sonatas. Here’s a not so well known one – from his 5th piano sonata.

Beethoven – Op10 No 2 Sonata 2nd movement

Piano Sonata Op10 No 2 by Beethoven the 2nd movement, taking us into the unhurried and beautiful world of A flat major. I’m following that with another unhurried A flat major piece of beauty. A piece representing pure womanhood, a piece that doesn’t know whether it’s a chamber piece or an orchestral piece. Gretchen from A Faust Symphony by Franz Liszt. Gretchen’s perfection in A flat, as Franz Liszt, the Romantic, dwells on her for a long time.

Liszt – Gretchen

Gretchen by Franz Liszt from his Faust Symphony.

When Elgar gave Britain back the symphony he chose the key of A flat major. Neville Cardus, music critic and cricket critic (you try saying that!) described the first performance of Elgar’s 1st Symphony thus: I was present at the Halle Concert on December 3rd 1908 when Hans Richter conducted the 1st performance. I can see his huge bulk to this day as he stood, back to the eager audience; he lifted his arms slightly and obtained silence; then the broad tune, with the grave steady tread of the double basses underneath, came upon our ears. What a long first subject, we said – how original! Then the double bar pause, then the plunge into a remote key and forging energy; fountains of string tone, brass instruments in ricochet; no such virtuoso orchestration had been heard by us before in the music of an Englishman, or of any other composer. So Cardus, though with a North country accent. Now imagine yourself in the hushed Hall in Manchester and let this expansive work come as new upon your senses.

Elgar – 1st Symphony 1st movement

There was definitely something heroic there, and there is a heroic side to A flat major. Here we can her it expressed in Chopin’s Polonaise in A flat major.

Chopin Polonaise in A flat

Chopin’s Polonaise in A flat major. And here’s a little piece that’s known by its key – Waltz in A flat.

Brahms Waltz in A flat

Brahms’ Waltz in A flat. Let’s have another Beethoven slow movement. This one’s from the 1st Piano Concerto. Again no hurry in A flat major;  the piano and the clarinet have all the time in the world.

Beethoven – 1st Piano Concerto 2nd movement

The wonderful slow movement of Beethoven’s 1st Piano Concerto. Another composer enjoyed the interplay of clarinet and piano in A flat – Robert Schumann, in the middle of the 1st movement of his A Minor Piano Concerto. Who says keys don’t influence composers?

Schumann – Piano Concerto 1st movement (A flat major section) (Start 4’30”)

The A flat major section of the 1st movement of Schumann’s A minor Piano Concerto.  Let’s get into some preludes and Fugues in A flat major. JS Bach’s Prelude in A flat is an unhurried exploration of the key.

Bach – Prelude in A flat

Chopin’s Prelude in A flat is a song.

Chopin Prelude in A flat

Let’s here Shostokovitch’s Fugue. The A flat major fugue has a very long subject. Here it is.

013 Shos F in A flat subject

And here is its working out a la Shostokovitch.

Shostokovitch A flat major Fugue (start 1’46”)

Shostokovitch’s light hearted Fugue in A flat major.  I think we’d better move away from keyboards. A flat major’s sweetness is sometimes used as a kind of palate-cleanser in symphonies in minor keys. Brahms does it in his C minor 1st Symphony in the 3rd movement. And in Mahler’s C minor Resurrection Symphony, after 25 minutes of C minor he gives us this little tune in A flat major.

Mahler – Resurrection Symphony 2nd movement

A sweet little Austrian dance by Mahler in the 2nd movement of his 2nd Symphony.  I’m going to squeeze another piece of piano music A flat major before we have our final piece, one of the most beautiful pieces ever written in the key. The piano piece is an impromptu by Schubert. It’s a piece my mother played, imprinting its sounds on my young brain. This is not my mother:

Schubert Impromptu in A flat

As promised I end with a treat: the exquisite 2nd movement of Richard Strauss’s 2nd Horn Concerto. Your soul will be calmed by this music thanks to Richard Strauss’ understanding of A flat major.

