Posted on 03/03/2012 6:17:13 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
VIENNA, Austria (BNO NEWS) -- A previously unknown musical piece by Mozart was discovered inside an eighteenth century music book in Austria, local media reported on Saturday.
The Mozart Foundation in Salzburg reported that the piano piece was discovered in a music book from 1780 in the western state of Tyrol, according to the Austrian Independent newspaper.
University lecturer Hildegard Herrmann-Schneider, from the institute for Tyrolean music research at Innsbruck University, discovered the handwritten piece while gathering pieces for the international organization "Répertoire International des Sources Musicales," which catalogs music sources around the world.
Experts and the 'Stiftung Mozarteum' have confirmed that the piece was written by a young Mozart and the work will be presented on March 23 in the "Tanzmeistersaal" in the house of Mozart in Salzburg.
(Excerpt) Read more at newstro.com ...
Well! THAT explains it. LOL Seriously, I'd love to hear the songs too. There's hardly anything current that I can stand.
I know that it sounds absurdly technical...but it is true. And THAT’S why Our ears delight in hearing it! The song is technically, lyrically, melodically, and harmonically a work of pure genius.
I agree. I am not musically educated enough to describe it as evocotively as you. You sound like my daughter (who does have 2 music performance degrees, plus music ed). I just meant that there is a good explanation.
My daughter is unable to explain, however, what will happen to boy sopranos when they grow up. Will they still have wonderful voices? (I am assuming that they will still know how to read music.) Will they become great tenors? Baritones? Or, will those heart stirring voices just become ordinary?
Here’s what happens with Boy Sopranos.
When they reach puberty, the vocal cords (folds) actually undergo a PHYSICAL change. They actually become thicker (hence the emergence of the “Adam’s Apple”) It is not known in advance whether the boy will become a tenor or a baritone until the voice actually changes.
The Muscles involved in Vocal training are not located in the larynx, but in the Pelvis, abdomen, upper and lower back, and the muscles between the ribs, called the Intracostals. These muscles, if they have been conditioned properly, do not lose their conditioning just because the voice has changed. Nor does the knowledge of technique and theory, or the reading of music. So, if the boy likes his “new” voice, he can continue training (once the weirdness has gone away!) and become a great singer. BUT, Of course, he will be BOOTED out of the “Boy Soprano Choir” no matter how magnificent his new voice has become. (This happened to one of my students. I told him not to worry, he didn’t need no steenking choir to sing! LOL)
I have had 15 years of vocal training myself, and have been teaching for another 12 since then. :-)
Thanks for asking...This is my favorite subject of discussion.
I love your explanation. Much better than my daughter’s. (She considers me a lightweight in music and talks down to me.)
My daughter had to start all over with her voice training once she had a Cesarean section. They cut those muscles and it took years to get them back in shape. She still has a beautiful voice, but I’m not sure that she can hit that high note in Mozart’s Alleluia any more. She ducks the question every time I ask.
Oh yes...those muscles are really important. And definitely proves my point that the voice does NOT come from the vocal cords but from the entire body. I admire your daughter for keeping at it and restoring her strength!
The high note in Mozart’s “Revenge of the Queen of the Night” is an “F” ABOVE high “C”...a real Killer! I don’t know what the “Alleluia note is, but it is probably the same.
I am sorry that she feels the need to “duck the question”. To have gotten her voice back after such a trauma to her singing muscles is a righteous achievement in itself! She has every right to be proud, even if she can’t hit a high “F”
The Mozart’s Alleluia note is so high that I couldn’t believe that she could go there when I first heard her sing it as a high schooler. I remember gasping and bursting into tears. She’s always laughed and said, “You have to work up to that.” (And you have to keep practicing to keep that note in your repertoire.) The reason she ducks the question whenever I ask is that she knows that I will ask her to sing it if she says “yes” LOL
Mozart steps the Alleluias up and up and up until the singer hits that really high note. Takes your breath away when you hear it.
I remember another time when she was still in high school (she’s 50 now) when she reduced a priest to tears when she sang “Panis Angelicus” after Communion. Afterward he he told her that it had been his mother’s favorite song. But, I still love the Alleluia best.
She teaches a whole school now (K-8) general music and leads all the vocal ensembles. It is challenging to find music that appeals to that age range. The way that the school arranges the schedules she only meets with each class once a week. If there are snow days, holidays, assemblies, etc., interupting the schedule, maybe she doesn’t meet with one, or more, of the groups more than 3 times a semester. Tough.
I just went to YouTube and listed to the Alleluia by Mozart. It is a High “C” at the end of the song. The issue is not Hitting the note, but being able to hit it Fully supported, in full voice, without switching to a falsetto. I think your daughter could still hit it, but she is correct. She would have to “work up to it”.
I am the music teacher for for Pre-K. It is fun, but difficult to find age-appropriate music for the children. I end up writing songs for them, because I hate what the entertainment-media complex dishes out!
Tell your daughter she has my admiration. It’s a difficult but wonderful job.
