A brilliant piece by mahler essay

For our second Assignment of Renegade Thought, I chose to attend the Symphony No.

1 in D, “ Titan,” written by Gustav Mahler. The concert was held in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Center downtown on September 24, 2009. The conductor of this performance was named Jaap van Zweden, and the first part of the show featured a cello soloist named Nina Kotova. Although this was my first experience going to a symphony performance, overall I found the concert to be surprisingly entertaining and enjoyable. As I entered the concert hall I was overwhelmed by how large the building was. A large elevated stage sits in front of a large floor seating section.

The balcony seating, much similar to stadium seating, which extended four levels high, surrounded these floor seats. On the stage the Orchestra sat in designated areas specified for their specific instruments. All the members of the orchestra sat in chairs in a small semicircle facing the conductor’s stand and the audience.

As the concert begins, the lights dim, and the orchestra is already in there seats waiting to begin the show. The conductor as well as the soloist slowly make their way to the center of the stage, and are met with applause from the audience. The woman soloist takes a seat in the middle of the stage and prepares to begin the “ Concerto for Cello and Orchestra.

” As the concert begins the drums start off the first movement, creating a soft deep beat that begins to establish the meter of the piece. Yet this beat slowly fades away and is followed by the soloist responding to this in a similar tempo, which also slowly fades away. The soloist then slowly begins to play again, developing the rhythm and melody that appear throughout the first movement. After a brief period of playing alone, the soloist is accompanied by the rest of the orchestra, who help create a background to what the soloist is playing, and further emphasize what she is playing. The soloist somewhat leads the orchestra, who responds to what she plays in a similar melody and tempo. Yet this is something that does not continue throughout the piece. As second movement begins, the orchestra no longer responds to what the soloist is playing. Even at times when it feels to the listener that a response from the orchestra should follow what the soloist played, it was not.

Rather quick bursts of strings and woodwinds appear then quickly fade in response to what the soloist is playing. Giving the piece the feeling of quick bursts of emotion, which then subside, and the piece returns to the original melody. The finale of the piece quickly grabs your attention through its intensity. Quickly changing the pitch and the rhythm, the soloist shows the entire range of the cello. As well the entire orchestra accompanies the soloist throughout this movement, making the piece that much more dramatic to the listener. The “ Symphony No.

1 in D, Titan” begins with a slow introduction with a steady tempo. This slow introduction is accompanied by the use of lighter, higher pitched instruments that are used to represent the many sounds of nature. As the first movement continues, this introduction is repeated multiple times, yet each with modifications, that make them vary from one another. This is followed by the development of the major theme of the first movement. This theme continues to develop throughout the entire first movement, yet is not repetitive to the listener. The theme of the first movement is one of happiness and joy, and this continues into the second movement. As the second movement begins, the theme begins to change as well.

The joy seen in the theme of the first movement is still heard, yet it is matched with certain elegance in the second movement. The tempo of the piece is somewhat slowed down and the piece sounds more organized and proper than in the first movement. The piece then calms down substantially during the trio section, towards the end of the second movement. The third movement begins with a deep bass solo that establishes the dark theme of the movement right away.

The bass is then accompanied by various other instrumental groups, which allow the scale to be slowly taken up as the bass continues to play. The crescendo is then gradually built up, due to an increase in the amount of instruments playing, rather than simply playing the music louder and louder. The movement is then interrupted by some sort of fiddle, and the theme heard at the beginning of the movement then returns. This all occurs once more, yet with higher pitch. The third movement then comes to an end as the music slowly fades out. The long soft ending of the third movement is quickly followed by the loud explosive beginning of the fourth movement. This finale is by far the most dramatic movement in the piece. A short introduction starts off the finale, which is then followed by the appearance of the principle theme.

This is then surprisingly followed by the repetition f the introduction the first movement. Although it feels to be somewhat out of place, this reappearance of the introduction actually flows smoothly, and announces the recapitulation. The finale, much longer than any other movement in the piece, is by far the most meaningful and entertaining of any of the movements.

Throughout the concert there were certain parts which I found to be really interesting and stuck out to me more than others. The first part of the show, which I found to be very interesting, was the finale of the first part of the concert the “ Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra. I think I found this to be very entertaining because I greatly enjoyed watching the soloist play the cello so well, and with such passion, during this movement. During the movement she quickly changed the pitch and rhythm of the piece, playing the cello in a way I was unaware it was capable of being played. It truly felt as if I was watching an intense guitar solo being played by my favorite band. She truly showed the entire range that the cello is capable of during the intense finale. As well everything that she played was then responded to by the entire orchestra, making this movement that much more intense and entertaining. Another section of the concert that I found to be the most interesting to me would have to be the finale of the second part of the show the “ Symphony N0.

1 in D, Titan. ” I think that I found this movement to be more interesting than the rest because it is by far the most intriguing movement in the piece. The finale starts off with an explosion of music and never lets up. Mahler presents themes heard in other movements again, as he builds his way up to the appearance of the primary theme.

In doing so he makes the listener wait, by waiting until awhile into the finale to present the primary theme in D-major. It is in this way he enables the listener to actually feel the “ anguish and struggle” of the finale; until finally experiencing the “ triumph” and satisfaction from him presenting the primary theme in D-major. Overall I found this performance to be very entertaining and moving. It was my first experience of going to a symphony performance, yet was something that I greatly enjoyed and plan on doing more often.