Études – Chopin /Debussy
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Category: in search of beauty
December 28, 2018
Edgar Degas
December 27, 2018
Études, Opus 10 – Chopin
“Études pour l’Apothéose d’Homère” /
“Studies for The Apotheosis of Homer“ (1826 – 1827)
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
____________________
what’s an étude
you tell me
here are 12, all by Chopin, his first
set of two, his Opus 10
in English, étude is a study
enjoy
R ! chard
psst: if you said they’re technical
pieces, warm-up exercises,
in preparation for more
substantial stuff, you’re on
it should be noted that Chopin,
after the more rudimentary
undertakings of the earlier
Czerny, for instance, or Clementi,
say, added the required substance,
the missing transcendental
element, turning his otherwise
mere digital pyrotechnics into
utter poetry, into prestidigitatorial
magic
December 22, 2018
from act 4, scene 3 – Othello
when Desdemona learns that Othello
suspects her of adultery, she asks
her maidservant
Dost thou in conscience think,–tell me, Emilia,–
That there be women do abuse their husbands
In such gross kind?
Emilia, older, wiser, replies
There be some such, no question.
But I do think it is their husbands’ faults
If wives do fall: say that they slack their duties,
And pour our treasures into foreign laps,
Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us,
Or scant our former having in despite;
Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace,
Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know
Their wives have sense like them: they see and smell
And have their palates both for sweet and sour,
As husbands have. What is it that they do
When they change us for others? Is it sport?
I think it is: and doth affection breed it?
I think it doth: is’t frailty that thus errs?
It is so too: and have not we affections,
Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
Then let them use us well: else let them know,
The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.
“fall” in the second verse, for this is
indeed a poem, in iambic pentameter,
could easily be replaced by “fail“,
nearly even calls out for it,
homophones but for the timbre of
their vowels
say that their husbands slack, she says,
then lists the several manners in which
husbands might betray their marital
duties, by “foreign“, she means “other“,
foreign to the family circle
“laps“, incidentally, is a wonderful
metaphor to accompany “treasures“,
suggesting intimate physical contact,
much more so, say, than “hands“
would’ve, for instance, been
“restraint” means conditions, stress,
impositions
“scant our former having“, to diminish
that which formerly had been given,
of either material or psychological
goods – “having” is a noun here, not
a participle
“in despite“, which is to say, “out of
spite“
“galls“, a synecdoche for internal
organs, a synecdoche, the word
that means a part which signifies
the whole
“affection” is “lust“
we’re equal partners, Shakespeare
says, men and women, in a shared
humanity, indeed Shakespeare is
one of the first Humanists after
centuries of religious subjugation,
centuries of the suppression of
independent thought, a defining
notion, not incidentally, of the
Renaissance
R ! chard
December 20, 2018
andante / polonaise, Chopin
“Chopin’s Polonaise – a Ball in Hôtel Lambert in Paris“ (1859)
Teofil Kwiatkowski
___________
what’s the difference between
one, an andante spianato
two, a polonaise
you tell me
both, of course, by Chopin
“andante” is a pace, a tempo, a little faster
than adagio, slower than allegro, “spianato”
is an Italian word for “smooth”, “even”
“et” is “and” in French
“polonaise” is a French adjective for
“Polish”, as a noun it means a Polish
dance
R ! chard
psst: if you said intention, you’re again
right, everything else is, of course,
Chopin, two different perspectives
on a related issue
think of two distinct elements
coming together, formally
conjoined, as in a mariage,
for better, ever, or for worse
or as in this Andante Spianato et
Grande Polonaise Brillante, a
conjunction which has lasted,
indeed brilliantly, for nearly two
hundred years, despite individual,
sometimes divergent, even
conflicting, outlooks
enjoy
December 18, 2018
nocturnes / scherzos, Chopin
“Scherzo di putti“
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
______________
two, a scherzo
you tell me
both by Chopin
nocturne, incidentally, is a French
word for night music
scherzo is an Italian word for joke,
something humorous
R ! chard
psst: if you said the pace, the tempo,
however comparably, in all the
instances, elastic, you’re
absolutely right, the rest is
ever entirely Romantic, which
is to say, by definition,
introspective
December 16, 2018
a waltz / a nocturne, Chopin
“Nocturne“ (1991)
Eyvind Earle
________
what is the difference between
one, a waltz
two, a nocturne
both by Chopin
you tell me
R ! chard
psst: if you said the beat, you’re
entirely on your way, the
rest is, in either case,
entirely Romantic
mantic
November 26, 2018
on the third day of C***mas
“Les musiciens“ (1952)
Nicolas de Staël
___________
on the third day of C***mas, I needed to
ready myself for the onslaught, I was
hosting, yikes, for someone from out
of town
I thought I’d had it all figured out, but
obstacles occurred, of course, to my,
nearly cowed, consternation
I needed help
I’d anticipated more violin concertos
to get me going, but, among my
several bookmarks, King Crimson
came up, a group I’d admired
tremendously in my formative years,
the 70s, when freedom of expression
prevailed, in all of its innocent
expectations
they are tremendous, if you like that
sort of thing, entirely progressive
rock
you’ll think me eccentric if I relate
them to Classical considerations, not
only are they rigorous about tempo,
tonality, and repetition, essential
Classical components, but reach
further into even tribal configurations,
their minimalism – later formalized by,
incidentally, Beethoven – of infinitely
repeated rhythms, like thumping,
intoxicating, essentially, thrusts,
heartbeats meeting heartbeats, very,
in other words, primitive, primeval
add to that, later, their superimposed
atonal riffs – Jimi Hendrix meets the
jungle – a direct reference to
Schoenberg‘s breakdown of the
