Serenade in A is a composition for solo piano by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was completed on September 9, 1925, in Vienna, and published by Boosey & Hawkes This work was composed as a result of his signing his first recording contract for Brunswick, so Stravinsky wrote the piece in a way that each movement would fit on one side of a 78 rpm gramophone record. It was dedicated to his wife.
Structure
This compositions consists of four movements and should take 12 minutes to perform. The movement list is as follows:
Hymne (Hymn)
Romanza (Romance)
Rondoletto
Cadenza finala (Final Cadence)
Even though the work is titled "Serenade in A", it is not actually in the key of A major nor in A minor. According to Eric White, A is not the "key" of the work, but rather the music radiates from and tends towards A as a "tonic pole". Thus, the first and the last chord of each movement contains the note A, either as the root, third, or fifth of a triad. According to Stravinsky, the piece was conceived "in imitation of the Nachtmusik of the eighteenth century, which was usually commissioned by patron princes for various festive occasions, and included, as did the suites, an indeterminate number of pieces". Therefore, the movement titles are meant to evoke the specific parts of such festive celebration.
"Serenade" is a song by the Spanish rock band Dover. Written by Cristina Llanos, the track was released in 1997 as the first single from the band's second studio album, Devil Came to Me (1997). This song was the first single that also became his first number one because of its rhythms and catchy chorus. It is the most chanted song in their concerts, making it an anthem for this group.
Curiosities
The singer, guitarist and composer of the theme, Cristina Llanos, admits it's the most personal song she ever wrote. She is usually very shy and reserved and wanted to talk about it in this song, "asking" help to stop being so.
Appearances
Serenade was chosen for the PlayStation 2 video game "SingStar Rocks!", among other songs by Spanish and international groups.
In 2008, a remix of the song, with the name "Serenade 07", became a single in the album 2.
Music video
The music video for this song was made by Juan Bullón, a friend of the band with who they previously worked in the video for "Come With Me" from the first album "Sister".
Neil Diamond's second album for Columbia Records, and his ninth studio album Serenade, was released in 1974. Three singles were lifted from the album: "Longfellow Serenade" (#5), "I've Been This Way Before" (#34) and "The Last Picasso". The album was also issued as a quadraphonic LP with some songs as alternate takes.
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (sometimes spelled Strawinski, Strawinsky, or Stravinskii; Russian:И́горь Фёдорович Страви́нский, tr.Igorʹ Fëdorovič Stravinskij;IPA:[ˈiɡərʲ ˈfʲɵdərəvʲɪtɕ strɐˈvʲinskʲɪj]; 17 June[O.S. 5 June]1882–6 April 1971) was a Russian (and later, a naturalized French and American) composer, pianist and conductor. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century.
Stravinsky's compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresarioSergei Diaghilev and first performed in Paris by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913). The last of these transformed the way in which subsequent composers thought about rhythmic structure and was largely responsible for Stravinsky's enduring reputation as a musical revolutionary who pushed the boundaries of musical design. His "Russian phase" which continued with works such as Renard, The Soldier's Tale and Les Noces, was followed in the 1920s by a period in which he turned to neoclassical music. The works from this period tended to make use of traditional musical forms (concerto grosso, fugue and symphony), drawing on earlier styles, especially from the 18th century. In the 1950s, Stravinsky adopted serial procedures. His compositions of this period shared traits with examples of his earlier output: rhythmic energy, the construction of extended melodic ideas out of a few two- or three-note cells and clarity of form, and of instrumentation.
But it also mounted big works such as Gounod’s “Petite Symphonie,” Dvorak’s Serenade for Winds, and Stravinsky’s “L’Histoire du Soldat.” In all, the festival programmed 425 different pieces of music, and employed 154 different musicians, Ellert said.
