Even Tchaikovsky Messed Up Sometimes...
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- Опубликовано: 6 фев 2025
- Tchaikovsky is one a famously brilliant orchestral composer. He knows in intimate detail what each instrument is capable of. So I was genuinely shocked to learn that one of the most famous moments in one of his most celebrated works-the harp cadenza in the Waltz of the Flowers from the ballet The Nutcracker- isn’t actually what Tchaikovsky originally wrote. In this video I explore why.
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Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flowers: the harp cadenza, Different versions and traditions
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@14:31 The quote is originally from one of the many letters from Tchaikovsky to Nadezhda von Meck who was an extremely rich lady (she was a wife of one of the most prominent Russian railway builders of the time) and who supported him with her close friendship, if not to say patronage, over the years, including an astounding amount of direct financial support. That whole set of letters is a very prominent insight into Tchaikovsky's life and is a fantastic historic document. It is possible to find the complete collection of those letters published as a book, including in English. You're looking for the letter dated January 11th/23rd, 1883.
Did she know?
When I was 11 I fell in love with Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, one of two pieces (the other being Handel’s Water Music) that ignited my interest in classical music. I asked for, and received, study scores of both for my birthday. I almost immediately noticed the discrepancy in the harp cadenza and wondered why. Over 20 years later I now have the answer. Thank you, David!
I did as well, at 16. Tchaikovsky was well-known for his use of scales. The Pas de Deux, (Dance of Two), slayed me. Here Tchaikovsky uses a G Major scale, inverts it on its head and provides the melody an interesting lyrical lilt. Upon the final use of the scale--descending-- a single Horn plays a Concert F and alters everything. The melody following had me banging my head on the seat before me. The Lady in that seat held my hand and we had a moment--lost in the wonders of such a simple and eloquent dance. The moment resides within myself to this day,--38 years hence. Love your comment.👏
I also loved Water Music as a kid, but was enamored of Swan Lake-I couldn’t get enough of it! 🎶❤️
As a percussionist, I've sat close to many a harpist, so I had heard about the "no pinky" and "finger torture" rules, but the other rules are new to me! "Avoid dense voicings in lower registers" seems to be good advice in general .
P. S. "Pedal Panic" is also something that can afflict timpanists: I've seen parts that, to play as written, would require six or more drums and the ability to do the splits.
Thanks David, this was highly informative and entertaining. Don't hesitate talking about your own music, in fact we want more David David Bruuce!
Tchaikovsky is the GOAT ballet composer.
goat ballet sounds like a good time
Prokofiev gives him a run for his money, but I agree
One of the greatest, but he had the advantage of living at a time when lavish resources could be brought to ballet performances (he was composing for the imperial theatres at St. Petersburg, patronaged by the Tsar who was arguably the wealthiest man in the world at the time).
I respectfully disagree, I think Stravinsky and Satie are better ballet composers.
Because he was gay
Great video! I wanted to add that, Tchaikovsky's cadenzas are really just the start of secret rewrites in the orchestral harp repertoire - essentially we have a secret code that is passed down from teachers to students tackling the most unplayable passages in a large number of famous works, and somehow publishers never bother to edit the original parts, which just perpetuates the issue. I was just remarking to fellow harp friends the other day how absurd and widespread this problem is!
Ps. If you want to check out Albert Zabel being a great composer for harp during his time, his piece La Source is a brilliant example - and actually I think some would argue he breaks the Finger Torture rule in a particularly notorious thumb sliding passage. Some of us just love to suffer.
Music publishers are often very stingy, and making a new edition, especially of an orchestral piece, is expensive. Except for the very top of the mainstream repertoire, they're often still selling century-old editions, including century-old misprints. And unless the composer personally authorised the rewrite, many people would see such an 'updated' version as inauthentic anyway, so there's no market for it.
