Godowsky ,born on 13 February 1870,was a famed pianist, composer, and teach… Read Full Bio ↴Godowsky ,born on 13 February 1870,was a famed pianist, composer, and teacher. He has been described as the "Pianist of Pianists".
He became a naturalised American, but was born to Polish parents in Sozły, near Wilno, in what was then Russian territory but is now part of Lithuania. He considered himself of Polish heritage.
Godowsky had studied under Ernst Rudorff at the Berlin High School for Music,but left after three months. Otherwise, he was self-taught.
His career as a concert pianist, which eventually would take him to every continent except Australia, began at age ten.Godowsky made his debut in America on 7 December in Boston.
Later,moving to France to study with Liszt ( who unfortunately died a few days before Godowsky's arrival there), he played for Tchaikovsky, and could count among his acquaintances Charles Gounod, Jules Massenet, Amboise Thomas, Gabriel Fauré, Gabriel Pierné, Charles-Marie Widor and Leo Delibes.
He died of stomach cancer in New York on November 21, 1938.
As a composer, Godowsky has been best known for his paraphrases of piano pieces by other composers, which he enhanced with ingenious contrapuntal devices and rich chromatic harmonies. His most famous work in this genre is the 53 Studies on Chopin's Etudes, in which he varies the already challenging originals by: introducing countermelodies.
He also transcribed for the piano a number of sonatas and partitas for solo violin and solo cello by Johann Sebastian Bach.
The Piano Sonata, the Passacaglia, and Triakontameron are amongst other works of his that have become more well-known of recent times. The Passacaglia is based on a theme from Franz Schubert's Unfinished Symphony;it has acquired an undeserved reputation for difficulty.
"Godowsky's achievement is greater than that of the mere transcriber or arranger. He aimed higher and opened up new vistas for developing our pianistic mechanisms...When teachers, performers and students wake up to the possibilities and potentials of the Godowsky legacy, and when they apply themselves to its enormous challenge, we will begin once again to enjoy the music they make, to find recitals less of a duty and more of a joy to attend, and to share in the experience of expressivity through beautiful sounds produced with freedom and ease."
- Frank Cooper
He became a naturalised American, but was born to Polish parents in Sozły, near Wilno, in what was then Russian territory but is now part of Lithuania. He considered himself of Polish heritage.
Godowsky had studied under Ernst Rudorff at the Berlin High School for Music,but left after three months. Otherwise, he was self-taught.
His career as a concert pianist, which eventually would take him to every continent except Australia, began at age ten.Godowsky made his debut in America on 7 December in Boston.
Later,moving to France to study with Liszt ( who unfortunately died a few days before Godowsky's arrival there), he played for Tchaikovsky, and could count among his acquaintances Charles Gounod, Jules Massenet, Amboise Thomas, Gabriel Fauré, Gabriel Pierné, Charles-Marie Widor and Leo Delibes.
He died of stomach cancer in New York on November 21, 1938.
As a composer, Godowsky has been best known for his paraphrases of piano pieces by other composers, which he enhanced with ingenious contrapuntal devices and rich chromatic harmonies. His most famous work in this genre is the 53 Studies on Chopin's Etudes, in which he varies the already challenging originals by: introducing countermelodies.
He also transcribed for the piano a number of sonatas and partitas for solo violin and solo cello by Johann Sebastian Bach.
The Piano Sonata, the Passacaglia, and Triakontameron are amongst other works of his that have become more well-known of recent times. The Passacaglia is based on a theme from Franz Schubert's Unfinished Symphony;it has acquired an undeserved reputation for difficulty.
"Godowsky's achievement is greater than that of the mere transcriber or arranger. He aimed higher and opened up new vistas for developing our pianistic mechanisms...When teachers, performers and students wake up to the possibilities and potentials of the Godowsky legacy, and when they apply themselves to its enormous challenge, we will begin once again to enjoy the music they make, to find recitals less of a duty and more of a joy to attend, and to share in the experience of expressivity through beautiful sounds produced with freedom and ease."
