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88-719: The War Requiem , Op. 66, is a choral and orchestral composition by Benjamin Britten , composed mostly in 1961 and completed in January 1962. The War Requiem was performed for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral , in the English county of Warwickshire , which was built after the original fourteenth-century structure was destroyed in a World War II bombing raid . The traditional Latin texts are interspersed, in telling juxtaposition , with extra-liturgical poems by Wilfred Owen , written during World War I. Britten scored

176-470: A brass instrument accurately. It also plays a major role in some performance situations, such as in marching bands. Traditionally the instruments are normally made of brass , polished and then lacquered to prevent corrosion . Some higher quality and higher cost instruments use gold or silver plating to prevent corrosion. Alternatives to brass include other alloys containing significant amounts of copper or silver. These alloys are biostatic due to

264-581: 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

352-453: 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

440-452: A conical mouthpiece. One interesting difference between a woodwind instrument and a brass instrument is that woodwind instruments are non-directional. This means that the sound produced propagates in all directions with approximately equal volume. Brass instruments, on the other hand, are highly directional, with most of the sound produced traveling straight outward from the bell. This difference makes it significantly more difficult to record

528-405: A few occasions in which members of one orchestra join the other, the full forces do not join until the latter part of the last movement, when the tenor and baritone sing the final line of Owen's poem " Strange Meeting " ("Let us sleep now ...") as "In Paradisum deducant" ("Into Paradise lead them ...") is sung first by the boys' choir, then by the full choir (in 8-part canon), and finally by

616-491: A fourth valve, such as tubas, euphoniums, piccolo trumpets , etc. that valve lowers the pitch by a perfect fourth; this is used to compensate for the sharpness of the valve combinations 1–3 and 1–2–3 (4 replaces 1–3, 2–4 replaces 1–2–3). All three normal valves may be used in addition to the fourth to increase the instrument's range downwards by a perfect fourth, although with increasingly severe intonation problems. When four-valved models without any kind of compensation play in

704-476: A gimmick, these plastic models have found increasing popularity during the last decade and are now viewed as practice tools that make for more convenient travel as well as a cheaper option for beginning players. Brass instruments are one of the major classical instrument families and are played across a range of musical ensembles . Orchestras include a varying number of brass instruments depending on music style and era, typically: Concert bands generally have

792-416: A good range of notes simply by varying the tension of their lips (see embouchure ). Most brass instruments are fitted with a removable mouthpiece . Different shapes, sizes and styles of mouthpiece may be used to suit different embouchures, or to more easily produce certain tonal characteristics. Trumpets, trombones, and tubas are characteristically fitted with a cupped mouthpiece, while horns are fitted with

880-563: 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

968-591: A performance of Britten's War Requiem. On Saturday 3 November 2018, singers from Lincoln Choral Society, Gainsborough Choral Society, Scunthorpe Choral Society, Grimsby Philharmonic Society, Louth Choral Society, Neustadt Liedertafel, and the Choristers of Lincoln Cathedral were joined by the Lincolnshire Chamber Orchestra. The soloists were Rachel Nicholls (soprano), Alessandro Fisher (tenor) and Julien Van Mallaerts (baritone). The organist

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1056-949: A poet can do today is warn. Because of time zones, the southern hemisphere premiere was about 12 hours ahead of that in North America, though they were on the same day, 27 July 1963. The southern hemisphere premiere was at the Town Hall in Wellington, New Zealand, with John Hopkins conducting the New Zealand National Orchestra (now the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra ) and the Royal Christchurch Musical Society , with soloists Peter Baillie, Graeme Gorton and Angela Shaw. The North American premiere

1144-418: A repeated fourth in a dotted rhythm ending in a diminished arpeggio, and a descending scale. These motifs form a substantial part of the melodic material of the piece: the setting of "Bugles sang" is composed almost entirely of variations of them. Another linking feature can be found in the opening of the final movement, Libera Me , where the slow march tune in the double basses (preceded by two drums outlining

1232-460: A screen adaptation of War Requiem of the same title , with the 1963 recording as the soundtrack, produced by Don Boyd and financed by the BBC. It includes the final film performance of Laurence Olivier , in the role of an ageing war veteran. 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