R Strauss – 2nd Horn Concerto 2nd movement

Ending our programme in unsurpassed beauty in A flat major. And with that it’s goodbye from me and from A flat major and from Keynotes.

D flat major and C sharp minor

In this programme we explore two keys that are intimately related. C# minor and D flat major. C# minor is an interesting key. It is not a common choice in keys, yet there’s a high chance that, if you choose it, your piece will become famous. We’ll meet some of the most celebrated pieces ever in this programme. C# minor is also interesting because composers find it difficult not to slip into D flat major, our other key in this programme, for a little sip of nectar. D flat major is a very special key. Some of the most beautiful creations in music are in D flat – it is almost a chocolate box key. A beauty too easily assimilable. We’ll listen to some examples later, but we start with C# minor. Rachmaninov’s most famous work, and the piece he came to hate, is in C# minor. The prelude -  So let’s hear those 3 portentous notes as they introduce Rachmaninov’s Prelude in C sharp minor.

Rachmaninov Prelude in C# minor

An excellent example of how you can become famous on the back of C sharp minor – Rachmaninov’s prelude in the key. And while we’re in C# minor unalloyed by D flat, here’s Mahler. In the 1st movement of his 5th Symphony the trumpet sets the scene for an angst-ridden few minutes.

Mahler 5th Symphony 1st movement

The echo of the fanfare that opened the 1st movement of Mahler’s 5th Symphony.  And we’re not finished with the angst of C sharp minor yet.

Here’s a very famous piece in that key: Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu. And it’s a very neat example of a composer finessing into D flat major from C# minor. That happens when the “I’m always chasing rainbows” theme appears. It’s like the eye of the storm in this piece. And here’s a surprise: the second note of Rachmaninov’s Prelude in C sharp minor seems to have migrated to the first note of this piece!

Chopin Fantasie Impromptu

Chopin in C sharp minor though it’s the D flat major bit that really put that piece, the Fantasie Impromptu, on the map.  The piano is having quite an outing today and we’ll hear lots when we get to D flat major – the key being a source of much inspiration for composers for the piano. But let’s stick with C sharp minor a wee bit longer for one of the most famous pieces in all music. I’m not even going to say what it is but I’m going to play the 1st and 2nd movement of this particular work. The 2nd movement is in D flat major and the first is in C sharp minor.

C sharp minor ‘mystery piece’.

Well, they don’t come more famous than that, do they? Good old Beethoven for choosing C sharp minor – he knew he was on to something. That was the Moonlight Sonata, so called, otherwise known as Sonata quasi Fantasia. Now let’s shift back to Chopin. His 2 preludes for the piano in the two keys of this programme. The C# minor Prelude stays in its key but, inverting the usual pattern, the D flat Prelude – the famous Raindrop Prelude – goes into C# minor for its drumming middle section before the calm of D flat major returns. The intimacy of the 2 keys demonstrated once more.

Chopin Preludes in C# minor and D flat major

And now we’re going to spend a long time in D flat major exploring its merits – and great merits they are. The Romantic composers loved them. So, here’s a medley of lyrical pieces. Let’s forget that the 20th century and recorded music turned them into chocolate box pieces. Let’s reclaim them as masterpieces of music by great artists. I’ve thrown some 20th century composers masquerading as Romantics into the medley. I’ll ‘Liszt’ all the pieces – and Liszt is a clue -  at the end of this section. Relax and enjoy.

Liszt Consolation

Grieg Piano Concerto 2nd movement,

Debussy Claire de Lune

Khachaturian Spartacus Adagio

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto 2nd movement

Liszt Un Sospiro

Shostokovitch Gadfly

Rachmaninov 18th variation from Paganini Variations

And there’s plenty more where those came from: try Chopin’s Berceuse for starters. And D flat major is the reason you love them all, as do most people who hear those pieces, but I wonder if your appetite sickened hearing them without a break like that? Now here’s an interesting facet of D flat major. If you are a parent in a Verdi opera and need to plead for or with  your offspring, you do it in D flat major. Rigoletto does it, as does Germond in La Traviata. .

