“Orfeo ed Euridice” – Christoph Willibald Gluck
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Category: elegies – threnodies
December 7, 2019
you’ll find it irresistible
November 9, 2019
“Death is nothing at all…” – Henry Scott Holland
“St Paul’s Cathedral“
Thomas Hosmer Shepherd
_____________
upon learning of the recent demise
of my younger sister, my only sibling,
a friend sent me the following passage
“Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away
into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains
exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we
lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we
were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar
name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put
no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or
sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we
enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my
name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be
spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.
Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was.
There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is this death
but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because
I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval,
somewhere very near, just round the corner. All is well. Nothing
is hurt; nothing is lost. One brief moment and all will be as it was
before. How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we
meet again!”
it is usually presented as a poem, but
was part of a sermon, rather, given by
Henry Scott Holland, the very pastor
who composed it, at St Paul’s
Cathedral, in London, after the death
of Edward Vll
listen
it expresses well the experience I’ve
had with others of my beloved
departed
intimations of my sister are already
popping up in my reality, soon, I told
another friend, I’ll be talking to her
more often than when she was not
gone
much as is the case with my father,
for instance, away some 30 years
now, but an abiding presence,
however mystical, still, and,
it appears, forever
I consider myself profoundly
blessed
R ! chard
October 28, 2019
“Requiem” – Antonin Dvorak
Chartres Cathedral – View from south-east
_____________________
for Donna
a few days before a dear friend was due
to pass away, which is to say with medical
assistance, I had taped from television,
whether coincidentally or not, Antonin
Dvorak’s “Requiem”, though I hadn’t yet
listened to it
on the day of the procedure, I lit candles,
put the music on, and sat in attendance
as its flights of angels s[a]ng [her] to
[her] rest
the piece is somber, probably reserved for
somber occasions, but upon their instance,
the work is glorious, and salutary
here, it is performed at the Cathedral
of Chartres, suffused with the solemnity
and the splendour appropriate to such
a fateful moment
may you journey forth in peace,
dear friend
R ! chard
September 15, 2019
“The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross” – Joseph Haydn
“Lord´s Crucifixion“ (1990)
George Stefanescu
____________
my sister is not well, her situation,
though blessed throughout with
grace, is dire, in such moments I
turn to music for consolation, for
courage, and for a serene
acquiescence to whatever might
be the outcome, the hour that I
spend thus with her becomes in
that light a meditation, a mass,
a private prayer
I’ve lit a trinity of candles in her
honour, one nearby for our dad,
gone these already thirty years,
on something of an altar I’ve
fashioned, however all the while
unconsciously, about my
fireplace, by their flickering
silence, I find a place for
solemn contemplation
“The Seven Last Words of Our
Saviour on the Cross“ is to my
mind Haydn’s greatest
masterpiece, its subject is
self-explanatory, but you might
want to read again here what I
wrote about it earlier for
greater context
it is sung in the Oratorio de la
Santa Cueva, the Oratory of
the Holy Cave, in Cádiz, Spain,
for which it had been originally
composed
it is transcendent
R ! chard
June 5, 2018
twice upon a dirge – Beethoven / Chopin
“Owl on a Grave” / “Eule am Grab“ (c.1836 – c.1837)
_______
following my nose rather than
my intellect in my exploration
of musical treasures, like a very
Aladdin uncovering at the click
of my password a cave full of
priceless wonders, I might find
stuff out of sequence, but gems
nevertheless, and I can’t just
whisk by without acknowledging
them, however peripheral to my
main task
it’s like heading towards the Eiffel
Tower in Paris, and not stopping
at the Arche de Triomphe
though I’d debated so soon
presenting these two pieces,
not because of their chronology
especially, though also that, but
mostly because of their dour
content, I’ll point out that the
move from Classicism to
Romanticism is the transition
from dance music, delightful
music, to drama, passion,