1320-467: 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

1408-425: A tantrum during the recording, as she believed – not having performed the work before – she was being insulted by being placed with the choir instead of at the front with the male soloists. The newest (2013) CD reissue of this recording includes 50 minutes of surreptitiously taped rehearsal footage at the time of the recording. Other recordings of the work include the following: In 1988, Derek Jarman made

1496-529: A tradition of separate conductors that the work does not require and Britten never envisaged. The premiere took place on 30 May 1962, in the rebuilt cathedral with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra , conducted by Meredith Davies (accompanying soprano and chorus), and the Melos Ensemble , conducted by the composer (accompanying tenor and baritone). At Britten's request, there was no applause following

1584-419: A trigger on valves other than 2 (especially 3), although many professional quality euphoniums, and indeed other brass band instruments, have a trigger for the main tuning slide. The two major types of valve mechanisms are rotary valves and piston valves . The first piston valve instruments were developed just after the start of the 19th century. The Stölzel valve (invented by Heinrich Stölzel in 1814)

1672-431: A trumpet, a person lays out a pattern and shapes sheet metal into a bell-shape using templates, machine tools, handtools, and blueprints. The maker cuts out the bell blank, using hand or power shears. He hammers the blank over a bell-shaped mandrel, and butts the seam, using a notching tool. The seam is brazed, using a torch and smoothed using a hammer or file. A draw bench or arbor press equipped with expandable lead plug

1760-546: 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

1848-641: 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,

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1936-412: Is noted in the table, despite the exposition of four-valve and also five-valve systems (the latter used on the tuba) being incomplete in this article. Since valves lower the pitch, a valve that makes a pitch too low (flat) creates an interval wider than desired, while a valve that plays sharp creates an interval narrower than desired. Intonation deficiencies of brass instruments that are independent of

2024-406: Is significantly lower than the fundamental frequency of the series that the other resonances are overtones of. Depending on the instrument and the skill of the player, the missing fundamental of the series can still be played as a pedal tone , which relies mainly on vibration at the overtone frequencies to produce the fundamental pitch. The bore diameter in relation to length determines whether

2112-472: Is the norm, usually in a double, sometimes even triple configuration. Some valved brass instruments provide triggers or throws that manually lengthen (or, less commonly, shorten) the main tuning slide, a valve slide, or the main tubing. These mechanisms alter the pitch of notes that are naturally sharp in a specific register of the instrument, or shift the instrument to another playing range. Triggers and throws permit speedy adjustment while playing. Trigger

2200-432: Is used in two senses: A throw is a simple metal grip for the player's finger or thumb, attached to a valve slide. The general term "throw" can describe a u-hook, a saddle (u-shaped grips), or a ring (ring-shape grip) in which a player's finger or thumb rests. A player extends a finger or thumb to lengthen a slide, and retracts the finger to return the slide to its original position. Triggers or throws are sometimes found on

2288-421: Is used to shape and smooth the bell and bell neck over a mandrel. A lathe is used to spin the bell head and to form a bead at the edge of bell head. Previously shaped bell necks are annealed, using a hand torch to soften the metal for further bending. Scratches are removed from the bell using abrasive-coated cloth. A few specialty instruments are made from wood. Instruments made mostly from plastic emerged in

2376-620: 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

2464-410: The bore , that is, the tubing between the mouthpiece and the flaring of the tubing into the bell . Those two generalizations are with regard to While all modern valved and slide brass instruments consist in part of conical and in part of cylindrical tubing, they are divided as follows: The resonances of a brass instrument resemble a harmonic series , with the exception of the lowest resonance, which

2552-460: 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

2640-404: The oligodynamic effect , and thus suppress growth of molds , fungi or bacteria . Brass instruments constructed from stainless steel or aluminium have good sound quality but are rapidly colonized by microorganisms and become unpleasant to play. Most higher quality instruments are designed to prevent or reduce galvanic corrosion between any steel in the valves and springs, and the brass of

2728-504: The saxophone . Modern brass instruments generally come in one of two families: Plucked There are two other families that have, in general, become functionally obsolete for practical purposes. Instruments of both types, however, are sometimes used for period-instrument performances of Baroque or Classical pieces. In more modern compositions, they are occasionally used for their intonation or tone color. Brass instruments may also be characterised by two generalizations about geometry of

