Serenade was originally a love song sung by medieval European poets in front of lovers' windows, which was popular in Spain, Italy and other countries. When singing, plucked instruments are often accompanied by guitars, mandolins and so on. The song is lingering and melodious. Later, instrumental solo serenades were as popular as vocal serenades. The serenade in the second act of Mozart's opera Don Juan is a typical serenade played by a mandolin in front of a girl's window.
In this song, Mozart truly reproduces the scene of the bard serenade. Don Juan is a bohemian Spanish aristocrat in opera. He serenaded the peasant girl Selena in front of her window, trying to seduce her with his songs. This song was sung by the villain in the opera, which is ironic. But the tune is still beautiful and simple, with the characteristics of folk songs, with mandolin and stringed instruments. The mandolin is a pear-shaped plucked instrument with four pairs of strings, and the empty strings are like violins. This song is divided into two parts, forming a two-part style. There is a short door behind each paragraph, and then the whole two paragraphs are repeated.
Serenade is usually a song sung at dusk or night, but it also includes love songs sung at the lover's window in the morning. Such as the Austrian composer Schubert. "Listen, listen, lark" is a serenade sung in the morning. This is a love song sung by Kloton to Imogen in Shakespeare's cymbeline. Kloton is the son of the ex-husband of the Queen of England and King Li Bailin of England, and Imogen is the daughter of the King and former Queen. Early in the morning, Kloton took a group of musicians to the front room connected with Imogen's boudoir, played music for her and sang this song to move her heart. This song is written in the form of segmented music. The music is divided into two parts. The first part is C major. The melody is lively, describing the beautiful scenery of "larks singing in the sky and the rising sun god"; The second paragraph changed from C major to A major, which produced a sharp tone contrast and rendered a magnificent color for the sentence "charming marigold, start to open your golden eyes". Sing "How wonderful all this is, my dear girl wakes up", then turn back to C major, and the timbre changes from dark to bright, writing the inspiring artistic conception of the morning light and the dream of a small building.
Schubert's other serenade, adapted from a poem by Rashtabu, is a well-known song, which is included in his song collection "Song of the Swan". The melody is light and euphemistic, the accompaniment imitates the sound of plucked instruments, and sometimes corresponds to the song, creating a beautiful and peaceful artistic conception for the song.
The French composer Cournot's serenade Hugo's poem is also a famous song that has been circulated for more than 100 years. Melody is like a wisp of smoke, floating in the evening breeze. Accompaniment runs through the rhythm of swinging up and down, with a lullaby style; From time to time, it echoes the song with beautiful tunes.
Instrumental serenade, like vocal serenade, has a singing melody, and its accompaniment often imitates the effect of plucked instruments. The second movement of Austrian composer Haydn's string quartet in F major, Andante Cantabile, is a typical instrumental serenade, so the whole quartet has the title of "serenade quartet". A string quartet is a piece of music played by two violins, a viola and a cello. The unique serenade style of this movement is manifested in the first violin playing lyric tunes, like human voices singing; The second violin, viola and cello are matched with strings to imitate the sound of mandolin. This piece of music is written in the form of a sonata. Sonata form is commonly used in the first movement of sonatas, symphonies, concertos and other instrumental music suites, which is divided into three parts: the first part is the part that presents two contrasting themes, which is called the presentation part. There is a bridge between the two themes, which is called the cohesion part. There is a supplementary paragraph after the second topic, which is called conclusion. The second part of the sonata form is the part that unfolds the music components of each paragraph of the presentation part, which is called the unfolding part. The structure and tonality of the extended part are unstable. The third part of the sonata form is the repeated part, which is called the reappearance part. However, this is not a simple repetition. The most obvious change is that in the presentation part, the two themes appear in the main melody and subordinate melody respectively, and in the reproduction part, they both appear in the main melody, thus achieving the unity of tonality. The second movement of "String Quartet in Major" is sonata-style, which is close to two-paragraph style. The first part is the presentation part, and the second part is a short extension part and a shortened reproduction part, so the extension part and the reproduction part add up to form a part that keeps balance with the presentation part.
