46-538: The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini , Op. 43, (Russian: Рапсодия на тему Паганини , Rapsodiya na temu Paganini ) is a concertante work written by Sergei Rachmaninoff for piano and orchestra , closely resembling a piano concerto , all in a single movement . Rachmaninoff wrote the work at his summer home, the Villa Senar in Switzerland, according to the score, from 3 July to 18 August 1934. Rachmaninoff himself,
92-515: A glissando sweep of the keyboard, before quoting the original theme in the last bar. Due to the speed and the large leaps on the piano, the 24th and last variation of the rhapsody presents considerable technical difficulty for the pianist. Shortly before the world première performance, Rachmaninoff – a sufferer of performance anxiety – confessed trepidation over his ability to play it. Upon the suggestion of his friend Benno Moiseiwitsch , Rachmaninoff broke his usual rule against drinking alcohol and had
138-608: A ballet school in 1921, and continued to appear with his wife, Vera Fokina. One of his pupils was Patricia Bowman . By 1924, he organized the American Ballet Company, which performed regularly at the Metropolitan Opera House and toured the United States. His first piece for the company was the comedy Bluebeard , set to a score by Jacques Offenbach . His ballet Les Sylphides was the first production at
184-477: A choreographer, he took ballerinas out of their pointe shoes when pointe did not serve any "artistic purpose". He believed that pointe should be used when the dancing body desires to express a soaring and upward theme, rather than to flaunt the strength of dancers' feet. He presented this new idea to the Imperial Mariinsky Theater 's management, but did not win their support. One of Fokine's requests
230-571: A composer's works, as in the sets of string quartets by Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) and Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827); Haydn's Op. 76, the Erdödy quartets (1796–97), comprises six discrete quartets consecutively numbered Op. 76 No. 1 – Op. 76 No. 6; whilst Beethoven's Op. 59, the Rasumovsky quartets (1805–06), comprises String Quartet No. 7, String Quartet No. 8, and String Quartet No. 9. From about 1800, composers usually assigned an opus number to
276-453: A composition, Prokofiev occasionally assigned a new opus number to the revision; thus Symphony No. 4 is two thematically related but discrete works: Symphony No. 4, Op. 47, written in 1929; and Symphony No. 4, Op. 112, a large-scale revision written in 1947. Likewise, depending upon the edition, the original version of Piano Sonata No. 5 in C major, is cataloged both as Op. 38 and as Op. 135. Despite being used in more or less normal fashion by
322-519: A glass of crème de menthe , which he reputedly kept beneath the piano, to steady his nerves. His performance was a spectacular success, and prior to every subsequent performance of the Rhapsody, he drank crème de menthe. This led to Rachmaninoff nicknaming the twenty-fourth the "Crème de Menthe Variation". In 1939, Michel Fokine wrote to Rachmaninoff from Auckland, New Zealand, where he was touring, seeking
368-421: A method of utilizing ballet to communicate the natural beauty of Man. He did not believe virtuoso ballet techniques to symbolize anything, and thought they could be substituted with forms that better expressed emotions and themes. Fokine was a strong believer in the communicative power of dance and pushed for creativity that broke tradition, believing that tradition is often distinct from reality and fails to capture
414-503: A more cohesive artwork. Petrushka (1912), with music also composed by Stravinsky and set design by Alexandre Benois Petrouchka, was inspired by the Russian puppet which traditionally appeared at the Butter Week ( Shrovetide ) Fairs. In this ballet, Fokine included street dancers, peddlers , nursemaids , a performing bear, and a large ensemble of characters to complement the plot. The story
460-851: A noted performer of his own works, played the piano part at the piece's premiere on 7 November 1934, at the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore, Maryland, with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski . Rachmaninoff, Stokowski, and the Philadelphia Orchestra made the first recording, on 24 December 1934, at RCA Victor 's Trinity Church Studio in Camden, New Jersey . The English premiere on 7 March 1935 at Manchester Free Trade Hall also featured Rachmaninoff with The Hallé conducted by Nicolai Malko . The best-known variation in
506-553: A number of important early-twentieth-century composers, including Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) and Anton Webern (1883–1945), opus numbers became less common in the later part of the twentieth century. To manage inconsistent opus-number usages – especially by composers of the Baroque (1600–1750) and of the Classical (1720–1830) music eras – musicologists have developed comprehensive and unambiguous catalogue number-systems for
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#1733114853405552-467: A specific musical composition, and by German composers for collections of music. In compositional practice, numbering musical works in chronological order dates from 17th-century Italy, especially Venice . In common usage, the word opus is used to describe the best work of an artist with the term magnum opus . In Latin, the words opus (singular) and opera (plural) are related to the words opera (singular) and operae (plural), which gave rise to
