The Ridiculous Traveler: Overture by Florian Leopold Gassmann

Today on WETA FM - Washington DC, I had the opportunity of listening to The Ridiculous Traveler: Overture, composed by Florian Leopold Gassmann (1729-1774). Gassman composed many Bohemian operas (despite the fact that he was a German speaker) in the time frame between the baroque and classical eras of music. This Overture was performed by the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra and conducted by Sylvia Alimena.

There are four movements that make up this Overture. The first movement begins in a fast tempo and forte dynamic with stringed instruments. It is clear that the music is in a major mode. While the violins are heard playing a theme in higher pitches, the violas and cello play a lower theme that moves up and down on the diatonic scale. Each of the notes that the lower stringed instruments are playing are played directly on each beat of the music. The accents of the beats give the music a very metrical and rhythmic feel. The meter is duple in a 4/4 time signature. Wind instruments repeat the theme, and the strings seem to respond to the wind section and vice versa. A strong cadence is heard, and the second movement of the Overture begins.

The second part is played somewhat slower than the first. However, the tempo picks up with the entrance of the violins once again playing the theme. The theme is made up of a small sequence of pitches that is played higher and higher in pitch while still maintaining the same interval between the notes. The third movement depicts a lot of repetition in musical sequences heard both in the string section and wind section. Sometimes it sounds as though the instruments are responding to each other in jubilation. The lower register stringed instruments, the violas and cello, continue to play notes on each beat to emphasize the meter and give the music a lively and uplifting sound. A lovely legato flute solo is also heard in this movement. The fourth movement is much like the third insofar as the repetition of sequences is very prominent. Certain decorations in notes are added to the sequence, but for the most part, the theme is heard repeatedly as it was in the beginning. The music ends with a mezzo-forte major chord, going back to the tonic.

Gassman’s Overture is jovial, fast-paced and simply enjoyable to listen to.