I'm not convinced! As a professional pianist I must say that the orchestral people are always extremely lazy practicing, their reality is far away from us folks who actually must practice seriously. In our repertoire there are hundreds of Beethoven sonatas with terrible jumps in the middle of fast passages, terrible left hand positions and stretches that people brake their hands on in Chopin, Brahms' catastrophic complexity and unpianistic elements in his chamber works, Schumann's insane jumps and unplayable wide double stops ... all pieces that are written with catastrophic technique that's unplayable unless you sacrifice your entire life and practice 20 years like a mad man. We could as well change 30% of our repertoire and say it's not pianistic. So, if you'r a harp player, go practice and shut up!
@@AhimSaah this is not a good take, friend :) Some harp music is just not playable. Period. There are many pieces in harp repertoire that are difficult and that we practice so we can play it, but there are times when even the most well-practiced individuals have to do some editing/heavy revising.
Also, calling people lazy doesn’t help anyone out. Hope this helps!
P.S. - if you didn’t know, piano and harp aren’t comparable in terms of technique. 🤭
@@Cfellows7275 Yes, harp and piano aren't comparable, I know because I have to teach harp in chamber groups and the harpists frequently want to change things. No other instrumentalist has this mindset - the mindset of students should be to practice not to make your life easier.
I would like to hear a performance of this place of the Nutcracker in its original version by someone who diligently practised and compare it to the revised versions and hear which one is actually better. Do you know of any recording like that?
@@AhimSaah I'm half sure recordings of that don't exist because the passage takes way too much effort and sounds worse anyway? There are literal technical difficulties with the instrument that make playing passages the way the composer intended impossible (e. g. the stepping on toes David bruce mentioned).
A harpogynist would be a seizer of women. A hater of harps would be a misolyrist or misocitharist.
I am something of a harpogynist myself 1😎
I was about to type the same comment!
Know your greek amirite
@@JonOsterman59 ἔγωγε γιγνώσκω
no it is a man show hates women with herpes
Wonderful to see Danielle Kuntz represented in this video. She is a true gift to composers aspiring to write for that magnificent instrument. Great video, David!
Danielle is great!
Very nice video my man. Very entertaining and well paced!
High praise from one worthy of high praise.
Noise.
As a harpist, I always thought it was funny that Tchaikovsky just slapped on “ad libitum” so the harpist would deal with the oddities of the cadenza in Waltz of the Flowers (this was done in both Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty as well). He also wrote similarly odd contrary motion patterns in Act 2’s opening scene that have to be rewritten when played.
It’s too bad he was so (allegedly) narrow-minded with the harp. A Tchaikovsky harp concerto would’ve been wonderful…
I have conducted this ballet many times, have performed it on stage as a percussionist and also in the pit for ballet productions, but have never known these interesting and important facts. Thank you, David, for your deeply researched and eloquently delivered video.
Always interesting to hear about the imperfections in the music of famous composers. Way too often the old composers are pictured as gods who just wrote perfect music, so this video is very refreshing!
This is also why cellists hate playing roco variations. Its insaly difficult because tchaikovsky didn't play cello and had no mercy when composing for it.
Yeah I feel it can be very easy to write something for an instrument your not entirely familiar with that seems dandy on paper or software, but is very difficult for a musician to actually play
I can't play a harp but you taught me so much about it in this superb video.
Thank you so much for posting.
I'm glad you mentioned Alvars. He was a virtuoso harpist who wrote some terrific, melodic harp concertos.
This is sooo important for the composer communities around the world!! Thank you!!
Christmas came early, another David Bruce video just dropped!
A Christmas cracker of a video. They always inform and entertain in equal measure!
This reminds me of Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” that was re-arranged by Rimsky-Korsakov. I was familiar with the ubiquitous and famous R-K version when my music history teacher played a recording of Mussorgsky’s original that reappeared in the ‘60’s. MUCH darker.
Much darker and much better.
Wow! I've listened to the Nutcracker soundtrack hundreds of times and had no idea about this
0:42 So that's where The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past intro comes from!
HA THANK YOU
I teach this excerpt every semester in my notation class at mannes/the new school as a great example of collaboration between composers and performers!
Let’s gooooo, don’t I know that the composition world needs this video! Such a cool video, I love it.
Thank you for presenting a topic I had never known about. And thank you for researching it so well. I am always glad to gain new knowledge about such pleasant music.
