Classical Music A to Z aims to demystify the extensive, confusing and foreign terminology of classical music one letter at a time. In this edition, E is for encore – a word to shout if you’d like musicians to play more.
I recently heard someone compare concert encores to “sticky drinks at the end of a dinner party” – the equivalent of unexpected, delicious offerings that make the most sated of diners find just a little more room for a small indulgence.
In my experience the fashion for sticky drinks seems to have dwindled in recent years, but we still maintain a keen appetite for musical encores.
“Encore,” meaning “again,” is, of course, the cry we bellow towards the stage to express our enthusiasm and appreciation for a musician at the end of a performance. After their physical and emotional roller coaster of an exhausting performance, you might think that we’d let musicians mop their brows and go home. But we don’t. Graciously, they usually comply with our demands for more. When they don’t, it’s not unusual to feel cheated.
In the past, the encore was a more spontaneous occurrence. In the 17th and 18th centuries orchestras would respond to applause after each movement and occasionally, if requested by the audience, repeat the movement – sometimes a number of times – before moving on. Now encores are reserved for the end of concerts, and they are often carefully planned by the performers, and usually consisting of either a dash of flash like the Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, or a few minutes of brooding reflection – such as a sarabande from a solo suite by J.S. Bach. Sometimes, it’s a combination of both.
Violinist Julia Fisher follows her performance of Brahms's Violin Concerto with a solo encore by J.S. Bach.
You can sample a full slate of popular, enduring encores on Canadian viola player, Rivka Golani’s Encores CD. She’s lovingly revived some of the great 19th-century miniatures for this recording: works by Fritz Kreisler , Henryk Wieniawski , Sergei Rachmaninov and Jascha Heifetz, among others.
American violinist Hilary Hahn is taking a different approach. She’s breathing new life into the concert encore by commissioning composers to write them for her. Her project is called 27 Pieces: The Hilary Hahn Encores. The encores range in length from 90 seconds to five minutes and are scheduled for release in the 2012-13 season. But, naturally, if you hear her live, Hahn will have them on hand.
By the way, if you feel a burning urge to write a violin encore, Hilary Hahn is holding a competition for the 27th encore. It's open to everyone – professionals, amateurs, concert-goers and students. You’ll have to be quick. The deadline is March 15, 2012.
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