how to listen to music if you don’t know your Beethoven from your Bach, XIII – Antonin Dvořák
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Category: on string quartets
April 13, 2019
allegros – Mozart / Schubert quintets
“Trout and Reflected Tree“ (1985)
Neil Welliver
________
allegros are ubiquitous in the repertory,
you can find them everywhere, so I won’t
say much about them but that they’re
the next step up from andante, therefore
sprightly, energized, they’ll often start,
or end, sonatas, and their derivatives,
string quartets, concertos, symphonies,
et cetera, engaging listeners, at first,
then wishing them a cheery farewell,
after an often melancholy middle spell,
they’re here again in the two following
quintets, not unexpectedly, at the
beginning of each, and at their end
Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A major,
KV 581
l – Allegro
ll – Larghetto
lll – Menuetto
lV – Allegretto con Variazioni
allegretto is slightly slower than
allegro
larghetto, meanwhile, is slightly faster
than largo, largo is slower even than
adagio, so that larghetto is somewhere
between the two, you’ll melt, believe
me, at this one
Schubert’s Piano Quintet, also in
A major, D 667, “The Trout”
l – Allegro vivace
ll – Andante
lll – Scherzo (Presto)
lV – Theme and Variations (Andantino)
V – Allegro giusto
thirty years have elapsed between
them, from 1789 to 1819, listen for
the Classical Period becoming the
Romantic Era
a clue, you can sing along with the
Mozart, you can’t anymore with the
Romantics
a quintet, incidentally, was usually
comprised of a string quartet,
however varied these strings, note,
might have been, with whichever
instrument would make up a fifth,
according to which the quintet was
identified, thus a clarinet quintet was
a clarinet with a string quartet, a piano
quintet, a string quartet plus a piano
other variants will follow
enjoy
R ! chard
psst: the theme in the fourth movement
variations of “The Trout“ is from a
lied, or song, Schubert had earlier
composed around a poem of
Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart,
hence the quintet‘s nickname
March 30, 2019
String Quartet no 15, Opus 144 – Dmitri Shostakovich
Title page and key monogram of “The Mountain Lover” (c. 1895)
Aubrey Beardsley
___________
after John passed away, I read, at a
gathering we had for him, something
that I’d written in his honour, it began,
adagios always remind me of John,
John was a dancer, he walked like
one
a few days later, immersed as I
was in memories of him while
mechanically washing some
dishes, I heard, from a symphony
I’d put on in the background to
keep me company in my reverie,
its adagio
I dried my hands, put my arms
around myself, and we danced
to the end of the movement, I’d
found, I understood, utterly, I
believed, miraculously, a key to
the very hereafter, adagios
would henceforth always
remind me of John
some time later, flipping aimlessly
through string quartets, of
Shostakovich among others, I
happened upon this one, his 15th
String Quartet, Opus 144, which
had, to my astonishment, not one,
not two, not three, not even four
nor five, but six whole adagios,
this was John talking, I knew,
I’ve loved it ever since
listen
R ! chard
psst:
String Quartet no 15, Opus 144
l – Elegy: Adagio
ll – Serenade: Adagio
lll – Intermezzo: Adagio
lV – Nocturne: Adagio
V – Funeral March: Adagio molto
Vl – Epilogue: Adagio
Dmitri Shostakovich
August 28, 2018
First Symphony, “Winter Dreams”, opus 13 – Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1866)
______
for Elizabeth, who said she’d
“be all ears once it happens“,
this first of my Tchaikovskys
the example of Beethoven was
a hard act to follow, no one
nearby, which is to say, in the
vicinity of Vienna, which had
ruled the musical world for
more than half a century, from
Mozart to late Beethoven,
would be able to match his
eminence, not even the,
however mighty, Brahms
but in the East a star was born, in
1840, of extraordinary dimensions,
to tower above the High Romantic
period, which shone with, were it
not for its distance from the
European central galaxy,
comparable brightness
Beethoven had written for every
instrument, every combination
of instruments, every voice,
every combination of voices,
no other composer had, nor
has since, done that but the
incandescent Tchaikovsky,
who’d ever ‘a’ thunk it
symphonies, concertos, string
quartets, sonatas, variations,
ballets, operas, liturgical
pieces, there wasn’t anything
he didn’t touch, and transform
into magic
here‘s an early work, his Opus 13
only, in order to get chronological
perspective, and, as I pursue this
compelling trajectory, a sense of
his musical evolution, his First
Symphony, “Winter Dreams”*
listen for troikas flying across
the steppes, hear the bells tingle
from their fleeting carriages, be
swept away by the exhilarating
majesty
R ! chard
* Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra,
Joshua dos Santos, conductor
August 18, 2018
String Quartet no 16 in F major, opus 135 – Beethoven
“Portrait of Alexander Sakharoff“ (1909)
Alexej von Jawlensky
______________
if you’re wondering, how could a simple
composer have such influence on an age,
think of the impact the Beatles had on
the 1960s, essentially defining them,
moving them from the pop song, “I Want
to Hold Your Hand“, an updated version
of anything by Elvis Presley, to their
transformational “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely
