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A Stylistic Analysis of Charles Martin Loeffler's Deux Rapsodies for Oboe, Viola and Piano, L'étang and La cornemuse, After Poems by Maurice Rollinat: A Lecture Recital, Together with Three Recitals of Selected Works by E. Rubbra, D. Beaty, B. Britten, W.A. Mozart, and Others
At the turn of this century, Charles Martin Loeffler (1861-1935) was considered to be among the finest of the handful of well-known American composers of the time. His music was often performed by major symphony orchestras, chamber groups and solo artists. Deux rapsodies for Oboe, Viola and Piano: L'Etang and La Cornemuse, after poems by Maurice Rollinat (1846-1903), show Loeffler's affinity for programmatic concepts. These works, completed in 1901, are revisions of settings of 1898 for low voice, clarinet, viola and piano, and are now, unfortunately, out of print; but the oboe, viola and piano setting has been published (originally as Deux rapsodies by G. Schirmer, 1905; the latest edition, Two Rhapsodies, is by McGinnis and Marx, N.Y., 1979) and recorded several times. Loeffler has reflected Rollinat's poetry in his settings by means of melodic, rhythmic and harmonic devices unique to his style. Formal and articulative devices also tend to point to his dependence on the poetry as a source of inspiration and as means for defining the final musical product. Indeed, the music seems incapable of existence independent of its source in the richly imagistic poetry of Rollinat.
British Pastoral Style and E.J. Moeran's Fantasy Quartet: A Lecture Recital, Together with Three Recitals of Selected Works of J.S. Bach, B. Britten, L. Foss, G. Handel, A. Marcello, E. Rubbra, C. Saint-Saens, and Others
British musical style changed dramatically after 1880 primarily due to factors which may be subsumed under the general heading of nationalism. This change from an essentially Germanic style has been termed the British musical renaissance by many writers on the subject. Within this new musical language, several distinctive substyles arose. One of these, British pastoral style, has been alluded to by Frank Howes and others, but these allusions do not contribute to an understanding of the works purportedly belonging to that style. It is the purpose of this study to define British pastoral style and examine its relation to the British musical renaissance. The method employed for defining style will be that of Jan LaRue's as described in his Guidelines for Style Analysis. What is British pastoral style? Judging from the literature, British pastoral style is a type of British music written between 1900 and 1950 which evokes pastoral images, especially those associated with the British landscape. A stylistic analysis of selected works will define British pastoral style through enumeration and discussion of the style's musical constituents. A more refined definition of British pastoral style is achieved by an in-depth analysis of E. J. Moeran's Fantasy Quartet, which represents a large portion of British pastoral music, that is, works featuring the oboe. Finally, an examination of British pastoral style's relation to the British musical renaissance will reveal reasons for this particular manifestation of British musical style.
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