powerful emotions, dirges,
therefore, are not out of place,
however mournful
thus the two most famous
funeral marches, Beethoven’s,
Chopin’s, the third movement
in either of their home sonatas
the clincher for me was the
immaculate performance of
the Chopin here, a revelatory
moment, though the Beethoven,
significantly earlier, the tune,
1801, 1837, is nevertheless
unimpeachable, however still
underdeveloped – four variations
only in the first movement, for
instance, and all of them
elementary – the caterpillar had
not yet become the butterfly, the
apple blossom the apple
note that each movement in the
Chopin, apart from the last, has
two distinct tempi, executed
effortlessly and nearly
imperceptibly, a total of six, you
can’t see, you can’t hear, the
seams as you listen, which, with
its virtual therefore episodes,
conflicting and tortuous
emotions, constitute collectively
a drama, a narrative, music has
become literature
the last movement of the Chopin
moves beyond even tempo –
Beethoven’s also, incidentally,
nearly – creating therefore a
very challenge to it, both trying
to transcend tempi, an area to
closely watch
Beethoven’s Piano Sonata no 12
take your pick
both are supremely, mark,
instructive
R ! chard
March 20, 2018
different trains – Reich / Bach
“Saint-Lazare Gare, Normandy Train“ (1887)
________
since I’m on the subject of trains, let me
once again highlight a piece that, to my
mind, is one of the most significant
works of the 20th Century, Steve Reich’s
“Different Trains“, an extraordinary
homage to the victims of the Holocaust
it is in three movements, “America –
Before the War”, “Europe – During the
War“, and “After the War“, Reich
recounts his impressions of train trips
that marked him throughout, therefore
this is an autobiographical work, as
well as being an historical document,
and add to that a profoundly moving
musical meditation on a pivotal
moment in our history
I used to say that if you’re going to
open your mouth, you should be
either entertaining or informative,
preferably both, otherwise keep
your mouth shut, many took
offense, I must’ve been
insufferable
but, I would opine, life is short,
you’ll have to, I’m afraid, deal
with your own shortcomings
Reich here has no shortcomings,
though at first you think this might
be a long trip, with so many
repeated musical clusters, not to
mention the strident atonality, it
soon becomes evident that this
piece is amazing, a personal and
powerful evocation of a particular
transformational event seen
through the eyes of an innocent,
an American child, a poet,
experiencing, however
metaphorically, the horror of this
defining moment
style and content, information and
entertainment, indissolubly gel to
deliver an unforgettable experience,
my own such pivotal moment
would’ve been the Cold War air raid
shelters, the nuclear threat
Reich holds on to Classical
conditions by a mere thread, tempo,
however variable, is solid throughout
as a rock, dictated by the prepared
tape that the instrumentalists must
follow rhythmically like a clock
another divergence from the
Classical model is that tonality
and recapitulation, apart from the
repetition of musical clusters, is
entirely jettisoned
note, however, the same use of
repeated clusters in Bach, to
simulate propulsion, the
minimalism of the 20th Century is
already prefigured in Bach’s stuff
plus ça change, as we say in French,
there is nothing really new, in other
words, under the sun
in the spirit of juxtaposing items
to discover much more than the
sum of their parts, listen to Bach’s
Second Suite, in D minor, for
inspirational clarification
R ! chard
psst: there were no trains at the time
of Bach, I should note, they were
a product of the later 19th-Century,
its Industrial Revolution, see, for
instance, here, or above
November 10, 2017
Symphony No 3 in Eb major, op. 20, “The First of May”
“The 1st May Demonstration on The Red Square, 1929“ (1930)
__________
let me correct something I wrote in my
last comment, inadvertently, misleading
you somewhat with my inappropriate
use of the word “movement”, that the
Symphony no 2 had only one, I stated,
by which I meant that there were no
pauses throughout, there are, however,
indeed four movements in the Second,
four distinct sections that have been
joined together, such an uninterrupted
piece would usually have been given
an appropriate title, or an opus number,
to identify it, but would not have been
called a symphony, a symphony is by
very definition a clearly segmented
composition, like chapters in a book,
they might follow a theme, though not
necessarily, see Mozart, but the breaks
are integral, where you get a chance to
cough, or to get up and replenish your
glass of wine
the Second could have been, should
have been, called simply, “October“,
and, ergo, left at that
but it wasn’t
the very same must be said about the