598-546: A work of musical composition , a practice and usage established in the seventeenth century when composers identified their works with an opus number. In the eighteenth century, publishers usually assigned opus numbers when publishing groups of like compositions, usually in sets of three, six or twelve compositions. Consequently, opus numbers are not usually in chronological order, unpublished compositions usually had no opus number, and numeration gaps and sequential duplications occurred when publishers issued contemporaneous editions of
644-636: A work or set of works upon publication. After approximately 1900, they tended to assign an opus number to a composition whether published or not. However, practices were not always perfectly consistent or logical. For example, early in his career, Beethoven selectively numbered his compositions (some published without opus numbers), yet in later years, he published early works with high opus numbers. Likewise, some posthumously published works were given high opus numbers by publishers, even though some of them were written early in Beethoven's career. Since his death in 1827,
690-409: Is performed in one stretch without breaks, it can be divided into three sections, as shown above. These correspond to the three movements of a concerto : up to variation 10 corresponds to the first movement, variations 11 to 18 are the equivalent of a slow movement, and the remaining variations make a finale. After a brief introduction, the first variation is played before the theme. Paganini's theme
736-403: Is stated on strings with the piano picking out salient notes, after the first variation. Rachmaninoff likely got the idea of having a variation before the theme from the finale of Beethoven's Eroica symphony . Variations II to VI recombine elements of the theme. The pauses and rhetorical flourishes for the piano in variation VI herald a change of tempo and tone. The piano next gravely intones
782-598: The Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV-number) and the Köchel-Verzeichnis (K- and KV-numbers), which enumerate the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , respectively. In the classical period , the Latin word opus ("work", "labour"), plural opera , was used to identify, list, and catalogue a work of art. By the 15th and 16th centuries, the word opus was used by Italian composers to denote
828-648: The Dies irae (of which, to some degree, the Paganini theme is an inversion), the "day of wrath" plainchant from the medieval Mass of the Dead , while the orchestra accompanies with a slower version of the opening motif of the Paganini theme. The piece is one of several by Rachmaninoff to quote the Dies Irae plainchant melody. The slow 18th variation is by far the best known, and it is often included on classical music compilations without
874-634: The American Ballet Theatre on 11 January 1940. In 1937, Fokine joined Wassily de Basil 's offshoot of the Ballets Russes, which was eventually named the Original Ballet Russe . Among the new works Fokine created during this period were Cendrillon (1938) and Paganini (1939). His choreography was featured with the company until 1941. Fokine staged more than eighty ballets in Europe and
920-664: The United States . His best-known works were Chopiniana , Le Carnaval (1910), and Le Pavillon d'Armide (1907). His pieces are still performed internationally. The Mariinsky Ballet performed a retrospective of Fokine's work at London 's Covent Garden in July 2011. Fokine died in New York on 22 August 1942, aged 62. In tribute to his death, seventeen ballet companies around the world performed Les Sylphides simultaneously. Fokine aspired to move beyond traditional ballet, toward
966-460: The chronological order of the composer 's publication of that work. Opus numbers are used to distinguish among compositions with similar titles; the word is abbreviated as "Op." for a single work, or "Opp." when referring to more than one work. Opus numbers do not necessarily indicate chronological order of composition. For example, posthumous publications of a composer's juvenilia are often numbered after other works, even though they may be some of
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#17331148534051012-458: The 18th variation as a theme from The Story of Three Loves reached No. 9 on the UK chart. The pop song "If I Had You" by The Korgis uses the melody fragment from the 18th variation. The video game Gran Turismo 6 uses it as the intro theme. Opus number In music , the opus number is the "work number" that is assigned to a musical composition , or to a set of compositions, to indicate
1058-568: The Italian words opera (singular) and opere (plural), likewise meaning "work". In contemporary English, the word opera has specifically come to denote the dramatic musical genres of opera or ballet, which were developed in Italy. As a result, the plural opera of opus tends to be avoided in English. In other languages such as German, however, it remains common. In the arts, an opus number usually denotes
