Portrait of a Clown
by Frank Ticheli

Unit of Study Created by: Ashley Hebert, Catherine Snyder, Rene Henry, & Bryce Cone

Historical Background


Wildly Dancing Children (1909)- by Emil Nolde

The life of Emil Nolde runs perfectly parallel with Portrait of a Clown.  He was actually born by the name of Emil Hansen in August, 1867, but changed his last name later in life to that of the town in which he was born, Nolde.  Nolde can be found in Germany, near the Danish Border.  He actually began his professional career not as an artist, but as an apprentice wood carver while also doubling as a draughtsman.  He took evening classes at an arts and crafts school, and this is where he actually began developing as an artist.  Nolde loved to hike, and gained a great deal of success with painting mountain scenery for a postcard company.  This part of Nolde’s life could be considered his A section.  It was light and carefree, very much like his painting of Wildly Dancing Children.  His walks in the mountains show just how much he loved life and nature.
 

Nolde’s success continued for several decades until the Third Reich began taking control of Germany.  His paintings were confiscated and hung in an exhibition called Entartete Kunst, Degenerate Art.  Beginning in 1941, Nolde was not allowed to paint at all, for fear of what might happen to him.  This B section of his life was very different from his A section.  His life was no longer light and carefree.  He carried around a horrible weight that kept him from doing what he loved.  He lived a very melancholy life under the Third Reich, but even under that oppression, a little light shown through.  Secretly, Nolde painted small scale water colours, which he called, “unpainted pictures.”  This little glimmer of hope fainlly was allowed to shine through when the Nazis were overthrown.
 

Nolde’s life then returned to the light and carefree existence that he once knew, with a few additions.  Nolde was free to paint again without any restrictions, and so it was very much again like during the A section of his life, but just like everything in life, it was not exactly the same.  This time around, Nolde received many awards and honors.  Even though his production during this portion of his life was not as great, it probably felt even more grand than his first A section because he had just come out of a very harsh time in his life.  The return to happiness was then accentuated by the B section.  Nolde continued the renewed A section of his life until his death in 1956.


Untitled (1944/1945)- by Marc Rothko

This painting is very different in nature from the two pieces chosen for the A sections.  The other two paintings have a very clear subject, a definite form with a definite purpose, but Marc Rothko’s painting shares none of those traits.  Untitled was inspired by the concept of automatic-writing.  What this concept entails is that the artist just steps in front of a piece of canvas without any clear idea of what is going to happen.  S/he puts the paint brush/pencil up to the canvas and allows the unconscious mind to take over and present an image that illustrates what it feels.  Compared to the two paintings for the A sections, which have identifiable images, this work has no identifiable image.  An onlooker can see anything s/he wants out of the unconscious results of the painting.  Wildly Dancing Children and Cows Released in Spring only allow the onlooker to see children dancing, and cows dancing.


Cows Released in Spring (1918)- by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s life very much resembles the form of Portrait of a Clown as well.  In the early years of his career in Germany (A section), Kirchner and some of his fellow art students formed the art society, Brucke, which just so happened to support Emil Nolde’s work.  Unlike Nolde though, Kirchner’s B section lasted much longer and was frought with a great amount of difficulties.  His art school closed, Brucke broke up, and he had a nervous break down while serving in the first world war.  The A section returned with a great amount of success for Kirchner.  In 1918 he moved to a mountain farm in Switzerland and painted mostly mountain scenes.  This is the point in his life when he painted Cows Released in Spring.  He was featured at many exhibits and was commissioned to paint murals in the Folkwang Museum.  Unfortunately though, Kirchner’s life does not end as happy as Nolde’s did.  When the Third Reich came into power, his art was also featured in the Entartete Kunst exhibit, and he committed suicide a year later.

Rhythm


Wildly Dancing Children - Emil Nolde
Emil Nolde painted his picture by placing the paint in the precise places he wanted.  Frank Ticheli composed his piece by placing the notes precisely where he wanted them.

Write out the counting for the following theme:

 


To create his work, Nolde used short brush strokes to create his work.  Even though the painting is made up of several individual, small strokes, the painting has a definite form that one can see, and that is of children dancing and playing.  Look at the music for Portrait of a Clown, how do Nolde’s brush strokes correspond to Ticheli’s staccato notes?
 

