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Category: paintings to ponder

January 13, 2018

String Quartet no 8 in E Major, op 2, no 2 – Joseph Haydn

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      “The Music Lesson“ (c.1769) 

           Jean-Honoré Fragonard

                ________________

Haydn’s String Quartet no 8 in E Major, 
op 2, no 2 is not an iconic work, but 
representative of what the period had 
on offer, which wasn’t at all shabby, 
however more entertaining than in 
any way inspirational, seismic, that’ll 
come later, Haydn was nevertheless 
not only composing delightful pieces, 
but setting the stage for an era, the 
Classical Period, along, of course, 
with Mozart 

the form is not quite settled yet for
the string quartet, with again five 
movements here mirroring each 
other across again a central adagio,
twice the length, incidentally, of the 
other sections, again, though not at 
all unpleasantly, which ought to tell 
you something

the call and response aspect of the 
music, like a verse and refrain, are 
manifest, and grounding, everywhere,
you know where you stand, or sit, be
it the allegros, the minuets, or the 
adagios, the tunes return and 
reassure like clockwork 

dance forms, you’ll note, still remain
in the titles, a vestige of the earlier
period’s suites, this will alter, with
headings turning to tempo markings
exclusively, a move towards the 
transcendental rather than the 
frivolities of gavottes, or minuets


a transposition, meanwhile, of the
Opus 2, no 2 has beguiled me, the 
first violin has been replaced here 
with a guitar, same string quartet, 
but with an exquisite alteration

the guitar can only pluck, not glide
across a note, something akin to the 
harpsichord before the fortepiano, 
it makes for a completely different, 
though profoundly remembered, 
original

and delivered a particular zing to  
the strings of my heart

listen


R ! chard

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January 12, 2018

String Quartet no 1 in G major, K80 – Mozart

mozart-2015.jpg!Large

        “Mozart“ (2015) 

             Bernd Luz

                ______

Mozart’s First String Quartet, in G major, K80,
is not at all equal to Haydn’s First, then again
Mozart was only 14 in 1770 when he wrote
it, Haydn in his early thirties when he 
composed his, in the late 1750s

the difficulties are flagrant, first of all, starting 
with an adagio is something to avoid, like
falling into your agonies before even saying
hello, it can be entirely dispiriting for your,
however forgiving, audience

unless, of course, the lament is poignant,
unlike here, I thought

the later movements are emotionally 
nearly indistinguishable from each  
other, despite astute changes in 
tempo, that sufficiently differentiate 
the several parts, but one leaves the 
recital, nevertheless, remembering 
nothing, essentially, though not not  
entertaining, the quartet is not 
memorable

but listen to his first piano concerto, in
D major, K175, called his Piano Concerto
no. 5 for esoteric reasons I won’t get into, 
he was only 17, and already he entirely 
seduces you, leaves you enchanted

he needs the piano, I think, for the lovely 
musical runs up the octaves he invents,
like birds lifting gently, light as air, from 
their branches, soaring, coasting, 
dipping, dropping, finding a nearby 
branch or eave upon which to rest for a 
moment, and cede to the strains of the 
restless orchestral winds, and then fly 
off again, irrepressibly, towards another 
part of its musical wonderland

a string instrument can’t do that for the 
sake of the bow, which doesn’t have the 
extension

Mozart never outdoes Haydn at string 
quartets, though he learnt a lot from 
him about them, Haydn never bested 
Mozart at piano concertos  


R ! chard

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January 11, 2018

Quartet 1 in B major (“La chasse”), op. 1 no. 1 – Haydn

louis-xiv-and-moliere.jpg!Large

        “Louis XIV and Molière“ (1862) 

              Jean-Léon Gérôme

                     ________

the string quartet didn’t come out of nowhere,
as nothing does – I think – but probably, I 
suspect, from the earlier period’s suites, the
Baroque’s, Bach’s, for instance

suites are a series of dance pieces, stylized 
for the purpose of the musical poet, a popular 
appropriation, an even natural one for 
composers

the aristocracy, by the middle of the 18th
Century, demanded erudite entertainment,
something that Louis XlV, the Sun King,  
had instilled, a little earlier, during his 
Radiant Reign – see Racine, Corneille, 
Molière, see above, as well, incidentally –
1643 to 1715, up at Versailles, as a 
prerequisite for excellence in being a
monarch, a sovereign, sponsorship of 
culture, painting, poetry, music