Third Symphony, “The First of May”,
you can already probably hear the
jubilation and fanfare in just the title,
another milestone of the Revolution,
the anniversary of Lenin’s death, the
final chorus sings a lyric of a poet of
the Revolution, Semyon Kirsanov, a
sure nod to the symphony‘s political,
however peripheral, intent
what you’ll note, however, is the
sensuality of the music, above
whatever weight of a, perhaps
more fitting, dirge, or the bombast
even of a commemorative, an exalting
tribute – though these are determinedly
there – going back to the orchestral
triumphs of the Romantic Era, with
its lush rallentandos and its voluptuous
ritardandos, the better to seduce
Shostakovich is getting ready for the
real thing, a piece with any partisan
message, he must sense, can never
work
by the way, should you disagree
with any of my evaluations, this
would not at all be offensive, but
even wonderful, I have been
wrong, I can prove it, I have the
dates, they are listed somewhere
in my papers, but it would mean
you’re paying attention, listening,
which is the entire purpose, more
than anything else, of this
exploratory exercise, should you
wish to participate
R ! chard
September 6, 2017
on “Elegy for the Victims of the Tsunami of March 11, 2011 in Japan” – Nobuyuki Tsujii
“Tsunami“ (1998)
__________
while watching Nobuyuki Tsujii play the
extraordinarily demanding Tchaikovsky
First Piano Concerto on television the
other night, with no less than Valery
Gergiev, conducting the resident
orchestra at the Mariinsky Theatre in
Moscow, for its White Nights, I was
wonderstruck by the challenges a
visually handicapable pianist would
have to conquer in order to reach
such an apogee
everything must be learned by ear, all
items must be discovered tactually,
from the piano itself to the very
individual keys, not to mention
the player’s very own fingers
there can be no visual contact with a
conductor, either, for cues, for
instance, nor for any other
accompaniment, for neither even an
audience, it would all take place in
the dark recesses of the head, the
amorphous and, I suppose,
confounding, cerebellum
later he played for an encore his own
composition, “Elegy for the Victims of
the Tsunami of March 11, 2011 in Japan“,
a fine addition to my budding collection
of threnodies
and a very, very moving piece
an elegy, incidentally, is usually written,
while a threnody is composed, but these
terms are often used interchangeably, as,
indeed, they are here
you’ll note the utterly Classical mode of
composition of the “Elegy“, it adheres to
a uniform tonality, a consistent tempo,
and the grounding and comfort of
repetition, returning always to the main,
endearing air, rather than more modern
tripwires and stridencies, traditionalism
being not an inappropriate, nor ineffective,
mode of address for honoured forebears
long live Classicism
R ! chard
September 1, 2017
an homage to the victims of the Titanic
“The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up“ (1839)
_______
while I’m on the subject of threnodies,
which is to say “song[s] of lamentation
for the dead”, as I earlier stated, let me
bring your attention to this extraordinary
piece, an homage to the victims of the
Titanic
it doesn’t even have a title, much as
Mozart and Haydn didn’t before music
went mainstream, into public forums
rather than merely aristocratic salons,
and when an identifying moniker
instead of a number became manifestly
more practical, especially when the
emerging Middle Classes were
becoming the ones who were paying
the composer’s bills, at the opera
houses and the other sprouting
concert venues, when some composers
had even up to 32 sets of piano sonatas
to remember, three and four often to
a single set, opus number, as many as
there are movements in a very sonata
and that’s not counting the numbered
symphonies and string quartets of
theirs, left to similarly calculate,
decipher, extricate
it doesn’t have a title, I think, because
to my knowledge, it is the first of its
kind, a composition created by
computer, for computer, an entirely
self-contained digital work of,
manifestly, art – I’d been waiting,
diligently, for one – and like Beethoven,
after the work was done, the artist(s)
just felt the title best left to the
wordsmiths, thus – you’re welcome –
“Threnody for the Victims of the
Titanic“
sure, computers have done practical
things before, admirably, but never
told a story, and certainly never one
as profound as this one
these are the last moments of the
Titanic, digitally reproduced, in real
time, 2 hours and 40 minutes, they
are mesmerizing, you don’t want
to miss a thing
there are no voices, apart from a
few radio transmissions at the
start, spotting the iceberg, calling
out commands to beware, stop
the engines
afterwards only silence, and the
sound of the waves, the churning
of the engines, which have been