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2816-460: The tonic , bringing the work to its final, reconciliatory In paradisum . On a more practical level, Britten facilitated musical execution of the tritone in the closing bars by having the F ♯ sung in one voice, but the C in another. Four other motifs that usually occur together are distinct brass fanfares of the Dies irae : a rising arpeggio , a falling arpeggio followed by a repeated note,

2904-468: The 1st note of the harmonic series ... A horn giving the C of an open 8 ft organ pipe had to be 16 ft (5 m). long. Half its length was practically useless ... it was found that if the calibre of tube was sufficiently enlarged in proportion to its length, the instrument could be relied upon to give its fundamental note in all normal circumstances. – Cecil Forsyth, Orchestration , p. 86 The instruments in this list fall for various reasons outside

2992-407: The 2010s as a cheaper and more robust alternative to brass. Plastic instruments could come in almost any colour. The sound plastic instruments produce is different from the one of brass, lacquer, gold or silver. This is because plastic is much less dense, or rather has less matter in a given space as compared to the aforementioned which causes vibrations to occur differently. While originally seen as

3080-591: The 70th anniversary of the destruction of the original cathedral, a performance of the Requiem took place in the new cathedral on 13 November 2010, featuring the soprano Claire Rutter, the tenor Daniel Norman, baritone Stephen Gadd, The Parliament Choir, Saint Michael's singers, Deutscher Chor London , the ESO Chamber Orchestra, The Southbank Sinfonia and Coventry Cathedral Girls' Choir. It was conducted by Simon Over and Paul Leddington Wright. A recording

3168-486: The Cambridge Music Handbook publication on the work. Britten himself acknowledged the stylistic influence of Requiems by other composers, such as Giuseppe Verdi 's, on his own composition. David B. Greene has discussed Britten's 'indictment' of religious music in this work. Britten dedicated the work to Roger Burney, Piers Dunkerley , David Gill, and Michael Halliday. Burney and Halliday, who died in

3256-477: The Compensation system, each of the first two (or three) valves has an additional set of tubing extending from the back of the valve. When the third (or fourth) valve is depressed in combination with another one, the air is routed through both the usual set of tubing plus the extra one, so that the pitch is lowered by an appropriate amount. This allows compensating instruments to play with accurate intonation in

3344-527: 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

3432-989: 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

3520-453: The Owen poems to the Requiem liturgy, on the key words, Dona nobis pacem – Give us peace) outlines a perfect fifth from C to G before moving down to F ♯ to resolve the chorus's final chord. At the end of the Dies irae , the tenor sings (from Owen's "Futility") "O what, what made fatuous sunbeams toil, to break earth's sleep at all?" The notes of "at all" form the tritone and lead into

3608-407: The action of three valves had become almost universal by (at latest) 1864 as witnessed by Arban's method published in that year. The effect of a particular combination of valves may be seen in the table below. This table is correct for the core three-valve layout on almost any modern valved brass instrument. The most common four-valve layout is a superset of the well-established three-valve layout and

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3696-636: The air being doubled back through the main valves. In early designs, this led to sharp bends in the tubing and other obstructions of the air-flow. Some manufacturers therefore preferred adding more 'straight' valves instead, which for example could be pitched a little lower than the 2nd and 1st valves and were intended to be used instead of these in the respective valve combinations. While no longer featured in euphoniums for decades, many professional tubas are still built like this, with five valves being common on CC- and BB ♭ -tubas and five or six valves on F-tubas. Compensating double horns can also suffer from

3784-401: The available series. The view of most scholars (see organology ) is that the term "brass instrument" should be defined by the way the sound is made, as above, and not by whether the instrument is actually made of brass . Thus one finds brass instruments made of wood, like the alphorn , the cornett , the serpent and the didgeridoo , while some woodwind instruments are made of brass, like

3872-536: 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,

3960-466: 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

4048-461: The chamber orchestra (consisting of Concertgebouw Orchestra instrumentalists) by Britten himself. The soloists were Vishnevskaya, Fischer-Dieskau and Pears, in their first public performance together. The English Chamber Choir performed the work at Your Country Needs You , an evening of "voices in opposition to war" organised by The Crass Collective in November 2002. To commemorate the eve of

4136-422: The choir's formal resolution. In the final Owen setting, "Strange Meeting", one of the most prominent expressions of the tritone is sung by the tenor, addressing an opposing soldier with the words "Strange friend". This poem is accompanied by sporadic detached chords from two violins and a viola, which include the tritone as part of a dominant seventh chord . At the end of the poem, the final string chord resolves to