orthodoxy of the musical scale, and
cadence, and reiteration, you’re left
with a history of our culture’s sonic
aspirations in a single incandescent
concert, despite a couple of egregious
commercial interruptions in the
download, a 21st-Century, it seems,
corporate roadblock
watch, enjoy
R ! chard
November 11, 2018
“A Delicate Balance” – Edward Albee
“Theatre Drama“
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin
___________
there are only a very few 20th-Century
American playwrights who’ve weathered
the rigours of time, two with several
successes, Eugene O’Neill, and
Tennessee Williams, but only one to
tower above those two with only one
work to outmatch them, Edward Albee,
his “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?“
is every inch a king
this is not an impossible feat, Margaret
Mitchell wrote her only book, “Gone
with the Wind“, a contemporary “Iliad“,
which will find its rightful place again
in world literature, note, when our own
too reverberant still times cede to the
concerns of another, less pertinently
fraught era, like reading “War and
Peace“, for instance, now that
Napoleon is long gone
“Gone with the Wind“, quick, name
another 20th-Century novel to top it,
seconds are too long, “Gone with
the Wind” is in our bloodstream,
like Walt Disney or Marilyn Monroe,
even if you’ve never read it, which
you should
but Edward Albee wrote another play
which deserves some attention, and
with redoubtable performances from
both the consummate ever Katharine
Hepburn, and from our own Canadian
tower of unutterable talent, Kate Reid,
abetted by masterful presentations
from no less than the revered Paul
Scofield and the iconic Joseph Cotten
when their supporting numbers come
up, here is a show to watch for, if
nothing else, those individual stellar
contributions
but “A Delicate Balance“, also an
incontestable masterpiece, is about
friendship, and tells a lesson you’ll
not soon forget, friendship is more
than, for better or for worse, just
knowing each other, it says, an
idiosyncratic, indeed recurrent,
Albee theme
cinematography, note, is, here,
dreadful, though actually in that
manner conceived, however
improbably, by an otherwise
noteworthy director, you’ll even
think they’ve shrunk his frame
but visual style shouldn’t let you
forego the play’s profound substance,
nor the triumphant work of its illustrious
cast, at the very top, mostly, of their
considerable, even defining, powers
watch
R ! chard
November 7, 2018
happy birthday, Joni Mitchell
“Nuages“ / “Clouds“
Fernand Léger
_________
for Lajla, and, of course, Joni
in my German class in Dresden, I
was asked, since I was from
Canada, to translate into German
a Canadian song, my teacher
suggested something of Joni
Mitchell, someone she profoundly,
she said, admired, was I the one
to choose “Both Sides Now“, or
was she, I can’t remember, but
that was the song I translated
“Rows and floes of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I’ve looked at clouds that way
But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way
I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all
Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
I’ve looked at love that way
But now it’s just another show
You leave ’em laughing when you go
And if you care, don’t let them know
Don’t give yourself away
I’ve looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
It’s love’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know love at all
Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say “I love you” right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
I’ve looked at life that way
But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I’ve changed
Well something’s lost, but something’s gained
In living every day
I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all
I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all”
it could be my anthem
as it happened, Lajla, my teacher, who
who has since become a dear friend,
in fact, meine beste deutsche Freundin,
didn’t let me finish reading meinen
übergesetzten Text for the class, it
would’ve been too long
I still regret the unrecognized work
I did, but mostly I rue the fact that
the other students never got to
hear the sublime ending of the
song
R ! chard
October 20, 2018
the essential Romantic violin concertos
“The Violin“ (1916)
_____
if I was able to bring up a list of
ten top Romantic piano concertos
throughout the 19th Century earlier,
I can number of violin concertos
only three essential ones, with,
however, two other significant
such compositions, which remain,
for one reason or another,
peripheral, secondary
more about which later
but the exalted three are situated
conveniently, the first, at the very
beginning of the Romantic Era,
Beethoven’s magisterial, even
extraordinary, Opus 61 in D major,
1806, and close doubly with the
two others, Tchaikovsky’s
resplendent work, words cannot
do it justice, and Brahms’ no less
transcendental one, at its very end,
1878, none are negligible, it’d be
like missing the Eiffel Tower while
in Paris, skipping the pyramids
along the Nile, they are part of our
cultural consciousness, it would
be an utter shame to pass them
by, they are our glory, our
magnificent heritage
it should be noted that the
concerto, be it for violin, piano,
cello, what have you, a soloist
in concert with an array of
instruments, is the perfect allegory
for the Romantic Era, an individual
in contention with a community,
under the influence of a conductor,
a mayor, a mentor, a polity, the
individuality afforded by the
proclamation of human rights in
the aftermath of the French
Revolution, and its social
consequences, musically
manifested
the match might be fraught,
should be, though with
compromise, considerate
accommodation, fruitful,
hopefully even transcendental,
if not at least entertaining,
cooperation, music seems to
infer eventual concord,
congress, harmony, a way out
of, even dire, distress, or at
least point the way toward it
concertos die out, incidentally, in
the 20th Century, you don’t hear
of very many, if any at all, after
Rachmaninoff, they are gone,
much like later, in the 1950s, the
waltz, forever, with the wind
may they rest in peace
R ! chard
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