how to listen to music if you don’t know your Beethoven from your Bach, XI
.jpg!Large.jpg "Funeral in the Snow near the Old Tower, 1883 - Vincent van Gogh")
“Funeral in the Snow near the Old Tower“ (1883)
_________
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Category: Beethoven
February 7, 2023
how to listen to music if you don’t know your Beethoven from your Bach, Vl
“The Potato Eaters” (1885)
Vincent van Gogh
___________
where do you start with Chopin, he is
in our Western cultural bloodstream,
as identifiable in music as, say, van
Gogh is in painting, you don’t need
to be interested in any kind of art to
have not been given even only a
whiff of these iconic artists
nearly anything I might present here
of Chopin you’ve probably already
heard somewhere before, if only in
bits
of van Gogh, well, he goes back in
the public imagination to at least
Vincent, 1971, the song, no one
doesn’t know about him, when I
heard it playing in Amsterdam at
the museum, with the first piece I
saw, The Potato Eaters, dominating
the first wall, insisting on van Gogh’s
vision, his prophecy, his profound
compassion, I cried, I understood
what art is, see above
Chopin exerts a different kind of,
however equally potent, magic
Mozart might sound like Haydn,
Beethoven might sound like
Schubert, all of the Impressionists
sound like all of the Impressionists,
be they Ravel, Debussy, Satie, or
Saint-Saëns, to the untrained ear
but no one sounds like Chopin,
he’s, culturally, a North Star
here’s one of his nocturnes, the
moonlit one, in E flat major
here’s a polonaise, here’s an étude,
in English, a study, a finger exercise,
an iconic, here, prestidigitation
here’s an impromptu, his very,
indeed, Fantaisie-Impromptu, just
to get your categories going
consider its construction, having
some information already about
fantasias, a work of the imagination,
open to any experimentation within
the confines of one movement, with
an impromptu, something purported
to have been created on the spot,
also in one movement
the answer requires you to sharpen
your aesthetic pencil, always a
delight – an impromptu, a
spontaneous invention, a fantaisie,
a work of the imagination, how do
they differ, which part is a fantaisie,
which an impromptu, how do they
nevertheless coalesce
this exercise is the first step in
listening
enjoy
R ! chard
March 23, 2021
Beethoven – Septet, Opus 20
“Cherry Blossoms” (1970)
Toshi Yoshida
___________
though I’ve been focused on Ovid
especially lately, specifically his
Metamorphoses, other less
concentrated pursuits have also
taken up my time, Sophocles,
Shakespeare, American Idol, The
Great Canadian Baking Show,
Euclid, Existentialism, the variations
in colour, number, size of the cherry
blossoms growing on the trees along
my street as I ponder each morning
from my window their magical,
miraculous, incarnation, into the
world, their augury of, once again,
wondrously, springtime, March,
Vancouver
but recently I picked up a book, a
biography of Beethoven, in
snapshots, through the lens of
nine works of his in particular,
arranged chronologically
join me as I, one by one, present
them through the requisite number
of commentaries
the first is his forgotten, but apparently
all the rage in his day, Septet, opus 20,
which continued to be admired for its
Classical roots for a long time, a
comfortable, recognizable music,
but with enough modernity to warrant
extended popularity, the irrepressible
pull of Romanticism, the draw of the
encroaching 19th Century
Beethoven would become more and
more radical, irascible, demanding
eventually, and I conscientiously
interject here, more manifestly,
however counterintuitively, sublime
but there were contrary opinions,
much as elders have always objected
to the music of their children, portents,
always, of ensuing degeneration
you’ll recognize, perhaps, as I did,
in the Septet‘s third movement, the
same air as in Beethoven’s Piano
Sonata no 20, Opus 49, no 2, poets
borrowed from each other then,
still do, have ever, they speak the
same language, they would even,
as here, filch from themselves
the insignificant piece, the Sonata,
according to Beethoven, should’ve
been the disregarded work, the
Septet had the greater fame and
longevity, but history has its way,
a septet needs to put together
seven instrumentalists, of a certain
quality, each time, to survive, to
regenerate itself, a sonata, only
one committed interpreter each
generation
it is also an integral part of the
complete Beethoven sonatas, a
historical account equal, musically,
to the very Ten Commandments,
that foundational
R ! chard
April 14, 2020
art in a time of crisis
“Prelude to Alice“ (1955)
Charles Blackman
