(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Music open thread: Music in F major [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-10 A corny little pastorale in F major. Is “O Christmas Tree” in F major or D major? It seems to me like those are the two favorite keys for Christmas carols. Indeed D major is advantageous for the guitar, and F major is good for wind instruments like the clarinet and the horn. I’m continuing my survey of music through the circle of fifths, looking for unjustly neglected music by women composers and others who just weren’t considered for the pantheon of the great composers for reasons other than musical merit. But “the great composers” also wrote a lot of very good music that is also ignored. As we get closer to C major, it takes a more proactive effort to go off the beaten track. Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, wrote at least two sinfonie concertante (not sure I’ve got that plural correct), the one in G major seems to be getting a decent amount of exposure, at least in the context of Black History Month. But his Symphonie Concertante in F major, Opus 10, No. 1, like all his other pieces, is also very much worth hearing, and not just in February. It’s a good thing the movie Chevalier is coming out later this month. There are Mozartian traits in his music, but I have never found myself getting antsy about the running time like I do with even the shorter pieces by Leopold Mozart’s son. I have also never seen a university professor fall asleep during a performance of the music of the Chevalier de Saint-Georges by some of her colleagues in a faculty recital, but that could be because his music has never been played in a faculty concert I’ve attended. Regardless, the Chevalier had a better sense than some of the “great” composers of when to repeat or elaborate something and when to move on to something else. When I started drafting this, the first composer I thought about was Anton Rubinstein, in his time an influential composer who as a white man heavily involved in the music of a center of culture seemed to check all the right boxes for the pantheon of the great composers… except his parents were Jews. Rubinstein was a major presence in Moscow’s musical life, and a tremendous influence on Tchaikovsky. Today, Tchaikovsky is considered by almost everyone as the greatest Russian composer of all time, and the idea that his music could go out of fashion seems ridiculous. But Rubinstein, almost forgotten today, was derided by some as Tupinstein, and the reason for the derision seems to be more about his Jewish parents than his supposedly meager skills. Today, some might think Rubinstein is a one-hit wonder on account of his “infamous” Melody in F major, originally for piano but arranged for several other instruments. x YouTube Video And for some reason, ukulele players love this piece, many of them have posted absurdly fast arrangements of it on YouTube. The reason is probably Roy Smeck, an American musician and humorist who may have been an influence on Prof. Peter Schickele, of P. D. Q. Bach fame. Rubinstein’s Symphony No. 1 in F major, Opus 40, is the only first symphony I can think of in F major, though of course I can think of plenty higher-numbered symphonies in this key (however, I recently learned of Stenhammar’s, which I don’t find all that interesting). Rubinstein’s First is not immediately interesting, but it’s not immediately boring either. I suppose I had higher expectations than when I first listened to his Symphony No. 4 in D minor, but even so, after only a few minutes in, I was hooked. Kind of like the morning music from Grieg’s Peer Gynt, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in F major, the “Pastoral,” is often used as a signifier of Nature in many TV shows. It’s got to be Beethoven’s most popular even-numbered symphony. Personally, though, I like No. 8 in F major better, and wish it got more concert performances. Here’s Andrés Orozco-Estrada with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony: Anton Bruckner set “Ave Maria” to music thrice, each time for different ensembles, but always in F major. It could have something to do with this pastoral association the key has. Johannes Brahms also set “Ave Maria” and also in F major. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a British black composer named after the poet, wrote a Magnificat et nunc dimittis in F major for four vocalists and organ meant for use in the Anglican church. Here’s a recording with recorders substituting for the vocalists. You wouldn’t know it from this video, but the text is in English. I assure you I haven’t forgotten about Ignatius Sancho’s minuets, posting the parts for my orchestration to IMSLP is still on my to-do list. My comments about the pastoral association leading Coleridge-Taylor, Brahms and Bruckner to choose F major for these church compositions is pure speculation on my part. In Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 in E major, the Trio of the Scherzo is quite unexpectedly in F major, a key unlikely to come up in an E major composition by Leopold Mozart or by Joseph Haydn. But for Bruckner, the avoidance of F major in his Seventh prior to the Scherzo strikes Robert Simpson as a deliberate choice to give that respite from the battering of the Scherzo a freshness it would not have if it was in a key that had been used earlier in the symphony. Bruckner’s String Quintet in F major is the only chamber music he wrote that is considered to be as significant as his symphonies. His String Quartet in C minor, roughly 25 minutes in duration, is often used as filler for the Quintet, roughly 45 minutes — slightly less than that in this performance from the Delft Music Festival. x YouTube Video The open thread question: what’s your favorite music in F major? [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/10/2034948/-Music-open-thread-Music-in-F-major Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/