Another great video! For the heck of it, I went back and looked at an early piece I wrote that extensively integrated a harp and to my surprise I ticked all the boxes. I think I was being really conservative with my writing for it. But at least it's theoretically playable.
5:27 This melody, and this rendition, is fantastic and utterly beautiful
Your videos are so brilliant - like a gold mine.
Thank you Mr.Bruce. I've read at least 9 orchestration manuals. I don't remember if any of them had all this information. Thank you so very much! The entirety with Tch letters lit my fire. I decided to really look at harp literature written by harpists.Glad to see your 5 piece. I was amazed by your textures and delighted by the music you've written. Cello,harp and clarinet wow and so much else!
This is a gem of an analysis. Love it!
Another fascinating story about Tchaikovsky is how his 1st Concerto was rather thoroughly edited by Alexander Siloti after the author's death. (And it is the version that is commonly played today.)
Thanks!
Happens to be my introduction to this channel. Nice work.
2:02 Hijack: This famous medieval dance tune, known as "lamento di Tristano", has been interpreted by soloists/ensembles in such diverse spectrum. Variety of instruments, slow or fast, mournful (as the title suggests) or somewhat cheerful, sometimes visiting both ends. No two recordings are alike.
Believe or not, I’d actually known about this for some time - I first read about it in Sam Adler’s Study of Orchestration, where he says basically the same things that you do. That being said, I found it heaps entertaining. Keep making videos, Dave!
it's insane how good you are at making videos
Exceptionally well presented. Educational as well.
A very welcome video sharing a lot of infos I did not know about harp scoring. A lot of lessons learned here. My favorite harp score is Britten's Suite for Harp, Op.83" which seems (to me) to be extremely well written. I had the great pleasure of hearing Osian Ellis perform this piece, for whom it was written.
"The Crescent Moon is a Dangerous Lunatic" from The North Wind was a Woman is one of my favorites from your album, North Wind was a Woman. It has a very good example of how to use the singer's voice in an unusual way as well. IV. from The Consolation of Rain in the same album is also awesome.
Interesting insight, a tiny part of the complete orchestral repertoire brought to light. I must explore your music too. .
Nice. A long-time huge fan of Tchaikovsky's mastery of orchestral timbres from Timpani to Celesta, the story of how harpists had to evolve Tchaikovsky's ideas into something they could play is absolutely fascinating.
Great video, cheers 🎉❤. The careful analysis of many scores reminded me of the revisions violinist Leopold Auer's made to the solo part of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, revisions in some cases to make the solo part easier to play/be heard over the orchestra (omitting double stops, omitting triplets, playing a passage down an octave) and some cases adding superfluously (respectfully) virtuoso passages up the octave and an incredibly dense 10ths passage at the end of the exposition of the first movement only recorded by his student Jascha Heifetz.
But more to the point, your video was very fun to watch, this topic was a unique one to explore and I am looking forward to your upcoming projects.
Harpocolypse? Harponginist? Loved it.
The video was good, informative, and entertaining too, but those words weren't just the icing on the cake. I love a good wordplay, and these were harpistrophic. I could just picture a harpoginist ripping through a high-end music store like a hurricane devastating a quiet medow of sunflowers, leaving behind a trail of pins, discs, wood, broken strings, and shattered dreams.
Very interesting. Glad you harped on this topic!
Loved the opportunity to hear your use of the harp in various ensembles! And I suppose I should add that you touched on all many mistakes in my own compositions EXCEPT the dreaded overuse of accidentals. Seems to be a specialty of mine! 😅
This is a splendid video!
Thank you very much for this informative and interesting episode.
The first thing we learned about harp when studying instrumentation at the music academy was that there are sooo many great classical scores that misunderstand what the harp can do. That's why we had to study it extra much lol.
Very well done! I enjoyed this video immensely. Not that I need to know about the harp, but as a musician, I think it is good to understand at least the basics of other instruments and the challenges they face.
I'm an organist. It seems that if you show most musician an organ score (2 staves for the hands and 1 for the feet) they have no clue what it is.
