In free time, I frequently browse IMSLP by “random page” in search of the next obscure find. In this way I came across the composer and theorist Anton Reicha, who perhaps I might have found earlier had I been a woodwind player. He is well known for his woodwind quintets, but was also a prescient and ground-breaking theorist, exploring polymeter, quarter tones, and bitonality in his theoretical treatises – in Beethoven’s time! Reicha and Beethoven were friends and contemporaries, though Reicha lived much longer than Beethoven and never became the same kind of celebrity.
One particular favorite of mine from Reicha’s works is the Overture in D, which is in 5/8 time. Not on Youtube, unfortunately, and out of print commercially in the US. Here instead is a segment from Reicha’s Requiem- the Lacrimosa, at 7:51 – notice the augmented 2nd!
http://www.youtube.com/user/agir3?blend=9&ob=5#p/u/0/sSu7a4oO7xg some fugues from his set of 36 – Reicha re-envisioned the fugue, with the answer entering on any step of the scale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkN_GrNGdrk&playnext=1&list=PLC288BD9B3985EEDD for Glass Harmonica and Orchestra – a novelty piece then as now (not the best recording)
Sources: Grove, Naxos, and sites from wikipedia
Sources: Grove, Naxos, and sites from wikipedia
No comments:
Post a Comment