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Twentieth century
The concertos of the twentieth century reflect the many varied styles of music of the period.
There are examples of:
- solo concertos
- concertos for orchestra
- concertos for small groups.
Solo concertos
(Edwin Paling, Leader of the RSNO. Photograph: Peter Devlin)
There are many examples.
In the romantic style, piano concertos by Rachmaninov, the cello concerto of Elgar and works by Vaughan Willams. Listen to an example from Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 4 completed in 1941.
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The 12 tone or atonal violin concerto by Alban Berg. Listen to an example and notice the tone row played by the solo violin in its original shape at the beginning of the excerpt and in retrograde at the end.
Neo-classical works by Bartok, Prokofiev, Hindemith, Stravinsky and Benjamin Britten in which the composers wrote in modern styles but used the forms established in the Baroque and Classical periods. Listen to this excerpt from the last movement of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Notice the use of octaves and the accelerando towards the end of the excerpt.
Jazz influence in many styles of music and in particular in Gershwin’s Piano Concerto. Listen to an excerpt from the final movement. Notice the dynamic rhythms and the use of ‘blue notes’ in the melody.
Stravinsky wrote music in at least three different styles during his lifetime and in this excerpt from his ’Ebony Concerto’ written for wind orchestra and other instruments, the main solo instrument is the clarinet. Listen for the syncopation, the use of a large saxophone section and a pedal played on the bass clarinet at the end of the excerpt.
Concertos by Shostakovich, William Walton and Michael Tippett. Listen to an excerpt from Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No.2.
Concertos for orchestra
The modern day equivalent of concerto grosso. In the twentieth century most players within an orchestra had been professionally trained as musicians and were skilled on their own instruments. Composers such as Bartok and Tippett started to compose works which allowed the individual sections and players to show off their own skills as soloists within the orchestra.
This example is from the second movement of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra. Pairs of instruments play one after another with each pair playing with a different interval between the instruments. Listen to an extended excerpt and try to identify the instruments featured and the intervals between them.
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(above) Bela Bartok 1881 - 1945
Here is another short example from Tippett’s Concerto for Double String Orchestra.
Finally in this example from Hindemith’s Concerto for Orchestra the Classical influence is most evident from the beginning as the movement is built on a six-note ostinato.
Concertos for small groups
There are many examples, for instance Webern’s Concerto for Nine Instruments written using 12 tone row. Listen to this movement and notice the rather disjointed style of sound and the flutter tonguing played on the flute.
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(left) Anton Webern 1883 - 1945
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