Antonin Reicha - Te Deum

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Antonin Reicha - Te Deum

2009-01-29 03:59 pm

This topic is a little off beat!
Antonin Reicha (Rejcha) was a now little known composer, tutor to famous composers, and a friend of Beethoven. He produced what I believe is a first rate piece of music, a Te Deum, which is virtually unknown. It has never been performed in Britain as far as I can ascertain and was performed for the first time in the USA in 2004. There is one recording made fairly recently but now seemingly unobtainable.
To get an idea of this work, look at Richard Woodroffe's transcription in the Scriptorium; it is worth at least downloading and listening to the first movement Reitedeum.1 nwc
Tell me if you are not impressed!

Tony

Re: Antonin Reicha - Te Deum

Reply #1 – 2009-01-29 04:41 pm

My take on Movement #5: Tu ad liberandum

Re: Antonin Reicha - Te Deum

Reply #2 – 2009-01-30 07:26 am

Re: Antonin Reicha - Te Deum

Reply #3 – 2009-01-30 09:26 am

Thank you Tony for highlighting one of my transcriptions. I know that you have also highlighted the piece in other "musical" areas.

Rick's take on the 5th part is his solution to cross bar beaming that I was having problems with. (If anyone can fix those sort of issues, Rick can - thanks Rick).

I really like this piece of music and first heard it when going into a London music shop and wondered what was playing.
The response from the salesman was that they had just received 20 of these from Czechoslovakia and when they were gone, they were gone ! I bought one straight away ! (An LP !)

I had a significant amount of difficulty converting this part of my collection to CD but eventually got a copy from a internet source in Czechoslovakia - (This was slightly worrying to do but all was OK).

I also spent quite some time seeking the score, as you might imagine. I now have this backed up as duplicate CD, mp3, Score and now of course, NoteWorthy Score - talk about belt and braces !

Re: Antonin Reicha - Te Deum

Reply #4 – 2009-01-30 03:51 pm

As an aside to the availablity of a CD of this work, I found a Lomdon music shop advertising a copy "Used- as New" at £99.99. " e weeks later it was £59.99 but then disappeared I eventually acquired a new copy from a small French site at around £7.50 but that source and others have seemingly dried up.
Classic FM radio have expressed pleasure with it and were1 supposed to be looking to give it an airing but nothing has happemed for many weeks. Two choral socieites have expressed and interest. For any one else interested the scores are available from Carus or their agents.

Re: Antonin Reicha - Te Deum

Reply #5 – 2009-01-31 01:47 am

Quote from: David Palmquist – 2009-01-30 07:26 am

Rick, the moving sixteenths don't seem to have a rhythm, yet the slur pattern seems to suggest a slight emphasis on the fifth note of each group of six and usually a live player would tend to emphasize those notes that fall on the beat.

This live player (me) would emphasize the 1^st and 5^th of each six note group. Something like this:

Quote

!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Clef|Type:Treble
|Key|Signature:F#,C#
|Tempo|Base:Quarter Dotted|Tempo:28|Pos:11
|TimeSig|Signature:6/8
|Dynamic|Style:mp|Pos:-10|Justify:Right|Placement:AtNextNote
|MPC|Controller:exp|Style:Absolute|TimeRes:Sixteenth|SweepRes:1|Pt1:0,110|Pt2:1,80|Pt3:3,100|Pt4:1,81|Pos:-15
|Note|Dur:16th,Slur|Pos:0|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=First
|Note|Dur:16th,Slur|Pos:2|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Note|Dur:16th|Pos:4|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Note|Dur:16th|Pos:4|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Note|Dur:16th,Slur|Pos:5|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Note|Dur:16th|Pos:4|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=End
|MPC|Controller:exp|Style:Absolute|TimeRes:Sixteenth|SweepRes:1|Pt1:0,110|Pt2:1,80|Pt3:3,100|Pt4:1,81|Pos:-15
|Note|Dur:16th,Slur|Pos:1|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=First
|Note|Dur:16th,Slur|Pos:3|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Note|Dur:16th|Pos:4|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Note|Dur:16th|Pos:4|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Note|Dur:16th,Slur|Pos:5|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Note|Dur:16th|Pos:4|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=End
|Bar
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End

I would also make judicious use of the damper pedal. Hopefully the singers will have formed some notion of the piece beyond a series of unconnected events. One can always hope ...

If NoteWorthy would fix the Viewer to allow digital whiteout, I would consider re-visiting this piece. IMO, it is a better example of what can be achieved with NWC2 than most of the samples included with the Viewer.

Re: Antonin Reicha - Te Deum

Reply #6 – 2009-01-31 06:12 am

Quote

This live player (me) would emphasize the 1st and 5th of each six note group.

Yes, I suspected that from the slur pattern. It was missing on the original piano midi right hand part in your score. It sounds nice the way you demonstrated it in this clip.

(Instead of slur pattern, I should probably refer to these curves as phrase markings. )

Re: Antonin Reicha - Te Deum

Reply #7 – 2009-01-31 06:52 am

Quote from: David Palmquist – 2009-01-31 06:12 am

(Instead of slur pattern, I should probably refer to these curves as phrase markings. )

What I occasionally call NWC's slurs is not fit for this forum.

To me, phrase markings are generally longer than slurs. I'm quite happy using a layer to hang phrase markings.

Re: Antonin Reicha - Te Deum

Reply #8 – 2009-01-31 06:26 pm

Are you casting a slur on nwc slurs?

On a percussive instrument such as piano, I guess it doesn't make much difference if we call them phrases or slurs. Wind instrument players would need to decide, though.

Anyway, still a nice piece of notation.