__________
in all the fallout from the very early
reactions still to the present global
crisis, self-isolation, a retreat from
the, not only usual but consolidating,
aspects of our communal interactions,
there remain effective manners of
dealing with this sea, this profoundly
existential, change we are viscerally
experiencing
a social animal is being asked to
eschew – Gesundheit – social contact,
this is not an inconsequential ask
religions might’ve earlier been common
recourses for many believers, but the
restrictions on assembly are already
impeding such solutions, we are left,
therefore, to find personal answers to
our prescribed isolation – what do I do
with my time, how do I subsist when
my supports are disintegrating
let me suggest immersion in the lessons
art has bequeathed us through the ages
it isn’t a bad time to review, for instance,,
the majesty of Homer’s Iliad, Ovid’s
Metamorphoses, his interpretation of
the origin of the world, its genesis,
Shakespeare’s tragedies, Beethoven’s
transcendental music, since many of us
are confined to our homes
rather than rue, bristle, use our time, I
suggest, to contemplate, learn, discover
in looking for flowers recently, for a
friend who’s undergone her own
private agony, unrelated to the
recent international medical crisis,
I fell upon, again, the magical
inventions of this utterly inspired
painter
like many other, even celebrated, even
revered, artists, this, however insulated,
however apparently isolated, visionary,
with the strength of his inspiration,
gives weight to the power of mere
poetic passion, a thrust towards what
is thought of as beautiful, however
individual, suggesting that each our
own aesthetic is of value, when
fervently followed, pursued,
check him out
meanwhile, I’m learning to sing, creating
a repertoire, what have I got to lose
R ! chard
February 25, 2020
on Beethoven’s Symphony no. 6, the “Pastorale”
“The Sound of the Flute“
Xu Beihong
________
for Susan, who urges
me ever to write
a friend wrote recently, extolling a
performance of Beethoven’s Sixth
Symphony he’d just seen, a
noteworthy conductor conducting
then again, how can you go wrong,
I wrote back, with that already
enchanting music, sent him, in
return, a version I’d ferreted out,
tried out for him, had been duly
enchanted, had laughed, had cried,
taken shelter from the storm, come
out the other side transported, again
I wondered about the power of music,
during my intermittent musings
throughout the variegated movements,
as the peregrinations ambled on along
their own magical explorations, long
irrepressible arpeggios running up or
down the scales, performing
arabesques at their peaks, rumbling
tremolos at their grumbling bottoms,
before returning to the more stable
middle ground of the melody
where, I wondered, does it all find its
source
sounds, individual sounds, would
have been signals of danger,
originally, a single note from a horn
warning of strangers on the way to
a community of otherwise peaceful
cohabitants if not only family, a twig
cracking in the forest when you
believe you’re all alone
individual sounds would’ve picked
up meaning beyond their own pitch
and volume, resonance, reverberation,
rotundity, through Darwinian, even,
time
a mother’s voice, for instance,
identified immediately, upon a single
note, perenially, by any of her brood
it’s a long way from there to a symphony,
but those are its roots, why we laugh, why
we cry, take shelter from the storm, and
come out the other side transported
notes are written, emblazoned, on
our consciousness, our lives depended,
depend still, on it
listen
R ! chard
psst: interestingly, our Darwinian evolution
has produced pitch as an identifying
factor for our species, a female voice
is higher than a male’s, this has
allowed us, as a species, to sing
October 22, 2019
Piano Concerto no 4, Opus 58 – Beethoven
“Music (Painting and Decoration of a Piano)“ (1915-1920)
Konstantinos Parthenis
__________
like with Shakespeare, some of Beethoven’s
work doesn’t reach the heights I find in their
utter masterpieces, his Fourth Piano Concerto
is, to my mind, such a piece, though it’s not at
all not impressive
my complaint is that the musical motive, the
original theme, the cluster, merely, of notes
that make up the matter of the ensuing
harmonic explorations, in all of the three
movements of the Fourth, is lost in his
excessive elaborations, one is distracted by
the soloist’s dazzling showmanship rather
than by the work’s metaphysical magic, as
is conversely the case rather in Beethoven’s
sister concertos, his One, Two, Three, and
Five
most notably, the Fourth‘s slow movement,
the andante con moto, slow, but not unduly,