4224-604: 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 ,

4312-404: The corresponding register, the sharpness becomes so severe that players must finger the note a half-step below the one they are trying to play. This eliminates the note a half-step above their open fundamental. Manufacturers of low brass instruments may choose one or a combination of four basic approaches to compensate for the tuning difficulties, whose respective merits are subject to debate: In

4400-530: The deficiencies in the valve system. In most trumpets and cornets, the compensation must be provided by extending the third valve slide with the third or fourth finger, and the first valve slide with the left hand thumb (see Trigger or throw below). This is used to lower the pitch of the 1–3 and 1–2–3 valve combinations. On the trumpet and cornet, these valve combinations correspond to low D, low C ♯ , low G, and low F ♯ , so chromatically, to stay in tune, one must use this method. In instruments with

4488-577: The event, although she was later permitted to leave to make the recording in London. With only ten days' notice, Heather Harper stepped in and performed the soprano role. Although the Coventry Cathedral Festival Committee had hoped Britten would be the sole conductor for the work's premiere, shoulder pain forced his withdrawal from the main conducting role. He did, however, conduct the chamber orchestra, and this spawned

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4576-415: 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

4664-464: The first valve slide. They are operated by the player's thumb and are used to adjust a large range of notes using the first valve, most notably the player's written top line F, the A above directly above that, and the B ♭ above that. Other notes that require the first valve slide, but are not as problematic without it include the first line E, the F above that, the A above that, and the third line B ♭ . Triggers or throws are often found on

4752-438: The first, second or third valves are pressed; pressing the thumb valve takes these secondary valve slides and the extra length of main tubing out of play to produce a shorter B ♭ horn. A later "full double" design has completely separate valve section tubing for the two sides, and is considered superior, although rather heavier in weight. Initially, compensated instruments tended to sound stuffy and blow less freely due to

4840-413: The following instrumentation. Woodwinds Brass Percussion Strings The work consists of six movements: The interval of a tritone between C and F ♯ is a recurring motif , the occurrence of which unifies the entire work. The interval is used both in contexts that emphasize the harmonic distance between C and F ♯ and those that resolve them harmonically, mirroring

4928-453: The following ratios and comparisons to 12-tone equal tuning and to a common five-limit tuning in C: The additional tubing for each valve usually features a short tuning slide of its own for fine adjustment of the valve's tuning, except when it is too short to make this practicable. For the first and third valves this is often designed to be adjusted as the instrument is played, to account for

5016-416: The full orchestra). This group produces a very strange, distant sound. The soprano and choir and the boys' choir sing the traditional Latin Requiem text , while the tenor and baritone sing poems by Wilfred Owen , interspersed throughout. The full orchestra consists of the following instrumentation. Woodwinds Brass Percussion Keyboard Strings The chamber orchestra consists of

5104-414: The fundamental tone or the first overtone is the lowest partial practically available to the player in terms of playability and musicality, dividing brass instruments into whole-tube and half-tube instruments. These terms stem from a comparison to organ pipes , which produce the same pitch as the fundamental pedal tone of a brass instrument of equal length. Neither the horns nor the trumpet could produce

5192-552: The instrument. Designs exist, although rare, in which this behaviour is reversed, i.e., pressing a valve removes a length of tubing rather than adding one. One modern example of such an ascending valve is the Yamaha YSL-350C trombone, in which the extra valve tubing is normally engaged to pitch the instrument in B ♭ , and pressing the thumb lever removes a whole step to pitch the instrument in C. Valves require regular lubrication . A core standard valve layout based on

5280-453: The missing. The musical forces are divided into three groups that alternate and interact with each other throughout the piece, finally fully combining at the end of the last movement. The soprano soloist and choir are accompanied by the full orchestra, the baritone and tenor soloists are accompanied by the chamber orchestra, and the boys' choir is accompanied by a small portative organ (this last group ideally being situated at some distance from

5368-466: The octave below their open second partial, which is critical for tubas and euphoniums in much of their repertoire. The compensating system was applied to horns to serve a different purpose. It was used to allow a double horn in F and B ♭ to ease playing difficulties in the high register. In contrast to the system in use in tubas and euphoniums, the default 'side' of the horn is the longer F horn, with secondary lengths of tubing coming into play when