Verdi – La Traviata

A man who knows how to be persuasive – he just chooses D flat major. Alfredo’s father in la Traviata by Verdi singing Di Provenza il Mar. Time has caught up with us. There hasn’t been time for the slow movement of Dvorak’s New World Symphony which also juxtaposes the 2 keys we’ve been enjoying. I haven’t had time to show you how Prokofiev destroyed D flat major for ever with his 1st Piano Concerto. There hasn’t been time for any Fugues – how indulgent I’ve been! No, let’s have a bit of Shostokovitch’s Fugue in D flat major. You’d never guess it was in same key as the rich feast we had earlier!

Shostokovitch Fugue in D flat excerpt

A sample of Shostokovitch’s neutering of D flat major in his Fugue.

I’m going to play a real piece of chocolate box music to end with. This is Cecile Chaminade’s Autumn. It’s in D flat major as any chocolate box piece should be, although the agitated middle section is in that dyspeptic key, F minor.

Chaminade Autumn

Chaminade’s Autumn ends our excursion into D flat major.  I hope you’ve enjoyed this exploration of 2 twinned keys, C sharp minor and D flat major,  and will join me next time we take a look at another key in Keynotes. Goodbye.

A minor

A minor

Hello and welcome. It’s a minor key this time. Yes, it’s A minor key, A minor. Like C major there are no sharps or flats in A minor. This baldness seems to have inspired a depressive emptiness in at least 2 composers as we’ll hear later, but really, though a minor, there’s not a lot or worry or sadness in this key. And as you (would have) heard at the beginning there, A minor is Grieg’s key so let’s continue the marvellous Piano Concerto that Liszt approving sight- read, according to popular rumour.

Grieg – Piano Concerto 1st movement

The first movement of Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor. In case you were having doubts as to Grieg’s affinity with this key, here are two A minor ladies to prove it: Anitra and Solvieg.

Grieg –  Anitra’s Dance, Solveig’s Song

Anitra’s Dance and Solveig’s Song by Grieg. Both in A minor, both from Peer Gynt. I mentioned that A minor has no sharps or flats. I think Chopin took advantage of this in his A minor Prelude. The piece is almost atonal and dissonant. Listen.

Chopin – Prelude in A minor

Very odd! I think we’d better give Chopin a chance to redeem himself. Here are a couple of very tuneful Mazurkas in A minor. Chopin wrote more Mazurkas in A minor than in any other key.

Chopin – 3 A minor Mazurkas

3 A minor Chopin Mazurkas in sequence.

It’s time now to breathe deeply and prepare for a cold shower. Here comes Jean Sibelius. He goes very bald in his A minor 4th Symphony. Emptiness in music, one might call it.

Sibelius – 4th Symphony 1st movement

Let’s get lighter again. Here’s a very famous A minor piece: Mozart’s Rondo alla Turca.

Mozart – Ronde alla Turca

A special quality of A minor is plaintiveness. A gentle sadness. Here is the slow movement of Bizet’s Symphony in C, and what better instrument than the oboe to lament gently.

Bizet – Symphony in C 2nd movement

The oboe leading in that the second movt of Bizet’s Symphony. In similar vein, Rodrigo and the guitar. The Fantasia para uno Gentilhombre. With music like this one is reminded of Shakespeare’s characterising “parting” as “sweet sorrow”. It’s almost addictive.

Rodrigo – Fantasia para uno Gentilhombre (Slow movement)

Sweet sorrow. That was Rodrigo: his Fantasia. Did you notice the oboe? It was used by Rodrigo to produce a kind of antique sense, and this also happens in Elgar’s Symphonic Study, Falstaff. Oboe and tabor in A minor.

Elgar – Falstaff (excerpt)

A quiet A minor interlude in Falstaff by Elgar. A minor may be sweet sorrow for many, but for Mahler A minor was THE tragic key. I’m going to play the last part of his 6th Symphony. If you have tears to shed, prepare to play your trombone. It doesn’t get more self-indulgently miserable than this.

