my 10 best films – “Closer”
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Category: not just for eggheads
October 18, 2020
The Blower’s Daughter, listen, tells
September 13, 2019
on our magnificence
“Allegory of Magnificence“ (1654)
Eustache Le Sueur
____________
we have only our magnificence to
counteract the indignity of our
incarnation
a flower is itself its only existential
defence, its effervescence of
attributes – colour, grace,
intoxicating aroma – its
validating glory
we are such things as dreams
are made of, its a question of
choosing one’s dreams
R ! chard
June 27, 2019
grammmar in action, verb moods
“Philosophy and Grammar“
Gentile da Fabriano
__________
reach, imperative, I always say, indicative,
for a star, you might, conditional, get the
moon, but you might also, conditional,
get a star
such is the power of mood in verb
structure, and an expression of how
words through grammatical stipulations
become inspiration, poetry
think about it
R ! chard
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
October 12, 2018
cuisine, modern art
“Still Life. Food, Glasses and a Jug on a Table“ (1640)
_______
if I’ve been trying to show off Beethoven,
and other Romantic artists, painters,
poets, composers, as prophets in a
post-Christian, secular environment,
their modern equivalents show up in,
of all places, cuisine in the 21st Century,
where chefs have become the new, and
dominant, expression of art, if you can
believe it, but trust me
I can’t but urgently enough recommend,
should you be at all interested in the
evolution of creative genius,
“Chef’s Table“, an already 5-year-old
series on Netflix, $9.99 a month, with
a first month free trial, a show that
gives you, to my mind, a front row
seat for the manner in which an artist
becomes an expression of, a lighting
rod for, social change, a picture of
the juice it takes to produce such a
person
who could be any one of us, all that’s
needed is a conscience
and maybe, admittedly, a muse
R ! chard
psst: a few of their restaurants I’ve
virtually visited
Osteria Francescane – with a friend,
we decided we’d have the foie gras
as a starter, snails and hare with
“aromatic herbs” for our primi, but
she’d have the beef, I’d have the
suckling pig as secondi
Attica’s set menu doesn’t give you
much of a choice, though it promises
utter, and I believe them, excellence
Alinea, where eating is more than
even just a designer meal, but a
very transcendental experience
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
August 26, 2018
the Kingdom of Denmark vs Hamlet
“Ideal portrait of Shakespeare“ (c.1775)
____________
since I’m on the subject of Hamlet,
here‘s the most fun production
I’ve seen since I can remember,
the trial of said Hamlet before
the High Court of the Kingdom
of Denmark vs Himself, for the
murder of Polonius, chief
counsellor of the new King,
Claudius, after the death of
Hamlet, père, brother to Claudius,
Greek, nearly, already, tragedy
Anthony M. Kennedy, Associate
Justice of the Supreme Court of
the United States, presides,
Abbe Lowell, counsel for both
Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Trump
recently in the matter of Russian
interference, argues for the
defense, while Jessie K. Liu, U.S.
