Continuing my survey of music through the circle of fifths, looking for music beyond the greatest hits of the few acknowledged “great” composers who are all dead white men. Alexis de Castillon and Alice Tegnér are just two composers I might or might not have discovered otherwise.
Some of you know quite well what the circle of fifths is, some of you don’t, so I’ve given a couple of different explanations in previous articles in this series. But the best explanation, for those of you who read music and can play the piano halfway decently, is to try it at the piano.
If your piano is tuned correctly according to our modern system of tuning, the following should all sound completely correct:
I should’ve omitted the tempo indication. Don’t worry about being precise with the rhythm either, the important thing here is to play the notes corresponding to the harmonies with the figured bass figure 7 for the beginning of the first half note of each measure (the pick-up doesn’t count) and the implied 3 for the second half note in the bass.
So C major, F major, B-flat major, E-flat major, A-flat major, and then
D-flat major, G-flat major, C-flat major. To keep going, let’s backtrack.
C-sharp major, F-sharp major, B major. Measures 10 to 12 are the same as measures 5 to 7, except for some of the octave choices in measure 12. And lastly wrap around to
E major, A major, D major, G major, C major, right back where we started.
If your piano is tuned like it would have been during Johann Sebastian Bach’s childhood, by the time you get to F-sharp major (G-flat major) your piano will sound very bad. If you have it retuned for G-flat major, it will sound bad when you get back to C major. At least I’m told it would sound very bad.
The most famous composition in G-flat major might just be Chopin’s Etude in G-flat major, an excellent study of black key technique, and the inspiration for the little musical excerpt heading up this article.
I’m very curious to hear how this music would sound in meantone temperament. As I understand the situation, it would require meantone temperament for G-flat major, because with meantone temperament for C major it would sound horrible.
Today, Anton Bruckner is known for his monumental symphonies. His choral church music was suppressed by the Nazis because it didn’t fit well with the Nazi agenda. And so his secular choral music was also confined to obscurity outside of Austria, though at least his masses and motets have been rediscovered.
There almost seems to have been an unspoken assumption that Bruckner’s secular choral music would be as problematic as some of Richard Wagner’s music dramas actually are (e.g., Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg).
Bruckner’s Abendzauber (evening magic) is a song in G-flat major accompanied by two horns. On the score, the horns look to be asked to play extremely fast notes, but remember that “langsam” means slowly. The men’s chorus and… three women? Bruckner actually called for three yodelers, but would probably not object to three Rheintöchter.
If Bruckner had written an opera, it would have had a very boring plot. But the music would have been great.
Bruckner wrote Abendzauber at about the same time he was revising his monumental Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, a work he never heard played in a concert. D minor exerts a strong pull on that music, but G-flat major also occurs at a couple of significant moments.
Before the international success of his Seventh Symphony, Bruckner had achieved some local renown as a choral conductor and composer of music for men’s choir. With a little business sense, he might have struck gold.
Instead, he kept writing symphonies even after the disastrous premiere of his Third Symphony. To pursue financial success with the kind of music his contemporaries wanted to hear from him would have been to ignore what he felt was a calling from God.
Of course a man was expected to take failure in stride and try again. A woman like Emilie Mayer, a rough contemporary of Bruckner’s, never had a bad premiere like Bruckner, but audiences and critics just didn’t take her very seriously on account of her gender.
Over in Sweden, Alice Tegnér seems to never have tried her hand at a string quartet or a symphony. Maybe it just wasn’t her inclination. Her music, outside of Sweden, is obscure just the same. The original manuscript of her “Kvällsång” (evening song), in the key of G-flat major, is on IMSLP, but I can’t find any recordings of it.
Cécile Chaminade definitely made a conscious decision to focus on profitable, short piano pieces. And she also gave them fanciful titles, like “La Lisonjera” (the flatterer), Opus 50. To call it an Impromptu in G-flat major might have been to consign it to obscurity. Which would be a shame, since it’s such a catchy tune.
If you look at the score, notice how it suggests to amateurs ways to simplify the music. Even allowing for the fact that the general public was better versed in music back then, Chaminade’s compositions have plenty of technical difficulties for the casual player.
The open thread question: what’s some of your favorite music in G-flat major? Please hold off on F-sharp major for now. Unless you’re a composer, in which case please feel free to post regardless of key.