dukes and counts and barons and 
princesses got onto the bandwagon 
and the arts consequently flourished

witness Haydn and Mozart then, still, 
now, giants 

here’s Haydn’s first, his Quartet no 1
in B major, (“La chasse”), op. 1 no. 1,
the first significant string quartet in 
our Western culture

you’ll note five movements, following 
the suite model described above, with 
mirrored minuets sandwiched between 
opposing mirrored prestos, and an 
adagio in the very middle, as though  
their crowning moment 

an adagio, to my mind, always gives 
away a composer’s worth, listen to 
this one, it’s melting

and he’s got 67 more to go through, I    
marvel, a veritable, and utter,
however improbable, musical
cornucopia 


R ! chard

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January 7, 2018

Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 – Johannes Brahms

the-wanderer-above-the-sea-of-fog.jpg!Blog

    “The Wanderer above a Sea of Fog“ / 

            “Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer“ (1818)   

          Caspar David Friedrich

                     ___________

                              for Collin, who’ll appreciate
                                        especially, I’m sure, the 
                                             Chopin


while I’m on the subject of clarinet quintets,
since there are so few significant ones, let 
me pull Brahms’ out of my hat and celebrate 
it, a worthy challenge to Mozart’s own utter
masterpiece

but over a century has gone by, it’s 1891, 
Beethoven, the French Revolution, the 
Romantic Era is reaching its end, ceding 
to Impressionism, after the disruptions of 
rampant industrialization, and its 
consequent effects on the social contract

Marx has proposed a theoretical master 
plan to equitably protect the rest of us 
from the 1%, however too politically 
fraught, eventually, such a system – see
Communism

furthermore, Darwin had suggested that 
we weren’t all descended from Adam and 
Eve, but from larvae, which is to say, 
millennially morphed, modified, through
time, genetically, leading to festering still 
ideological  objections

Elizabeth Barrett Browning had written 
her unadulterated love poems to her 
husband, Robert, Caspar David 
Friedrich had shown us his wanderer’s 
back while facing the mountainous 
challenges of the upcoming world, 
godless now after Nietzsche, Anna 
Karenina had thrown herself in front 
of a train, Madame Bovary had taken 
poison, and Ibsen‘s Nora had left her 
husband for a fraught, if not even 
dangerous, life on her own, to escape 
his safe but insufferable dominance, 
while Jane Eyre was finding ghosts
in her cobwebbed, and insufferable, 
to my mind, though admittedly  
aristocratic, attic 


you’ll note the clarinet is not sitting
centre stage, but has nevertheless 
a place at the table, by this time, 
though not not honoured, familiar,
and is more integrated to the 
conversation, the idea of democracy 
has taken hold, with everyone having
an equal, and even a vociferous, say

Brahms modelled his Clarinet Quintet,
on Mozart’s, the Classical structure is 
still the same, movements, tonality, 
musical recurrence, all to wonderful 
effect

that he would do that is not a given, 
but a tribute to the power of that form, 
take the waltz for instance, alive from 
even before Strauss, not to mention 
Chopin, to approximately the middle 
of the Twentieth Century

think about it, who waltzes anymore,
though they might’ve enchanted still, 
residually, the  50’s – see Patti Page, 
for instance – its lustre having 
dissipated, with the wind, as it were, 
the gust, before us, of the unending 
ages 


R ! chard

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January 4, 2018

Clarinet Quintet in A major, K581 – Mozart

the-swing-1767.jpg!Large

“The Swing“ / “Les Hasards heureux de L’Escarpolette“ (1767) 

       Jean-Honoré Fragonard

                __________

it wouldn’t be fair to overlook Mozart 
when it comes to string quartets, after
all, he wrote 23 of them, but they’re 
not what he’s famous for, you have to 
go to his piano concertos for that, 
sublime things, and, in my estimation, 
to one of his chamber pieces, his 
utterly enchanting Clarinet Quintet,
in A major, K581, which, since I prefer
chamber pieces, I turn to most often

but to go to a quintet so quickly in a
discussion about quartets could be 
disconcerting, after all, you’ve got
somebody else at the table, you’ll
need another chair, another place 
setting, more food, for four still of the
standard courses, some of those even
elaborate, all this makes a difference

plus the new guest is to be accommodated, 
should typically be given the place of honour, 
as well as a distinct voice, command, like a 
soloist in a concerto, though, of course, be
less peremptory, more, indeed, courtly,
courteous, where, incidentally, the word
“courtesy” comes from