restarted, sounding as rhythmic,
incidentally, and numbing, as the
wheels on the railroad tracks of
Steve Reich‘s “Different Trains“,
another powerful threnody
later the flash and crack of flares,
the crunch of the ship sinking
the pervasive, however disrupted,
silence and the inexorable passage
of ever ticking time combine to be,
thereafter, transfixing, meditative,
ultimately transcendent, a fitting
setting for a threnody
I know of only another work to take
you to that venerable place,
Beethoven’s opus 111
and often enough Pink Floyd, for
that matter, and the visionary
Alan Parsons Project, of course,
discoursing on inexorable Time
and, now that I think of it, Elgar‘s
“The Dream of Gerontius“, whose
character goes from his deathbed
in the first act, to his afterlife in
the second, effecting transcendence
for us by, yes, ingenious
metaphorical proxy
but I digress
what I call “Threnody for the Victims
of the Titanic“ is a narrative with
sound, not a movie, not a television
program, it has more commonality
with a musical production than
anything else but painting in art
history, though its means are
intuitively literary, ship stories go
back to “The Odyssey“ through
“Gulliver’s Travels“ , “Treasure
Island“ and to one of my very
favourites, “Ship of Fools“,
relatively recently
I could add “Mutiny on the Bounty“,
“Moby Dick“, “The Caine Mutiny“
in art, a precedent would’ve been set
in our collective consciousness by
William Turner‘s celebrated “The
Fighting Temeraire …“, but I would
mention as well Caspar David
Friedrich‘s “The Wanderer above
the Sea of Fog“ for its existential
pertinence
a few literary points I’d like to stress
to back up my overt adulation, I find
it impressive that the Classical rules
of tragedy have been maintained,
unity of action, time, and place,
prescriptions going back to
Aristotle‘s “Poetics“ in our cultural
history, to profoundly express
tragedy, iconic, epic, misfortune
not to mention the Classical musical
imperatives of tempo, tonality and
repetition, none of which can be
faulted here in this consummate
composition
there is a no greater leveller of tempo
than time, larghissimo here*, in the
largest sense of that word, the
cosmic, the inexorable pace of
temporality in our brief heavens
a greater leveller of tonality neither
is there than the rigorously impartial
hum of the imperturbable Cosmos
nor is there greater repetition than
uniformity, however disrupted by
however fervent ever human
intervention, see Sisyphus, or
Martha in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia
Woolf“ for iconic disrupters
R ! chard
* Shostakovich had asked the
Beethoven Quartet to play the first
movement of his 15th String Quartet,
“Elegy: Adagio“, “so that flies
drop dead in mid-air, and the
audience start leaving the hall from
sheer boredom“
well this inspired elucidation is even
slower than that
August 11, 2017
threnodies: to the victims of Hiroshima, of the Holocaust, and to the Canadian North
.jpg!Large.jpg "The Scream, 1893 - Edvard Munch")
“The Scream“ (1893)
____________
before we leave too far behind the
anniversary of the annihilation of
Hiroshima, August 6, 1945, let me
introduce you to a piece that
purports to pay it homage
if I didn’t bring it up before, it’s
because the date was wrong, but
especially because the work
offends me, the only thing I like
about it is the title, a thing of
beauty, poetry – Threnody to the
Victims of Hiroshima – a threnody
is a song of lamentation for the
dead, which worked for me, this
one, no further than its title
there is nothing remotely
reminiscent of the tragedy
throughout the piece, it is a
collection of academic exercises,
pretensions, I think, without a
heartbeat
let me compare Steve Reich’s
threnody to the victims of the
Holocaust, the other signature
Twentieth Century atrocity, his
“Different Trains“, a work in three
movements, “America – Before the
War”, “Europe – During the War”,
and “After the War”, for string
quartet and tape, upon which
Reich has recorded interviews
with people relating impressions
from before the war, during, and
after, according to the movements
the quartet, you’ll note, must keep
time with the tape, and in this
production visuals have been
effectively added
Glenn Gould had done something
like this several years earlier,
incidentally, in his “The Idea of
North“, a threnody itself to that
very idea, a masterpiece, a
groundbreaking transcendental
work of the imagination, with
overlapping voices, which is to
say human counterpoint, though
without string quartet
you’ll note that distressing tonalities
affect throughout this other, much
more successful however, tribute,
but the different rhythms of the
recurrent, which is to say minimalist,
rails keep you emotionally, as it were,
on track
“Different Trains“ is appropriately,
and profoundly, commemorative,
not to mention unforgettable
Richard
Richibi's Weblog 