Concertos and Blackmail -- The Concerto
Again, to anyone whose friends page was just recently flooded by this posting -- I'm really, really sorry. DD8
Anyway. Hence follows an explanation of the concerto in part six and some musical influences, because, judging by what happened last time, people will ask.
The concerto which Sherlock plays for John (and, incidentally, the royal family), is not based on any piece of real music, though a few pieces could definitely be called 'influences'. What I imagined when I wrote it was a piece more modern than classical, for orchestra and solo violin and piano. In the original version of CaB, I didn't put much thought into the concerto as a whole, just the violin and the last movement. The two main influences for (or at least representations of) that were from a particularly good classical and orchestral Sherlock fanmix -- I Want to Introspect, by heroin_e -- and though neither of them sounded particularly how I imagined Sherlock's concerto would sound, they were both good examples of the mood and emotion that would become the third movement. Ravel's Kaddish expresses the sighing, crying sadness of the piece, and Rachmaninov's Trio Elegiaque No. 2: Moderato -- Allegro Vivace encompasses more the range -- from low misery to harsh anguish. Both these pieces sound more classical than the final concerto, but, particularly for the first version, the emotions are right, and they're definitely both excellent and beautiful pieces of music.
During the rewrite, I came into contact with two pieces of music which much better encompassed the style and nature of the concerto I wanted Sherlock to play. I heard Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in early December of 2011, played by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra with Alisa Weilerstein on the cello. It's more modern than the Ravel or Rachmaninov, and gets a lot of different emotions in, including the violence and grief of the second and third movements of Sherlock's concerto, and even a few moments from the more pleasant first movement. Not to mention, with the solo string instrument and full orchestra, the Prokofiev piece contains more of the interplay between soloist and orchestra that I was envisioning. What struck me most, though -- and what is, unfortunately, not as obvious in the recording on YouTube -- was the attack of the soloist. Weilerstein went all out in much the same manner as Sherlock, with the cello shrieking, even scraping on occasion, harsh and intense in all the right places. The cellist in the YouTube version is much more restrained, but the music and emotion still comes across. Though much of the Prokofiev doesn't conform to how I hear Sherlock's concerto, it also conveys a lot of the style and emotion I wanted, especially in contrast to the earlier influences from Ravel and Rachmaninov.
In April 2012, though, in another SSO concert, I heard something that, once more, immediately struck me as appropriate to my vision of Sherlock's concerto. Osvaldo Golijov's Last Round, having premiered in 1996, is an intensely modern piece, and more closely encapsulates the style I envisioned than anything else. It's a piece for string orchestra only, and while it certainly represents how Sherlock's parts would sound, it doesn't express the involvement of the full orchestra that I wrote. Nevertheless, it's an intense and passionate piece, and much more similar in style to Sherlock's concerto. At the time I heard it, I was already embarking on a rewrite of the concerto, and thinking about how to further expand the first two movements, so Golijov's influence is pretty clear in the final version. Last Round most closely resembles the second movement of Sherlock's piece -- violence, moments of suspense, and the pitting of sections against each other (Golijov's string orchestra is more or less split in half, with the two sides playing against each other at times); and the soaring grief of the second movement is reflected in Sherlock's third. Though it lacks the range of the full orchestra I envision for Sherlock, the piece is modern and dangerous, and just mad enough to feel right.
In addition, two readers of the first version of CaB mentioned a piece of music they felt was similar to Sherlock's: Sig mentioned Dvorak's Concerto in A Minor for Violin and Orchestra, and fieryredqueen recommended Paganini's Caprice No. 24.
And finally, Sig and I both agree that Piazzola's Libertango works as something of a theme song for the fic. XD
Anyway. Hence follows an explanation of the concerto in part six and some musical influences, because, judging by what happened last time, people will ask.
The concerto which Sherlock plays for John (and, incidentally, the royal family), is not based on any piece of real music, though a few pieces could definitely be called 'influences'. What I imagined when I wrote it was a piece more modern than classical, for orchestra and solo violin and piano. In the original version of CaB, I didn't put much thought into the concerto as a whole, just the violin and the last movement. The two main influences for (or at least representations of) that were from a particularly good classical and orchestral Sherlock fanmix -- I Want to Introspect, by heroin_e -- and though neither of them sounded particularly how I imagined Sherlock's concerto would sound, they were both good examples of the mood and emotion that would become the third movement. Ravel's Kaddish expresses the sighing, crying sadness of the piece, and Rachmaninov's Trio Elegiaque No. 2: Moderato -- Allegro Vivace encompasses more the range -- from low misery to harsh anguish. Both these pieces sound more classical than the final concerto, but, particularly for the first version, the emotions are right, and they're definitely both excellent and beautiful pieces of music.
During the rewrite, I came into contact with two pieces of music which much better encompassed the style and nature of the concerto I wanted Sherlock to play. I heard Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in early December of 2011, played by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra with Alisa Weilerstein on the cello. It's more modern than the Ravel or Rachmaninov, and gets a lot of different emotions in, including the violence and grief of the second and third movements of Sherlock's concerto, and even a few moments from the more pleasant first movement. Not to mention, with the solo string instrument and full orchestra, the Prokofiev piece contains more of the interplay between soloist and orchestra that I was envisioning. What struck me most, though -- and what is, unfortunately, not as obvious in the recording on YouTube -- was the attack of the soloist. Weilerstein went all out in much the same manner as Sherlock, with the cello shrieking, even scraping on occasion, harsh and intense in all the right places. The cellist in the YouTube version is much more restrained, but the music and emotion still comes across. Though much of the Prokofiev doesn't conform to how I hear Sherlock's concerto, it also conveys a lot of the style and emotion I wanted, especially in contrast to the earlier influences from Ravel and Rachmaninov.
In April 2012, though, in another SSO concert, I heard something that, once more, immediately struck me as appropriate to my vision of Sherlock's concerto. Osvaldo Golijov's Last Round, having premiered in 1996, is an intensely modern piece, and more closely encapsulates the style I envisioned than anything else. It's a piece for string orchestra only, and while it certainly represents how Sherlock's parts would sound, it doesn't express the involvement of the full orchestra that I wrote. Nevertheless, it's an intense and passionate piece, and much more similar in style to Sherlock's concerto. At the time I heard it, I was already embarking on a rewrite of the concerto, and thinking about how to further expand the first two movements, so Golijov's influence is pretty clear in the final version. Last Round most closely resembles the second movement of Sherlock's piece -- violence, moments of suspense, and the pitting of sections against each other (Golijov's string orchestra is more or less split in half, with the two sides playing against each other at times); and the soaring grief of the second movement is reflected in Sherlock's third. Though it lacks the range of the full orchestra I envision for Sherlock, the piece is modern and dangerous, and just mad enough to feel right.
In addition, two readers of the first version of CaB mentioned a piece of music they felt was similar to Sherlock's: Sig mentioned Dvorak's Concerto in A Minor for Violin and Orchestra, and fieryredqueen recommended Paganini's Caprice No. 24.
And finally, Sig and I both agree that Piazzola's Libertango works as something of a theme song for the fic. XD