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5456-466: The offering of Isaac , in which the angel tells Abraham to: '... offer the ram of pride instead of him.' But the old man would not so, but slew his son, and half the seed of Europe, one by one. As the male soloists sing the last line repeatedly, the boys sing "Hostias et preces tibi, Domine" ("Sacrifice and prayers we offer thee, Lord"), paralleling the sacrifice of the Mass with the sacrifice of "half

5544-529: 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

5632-401: The performance. It was a triumph, and critics and audiences at this and subsequent performances in London and abroad hailed it as a contemporary masterpiece. Writing to his sister after the premiere, Britten said of his music, "I hope it'll make people think a bit." On the title page of the score he quoted Wilfred Owen: My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity... All

5720-493: The rhythm) replicates the more-rapid opening theme of the first poem, Anthem for Doomed Youth . One striking juxtaposition is found in the Offertorium , a fugue in the repeating three-part-time scheme 8 , 8 , 8 where the choir sings of God's promise to Abraham ("Quam olim Abrahae promisisti, et semini eius" – "which you once promised Abraham and his seed"). This frames Owen's retelling of

5808-475: 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)

5896-457: The scope of much of the discussion above regarding families of brass instruments. Valves are used to change the length of tubing of a brass instrument allowing the player to reach the notes of various harmonic series. Each valve pressed diverts the air stream through additional tubing, individually or in conjunction with other valves. This lengthens the vibrating air column thus lowering the fundamental tone and associated harmonic series produced by

5984-474: The seed of Europe" (a reference to World War I). The "reprise" of "Quam olim Abrahae" is sung in inversion, diminuendo instead of crescendo. The whole of the Offertorium is a reference to Britten's earlier Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac from 1952. Britten here uses much of the musical material of the earlier work, but the music in the Requiem is twisted into much more sinister forms. Although there are

6072-570: The soprano. The boys' choir echoes the Requiem aeternam from the beginning of the work, and the full choir ends on the resolved tritone motif. For the opening performance, Britten intended that the soloists should be Galina Vishnevskaya (a Russian), Peter Pears (an Englishman) and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (a German), to demonstrate a spirit of unity. Close to the premiere, the Soviet authorities did not permit Vishnevskaya to travel to Coventry for

6160-464: The stuffiness resulting from the air being passed through the valve section twice, but as this really only affects the longer F side, a compensating double can be very useful for a 1st or 3rd horn player, who uses the F side less. Another approach was the addition of two sets of slides for different parts of the range. Some euphoniums and tubas were built like this, but today, this approach has become highly exotic for all instruments except horns, where it

6248-468: The theme of conflict and reconciliation present throughout the work. The Requiem aeternam , Dies irae , and Libera me movements end in a brief choral phrase, consisting mainly of slow half notes, each first and second phrase ending on a tritone's discord , with every last ( i. e. third) phrase resolving to an F-major chord; while at the end of the Agnus Dei the tenor (in his only transition from

6336-489: The third valve slide. They are operated by the player's fourth finger, and are used to adjust the lower D and C ♯ . Trumpets typically use throws, whilst cornets may have a throw or trigger. Trombone triggers are primarily but not exclusively installed on the F-trigger, bass, and contrabass trombones to alter the length of tubing, thus making certain ranges and pitches more accessible. A euphonium occasionally has

6424-414: The tuba. See also the article Brass Instrument Valves . Because the player of a brass instrument has direct control of the prime vibrator (the lips), brass instruments exploit the player's ability to select the harmonic at which the instrument's column of air vibrates. By making the instrument about twice as long as the equivalent woodwind instrument and starting with the second harmonic, players can get

6512-532: The tubing has an inversely proportional effect on pitch ( Pitch of brass instruments ), while pitch perception is logarithmic, there is no way for a simple, uncompensated addition of length to be correct in every combination when compared with the pitches of the open tubing and the other valves. For example, given a length of tubing equaling 100 units of length when open, one may obtain the following tuning discrepancies: Playing notes using valves (notably 1st + 3rd and 1st + 2nd + 3rd) requires compensation to adjust

6600-414: The tubing. This may take the form of desiccant design, to keep the valves dry, sacrificial zincs , replaceable valve cores and springs, plastic insulating washers, or nonconductive or noble materials for the valve cores and springs. Some instruments use several such features. The process of making the large open end (bell) of a brass instrument is called metal beating . In making the bell of, for example,

