october Famous last Works For the month of October, the #ClassicsaDay team (of which I'm a part), decided to go with a Halloween theme. The idea is to share works marked in some way with the composer's demise. It can be the last piece a composer completed before death, or one left incomplete at death.
For my part, I chose to narrow the focus a little bit. Not all incomplete works were deathbed projects. Schubert, for example, abandoned his "Unfinished" symphony six years before his death. For my contributions, I focussed on the last piece a composer wrote -- whether it was completed or not. From famous last words to #FamousLastWorks. Here are my posts for the final week of October.
Giuseppe Verdi - Falstaff
Verdi completed his 28th opera -- Falstaff -- as he approached his eighth birthday. The work took three years to write, and Verdi worked on revisions up until his death. Initially, Falstaff received a lukewarm reception. Toscanini championed the opera, helping Falstaff to become part of the accepted operatic canon. https://youtu.be/eZOClxjcSYg
Giacomo Puccini - Turandot
Puccini was very close to finishing Turandot when he was diagnosed with throat cancer. He had composed all but the final duet, which he was never satisfied with. When he died, the first two acts were completed and orchestrated, as was most of the last act. Franco Alfano completed the opera, reprising "Nessun dorma" for the finale.
Hugo Wolf - Manuel Venegas
Wolf suffered from syphillis and by 1897 it was triggering bouts of insanity. Wolf began work on the opera Maneul Venegas, hoping to complete the work in his decreasing moments of lucidity. He was unsuccessful, and died with only the first act sketched out.
Sergie Rachmanoniff - Piano Concerto to No. 4 in G minor, Op. 40 (two-piano reduction)
Rachmaninoff was working on a two-piano version of his fourth piano concerto when his health gave out. His last original composition were the 1940 Symphonic Dances. The piano reduction was left incomplete at the time of his death. Richard Rodney Bennett completed the two-piano version at the request of Rachmaninoff's widow.
Frederick Chopin - Mazurka in F minor, Op. 68, No. 4
There's some question as to whether this Mazurka is indeed Chopin's final composition. The work exists only a a single-page sketch. It may have been written as early as 1846. Chopin was in the process of making clean copies of his manuscripts when he died, and the supposition was that he wasn't able to get to this one. Auguste Franchomme and Julian Fontana made a performance version of the work, but it's not complete -- some of the middle section is virtually illegible and was left it out.
Frederick Delius - Idyll
By 1923 Delius was paralysed and blind -- and unable to composer. An admirer, Eric Fenby, offered his services as an amanuensis. From 1928 until Delius' death in 1934, the two worked together. "Idyll" was the final composition completed by Delius.
october Famous last Works For the month of October, the #ClassicsaDay team (of which I'm a part), decided to go with a Halloween theme. The idea is to share works marked in some way with the composer's demise. It can be the last piece a composer completed before death, or one left incomplete at death.
For my part, I chose to narrow the focus a little bit. Not all incomplete works were deathbed projects. Schubert, for example, abandoned his "Unfinished" symphony six years before his death. For my contributions, I focussed on the last piece a composer wrote -- whether it was completed or not. From famous last words to #FamousLastWorks. Here are my posts for week 4.
Felix Mendelssohn - Die Lorelei
Mendelssohn began work on the Die Lorelei in 1847. He had sketched out the first act when his sister died. Distraught, Mendelssohn lost interest in the project. Little more was done to the score. Six months later, Mendelssohn died following a stroke.
Maurice Ravel - Don Quichotte à Dulcinée
A head injury in 1932 triggered the onset of aphasia in Ravel. In 1933 he was working on a film score for Don Quixote. As his condition worsened, he lost the ability to compose music. His songs written for the film are his last works, although he was to live another four years.
Claude Debussy - Violin Sonata
Debussy had embarked on a cycle of six sonatas, each one written for a different instrument or instrumental combination. The violin sonata was the last one he was able to complete before his death. It was the third of the series.
Aaron Copland - Proclamation
Copland's final work, Proclamation was based on an earlier sketch. IN his last years, Copland suffered from Alzheimer's and found it difficult to compose. Proclamation was completed in 1982, eight years before the composer's death.
Ernest John Moeran - Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major
Moeran was a slow and careful composer. Moeran began work on his second symphony in 1945. It was incomplete when he died suddenly five years later. Initially, it was thought that much of the work had either been lost or destroyed by Moeran. Eventually, enough was recovered to allow a reasonable realization to be made.
For the month of October, the #ClassicsaDay team (of which I'm a part), decided to go with a Halloween theme. The idea is to share works marked in some way with the composer's demise. It can be the last piece a composer completed before death, or one left incomplete at death.
For my part, I chose to narrow the focus a little bit. Not all incomplete works were deathbed projects. Schubert, for example, abandoned his "Unfinished" symphony six years before his death. For my contributions, I focussed on the last piece a composer wrote -- whether it was completed or not. From famous last words to #FamousLastWorks. Here are my posts for week 3.
Johann Sebastian Bach - Vor Deinen Thron Tret, BWV 668
The final days of Bach are shrouded in myth. The final fugue of his monumental "Art of the Fugue" was left unfinished -- but it wasn't the piece he was working on when he died. Rather, it was a setting of the chorale "Vor Deinen Thron Tret’ Ich Hiermit." Bach had previously set the chorale in the 1717 Orgelbüchlein. The "deathbed" chorale represents a revision of that earlier work.
