Richibi’s Weblog

      “Over the Town“ (1918)  

 

              Marc Chagall

 

                  ________

 

Johannes Brahms is pretty well the last of

the great Romantics, 1833 – 1897, he wrote 

his Piano Sonata no 3, in F minor, Opus 5,

when he was not quite twenty, with the 

same bravura as Beethoven, let me point

out, his sonata has five movements, a sign, 

as I’ve said before, of bristling confidence

as a form grows from its original, pristine, 

shape, it can only grow by evolving,

becoming something, eventually, that it 

wasn’t, by dint of breaking all the rules,

transgressing

 

style becomes the manner in which a

work is transformed from its integral

state into something more decorated,

more intricately designed, like adding 

lace to a perfectly adequate collar, or

making a soufflé out of an egg

 

but who wouldn’t, won’t

 

a point is reached where style overcomes

substance then, and becomes the focus 

of the entertainment, one watches the 

bravura

 

to my mind, this, however wondrous, 

sonata, hasn’t the emotional appeal

that I’d heard in the earlier Romantics,

that would keep me rapt to the end,

the draw for me is the prestidigitation, 

the manual dexterity, which is like 

watching someone fly through the 

air with the greatest of ease, but be

not otherwise moved, see above

 

but that’s me, and that’s to my mind

 

incidentally, since this is Brahms’ 

last sonata, he only wrote three,

this is probably the last of the 

great Romantic sonatas, after 

which Impressionism

 

 

R ! chard