6688-416: The tuning appropriately, either by the player's lip-and-breath control, via mechanical assistance of some sort, or, in the case of horns, by the position of the stopping hand in the bell. 'T' stands for trigger on a trombone. Traditionally the valves lower the pitch of the instrument by adding extra lengths of tubing based on a just tuning : Combining the valves and the harmonics of the instrument leads to

6776-415: The tuning or temperament system are inherent in the physics of the most popular valve design, which uses a small number of valves in combination to avoid redundant and heavy lengths of tubing (this is entirely separate from the slight deficiencies between Western music's dominant equal (even) temperament system and the just (not equal) temperament of the harmonic series itself). Since each lengthening of

6864-452: 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

6952-549: The war, were friends of Peter Pears and Britten, respectively. According to the Britten-Pears Foundation's War Requiem website, Dunkerley, one of Britten's closest friends, took part in the 1944 Normandy landings . Unlike the other dedicatees, he survived the war but took his own life in June 1959, two months before his wedding. None of the other dedicatees have known graves, but are commemorated on memorials to

7040-423: The work for soprano , tenor and baritone soloists, chorus , boys' choir, organ, and two orchestras (a full orchestra and a chamber orchestra ). The chamber orchestra accompanies the intimate settings of the English poetry, while soprano, choirs and orchestra are used for the Latin sections; all forces are combined in the conclusion. The Requiem has a duration of approximately 80–85 minutes. In 2019, War Requiem

7128-430: The works of composers such as: Brass instrument There are several factors involved in producing different pitches on a brass instrument . Slides , valves , crooks (though they are rarely used today), or keys are used to change vibratory length of tubing, thus changing the available harmonic series , while the player's embouchure , lip tension and air flow serve to select the specific harmonic produced from

7216-594: Was Jeffrey Makinson, and the pianist was Jonathon Gooing. The conductors were Mark Wilde, Susan Hollingworth and Aric Prentice. The first recording, featuring Vishnevskaya, Fischer-Dieskau and Pears, with the London Symphony Orchestra and The Bach Choir conducted by Britten, was produced by Decca in 1963. Within five months of its release it sold 200,000 copies, an unheard-of number for a piece of contemporary classical music at that time. Recording producer John Culshaw reports that Vishnevskaya threw

7304-474: Was an early variety. In the mid 19th century the Vienna valve was an improved design. However many professional musicians preferred rotary valves for quicker, more reliable action, until better designs of piston valves were mass manufactured towards the end of the 19th century. Since the early decades of the 20th century, piston valves have been the most common on brass instruments except for the orchestral horn and

7392-459: Was an occasion for an arts festival, for which Michael Tippett also wrote his opera King Priam . Britten, a pacifist and conscientious objector , was inspired by the commission, which gave him complete freedom in deciding what to compose. He chose to set the traditional Latin Mass for the Dead interwoven with nine poems about war by the English poet Wilfred Owen . Owen, who was born in 1893,

7480-728: Was at Tanglewood , with Erich Leinsdorf conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra with soloists Phyllis Curtin , Nicholas Di Virgilio, Tom Krause and choruses from Chorus Pro Musica and the Columbus Boychoir , featuring boy soprano Thomas Friedman. The Dutch premiere took place during the Holland Festival , in 1964. The Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam and the Netherlands Radio Choir were conducted by Bernard Haitink ;

7568-504: Was made and broadcast a day later on Classic FM . A second performance with the same performers took place on 17 November 2010 at Westminster Cathedral. A 50th anniversary performance was given by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons at Coventry Cathedral on 30 May 2012. As part of Lincolnshire Remembers commemoration of the centenary of the end of the First World War, Lincoln Cathedral hosted

7656-550: Was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The War Requiem , first performed on 30 May 1962, was commissioned to mark the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral , which was built after the original 14th-century structure was destroyed in a World War II bombing raid . The reconsecration

7744-643: Was serving as the commander of a rifle company when he was killed in action on 4 November 1918 during the crossing of the Sambre–Oise Canal in France, just one week before the Armistice . Although he was virtually unknown at the time of his death, he has subsequently come to be revered as one of the great war poets . Philip Reed has discussed the progression of Britten's composition of the War Requiem in

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