Tune Up !
®
W elcome to the Young People’s Concerts!
We at the New York Philharmonic are really excited about your joining us to explore the four ages of music – how music for the orchestra started and how it grew; what makes the music so beautiful, or dramatic, or music, for kings and queens, and for really big feelings, too! Read on to see what’s in store.
emotional. We start at the beginning – with music they call Baroque. This is really grand
T H E P R O G R A M :
D e l t a D av i d G i e r, c o n d u c t o r G I OVA N N I G A B R I E L I C a n z o n S e p t i m i To n i , N o . 2
S h e r y l S t a p l e s , v i o l i n H E N RY P U R C E L L O ve r t u r e t o D i d o a n d A e n e a s
E r i n M o r l e y, s o p r a n o A N TO N I O V I VA L D I L a r go f r o m “ W i n t e r,” T h e F o u r S e a s o n s
T h o m a s B a i r d , d a n c e r G E O R G E F R I D E R I C H A N D E L “A l l a h o r n p i p e ” f r o m Wa t e r M u s i c
To m i ko M a ga r i o , d a n c e r J O H A N N S E B A S T I A N B AC H O r c h e s t r a l S u i t e N o . 3 i n D
Baroque composers could really turn out the hits!
PURCELL: music for 43 plays, 73 anthems and 24 royal odes – in 15 years
VIVALDI: 50 operas, 75 sonatas, and over 450 concertos – in 36 years
HANDEL: 46 operas, 31 odes and oratorios and 37 concertos – in 54 years
JS BACH: 256 cantatas, 14 masses and passions, 26 concertos, hundreds of keyboard works – in 53 years
I n the world of design, the word “baroque” means made of big, bold forms with ornament and decoration all over. It can also mean extravagant and bizarre. Take a look at this outfit, for instance — big flowing fabric, big heels, big hair.
See what kinds of ornament you can find on this guy. What kind of person do you think he is? What do you think he likes in music?

about the composers and their music…
G iovanni Gabrieli (c. 1553 – 1612) worked in
Venice, the magnificent city of canals, as organist at St. Mark’s Basilica, still one of the grandest churches in the world. He was born in a musical family and grew up in the trade, just like a craftsman. Gabrieli composed in an earlier style of music called Renaissance music, which flowed smoothly and usually used voices without instruments, or all one kind of instrument. But Gabrieli’s music helped inspire those who created the Baroque style.
G abrieli was known for his music for brass instruments as well as his choral music, and this short, celebratory piece really sounds like two choirs singing back and forth to each other. In fact, “canzon” means song – in this case, “song on the seventh tone.” Gabrieli composed many pieces like this for two groups or more, because they made the enormous open space of St. Mark’s with its many balconies resound so beautifully.
H enry Purcell (1659 - 1695) was one of the greatest English composers ever. He began as a boy singing in choirs, and grew up to be organist at
Westminster Abbey, the church of the kings and queens of England. Part of his job was to compose music for the court – birthday odes, funeral odes, every kind of ode – as well as music for the church and for plays. Purcell was highly honored in his time; you can still visit his tomb at Westminster Abbey, where he is buried alongside royalty.
D ido and Aeneas is an opera - a story told through music with all the words sung - that Purcell composed in 1689 for a girls' school to perform.
Although Purcell composed much music for plays, this was his only true opera. Like many Baroque operas, this one is about ancient times, mythical gods, heroes, queens, and great passions. Aeneas, a prince who would later found the city of Rome, marries Dido, the queen of Carthage.
A witch disguised as the god Mercury tells Aeneas to leave Dido to fulfill his destiny.
Although he decides not to go, his Dido dies at the very thought of losing him. The
Overture we hear today is for the orchestra without voices. It conveys powerful emotions in both its slow opening and its faster conclusion. Many Baroque overtures are composed in this form – a slow, grand start with a fast, flowing finish.
A ntonio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741) was the foremost
Italian Baroque composer. He was for years the music teacher at Pio Ospidale della Pieta – a girls orphanage in Venice – but he was famously vain and boastful.
Nicknamed The Red Priest for his hair,Vivaldi was convinced he was the greatest composer of opera and just about everything else. He was also a virtuoso violinist. He wrote so many brilliant concertos – music for a soloist to play with an orchestra – that his works came to define the form.Vivaldi was also among the first to use music to tell a story.
T he Four Seasons are four separate, three-movement concertos for violin.
Vivaldi composed poems to go with each of these pieces, describing life in each season. For the second movement of Winter, he wrote,
To spend quiet and happy days by the fire
Whilst outside the rain soaks everyone.
The music evokes exactly that feeling in the listener, right down to the sound of raindrops on the windowpane.
G eorge Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759) was born in
Germany but became one of the world’s leading composers while working in England.Although his father wanted him to be a lawyer, he was precocious enough at the age of seven to try out an organ at the home of a duke, who insisted that he receive musical training. Learning to play many instruments,
Handel set his heart on composing opera. He traveled through Italy, trying to make his fortune, but his great success came when he brought his Italian-style operas to
England in 1710.There he also created oratorio – large pieces with orchestra and singers but without staging – and composed the most popular oratorio of all,
Messiah . Handel’s career had many ups and downs, but he achieved such fame that at his death he was buried, like Purcell, at Westminster Abbey.
W ater Music is one of only two orchestra pieces
Handel composed for use outside the theatre – the other is Royal Fireworks
Music – and both were intended for outdoor performance. Water Music was composed for a royal procession on barges on London’s River Thames in 1717.
It has many movements, both fast and slow. The Hornpipe we hear today is a very grand interpretation of a country dance. Trumpets, horns, and drums must have made a wonderful sound across the water. Like the Gabrieli Canzon , this Hornpipe sets the trumpets and horns apart in a call and response pattern.