Mahler – 6th Symphony Last section of 4th movement

Well, what to do after that? We’d better go small and inconsequential. But first let me tell what that was. That was the end of Mahler’s 6th Symphony. Almost sounded like the end of Mahler! A very well known A minor piece is Fur Elise by Beethoven and a very well known film theme is that from Zeferelli’s Romeo and Juliet by Nino Rota. I haven’t got time to play them individually so I’m going to play them simultaneously.

Beethoven/Rota – Fur Juliet

Perhaps we should call that piece, played there by Tom Read, The Theme from Romeo and Elise. That was Rota’s Romeo and Juliet theme in the style of Fur Elise by Beethoven. To the cello now: If you were a 19th century composer and you wanted to write a cello concerto in a minor key and your name wasn’t Antonin Dvorak, you would write it in A minor. It’s a good key to exploit the instrument’s inherent Melancholia. I’ve chose Schumann ahead of Saint-Saens or Brahms. Here’s part of the 1st movement of his Cello Concerto.

Schumann – Cello Concerto 1

The cello and A minor in the 1st  movement of Schumann’s Cello Concerto. A quick change of mood to Prokofiev’s 3rd piano Sonata in A minor. A minor as a percussive key.

Prokofiev – 3rd Piano Sonata

We’ll stay with A minor, Russia and the piano. Now moving from Bavaria to Russia, here is the toccata-like prelude from Shostokovitch’s Prelude and Fugue in A minor.

Shostokovitch – Prelude in A minor

Shostokovitch’s Prelude in A minor. And now the Fugue who’s theme is definitely a bouncing ball.

Shostokovitch –  Fugue in A minor theme

And here’s Keith Jarred to play with it.

Shostokovitch – Fugue in A minor

Shostokovitch’s Fugue in A minor. We end with Beethoven. A very special piece that begins gruffly and becomes more and more lyrical. A wonderful exploration of A minor beginning and ending with identical chords in the home key but wandering through C major and A major on the way. The 2nd movement of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. Magic.

Beethoven – 7th Symphony 2nd movement

We ended our exploration of A minor with that questioning chord at the end of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony 2nd movement. And whether it was a cold shower or sweet sorrow, I hope you’ve enjoyed this hour with A minor and Keynotes and me. Till next time, goodbye.                                                           

 

C minor

C minor

Hello and welcome. The key for this programme is clearly the one Beethoven wrote his 5th in. It’s C minor. C minor is a very grave key – one almost might say ‘the grave’. If you want to make a weighty statement about the problems of life you write in C minor. It could be said that C minor is German. It is Nietzsche; it is Schopenhauer. It is dialectic. It is Beethoven’s 5th symphony.

Beethoven – 5th Symphony 1st movement

Yes, the serious, questing side to Beethoven epitomises C minor. That was (as if it needed announcement ) the 1st movement of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.   Here’s more Beethoven: 2 sonata movements. The first movement of the Pathetique piano sonata starts with a heavy C minor chord. It says, ‘Listen to me! I have something important and serious to say.’

Beethoven –  Pathetique Sonata 1st movement

The next first movement is from Beethoven’s last piano sonata. It, too, starts with the human intellect stating that there’s a problem. And the rest of the movement wrestles with it.

Beethoven -  Opus 111 1st movement

The restless dialectic of C minor. That was the first movement of the last piano sonata that Beethoven ever wrote, Opus 111. Superstitious cricketers might have something to say about that opus number.  I think we’ll move away from the very weighty dialectic to another pianist who made C minor his own. Sergei Rachmaninov. He appropriated the key pretty effectively with  his second Piano Concerto; the first movement leaving us in no doubt that he understood C minor’s character – although he sidles in with chords of F minor to trick the unwary.

Rachmaninov – 2nd Piano Concerto 1st movement

That was part of the 1st movement of Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto. Let’s move away from big works for the moment and go to our Bach Prelude and Fugue for this programme.  I’ve chosen the pair from Book 1. The Prelude in C minor is a 2-part invention, in other words 2 voices share and alternate the musical ideas.

JS Bach – Prelude in C minor Bk 2

And the Fugue has a very brief morose subject.

