Academic Festival Overture

Johannes Brahms's "Academic Festival Overture" ( _de. Akademische Festouvertüre) [It is the overture that is festive, not an "Academic Festival" occasioning it; one occasionally sees the title written in English as "Academic Festival" Overture, but in the German title, the adjective "akademisch" modifies "Festouvertüre"; the word connotes a festive or celebratory overture and figures in the titles of Tchaikovsky's "Hamlet/Festouvertüre", Glazunov's "Festouvertüre", and Luise Adolpha Le Beau's "Festouvertüre für großes Orchester", among others.] , Op. 80, was one of a pair of contrasting concert overtures — the other being the Tragic Overture, Op. 81, written to balance it as its pair. Brahms composed the Academic Festival Overture during the summer of 1880 as a musical "thank you" to the University of Breslau, which had awarded him an honorary doctorate the previous year. Initially, Brahms had contented himself with sending a simple handwritten note of acknowledgment to the University, since he loathed the public fanfare of celebrity. However, the conductor Bernard Scholz, who had nominated him for the degree, convinced him that protocol required him to make a grander gesture of gratitude. The University expected nothing less than a musical offering from the composer. "Compose a fine symphony for us!" he wrote Brahms. "But well orchestrated, old boy, not too uniformly thick!" [Jan Swafford, "Johannes Brahms: A Biography"(1997:462).]

Brahms, who was known to be a curmudgeonly joker, filled his quota by creating a "very boisterous potpourri of student drinking songs à la Suppé" [In a letter to Max Kalbeck; Suppé was the fashionable composer of light classics like the "Poet and Peasant Overture".] in an intricately designed structure made to appear loose and episodic, thus drawing on the "academic" for both his sources and their treatment. The work sparkles with some of the finest virtues of Brahms's orchestral technique, sometimes applied for comic effect, such as the bassoons that inflate the light subject of "Fuchslied" ("Was kommt dort von der Höh?"). [The comic effect is noted in Jan Swafford 1997:462.] The inventive treatment includes tunes appropriated from the student ditties "Wir hatten gebauet ein stattliches Haus", "Fuchslied", and most memorably, the broad, triumphant finale on "Gaudeamus igitur", which succinctly engages Brahms's sophisticated mastery of counterpoint, further fulfilling the "Academic" aspect of his program, cheekily applied to the well-worn melody. Brahms manages to evoke ravishing euphoria without sacrificing his commitment to classical balance. The blend of orchestral colors is carefully planned and highlighted in the piece, which, in spite of Scholz's request, calls for one of the largest ensembles for any of his compositions: piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets (both doubling on B-flat and C clarinets), two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns (two in C and two in E), three C trumpets, three trombones, one tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, and strings.

The Overture consists of four continuous sections:
*"Allegro" (C minor)
*"Maestoso" (C major)
*"Animato" (G major)
*"Maestoso" (C major).

The composer himself conducted the premiere at a special convocation held by the University on January 4, 1881, to the chagrin (and mischievous delight) of many of the academics in the audience. Due to its easily-grasped structure, its lyrical warmth, as well as its excitement and humor, the work has remained a staple of today's concert-hall repertoire. A typical performance lasts around ten minutes.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.laphil.org/resources/piece_detail.cfm?id=334 Program notes from the Los Angeles Philharmonic]
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* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=q4W0HKEcciU Davis Jr High School Orchestra - Academic Festival Overture]