passes by in an instant, nearly imperceptibly,
but for the conspicuousness of its plodding
rhythm, you wonder what just happened,
what did I miss
the first movement, the allegro moderato,
or slightly slower than allegro, begins highly
unconventionally with the soloist at the helm,
setting up the conversation, as it were, the
subject of the matter
that an individual, a commoner, would’ve
dared to initiate a dialogue of purported
significance in a culture where subjects
would have known their place, like later,
for instance, a woman asserting her
position in a patriarchal society, would’ve
been shocking, and highly controversial
but Beethoven raps out a rhythm, four
quick notes followed by four quick notes
followed by the same four notes again,
ra ta ta tat, ra ta ta tat, ra ta ta tat, like
someone knocking at a door, however
plaintively, requiring attention, before the
orchestra responds, determinedly and
categorically, though the soloist will ever
remain the prime, and manifest, mover
this is not a tune, this is a statement
this is also the 18th Century’s introduction
to the Romantic Period, where individual
voices were stating their answer to the
question of the disintegration of the
aristocratic as well as the religious
ideals which had prevailed throughout
the earlier Christian centuries, when
their controlling dogmas, however still
entrenched, were being questioned,
and rejected, as evidenced by both the
constitutional dictates of the American ,
and the French Revolutions, which
were installing, codifying for their
progeny, their individual continents,
and for very history, the idea of Human,
as opposed to the traditionally assumed
Divine, Rights
secular voices would consequently
sprout in myriad profusion
throughout the ensuing 19th Century
in order to people with personalities,
as distinct from omnipotent, whether
secular or ecclesiastical, established
figures, to shape the ideologies of the
impending future, for better or for
worse
but I digress, exponentially
the third movement of the Fourth Piano
Concerto reminds me, in all its urgency,
of the finale of Rossini’s William Tell
Overture, of which I suspect it might
have been an inspiration, the work
better known to many of my generation
as the theme to The Lone Ranger
Lone Ranger indeed, Beethoven was
already leaving his indelible, not to
mention generative, mark on our
present, 21st Century, culture
enjoy
R ! chard
October 1, 2019
Piano Concerto no 3 in C minor, Opus 37 – Beethoven
“Fishing Boats on the Deauville Beach“ (1866)
Gustave Courbet
___________
if you’ve listened to the first two
Beethoven piano concertos here,
you’ll find the Third to be very
similar in structure, the first
movement is an allegro, which is
to say it’s fast, and in the manner
of Beethoven, brash, tempestuous,
exhilarating, the second, slow, an
adagio, or a largo, is plaintive,
melancholy, mournful, the third,
brisk, ebullient, commanding, is
again an allegro
the form is descended from Mozart
and the Classical Period, of which
Beethoven is the tail end, but the
entrails of his pieces are entirely
upended and revolutionary
Beethoven demands your attention,
his music is no longer the backdrop
for social gatherings of the
aristocracy, but performances for
intent audiences
compare, for instance, Mozart’s
24th Piano Concerto, a more
demure affair, however
impressive
there are several similarities, both
pieces are in C minor, a downcast
key traditionally, but most notably,
the intial musical motive, or idea,
at the top of either concerto, their
first few introductory notes, are
the same, you’ll recognize them
but Mozart is never in your face,
insisting upon your attention with
eccentric rhythms and jerky
musical progressions, not to
mention loud and aggressive
passages such as Beethoven
presents, but lulls one, rather,
into his reverie with an ever
polite discourse from a
deferential soloist, courteous
and beholden, however ever
illustrious, from the first note
to the last
in the visual arts, it’d be like
comparing a Courbet, say, to a
Monet, it’s a question, given
their overlapping time periods,
of accent, and sentiment
you’ll need in either case, of
either, a keen ear, a keen eye
listen
now listen
R ! chard
September 23, 2019
Piano Concerto no 2, opus 19 – Beethoven
“Allegro con brio, Bourke St. West“ (1890)
Tom Roberts
________
a concerto is a movie, but for the ears,
one listens, rather than looks, for one’s
information
quite specifically, Beethoven introduces
drama into his inventions, where earlier
there’d been merely an invitation to the
dance, minuets, for instance, gigues, or
disparate, disorganized, appeals,
otherwise, to our more interior, whether