Bach – Fugue in C minor subject

“I’m not happy”, it states, but the 4 voices in the Fugue never tell us why.

JS Bach – Fugue in C minor Bk 2

Chopin’s C minor Prelude is one of the most famous in the set of 24. It picks up on the idea from Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata we heard earlier: start by plonking down a heavy chord of C minor. “I have something of importance to say”.

Chopin – Prelude in C minor

Fading away into wistfulness, Chopin’s P in C minor. You’ll be pleased to know that there is a lighter side to C minor. – and I’m going to show you some in Mahler of all the composers. In his Resurrection Symphony whose serious discourse is largely in C minor, he uses the key to great effect in describing St Anthony’s sermon to the gaping fishes in the 3rd movement. C minor has its ironic side.

Mahler – 2nd Symphony 3rd movement

The first section of the 3rd movement of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony.  Moving from irony to another smaller work in C minor. Here is the C minor Song without Words by Mendelssohn.

Mendelssohn – Song without Words in C minor

When Mozart comes across C minor, it induces in him a tendency to write tunes that turn in on themselves, complex (for Mozart) statements. Here’s an example in the 1st movement of the 24th Piano Concerto.

Mozart – 24th Piano Concerto 1st movement

The working out of the complex tunes that C minor induces in Mozart.  And if you want another example of this effect of C minor try Mozart’s Quintet for winds and piano. There’s an amusing passage in EM Forster’s novel Howard’s End in which the 3rd movement of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony is described. Have you ever thought of it in these terms? ‘The music started with a goblin working over the universe from end to end. Others followed him. They were not aggressive creatures. It was that that made them so terrible to Helen.  They merely observed in passing that there was no such thing as splendour or heroism in the world. Helen could not contradict them because, once at all events, she had felt the same. And had seen the reliable walls of youth collapse. Panic and emptiness. Panic and emptiness. The goblins were right.’

Beethoven – 5th Symphony 3rd movement

The 3rd movement of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. Did the imagery from EM Forster help? We return now to weighty matters – funerals. The slow movement of Elgar’s 2nd Symphony – his tribute to a king. C minor an appropriate key, but also taking advantage of the key’s close connection to E flat major, the heroic key. Both keys have 3 flats.

Elgar – 2nd Symphony 2nd movement

Heroes and funerals in Elgar’s 2nd Symphony slow movement. We’ll be having a hero and a funeral to end the programme. But let’s have something upbeat now;  something noisy, something to wake us up, something fiery, something angry, something C minor, something Chopin.

Chopin –  Revolutionary Etude

Chopin’s so called Revolutionary Etude; really a study for the left hand. Two deaths to end the programme with: one anticipated by a minor composer and one imagined by a major composer. Our minor composer is Arthur Sullivan who, I have no doubt, was influenced by our major composer, Beethoven, when he wrote the March to the Scaffold in his Yeomen of the Guard.

Sullivan – March to the Scaffold, Yeomen of the Guard

The Prisoner Comes in C minor from the Yeomen of the Guard by Arthur Sullivan. In fact , he didn’t come – he’d escaped. We end with our major composer, Beethoven, writing the funeral march to end all funeral marches (but actually spawning many other C minor funeral marches – think of Siegfried‘s, for example). Beethoven, C minor – the same thing. Here’s our last hero, our last funeral. The 2nd movement of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. I regret that I cannot play the whole piece but I’m sure you’ll get the flavour of it from this last section.

Beethoven – 3rd Symphony 2nd movement

Gentle listener, you are probably the first person who has ever sat through 1 hour of continuous C minor. I wonder how you feel? Well, chin up! We’ll have a major key next time. We ended with the Funeral March for a Hero 2nd movement of Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony, known as the Eroica. Goodbye from me, and goodbye from C minor and goodbye from Keynotes.

