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: Haydn
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
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
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
September 2, 2018
Piano Sonata in C# minor, opus 80 – Tchaikovsky
___________
for Sarah and Rachel, the daughters
of the son of a dear cousin, after a
belated lunch recently, two young
girls, 14, 16, in bloom, as Proust
would say, who speak not only
music, but French and English,
fluently, I checked – perhaps
even German, their Oma
lives with them – they also
play the flute, the piano,
and sing, what could be
I ask you, more beautiful,
two young girls in bloom,
indeed in very blossom
or am I being too French
the form of the sonata had been established
decisively during the Classical Period, out
of the rudiments of Bach’s own such pieces,
Mozart and Haydn had given the concept its
final shape, its structure, three or four
contrasting movements, by definition all
entertainments
Beethoven kicked the entertainment part
right out of the ball park, made his show
into a veritable transcendental meditation,
rather than to merely applaud, audiences
gasped, were meant to be awed, as I still
ever am by his musical speculations
but by definition as well, a sonata is a
piece for a single instrument, therefore
inherently introspective, whether the
player has an audience or not, soloists,
note, play easily on their own
even an accompanied sonata, as violin
sonatas often are, for instance, or this
one for two pianos, would lose the
intimacy of a solo piece, for having
someone playing, however compatibly,
over one’s shoulder
in other words, a piano sonata is, by
definition, a monologue, a soliloquy,
where notes tell the story that words
would intimately, even confessionally,
in poetry, convey
the emotions that are elicited from
a piece are as real as they would
be from any literary alternative,
except that they’re quickened, like
aromas, through the senses, rather
than through divisive, by definition
confrontational, logic
rosemary reminds me always, for
instance, of one of my departed
aunts, like the taste of a madeleine
dipped in tea opened the door for
Proust to an entire earlier epoch,
the seed, the subject, of his
disquisition on Time, “À la
recherche du temps perdu“, “An
Exploration into Elapsed Time“,
my own translation, none of the
published proffered titles
having rendered the subtlety
of the shimmering original
rosemary, in other words, speaks,
if even only to me
listen to Tchaikovsky’s First Piano
Sonata, in C# minor, opus 80, one
of only two of his, what do you
hear, think, feel
R ! chard
May 11, 2018
Mozart / Haydn piano sonatas
Princess Friederike Luise of Prussia (1714-1784), Margravine of Brandenburg
____________
if you had trouble distinguishing your
Schubert from your Beethoven, you’ll
probably have trouble as well telling
your Mozart from your Haydn, though
you won’t find it difficult, if you listen,
to tell the earlier two from the latter
both the Haydn here, and the Mozart,
were written in 1789, the year of the
French Revolution, something akin
to our 9/11, the world changed from
one moment to the next
the first two were still doing parties,
which is to say, salon music, stuff
for elites, you can hear it, frivolities,
with, however magical, elaborations
– Liberace, I thought – nothing ever
as confessional as the two later
composers, who, with the new
fervour around individual opinion,
in the wake of questions even about
the validity of God, would create the
very Romantic Era
Mozart and Haydn explore songs,
ditties, Beethoven and Schubert
investigate very fundamental
musical constructions, they’re
down to the very essence of
tonal possibilities, something
that happened to the pictorial
arts in the 1950’s, as artists
probed the cerebral implications
of colour, see for instance,
Rothko
their probe itself becomes more
powerful than their apparent
subject, the tune, though the
melody proves to be, ever, the
cement that keeps the meditation
together
what it says, what they say, is
that confronting our destiny,
we remain the only arbiter, its
outcome will be as beautiful
as we make it, for better or for
worse, the creation of
something beautiful, a work
that can be so beautiful, much
like a life, seems to be a reply
that can somewhat, at least,
existentially satisfy a sense
of purpose
what, otherwise
R ! chard
psst: Mozart’s piano sonata was written
for Princess Friederike Luise of
Prussia, pictured above
May 7, 2018
what’s up in Frankfurt – Piano Sonata in F minor, “Appassionata” – Beethoven
“The conversation of Napoleon and Francois II“ (1808)
________
it’s 1804, Beethoven has entered his
Middle Period, left the more formal
constraints of the Classical Period,
Mozart and Haydn, behind, though
perhaps not essentially, the
structure remains, hardwired, but
its spirit is entirely different,
revolutionarily different, thanks to
Napoleon
and Beethoven is as opinionated
as the revolutionaries, boisterous,
adamant, peremptory even, he is
Zeus, and not undeservedly, at
the top of Olympus’ musical
mountain, where, incidentally,
he still prevails, harmony’s very
Homer
by his Opus 57, the “Appassionata”
– a name not of his own invention,
but, however discriminately, ascribed
later – he isn’t as metaphysical as
Schubert is in that later poet’s D960,
Beethoven is still writing descriptive
