music to ponder | Richibi's Weblog

“Années de pèlerinage”, 2nd Year – Liszt

“Petrarch“ (c.1450)

___________

for John, who would’ve

been 60 today

though the suite might’ve started with

Bach’s string of dance pieces in the

early 18th Century, it becomes evident

during the 19th Century, after a lapse

of nearly 100 years, while it fell into

disfavour, that its resurrection as a

valid musical form might’ve kept the

original structure, which is to say its

several separate parts to make up a

whole, its movements, but that it

now was serving a different purpose

where music had, through to the early

Romantic Period, followed dance

rhythms, or variations of tempo,

adagio, andante, allegro, and the like,

it now presented itself as a background

for settings, be it ballets, as in

Tchaikovsky’s, plays, as in Edvard

Grieg’s celebrated , “Peer Gynt Suite“,

after Ibsen‘s eponymous play,

specific locations, as in Debussy’s

expansively, both geographically

and in its compositional length,

these very “Années de pèlerinage”

of Liszt

this is in keeping with the exploration

of consciousness of that era, which

would lead to not only Impressionism,

but to Freud, and the others, and the

development of psychoanalysis

you’ll note that music seems much

more improvisational in Liszt than in

Chopin, or Beethoven, prefiguring

already even jazz, more evocative,

less emotional, more personal, not

generalized, idiosyncratic, a direct

development of the newly acquired

concept of democracy, one man, at

the time, one vote, one, indeed,

voice, however individual, however

even controversial

listen, for instance, to Liszt’s “Années

de pèlerinage”, 2nd Year, Italy

1. Sposalizio

2. Il penseroso

3. Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa

7. Après une lecture de Dante: Fantasia Quasi Sonata

today you can listen to suites

from famous films, for instance

**“Blade Runner“, the beat, in**

other words, goes on

but note the renovations, find them,

I dare you, you’ll be surprised at

your unsuspected perspicacity

R ! chard

Leave a comment

Années de pèlerinage, 1st Year – Liszt

**“Sketch made from travels in Italy and Switzerland“ (1906)**

__________

a suite by any other name is still

a suite, a piece of music with

several related parts, a collage,

in painterly parlance

one New Year’s Eve, rather than

going out to celebrate, I took a

hot bath, rose at midnight like

Venus from the cleansing waters,

sat with my teddy bear before a

bristling fireplace, and listened,

serene, to Liszt’s “Années de

Pèlerinage”, all three of his

magical compositions around

his time in Switzerland and Italy,

rendered as musical photographs,

they are of Liszt, I think, his

summit, his acme, the rest of his

stuff is mostly show business

Suisse“, to my mind, a marvel

l – Chapelle de Guillaume Tell

ll – Au lac de Wallenstadt

lll – Pastorale

lV – Au bord d’une source, or, By a Spring

V – Orage – Storm

***Vl –* *Vallée d’Obermann***

***Vll –* *Églogue***

Vlll – Le mal du pays (Heimweh) – Homesickness

lX – Les cloches de Genève (Nocturne) – The Bells of Geneva

R ! chard

Leave a comment

Swan Lake / Swan Lake Suite – Tchaikovsky

from a 2008 production of “Swan Lake“ at the Royal Swedish Opera

_________________________

did you know that the girl in “Swan Lake“

is called Odette, my mom asked when I

told her I’d been looking it up, my mom’s

name is Odette

I’m the one who told you, I said, and

incidentally, I continued, she’s not a

girl, she’s a swan, which left my mom,

of course, flummoxed, indeed mum

a day later, we watched it

there she is, I pointed out, when Odette

made her appearance, fluttering in on

tiptoes from the wings, every single

inch a swan

as was equally the prince, in this

magnificent production of the Kirov,

every single inch a prince

here’s the “Swan Lake Suite“, however

how is it different

R ! chard

psst: if you said the Suite is a collection

of miscellaneous excerpts from

the ballet strung together but with

instruments only, no sets, no

costumes, no dancers, you’re right,

the Suite can give you a taste of

stands magnificently enough,

thank you very much, on its own

the Nutcracker Suite – Tchaikovsky

original costume sketch for “The Nutcracker” (1892)