 

F sharp and G flat majors, & F sharp minor

F# MAJOR, G FLAT MAJOR AND
F# MINOR

Start with the short thematic statements that begin Franck’s Symphonic variations

Well, that was a very misleading introduction. I am sorry. You’d get the impression
that this Keynotes programme is about a minor key but it’s not. It’s about F
sharp major and G flat major. The problem is that those 2 keys are so involved
with the infinite that it is very difficult to cut them up into little pieces,
so I had to go to F sharp minor, which is a very quirky little key, in order to
do that. So… welcome. Please step on to my rainbow and come in

Wagner   Entrance of the Gods

You were ushered in there in G flat major courtesy of Richard Wagner – the Gods enter Valhalla on a
shining rainbow of G flat major. G flat major has 6 flats and F sharp major has
6 sharps. G flat and F sharp are the same note so they are identical keys, so
symmetrical that their mirror images are identical. Their surface is as smooth
as glass. Still waters run deep. Here is Schubert to show what I mean.

Schubert – Impromptu in G flat

The rippling contemplation of Schubert’s Impromptu in  G flat major.  That piece can also be played in G  major but it is just NOT the same. Further illustrating this almost static  quality here is a Romance by Robert Schumann. This is written in F# major.

Schumann – Romance

Schumann’s F sharp major.  A song now that encourages immobility by
using G flat major. It says,  ‘stay in  bed’. Here’s Benjamin Godard’s Berceuse.

Godard – Berceuse

The Berceuse from  Jocelyn by Godard. Clearly Frederick Chopin thought the same about these keys.
Here is his Barcarolle for piano gently rocking on the water hoping never to get to its destination. This is in F# major.

Chopin – Barcarolle

Rocking gently in Chopin’s Barcarolle. Now, what key would you sing in if you were paralysed by past losses while sitting next to deep, still – but foreign – waters? Well, F# major naturally, or so Guiseppe Verdi thought.

Verdi –Va pensiero

The chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Nabucco by Verdi. That was F sharp major. We’re going to stay with Verdi and shift into G flat major. Verdi introduces the ecstatic love duet from Otello with a group of cellos playing in this key. Two lovers under the stars
reaching for the infinite in their love.

Verdi Otello Love Duet (first 55 seconds)

When Desdemona starts to sing she shifts away from G flat major. Maybe that’s significant. But when Otello wants his kiss, he goes back to G flat. Very winning.

Verdi Love Duet Kiss (start 7′ 51″ into this recording)

An eternal kiss from Verdi’s Otello. Unfortunately, Otello didn’t look at the Key Iago sings in which is F
minor. Here’s another Love Duet – from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers.
Casilda and Luis, lost in love in F sharp major.

Sullivan There was a time

The touching There was a Time from the Gondoliers by G&S. A further example of love in G flat major can be found in Tchaikovsky’s Swan  Lake in the most famous Pas de Deux. A change of feeling now as we switch to F sharp minor. One can make deep statements in this key – take the slow movement of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata as an example – but it has a uniquely quirky side. Here are Tchaikovsky’s baby swans.

Tchaikovsky – Dance of the little swans
(SwanLake)

Tchaikovsky’s cygnets dancing with linked little wings as they always do in F sharp minor. One is not expected to take them seriously. And this mood exactly is picked up exactly by Shostakovitch in his Prelude for the piano.

Shostokovitch – Prelude (Link also includes Fugue – apparently Vladimir Ashkenzy playing)

Keith Jarrett with Shostokovitch’s quirky little F sharp minor Prelude. JS Bach’s Prelude in F sharp minor is not exactly dignified either.

JS Bach Prelude in F sharp minor.

JS Bach’s Prelude in F sharp minor played by Sviatoslav Richter. Let’s extricate ourselves from F sharp minor and get back to F sharp major and G flat major for a dip into the infinite. To do this we’ll hitch a ride on Cesar Franck’s Symphonic Variations. As we heard at the start of the programme, these begin in F sharp minor…..

Franck excerpt

….but, by the end, Franck has brightened up that theme and has the pianist playing cascading black notes on the piano in F sharp major.

