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Welcome to the
COMPOSITION NOTES Page of
aMUSIClassical Directory
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for good music lovers.
 
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Notes on Major Compositions
listed by composer
~ F ~
- Falla 'El Amor Brujo'
- Falla 'Homenajes a
Arbos'
An homage to composer Enrique Arbos composed in 1938. Arbos commission
many of Falla's works. The suite also includes homages to Paul Dukas
and Claude Debussy
who encouraged Falla with their support and advise. The final homage is to
Filippe Pedrell, Falla's composition teacher.
- Falla 'Nights In
the Gardens of Spain'
Originally composed as a keyboard piece it was concieved in Paris just
before his return to Spain and the outbreak of war in 1914. Catalan pianist
Ricardo Vines persuaded him to orchestrate the work. It illustrates the
Generalife (HEN er ah LEE fay)Garden in Granada near the Alhambra; a dance
and the gardens of
the Sierra de Cordoba. - Falla 'Three Cornered Hat'
(man WEL' deh FY' ah)
A 1919 ballet score, the TCH was described by a critic as treating an
orchestra as a gigantic Spanish guitar. The work uses elements of Spanish
folk music...impressionistically. A set of three dances has long been
popular with concert go'ers, but in recent years the complete score has
come into favor.
- Fasch Sonata in B-flat for
recorder, oboe, violin and continuo
Johann Freidrich Fasch lived between 1688 and 1758. He was trained in
Leipzig at the Thomaschule and his style is Bach-like, but much of his music
was popular before
Bach's...in fact Bach greatly admired Fasch's work and style and was
influenced by his many suites and orchestral overtures.
- Faure 'Berceuse', Op 16
A Lullabye originally a berceuse for violin and piano composed in 1880.
- Faure 'Dolly Suite' Orch. Henri Rabaud
Originally a piano work from 1898 for a young girls birthday.
- Faure 'Pelleas and Melisande'
Faure wrote his incidental music to Maeterlinck's 'Pelleas and Melisande'
for a London production in 1898. A lyrical suite was orchestrated by B. J.
Koechlin which includes many of the themes from the original work.
- Faure
'Pavane' (A stately French dance actually originated in Renaissance Italy. It became
popular in the Royal courts of Europe. The Faure Pavanne has several versions. On for flute and woodwinds,
another for Orchestra and also Orchestra and Chorus, Op 50
Written in 1887 for orchestra, a patron wrote the text to the score a few
years later. (For an off stage chorus). FP with ballet in 1917.
- Faure Requiem
Faure was born in Pamiers, France on May 5th, 1845. He was interested
in music at an early age. He taught himself to play the town organ. His
father sent him to Paris to study music at the age of nine. Saint-Saens
was his teacher and close friend and a major influence on Faure's
development. Faure's career as a church organist was long and
distinguished. He became increasingly deaf during the last 20 years of his
life as director of the Paris Music Conservatory.
Faure finished his 'Requiem Mass' in 1877. It was premiered on January
16th, 1888. The orchestration was revised frequently.
- FAUST (Berlioz)
- Field, John 'Nocturnes'
This Irish composer has been credited with the development of the
'nocturne form' later expanded by Chopin. Field was the son of a violinist
who moved his family to London in 1793. John Field was a student of Muzio
Clementi. Field concertized in Russia and lived in St petersburg for many
years as a teacher and performer. He moved to Moscow in 1821, returning to
London due to illness. He returned to Moscow and died there in 1837. He
write seven piano concertos and piano pieces but his eighteen nocturnes
remain his most popular works.
- Field 'Piano Concerto #3' in E
flat.
Irish composer John Field was born in 1782 and died in 1837. He was the
grandson of an Irish organist and the son of a violinist. His piano debut
was in Dublin at the age of ten. He appeared for the first time in London
two years later. He wrote only a few works. The popular nocturnes and
seven Piano Concertos. The third was composed around 1820.
- Finzi, Gerald 'Clarinet Concerto'
Gerald Finzi was born in 1901 and died in 1956. Of Italian-Jewish
ancestry he was a very English composer, spending a lot of his time in the
Hampshire countryside and later in Newbury where he founded a string
orchestra. One if his best kniown works is the clarinet concerto.
- Finzi 'Cello Concerto'
He had a great interest in early English music and English literature
which is reflected somewhat in his music (influenced by parry and an older
contemporary, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Elgar. His cello concerto is
quite popular.
- Finzi 'Grand Fantasy and Toccata' for piano and orchestra.
- Foss 'Variations'
- Francaix 'Flower Clock'...(ZHAn FRAHN'
say) ("L'Horloge de Flore")
Jean Francaix was born in France in 1912. His music has much clarity,
elegance and wit. Much of it in this 1959 work written at the request of
oboist John de Lancie who premiered the work in 1961. The piece is based
on the 'flower-clock' of Swedish botanist Linnaeus, who listed a few
varieties of plants by the time of day or evening when they bloomed. Seven
of them were set to music by Francaix. Three AM, The Poison Berry; Five
AM, The Blue Catanache; Ten AM, The Torch Thistle; Noon, The Malabar
Jasmine; FIVE PM, The Belladonna - Deadly Nightshade; Seven PM, The
Mourning Geranium; and Nine PM, The Night-Flowering Catchfly. (Notes from
NIMBUS CD # 5330).
- Franck Le chasseur maudit Symphonic Poem
The Accursed Huntsman 1889
French composer Cesar Franck's music recounting Count Hackenberg, a
hunting enthusiast who would hunt every day. The horn calls the
hunters, a church bell peals at sunrise. Then galloping rhythms
depict the hunters ride then a stag that the hunters are pursuing
runs into the chapel of a holy hermit. A violent chase
ensues, which disappears into the distance.
The story is from a poem by German writer Gottfried August Bürger,
then reworked in English by Sir Walter Scott in 1796.
- Franck Sym in
d
When Cesar Franck's only symphony was given it's FP in 1889, composer
Charles
Gounod walked out saying the work was "radical and incompetant". It did,
regardless, become one of the 20th century's most popular symphonies.
Music analysts have
suggested various mystical interpretations of the work and have pointed
out Franck's orchestral sonorities were similar to those of the organ.
The general public enjoyed the symphony's noble and flowing melodies.
It
was the first major symphonic composition out of France and although
controversial at the time it was the template for the modern French
symphonic tradition.
- Franck 'Symphonic
Variations'
For Piano and Orchestra
- Franck 'Violin Sonata in A'
Frank was an organist and teacher and had little time for composing. His
great scores all come from the last few years of his life. The Violin
Sonata comes from this last period of his life. - Frederick The Great
Concerto No 2 in G
He lived between the years 1712 and 1786
aka The King of Prussia, in his younger years he maintained a small
chamber orchestra and also played the flute. He enlarged his ochestyra
when he took the throne in 1740. Johann Quantz wrote 296 flute concertos
for him, but he also composed a few works for himself including this one.
- Frederick the Great 'Suite No 4 in D'
The Prussian monarch
studied organ at the age of seven. Maintained a chamber orchestra from
1732 to 1735. Studied flute until he took the throne in 1740. At this time
he expanded his orchestra from 17 to 40 players. He wrote 122 sonatas,
four flute concertos, four symphonies and many smaller pieces.
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