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: Chopin
March 4, 2023
how to listen to music if you don’t know your Beethoven from your Bach, X
“Joseph Haydn” (1791)
Thomas Hardy
_______
though I’ve focused especially, during
this introduction to Classical music,
on Mozart, a second great pillar of
that era is Haydn, 1732 – 1809
here is one of his 62 piano sonatas,
which expresses more than anything
you’ve heard here yet the definition
of what music was at the time, or
should be, tonality, as I’ve earlier
said, tempo and repetition were
tantamount
listen for or the rigidity of the tempo,
the consistent melliflousness of
the melody, and therefore tonality,
and the repetition of all the
component tunes
I remember going to a drum recital
once, here in Vancouver, a guy was
expressing his artistry in a formal
venue, I was sitting in a forward
row, saw him set up his music on
his music stand, and I thought,
he’s going to have to turn the
pages, which he did, a drummer
that’s all I remember of the
presentation, but that was enough,
an entire revelation
in this Haydn sonata, the pianist
turns the pages of his score, back
and forth, an interesting visual
expression of the imperative of
repetition in that era’s music,
having to return to what had
been written on the previous
page
also note that trills abound
note too in the second movement,
the adagio cantabile, the sudden
introduction of arpeggios,
transcendent, as though angels
had just appeared
which prefigures the metaphysical
aspirations of the Romantic Period
which ensued, see, for instance,
Chopin
note also that we’re on fortepiano
here, a period instrument, a cross
between the harpsichord and the
modern instrument
thoroughly enjoy
R ! chard
March 2, 2023
how to listen to music if you don’t know your Beethoven from your Bach, IX
“The Spanish Guitarist” (1897)
____________
just as I was about to relegate the trill
to Mozart and the Classical Period, I
inadvertently came upon something
wonderful by Joaquín Rodrigo, a
Spanish composer, 1901 – 1999, a
concerto for guitar
the trill had been decorative, meant to
appeal to aristocrats frequenting
salons
then the French Revolution happened,
and the growth of the Middle Class,
and consequently popular avenues
of entertainment for the liberated,
concert halls, for instance, looked
for a more emotionally powerful
experience, arpeggios took care of
that
the trill died
but in 1939, nearly two centuries
later, Rodrigo wrote his Concierto
de Aranjuez, a descendent pays
homage to an elder, trills abound
it should be stated that a guitar can
play only one note at a time, it might
be that trills lend themselves better
to such an instrument than an
arpeggio would
then again, I’ve found that Spanish
music, the tango, the tarantella, for
instance, see above, has held more
rigidly to the imperatives of Western
music I’ve spoken of here before,
tempo, tonality, repetition, it is not
Debussy, Ravel, it is not even
Chopin, it is peripheral, maybe, to
the cultural establishment, but
potent, steeped in blood and
tradition
here’s Rodrigo giving you Mozart
enjoy
R ! chard
February 26, 2023
how to listen to music if you don’t know your Beethoven from your Bach, Vlll
“Polonaise” (1934)
Konstantin Korovin
________
cause the pickings are slim among the
shared musical formats between Mozart
and Chopin, Mozart, for instance,
composed eighteen piano sonatas to
Chopin’s mere three, Chopin’s First
even having been more or less
disregarded since for being promising
maybe, but not at all inspired, where
Mozart meanwhile also wrote 27 piano
concertos to Chopin’s only two, though
both, his, entirely mighty
Chopin, however, pretty well establishes
the nocturne, the scherzo, the prelude,
the étude, the polonaise, the mazurka
as musical forms, while Mozart never
establishes a thing, apart from his own
supreme talent
but here are a couple of fantasias that
they both share, Mozart’s Fantasia
no 3 in D minor, of four, Chopin’s
Polonaise-fantaisie in A-flat major,
Opus 61, Chopin blending here his
fantaisie to the beat of a polonaise,
a dance form of his native Poland,
see above
listen for trills in the Mozart, which
admittedly show up only near the
end of the piece, otherwise he
sounds a lot like, I’ll admit, Chopin
listen for arpeggios in the Chopin
a follow-up exercise in listening,
trills, notably, up against arpeggios
consider, enjoy
R ! chard
February 16, 2023
how to listen to music if you don’t know your Beethoven from your Bach, Vll (cont.)
