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Raoul Dufy
December 24, 2023
sonatas, continued (Messiaen – “Quartet for the End of Time”)
“
Red Quartet
“
Raoul Dufy
_____
if a trio is a sonata written for three instruments,
a sonata, a piece of music consisting of more
than one segment, or movement, written for
four instruments, is called a quartet
a quartet is also what we call the group itself
of four players
quartets can play more than just quartets, they
can also play waltzes, nocturnes, rhapsodies,
for instance, just as trios, groups of three, can
play more than just trios
but quartets, the form, have had a long and
glorious history, from Mozart and Haydn,
the Classicists, through Beethoven, an
ardent Romantic, to the more political
Shostakovich, enemy, for a time, of his
repressive Soviet state, and on to
Messiaen, who composed his own
Quartet
for the End of Time
,
in a Nazi
concentration camp
let me start with
the Messiaen
, now that I’ve
whetted your appetite, and work our way back
to Mozart to see where we came from, and
how
there are seven movements in
Quartet for
the End of Time
,
not the Classical three or
four, atonality abounds, discordant, not
unexpectedly, progressions, repetition also
takes its punches, not easily identifiable
throughout, but tempo, the third pillar of
Western music, more or less holds its
own, keeping the tradition, however
precariously, together,
listen
it’s 1941, we’re in a concentration camp,
Messiaen is caught between hope and
despair, give the guy a break, he hasn’t
many absolutes to hold onto, tempo
might be one of them, the heartbeat,
pulse, perseverance, an actual human
pace, a rhythmic instinct, by which
eventually, hopefully, meaning
transpires
hope is in one’s creativity, he says, each
individual answer can be a tribute to
one’s own tribulations, our responses
can be poetry, lessons rather than
invectives, epiphanies rather than
agonies, may the Force, in other words,
be with you, in the face of even the most
trying difficulties, honour can supplant
trials, he concludes, given grace and
integrity
Beethoven says pretty much the same
thing in
his last piano sonata
,
remember
,
his
Opus 111
,
listen
, a not not impressive
corroboration
R ! chard
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November 25, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 25
“
Homage to Claude Debussy
“
(1952 )
Raoul Dufy
_____
if I object to sonatas consisting of only
one movement, I can also object to
sonatas consisting of more than two
instruments, but here’s Debussy’s
Sonata for flute, viola and harp
,
which should more accurately have
been called a trio, a trio is a sonata
with three instruments
note also in
the Debussy
the breakdown
of all the Classical imperatives, tempo,
tonality, and repetition, another blow to
established authority
but the test is, does it work, at which
point, if it does, terminology becomes
moot, and meaning changes
today, I pondered the word love, its
myriad meanings, and how we still
call that infinite variety of emotions
the same thing, the word sonata
doesn’t hold a candle to the word
love for disinformation
I thought, okay, just make it work,
I’ll define it for myself later, each
one of us being the final arbiter
of our own aesthetic sensibility
Debussy
or not
Debussy
, that is
the question
R ! chard
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August 1, 2013
“Self-Portrait” (1901) – Raoul Dufy, revisited
“
Self-Portrait
“
(1901)
Raoul Dufy
_______
someone suggested that what one saw when
one looked into
Dufy’s eyes
was a reflection
of oneself, this seems to me to be nearly
incontestable,
think about it
Richard
psst: thanks Dorothy
1 Comment
July 30, 2013
“Self-Portrait” (1901) – Raoul Dufy
“
Self-Portrait
”
(1901)
Raoul Dufy
_______
this
Dufy
completely undoes me,
if you
look into his eyes he’ll soon see
right
through you, more intently than
you
could ever give back, it’s as though
you’re the one being dissected
or is it just me
Richard
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