- Frank Cooper
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Java Suite: Part I: I. Gamelan
Leopold Godowsky Lyrics
No lyrics text found for this track.
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
Opalic Fractalia
Well, there are some inaccuracies in this thread that I'd like to point out, as I think it would help everyone to analyze and appreciate not just Godowsky's Java Suite, but gamelan in general.
First of all, the rendition of Balinese gamelan by Godowsky is more "exotic" than accurate; we sure have the gamelan-like "stratification" of layers of sound (this is especially true in the first piece), and even some actual gamelan motifs transposed on piano, but Godowsky himself didn't actually studied the rules of gamelan, nor he stayed in Bali long enough to do it. The Java Suite is more a product of fascination and exoticism than one of actual study – you can find the latter, for instance, in the musical output of Colin McPhee some years later (I strongly suggest checking out his "Tabuh-Tabuhan", his Symphony no. 2 and his "Balinese Ceremonial Music", an actual rendition of Balinese music for piano), who also provided a theoretical analysis of Balinese gamelan which still stands out today (check out his book "A House in Bali").
The role of Debussy also has to be discussed here. Debussy was the first western composer to acknowledge the importance of gamelan, after having attended a Javanese gamelan (NOT Balinese, which greatly differs from its Javanese counterpart!) performance in 1889 at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. A great part of Debussy's output owes a lot to Javanese gamelan, and I strongly suggest checking out "Pagodes" from his Estampes and "Voiles" from the first book of preludes to have some actual examples of this (but really, his post-1903 output is full of gamelan references and structures, do yourself a favour and check it out).
The difference between Debussy and Godowsky is that the latter utilized gamelan mainly as an exotic evocation, while the former took from gamelan a great number of concepts, structures and attitudes, applying them to the western classical composition methods. Debussy probably had much more "respect" for gamelan than Godowsky, who also happened to describe the crescendo of Balinese gamelan performances as "barbaric" (no such thing is found in Debussy's writing about gamelan).
Also @Laurent H Debussy was not inspired by Chinese music. He never travelled to Indonesia or China (as he never travelled to Spain, but he wrote his "La Soirée dans Grenade" anyway), but he used some references from the "exotic" artifacts that were present in France at the time to build an idealized image of those places. Pagodes is built over a pentatonic scale which mimics the slendro scale of Javanese gamelan (the Javanese performances he attended at the Exposition Universelle in 1889 was probably tuned in slendro), and there's nothing inherently Chinese about it.
I'm sorry for the long comment, but I think it was worth to add these things to the thread 🙂 I strongly suggest checking out Kyioshi Tamagawa's book "Echoes from the far East - the Javanese gamelan and its influence to the music of Claude Debussy", as most of the things I wrote came from there. In the book you'll find a deep analysis of Debussy's works and also some insights about Godowsky, McPhee, and many others 😉
Сергей Сергеевич Прокофьев
Part I.
[00:06] 1. Gamelan
[03:41] 2. Wayang-Purwa,
Puppet shadow plays
[07:31] 3. Hari Besaar, The great day
Part II.
[12:34] 4. Chattering monkeys at
the sacred lake of Wendit
[14:36] 5. Boro Budur in moonlight
[18:54] 6. The Bromo Volcano and
the Sand Sea at daybreak
Part III.
[22:34] 7. Three dances
[22:34] i. Moderato
[24:48] ii. L'istesso tempo
[26:20] iii. Doppio movimento
[28:25] 8. The gardens of Buitenzorg
[32:27] 9. In the streets of old Badavia
Part IV.
[36:19] 10. In the Kraton
[42:47] 11. The ruined Water Castle at Djokja
[48:02] 12. A court pageant in Solo
Mario Hibatullah
As an Indonesian, I couldn't hold my tears listening to this. I'm so proud that a Polish-American composer noticed native Indonesian music. I can't believe so few Indonesians have noticed this masterpiece yet. I hope more Indonesians will notice this as Godowsky noticed Javanese music.
Salam dari Indonesia.
Bigg Walrus
Naw I think he captured it good, minus the smell...