__________

it didn’t take me long, after wondering

about precedents for Debussy’s nursery

piece, Children’s Corner, to ferret out

Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, a work

with a similar theme, childhood

fantasies

but the Nutcracker Suite

l. Miniature Overture

ll. Danses caractéristiques

a. Marche

b. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies

c. Russian Dance

d. Arabian Dance

e. Chinese Dance

f. Reed Flutes

lll. Waltz of the Flowers

is not to be confused with the complete

ballet, from which it had been excerpted

to great acclaim before the ballet itself

was presented, but to much less

enthusiasm, until George Balanchine

revived it in the 1960s

note that Tchaikovsky’s ***Suite*, in 1892,**

contains still the traditional elements

of the suite – see above – a prelude, or

overture, followed by a series of

dances, only a few years before

Debussy’s Children’s Corner, 1908,

redefined the form, made the

movements indiscriminate, not

confined to dance rhythms

note also that Tchaikovsky sounds

a lot more like the Strausses, father

and son, Romantics both, than he

does like Debussy, an Impressionist,

a generation later only

here’s the orchestral Nutcracker Suite,

a suite, in other words, is not limited

to one instrument

here’s a riveting version of it for two

pianos, not to be missed

R ! chard

Leave a comment

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

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

	Tonyia on November / Month of the Sonata…
	how to listen to mus… on how to listen to music if you…
	how to listen to mus… on how to listen to music if you…
	how to listen to mus… on how to listen to music if you…
	richibi on “Metamorphoses” (The Giants…

Category: music to ponder

“Petrarch“ (c.1450)

___________

for John, who would’ve

been 60 today

though the suite might’ve started with

Bach’s string of dance pieces in the

early 18th Century, it becomes evident

during the 19th Century, after a lapse

of nearly 100 years, while it fell into

disfavour, that its resurrection as a

valid musical form might’ve kept the

original structure, which is to say its

several separate parts to make up a

whole, its movements, but that it

now was serving a different purpose

where music had, through to the early

Romantic Period, followed dance

rhythms, or variations of tempo,

adagio, andante, allegro, and the like,

it now presented itself as a background

for settings, be it ballets, as in

Tchaikovsky’s, plays, as in Edvard

Grieg’s celebrated , “Peer Gynt Suite“,

after Ibsen‘s eponymous play,

specific locations, as in Debussy’s

“Children’s Corner“, or more

expansively, both geographically

and in its compositional length,

these very “Années de pèlerinage”

of Liszt

this is in keeping with the exploration

of consciousness of that era, which

would lead to not only Impressionism,

but to Freud, and the others, and the

development of psychoanalysis

you’ll note that music seems much

more improvisational in Liszt than in

Chopin, or Beethoven, prefiguring

already even jazz, more evocative,

less emotional, more personal, not

generalized, idiosyncratic, a direct

development of the newly acquired

concept of democracy, one man, at

the time, one vote, one, indeed,

voice, however individual, however

even controversial

listen, for instance, to Liszt’s “Années

1. Sposalizio

2. Il penseroso

3. Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa

4. Sonetto 47 del Petrarca

5. Sonetto 104 del Petrarca

6. Sonetto 123 del Petrarca

7. Après une lecture de Dante: Fantasia Quasi Sonata

today you can listen to suites

from famous films, for instance

“Blade Runner“, the beat, in

other words, goes on

but note the renovations, find them,

I dare you, you’ll be surprised at

your unsuspected perspicacity

R ! chard

“Sketch made from travels in Italy and Switzerland“ (1906)

__________

a suite by any other name is still

a suite, a piece of music with

several related parts, a collage,

in painterly parlance

one New Year’s Eve, rather than

going out to celebrate, I took a

hot bath, rose at midnight like

Venus from the cleansing waters,

sat with my teddy bear before a

bristling fireplace, and listened,

serene, to Liszt’s “Années de

Pèlerinage”, all three of his

magical compositions around

his time in Switzerland and Italy,

rendered as musical photographs,

**“Blade Runner“, the beat, in**

**“Sketch made from travels in Italy and Switzerland“ (1906)**

***Vl –* *Vallée d’Obermann***

***Vll –* *Églogue***