in search of God/dess | Richibi's Weblog

Études – Debussy / Rachmaninov

_________

here are two sets of contemporary

études

the first, Book 2 of Debussy’s
“Études pour piano“,
published in 1915

the second, Rachmaninov’s
“Études-tableaux“, Opus 39,
of 1917

note the similarities

note the differences

R ! chard

psst: I found Rachmaninov to be still
caught up in the Romantic
Period – identifiable melodies,
less eccentric tonalities – the
better to, still, pull at your
heartstrings, Debussy, is more
clinical, cerebral, pointing the
way towards, I think, jazz

but you tell

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December 28, 2018

Études – Chopin /Debussy

“The Ballet Class“ (1871 – 1874)

Edgar Degas

________

ballet dancers will attach weights

to their ankles during exercises

to add lift to their legs when they

are on stage, such is the point of

études for a piano player, a

workout for the fingers before

public performance

Chopin, however, made them, by

themselves, works of great art,

followed by, among others,

Debussy

here’s Chopin, his Opus 25

here’s Debussy, his own “Études

pour piano, Livre 1“, or Book 1

how are they different

you tell me

listen

R ! chard

psst: this is an easy one, Chopin is

Romantic, Debussy, manifestly,

is not, Debussy is Impressionistic,

it is a new perspective, you can

hear it, it’s textural rather than

emotional, indeed, it’s even

abstract

but nearly a century has gone by,

and Impressionism is the new

aesthetic, the new preoccupation

which belongs to not only the

painters, let me point out, but to

all the arts, for better, once again,

or for worse

Leave a comment

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

listen

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December 22, 2018

from act 4, scene 3 – Othello

“Jealousy. From the series The Green Room“ (1907)

Edvard Munch

__________

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.

let me a little deconstruct

“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

listen

R ! chard

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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

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December 18, 2018

nocturnes / scherzos, Chopin

“Scherzo di putti“

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

______________

what is the difference between

one, a nocturne

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

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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

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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

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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

Leave a comment

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”

	Tonyia on November / Month of the Sonata…
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Category: in search of God/dess

“The Music Lesson“ (1917)

_________

here are two sets of contemporary

études

the first, Book 2 of Debussy’s “Études pour piano“, published in 1915

the second, Rachmaninov’s “Études-tableaux“, Opus 39, of 1917

note the similarities

note the differences

but you tell

“The Ballet Class“ (1871 – 1874)

________

ballet dancers will attach weights

to their ankles during exercises

to add lift to their legs when they

are on stage, such is the point of

études for a piano player, a

workout for the fingers before

public performance

Chopin, however, made them, by

themselves, works of great art,

followed by, among others,

here’s Chopin, his Opus 25

here’s Debussy, his own “Études

pour piano, Livre 1“, or Book 1

how are they different

you tell me

listen

R ! chard

psst: this is an easy one, Chopin is

Romantic, Debussy, manifestly,

is not, Debussy is Impressionistic,

it is a new perspective, you can

hear it, it’s textural rather than

emotional, indeed, it’s even

abstract

but nearly a century has gone by,

and Impressionism is the new

aesthetic, the new preoccupation

which belongs to not only the

painters, let me point out, but to

all the arts, for better, once again,

or for worse

“Études pour l’Apothéose d’Homère” /

“Studies for The Apotheosis of Homer“ (1826 – 1827)

____________________

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

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,

“fall” in the second verse, for this is

the first, Book 2 of Debussy’s
“Études pour piano“,
published in 1915

the second, Rachmaninov’s
“Études-tableaux“, Opus 39,
of 1917

**in English, étude is a study**