ModderKevin
@Opalic Fractalia Finally someone who knows exactly what they are talking about
Opalic Fractalia
Well, there are some inaccuracies in this thread that I'd like to point out, as I think it would help everyone to analyze and appreciate not just Godowsky's Java Suite, but gamelan in general.
First of all, the rendition of Balinese gamelan by Godowsky is more "exotic" than accurate; we sure have the gamelan-like "stratification" of layers of sound (this is especially true in the first piece), and even some actual gamelan motifs transposed on piano, but Godowsky himself didn't actually studied the rules of gamelan, nor he stayed in Bali long enough to do it. The Java Suite is more a product of fascination and exoticism than one of actual study – you can find the latter, for instance, in the musical output of Colin McPhee some years later (I strongly suggest checking out his "Tabuh-Tabuhan", his Symphony no. 2 and his "Balinese Ceremonial Music", an actual rendition of Balinese music for piano), who also provided a theoretical analysis of Balinese gamelan which still stands out today (check out his book "A House in Bali").
The role of Debussy also has to be discussed here. Debussy was the first western composer to acknowledge the importance of gamelan, after having attended a Javanese gamelan (NOT Balinese, which greatly differs from its Javanese counterpart!) performance in 1889 at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. A great part of Debussy's output owes a lot to Javanese gamelan, and I strongly suggest checking out "Pagodes" from his Estampes and "Voiles" from the first book of preludes to have some actual examples of this (but really, his post-1903 output is full of gamelan references and structures, do yourself a favour and check it out).
The difference between Debussy and Godowsky is that the latter utilized gamelan mainly as an exotic evocation, while the former took from gamelan a great number of concepts, structures and attitudes, applying them to the western classical composition methods. Debussy probably had much more "respect" for gamelan than Godowsky, who also happened to describe the crescendo of Balinese gamelan performances as "barbaric" (no such thing is found in Debussy's writing about gamelan).
Also @Laurent H Debussy was not inspired by Chinese music. He never travelled to Indonesia or China (as he never travelled to Spain, but he wrote his "La Soirée dans Grenade" anyway), but he used some references from the "exotic" artifacts that were present in France at the time to build an idealized image of those places. Pagodes is built over a pentatonic scale which mimics the slendro scale of Javanese gamelan (the Javanese performances he attended at the Exposition Universelle in 1889 was probably tuned in slendro), and there's nothing inherently Chinese about it.
I'm sorry for the long comment, but I think it was worth to add these things to the thread 🙂 I strongly suggest checking out Kyioshi Tamagawa's book "Echoes from the far East - the Javanese gamelan and its influence to the music of Claude Debussy", as most of the things I wrote came from there. In the book you'll find a deep analysis of Debussy's works and also some insights about Godowsky, McPhee, and many others 😉
Haoming Li
@pgbluster it is certainly going to be westernized, but to say that Godowsky is embarrassingly tin-eared... How many in this world could be more sensitive to music than him? I guess not more than a hundred.
1.3 Operator
Salam dari Indonesia, Banten
Thank you Godowsky for creating this suite for the people in Java enjoy. I was born in Jakarta and moved to Banten, I have travveled around Java, Sulawesi and Bali, I felt that I went back to Java with this piece.
Giacomo Guarnieri
Btw, I'm not sure that everyone fully appreciates how absurdly out-of-the-world is this execution by Esther. As a pianist myself, I can safely say that I could never even dream of achieving something like this. There are just so many colours, so much expression to it. Must most of all, her jaw-dropping, utter and complete mastery of the piece allows her to play this suite (which is as technically difficult and demanding as it can possibly get!) seemingly without effort: everything is devoted to musicality, there is no unnecessary show-off, every sound is round and delicate. And finally, her understanding of this complex piece is absolute. Bravo Maestro!
PieInTheSky
Yeah her playing of this is out of this world. She navigates the dense writing with ease, bringing out color in every single note.
lemur918
Something no one has mentioned is that in fact the pianist, Esther Budiardjo is Indonesian, born in Jakarta. Just coincidentally this is the best recorded version of this piece on YouTube.
Lepista nuda
@David Floren American Flag profile picture - opinion disregarded