Études – Chopin /Debussy
Richibi’s Weblog
Just another WordPress.com weblog
Month: December, 2018
December 28, 2018
Edgar Degas
December 27, 2018
Études, Opus 10 – Chopin
“Études pour l’Apothéose d’Homère” /
“Studies for The Apotheosis of Homer“ (1826 – 1827)
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
____________________
what’s an étude
you tell me
here are 12, all by Chopin, his first
set of two, his Opus 10
in English, étude is a study
enjoy
R ! chard
psst: if you said they’re technical
pieces, warm-up exercises,
in preparation for more
substantial stuff, you’re on
it should be noted that Chopin,
after the more rudimentary
undertakings of the earlier
Czerny, for instance, or Clementi,
say, added the required substance,
the missing transcendental
element, turning his otherwise
mere digital pyrotechnics into
utter poetry, into prestidigitatorial
magic
December 23, 2018
Chopin / Beethoven
“The Sonata“
Childe Hassam
________
what’s the difference between
one, Chopin’s “Andante spianato et
grande polonaise brillante“
two, Beethoven’s Piano Sonata no 32,
opus 111
you tell me
that one is Chopin, the other Beethoven,
doesn’t, of course, count
R ! chard
psst: if you considered the intervening
pause between the two distinct
musical segments, you’re on, the
pause makes clear the separate
sections, though these be
nevertheless profoundly, and
incontrovertibly, interconnected,
you can feel it
the pause determines the form,
once there are two portions, you
have movements, movements
are the essential components of
a sonata, no movements, no
sonata
the Chopin has no movements,
just one continuous elaboration,
however multiply constructed,
and is so called – “Andante
spianato et grande polonaise
brillante” – note the conjunction
both, however, juxtapose
contrasting, though intimately
conjoined, musical pairings to
be experienced as couplings,
for better or, as ever, for worse
both, incidentally, are profoundly,
and inexorably, Romantic, which
is to say, personal, and probing
December 22, 2018
from act 4, scene 3 – Othello
when Desdemona learns that Othello
suspects her of adultery, she asks
her maidservant
Dost thou in conscience think,–tell me, Emilia,–
That there be women do abuse their husbands
In such gross kind?
Emilia, older, wiser, replies
There be some such, no question.
But I do think it is their husbands’ faults
If wives do fall: say that they slack their duties,
And pour our treasures into foreign laps,
Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us,
Or scant our former having in despite;
Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace,
Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know
Their wives have sense like them: they see and smell
And have their palates both for sweet and sour,
As husbands have. What is it that they do
When they change us for others? Is it sport?
I think it is: and doth affection breed it?
I think it doth: is’t frailty that thus errs?
It is so too: and have not we affections,
Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
Then let them use us well: else let them know,
The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.
“fall” in the second verse, for this is
indeed a poem, in iambic pentameter,
could easily be replaced by “fail“,
nearly even calls out for it,
homophones but for the timbre of
their vowels
say that their husbands slack, she says,
then lists the several manners in which
husbands might betray their marital
duties, by “foreign“, she means “other“,
foreign to the family circle
“laps“, incidentally, is a wonderful
metaphor to accompany “treasures“,
suggesting intimate physical contact,
much more so, say, than “hands“
would’ve, for instance, been
“restraint” means conditions, stress,
impositions
“scant our former having“, to diminish
that which formerly had been given,
of either material or psychological
goods – “having” is a noun here, not
a participle
“in despite“, which is to say, “out of
spite“
“galls“, a synecdoche for internal
organs, a synecdoche, the word
that means a part which signifies
the whole
“affection” is “lust“
we’re equal partners, Shakespeare
says, men and women, in a shared
humanity, indeed Shakespeare is
one of the first Humanists after
centuries of religious subjugation,
centuries of the suppression of
independent thought, a defining
notion, not incidentally, of the
Renaissance
R ! chard
December 20, 2018
andante / polonaise, Chopin
“Chopin’s Polonaise – a Ball in Hôtel Lambert in Paris“ (1859)
Teofil Kwiatkowski
___________
what’s the difference between
one, an andante spianato
two, a polonaise
you tell me
both, of course, by Chopin
“andante” is a pace, a tempo, a little faster
than adagio, slower than allegro, “spianato”
is an Italian word for “smooth”, “even”
“et” is “and” in French
“polonaise” is a French adjective for
“Polish”, as a noun it means a Polish
dance
R ! chard
psst: if you said intention, you’re again
right, everything else is, of course,
Chopin, two different perspectives
on a related issue
think of two distinct elements
coming together, formally
conjoined, as in a mariage,
for better, ever, or for worse
or as in this Andante Spianato et
Grande Polonaise Brillante, a
conjunction which has lasted,
indeed brilliantly, for nearly two
hundred years, despite individual,
sometimes divergent, even
conflicting, outlooks
enjoy
December 18, 2018
nocturnes / scherzos, Chopin
“Scherzo di putti“
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
______________
two, a scherzo
you tell me
both by Chopin
nocturne, incidentally, is a French
word for night music
scherzo is an Italian word for joke,
something humorous
R ! chard
psst: if you said the pace, the tempo,
however comparably, in all the
instances, elastic, you’re
absolutely right, the rest is
ever entirely Romantic, which
is to say, by definition,
introspective
December 16, 2018
a waltz / a nocturne, Chopin
“Nocturne“ (1991)
Eyvind Earle
________
what is the difference between
one, a waltz
two, a nocturne
both by Chopin
you tell me
R ! chard
psst: if you said the beat, you’re
entirely on your way, the
rest is, in either case,
entirely Romantic
Richibi's Weblog 