Glinka Brass
Today we're going to do a deep dive on the overture to Mikhail Glinka's opera Ruslan and Ludmila.
Glinka's opera is based on the poem of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The poem depicts the hero Ruslan and his beautiful bride, Ludmila. At their wedding feast in Kiev, however, Ludmila is kidnapped by the monster Chernomor; worried sick, the prince sends Ruslan and three other soldiers to find the maiden, annulling the marriage and promising her hand to the man who can rescue her.
In his search for Ludmila, Ruslan comes across a wizard in a cave who assures him he will be successful, and a magical head, who turns out to be the brother of Ludmila's kidnapper, Chernomor. Although Ruslan had already mortally wounded the head before any sort of conversation, the two make peace when the head learns he can seek revenge on his brother through Ruslan, and discloses the secret to getting Ludmila back. Cutting off Chernomor's beard would immediately render him powerless, and the head conveniently has the sword capable of doing just that.
Equipped with the proper weaponry, Ruslan sets out to slay Chernomor and win back his true love. Aware that he is coming, however, Chernomor puts a sleeping spell on Ludmila before hiding her. Ruslan quickly bests the monster and searches desperately for his true love.
Once Ruslan finds the unconscious Ludmila, they begin their journey back home. Unfortunately, they come upon one of his rivals, Farlaf, who kills Ruslan in order to to claim Ludmila for himself.
Upon returning to Kiev, Farlaf is unable to wake the unconscious Ludmila, and enemies begin to invade the city; it seems fate is not on Farlaf's side. And indeed it is not, as our friend the wizard had rescued Ruslan from death's door and sent him back to Kiev with a magic ring that could wake Ludmila. Ruslan saves the city from its attackers and is once again reunited with his true love.
Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857) wrote this opera between 1837-1842, just after his hugely successful opera A Life for the Tsar premiered in 1836. While the content of the opera and Glinka's fairly novel musical ideas (such as the use of the whole tone scale to represent the evil monster Chernomor) meant that Ruslan and Ludmila was not as popular as his last opera, many historians consider this to be a demonstration of Glinka's writing style that inspired many Russian composers after him.
The overture to the opera is exhilarating, with rapid scalar passages in the strings and prominent brass and wind chords throughout the introduction. The exciting nature of the piece makes it a frequent opener or encore piece for orchestras around the world. If you would like to hear the orchestral version of the overture, click here.
This overture was arranged for brass ensemble, performed here by the Black Dyke Band. As one of the UK's oldest brass bands, the group has performed all over the world and with such notable collaborators as Sir Paul McCartney and Phil Smith. The band has produced music for films and TV shows, and has released music of all genres on their more than 350 albums.
I love hearing brass players demonstrate the kind of virtuosity that is generally reserved for string players in great orchestral works like this one. It takes great players like the ones in this video, but the result is simply spectacular.
But is Glinka truly Better in Brass?
That's for you to decide.
Comments
Post a Comment