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Month: December, 2023

sonatas, continued (Messiaen – “Quartet for the End of Time”)

Red quartet - Raoul Dufy

    Red Quartet 

 

       Raoul Dufy

 

           _____

 

if a trio is a sonata written for three instruments,

a sonata, a piece of music consisting of more 

than one segment, or movement, written for 

four instruments, is called a quartet

 

a quartet is also what we call the group itself

of four players

 

quartets can play more than just quartets, they 

can also play waltzes, nocturnes, rhapsodies, 

for instance, just as trios, groups of three, can

play more than just trios 

 

but quartets, the form, have had a long and 

glorious history, from Mozart and Haydn, 

the Classicists, through Beethoven, an 

ardent Romantic, to the more political 

Shostakovich, enemy, for a time, of his 

repressive Soviet state, and on to 

Messiaen, who composed his own 

Quartet for the End of Time, in a Nazi 

concentration camp

 

let me start with the Messiaen, now that I’ve

whetted your appetite, and work our way back 

to Mozart to see where we came from, and 

how

 

there are seven movements in Quartet for

the End of Time, not the Classical three or

four, atonality abounds, discordant, not 

unexpectedly, progressions, repetition also 

takes its punches, not easily identifiable 

throughout, but tempo, the third pillar of 

Western music, more or less holds its 

own, keeping the tradition, however 

precariously, together, listen

 

it’s 1941, we’re in a concentration camp,  

Messiaen is caught between hope and 

despair, give the guy a break, he hasn’t 

many absolutes to hold onto, tempo 

might be one of them, the heartbeat,

pulse, perseverance, an actual human 

pace, a rhythmic instinct, by which 

eventually, hopefully, meaning 

transpires

 

hope is in one’s creativity, he says, each 

individual answer can be a tribute to

one’s own tribulations, our responses 

can be poetry, lessons rather than

invectives, epiphanies rather than

agonies, may the Force, in other words, 

be with you, in the face of even the most

trying difficulties, honour can supplant 

trials, he concludes, given grace and 

integrity

 

Beethoven says pretty much the same 

thing in his last piano sonata, remember,

his Opus 111listen, a not not impressive

corroboration

 

 

R ! chard

sonatas, continued (Rachmannov – “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini”)

Rhapsody, 1958 - Hans Hofmann

    Rhapsody (1958) 

 

       Hans Hofmann

 
           ________
           

before putting variations aside, if only 

for the moment, let me explain why 

this piece, an essential component

in the history of the form in our 

Western Classical musical culture, 

is not called variations

 

let me get into it

 

Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a 

Theme of Paganini is, essentially, 

a set of variations, but even more 

so, it’s a concerto, for piano and 

orchestra 

 

what’s a concerto, a concerto is a 

sonata, a piece of music consisting 

of more than one segment, movement,   

but written for a full orchestra, and one 

central soloist

 

Rachmaninov has therefore combined

two musical forms, variations and the

concerto, but eliminated the pauses 

between the movements, thereby 

blocking his path to calling his work  

a concerto, which requires identifiable

separate movements

 

with variations, Rachmaninov asserts 

the significance of repetition in our 

Western Classical musical structure,

each variation returns us to its source,

making manifest repetition, tradition,

ritual, as primary, as essential to 

community, to one-on-one trust

 

but each variation allows also for a

difference in tempo, another essential

element of the Classical architecture, 

these two aspects are therefore in

something of a conflict

 

tonality, the third essential component

of Classical music, remains essentially

untouched, there are no discordant

episodes 

 

this will happen, but only later

 

meanwhile, listen

 

R ! chard

sonatas, continued (Bach – “Goldberg Variations”)

Variations in Violet and Grey - Market Place, 1885 - James McNeill Whistler

 Variations in Violet and Grey – Market Place (1885)

 

          James McNeill Whistler

 

                    ___________

 

 

of all the sets of variations, Bach’s Goldbergs 

are supreme, they were written, apparently,  

for a friend, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, the 

harpsichordist of a Russian ambassador to 

the electoral court of Saxony, who often 

sojourned in Leipzig, one of Bach’s home 

fronts, to help him help the count, his 

master, however paradoxically, sleep

 

Glenn Gould made them famous, again, in 

1955, for my generation, electrifying the 

world with his clinical, rather than 

Romantic, interpretation, became, thereby, 

guiding light for me, a metaphysical 

mentor, and inspiration

 

he closed the chapter of his musical 

career in 1981, with the same piece 

all over again, revisited it, and once

more made musical history, listen

 

there is no alteration of volume in the

Goldbergs, the harpsichord hadn’t 

developed into the piano yet, the 

notes fall, however rhythmically 

indiscriminately, in a monotone, like 

water tinkling from a fountain, soporific 

eventually, inducing sleep, like clocks 

ticking, or bells ringing from church 

steeples, as in every quarter hour 

in nearly every European setting, 

to help counts, and everyone else 

in the vicinity, sleep 

 

listenenjoy

 