Untitled ­ Marc Rothko
 

In the B section, Ticheli changes the style of the notes.  What is different about the below excerpt, than from the first excerpt? (Look at the articulations)

Write out the counting for the above theme.
 

Marc Rothko used smooth, continuous lines to create his piece of art.  How does this relate to Ticheli’s above excerpt?  Would the music have the same affect if Rothko would have used short brush strokes like Nolde?

Melody







Melody A
 


 

Melody A appears several times throughout the piece:
 

mm. 9-16 ~ flutes and oboes

mm. 17-24 ~ flutes, oboes, and alto saxophone
mm. 68-75 ~ flutes, oboes, and cornet 1
mm. 77-84 ~ flutes, oboes, and clarinet 1
mm. 85-93 ~ cornet 1, trombone, euphonium, and low woodwinds
Melody A consists of accents, staccatos, and tenutos.  According to The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, 4th ed., accents are an emphasis on a particular note, giving a regular or irregular rhythmic pattern.  Staccatos are a method of playing a note so that it is shortened.  Tenutos are holding notes to their full value, sometimes even longer.
Practice playing all of the melody with 1) staccatos, 2) accents, and 3) tenutos.  Then, play the melody as written.  Have the students say which one they like the best and why.


 

The dynamics add much character to the melody.
 

Wildly Dancing Children – Emil Node

The melody jumps around with many small skips.  In the painting, the brush strokes are jumpy.  Alone they do not make much sense, but together they create a picture.  Finally, there are bright colors and dark colors in the painting.  The bright colors represent the louder dynamics; the dark colors represent the softer dynamics.  Since this melody uses mostly loud dynamics, it is like the painting because the painting uses a lot of bright colors.

Cows Released in Spring – Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

This painting also paints a picture that helps describe the repeat of Melody A.  The subject of the painting is light and bouncy, just as in the music.  How often do you get to see cows bouncing around in joy?  The smooth lines represent the tenutos (mm. 72-73), and the cows represent the staccatos.  They are put together in one painting as they are put together in the melody.

Melody B

 
Melody B appears several times in the second section:
mm. 34-41 ~ flutes and oboes
mm. 42-49 ~ flutes, oboes, alto saxophone, and cornet 1
mm. 58-67 ~ variation in the flutes, oboes, and alto saxophone
Melody B uses a lot of slurs.  According to The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, 4th ed., slurs are to be played smooth and connected when marked by a curvy line.
Try playing the melody separated and then smooth.  How does changing the articulation affect the mood of the piece?

f


 

p

   34                                            50                 58                                       67
 

Melody B is much more mellow than Melody A.  Not only is the articulation subdued with slurs, but the dynamics do not change as much as they do in Melody A.  The dynamics remain pretty consistent all the way through.
 

Melody B even contains a short counter motive.
 


 

The counter motive appears wherever Melody B appears:
 

mm. 34-41 ~ clarinets 1 and 2
mm. 42-49 ~ clarinets, trombone, and euphonium
mm. 58-67 ~ clarinets, cornets 1 and 2, trombone and euphonium
Like Melody B, the counter motive is also slurred.

 

Untitled – Marc Rothko

This section is represented by Untitled.  The melody itself is quite melancholy.  Dull colors are used in the painting provoking very little happiness.  Many of the lines are smooth and continuous, just as Melody B is slurred and continuous.  Finally, there seems to be several things going on in the painting.  Even though it is difficult to see, there are two shapes that are the focus of the painting.  In the background are more curves that help shape the painting.  This can be seen in the music through the combination of Melody B and the counter motive.

Assessment

  1. What does an accent look like?  What does it mean?
  2. What does a staccato look like?  What does it mean?
  3. What does a tenuto look like?  What does it mean?
  4. What does a slur look like?  What does it mean?
          Have the students play the differences in articulations.
Harmony





Wildly Dancing Children - Emil Nolde

Nolde used a variety of colors in his painting.  What feelings does it evoke for you? (Does it make you happy or sad?  Does this piece put you in a good mood?  Would you rather look at this than the Rothko piece?)
 

