In medias res

[Ilja]

Hello all,


Listening just now to Glass's First Symphony I found it interesting that a work from 1894 would start "in medias res" ("in the midst of the action" in cinematic terms). Schmidt-Kowalski did this in his Piano Concerto, but I assumed it was a (rare) modernist thing. Can anyone give some other early examples of a piece (or movement) beginning that way? Harold in Italie might be an example, but I'm not entirely sure.


Addition: in retrospect I might not have been precise enough. When I speak of In Medias Res, I think of a piece that begins as though it were in the middle of a movement. In the case of Glass's symphony, the (1st mvt) opening is reflected in the (4th mvt) coda.

[TerraEpon]

Not a TRUE example, but Blaník from Ma Vlast does this. It sort of starts off where the previous piece (Tábor) ends, but each section of Ma Vlast is considered a stand alone symphonic poem.

[Double-A]

I have to say I am still a little confused about "in medias res".  There are obviously pieces that start on the main theme the second they open (Beethoven's 5th being just one example) rather than rolling out the red carpet first (like the 4th).  But this does not seem to be what you have in mind.  It seems rather you want the plant to be there before the seed has made an appearance (or is it the egg and the chicken?).  Anyhow I believe any definition will only make sense in the context of sonata form where there is a defined "middle of things".  Where is medias res in a minuet with trio?  Not to mention a dodecaphonic piano piece...  So I am not sure what is surprising about it occurring in 1892.

Anyhow, the "minimalist" example of something along those lines occurs in the slow movement of Beethoven's trio op. 1/1.  The adagio begins with a 3-sixteenths upbeat in the piano that sounds like the last three notes of a transitional line:  As if you woke up while the music has already started.  Or as if Beethoven was not going to share ALL his music with you.  A gentle joke but definitely "in medias res" or at least pretending. 

BTW op. 1/1 is "unsung" in a Beethoven context.  Everybody focusses on op. 1/3 in c-minor (the key that makes everybody jump up and down when it comes to Beethoven).  I submit that it is unjustly unsung.  Nothing against op. 1/3, but he opened the set with 1/1.  And Beethoven did not leave things like the order of pieces in an opus to chance.  And in the case of op. 1/1 he was definitely right:  Assertive in the first movement, serious in the adagio in spite of the little smile at the opening (and a very Beethovenian adagio it is), very (very!) fast in the scherzo and utterly hilarious in the last movement.

[Ilja]

I have to say I am still a little confused about "in medias res".  There are obviously pieces that start on the main theme the second they open (Beethoven's 5th being just one example) rather than rolling out the red carpet first (like the 4th).  But this does not seem to be what you have in mind.  It seems rather you want the plant to be there before the seed has made an appearance (or is it the egg and the chicken?).  Anyhow I believe any definition will only make sense in the context of sonata form where there is a defined "middle of things".  Where is medias res in a minuet with trio?  Not to mention a dodecaphonic piano piece...

That's what I meant, but I'm not sure a sonata form is necessary. Some sort of introduction – or in this case the perceived lack of it – is, though.

So I am not sure what is surprising about it occurring in 1892.

Perhaps not so much surprising as "rare". I haven't come across it that much.

[Revilod]

I suppose works which are tonally unstable at their openings or which take a while to establish their tonal centre would come into this category. Mozart does it in the opening of the great Piano Concerto K.491. All 12 notes of the chromatic scale are sounded by the time C minor is established. This opening prefigures the opening of Liszt's "Faust Symphony" in that sense...another piece, then, which begins "in media res".

Beethoven and Haydn delay establishing the tonic sometimes. After the first movement, the opening of the slow movement of Haydn's Symphony No.35 in Bb sounds as though it begins "in media res" and it takes a while for the ear to undertand that the key is now Eb. Chopin was also very keen on delaying the tonic's arrival. The G minor Ballade is one example.

What about the opening of "Tristan"? That's a work which begins "in media res" and takes a while to arrive!

For works whose openings catch you unawares, how about Strauss's "Don Juan" or Rachmaninov's Fourth Piano Concerto?

[eschiss1]

In medias res basically means that it sounds like you've walked in on in the -middle of the thing- (literally translated)- less literally, that instead of coming in at something that sounds like a beginning, you've aurally "walked into" the middle of an argument already in progress.

To use a early 20th century (but not "modernist") example, Edmund Rubbra's 1st symphony (1934?) definitely opens this way- in part because of where the opening (B minor) phrase is stressed (wrong beats...)

[Ilja]

Yes, Eric, that is what I meant. I don't think the opening of Rachmaninov's Fourth Concerto would qualify.

[Herbert Pauls]

Stenhammar's Second Piano Concerto always sounded to me as though it opened in the middle of things.

[jdperdrix]

This is very subjective.
To me, two works by Schumann start that way: The 3rd symphony and the violin concerto. Closer to our time, Albéric Magnard's quintet for piano and winds starts unprepared (this is how I understant "in media res").

[Revilod]

I agree that the Stenhammar concerto would fit the definition probably, in part, because it's just not how a piano concerto is supposed to begin.
Some operas begin "in media res" dramatically and, as a result, musically. Strauss's "Salome" launches straight in. Operas aren't supposed to begin like that!

[chill319]

Granted it's not the first movement, but the first time I heard Atterbergh's Symphony 3, the agitated opening of the second movement sounded to me as if it had started in the middle of its development. I don't claim that anyone else would hear it that way (or even myself now), but the experience was of a piece with your thread. Perhaps the kind of cinematic in media res you have in mind (perfect example: the opening of Preston Sturges's Sullivan's Travels) requires a modernist aesthetic unlikely to be encountered during the Romantic period. That said, I think the way the opening of Mendelssohn's Italian bursts upon us is one of the attractions of that piece.