“The Music Lesson” (c.1769)
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
_______________
having spent too much time, perhaps,
giving context, from Classicism to
Romanticism, in my last communication,
brought on by the worlds that open up
to me when l Iisten to this kind of music,
rather than imparting specific information
about how to sharpen one’s aesthetic
sensitivity, about listening rather than
just hearing, this time I’ll get technical,
if you’ll allow, with the help of the same
two pieces, Mozart’s 16th piano sonata,
Chopin’s 3rd, how are they different,
how are they similar, how do they
compare
first, similarities, they are both sonatas,
pieces of music consisting of more than
one segment of music, traditionally, three
or four, Mozart here has three, Chopin
four
Chopin doesn’t diverge from the trinity
of imperatives that Mozart set up
during the Classical period, tempo,
tonality, and repetition, the pace of
the music remains constant within
the parameters established by the
directions at the top of the page,
an adagio doesn’t change its beat
throughout the movement for either,
nor would an andante, a presto, an
allegretto
this will change
neither does any element of the
music produce discords, tonality
remains mellifluous throughout
for both, lilting, harmonious ever,
even often, in either, enchanting
this will also change
and everywhere, a flight of musical
invention will eventually return to
its original source, and you find
that you’ve come back from a sonic
adventure to home base, where the
whole thing starts all over again,
repetition, a condition considered
essential, until relatively recently,
to the definition of music
this will also change
but how are they different
listen to the decoration, Mozart
applies trills to individual notes,
a flutter of adjacent tonalities
to set the central one off, like
glitter, the twitter of birds
punctuating, here and there,
the stillness of a forest
Chopin colours his entire
keyboard with arpeggios rather,
runs up and down the scales,
turning melodies into not only
delights, but stepping stones to
entirely other dimensions,
extrapolations from the original
tune, seemingly spontaneous
evolutions, the first burgeonings,
incidentally, of jazz, before returning,
notably, to his original air, much as
Mozart does, to his core statement,
fulfilling the Classical requirement
of repetition
here’s Mozart, trilling
here’s Chopin, arpeggiating
how to tell your Chopin from your
Mozart, how to sharpen your
aesthetic sensibility, listen, listen
R ! chard
February 11, 2023
how to listen to music if you don’t know your Beethoven from your Bach, Vll
“The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog” (1818)
Caspar David Friedrich
_____________
by now, if you’ve been listening,
you’ll probably easily tell your
Chopin from your Mozart, even
without looking
if not, the one who isn’t Mozart
is Chopin, the one who isn’t
Chopin is Mozart, cause you’re
likely to recognize the one if not
the other
here’s Mozart’s Piano Sonata
no 16 in C major, K. 545, from
1788, which even Mozart
deemed “for beginners”, but
its very elementary qualities
suit, here, my purposes
here’s Chopin’s Piano Sonata
no 3 in B minor, Op. 58, 1844,
some sixty years later, the
epitome of the Romantic Era
Mozart is Classical, the foundation
of the shape and sound of music
in the West, think of Oriental music,
Chinese, for instance, opera, as an
alternative inspirational direction
he sets, along with Haydn, incidentally,
the parameters of Western music, I
call it its grammar, tempo, tonality,
and repetition, its hallmarks, its sine
qua non, as we say in Latin, its trinity
of imperatives, its without which there
would be no Western music as we
know it
Romanticism, after two revolutions,
the French and the American, comes
along to turn all of that into literature,
prompted by the spirit of democracy,
the first expressions of it since Caesar,
Ancient Rome, where earlier,
everywhere, kings had ruled, and by
extension, even more autocratically,
the Church, for monarchs had
received, morally, and consequently
politically, from it, their mandates
from God
one man, one vote, even theoretically,
upended that entire metaphysical
construct, therefore Romanticism
everyone had a voice, everyone had
a story, the birth of the individual,
and of, by extension, human rights,
for better or for worse, see above
therefore Chopin
listen, Chopin is the new Jesus,
prophet, but for a new age
stay tuned
R ! chard
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
