page_title: Stéphan Elmas
section_title: Style
hierarchical_section_title: Stéphan Elmas / Style
caption_attribution_description: English: Intro Theme of Stephan Elmas' Piano Concerto No. 1
context_page_description: Stéphan Elmas was an Armenian composer, pianist and teacher.
context_section_description: Stéphan Elmas began composing near the end of the romantic period.  It is no wonder why it is easy to hear influences of Chopin and Grieg in his music, especially in his piano concertos.  But there are also a lot of characteristics in his music that are unique to him.
  Elmas composed using standard forms, but altering them in his own way.  He often expanded rather than contracted formal structures.  The first movements of his first and third piano concertos are about 20 minutes long, as played by pianist Armnen Babakhanian.  The development section in his third piano concerto is 104 measures, more than 25% of the piece’s 396 measure length.  There are many ways that he expanded the form of his first piano concerto, including adding a five measure introduction to the full introduction, having a cadenza at the end of both the exposition and recap, as well as shorter cadenza-like passages at the end of the introduction and development sections, and by returning to the theme from the introduction after the orchestra’s final coda.  His third piano concerto also includes an introduction, a cadenza at the end of the exposition and recap, and an additional return to the introduction material in measure 390 after the orchestra’s final coda.  His concerto forms also show his added focus on the soloist, as he often doesn’t give a full statement of a theme to the orchestra, as he doesn’t give a full statement of his theme 1 or theme 3 to the orchestra in his first concerto, or a full statement of his first or second themes to the orchestra in his third concerto.
  Elmas also often expanded his phrase structure.  One of the ways that he did this was simply by repeating phrases, with slight variation.  He does this all over his first concerto, such as with this Theme 1 beginning in measure 26 and then repeating it in measure 36.  In his third concerto, he does this in his second transition that begins in measure 101, and repeats the small phrase, that is from measures 101-103, four times, with slight variation.  Another way is by additionally expanding the repeated phrase portion of a repeated phrase instead of cadencing around the same length of the first phrase by  creating a new harmonic sequence based off a motive from the previous theme or elongating the melody.  One example of this is in his second theme of his first piano concerto, beginning in measure 110, with a 6 + 6 measure repeated phrase, then repeating this phrase in a smaller 4 measure phrase form across an 18 measure larger phrase.
  Stephen Elmas was not afraid to explore new key progressions and structures.  For example, in his First piano concerto, he preferenced individualized resolution on a larger scale structure rather than resolving everything to a single unified key, such that in the exposition, he set the introduction in g minor, Theme 1 in g minor, Theme 2 in F major, and Theme 3 in C major, and then in the recap, instead of bringing every theme back to the tonic of g minor, he simply resolves Theme 2 and Theme 3 as if their key in the exposition were a secondary dominant of it in the recap, such that in the recap, Theme 1 is in g minor, Theme 2 is in Bb major, Theme 3 is in F major, but he concludes the piece with the tonic key of g minor with a return to the introduction material.  He does a similar thing in his first barcarolle, beginning in Eb minor, climaxing in Eb major in measures 141-156, but then falling back to Eb minor with the opening thematic idea.
  Elmas sometimes likes to experiment with various musical modes.  His seventh nocturne begins like it is in C# Phrygian mode, sounding like C# minor, but with a lowered second scale degree.  The first melodic note is a g#, adding to this harmonic feel.  The first notes in the bass also begins with the notes b-a-g#, adding an additional feel of the lowered second as if the tonic were G# Phrygian.  This also shows his use of the naturally lowered seventh scale degree, b.  This is short lived as it resolves to f# minor.  This piece moves to the parallel key of A major, but then moves to the strangely related k
caption: Intro Theme of Stephan Elmas' Piano Concerto No. 1
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