the sound of the clarinet in this quintet
mimics the sound of birds, midst the 
strings’ foliage, the guest, as it were, at 
the party, the piece delivers a wonderfully 
pastoral setting, a mainstay of that period 
– see even above – an allegorical return to  
Mother Nature as a guiding principle over
the irascibility and the imperviousness of 
the Christian God, not to mention the 
search for a, nearly obliterated, feminine 
principle, deity

the second movement, the larghetto, 
which means a slow largo, which 
means it’s really, really slow, is 
accordingly melting

also, where would that movement be 
without the clarinet, I ponder, the guest 
that evening of especial honour, I get  
a momentary glimpse at genius then,  
and marvel, Mozart had written this for 
a clarinetist friend, a friend he must’ve 
really admired

all the other movements are equally
consummate, unforgettable, perfect

I promise


R ! chard

psst: here’s Mozart’s 17th String Quartet
          no 17 in B flat major, “The Hunt”,  
          nevertheless, a quartet, one of his    
          several, however perfunctorily

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January 2, 2018

String Quartet no 1, Opus 18, no 1 – Beethoven

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      “Musician’s table“ (1914) 

            Juan Gris

                _____

Beethoven’s First String Quartet came 
out much around the same time as 
Haydn’s Opus 76, no 1, among six of 
them in his set, Beethoven also had 
six in his, however junior still, first
collection, his Opus 18, Beethoven 
would’ve been going on thirty, Haydn
nearly seventy, though his spirit hadn’t
in any manner flagged, listen

but their differences are evident if you
lend a thoughtful ear 

the format is the same, four movements,
inarguably contrasting, with formal 
adherence to Classical norms, tonality,
tempo, and return, but the style is, in 
Beethoven, being overtaken by the 
substance, again inarguably

at dinner together, if I may continue my
earlier allegorical conceit, by the second
movement, Beethoven has already 
entered politics, essentially, religion, 
these four, the players, have a bone to 
pick, and their conversation gets heated, 
there’s a pause, a reconciliation, before 
the third movement, dessert, as it were, 
which is merrier initially, but later 
remains contentious, liqueurs later, in 
the final movement, are still not enough 
to allow for a comfortable exit, however 
might’ve been the serenity of the 
intoxicating sherries, cognacs

Haydn would never have done that, 
having grown up in the proprieties
of the Esterházys, his aristocratic
sponsors, courtesy would’ve been 
of their essence

Beethoven’s is a call to arms, a 
consequence of the French 
Revolution, the birth of the 
Romantic Period

you can hear it in the music


R ! chard

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December 30, 2017

on string quartets – Opus 76, no 1 – Joseph Haydn

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                                   “Joseph Haydn“ (1791) 

                                          Thomas Hardy

                                                 ______

to not consider other musical forms of
Shostakovich would be unfair, his
symphonies are mostly propaganda,
however often, though somewhat 
culturally specific, riveting

my favourite works of his, works I 
consider iconic, are mostly chamber 
pieces, piano solos, string quartets

a string quartet, after a symphony, is
like sitting down to dinner with four,
at the very least, acquaintances, 
rather than being a guest at a party,  
the conversation is more intimate,
every person plays hir part, everyone
is heeded, if even only with courtesy,
a social, a Classical, an aristocratic,
prerequisite 

movements can be compared to 
courses, distinct and identifiable for
their particular culinary, musical, 
propriety

later variations on this reflect the 
variations in social mores, where 
restaurants, the modern way of
socializing, allow for disparate 
choices, often superimposed, 
throughout the meal for any,
every, occasion

dim sum, tapas, celebrate this, not
unhappily 


but string quartets can be tricky, I 
thought I’d start from the beginning,
with some Haydn, their recognized 
Father, you’ll understand when you
hear this, his Opus 76, no 1, an 
outstanding string quartet to live 
up to

Haydn set the standard for string 
quartets when the norms of Western 
music were being established, Bach
had given us the alphabet, the
well-tempered clavier, Mozart, the 
grammar, the structure of music,
tempo, tonality, repetition, Beethoven 
gave us the literature, the poetry, the 
philosophical, the transcendent

