Greeting Prelude
Greeting Prelude | |
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by Igor Stravinsky | |
Dedication | For the 80th birthday of Pierre Monteux |
Published | 1956 |
Publisher | Boosey & Hawkes |
Duration | c. 45 seconds |
Scoring | Orchestra |
Premiere | |
Date | April 4, 1955 |
Location | Symphony Hall, Boston |
Conductor | Charles Munch |
Performers | Boston Symphony Orchestra |
The Greeting Prelude is an orchestral work composed in 1955 by
Its world premiere performance took place at
Cyrus Durgin of the
Background
Surprise
One of the few events that interrupted
I started a rehearsal of Tchaikovsky's Second Symphony, but instead of the doleful Russian horn melody, I heard this happy little tune ("Happy Birthday to You"). I had no idea what happened and did not understand the point (which was that one of the orchestra players had just become a father); until a certain time had been spent in diplomacy, in fact, I was actually piqued.[2]
Stravinsky had been unfamiliar with "Happy Birthday to You", but remembered it after this occasion.[3] The following year, in June 1951, he encountered the song again when Samuel Barber asked him to harmonize it as a 75th birthday present for Mary Louise Curtis. He complied and composed a two-part canon based on the melody.[4]
Pierre Monteux's 80th birthday
In 1954, Stravinsky received a commission from the
As Stravinsky awaited confirmation from the festival bureaucracy, he received a letter early that month from Charles Munch, music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The conductor requested a brief orchestral work to commemorate the 80th birthday in April of former Boston Symphony music director Pierre Monteux.[6] The composer and elder conductor, who conducted the premieres of Petrushka and The Rite of Spring, had a longstanding professional relationship, despite periods of acrimony.[7] Although Stravinsky wrote to Munch on February 9 that he was uncertain he could fulfill the task, he began to compose the Greeting Prelude on February 18. He completed it on February 23 and mailed the score to the New York City office of Boosey & Hawkes that same day.[4] The score was published in 1956.[8]
Music
The Greeting Prelude—which is modeled after
Stravinsky told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the work was a "very learned prelude, all fugue and canon",[10] and later also described it as "a kind of singing telegram".[8] A typical performance lasts approximately 45 seconds.[8]
Instrumentation
The instrumentation for the Greeting Prelude is as follows:[8]
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Manuscript
Holograph sketches and score are in the possession of the Paul Sacher Foundation. These consist of four pages of sketches in pencil and seven pages of the final draft in ink.[11]
Premiere
The world premiere of the Greeting Prelude took place at Symphony Hall, Boston, on April 4, 1955, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Munch. It shared the program with another birthday tribute commissioned for the occasion, Pensée amicale, by Darius Milhaud. The first half of the concert was conducted by Monteux and replicated the corresponding part of his first concert as conductor with the Colonne Orchestra.[12]
Reception
Immediate reaction to the Greeting Prelude was positive. Cyrus Durgin, music critic for the
This, beginning with a terrific thwack of drums, and punctuated by them as if by celebration gunfire, was just a trace in the manner of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, that historic piece in whose tumultuous premiere both Monteux and Stravinsky were actively concerned. By the abrupt ending, you might judge that the Greeting Prelude was some kind of perpetual motion which has no conclusion. And that too was highly appropriate in symbolic application to Mr. Monteux's career.[13]
Robert Craft conducted it on May 22, 1955,[14] at the Ojai Music Festival, where it was also received warmly by audiences and critics.[15][16]
Programs celebrating Stravinsky's 80th birthday in 1962 included performances of the Greeting Prelude. It was played by the
In his study of Stravinsky's music, musicologist Eric Walter White called the Greeting Prelude a "brief jeu d'esprit" and a "jovial, aphoristic work, but rather too short to make much effect".[8]
Copyright problem
Similar to what occurred with the incorporation of the song "Une Jambe de bois" into the score of Petrushka, Stravinsky mistakenly believed that "Happy Birthday" was not under copyright—an "expensive error", according to Craft. A sizable part of the royalties from performances of Greeting Prelude were awarded to the rights holders of "Happy Birthday".[3]
References
- ^ Walsh 2006, p. 258.
- ^ Stravinsky, Igor (1972). Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky: Favorite Short Pieces (liner notes). Igor Stravinsky, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, CBC Symphony Orchestra. New York City: Columbia Masterworks. M 31729.
- ^ a b Craft 1994, p. 43.
- ^ a b Walsh 2006, p. 632, n. 46.
- ^ Walsh 2006, pp. 319–320.
- ^ a b c Walsh 2006, p. 327.
- ISBN 0-671-24382-9.
- ^ a b c d e f g White 1979, p. 481.
- .
- Newspapers.com.
- .
- ISBN 1-57467-082-4.
- Newspapers.com.
- Newspapers.com.
- Newspapers.com.
- Newspapers.com.
- Newspapers.com.
- Daily Telegraph. p. 12.
Cited sources
- ISBN 0-8265-1285-2.
- ISBN 9780375407529.
- White, Eric Walter (1979). Stravinsky: The Composer and his Works (2nd ed.). University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520039834.
External links
- Boosey & Hawkes webpage for the score
- Recording of the Greeting Prelude (audio) on YouTube, performed by the CBC Symphony Orchestraconducted by Stravinsky