MP3 The Bay Area Philharmonic - Michelle Ende: Symphony Number 3 in G Minor, Op. 10 - The Egostistical
Symphonic Music on par with Mahler, Tchaikovky, and Sibelius, the Third Symphony is a thrilling study of the human spirit in music. Named the Egotistical, the work is a study of the triumph of the human spirit over itself and its surroundings.
4 MP3 Songs in this album (68:28) !
Related styles: CLASSICAL: Postmodern, CLASSICAL: Orchestral
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The Symphony No. 3 in G Minor; Opus 10 – The Egotistical
Movement One – Adagio con Molto Allegro - The movement opens in a very dark manner with Bassoon, Bass Clarinet, and Clarinets. The opening depicts a dark icy day in midwinter. The composer has stated that she “was standing on the edge of Lake Michigan after a terrible night of struggle with drinking. I was at a point in my life where everything looked as bleak as the ice and snow around me. The thought of going forward with life seemed to be an improbability at this point. Yet the thought of doing away with myself seemed equally improbable. I was at a jumping off place with nowhere to land. Inconceivably, at this point, the ice began cracking and moving and as I listened, I could hear the ice struggling to be free from its own prison. I realized at that moment, that my life and that ice were one in the same. I could hear the opening notes of the first movement of this work form themselves in my head. The title came to me as well; for what is it that keeps us going through the worst of times, but the human spirit, the ego that tells us that we can change this. Whether true or not, the ego is what sustains us and moves us through this life. Yes, there is something greater at work, and I know this now (although then, I attributed everything to me) for I left that jumping off place and spent the next several weeks scoring the first movement. It virtually erupted from me.” The first movement is just that, the struggle to go on. It sums the movement’s mood and the orchestral struggles depicted within. (26:19)
Movement Two – Andante Morendo - This movement is scored for the cellos only, depicting the loneliness of the soul in its struggle to survive in the worst of times. The tempo marking Morendo means, literally, “dying”. There is a universal loneliness that we have all felt and the composer portrays, in an excellent manner, this hunger for solace and reassurance that the soul is not alone in this very big universe. This sense of otherness, this sense of not belonging has come upon everyone at least once in their life, assuming they have lived long enough to see trouble. This struggle represents the twisting and turning of emotion and thought in its struggle to imprint on the soul, the meaning of life. The movement ends in a cadence that begins the third movement. ( 9:36)
Movement Three – Allegro Non Tanto - Picking up the last mode of the cellos in the previous movement, this movement opens with that cadence, repeating it over and over in a quickening manner which lends tension to the work, defining movement as an alternative to the last woeful movement. The movement evolves into a scherzo, of sorts, developing the cadence into a theme. (8:18)
Movement Four – Andante Rubato - As the work of the first movement was begun in that fateful year of 1981, when the composer was a mere 26 years old, the work holds an early opus number of 10; however, the work was completed only in 2004 with an intervening period of 23 years between the first and remaining movements. This movement is a choral movement, the melody and libretto being a part of the composer’s Mystic Songs, an orchestrated song cycle of seven songs, several of which have appeared in the composer’s First and Second symphonies, and in later works, such as the Fourth and Seventh symphonies. The Mystic Songs tend unify the entire body of symphonies into a common thought and process. In this movement, the composer begins with the melody of the mystic song number three, which speaks to the birth of the human soul and creative mind. The fourth movement evolves along thematic lines and literally separates itself from itself with the introduction of the chorus. The orchestra remains minimal here, as if it were the womb and the human voice the soul struggling for birth. A climax is arrived at and the movement ends in a grand manner. Although the movement is full of tension and portent, not unlike the physical infant struggling to get free of the mother’s womb, in order to create a place for itself; it nonetheless, with the introduction of the choral section, balances the entire work. (24:05).
This work certainly places the composer, Michelle Ende’ among the great composers of ours and other times. Her work has often been compared to Mahler’s passionate use of the orchestra. It is important in listening to a composer, that comparisons be kept to a minimum. Although I have just stated that Dr. Ende''s work can be compared to Mahler''s passionate use of the orchestra, the comparison stops there. Ms. Ende'' has achieved her own voice and this is what should be listened to here. Her works are long and sometimes, I will admit, arduous listening experiences, but I find that listening to Ms. Ende''s work is a lot like reading philosophy; that is, it can be very meaningful to the listener willing to learn. If, however, the mind is closed and in a state of comparison, then the listener will miss some of the sweetest orchestral passages one is likely to come across. – Peter Stanislauw