Haydn is somewhere between these 
last two, but decidedly, still, the king  
of the string quartet, though Beethoven  
does a good job of trying to best him,  
and so does Shostakovich, you’ll have 
to pick

but first, let’s start with Haydn, that’ll
be already, you’ll see, or hear, enough

later, I’ll get into it


R ! chard

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December 28, 2017

Symphony no. 15 in a major, opus 141 – Dmitri Shostakovich

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        “Contrasting Sounds“ (1924) 

                Wassily Kandinsky

                       __________

Shostakovich can be difficult, he speaks a
foreign language, discordant notes leave 
you wondering where you’re going

the disruption of the three conditions of
Classical music, tonality, tempo and 
repetition, has given us here, the 
equivalent of derivatives of Latin, you 
don’t understand Italian if you speak 
only French, despite the profound
interconnections, roots

or think of trying even to read 
Shakespeare

also Shostakovich is more literal than 
other composers, his works are intimately
connected with the history and trials 
of his homeland, wrapped in folkloric 
references later cultures and generations 
would not be aware of

one can detect a composer of great 
consequence, like reading Homer in
translation, but never be able to feel 
their local, tribal, force

only a French Canadian could truly 
understand a French Canadian, say,  
in hir very atoms, and that, everywhere


there are many references to personal
influences in Shostakovich’s 15th
Symphony, which he viewed, apparently,
as a kind of autobiography – the initial
revolutionary ardour, his profound 
disillusion, the day to day struggles to 
endure the murderous tribulations of his 
political masters, the moral ambiguities  
that would have gone with them, the  
existential crosses to bear – with   
appropriately pertinent quotations from   
other foundational composers

you’ll surely not miss Rossini’s “Overture” 
to his opera, “William Tell“, which Russians 
would’ve been entirely familiar with, though 
we’re more likely to have known it in North 
America as the theme from the TV show, 
“The Lone Ranger“

much as we got our Shostakovich, however 
circuitously, from Walt Disney, Hanna-Barbera,
if you’ll remember them

and if you think you’ve heard in this symphony 
something you might’ve heard already, 
Shostakovich quotes himself from his earlier 
symphonies 

and if you’re good, you might even catch 
some Wagner, Mahler, some, however 
esoteric, Glinka, even

much of it, I’m afraid, now lost to us, in 
this new century, unless we’re total 
nerds

which is where, of course, I take a bow


the first movement was conceived as a 
toy box, it’s disorganized in the manner
of a child discovering

I heard, as well, a drunken degenerate
dancing, or trying to, a bull in a china 
shop 

but in the next movement, a dirge, an
“adagio – largo – adagio – largo”, if 
you’ve ever heard one, the drunken 
lout, in my mind, the next morning 
wakes up, broken but nevertheless
patient, and resilient

with one shoulder to the pillow, he 
props himself up, having understood 
that he must face the day, if only to do
his morning business, with a hand on 
the night table, he braces himself for 
the effort of heaving himself up from
the side of the bed, hears every bone
crack, every muscle stir as he lifts
himself up to a stable posture, tests 
his balance, then turns to move 
forward, crouched under the weight 
of all of his days, towards the basin 
and the mirror, where the picture 
could be better, but could also be 
worse

a blemish there takes up less than
a minute, a residual sense of duty, 
much more than of pride

his business done, the coffee, the 
grinder, the beans, the warmed cup
and then the hour or two to read 
poetry and find the inspiration, to 
undertake the day that’s been 
thrust upon him

he writes his Symphony no 15


the following movements are 
excessive to me, we drown in a sea 
of adagios and allegrettos, a not
unpleasant fate, but more confusing
than entertaining

though I’ll return

I think I might even get to really like
this symphony, it took me years to 
adjust to Kandinsky’s paintings


R ! chard

psst: thanks for listening

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December 19, 2017

Symphony no 14, opus 135 – Dmitri Shostakovich

portrait-of-shostakovich-1976-2.jpg!Large

      “Portrait of Shostakovich“ (1976)

            Tahir Salahov

                   _______

though I’d feared undertaking Shostakovich’s
14th Symphony – it would be a set of eleven
movements, each setting its own poem to
music, poems by Federico García Lorca,
Guillaume Apollinaire, Rainer Maria Rilke,
and one Wilhelm Küchelbecher, translated 
from their respective languages into Russian,
compounded by once again the fact that this
wasn’t either a symphony, but strictly speaking
a song cycle – I found the 14th Symphony to be,
counterintuitively, a triumph, all the issues I’d
earlier listed as compositional misadventures 
– the play of voice and instruments, the dangers 
of using a single singer, one pitch, to anchor an 
orchestral work – had been dealt with expertly, 
all the obbligatos, even, were back, I couldn’t 
wait to hear it again