February 2, 2023
how to listen to music if you don’t know your Beethoven from your Bach, V
“Waltz” (1891)
Anders Zorn
________
having brought up the idea of
longevity in my last communication,
the fantasia, a musical form that
lasted about 150 years, with hats
off nevertheless to the later Disney
classic, Fantasia, a tribute, which,
full of Classical music references,
followed in its spiritual mode, and,
after introducing Chopin, perhaps
the very representation of the
Romantic Era, that we carry, or
intuit, in our very bones, I thought
I’d talk about the waltz, a Chopin
specialty, where he created,
incontrovertibly, utter magic
who hears of the waltz anymore, an
antiquated curiosity, though even in
our not so distant blood we feel the
reverberations of its memory, the
throb of its still vibrant cultural
intensity, relevance, rhythm
tangos, incidentally followed, and
other intimate interactions, which
had been earlier frowned upon
the waltz had been the minuet,
the difference was the physical
contact, young nobles left their
aristocratic salons, however
discreetly, to frequent the
more liberal, if disreputable,
establishments – like to
speakeasies during Prohibition
– where they could explore the
new, licentious venues, as
young nobles, ever, would, for
the lure of intimate connection
with the partner
the waltz was thereby born,
couples touched, breast upon
breast, composers followed
Chopin was metaphysical, you
didn’t dance to his waltzes, you
experienced them, here’s his
Minute Waltz, Opus 64, no 1,
here’s his equally delightful
Opus 64, no 2, its companion
but Strauss ll, Johann l‘s son,
got all of Vienna to dance his,
and everywhere else after, until
the waltz fell out of favour
somewhere in the 1950s, leaving
only its memories behind, here’s
his incandescent By the Beautiful
Blue Danube, makes you wish
you’d been there
in the one case, the waltz is
idealized, in the other, it’s the
waltz in action, listen, you can
tell the difference, you won’t
want to dance, for instance, to
Chopin, though you might give
it an ineffectual try, to Strauss,
you’ll careen
R ! chard
January 29, 2023
how to listen to music if you don’t know your Beethoven from your Bach, lV
“Fantasy“
Sergey Solomko
________
trying to find a quick piece, nothing
ostentatious, like a symphony, or a
concerto, nor even a sonata, that
would get in the way of my point,
the difference between, by way of
the intermediary, and transformational,
Chopin, Mozart and Prokofiev, I found
the fantasia, the only musical form
that was carried forward, among them,
during the intervening years, a good
hundred and fifty, Mozart, 1756 – 1791,
Prokofiev, 1891 – 1953, Chopin, 1810 –
1849
what’s a fantasia, a musical form
consisting of one movement,
no breaks, but with, otherwise,
unlimited compositional liberties,
see above, only circumscribed by
the temper of the times
Western music has since its
Classical inception, and even
earlier, had a trinity of
commandments, that regulated,
even defined, what was meant
to be music, tempo, tonality,
and repetition, the history of
music in the West is the
chipping away at those
conventions
here’s Mozart, Fantasia in C
minor, K.475, establishing the
form, but also the foundation,
the grammar, that aspirants
would follow in the footsteps
of so great a master, children
and grandchildren of their
erudite elder
Chopin followed, here’s his
Fantasy in F minor, Op.49,
in this instance, a historical
moment you won’t want to
miss, when Van Cliburn, an
enemy American at the time,
played it for Nikita Kruschev,
First Secretary of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union then, in
Moscow, and tempered thereby,
for an incandescent moment –
ticker-tape parades in New York
City ensued – the very Cold War
reliving it, I cried
the greatest difference between
Mozart and Chopin, I thought,
was volume, a consequence
of the development of the piano,
Mozart never gets as loud, also
tempo was much more expanded,
again a development of the piano,
neither was repetition with Chopin
so much in evidence, but shrouded,
less manifest
also Chopin wears his heart on
his sleeve, idiosyncratically
with Prokofiev, his Fantasia on
Themes from Scheherazade
tests tonality, gives us musical
conjunctions that are askew,
discordant, though completely
in syncopation with his own,
testy and unsettled, times
compare, consider, enjoy
R ! chard
July 19, 2020
Chopin Piano Concerto no. 1
“The Monument to Chopin in the Luxembourg Gardens“ (1909)
Henri Rousseau
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