The serenades mentioned above are all songs and small instrumental music. There is also an instrumental suite. Because it was originally played outdoors in summer nights, it is also called serenade. This kind of serenade is light and lively music, some are played by wind instruments, some are played by stringed instruments, and some are played by wind instruments and stringed instruments together. The number of exercises is not necessarily, generally more than four. Sometimes as many as seven or eight movements. For example, Mozart's hafner Serenade in D major has eight movements, among which the third, fifth and seventh movements are minuets.
Serenade in D minor by Czech composer dvorak. It is a suite played by woodwind, horn and bass stringed instruments. Divided into four movements, it describes the scene of rural wind musicians playing music. The first movement is humorous and progressive, describing a group of funny and charming country musicians marching on the road. Go and have a concert. The whole movement is divided into three stages. The first paragraph is a minor theme, which shows the generous and simple character of country musicians. The second paragraph shows a more subtle, beautiful and intimate feeling in major. The first three paragraphs go back to the music in the first paragraph. The second movement is a minuet, which is the first program that country musicians began to play when they arrived at their destination. This movement is written in a big three-stage form, and each paragraph contains several small paragraphs. This form is called a complex three-stage form. In the first paragraph, there is a character named "Su Sedeshka". Susedeshka is a slow folk dance in Bohemia, with three beats. This big paragraph contains five small paragraphs, and two different themes appear alternately in the order of "one, two, one, two, one". The second paragraph is very fast and has the character of "Fulian" dance music. Fulian is a fast third-degree folk dance music in Bohemia. Music is full of rhythm changes. Although this long beat is also a triple beat, there is syncopation rhythm in the middle. That is to say, put two beats in three beats. This change of beat is the characteristic of Frian's special dance music. The second paragraph contains three small paragraphs, and the third small paragraph is a repetition of the first small paragraph. The third paragraph is a repetition of the first paragraph.
Russian composer Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings is also divided into four chapters, and the second and fourth movements are introduced here. The second movement is a beautiful waltz, written in a complicated three-step form. The first piece of music shows sincere and cordial feelings with lyrical and singing melody. Fluctuating melody lines and the rhythm of rotating dance are typical features of waltz. The first paragraph is divided into three small paragraphs. The third paragraph is a repetition of the first paragraph, but a new flowing sound is added, including the rhythm of jumping. A light and lively second piece of music. It is based on this rhythm. The third paragraph is a repetition of the first paragraph, and finally an ending is added, and the music gradually disappears from strong to weak.
The fourth movement is the finale with Russian folk songs as the main theme-the finale is the last movement. The structure of this movement is sonata, but it is much larger than the second movement of Haydn's string quartet in F major. The speed of entry is andante, which is the speed of walking. The theme introduced is Russian folk song "Along the Grassland". From the first theme, it became Allegro. The first theme is a Russian folk song "Under a green apple tree". This theme has changed three times in a row. Variations are repeated changes. Every time the melody changes, it is moved to a different sound zone and played on different instruments. The second theme is not real folk songs, but there are also some folk songs. The structure of the second theme is three stages, the first melody changes repeatedly in the third stage, and the second stage is the continuous development of the first stage. Next is the development of sonata form. The development part first develops the first theme, then combines the first theme with the second theme, and then imitates polyphony to develop the first theme. The so-called imitation polyphony means playing a melody with one instrument first, and then imitating the melody with a second instrument and a third instrument in turn at a certain distance. In the performance part, the first theme is C major and the second theme is E flat major. In the reproduction part, both themes appear in C major, and an ending part is added to supplement the second theme. Finally, the ending, a vigorous ending, reproduces the theme of the introduction and the first theme, that is, two folk songs, with strong voice changes. The whole song ended in a warm festive atmosphere.
—— Lecture on Music Broadcasting by Shanghai People's Broadcasting Station, edited by Shanghai Music Publishing House, and Speech on Music Appreciation, edited by Mr. Qian Renkang.