Heart’s Club Band“, thirteen arias in
search of an opera, paving the way for ,
not only concept albums, but for the
likes of, for instance, the messianic,
the oracular, Pink Floyd
Beethoven did much the same for the
early 19th Century
the 16th String Quartet, his last, is,
like the 15th, in segmented pieces,
not the uninterrupted challenge for
instrumentalists the continuous
14th is, where neither the players
nor the audience get time to even
breathe between movements
but their composition is so riven
with musical eccentricities,
conceptual challenges, that they
are not to be dismissed, are even
epochal
the pauses, the interruptions of the
beat, the irregular, and disconcerting
sometimes, rhythms, the stridency
of some of the notes, pitched and
peremptory interpolations, despite
a sensibility that still pays homage
between the lines to the Classical
considerations of deference,
propriety – you can even feel the
courtier’s hand, at times, extended
in the dance, with ever such refined
grace, in order to accompany, to
partner, to gently lead, his lady
in other words, the 16th is “Abbey
Road“, if I’m to continue with my
Beatle comparison, for neither
was the equal of their respective
counterparts, “Sgt. Pepper” ,
Beethoven’s 14th String Quartet,
both of which incontrovertibly and
absolutely, in their time, changed
everything, were culturally, thus,
superior, where the others weren’t,
didn’t, as effectively, as profoundly,
leave so strong an imprint
but you choose, all are extraordinary
R ! chard
psst: in order not to not add the nearly
irresistible digital blueprints,
which is to say, the not only
dancing but utterly illuminating
computer graphics, here they are,
divided in the 16th‘s separate
movements
1. Allegretto
2. Vivace
3. Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo
4. Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß. Grave, ma non troppo tratto
(Muss es sein?) – Allegro (Es muss sein!) – Grave, ma
non troppo tratto – Allegro
August 13, 2018
String Quartet no 15 in A minor, opus 132 – Beethoven
“The Garden of Earthly Delights“ (1510 – 1515)
____________
if I’ve been spending a lot of time on
Beethoven, it’s that, apart from
besides him Napoleon, no one else
dominates in the public imagination
the early 19th Century, there is no
one else of such comparable
importance
let me also point out that when
Nietzsche identified his model for
the Übermensch, Superman, it was
not the French General, the French
Emperor, however formidable,
however illustrious, he named, but
Beethoven
Nietzsche had already understood
that in the future, a future where the
idea of God had been put into question,
an issue which had begun irreversibly
with the splintering of the Catholic
supremacy, when the several
Protestantisms, Lutheran, Calvinist,
Anglican then, presented differing
opinions of each their vehemently
defended deity, the eventual
resolution would be inescapably up
for metaphysical grabs, which set
philosophers, scientists, poets in
search of answers, which by
definition must be as varied as
there are voices
the outcome was the eventual
declaration of human rights before
the court of international opinion
as the ruling moral consideration
above the demands of any one
faith
Nietzsche‘s pronouncement was that
a powerful opinion could therefore
sway very populations towards its
vision, however ultimately
sometimes dire, Nietzsche was
therefore blamed for predicting,
for instance, Hitler, as though
Nietzsche were himself responsible,
rather than prescient
one of his books, indeed, entitled
“Beyond Good and Evil“, illustrates
the breakdown of the traditional,
which is to say Christian, moral
order, powerful people will take us
where they want to, for better or
for worse, he prophesied
therefore, note, the very present
but there is also Beethoven, the
incandescent prophet, Charles
Darwin, the biologist, who
changed the way we understand
ourselves, Sigmund Freud, who
pushed that understanding even
further, Albert Einstein, who gave
us an alternate picture of the
universe, John Lennon, who
called upon us all to “Imagine“,
Princess Diana, who demonstrated
what it was to be good in a world
that was losing its compass, each
shaping by force of personality
our present age, their future
all was not, by their examples,
lost, in other words, some of our
leaders would be benevolent,
verily even inspiring, despite the
prevalence in their midst, the
existential threat of, nefarious,
indeed ruthless, and, too often,
appalling, despots, a category
too long to even begin to list
here’s, however, Beethoven doing
again his stuff to inform the tenor
of his time, his 15th String Quartet,
another forceful and foundational
step towards the world that lay,
before him, ahead, our world, for
better or for worse
R ! chard
August 11, 2018
String Quartet no 14 in C-sharp Minor, opus 131 – Beethoven
“Musician“
__
for Ian, who surely
benefitted from my
intransigeance
after watching performed the first movement
of Beethoven’s 14th String Quartet at home
with a friend, I interrupted the piece and
instead put on the one I’d found with
computer graphics
not from the beginning, he said
yes, from the beginning, I retorted, a mere
six or seven minutes which’ll be worth it, I
insisted, and they were
four lines of music, the top one yellow for
the first violin, red for the second, mauve
for the viola, and blue for the cello, which
individually advance according to the