Richard Strauss - Vier letzte Lieder, Op. posth
The Four Last Songs (with the exception of the song "Malven") the final works completed by Richard Strauss. And they make a fitting end to a life in music. The texts all deal with death and the acceptance of death and had special meaning for the terminally ill Strauss. The final song, "Im Abendtrot" (At Sunset) quotes from his 1888 tone poem "Tod und Verklärung," (Death and Transfiguration) bringing his creative output full circle.
Edward Elgar - Spanish Lady
In his final years, Elgar worked on two projects in parallel -- an opera "The Spanish Lady" and his third symphony. Both remain unfinished. The "Spanish Lady" is based on a Ben Johnson satire, and recycled a lot of Elgar's earlier music. After his death, Percy Young arranged the surviving sketches into an orchestral suite.
Sergei Prokofiev - Piano Sonata No. 10 in E minor, Op. 137
Prokofiev was working on two piano sonatas at the time of his death. The eleventh piano sonata only exists in text notes. The tenth has two pages of manuscript, leaving about one minute's worth of music, and making it the last playable piece of music by Prokofiev.
Dmitri Shostakovich - Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 147
Shostakovich wrote the sonata for Fyodor Druzhihinin, violist with the Beethoven quartet. He completed the three-movement sonata weeks before his death in July 1975. Druzhinin premiered the work four months later.
For the month of October, the #ClassicsaDay team (of which I'm a part), decided to go with a Halloween theme. The idea is to share works marked in some way with the composer's demise. It can be the last piece a composer completed before death, or one left incomplete at death.
For my part, I chose to narrow the focus a little bit. Not all incomplete works were deathbed projects. Schubert, for example, abandoned his "Unfinished" symphony six years before his death. For my contributions, I focussed on the last piece a composer wrote -- whether it was completed or not. From famous last words to #FamousLastWorks. Here are my posts for week 2.
Alban Berg - Violin Concerto
Berg was working on his opera "Lulu" in 1935. He interrupted the work to accept a rush commission from violinist Louis Krasner. The violin concerto was written in just a few months, and dedicated to the memory of Manon Gropius. The score was delivered in August of 1935, and Berg returned to work on "Lulu." He died in December 1935, leaving the opera uncompleted.
Johannes Brahms - Eleven Chorale Preludes for organ, Op. 122
Brahms' final completed works were written for his friend, Clara Schumann. In 1896 Clara died, and Brahms was diagnosed with liver cancer. Facing death (and the death of his friend), Brahms wrote a set of chorale preludes. The set was the final composition Brahms worked on.
Bela Bartok - Piano Concerto No. 3 in E major
Bartok's third piano concerto was to be a birthday surprise for his wife, pianist Ditta Pásztory-Bartók. Bartok worked on the piece as often as his health permitted. When he died, all but 17 measures had been completed. His friend Tibor Serly completed the work based on Bartok's sketches so it could be performed.
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi - Stabat mater
Italian composer Pergolesi was a brilliant composer of operas, some of which are still performed. He died at the age of 26 from tuberculosis. The final weeks of his life were devoted to composing the Stabat Mater. He was able to complete the work just before he died.
Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 10
Mahler began work on his tenth symphony in May, 1910. By September, he had sketched out the entire symphony and had completed most of the orchestration of the first movement. And that's where he left it. Mahler left for New York in October to conduct the New York Philharmonic. He returned to Europe in April, 1911, and he died May, 11 without doing any more work on the symphony. Other composers have attempted to complete the work, with varying amounts of success.
For the month of October, the #ClassicsaDay team (of which I'm a part), decided to go with a Halloween theme. The idea is to share works marked in some way with the composer's demise. It can be the last piece a composer completed before death, or one left incomplete at death.
For my part, I chose to narrow the focus a little bit. Not all incomplete works were deathbed projects. Schubert, for example, abandoned his "Unfinished" symphony six years before his death. For my contributions, I focussed on the last piece a composer wrote -- whether it was completed or not. From famous last words to #FamousLastWorks. Here are my posts for week 1.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Requiem in D minor, K. 626
Mozart only fully completed the first movement, Requiem aeternum, before his death, although he sketched out the entire work. His student Franz Xaver Süssmayr completed the Requiem so it could be delivered to its commissioner.
Ludwig van Beethoven - Op. 130 string quartet new finale
Beethoven completed his 13th string quartet in 1827. The final movement, the Große Fuge completely overshadows the rest of the work. Contemporaries called the finale "incomprehensible," "inaccessible" and even "Armaggedon."
Beethoven bowed to pressure from his publisher and wrote a new, lighter finale for the quartet. It was the last work completed by Beethoven before his death. The Große Fuge was then published as a separate, stand-alone work.
Franz Schubert - Winterreise, Op. 89 D.911
Schubert wrote the first part of this song cycle in 1827, and the second in October 1828 - a month before his death. He was making final revisions and correcting proofs on his deathbed. The final song, "Der Leiermann" was the last he worked on. "Curious old fellow, shall I go with you? When I sing my songs, will you play your hurdy-gurdy too?"
Franz Joseph Haydn - String Quartet in D minor, Op. 103, Hob.III:83
The Op. 103 quartet was the last piece Haydn worked on. Though he died in 1809, Haydn's health had so deteriorated that after 1803 he could no longer concentrate to compose. He had completed only the first two movements of the D minor quartet when his strength gave out.
Arnold Schoenberg - Modern Psalms, Op. 50c
In 1951 Schoednberg drafted his own texts based on the Psalms. The intent was to write a series of short, sacred works. Only the "Modern Psalm" was completed at the time of his death.