texts, torrid novels, however
masterfully illustrated, more than
the philosophical stuff he’ll later
undertake, even topping, when that
takes place, Schubert’s, ever,
nevertheless, transcendental D960,
if you can believe it
but Schubert remained a stripling,
Beethoven, his elder, was given the
grace to probe longer his humanity,
however might it have been equally
cruelly benighted, and to stretch his
speculative reach into previously
unimagined dimensions, beyond
the limited temporal scope of the
surely shriven since Schubert
all of whose wonders have defied
the harsh indignities of time, and
continue still to profoundly and
indelibly reverberate
R ! chard
May 1, 2018
a Beethoven / Schubert piano recital
“Charlotte Rothsch, Baroness Anselm De Rothschild“ (1828)
_______
since Beethoven wrote nothing of any
great consequence for four-hand piano,
I thought at first I’d head towards another
kind of pairing, but upon listening to the
complete recital here of the two Jussen
brothers, where Beethoven’s “Variations
on a Theme by Count von Waldstein”,
1792, a trifle, and his later “Waldstein”
Sonata, 1804, for piano solo, an infinitely
more accomplished work of his Middle
Period, both dedicated to the same good
friend and patron, bookend a flurry of
enchanting Schubert compositions,
the contrast between the two composers,
if not starkly evident, is at least
discernable if you listen with some
degree of attention
the difference is in the tone, the intention,
Beethoven is brash, assertive, Schubert
remains ever respectful, even often
courtly
you’ll note that after the fall of Napoleon,
the monarchy was restored in France,
therefore throughout the whole of
Europe, which had resumed its more
genteel pretensions, as had, for instance,
even Chopin himself, you’ll remember, in
very Paris, where he’d relocated from
Poland because of its political unrest
I’ve often said that a distinct characteristic
of Beethoven is that he writes against the
beat, rather than stressing the first note
of the air he is developing, he accentuates
the second, or third, the next still, or the
very last
don’t go, I wish you’d stay here, he, for
example, beseeches, if you transpose
his notes in the last movement of the
Waldstein, the one after the lugubrious
adagio, into words, don’t go, he strikes,
I wish you’d stay, don’t go, I wish you’d
stay here, don’t go, I wish you’d stay, I
wish you’d stay, I wish you’d stay,
accent each time on the stay
in Schubert’s “Fantasie“ for four-hand
piano, written a generation later, in 1828,
and admittedly powerfully influenced by
Beethoven, though no more derivatively
than Mozart would’ve been of Haydn, try,
I hear a bird sing, I hear it sing, I hear it
sing, it sounds so lovely, to the lovely
melody at its very beginning, one
composer is peremptory, the other is
more subservient, confessional
this is what I mean by intention, and the
difference between these two towering
geniuses, who shaped together the
music of their era, however might they
have been otherwise total strangers
they are both musical giants upon
whose shoulders our Western culture
still stands, and swoons, before such
an utterly transcendent legacy
R ! chard
April 20, 2018
String Quartet in A Major, Opus 18, no 5 – Beethoven
“Adagio“ (1899)
________
for especially Kathy, who,
according to a mutual friend,
needs our prayers
please be generous
from his Opus 18, among which there
are six, according to the Classical
tradition, is still steeped in Classical
conditions, tonality, tempo, and
reiteration, but is revolutionary for
its brashness, its personal
manifestation – hey, it says, I’m the
Pied Piper, I’m not hiding in the
courtly shadows any longer, my
stage is now the concert hall, no
more the aristocratic, however
stately, chamber music, which has
ceded, until now, to propriety and
deference rather than, in a word,
genius, I’m Beethoven, Beethoven
says, watch me
he doesn’t disappoint
his 5th String Quartet, Opus 18, note,
written in 1801, is a very early work of
Beethoven, it’s nearly easy to confuse
incidentally, earlier studied
the era is still extricating itself from the
Classical model, the Classical imperatives
are there, tempo, tonality, and repetition
remain rigid elements of musical
obsessive, though each movement
imprints itself, by constant reiteration,
on our minds, much like pop music
but I miss an adagio, the moral ground,
I think, of a piece of music, the place
where your heart really takes over and
begins to incorporate the work‘s
humanity, I ascribe this unfortunate
omission to Beethoven’s youthful
exuberance, he would’ve been around
30, and setting out, with verve and
ambition, and he would be performing
before general now, rather than
aristocratic, audiences, he had a show
to put on, not just background chamber
music
note that the second movement is a
minuet, a sure sign of the Classical
Period, extinct in only a few further
years
note that the third movement, the
andante cantabile, a leisurely walking
pace, stepped up, rather than down,
to a veritable clippety-clop in some
instances, is a set of variations, to,
incidentally, settle its theme into
one’s very consciousness, I’ve been
humming these movements for the
past several days, not at all
unprofitably
note also that you’ll probably soon
they are utterly captivating, after,
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