1104-964: The Mendelssohn heirs published (and cataloged) them as the Italian Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90 , and as the Reformation Symphony No. 5 in D major and D minor, Op. 107 . While many of the works of Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) were given opus numbers, these did not always bear a logical relationship to the order in which the works were written or published. To achieve better sales, some publishers, such as N. Simrock , preferred to present less experienced composers as being well established, by giving some relatively early works much higher opus numbers than their chronological order would merit. In other cases, Dvořák gave lower opus numbers to new works to be able to sell them to other publishers outside his contract obligations. This way it could happen that
1150-446: The ballet Acis and Galatea (1905) and The Dying Swan (1907), which was a solo dance for Anna Pavlova choreographed to the music of Le Cygne . Acis and Galetea included an acrobatic dance with young boys playing fauns , one of whom was Vaslav Nijinsky . Fokine later featured Nijinsky in ballets including Chopiniana (1907), which was renamed Les Sylphides in 1909. In 1909, Sergei Diaghilev invited Fokine to become
1196-703: The ballets Midas , Josephslegende , and Le Coq d'Or . The Paris premiere of The Golden Cockerel by Ballets Russes in 1914 was an opéra-ballet , guided by Fokine with set design by Natalia Goncharova . The outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, disrupted the established touring circuit, which included countries now on opposing sides. Many dancers, including Fokine, returned to their home countries. He moved to Sweden with his family in 1918, and later established his home in New York City , where he founded
1242-536: The case of Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47); after his death, the heirs published many compositions with opus numbers that Mendelssohn did not assign. In life, he published two symphonies ( Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 11 ; and Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 ), furthermore he published his symphony-cantata Lobgesang , Op. 52, which was posthumously counted as his Symphony No. 2; yet, he chronologically wrote symphonies between symphonies Nos. 1 and 2, which he withdrew for personal and compositional reasons; nevertheless,
1288-466: The cases of César Franck (1822–1890), Béla Bartók (1881–1945), and Alban Berg (1885–1935), who initially numbered, but then stopped numbering their compositions. Carl Nielsen (1865–1931) and Paul Hindemith (1895–1963) were also inconsistent in their approaches. Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) was consistent and assigned an opus number to a composition before composing it; at his death, he left fragmentary and planned, but numbered, works. In revising
1334-405: The composer's approval to use Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for his ballet Paganini , which he had almost finished choreographing . Fokine wanted to make a minor change to the score, involving the reuse of 12 earlier measures as a more theatrically effective introduction to the 18th Variation, which he wanted to play in the key of A major, rather than D ♭ major. Rachmaninoff agreed to
1380-595: The composer's first completed works. To indicate the specific place of a given work within a music catalogue , the opus number is paired with a cardinal number ; for example, Beethoven 's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor (1801, nicknamed Moonlight Sonata ) is "Opus 27, No. 2", whose work-number identifies it as a companion piece to "Opus 27, No. 1" ( Piano Sonata No. 13 in E-flat major , 1800–01), paired in same opus number, with both being subtitled Sonata quasi una Fantasia ,
1426-764: The direction of Marius Petipa . In 1898, on his 18th birthday, he debuted on the stage of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Paquita , with the Imperial Russian Ballet . In addition to being a talented dancer, Fokine was also passionate about painting and displayed talent in this area as well. He also played musical instruments, including mandolin (played on stage in ensemble led by Ginislao Paris ), domra , and balalaika (played in Vasily Andreyev 's Great Russian Orchestra). He became frustrated with
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1472-495: The entire spectrum of human emotions. He believed that unless movements are expressive, they are irrational and neither delightful nor tolerable. Fokine also sought to strip ballets of their artificial technicality and outdated costumes. He believed that many of the ballets of his time used costumes and techniques that did not reflect the themes of the ballets. Fokine studied Greek and Egyptian art, including vase painting and sculpture , and incorporated these into his ballets. As
1518-672: The extra measures, although he said A major would not work and asked that the 18th Variation be played in D major, to provide greater tension. He also wondered why Niccolò Paganini had been turned into a guitar player in Fokine's scenario, but did not object. Paganini was premiered in 1939 by The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden , London . The ballet was a success, which pleased Rachmaninoff, and he wrote his Symphonic Dances in 1940 with Fokine in mind. He played
1564-415: The first four symphonies to be composed were published after the last five; and (c) the last five symphonies were not published in order of composition. The New World Symphony originally was published as No. 5, later was known as No. 8, and definitively was renumbered as No. 9 in the critical editions published in the 1950s. Other examples of composers' historically inconsistent opus-number usages include
