Of the many attempts to portray chaos in music, one of the boldest was made as early as the first half of the eighteenth century. Although the use of clusters – chords of many notes suffused with dissonance – is generally associated with the avantgarde music of the twentieth century, it was employed by Jean-Féry Rebel in the opening of his ballet Les éléments. If the start of that work can still surprise listeners today, how astonished must have been the Parisian audience three hundred years ago!
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp in C major, meanwhile, astounded Antonio Salieri – at least in Miloš Forman’s cult film Amadeus, from 1984. During the famous ‘score reading’ scene, Mozart’s supposed rival admires the middle movement of this Concerto, in which Mozart reached the pinnacle of lyricism and elegance.
Enchantment with Salieri’s homeland, meanwhile, inspired Felix Mendelssohn- Bartholdy to compose his Fourth Symphony in A major. It is hard to find a better example of an explosion of musical enthusiasm than the opening movement, with its characteristic exuberant theme introduced against the hurtling tremolo of the wind instruments.
Bartłomiej Gembicki