 

R ! chard

sonatas, continued (Beethoven – “32 Variations in C minor”)

Alice in Wonderland - Mary Blair

     Alice in Wonderland

 

               Mary Blair

 

                  ______

 

 

since I brought up variations in my last instalment,

pieces of music that elaborate on a principal theme,

develop it, transform it, into a variety of moods

and melodic directions, for entertainment, but also,

from the pens of the most fervent composers, 

metaphysical edification, I returned, nearly 

instinctively, to two sets of variations that changed 

my life, became polestars of my moral universe, 

for their pursuit of beauty and, consequently, 

meaning 

 

I’ll bring one of them up here only, save the other 

for its own particular moment, Glenn Gould, a titan 

of the Twentieth Century Classical music scene, 

displays, in this instance, not merely an 

extraordinary performance, but a wizardry, the 

enchantment, of a poet, a very prophet, an 

Alice in Wonderland“, going  through a 

looking-glass, you come out, with him, a 

different person

 

Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C minor“, 

listen

 

 

R ! chard

sonatas, continued (Beethoven – Opus 44)

The Greek Slave Girl (or Variations in Violet and Rose), c.1885 - c.1886 - James McNeill Whistler

  The Greek Slave Girl (or Variations in Violet and Rose) (c.1885 – c.1886) 

 

             James McNeill Whistler

 

                      _____________

 

 

a trio is a group of three instrumentalists,

most often a piano, a violin, and a cello,

in our Western musical tradition

 

but it is also a musical form, like a waltz 

is, or a prelude, or a nocturne, a trio is

a sonata, essentially, but written for 

three instruments, not one, nor two, 

consisting of more than one segment, 

or movement

 

though I’ve presented trios as trios to date, 

sonatas for three instruments, here’s a piece 

for three instruments but in one movement, 

though segmented, admittedly, as variations,

see above, a similar collection of rhythms 

and styles, brought together by a common 

essential element, a game audiences played 

back then, and still do even now, trying to 

distinguish the individual variations, before 

falling prey to their enchantment

 

here’s Beethoven’s Opus 44, in E-flat major,

listen, enjoy

 

 

R ! chard

sonatas, continued (Beethoven – Opus 97)

Wisdom - Constantin Brâncuși

   Wisdom 

 

           Constantin Brâncuși

                           _________

the best way to sharpen your aesthetic pencil

is always to put one thing up against another,

then decide which you like best, the outcome 

is never right or wrong, it is quite simply a 

function of your aesthetic sensibility, the 

more you exercise that taste muscle, holding

one element up against another, to compare, 

the more you develop an informed, if not ever

conclusive, opinion, which develops eventually 

into, if not authority, at least wisdom

 

what do you want to be when you grow up,

I asked myself in my very early teens, I

want to be wise like my grandmother, I

answered, have I reached my goal, you 

tell me, though it is still, and ever will be, 

my quest 

 

you’ve heard already in my last instalment

Frank’s Opus 1, no 1, a trio, here’s 

Beethoven’s “Archduke“, also a trio, his 

Opus 97

 

which do you like best, there is no correct 

answer, but your choice will tell you a lot 

about yourself

 

enjoy

 

 

R ! chard 

sonatas, continued (César Franck – Opus 1, No. 1)

Trio, c.1936 - Cyril Power

     Trio (c.1936) 

 

          Cyril Power

 

                ______

                

my Month of the Sonata might be over,

November, 2023, but I still abide by the 

belief that a sonata a day keeps the 

doctor away, so I’ve continued, more 

or less, my medicine

 

but a sonata exceeds its definition, a 

piece of music, consisting of more 

than one segment, called movement,

for one or two instruments, the second,

should it be included, being harmony 

for an instrument that can play only 

one note at a time, which is to say, 

everything except the piano

 

but a piece of music written for three,

instead of just one or two, instruments 

is also called a trio

 

a work consisting of more than one

movement, but performed by three, 

instead of just one or two, usually 

different, instruments, is as well 

called a trio, just to confuse you

 

here’s one, for violin, cello, and piano,

by César Franck, a Romantic composer, 

his Opus 1, No. 1

 

I didn’t expect much, it being, manifestly, 

his first composition, Opus 1, No. 1, but it 

was part of the program I got tickets for

coming up at our recital society here in

February, I had to investigate

 

to my surprise, it was, is, magical

 

enjoy

 

 

R ! chard