Attorney for the District of
Columbia, is the prosecution
the stakes are high, not only for
Hamlet
the participants put on quite a
show, however erudite, they
all deliver in utter spades
you’ll relish the surprisingly
multifarious quotations you
might not, you thought, ‘ve
got, of Shakespeare, you’ll be
amazed to find that you’re not
that much out of touch with
these not so daunting, after
all, considerations
much art, in other words, is only
as far away as one’s curiosity,
one’s acknowledgement, much
of it is already in our system, in
our cultural DNA, all that’s
needed to take it in is our
attention
R ! chard
July 17, 2018
String Quartet in F minor, opus 95, “Serioso” – Beethoven
“Napoleon Bonaparte in his Study at the Tuileries“ (1812)
__________
first of all, let me resolve an issue I’d
brought up recently, can there be music
without repetition, recapitulation, of an
initial musical idea
no, I emphatically now state, otherwise
one has a sentence, prose, thus
reiteration must define as we
understand it, music
until, of course, I’m made to eat my
words
secondly, and to the present point
Beethoven’s 11th String Quartet, was
nicknamed “Serioso“, imagine how
far that label would get one nowadays
but it was a different era, where fun,
levity, wasn’t, creatively, an essential
component, that only began to happen,
modestly, in the mid-19th Century, then
full on in the 20th, after the First World
War, see the Charleston, for instance,
Charlie Chaplin, Fred Astaire and
Ginger Rogers
the 11th is the last string quartet of
Beethoven’s Middle Period – and if
you think this one is serious, wait
till you hear his Late ones
but don’t let me scare you, they are
transcendental, very epiphanies,
you’ll verily leave the planet
note that the music you’re listening
to in the “Serioso“ is not initially
cadenced, a line of notes deliver,
rather, a sentence, which is later
restated, there are more than the
four Classical tempi, also, to divide
the movements, but several, which
display, nearly indiscriminately,
much like in literature, or movies,
a variety of emotions, here,
however, without the words, one,
even, specifically called “serioso”,
delivered, expressed, spoken, in
the language of, however, music
I hope you’ll enjoy
R ! chard
psst: note that there are no words in
the Charlie Chaplin either, but
the information is transmitted
through the eyes, not the ears
July 11, 2018
Sonata for Violin and Piano in F minor, BWV 1018 – Bach
__________
up at the crack of about nine this
morning, I determined to get the
ordeal of trying to print
something out of the way, go
over to my mom’s, a few blocks
down the street, to use her
printer, something I figured
would probably present obstacles
though we followed the proposed
instructions, nothing would work,
print, pressed, delivered nothing
hoops were required, several of
which I managed, got closer, and
more prepped, but when they
essentially seemed to contract
marriage, I withdrew – though I
might‘ve inadvertently sworn a
ring
flummoxed, even irritated, by
the manufactured distress, I
determinedly decided to go
back to paper, I am not a robot,
I ascertain, as they often
electronically instruct, to, I
mean really, confirm your
identity
back home, I lit a candle for Collin,
my friend, who ‘s just had a
debilitating stroke, and listened to
Bach again, an absolute cradle
listen to how falling into the
rhythmic pocket, beats landing
on anticipated beats in a rocking
motion, lets you slip into surrender,
and even physical, solace
hear, however, how the lingering
notes of the violin transgress bar
lines, much like with Beethoven,
in order to tell a more personal
story
Bach gets to look a lot more like
Beethoven every minute, or the
reverse, I’m finding, like
grandchildren resembling, atom
for atom, their grandparents
stay tuned, there’s a lot more
to uncover
R ! chard
July 10, 2018
“Capriccio on the departure of his beloved brother” – Bach
“Music“ (1904)
_______
music cannot lie, when it caresses
you, your very senses on the alert
for what, or what does not, inspire,
from one note to the next, and, of
course, from one sensation to the
other
words are subject to all kinds of
interpretations, visual arts can be
manipulated, tell varying versions
of an, even imagined, event, see,
for instance, Surrealism, with its
distortions as multifarious as the
imagination
but music cannot not tell the truth,
one hears music with one’s senses,
and responds to it with the same
primitive instinct as, nearly, smell,
another powerful truth teller, ask
dogs, or ask “a young man’s fancy“
when it “turns to thoughts of love”,
in spring, there is no surer compass
here’s more Bach, “Capriccio on the
departure of his beloved brother“,
from their family home, a marvel I’ve
recently discovered
- Arioso: Adagio — ‘Friends Gather & Try to Dissuade Him…’
- (Andante) – ‘They Picture the Dangers Which May Befall Him’
- Adagiosissimo (or Adagissimo) – ‘The Friends’ Lament’
- (Andante con moto) – ‘Since He Cannot Be Dissuaded, They Say Farewell’
- Allegro pocco – ‘Aria of the Postilion’ (Aria di postiglione)
- ‘Fugue in Imitation of the Postilion’s Horn’ (Fuga all’imitazione della cornetta di postiglione
do you love it
thanks, sincerely, for dropping by
R ! chard
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