Quick music lesson. “Rondo” (or its spelling variants) means round.  Not round as in “row-row-row your boat”, but round as in circle. A Rondo is a musical form where you travel around in a circle – always coming back to the same point where you began.

There are tons of pieces in Rondo form. Often, the final movement of a classical symphony or piano sonata is a rondo. For today, here’s the mother of all rondos, from one of Bach‘s partitas for solo violin. The two phrase melody you hear in the first twenty seconds is the main theme – you might call it a refrain. The violin then plays something different for a bit, then returns to the refrain. Again, something new; again, refrain. Different keys, different rhythmic motifs; the refrain keeps coming back.

Rondos are very satisfying to listen to, I believe, because it satisfies two opposing desires we all have: to explore new exciting territory, and to be able to come home to something comfortable that we know.

Many of the instruments in the orchestra were originally used in the battlefield as a way to quickly communicate over large distances. The shrill piccolo or brassy trumpet will cut through loud gunfire or swordfighting (think about why Yankee Doodle is played on a fife, or a trumpet playing “charge!”)

George Frederic Handel wrote his Music for the Royal Fireworks to accompany an outdoor performance of fireworks. He wisely used the modern descendants of battlefield instruments because of their ability to be heard outdoors while explosives were going off all around them. The score calls for nine trumpets, nine horns, three pairs of timpani, and no less than 24 oboes and 13 bassoons. Even by modern standards, that’s rock & roll; and, just like a rock concert, the first performances of the piece caused a three-hour traffic jam on London bridge, and a building was burned down. Seriously. Rock.

Have a wonderful New Year’s Eve! And here’s some early fireworks for you:

There are videos available with pictures of actual fireworks, but I chose this one because I like the high-speed performance.

Amid a sea of Nutcrackers, Messiahs, and TV specials, one of the best Christmas pieces gets lost in the mix. Bach‘s Christmas Oratorio is a piece which, while not ignored, does not get the recognition it deserves. It is overshadowed even by Bach’s own Advent & Christmas music (namely, Wachet Auf and the Magnificat.)

The Oratorio is actually six different cantatas strung together into one longer work. The six cantatas were not originally performed all at once; instead, they were spread apart and performed as part of six separate church services marking the important feast days of the Christmas season. Nowadays, they are almost exclusively heard as one large concert work.

Here is the opening chorus, “Jauchzet, frohlocket!” Merry Christmas!