As of: December 31, 2023 9:22 a.m
Where do the opus information for classical music pieces come from? In keeping with the beginning of the year, we are looking at the official debut works of male and female composers.
What is not an issue for writers and visual artists is the catalog raisonné, which has been common practice in the music industry since the 18th century. With the exception of Gerhard Richter, who actually kept a “catalog raisonné”. It is a publishing practice that is used to precisely name and differentiate compositions, for example when there are several piano sonatas in G major or violin concertos in A minor. In addition, “those works without an opus number are given far less attention and are forgotten much sooner and more often than works with an opus number,” as the publisher Friedrich Whistling noted in 1842.
Bach, Vivaldi and Mozart: Chronological or thematic sorting
Sometimes musicologists have created these catalogs, as in the case of Ludwig von Kochenel’s “Chronological-thematic catalog of all of Wolfgang Amade Mozart’s musical works”. The sorting is by no means always chronological. Peter Ryom sorted Antonio Vivaldi’s works according to genre and instrumentation. The Bach works directory does not come from the composer himself, but was developed by Wolfgang Schmieder in 1950, also arranged thematically.
Further information
Together with the Italian pianist Enrico Pace, the violinist presents music by Beethoven, Schumann and Debussy. more
Expression of self-confidence
But usually composers assign their opus numbers themselves. And the Opus 1 plays a special role in this. Opus 1 that means: here I am! I’m going public, I know what I’m worth, I want to be printed and played and, best of all, even reviewed. Robert Schumann had already written small pieces before his first piano lessons at the age of seven. In the following years he designed songs, chamber music, a piano concerto and even an opera – hardly any of which was completed. Schumann first considered his virtuoso Abegg Variations from 1828/1829 to be worthy of publication and awarded them opus number 1.
Chamber virtuoso composes for margraves
This self-confidence can also be found among composing women, although naturally less often. Anna Bon di Venezia, Italian singer, harpsichordist and composer, dedicated her Opus 1, six flute sonatas, to Margrave Friedrich of Brandenburg-Culmbach-Bayreuth. “Virtuosa di Musica di Camera all’attuale Servizio dell’Altezza Serenissima sudetta e presentamente in età d’anni sedeci” is written in ornate letters on the title page: “Chamber virtuoso in the service of his Highness and currently in her 17th year”.
Further information
The pair of musicians build bridges between viola and percussion and between people all over the world, they say in an interview. more
Female Opus 1 variants
Cécile Chaminade, known for her Concertino for flute and piano or orchestra, began composing at the age of eight. The Opus 1 of “Petit Mozart”, as George Bizet affectionately called it, is a “spring study”, “Étude printanière”, for piano. Clara Wieck-Schumann’s Opus 1 consisted of four piano polonaises, printed in 1831, when the young author was just twelve and the driving force was her ambitious father Friedrich Wieck. So she had certainly already composed before.
Joseph Haydn’s first string quartets
In the 1750s, the young Joseph Haydn played the viola in the string quartet at the social music evenings of a Lower Austrian nobleman. It made sense that he would try this genre himself at some point – with great success, and several more quartets followed within a short time. Haydn himself initially spoke of “Divertimenti a quattro” and years later described the invention of the string quartet genre as a “completely coincidental circumstance”. Six of these first quartets were compiled and published as Opus 1 – although not by the composer.
Further information
The film by and with Bradley Cooper as conductor was shown at the Venice Film Festival and opens in December. The US actor looks surprisingly similar to Bernstein. more
Paganini dedicates his first printed work to artists
The “devil violinist” Niccolò Paganini was celebrated throughout Europe. But it wasn’t until he was 38 that he published his first work: 24 Caprices for solo violin. Each one presents a particular technical difficulty, but they are not just studies: “Dedicati agli artisti” – “dedicated to the artists” Paganini wrote on the cover page.
Opus 1 does not have to be a composer’s first work. Béla Bartók, for example, had written more than 70 works before his Rhapsody op. 1. And Gustav Mahler only realized in retrospect, 16 years after writing “The grievous song”: “My first work, in which I found myself as Mahler, is a fairy tale for choir, soloists and orchestra. I call this work Opus 1 .”
This topic in the program:
NDR Culture | The morning | 02/01/2024 | 9:40 a.m
2024-01-01 06:46:16
#Classical #knowledge #easy #Whats #Opus