In the beginning of Ticheli’s piece, he uses all the instruments in the band.  Each instrument has its own timbre, or sound color.  Ticheli used all of the different instruments at once in order to bring out the rich color of the band.  What feelings do you feel during the first part of Portrait of a Clown?
 

Untitled ­ Marc Rothko

In stark contrast to the Nolde piece, Rothko’s barely uses color.  He chose to use shades of black in order to portray his feelings.  In the same respect, Ticheli used minor chords to evoke a darker color from the band.  Ticheli also used fewer instruments, just as Rothko used fewer colors.  Does this part in the music (B section) make you feel different than when you heard the music for the A section?

Form Analysis

link to form powerpoint





This piece is in a basic ABA form.  An eight bar introduction leads us into the A section at rehearsal box A (m. 9).  These eight bars consist of a series of staccato quarter notes and are harmonically centered around V.  This not only sets up the light, staccato theme at A, but it also acts as a dominant preparation for the Bb Lydian mode used in the A theme.
 

A - This section can be portrayed through Emil Nolde's Wildly Dancing Children (1909).  The A theme is very light and staccato.  This is shown by the short strokes of paint used on this painting.  Just as all the short strokes are put together to form a cohesive design, all the short staccato notes are put together to form a very cohesive melody.  This painting also illustrates the playfulness of the music in this section.  Not only is the melody of this section light and playful, but the accompaniment is also very light and rhythmic.  The children appear to be jumping around in constant motion, much like the notes in the A section.
 

B - The B section, which begins at rehearsal letter D (m. 34), is a contrast to the first section.  This section not only contains a new melody, but it also presents a contrasting key (f harmonic minor) and contrasting textures and articulations from A.  Marc Rothko's Untitled (1944/1945) is very different from Nolde's Wildly Dancing Children. The B section is very gentle and flowing, while the A section was very light and staccato.  Rothko's piece gives a visual image of flowing lines. The music, through way of slurs and ties, also presents a visual image of flowing lines.  The B section is very legato and expressive.  The flowing lines and lack of sharp points in the Rothko accurately depict this smooth, expressive style.
 

A - The A section returns at rehearsal letter H (m. 68).  This is a lot like the first A section in that they key returns in Bb Lydian and the A theme returns.  The two A sections differ in just a few ways.  There is an extension of the theme in the second A section, the accompaniment is slightly different, and different instruments are playing the melody/accompaniment from the first A section.  Cows Released in Spring (1918) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is a good representation of this section because it holds many of the same characteristics as Nolde's piece, but presents them in a slightly different way.  The playfulness of the second A section is portrayed through the playfulness of the cows in the pasture.  The 'jumping' idea is also present in this painting by Kirchner.  The cows are jumping around just as the melody/accompaniment jumps around during the second A section.
 

Finally the piece ends with a coda at rehearsal letter K (m. 94).  The coda uses introductory material from the introduction to set up the last two measures, which are in Bb Lydian mode.
 

Assessment

  1. Students can search for other contrasting works of art that can portray the contrasting sections present in Portrait of a Clown.  Students can write short essay's describing their findings.
  2. Students can compare and contrast other musical pieces in ABA form, describing the similarities and differences between each piece.
  3. On a written test, students could be asked to describe the differences between the sections of this or another assigned musical work.
Warm-up

Various warm-up exercises can commence using the scales/modes present in this piece (note that the key signature is always Bb concert because this is how it appears in the piece).  The A theme is based on the first 5 notes of the Bb Lydian scale.

The first B theme is stated in f harmonic minor (note that the D naturals in the melody are simply passing tones).

The second B theme is stated in Ab Major.

The first B theme is restated in F Major before the pieces returns to the A theme in Bb Lydian.

A variety of rhythms and scale patterns can be used with these scales/modes.  Using staccato and legato exercises will also help students within the piece.
 

One of the popular rhythms used a lot in this piece can be used alone or in conjunction with these scales to help develop the light, staccato style in warm-up.

This following rhythm can help with short, staccatos as well as reinforcing the importance of counting.