The other familiar excerpts include the baritone prologue, “Si può,” in which Tonio explains to his audience that the incidents in the play about to be presented are true to life and that the players are not performers but human beings; Nedda’s delightful ballatella, “The Bird Song” (“Stridono lassù”) where she tries to forget about Tonio’s initial response of jealousy by watching and describing the casual and carefree flight of birds overhead; the “Harlequin’s Serenade” in the play within the play sequence in the second act, “O Columbina!”; and a melodious orchestral Intermezzo which separates the first and second acts, music which hints darkly at impending tragedy through a poignant recall of Tonio’s prologue.
Anatol Liadov
Anatol Liadov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on May 10, 1855, the son and grandson of eminent Russian conductors. He was a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, but was so derelict about attending classes that in 1876 he was expelled. Reinstated two years later he now became fired with both ambition and industry, proved a brilliant student, and was graduated with highest honors. He was then appointed teacher of theory there, eventually becoming a renowned professor, a post he retained until the end of his life. He died in Novgorod, Russia, on August 28, 1914.
Liadov was at his best in his fairy tales for orchestra (The Enchanted Lake, Baba Yaga and Kikimora); in songs; and in smaller pieces for the piano. He was a student of Russian folk music of which he made numerous adaptations, and whose styles and idioms percolated into many of his compositions.
The Eight Russian Folksongs, a suite for orchestra, op. 58 (1906) is one of Liadov’s adaptations. There are eight movements. In the first, “Religious Chant,” the main song is that chanted by children in religious processions; it is heard in English horn and bassoons. This is followed by “Christmas Carol,” its main theme presented by oboes and clarinets. “Plaintive Melody” is a village song, and “I Danced With a Mosquito,” a humorous scherzo in which muted strings simulated buzzing mosquitoes. The fifth movement is “Legend of the Birds” where the bird song is presented by the woodwind. “Cradle Song” is a tender melody for strings. This is followed by a lively rhythmic section, “Round Dance.” The suite ends with the “Village Dance Song,” music that usually accompanies the crowning of the May Queen.
Liadov is also the composer of a delightful trifle called The Music Box in which the delicate little tune is the kind that lends itself gratefully to the tinkle of a music box. Liadov wrote this piece for the piano, op. 32, but it is better known in orchestral transcriptions.
Paul Lincke
Paul Lincke was born in Berlin, Germany, on November 7, 1866. After completing his music study he played the violin and bassoon in numerous theater orchestras. He later distinguished himself as a theater conductor. In 1897 he had his first operetta produced in Berlin. Thereafter he wrote many operettas, all originally given in Berlin; he became one of the foremost exponents of the light musical theater in Germany of his time. The most famous were Frau Luna (1899), Fraeulein Loreley (1900), Lysistrata (1902), Prinzessin Rosine (1905), and Casanova (1914). His last operetta was Ein Liebestraum, produced in Hamburg in 1940. From 1918 to 1920 he was conductor at the Folies-Bergère in Paris. He died in Klausthal-Zellernfeld, Germany, on September 3, 1946.
His most famous composition is a song from Lysistrata (1902): “The Glow Worm” (“Gluehwuermchen”), which achieved phenomenal popularity throughout the world independent of the operetta. It is still famous both as a vocal composition and in orchestral transcriptions. A new vocal version, with amusing lyrics by Johnny Mercer, was published and popularized in the United States in 1952.