Franck – Symphonic Variations (Start 11 minutes 23 seconds in – Myra Hess recording)

Part of Cesar Franck’s Symphonic Variations. In the last section the pianist spent much of the time on the black notes of the piano. That’s one of the things about F sharp major and G flat major: with so many sharps or flats the black keys of a keyboard instrument are in heavy use. Chopin wrote 2 Studies in these keys: the first is indeed called the Black Note Study because the pianist’s right hand spends most of the time on the black notes. And the second Study is known as “The Butterfly” because the way it’s written the pianist’s right hand opens and closes like a butterfly’s wings.

Chopin –Black note study

Chopin – Butterfly Etude

Two G flat major Etudes or Studies by Chopin. The so-called Black Note and Butterfly Etudes.  I would be wrong not to include some Scriabin in this programme. These 2 keys incorporated or represented the infinite as far as this synaesthetic composer was concerned. Here’s the theme from the slow movement of his piano concerto. Perfect looking-beyond-the-clouds music.

Scriabin Piano Concerto 2nd movement short (Theme statement in the first 1 minute 38 seconds)

The theme from the slow movement of Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Concerto, and later in his life he produced this in F sharp major.

Scriabin – Piano Sonata No4 1 OR

[Scriabin – Poeme no 1 Op 32]

The infinite in the first movement of/ Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No4 in F sharp major. [ Wandering through an infinite universe, that was the hard-to-pin-down Poeme in F sharp major Opus 32 by Alexander Scriabin. ]

Another composer for whom F# major represented the infinite was Olivier Messiaen. To complete the spiritualisation of the key he adds the 6th note to the basic chord.

Messiaen Chord

I’m going to play the final movement of Messiaen’s Turangalila Symphony. The whole apotheosis ends with a very long F sharp major chord that gets louder and louder, filling the universe. A feast for the ears as we join in the quest for the infinite. The unusual instrument you hear is an electronic one called the Ondes Martinot

Messiaen – Turangalila Symphony 10

That wonderful F sharp  major chord was created by Messiaen in the last movement of his Turangalila Symphony. Essa Pekka Salonen conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra. For our last piece we shift from F sharp major to G flat major – in other words we have no shift at all – and from one religious composer to another, though very different. This is John Rutter. We’re going to end with a  benediction in G flat major. The Lord Bless
you and Keep you, and if he keeps you in G flat major, you are very blessed.

Rutter – The Lord bless you and  keep you.

I couldn’t think of a  nicer way to end a series and to end a programme. That was a G flat major composition by John Rutter called The Lord Bless you and Keep you, though I imagine you heard that.

Start the Haydn Farewell

(Over the music) Well, here we are: it’s time to say farewell. It’s been a great pleasure for me to wander through the musical
keys with you over the last 18 weeks. My thanks to FMR 101.3 for giving me time on air and support and thanks to the staff at the Wynberg Public
library who helped me find much of the music. And so, for the last time and with the help of the F sharp major ending of Haydn’s Farewell Symphony, it’s goodbye from me, Tony Westwood, and goodbye from all the musical keys (well, we missed out two – I wonder if anyone noticed?) Farewell -  from Keynotes.

Haydn Farewell Symphony ending

An overview of the Keynotes programmes

KEYNOTES PROGRAMMES (as first presented in 2006)

Sundays at 7pm on Fine Music Radio

 

5th March                     Introduction and C major                Fundamentals

12th March                   F major                                             Innocent and unsophisticated

19th March                   G minor                                            Plaintive and passionate

26th March                   E flat major                                      Of heroes and kittens

2nd April                      B minor                                            Motifs and autumn leaves

9th April                       A minor                                            Scandinavian sadness

16th April                     A flat major                                      The deepest beauty

23rd April                     D flat major & C sharp minor          Inseparable

30th April                     E keys                                              Folksy and chocolatey

7th May                        B flat major                                      Beery, bibulous and brassy

14th May                      A major                                            Narcissus

21st May                      Fives and Sevens                             Orphan keys

28th May                     C minor                                            The scowling philosopher

4th June                        D major                                            The golden key

11th June                      D minor                                            Iron or irony

18th June                      G major                                            Sunny smiles and strings

25th June                      F minor                                             The toothache!

2nd July                        F sharp major & G flat major           Transcendence

 

© Tony Westwood 2005

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