Hi David, your video is simply incredible good. Also wonder about Tschaikowsky 's violin Concerto. In one famous DGG record with Guidon Kremer the disk cover told me it is the original version. The last set shocked me, it sounded completely different. An analysis would be great here too.
Wonderfully informative video! This reminds me of Auer’s edits of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto…
Loved this so much!!!
After watching this I looked back at an unperformed orchestral piece I wrote over the summer that included a harp part. I made a few mistakes. While never having directly repeated notes, I for a lot of it had a pattern where they go back and forth between a note and then a new note. This is often in 16th notes and at some points it gets to be pretty fast tempos. I also have prolonged sections of writing a lot of notes in the low range, while using the previously mentioned pattern. I also have a few runs where they go one direct then and then go in the other direction leading to the same sort of problem without directly repeating the note. This would probably work better if I used the zigzagging glissando. I also have some big chords written all in one staff, but probably wound be ok if I split them up between the staves, to indicate that the hands should switch. Thanks for the informative video. Now I'll be able to write harp parts that the player will like, If I ever get them preformed.
hello, I am currently in my second year of the conservatory with harp as my main instrument, and I can tell you that the problem concerning repeated notes is only really a problem if it's just one string you're playing with. Bisbigliando's (which are at least 2 notes played very fast after one another on repeat, usually in 32nd or even 64th note values) are much, much, much easier. If you can use two strings it's basically like a trill, really, in this way you can also do a single repeated notes if you take enharmonics into account (so then only a D-natural, G-natural and A-natural would be 'unplayable' depending on context) :)
Considering the arpeggio's, it's actually quite common to play chords up and down repeatedly. Many pieces composed by harpists use it, and it's not very difficult. Again, the problem with repeating notes is only if we can't preplace it, and preplacing we try to place as many notes as possible at a time. It's actually more difficult to play a chord in both hands quickly 2 notes at a time, than 1 note at a time in a single, fluid movement (like at the start of the Tchaikovsky harp cadenza's). So basically, if you want a run with more than 4 fingers, only one note at a time is what realistically is going to be played.
Another thing, if you write for harp, please, please, please don't write in the pedals, it's a nuisance to have to scratch them out if they aren't placed comfortably for the harpist.
If you really would like to learn how to write for harp, I would suggest listening to music composed by harpists themselves. Albert Zabel (whom David mentioned in the video), John Thomas, François-Joseph Naderman (who wrote for single-action pedal harp), Marcel Tournier, Alphonse Hasselmans, and many more. There are also people like Sylvain Blassel, who like playing arrangements of piano works with some incredible pedalling. I think you can learn the most from how they handle the instrument.
Very interesting and timely: I've been playing Nutcracker for the last week and still have four shows to go and every those harp parts come around I'm in awe of how anyone can play them. Tchaikovsky used the harp the same way in Romeo & Juliet as well as the Manfred Symphony. Maybe it was naive, but sure is beautifully written for the instrument.
This is such a quality video. The narrative, animations, everything. Many thanks to David! It left a very good impression. Of course, I know the story behind it. Technically, nothing is really new to me.
What is impressive is that people around the world keep listening to Tchaikovsky, keep reading about his life and opinion on different things. More than a 100 years have passed since his death in St.Pete. Western music overall has progressed substantially since then. Yet, Tchaikovsky is still noticeable. Incomprehensible to me.
Russia has always been a very dark place. How could such a talent as Tchaikovsky appear in this bad setting is really a big mystery.
Was it luck or something -- that he secured a generous sponsor Nadezhda von Meck? Otherwise I believe he could not concentrate on music, travel around the world and buy things he needed to be motivated to create more. Without von Meck he would be a professor at Moscow concervatory on a tight budget.
Tchaikovsky died on his visit in St.Pete. There is a grave with his remains there. I believe it might be theoretically possible to visit it from abroad. Yet, von Meck, who is a person who produced Tchaikovsky (in modern language), died in France under dubious circumstances like Tchaikovsky. Shortly after him. Her remains, as I have read, were somehow moved to a Moscow cemetery. This cemetery was completely wiped out after the Russian revolution. And a big road was put on its place. Her remains (as well as the remains of people there) were completely destroyed.
