THE FLORIDA ORCHESTRA | 2016-2017 39 Program Notes CLAUDE DEBUSSY Danse Sacrée et Danse Profane for Harp and String Orchestra DURATION: ca. 11 minutes Overview The harp is among the most ancient of instruments. Its existence in Mesopotamia is documented as far back as 3,000 B.C., and it was known virtually from the dawn of recorded history in Egypt, Israel and Greece. Harps were common throughout Christian Europe; it is still the heraldic symbol of Ireland. The instrument remained essentially unchanged in its construction until about 1810, when the Parisian piano maker Sébastien Érard introduced a system of pedals to chromatically alter the pitches of the open strings. Though this instrument could effectively negotiate every note within its range, it was somewhat clumsy of operation, and various attempts were made to simplify the harp’s mechanics. At the end of the 19th century, Gustave Lyon developed a “chromatic harp,” a pedal-less instrument in which a single string was devoted to each chromatic note. The Parisian instrument-making firm of Pleyel put Lyon’s invention into production in 1897, in direct competition with Érard et Compagnie and its long-established harp. By the turn of the century, Pleyel was casting about for ways to win some business from Érard, who, as the supplier of pianos and harps to the Paris Conservatoire, enjoyed immense prestige across the Continent. In 1904, Pleyel succeeded in having a course devoted to their chromatic harp instituted at the Brussels Conservatory, and the company’s officials asked Claude Debussy to compose a work specifically for the new instrument that would serve both as a test piece for the students and as a demonstration of their harp’s potential to prospective buyers. In the spring of 1904, Debussy composed a matched pair of dances, one “sacred” and one “profane,” for chromatic harp and string orchestra. The work was first heard at a Parisian concert conducted by Édouard Colonne on November 6, 1904; Lucille Wurmser-Delcourt was soloist. It should be added that Lyon’s chromatic harp, with its vast curtain of strings, found little favor, and that it is Érard’s double-action pedal harp which remains the standard instrument to this day. What To Listen For The Danse sacrée et Danse profane comprises two brief works joined as one. The Danse sacrée is said (by the conductor Ernest Ansermet) to have been suggested to Debussy by a piano piece of his friend, the Portuguese composer and conductor Francisco de Lacerda (1869-1934). According to no less an authority than Manuel de Falla, the Danse profane was influenced by Spanish dance and techniques of melodic embellishment. LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36 DURATION: ca. 32 minutes Overview In the summer of 1802, Beethoven’s physician ordered him to leave Vienna in an attempt to alleviate a disturbing ringing and buzzing in his ears and take rooms in suburban Heiligenstadt, where he virtually lived the life of a hermit, seeing only his doctor and a young student named Ferdinand Ries. In 1802, Beethoven was still a full decade from being totally deaf, but he had largely lost his ability to hear soft sounds by that time, and loud noises caused him pain. On October 6, 1802, following several months of wrestling with his misfortune, Beethoven penned the most famous letter ever written by a musician — the “Heiligenstadt Testament.” Intended as a will written to his brothers (it was never sent, though he kept it in his papers to be found after his death), it is a cry of despair over his fate, perhaps a necessary and self-induced soul-cleansing in those pre-Freudian days. “O Providence — grant me at last but one day of pure joy — it is so long since real joy echoed in my heart,” he lamented. But — and this is the miracle — he not only poured his energy into self-pity, he also channeled it into music. The Symphonies Nos. 2-5, a dozen piano sonatas, Fourth Piano Concerto and Triple Concerto, Fidelio, and many songs, chamber works and keyboard compositions were all completed between 1802 and 1806. What To Listen For The Symphony No. 2 opens with a long, stately introduction. The first movement’s sonata form begins with the arrival of the fast tempo and the appearance of the main theme, a brisk melody first entrusted to the low strings; the second theme is a martial strain paraded by the winds. The development includes two large sections, one devoted to the main theme and its quick, flashing rhythmic figure, the other exploring the possibilities of the marching theme. The recapitulation compresses the earlier material. The Larghetto, “one of the most luxurious slow movements in the world” according to Sir George Grove, is in a full sonata form, with the first violins giving out the second theme. A rising three-note fragment runs through much of the scherzo proper, while the central trio gives prominence to the oboes and a delightful walking-bass counterpoint in the bassoons. The finale, formally a hybrid of sonata and rondo, possesses a wit and structure indebted to Haydn but a dynamism that is Beethoven’s alone.
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