Repertoires and Activities
Fantasia No. 2 in a minor for flute without bass. - Telemann
Telemann’s 12 Fantasies for Flute are a monumental example of the Baroque style in music. Each fantasia includes multiple sections of contrasting styles and tempo and can stand on its own as a complete piece. The complete set of works display an impressive survey of forms and styles used often in the Baroque era. As a flutist himself, Telemann took into consideration the characteristics of the instrument when writing these short pieces.
With its limited function, the baroque flute was best played in keys with fewer flats and sharps. Strategically, Telemann wrote these 12 Fantasias for major and minor keys that reflected this limitation. He also considered the somewhat limited range of the instrument, which matches the range of the modern oboe seamlessly
Fantasia No. 2 in a minor includes four movements, the first serving as a slow and dramatic introduction to the minor key. The second movement is in triple meter and offers a lilting theme, sharply contrasting the heavily ornamented Adagio movement that follows. The piece concludes with a quick movement in binary form
Since this fantasia has four movements, I will give my audience four-pieces of paper and ask them to name each piece with words that they think will be appropriated or words that come to their mind after listening to music. At the end of the performance, these pieces of paper will be gathered and put together on the board so that people can see other ideas. I hope this kind of activity will help people to be more confident to express their thoughts as well as learn other’s thoughts at the same time.
Serenade in D Major for Flute, Violin and Viola, op. 25
Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1792 to study with Haydn and establish a name for himself as a serious and talented composer. While the bulk of his output focused on works for piano and traditional instrument groupings, he did experiment with unconventional combinations.
The Serenade, op. 25, is one of those unique works for flute, violin, and viola. Similar to the Septet, op. 20, performed in the first year of our Beethoven series, it gained considerable popular appeal, thus also being profitable for the young Beethoven.
Written as outdoor music to indulge the Viennese, the airy and charming Serenade features the “recreational” Beethoven at his best. As Mozart does in his Serenades, Beethoven introduces this delightful instrumentation with a march-like movement, “Entrata.” The horn-like fanfares of the flute invite the strings to join in the dialogue and the lighthearted fun begins. The gallant features a flute solo with mandolin-like accompaniment from the strings. The set of variations that follows allows each instrument to shine with a solo turn. A rustic dance replete with ‘Scotch Snap’ rhythms completes the playful serenade.
The audience will join this educational game via Google classroom. After the music starts, participants will be presented with several pictures that also can give a narrative arc for the form of the piece. This way, the audience members can also have a chance to interact with the form. Therefore, there would be options of pictures to choose from the first theme, the second theme, transitions, development, recap, etc. While listening, the audience can vote on which picture they think best represents each section; at the end, I will have a series of pictures created by the popular vote that you can look at and interpret together. There is no right or wrong answer in this kind of game. At the end of this piece, we will talk about “how we can connect music that we are not able to see with art that we can see” and “what are the advantages of doing this for both musician and audience” These activities will also lead us to the last piece “The Gloomy Shepherdess”
The Gloomy Shepherdess (Carbajo, Víctor)
First of all, the reason that I decided to choose this piece is that we already have 2 serious pieces, so it would be better for the audience to listen to something more relaxing. This piece is kind of new since it was created in 1999. Let’s skip to the point of choosing this piece. This kind of piece is different when compared with those pieces before. This piece has its own meaning by the intensity of the composer that named it, not just giving a name that represented a tempo. So, we do not need to name it as we did with the first piece (Telemann) and we do not have to create a picture of it as we did with the second one (Kuhlau).
What we are going to do is to use skills that we have just learned from Telemann’s piece and Beethoven’s piece to enjoy the music. At the end of the concert, I might have a small conversation or interview with some audience members with some questions such as how they feel about listening to classical music in this way or how they feel about attending this kind of classical music concert, and I will also give them a questionnaire to gain more data for the research.