I was on the spot where this cemetery was located and could not connect ideas in my head. Ok. They say times have changed. But who would give today a substantial share of one's own money personally to an artist?
Such a big person von Meck. Yet such a bad treatment by Russia. In a normal society the person who really made Tchaikovsky might have a better recognition. If not THE SAME recognition!
David, this was enormously helpful and entertaining! Thanks so much for your cogent and thorough exploration of harp technique and writing. Very useful in my own writing!
Most informative David, even to a non-muso such as I am!
love your videos mr Bruce :,)
Brilliant and illuminating; thank you!
Such skill it takes to play. And it's funny how even today the harp represents transition or travel to another world or back in time or something.
As a harpist, I feel SEEN!! One of the weirdest things about that cadenza is how out of character it is with the rest of the ballet (which, for the most part, lies very well under the fingers). To me, it's a big WTF!?! moment. It's like he momentarily forgot how to write for the harp.
Dear composers, please don't be intimidated by the harp. Just reach out to a harpist and we will gladly offer assistance. If you don't know any, there are several Facebook groups you can join to post questions and a harem of harpists will leap in to assist...one of these groups is even moderated by the fabulous Danielle Kuntz (yes, the same one you just saw in the video).
Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to go sit in the corner and await that David Bruce harp concerto. {hint, hint}
I love the structure of this video and the "flow"
Nice video as always. Well presented and well researched. As a composer myself, I once had a harpist rewrite some of my own work. Ha ha
Being a harpist myself, I can confirm your conclusions !
Очень рад что профессиональный музыкант наконец-то начал анализировать музыку Чайковского. Дело в том что я большой фанат симфонии 5 прослушал много разных исполнениий выучил её можно сказать наизусть продолжаю слушать её снова и снова как новые исполнения так и старые. Сам я не могу понять почему она на меня так действует. Из жизни Чайковского известно что 5 симфония сначала ему не понравилась после 4 симфонии, но потом когда он прослушал её несколько раз как простой слушатель он изменил своё отношение и признал её достоинства. Может быть найдётся психолог который объяснит такое влияние музыки на мозг человека.
Благодарю за интересный исторический урок.
Thanks for a great historical lesson. Never knew about that part being rewritten. But it makes sense. In opera there are lots of moments when singers do different notes that composer wrote and eventually it became tradition. I think it is fine, music should not be completely set in stone. And as you brilliantly explained in this video even the greatest masters can make mistakes.
super good video! THX!
Even for someone like myself with no real musical training, this is an extremely interesting and rewarding video - thanks. On "harp music generally", there's a concerto by Handel (variously for harp or organ - in the several versions I've heard - and orchestra) that I find quite appealing - in B flat major - not Handel at his "very most inspired" but - in the harp version - a most pleasant listen !
Obrigado pela aula!
15:16 wouldn't a "harpogynist" be a person that harps on women?
Yeah sorry I am dumb
I guess xD I thought it was it weird he didn't just call it a "misoharpist" but figured it was a joke.
Wonderful! Please analyze Satchidananda next!
Thanks, David. Your presentation is enlightening as well as encouraging. To me writing for harp is much like herding cats. Lovely instrument for sure. I don't feel so bad now.
Quite brilliant choice to upload this video in these days, considering that many cities around the world are hosting The Nutcracker. Mine too, indeed!
Regarding the compositional mistakes and the harpists habitual re-edit: it is mindblowing.
Regarding the Tchaikovsky's considerations on the instrument I think he's got a major point. I wouldn't assume he "didn't get the full value of the instrument", at the opposite I'd say he sticked to its pure quintessencial utilty
The quality on this video was so good! I appreciate the lack of AI Visuals/art :)
Look again…
Yeah, he uses it all over :(
@@EthicalEthicsEnteringEthically You might need to re-learn what is AI art. He only used it once it in this video (harpocalypse), how is it all over?
The rest are just collage style editing by bashing elements from different historical oil paintings together. It basically just photoshop. They still have traces of background left around their edges.
