Too Much Consonance?
I heard, for the first time, Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto, Op 14. last night. My first reaction was supprise at how painfully boring a piece of music can be that lacks any real dissonance.
Barber will never be considered a great orchestrator, and this piece of music makes it clear why. He is timid to give his themes and melodies to the different instruments, so that they can devoloped them into something new and interesting. Instead he gives his themes cautiously to one instrument, but that instrument is never forced to devolop the theme. Thus it returns to the soloist, exactly as it sounded two minutes before, so that he or she can equally do nothing with it.
This would not have been such a glaring fault had the concert not also had Stravinsky and Enesco also on the program. Two of the greatest orchestrators of all time.
The lack or any real daring on Barber's side would have been smothed over had the Concerto been half way interesting. But Barber just heaps one smoth fully tonal and fully consonant melody on us after another. If the consonance isn't coming from anywhere, ie. isn't resoloving any dissonance, then we are left with just sweet but very empty theme music.
Which is exaclty what Barber sounds like. His music would be better in a movie than a concert hall.
Barber will never be considered a great orchestrator, and this piece of music makes it clear why. He is timid to give his themes and melodies to the different instruments, so that they can devoloped them into something new and interesting. Instead he gives his themes cautiously to one instrument, but that instrument is never forced to devolop the theme. Thus it returns to the soloist, exactly as it sounded two minutes before, so that he or she can equally do nothing with it.
This would not have been such a glaring fault had the concert not also had Stravinsky and Enesco also on the program. Two of the greatest orchestrators of all time.
The lack or any real daring on Barber's side would have been smothed over had the Concerto been half way interesting. But Barber just heaps one smoth fully tonal and fully consonant melody on us after another. If the consonance isn't coming from anywhere, ie. isn't resoloving any dissonance, then we are left with just sweet but very empty theme music.
Which is exaclty what Barber sounds like. His music would be better in a movie than a concert hall.
Labels: music, samuel barber