Encore

Franklin & Marshall’s online cultural calendar

The Cave of Melody

November 14 at 8 p.m.
Barshinger Center for Musical Arts

The Franklin & Marshall Orchestra presents a variety of works, featuring Felix Mendelssohn, Hebrides Overture (Fingal's Cave); Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 2; Emmanuel Chabrier, España Rhapsody; and Leonard Bernstein, Overture to Candide.

Mendelssohn was about 20 years old when he visited the Hebrides Islands off the coast of Scotland. At the small island of Staffa, he encountered the 227-foot long Fingal's Cave, known as the cave of music because of the murmuring sound of the ocean lapping on its basalt walls. Mendelssohn was instantly inspired and wrote a letter to his sister that contained the opening motive of his overture, named for the cave. Romanticizing his visit to the island, Mendelssohn's music contains hints of a storm and other seascape sounds, such as squawking seagulls.

As a writer of symphonies, Brahms found himself in the intimidating shadow of Ludwig van Beethoven. While it took Brahms between 15 and 20 years to complete his first symphony, his second symphony took just one summer to compose. The melodies of the first movement of Symphony No. 2 are said to be folksongs that Brahms heard in Pörtschach, an Austrian port resort popular with folk musicians. The second movement is a profound musical statement full of romantic lyricism. The third movement breaks from Beethoven's tradition of a fast scherzo to incorporate a more subtle style, with a lilting minuet. The final movement is filled with energy and drama, bringing the work to a heroic conclusion.

Chabrier, a French composer, was entranced with Spain and Spanish music. He visited Granada in 1882, where he encountered spectacular dancing and music. Inspired by the wild gyrations of the dancers and the rhythmic music, he composed España Rhapsody for piano. He later transcribed the rhapsody for orchestra. The work is made up of two Spanish dances: a Malagueña (a sultry dance) and a Jota (a fiery, quick, waltz-like dance). The rhapsody includes several distinctive sounds, including col legno, in which string players use the wooden part of their bows instead of the hairs.

Bernstein wrote his comic opera Candide in 1957. Although the work never obtained the popularity of his musical West Side Story, the overture has become a staple of the orchestral repertoire. It incorporates tunes from songs in the opera—The Best of All Possible Worlds, Battle Music, Oh, Happy We and Glitter and Be Gay—as well as specific melodies written for the overture. Bernstein uses a dizzying array of time signatures to produce an excited and sometimes lopsided dance effect.