Wonderfully informative! I'd say Tchaikovsky's attitude reflects that of the majority of non-musicians. That's not an endorsement but a sad observation. This single video certainly dispelled my own pre-judgments, and many thanks.
that was an incredible video
Babe wake up! David Bruce uploaded a video!!!!!!!!!!
Very interesting! Tchaiko is one of my most beloved composers, but every now and then I find some awkward instrumentation decision right next to an absolute epiphany. Nutcracker is so full of gems that I will forgive him his failure in harpology 😂
And on a side note, I strongly advise you against using ChatGPT for instances such as these. I have seen it make up full names and academic quotes about easily checkable stuff
its really weird that he decided to use chatgpt to do google translates job, especially since google translate is more accurate and easier
Thanks for the history of the harp - the research is very much appreciated.
I’m really shocked that composers today would not already know these guidelines. In my orchestration class at Indiana, a couple of days were devoted to common pitfalls in composing for harp. A harpist looked our compositions and explained her corrections to us. This happened both semesters of orchestration.
It honestly shouldn’t that hard for trained composers … only it does take some strategic planning to not reuse the same string to quickly and to plan out the pedal changes for chromatic effects (using the sharped A string to get a B-flat, for instance). Is this stuff not taught to composition majors anymore?
too
Wonderfull video thank you !! Just an error : the invention of the cross-strung chromatic harp is 1896 not 1800. And for anyone interested, Yolanda Kondonnassis'book "the composer's guide to writing well for the modern harp" is a really good resource, precise and accessible.
It's great to see some attention being given to writing for the harp!
Here are a few notes:
- In Don Juan, Strauss writes arpeggios with five notes in each hand. While some harpists might see this as a challenge, I think it sounds better if you omit one note per hand. With some minor adjustments, Strauss’s writing for the harp can be quite wonderful.
- At 07:29, the chord is playable. It may not be the most comfortable, but most harpists should manage it without much difficulty, especially since there’s enough time to place the chord. The reason it’s often extended might be to make it sound a bit fuller.
- Interestingly, in both Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, a different cadenza is performed in Russia compared to most other parts of the world. These versions are slightly more melodic and, in my opinion, more engaging. I’m not entirely sure about their history, but they’re certainly worth noting. Luckily, I was able to get the notes and play these versions. Swan Lake Russian version: ruclips.net/video/0SKgGF4v8_c/видео.html Sleeping Beauty Russian version: ruclips.net/video/60soUu8Jo9I/видео.html
"harpogynist" is now a new favorite term! lol
Thank you for the interesting video. Maybe next time, time to see harp writings of Liszt, who even attempted to learn the instrument?
...and the amazing Avi Avital with Bridget there! 💪🏻🏁
11:08 my goodness that sounds divine
If even this great master messed up it's certainly ok for people like myself to do so! Thanks for helping me snap out of my perfectionism which had definitely gone too far.....
Thanks so much for this information. 20+ years ago, when I was a pianist for ballet classes, I played the piano score of "The Nutcracker" for rehearsals of the show.
Later I remember intensely studying how to write for the harp when I composed my Requiem in 2005, so as hopefully to avoid pitfalls of playability.
(I would suggest, though, that "harpogynist" is an unfortunate neologism, as it appears to be awkwardly related to "misogynist." In both words, the root "gyn-" is from the Greek for "woman." Perhaps "misarpist" would be a better term, as that would include Greek roots for "hate" and "harp.")
Best wishes!
Great video!
The Harp Cadenza is almost exactly the intro to Link To The Past.
I've long been fascinated with the harp as a listener, so this study was interesting. A few points hit me: 1) muddy bass notes: I knew that was a problem with old wire-strung harps, but didn't realise it could be with a concert harp, which makes me wonder how the frequent bass notes on AV's electrified concert harp sound so clear; 2) Tchaikovsky saying the harp is for arpeggios not melodies fits with how classical composers do tend to compose for the instrument, but why? Is it a question of low volume & sustain? Maybe only compositions for harp solo (common in 20th C) tend to feature melodies. 3) is the legend true that French composers are best able to compose for it? For instance, the balance between concert harp & full orchestra at the loud beginning & end of Saint Saens morceau du concert (1918) is amazingly balanced - how did he manage that clarity? - and then Tailleferre's harp concerto is all harp melodies with orchestra, but in an almost 20s pop style (rather than Saint Saens' neo-classicalism). Because I like to hear melodies on harp, I prefer to hear music not on the concert harp because often the harps with less sophisticated design actually have a more strident and therefore striking tone.