Right on! This is exactly what I tell all my singers - I even have visuals now for the smart board which show the muscle groups. I use a sea sponge to simulate the lungs - and I am working on other "visuals" to teach about the anatomy of singing. But being middle schoolers, they still don't believe me! It's nice to have the information independently confirmed by another knowledgeable source!
LOL. You put the words in my mouth to allow her to discuss my question to her intelligently! Congratulations. I guess I'm not such a dunce after all. (Remember, I was just a chauffeur to drive her to all those lessons and concerts all those years.)
And now she knows first hand, after having 2 babies. (Better than when she was taught about all that in college.) The public never considers what a singer's body goes through during a pregnancy -- especially if birth is by Cesarean! It takes a lot to recover.
Pre-K? Do you know the program “Music Together”? My daughter used to teach that when her own kids were little.
Her biggest problem is the Middle Schoolers. They think they know everything, and they all want to be on American Idol. So, they don’t want to put the work in to learn Music Theory (required at that age). They just want to perform. And they can’t believe that my daughter would dare to give them a bad grade, if they don’t turn in their homework. Bad grade in MUSIC? Unheard of, in their minds.
Last year they did a jazz unit in 8th grade, and they had to write an essay on 3 kinds of music. One of her boys wrote that “Jazz is a type of music invented by slaves while picking cotton in the fields outside of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s.”
We laughed and laughed, but he got a better grade than those who copied directly from Wikipedia without attribution!
At that middle school age she’s lucky to get them to put their names on their papers and to turn them in. Yet, at the end of the year last year (after their closing program) parents came forward and said, “I see what you are doing now, and I understand the progression of the music program from K-8.”
Her 8th grade boys brought down the house with their version (much cleaned up) of a Contemporary Rock song. They wrote their own words and devised their own choreography. They outshone (shined?) the girls as the last act of the spring program.
Pre-K? Do you know the program “Music Together”? My daughter used to teach that when her own kids were little.
Her biggest problem is the Middle Schoolers. They think they know everything, and they all want to be on American Idol. So, they don’t want to put the work in to learn Music Theory (required at that age). They just want to perform. And they can’t believe that my daughter would dare to give them a bad grade, if they don’t turn in their homework. Bad grade in MUSIC? Unheard of, in their minds.
Last year they did a jazz unit in 8th grade, and they had to write an essay on 3 kinds of music. One of her boys wrote that “Jazz is a type of music invented by slaves while picking cotton in the fields outside of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s.”
We laughed and laughed, but he got a better grade than those who copied directly from Wikipedia without attribution!
At that middle school age she’s lucky to get them to put their names on their papers and to turn them in. Yet, at the end of the year last year (after their closing program) parents came forward and said, “I see what you are doing now, and I understand the progression of the music program from K-8.”
Her 8th grade boys brought down the house with their version (much cleaned up) of a Contemporary Rock song. They wrote their own words and devised their own choreography. They outshone (shined?) the girls as the last act of the spring program.
Your Daughters affirmation means a lot to me! :-)
I teach a somewhat modern technique, which has vocal placement, breathing, and phrasing somewhat different than the traditional “Bel Canto” method, so sometimes I get opposition from people who have studied that method and so have per-conceived notions. I tell them that The older method isn’t “wrong”, just “different”.
The idea of using a sea sponge to simulate the lungs is VERY GOOD! Most people envision the lungs as sacks of air. The sponge visual is more anatomically correct!
I agree about Middle schoolers and American Idol. Also the girls tend to try and reproduce the overly processed sound of a voice that has gone through a chain of vocal effects in the studio...chorus, delay, reverb, doubling, etc. The way they do this is by singing in their noses with a breathy vocal fry (like britney spears) and it drives me crazy. Then there are the stage-moms who demand that I teach their girls to “Belt”. Eyew. A lot of times it’s the MOTHERS who encourage the belting, breathy, nasal voices, and vocal fry. It’s very frustrating because mostly I give individual lessons in the home. I refuse to teach that kind of singing, and have lost students as a result.
But since I work six days a week, 6-12 hours a day and have a waiting list, I’m not too upset when I get fired! LOL!
I am not familiar with the curriculum, “Music Together”. I will look it up! :-)
Who knew you could grow cotton in Chicago?
Who knew they had SLAVES in Chicago in the 1920s! LOL.
What totally amuses my students is when I tell them that Jazz started out as FUNERAL music! LOL!
Really.
Awesome!!!
If these forgotten songs really exist maybe we should try yet to get them resurrected. I wonder if the people who own them would let them go to a non profit organized to have them produced as a legacy to George and Ira Gershwin. Maybe with your knowledge ltos you could be a starting place. It would be so marvelous. This nation could really use a beautiful and wonderful blast from the past such as this would be!
Ah...that would be so nice. But If Michael Feinstein couldn’t get it done...and he was Ira Gershwin’s PERSONAL secretary...I doubt if I would have any influence at ALL on the left-wing media-Entertainment Complex.
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