This week, as we watched the leaves turn, we presented a show about musical leaves. Browse nine Album Leaves below from our show "Albumblatt," the 2nd in a month of Autumn-themed Ether Game. 

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)-Lyric Pieces, Op. 47: No. 2, Album-leaf It might be hard to believe that Edvard Grieg likely had not heard a strain of genuine Norwegian folk music until after graduating from the Leipzig Conservatory in 1862, where his music education had been steeped in the music of Schumann and Wagner. A meeting in Copenhagen in 1864 with a fellow Norwegian composer would change all that and start a new phase of his artistic life. Rikard Nordraak was a passionate supporter of an emerging nationalist trend in art and literature and introduced Grieg to contemporary works based on the cultural heritage of Scandinavia. Together, he and Grieg founded a music society devoted to the performance and promotion of Scandinavian music. The 68 Lyric Pieces for piano, published in 10 volumes, are some of Grieg’s most popular works and reflect his Romantic nationalism. The Albumblad we just heard comes from the 4th book of lyric pieces, although Grieg’s 1st book, opus 12  also includes one. 

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)-Albumblatt [Album Leaf] As a composer who became known for writing music for an orchestra so large it required a specially built opera house, Richard Wagner is the last name you’d expect to see next to an album leaf piece. However, the piece, in true albumblatt form, was a musical thank you to the French princess Pauline Metternich. Wagner was certainly not known for his gracious attitude, however Metternich was instrumental in bringing Wagner’s opera Tannhausser to the Parisian stage, having been enchanted by the opera when she saw it in Dresden. Unfortunately, the Paris premier of Tannhauser is a famous catastrophe in music history. The musicians and stage workers at the Paris Opéra declared that Wagner was intolerable as a director. The French public felt that the opera, from its music to its structure, defied every respectable convention. Performances became so rowdy that Wagner withdrew his music, to the relief of the opera house managers, but not before both he and Metternich were both attacked viciously in the Paris press. 

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)-Album Leaves OP. 19: No. 1 'Zaïde' By 1828, Berlioz had decided to give up medical school and become a full time composer. This also meant that he almost gave up writing songs, having been told by his composition teachers that he should “aspire to the glories of opera and mass.” Luckily, Berlioz discovered Beethoven and Goethe, and while this brought about the creation of his opera Damnation of Faust, it also reinvigorated his love of setting poetry to music in the form of art songs. Belioz composed Zaïde in the midst of Faust, and although it is presented as an art song, it was likely always meant for the concert stage, hence the inclusion of a castanet part to clack the Bolero rhythm that accompanies the song. For the lyrics Berlioz chose a poem by a contemporary poet of the time, Roger de Beauvoir, who wrote how Zaïde, a beautiful orphan girl, sings her love of the city of Granada in Spain. 

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)-Albumblatt, Op. 117 Short and pleasant, not particularly demanding, and light in character, all three phrases have been used to describe both Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, and more generally the genre of the album leaf. Curious then, that Mendlessohn’s Op. 117 Albumblatt is not technically one of the Songs Without Words, having been published after Felix’s death as a miscellaneous piece. It’s been speculated that the Albumblatt was originally written for the Songs Without Words, perhaps as another “Venetian Boat Song,” and was, for whatever reason, left out of the collection. Some of the Songs Without Words were originally written as musical gifts by Felix to his sister Fanny, which fits with the original definition of the album leaf: a minor piece of music written for a friend, to be kept in the recipient's album or diary. 

Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909)-Spain: Six Album Leaves, OP. 165: No. 3 'Malagueña' Albeniz’s music can generally be divided into three compositional phases, with solo piano always maintaining a central role. In his first phase, from which this selection was chosen, Albeniz wrote mostly salon music. Little collections of pieces whose rhythms, harmonies and high drama evoke the music of Spain, proved to be a success. His collection titled Spain: 6 Album Leaves was published in London in 1890. Flamenco music is referenced twice in this suite, in the Preludio, and in the third movement, called “Malaguena.” The malagueña is a flamenco dance from the (MAH-laga) Málaga region of Spain. It is part of the cante intermedio class of flamenco dances. As opposed to the more serious cante jondo (HOHN-doh) and the light-hearted cante chico, the moderate cante intermedio delves into the Andalusian roots of flamenco music.  

Reinhold Glière (1875-1956)-Album Leaves for Cello and Piano, Op. 51: vi - Allegretto The son of a Belgian woodwind instrument maker, Reinhold Gliere originally entered the Moscow Conservatory as a violin student.  Before long, he turned to composition, and his efforts were rewarded when he achieved the Conservatory’s gold medal.  His ballet The Red Poppy, written in 1927, has remained his most popular work, alongside several symphonies and other ballets. Gliere was also a superb composer of chamber music. He composed his album leaves while living in Berlin in 1910. Schumann had made the album leaf a very popular genre in Germany, although Gliere’s pieces borrow folk melodies from Russia, where he would spend the majority of his professional career. The Op. 51 pieces are favored by cellists because they exploit the entire range of the instrument, and It's likely that Gliere intended for the entire collection to be performed in one sitting as a complete recital. 

Ernst von Dohnányi (1877-1960)-Albumblatt The origin of Dohnanyi’s Albumblatt is mysterious, since the work has no opus number, doesn’t appear in any index, and wasn’t published until after the composer’s death. However we know from the year of composition (which is 1899) that it must’ve been written while Dohnanyi was touring England for the first time as a concert pianist, one of several virtuosic pianists who would follow in the footsteps of Franz Liszt. It is speculated that Dohnanyi wrote this piece to be an encore for a performance. The work is characteristic of his early piano works, which follow the genres and musical idioms popularized by Romantic composers from the first half of the 19th century, often showcasing a style or emotional attribute within a straightforward musical form.   

Henriette Renié (1875-1956)-Feuillets d'Album Considered one of the greatest harpists of all time, Henriette Renie was deeply influential in all aspects of harp music, respected as a performer, composer and teacher. Many of her original compositions are considered advanced repertoire, however she also published twelve volumes of transcriptions for harp and wrote several lighter works for amateur musicians, including her collection of three short pieces titled Feuillets d’Album. Renie’s music  for pedal was one of the first of its kind, elevating the status of the harp and laying the groundwork for contemporary repertoire. Her complete method for the harp published in 1946 is still an important reference for teaching harp today.

Sam Ervin Beam (b. 1974)-Autumn Town Leaves For over a decade, indie-folk singer-songwriter Sam Beam has been performing and releasing recordings under the moniker “Iron and Wine.” The South Carolina-born musician was a film professor at the University of Miami before switching to music as a full-time gig. His 2019 EP Weed Garden, which includes the track “Autumn Town Leaves” was released as a follow-up to his Grammy-nominated full length album Beast Epic from 2018. Most of the material on Weed Garden comes from odds and ends and unfinished ideas from the writing phase for Beast Epic. Beam has said that title refers to “getting into the weeds” of the creative process in order to complete the unfinished songs.