Great info
I just performed the Waltz of the Flowers with my orchestra today!
This high quality and well written video, like the others you have posted, should be aired on public television.
Wow, is this timely! I've only just begun working on an arrangement of "Waltz of the Flowers" for solo accordion for myself. The advice I was given was "Omit the harp bits. People will still get the idea." lol Still early in the process, so we'll see if I decide to take that advice or not! lol
Tchaikovsky's mistakes are a good example why it wasn't a bad idea why many composers especially in the 19th century had assistants to split up the work between composing the main melodies and overall concept of a musical piece and the instrumentation/orchestration of the piece to arrange it for a large orchestra.
In the 19th century the orchestras got bigger and bigger and composers wanted to show more and different instruments to surprise the public and keep it entertained. But as a composer you can't be an expert in any kind of instrument, especially if you couldn't just compose, but also had to earn a living as a working performing musician. Liszt for example was a virtuoso at the piano and also worked as a conductor. There would have been very little time to put out complete compositions, therefore for the orchestration of his symphonic poems he used the help of his assistant Joachim Raff.
Nowadays the work of such helpers is mostly forgotten, some composers didn't used them or not everytime. And now people only ask: How on earth could a genius like Tchaikovsky make such mistakes. But he also had other things to do and often composers had to fullfill a deadline, therefore mistakes can happen.
Given he knew Albert Zabel well, I'd rather suspect he received a lesson and decided to troll him by going against it.
@@piotrmalewski8178Haha - maybe! 😅
Albert Zabel rewrote also the other cadenzas from Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. They are still performed in the Mariinsky Theatre . Maybe you can talk about them in detail in a video. 👍
@@jiperezv yes, they are more interesting since it is not just one chord, and you can make it even more of a harp piece. I have played these as well
@@Tweeteketje Great! Do you have a transcription of the delicate Zabel cadenza for the Rose Adagio of Sleeping Beauty. It seems nowhere to be publsihed so far I know. Thank you.
If I was Tchaikovsky, I would deliberately screw up the harp part to troll Zabel, knowing he would fix it anyway.
Swan Lake is also commonly performed with a Zabel harp cadenza. It’s actually a complete rewrite.
Yeah, I love this version! Same holds for the Sleeping Beauty cadenza, though I'm not sure if that alternative is written by Zabel.
David. Another mini movie. 🍿 The computer should make it possible for people writing for traditional instruments to make these playing anomalies a thing of the past. ESP only using four notes at a time. Much faster flourishes are possible. And fingerings don’t matter to a pc. But the seasons musicians usually aren’t also programming experts also.
The video reminded me of the incredibly entertaining work by Michael Daugherty, "Harp of Ages", for solo harp and orchestra (recently recorded by Naxos). It's hysterically funny, like everything Daugherty writes. I'm not a harpist or anything, but the writing seems totally idiomatic to me (and the album features the excellent Courtney Hershey Bress). Highly recommend it!
Regarding what Tchaikovsky allegedly wrote about the harp, he also wrote more than once that he hated the combination of piano and orchestra, however he wrote 4 wonderful works for this combination.
Well, this was interesting, but not a surprise actually. There are so many changes with ballet scores . Just like the pas d'action (13.V) in Swan Lake, the original ending of the piece is rarely heard in stage productions, but traditionally cut. Ballet music is such a complicated thing, and same music sometimes used for different situations. But interesting to learn this detail!
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As a russian, I confirm this is correct translation
Someday someone will make a video like this about me. Let's just say imagine this video was exactly the same, but at the end of it Bruce reveals that Tchaikovsky was actually a harpist and still wrote these parts. No time for any more commenting though, I'm off to recheck and rewrite all of my harp parts.