Schubert had done several song cycles, 
“Die Schöne Müllerin“, “Schwanengesang“,
“Winterreise“, for instance, sad stories, 
steeped in Romantic torment, not unlike, 
still in 1969, Shostakovich the 14th  

Schubert, though, accompanies with just a 
piano


but a music cycle, without voice this one, 
no poems, just musical ones, of Liszt, his 
“Années de pèlerinage“, his “Years as a 
Pilgrim“, three years, one, two, three,  
1835 through to 1838, travelling through 
Switzerland and Italy, is consummate, 
ethereal, exquisite, and goes on for a  
few utterly enchanting hours 

one New Year’s Eve, I sat before a cozy fire,  
comfortable on my fluffy sofa, cuddled up 
in the several picturesque melodies along 
the musical way, like station stops on a 
train

I did the entire trip with him, nearly three 
hours, the music like a sonic looking glass, 
a hearing glass, a hearing film, not only 
transparent, but transcendental, into  a 
very wonderland, beyond even its mere 
incidental geography

that’s what art does, and music, when 
you look, listen

enjoy


R ! chard

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December 14, 2017

Symphony no 12 in D minor, opus 112 (The Year of 1917) – Dmitri Shostakovich

assault-on-the-kremlin-in-1917-1951.jpg!Large

 “Assault on the Kremlin in 1917“ (1951)

               Konstantin Yuon

                    __________

the Twelfth Symphony of Shostakovich, 
“The Year of 1917”, is a lot more of the 
Eleventh, “The Year 1905”, both 
commissioned, both celebrating 
significant events of the Russian 
Revolution, both therefore steeped in 
references that now elude many who 
aren’t Russian, and certainly those who
generations elsewhere later never lived 
through these particularly local events 

but the Twelfth is shorter by nearly 
half, thankfully, I also found it to be 
unconvincing, plastic, formulaic, 
neither original, nor enthusiastic, 
tedious and uninspired, musically 
speaking, of course

or maybe I’m just getting cranky

also a music honouring a system that 
is now defunct, debunked, discredited, 
couldn’t long survive but historically
among the works of an otherwise 
extraordinary composer, think of 
Confederate monuments still standing 
in the Southern United States, or of 
those of oppressors of First Nations, 
for instance, in our very own Canada, 
though these might’ve been  
sculpted by even Michelangelos,   
an irresolvable cultural confusion,
predicament


the works are programmatic, both 
have titles to indicate a particular
referent, and should be evocative 
of, therefore, those situations, 
music, in other words, for the 
movies, but in these instances, 
without the movie, I’ve talked 
about that before 

all the movements also have titles,
apart from the time signatures, 
adagio, presto, allegro, the like,
the Eleventh, “The Palace Square”, 
“The 9th of January”, “Eternal
Memory”, and “Tocsin”, a warning 
bell

the Twelfth, “Revolutionary Petrograd”,
“Razliv”, “Aurora”, and “The Dawn of 
Humanity”

I couldn’t help but refer to Beethoven’s
Sixth Symphony, the “Pastoral”, to
compare identical musical intentions,
his five movements are “Awakening of 
cheerful feelings upon arrival in the 
countryside“, “Scene by the brook“, 
“Merry gathering of country folk“,
“Thunder, Storm“, and “Shepherd’s 
song; cheerful and thankful feelings 
after the storm“

compare the use of the flute, the 
oboe, the bassoon, Beethoven isn’t 
using any obbligatos yet, solos for 
particular instruments, but you still 
get the feeling of country folk 
dancing, spring taking hold


let me point out that you’ll have to be
patient with the link to the Sixth
Symphony, it’s Japanese, I think, and
will require you to push the arrow in 
the middle of the screen, then wait 
out a few movie ads, which’ll nearly
confound you, but then you’ll get the
best ever Sixth Symphony I’ve ever 
heard, Herbert von Karajan at the 
helm of the Berliner Philharmoniker,
proving why he is still Zeus among
conductors

and his thumbs, goodness, anyone 
with thumbs like that is bound to 
change history


R ! chard

psst: incidentally, Yevgeny Mravinsky 
          was the conductor, equally 
          illustrious, who premiered 
          Shostakovich’s Twelfth in 1961, 
          the same conductor as in the 
          presentation here

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