length of each instrument’s notes, the
height, meanwhile, of the lines indicate
pitch, top ones high notes, bottom lines
low, it’s like watching a blueprint of
what’s happening, and mesmerizing, a
musical score in very motion, though
without, admittedly, the bar lines, nor
key and time signatures, clefs neither,
for that matter
the music meanwhile is transcendent
Beethoven here resolves all the issues
I brought up about his two early Late
Sonatas, grab bags of fine tunes but
without a centre, cuts on an album,
rather than the visionary
pronouncements of the prophet I’ve
come to expect from Beethoven
Beethoven pulls out all the stops
for his 14th, goes from a fugue in
the first movement, a form
reminiscent of Bach, who’d been
completely obliterated during the
Classical Period, masterful dance
rhythms then, peppered
throughout, referencing, indeed
honouring late 18th Century court
music, a set of variations in the
fourth movement, and other
classifications I won’t touch for
their being too technical, but
which all illustrate Beethoven’s
mastery of every musical
convention until his time, then
pushes all of it further still into
the future with this string quartet,
supreme among all string quartets,
his 14th
much later, Pink Floyd would pull
off a similar stunt, take its own
generation’s music to comparable
heights with an equally cultural,
which is to say historical, impact,
the comparison is, I think,
noteworthy and instructive
Pink Floyd, incidentally, was also
a quartet, for even more context
note that throughout, tonality, tempo,
and repetition have been strictly,
though, admittedly, often
eccentrically observed, the piece has
been arresting, even riveting, however,
for some, disconcertingly so, but
never not understood, never foreign,
the music isn’t at all alienating, as
could be, say, Chinese opera for most
of us, we’re still here in our corner of
the planet following faithfully in the
Western musical tradition as it thus
then evolved
I could say all of the above as well,
again, by the way, about Pink Floyd
in their own, ahem, Time
all of that said, this other version,
by the Alban Berg Quartet, is the
performance that you’ll remember,
it is still incomparable, the gold
standard
R ! chard
August 6, 2018
String Quartet no 13 in B-flat major, opus 130 – Beethoven
“Mona Lisa“ (c.1504)
___________
not liking Beethoven is not an option, it’s
like saying you don’t like Shakespeare,
or the “Mona Lisa“, or Paris, there’s too
much there to not not like, you either
don’t know them, haven’t even a clue,
or you’ve a very good reason for your
disfavour, which you are expected then,
and with great authority, to explicate
which is to say, however, that not liking
Beethoven, but for valid reasons, is a
sign of a sharpened, rather, intellect,
something that no one, I suspect,
would want to eschew – Gesundheit
in his Late Quartets, Beethoven can be
demanding, and not especially convincing
sometimes in his musical argument, let me
stress the word “argument” here, a notably
Beethovenian consideration, the last
movement of his 13th String Quartet, for
instance, his famous “Große Fuge“*, has
him verily in a rage
for me, the same objections apply to the
13th as those I accused him of in his 12th
String Quartet, a display of uncoordinated
pieces, like food stands at public markets,
apples, however delicious, oranges,
however juicy, pomegranates, however
exotic, varieties of fish, meat, cheeses,
tempting desserts, but where I come out
with just the basil that I wanted in the first
place for being overwhelmed, wondering,
wow, all that Sturm und Drang, but what
just happened
what do you think
R ! chard
* do not not click, this is totally
transcendental, you’ll verily
learn how to read music
August 4, 2018
String Quartet no 12, E-flat major, opus 127 – Ludwig van Beethoven
“The Cellist“ (1909)
_________
if I haven’t spent a lot of time with
Beethoven’s 12th String Quartet,
ever, it’s that, despite being
considered one of his “Late”
compositions, 1825, the
supposedly probing ones, it is
still steeped in Classical
traditions, rather than the
introspective impulses of the
“Hammerklavier”, for instance,
most movements seem to aim
for entertainment, rather than
for enlightenment
all movements display dance rhythms,
often 3/4 time, which is to say, three
quarter notes to the bar – one, two,
three, one, two, three, one, two, three,
one, two, three, try counting them as
you listen, a dance beat, instead of
the probing philosophical explorations
of his more profound “Late” pieces,
the “Hammerklavier”, for instance
neither is the 12th especially cohesive
as a piece on its own, the movements
don’t especially relate to one another,
they’re like cuts on an album, however
satisfactory, even delightful, they’re
units in a display of abilities, the
difference between Elvis Presley‘s ,
however transcendent, but disparate,
ballads to, later, Pink Floyd‘s epic
metaphysical orations
but you’ll want to watch the cellist
here, whose enthusiasm, eagerness,
ardour are such that you might even
want to shield your eyes on occasion,
with splayed, even, fingers – whose
breadth I’ll leave entirely up to your
personal discretion – though I could
not, myself, resist for even a moment
the uninhibited physical expression
of his thoroughly impassioned
account
tune in, if you dare
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
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