{"id":14272,"date":"2013-08-05T08:10:10","date_gmt":"2013-08-05T13:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=14272"},"modified":"2013-08-05T08:35:38","modified_gmt":"2013-08-05T13:35:38","slug":"classical-music-101-a-guide-to-the-subtler-charms-of-a-string-orchestra-in-a-noisy-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2013\/08\/05\/classical-music-101-a-guide-to-the-subtler-charms-of-a-string-orchestra-in-a-noisy-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Classical Music 101: A guide to the subtler charms of a string orchestra in a noisy age"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A visit to Bob Shingleton’s excellent blog, On an Overgrown Path<\/em>, has inspired a little ode to the charms of the string orchestra, a deceptively simple-seeming collection of violins, violas, cellos and double-basses.<\/p>\n

Shingleton, who wrote yesterday about a number of notable album reissues<\/a> of music for strings, opened his blog post with these words by Herbert Howells, spoken during a 1943 interview on the BBC:<\/p>\n

Sonority it is – sonority without noise – which is the greatest abiding power of the string medium. In a world of sounding brass and tinkling cymbal and of noise magnified to the nth degree, this is it – sonority without noise – that marks the supreme contribution made by string music to the fund of our musical enchantment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s so true — from the solo partita all the way to the full-blown string symphony.<\/p>\n

The majority of modern symphony orchestras are contractually set up in such a way that most of the musicians have to be working most of the time, making it impractical to program music for winds, or plunge into the deep well of large-scale music for strings only.<\/p>\n

There are string orchestras around — like our own very fine Sinfonia Toronto — but they represent a tiny sliver of the art-music cake.<\/p>\n

And it’s not easy to just get a bunch of string players together for fun to go through this repertoire. As those of us who have ventured out to hear Euphonia<\/a>, Toronto’s newest orchestral ensemble, in their casual Lula Lounge digs, it takes a lot of collaboration and rehearsal for strings to reach a point where their sonority can satisfy the most demanding ears.<\/p>\n

Their next concert is on Aug. 12<\/a>, and I’m looking forward to checking in on their progress.<\/p>\n

Because it’s a holiday Monday, I thought I’d create a sort of listener’s timeline of string symphonies with some fine tonal pieces we don’t hear often:<\/p>\n

BAROQUE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Georg Philip Telemann (1681-1767) is always good for some creative compositional ideas. Here is a his “Polish” String Concerto<\/em>, beautifully played by the period-instrument English Concert, led by Trevor Pinnock. This isn’t a pure string piece, as there is harpsichord continuo throughout, but it’s an exciting, compact creation:<\/p>\n