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Josh Nardin, Rob Smithson
Music Theory—3/5/06
Concerto: The Contrasting Form
A concerto is a musical form that is based on contrasting voicing, usually between a
solo instrumentalist and an orchestral ensemble.
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Antonio Vivaldi made the first notable innovations to the form in the 17th
century. He incorporated major elements to the concerto style such as ritornello. The
ritornello form as it is often used in concerto defines the theme or refrain, and
establishes unity throughout the piece. Ritornello takes on the form of ‘tutti-solo’
alterations, where ‘tutti’ is the theme played by the entire orchestra, and ‘solo’ is the
solo instrumentalist. A typical concerto has the following structure:
Tutti—solo—tutti—solo—tutti—solo—tutti
and so on.
Vivaldi’s concertos defined the Classical design of the form, and many
composers of this era held fast to these principles.
The innovations of Johann Sebastian Bach in the early 18th brought significant
reform to the concerto style. Through his Brandenburg concertos and concertos for
violin and clavier, Bach introduced the idea of contrasting themes and variations of
ritornello. Contrast between not only voicings but volume and tone are definitive
forces in the Bach concerto.
However it is Mozart who is considered most influential in his advancements
to the concerto. Spring-boarding off the innovations of Bach, Mozart incorporated
powerful polyphonic textures into his concertos, creating much more complex and
layered melodies. He is credited for bringing the sonata principle into the concerto,
along with drastically redefining ritornello structure. Mozart is well known for his 23
piano concertos.
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A concertino is a variation of the concerto. It was developed in the 19 th and
20th centuries, and usually is written in a free form style. We will briefly analyze the
Concertino for Clarinet by Carl Maria Von Weber.
About the composer:
Von Weber was a German composer in the late 18th to early 19th century. He
was a cousin of Mozart’s wife Constanze, and is known, among other things, for his
innovations in clarinet composition. Von Weber wrote two concertos and concertinos
for clarinet for clarinetist Heinrich Baermann.
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The Clarninet Concertino is, as apparent from the sheet music, written in a
polyphonic form with a homophonic textured accompaniment. Although it is seen
here as a clarinet-piano duet, the piece can be adapted into an orchestral unit.
The piece is in c minor. The accompaniment does not deviate vary much from the
key, as seen by the repeating 1, 4, and 5 chords. However this is contrasted by the
melody line, which floats between major and minor chords. So right away the
contrast in voicing, between the perfect cadences of the accompaniment and the
harmonic deviations of the melody line, is apparent. Furthermore, the
accompaniment is written in a block-like style. With the exception of the transitory
lines in which the soloist does not play, the piano part maps out a very obvious
chord-driven structure. In contrast, the clarinet line is very free-floating. It fluctuates
up and down the scales with unpredictable, rhythmic arpeggios.
Despite the brevity of the piece, it does not fail to implicate various themes,
or “movements”. Perhaps these are not the right terms in context of the concertino
due to the brevity of the piece, but the piece is certainly divided uniformly by specific
melodic elements. In the first three pages of the music there are three different
“themes”. These changes in melody are separated by rests in the solo part
(measures 1-9, 54-59 and 70-73). Although different from the ritornello form used in
many concertos, the clear divisions of the concertino stresses the contrast of the
piece as a whole. Not only does the soloist contrast with the accompaniment, but by
separating the themed portions of the piece, the solo melodies contrast with one
another as well.
Sources:
http://www.balernochs.edin.sch.uk/departments/music/form/ritornello/ritornello.htm
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Maria_von_Weber#Assessment
http://dorakmt.tripod.com/music/concerto.html
http://www.naxos.com/composer/weber.htm