J ohann Sebastian Bach
(1685 - 1750) remains to many people the greatest composer ever because of his astonishing musical technique and the depth of expression in all his music. From an early age he was a virtuoso organist and improviser, inventing highly complex music on the spot. He studied other composers' music intently, copying it out by hand, so that his music would bring together nearly every idea from every country of his time. He composed sacred music above all, plus concertos, orchestra music, keyboard music – everything except opera. For much of his life
Bach was a teacher and choirmaster, and as the father of 26 children
(involving a series of three wives), Bach fathered a musical family that would be important for generations.
O rchestral Suite No. 3 is a suite of pieces based on courtly dances, but intended for concert listening. The suite opens with an Overture, which like Purcell's Overture to Dido and Aeneas , starts slow and continues fast – but on a much larger scale, with the slow, grand music returning at the end. The second movement, Air, or Melody, is famous as the Air on the G String, often heard on its own. The dances themselves begin with a Gavotte, a dance in four beats, and continue with a Bouree, in two beats, and finally a Gigue, in a sweeping six beats to the measure.
D elta David Gier is music director of the South Dakota Symphony
Orchestra, and has been a cover conductor of the New York Philharmonic for the past 10 seasons. He first conducted the
Philharmonic in 2000, during the Concerts in the Parks. After completing his studies, he was invited by Riccardo Muti to spend a year as an apprentice at The Philadelphia Orchestra. As a
Fulbright Scholar, he has led many performances in Eastern
Europe. Mr. Gier has served as visiting professor at the Yale
School of Music, the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati,
San Francisco Conservatory, and SUNY Stony Brook.
T he New York Philharmonic is by far the oldest symphony orchestra in the United
States, and one of the oldest in the world.
It was founded in 1842 by a group of local musicians, and currently plays about 180 concerts every year. On December 18, 2004, the
Philharmonic gave its 14,000th concert — a record that no other symphony orchestra in the world has ever reached. The Orchestra currently has 106 members. It performs mostly at Avery Fisher Hall, at Lincoln Center, but also tours around the world.
The Orchestra’s first concerts specifically for a younger audience were organized by Theodore
Thomas for the 1885–86 season, with a series of
24 “Young People’s Matinees.” The programs were developed further by conductor Josef Stransky, who led the first Young People’s Concert in January of
1914. The Young People’s Concerts were brought to national attention in 1924 by “Uncle Ernest”
Schelling, and were made famous by Leonard
Bernstein in the 1960s with live television broadcasts.
photo: Chris Lee
B orn in Los Angeles, violinist
Sheryl Staples joined the New York
Philharmonic as Principal Associate
Concertmaster (The Elizabeth G. Beinecke
Chair) in 1998, and made her solo debut with the Orchestra in January 1999. Previously the associate concertmaster of The
Cleveland Orchestra and concertmaster of the Pacific Symphony and Santa Barbara Chamber orchestras, she has appeared as soloist with more than 40 orchestras, including The Cleveland
Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic. Ms. Staples has participated in the Santa Fe, La Jolla, Brightstar, Martha’s Vineyard, and Seattle chamber music festivals. She was a member of The
Cleveland Orchestra Piano Trio and has been a faculty artist at the
Aspen, Bowdoin, and Sarasota music festivals. Ms. Staples performs on the “Kartman” Guarnerius del Gesu, ca.1728.

Composers like Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven created forms that served for generations. Come to the Young People's Concert on DECEMBER 16 and discover an ordered and noble world of music.
On FEBRUARY 3 , hear how such composers as Brahms, Berlioz,
Strauss, and Sibelius created music of emotion, adventure, and imagination.
composers from Stravinsky, Debussy, and Bartok to
John Adams have created thrilling new worlds of sound. Come on MARCH 24 and find out where music is heading today!
I n the 17th century, musicians believed that music was the physical embodiment of moods and feelings, or affections , as they called them then. They believed that music could be designed to make the listener feel specific things.
Which musical traits do you think would make you experience which affections?
!
ANGER LARGE, LEAPING MELODY
SMALL, CREEPING MELODY
FAST MELODY WITH ROUGH HARMONY
!
JOY
!
STUBBORNESS
!
SORROW SEVERAL MELODIES GOING AT ONCEE
Now imagine you’re the composer with the big wig.
What musical traits would you use to evoke these feelings?
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FEAR
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RELAXATION
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LONELINESS
!
GENEROSITY