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    A Dream Op.8 No.5 Sergei Rachmaninoff

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    Candice Luo
    This document provides background information on the pieces and collaborators for Rachmaninoff's Op. 8 No. 5, "A Dream". It discusses Rachmaninoff as a late Romantic Russian composer, the German poet Heinrich Heine who wrote the text, and the Russian translator Aleksey Pleshcheyev. The fifth song is based on a poem by Heine about fond memories of homeland that are now only dreams. The collaborators face challenges in matching phrasing, pacing, and dynamics between the piano and voice parts.

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    A Dream Op.8 No.5 Sergei Rachmaninoff

    Uploaded by

    Candice Luo
    352 views9 pages
    This document provides background information on the pieces and collaborators for Rachmaninoff's Op. 8 No. 5, "A Dream". It discusses Rachmaninoff as a late Romantic Russian composer, the German poet Heinrich Heine who wrote the text, and the Russian translator Aleksey Pleshcheyev. The fifth song is based on a poem by Heine about fond memories of homeland that are now only dreams. The collaborators face challenges in matching phrasing, pacing, and dynamics between the piano and voice parts.

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    A Dream op.8 no.5 Sergei Rachmaninoff

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    This document provides background information on the pieces and collaborators for Rachmaninoff's Op. 8 No. 5, "A Dream". It discusses Rachmaninoff as a late Romantic Russian composer, the German poet Heinrich Heine who wrote the text, and the Russian translator Aleksey Pleshcheyev. The fifth song is based on a poem by Heine about fond memories of homeland that are now only dreams. The collaborators face challenges in matching phrasing, pacing, and dynamics between the piano and voice parts.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    352 views9 pages

    A Dream Op.8 No.5 Sergei Rachmaninoff

    Uploaded by

    Candice Luo
    This document provides background information on the pieces and collaborators for Rachmaninoff's Op. 8 No. 5, "A Dream". It discusses Rachmaninoff as a late Romantic Russian composer, the German poet Heinrich Heine who wrote the text, and the Russian translator Aleksey Pleshcheyev. The fifth song is based on a poem by Heine about fond memories of homeland that are now only dreams. The collaborators face challenges in matching phrasing, pacing, and dynamics between the piano and voice parts.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 9
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    Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor of the late Romantic period. Opus 8 is Rachmaninoff's second set of songs composed in 1893 based on translations by Aleksey Pleshcheyev.

    Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the late Romantic period. He was born into a musical family and took up piano at age 4. He composed several works before graduating from the Moscow Conservatory in 1892.

    Opus 8 is Rachmaninoff's second set of songs composed in 1893. Each poem is a translation made by Aleksey Plesheyev from German poets Heine and Goethe and Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko. The fifth song 'A Dream' is based on a Heine text and is the best known of the set.

    A Dream op.8 no.

    5
    Sergei Rachmaninoff

    Candice Luo
    William Snyder
    About Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) …
    - Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of
    the late Romantic period
    - Rachmaninoff was born into a musical family and took up piano at the age
    of 4. He already composed several piano and orchestral pieces by the time
    he graduated from the Moscow conservatory in 1892. Symphony No.1 sent
    him into a 4-year-long depression, but he seemed to have bounced back
    after Piano Concerto No. 2 which was composed in 1901. After that, he
    conducted at the Bolshoi theatre, relocated to Germany, and toured the US
    for the first time.
    - His family left Russia and settled in the US after the Russian Revolution.
    Then, he devoted more time to pian and conducting performances and not
    so much to composition
    - Early works had influences from other Russian composers like
    Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Balakirev, and Rimsky-Korsakov.
    - His later style is known for its melodicism, expressiveness, and rich
    orchestral colours
    Our poet Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) …
    - German poet, writer, and literary critic. Best known for his early lyric poetry,
    many of his poems set to lieders by composers including Schumann, Schubert,
    Mendelssohn, and so on. His later works are distinguished by their satirical wit
    and irony
    - Born into a Jewish family. Much of his early life was under financial influence
    of his uncle Salomon Heine, who would later try to make a businessman out of
    Heinrich but would not succeed. Heinrich then attended several universities,
    and was finally able to get a law degree, just barely, almost didn’t do it, but
    anyway
    - The same year he graduated law 1825, he converted to Christianity to pursue
    civil service career
    - Part of the Young Germany movement - many of his works banned by German
    authorities because of his radical political views
    - Moved to Paris after the July Revolution of 1830 in Paris
    Heine continued …….
    - Quickly became a leading literary personality after moving to Paris and became well acquainted
    with prominent people of his time
    - At the end of 1835, the Federal German Diet tried to enforce a ban on all Heine’s works, and had
    him surrounded by police spies, his exile to Paris became an imposed political one
    - His uncle died in 1844, but he didn’t get any inheritance, and proceeded to greatly struggle
    financially
    - He began to suffer from poor health conditions
    Translator Aleksey Pleshcheyev (1825-1893)
    - Radical Russian poet of the 19th century, once a member
    of the Petrashevsky Circle.
    - Gained fame in 1846 after his first book of poetry
    - As a member of the Petrashevsky Circle, he was arrested
    and sent to Saint Petersburg and spent 8 months in Peter
    and Paul Fortress, and was given a death sentence. But he
    later got deported to Uralsk and spent ten years in exile
    there, served as a soldier and junior officer
    - He lately became well known for his translations
    Opus 8
    - Rachmaninoff’s second set of songs, composed around 1893, followed only a year after his first. Each poem
    is a translation made by Alexei Plesheyev: four of them come from two of Germany’s greatest poets, Heine
    and Goethe; the other two are by the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko.
    - The fifth song, “A Dream,” is based Heine text and is the best known of the set. The poet speaks of fond
    remembrances of his homeland, but to him they are now only dreams.
    - Despite its brief length, vocal melody and accompaniment alike are finely wrought and draw forth a wealth
    of feeling from Heine’s short poem.
    Collaborative challenges
    - “Catching the moving train”
    - Momentum in the triplets
    - Approaches to fermatas, both piano and voice
    - Changes in rhythm between verses
    - Quick collaborative crescendo and drive within the bar
    - Pacing and matching
    I too had a native land,
    И у меня был край родной;
    Which was so beautiful!
    Прекрасен он!
    A fir tree swayed over me there…
    Там ель качалась надо мной...

    Но то был сон! But that was a dream!

    A clan of friends still lived then,

    Семья друзей жива была. Surrounding me on all sides

    Со всех сторон And speaking words of love to me…


    Звучали мне любви слова...
    But that was a dream!
    Но то был сон!
    Resources
    https://www.oxfordlieder.co.uk/song/2503

    https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sergey-Rachmaninoff

    https://www.britannica.com/biography/Heinrich-Heine-German-author

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