1610-562: The lack of historical accuracy , the ballet was successful due to its brilliant colors, exoticism , and sexual overtones. The 1910 production featured Nijinsky in the role of the Golden Slave. The Firebird (1910), with music composed by Igor Stravinsky was also created by a "committee," a process inspired by the Wagnerian notion of Gesamtkunstwerk , which is the synthesis of elements such as music, drama, spectacle, and dance to create
1656-528: The life of a dancer and began considering other paths, including painting. In 1902, he was offered a teaching position at the Imperial Ballet School and was able to explore the artistic possibilities of choreography . In 1905, he created his first full-length ballet, Acis et Galatée , which was performed by his students and based on a Sicilian legend. Among his students were Desha Delteil and Bronislava Nijinska . Some of Fokine's early works include
1702-523: The only two of the kind in all of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas. Furthermore, the Piano Sonata, Op. 27 No. 2, in C-sharp minor is also catalogued as "Sonata No. 14", because it is the fourteenth sonata composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. Given composers' inconsistent or non-existent assignment of opus numbers, especially during the Baroque (1600–1750) and the Classical (1750–1827) eras, musicologists have developed other catalogue-number systems; among them
1748-420: The piano version for Fokine, but both died before the idea got any further. The Rhapsody has also been used for ballets by Leonid Lavrovsky ( Bolshoi Ballet , Moscow, 1960), Frederick Ashton (Royal Ballet, London, 1980), and Ivo van Zwieten. The 18th variation, by far the most popular, has been used in various movie and TV show soundtracks to different degrees. This includes: Winifred Atwell recording of
1794-466: The piece is the 18th variation, frequently selected in isolation in classical music compilations. The piece is scored for piano and orchestra : The piece is a set of 24 variations on the twenty-fourth and last of Niccolò Paganini 's Caprices for solo violin , which has inspired works by several composers . The whole composition takes about 22–24 minutes to perform. All variations are in A minor except where noted. Although Rachmaninoff's work
1840-521: The resident choreographer of the first season of the Ballets Russes in Paris . At Ballets Russes, he collaborated with other artists to create a ballet of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 's Scheherazade , which premiered in 1910. The ballet was inspired by symphonic poems composed by Rimsky-Korsakov and the tale of the 1001 Nights . The sets designed by Léon Bakst matched the sexualized choreography. Despite
1886-401: The rest of the work. It is based on an inversion of the melody of Paganini's theme. In other words, the A minor Paganini theme is literally played "upside down" in D ♭ major, with a few other changes. Rachmaninoff himself recognized the appeal of this variation, saying "This one is for my agent." The 24th variation is more playful in tone than most of the other variations, ending with
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1932-475: The same opus number was given to more than one of his works. Opus number 12, for example, was assigned, successively, to five different works (an opera, a concert overture, a string quartet, and two unrelated piano works). In other cases, the same work was given as many as three different opus numbers by different publishers. The sequential numbering of his symphonies has also been confused: (a) they were initially numbered by order of publication, not composition; (b)
1978-448: The un-numbered compositions have been cataloged and labeled with the German acronym WoO ( Werk ohne Opuszahl ), meaning "work without opus number"; the same has been done with other composers who used opus numbers. (There are also other catalogs of Beethoven's works – see Catalogues of Beethoven compositions .) The practice of enumerating a posthumous opus ("Op. posth.") is noteworthy in
2024-609: The works of composers such as: Michel Fokine Michael Fokine (23 April [ O.S. 11 April] 1880 – 22 August 1942) was a Russian choreographer and dancer . Fokine was born in Saint Petersburg to a prosperous merchant and at the age of 9 was accepted into the Saint Petersburg Imperial Ballet School . That same year, he made his performing debut in The Talisman under
2070-675: Was centered on the sinister Magician ( Enrico Cecchetti ) and his three puppets: Petrouchka (Nijinsky), the Ballerina ( Tamara Karsavina ) and the savage Moor (Alexander Orlov). Fokine's ballet Le Spectre de la Rose (1911) showcased Nijinsky as the spirit of the rose given to a young girl. Nijinsky's exit featured a grand jeté out of the young girl's bedroom window, timed so the audience would last see him suspended in mid-air. In 1912, Fokine created an adaptation of Daphnis et Chloé . He left Ballets Russes in 1912. In 1914, Diaghilev convinced Fokine to return to Ballets Russes, where he then created
2116-438: Was to have his dancers perform barefoot in his 1907 ballet Eunice . His request was denied, and Fokine had toes painted on the dancers' tights so they would appear to be barefoot. He also experimented with shifting the emphasis of movement away from the lower body and towards the whole body, with freer use of the arms and torso and using each muscle with clear intention. In doing so, Fokine sought to unify motion with emotion and
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