#ElgarIsLove<3

[andrewtheconqueror-blog]

Blog No. 12

“Salut D'Amour.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Apr. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salut_d'Amour. This time, I had a chance to team up with my classmate Mareal Tumanda, who, like me, also plays the violin. We kind of had a lecture performance on Elgar’s Serenade for Strings, (Large/Ensemble Work) and then, I played “Salut d’Amour” for solo violin, which is still Elgar’s work.

Serenade for Strings (String Orchestra) in E Minor, Op. 20

Performers:  (Violin 1)  Paul Andrew Evangelista, (Violin 2) Mareal Tumanda, (Viola) Paul Anthony Evangelista- backup performer, (Cello) ‘None’

*Unfortunately, we were not able to find a cello player for the piece. :( 

Elgar’s “Serenade for Strings” is a very sublime piece for strings, as the composer described it; “real stringy”.The central Larghetto, (2nd Mvt.) generally accepted as containing the work’s finest and most mature writing.  The leap of a seventh followed by a descending figuration in his melody makes it so moving and lovely. <3

Description by Rovi Staff 

 Nothing disturbs the graceful amiability of this early work, begun a year before Elgar's marriage in 1889. These "little tunes," as the composer called them, are about as far as one can get from the patriotic fervor of the Pomp and Circumstance marches and the emotional intensity of the larger orchestral works.

All three movements, Allegro piacevole, Larghetto and Allegretto, are enchanting: the first liltingly rhythmic, the second a meditation of serene beauty on a melody similar to that of the Lento movement in the Symphony No. 1, the third a genial reworking of first-movement themes.

The opening movement, in 6/8 time, is based around an opening theme which is suffused with the feel of English ballad; perhaps some snatch of West-Country melody caught the young composer's ear and worked its way into his creative process. It weaves in and out of minor and major before yielding to the no less serene second theme, bearing Elgar's trademark interval of a seventh leap. This same thumbprint figure can be found in the sensitive following movement, in which there is a constant unfolding of melody rather than contrasting themes. A Tristan-like turn, as well as a phrase which seems to be a quotation from that opera (Elgar was an unashamed admirer of Wagner's music), are worked up to a crest which subsides; overall, though, the music is purged of excessive chromaticism, and any Wagnerisms used in a very different and sensitive context. The closing movement uses a sunny and winsome theme also in 6/8 and returns to the seventh leap of the opening movement, the theme in its final resolution bearing a curious resemblance to the trio of the last Pomp and Circumstance nearly 40 years later. Coincidental? Perhaps, but also indicative that nothing is incongruous within one's own frame of reference.

Elgar, himself a violinist, was sensitive to the coloration of the string orchestra, and his touch does not falter throughout a work which he described as being "real stringy." There is no straining after effect and no obvious personal or pictorial associations -- all is pure music as well as pure poetry. Yet anyone who knows the English countryside around Hereford where Elgar lived can hardly fail, especially in the second movement, to be reminded of that peaceful, solitary landscape.

The composer made an arrangement of the Serenade for piano duet, though it is now difficult to think of it other than in its original form.

Salut d’Amour “Liebesgruss”, Op. 12

A musical work for violin and piano composed by Edward Elgar in 1888. Elgar finished this piece when he was romantically in loved with Caroline Alice Roberts. On their engagement she had already presented him with a poem "The Wind at Dawn" which he set to music and, when he returned home to London on 22 September from a holiday at the house of his friend Dr. Charles Buck in Settle, he gave her Salut d'Amour as an engagement present. The dedication was in French: "à Carice". "Carice" was a combination of his wife's names Caroline Alice, and was the name to be given to their daughter born two years later. It was not published by Schott & Co., a German publisher, with offices in Mainz, London, Paris and Brussels, until a year later, and the first editions were for violin and piano, piano solo, cello and piano, and for small orchestra. Few copies were sold until Schott changed the title to "Salut d'Amour" with Liebesgruss as a sub-title, and the composer's name as 'Ed. Elgar'. The French title, Elgar realised, would help the work to be sold not only in France but in other European countries. The first public performance was of the orchestral version, at a Crystal Palace concert on 11 November 1889, conducted by August Manns. The first recording of that version was made in 1915 for The Gramophone Company with an orchestra conducted by the composer. As a violin-and-piano piece Salut d'Amour had been recorded for The Gramophone & Typewriter Ltd (predecessor to The Gramophone Company) as early as 1901 by Jacques Jacobs, leader/director of the Trocadero Restaurant orchestra. Auguste van Biene recorded a cello transcription in 1907.

A Thrilling, Lovely Experience!!! <3

I was really excited to perform these two works by Elgar, yet at the same time nervous. Especially, because I thought that Mareal would not be able to come on class that day. Thank God! Finally, she came in, then I took a deep breath and stopped being worried. 

While discussing Elgar’s “Serenade for Strings” I felt a bit nervous because we really didn’t discussed what measures we’ll be playing in the music but rather just practiced it on our own so I just told them to look at my cues/cut-offs so we would end together, but they didn’t. Oh well, we’re just humans... sometimes we forget. At one point, I felt that everything that I thought in my mind doesn’t really come out on my mouth, so some of the details that I want to say and elaborate just passed through my mind.

In playing Elgar’s Salut d’Amour, I was moved with passion by the music. I felt love and joy after the performance. I was fortunate, at the same time happy performing the piece in front of my MuL15 classmates, with Ma’am Krina as our professor.

Disclaimer: Pardon me for my performance here... It has a lot of tempo and intonation problems... huhuhuhu Thank you. <3

Sources:  

 “Serenade, for Strings in E Minor,... | Details.” AllMusic, www.allmusic.com/composition/serenade-for-strings-in-e-minor-op-20-mc0002399377. 

“Salut D'Amour.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Apr. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salut_d'Amour.