Concerto

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigation Jump to search

A concerto is a piece of music made for a solo instrument and an orchestra. When an orchestra
plays at a concert they might play a symphony (a piece for orchestra) and they might play a
concerto (with a soloist). If the solo instrument is a violin the piece is called a “violin concerto”,
if it is a piano it is called a “piano concerto”, etc. The orchestra accompanies the soloist. This
means that it is the soloist who decides how fast or slow to play. The conductor should listen to
the way the soloist wants to play and make the orchestra accompany sensitively.

The word “concerto” is an Italian word (the second “c” is pronounced like an English “ch”). It
means “agreeing” or “playing together”. The English plural is “concertos”.

The concerto became popular during the 17th century in Italy. Some concertos had several
soloists instead of just one. This kind of concerto was called a concerto grosso.

Contents
 1 The Concerto in the Baroque Period
 2 The Concerto in the Classical Period
 3 The Concerto in the Romantic Period
 4 Romantic and Modern Concertos

The Concerto in the Baroque Period

The solo concerto became popular with composers like Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) who wrote
over 400 concertos for various instruments. His most famous concertos are a group of four
known as The Four Seasons. These are violin concertos, and each concerto deals in turn with one
of the seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. Many other Baroque composers wrote
concertos: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) wrote several concertos for violin although only
two have survived, the others have been lost. He also wrote solo concertos for the harpsichord.
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) wrote concertos for the organ. Organs in England were very
small in those days and balanced well with an orchestra. Handel sometimes put pauses in his
concertos where the soloist could improvise (make up) some music. These improvised bits
became known as “cadenzas”. Concertos ever since have cadenzas where the soloist can show
how brilliant they are at playing and at improvising. Some composers wrote their own cadenzas.

The Concerto in the Classical Period

In the Classical period Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) wrote a few concertos including two for the
cello, but he is better known for his symphonies. It was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
who wrote many wonderful piano concertos. This was at a time when the piano was a new
instrument. Mozart was a brilliant pianist and he wrote most of them for himself to perform. He
also wrote five violin concertos, four horn concertos, two flute concertos and a clarinet concerto.
He also wrote concertos for more than one soloist e.g. a flute and harp concerto and a violin and
viola concerto which he called Sinfonia Concertante. By this time concertos always had three
movements: a fast one (usually in sonata form), a slow one, and a fast movement (often a rondo)
to finish with.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) became famous as a pianist before he was known as a
composer. He wrote five piano concertos. The last one, known in English-speaking countries as
the Emperor Concerto, is a very big, powerful work which looks forward to the music of the
Romantic period. Beethoven wrote a beautiful violin concerto. At the time everyone thought it
was too hard for the soloist to play, but as composers wrote harder and harder music the players
had to become better and better. Nowadays every professional violinist should be able to play it.
Beethoven also wrote a Triple Concerto for piano, violin, cello and orchestra.

The Concerto in the Romantic Period

The 19th century is known as the age of Romanticism. People adored creative men like artists,
musicians and writers (the time for women to be equal had not yet come). They were seen as
heroes. The concerto fitted in very well with this way of thinking. The soloist was a great hero,
and the concerto enabled him to show off his great technique. The violinist and composer
Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) was one of these great heroes. He played the violin like no one
else had ever done, and because he was a thin, skinny man with a pale face and long hair people
thought he looked like the devil. He wrote violin concertos which at the time only he could play.

Romantic and Modern Concertos

Some of the most famous violin concertos of the 19th and 20th centuries include those by Felix
Mendelssohn, Max Bruch (no 1), Johannes Brahms, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Edward Elgar,
Dmitri Shostakovich (no 1), Béla Bartók, Alban Berg, Igor Stravinsky and Sir William Walton.

Famous piano concertos after Beethoven’s time include those by Frederic Chopin (2), Robert
Schumann, Johannes Brahms (2), Pjotr I. Tchaikovsky (3), Edvard Grieg, Sergei Rachmaninoff
(4), Béla Bartók (3), Sergei Prokofiev (5) and Igor Stravinsky.

Famous cello concertos include those by Antonín Dvořák, Edouard Lalo, Edward Elgar and
Dmitri Shostakovich. Tchaikovsky wrote a piece for cello and orchestra called Rococo
Variations and Benjamin Britten wrote a piece for cello and orchestra which he called a “Cello
Symphony” because the cello and orchestra are equal in importance. Brahms wrote a Double
Concerto for violin and cello with orchestra.
There are viola concertos by Paul Hindemith and William Walton, and Hector Berlioz wrote
Harold in Italy which is like a viola concerto.

Famous concertos for woodwind instruments include two for clarinet by Carl Maria von Weber,
clarinet and flute concertos by Carl Nielsen, a clarinet concerto by Aaron Copland, an oboe
concerto by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Richard Strauss wrote two concertos for the French horn. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov wrote a
trombone concerto and Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote a tuba concerto.

Modern composers have written percussion concertos. These are usually pieces for one
percussion player playing lots of different percussion instruments, and an orchestra
accompanying. James MacMillan wrote a piece for percussion and orchestra called Veni, Veni
Emmanuel.

Joaquin Rodrigo wrote several works for guitar and orchestra including Concierto de Aranjuez.

Béla Bartók wrote a piece called Concerto for Orchestra. He gave it this title because, although
it is a piece for orchestra (like a symphony), there are lots of solos for the different instruments.
Other composer, such as Alan Hovhaness, have also written concertos for orchestra.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has written ten concertos, each for a different solo instrument. They
are known as the "Strathclyde Concertos".