secular or mystical, emotions, see in
this context, for instance, early adagios,
heart-wrenching, melting often, odes
these, or the even slower largos, fit
neatly, however, into Beethoven’s
compositional scheme of things,
between the introductory allegros,
often con brio, and the closing,
and equally spirited rondos, by
becoming the pivotal element in
his intended musical evening, the
core of his narrative presentation,
the plangent centre of his three
part play, film
here’s his Second
listen
R ! chard
September 21, 2019
Piano Concerto no 1, opus 15 – Beethoven
Al Jolson, in “The Jazz Singer” (1927)
_________________
in order to abate my discomfort, my
consternation, after meeting up with
one of the candidates I considered
favouring in the upcoming election,
I put on Beethoven’s First, which,
incontrovertibly, from the first few
notes, did the trick, took me out of
politics and the uncomfortable
present, into metaphysical
pertinence, and magic
I’d referred to the issue of blackface,
a searing issue at present in the
media, I said, what about Laurence
Olivier doing Othello, Placido
Domingo doing the very same Moor,
not to mention Al Jolson doing,
unforgettably, “My Mammy“
but picked up that neither the
candidate, nor his mentor, standing
by his side, had any idea what I was
talking about
Placido Domingo, I said, one of The
Three Tenors, remember them
the aspiring representative indicated
a dim recollection, his accompanist
admitted to having nebulously heard
of him, them, somewhere
OMGess, I reared, I’m talking to the
next generation, maybe even the
generation after that, who have no
recollection, no understanding of
where I come from, it was, to say
the least, unsettling, discomfitting,
sobering
there was no one at home with whom
to commiserate when I arrived,
answering machines only at the end
of every line, I resorted, therefore,
not unwisely as it turned out, to the
said Beethoven, who was, as usual,
a lifesaver
listen
R ! chard
August 3, 2019
a degustation
“Lemons“ (1929)
___________
watching one of my cooking competition
shows on television the other day, the
twelve contestants were called upon in
pairs to create, each couple, one of the
six elements in a degustation menu
a degustation menu – I raised an eyebrow
at that one – is the same as a tasting menu,
but at a finer, it is implied, restaurant
the theme was citrus fruit, each service
had to highlight one of them, a mandarin,
a lemon, an orange, a lime, a tangelo,
a grapefruit, in that order
my goodness, I thought, a set of
variations on edibles, I was delighted,
not to mention synesthetically
titillated, all my senses were alive
the first course was a mandarin-cured
prawn ceviche, with pesto, something
to tease one’s palate, leaving plenty of
room, however, for what was to follow,
the second course, an equally light
lemon-cured salmon with smoked
crème fraîche and decorative
translucent radish slices, in again but
polite allotments
the third service introduces the protein,
duck with the nearly ever requisite
orange, but with beets, in this instance,
on an underlying sheen of all their
accumulated and colourful juices,
bread, I would imagine, would’ve been
gluttonously required
beef then followed, to fill the second
of the more substantial and filling
elements of the meal, with a lime
reduction and beets
for dessert, the fifth service presented
a tangelo cup with a surprise chocolate
truffle meant to burst in one’s mouth
with iced tangelo flavour, refreshing
and unexpectedly delightful, followed
by a grapefruit sorbet with chocolate
ganache and meringue shards as a
finale
not all contestants reached the heights
wished for, but some were memorable,
much as in any set of, even noteworthy,
variations
here’s Glenn Gould playing Beethoven’s
Six Variations in F major, Opus 34, each
variation is comparable to a culinary
experience, but for piano
listen, compare
these are preceded here by a late, and
haunting, Beethoven bagatelle, his
Opus 126, however, after which the
variations themselves are conveniently
spliced in the editing process to help
distinguish each movement from the
other
Glenn Gould doesn’t hit a note wrong,
but I think Beethoven’s introductory
aria, upon which the variations are
built, and which is repeated at the end
after a coda, or final interpolated wave,
is slow, a more engaging opening
would’ve been, to my mind, more
effective
I also would’ve, however peripherally,
degusted especially the lime beef
R ! chard
psst: incidentally, all Bach’s Cello Suites
are in six segments, their common
theme is dance, each one is a
scintillating Baroque example
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