Preludes – Debussy / Gershwin
Richibi’s Weblog
Just another WordPress.com weblog
Category: up my idiosyncrasies
January 7, 2019
Romul Nutiu
January 4, 2019
Chopin / Debussy – Preludes
“Prelude“ (1909)
Willard Metcalf
_________
what’s a prelude
something that, by definition,
precedes something else
which it had been, formally,
before Chopin made it stand
alone as a musical form,
much, incidentally, as he
later did the scherzo
a prelude, earlier, had preceded
several other dance pieces in
suites, Bach’s Cello Suites, for
example, all start with a
prelude
or fronted fugues, in, again,
notably, Bach’s celebrated
Preludes and Fugues sets,
more of which, for their
complexity, later
here’s Chopin, however, with
his array of 24, his Opus 28,
one for each key, incidentally,
much in the manner of Bach’s
template pieces, the Preludes
and Fugues
here’s Debussy’s Book 1,
picking it up for the 20th
Century, with his tonally
indiscriminate 12
what’s the difference
you tell me
R ! chard
psst: apples and oranges, I think,
depends on my mood that
particular night, whether
meditative or melancholy
January 1, 2019
Études – Debussy / Rachmaninov
“The Music Lesson“ (1917)
Henri Matisse
_________
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
but you tell
December 28, 2018
Études – Chopin /Debussy
“The Ballet Class“ (1871 – 1874)
Edgar Degas
________
ballet dancers will attach weights
to their ankles during exercises
to add lift to their legs when they
are on stage, such is the point of
études for a piano player, a
workout for the fingers before
public performance
Chopin, however, made them, by
themselves, works of great art,
followed by, among others,
Debussy
here’s Chopin, his Opus 25
here’s Debussy, his own “Études
pour piano, Livre 1“, or Book 1
how are they different
you tell me
listen
R ! chard
psst: this is an easy one, Chopin is
Romantic, Debussy, manifestly,
is not, Debussy is Impressionistic,
it is a new perspective, you can
hear it, it’s textural rather than
emotional, indeed, it’s even
abstract
but nearly a century has gone by,
and Impressionism is the new
aesthetic, the new preoccupation
which belongs to not only the
painters, let me point out, but to
all the arts, for better, once again,
or for worse
December 27, 2018
Études, Opus 10 – Chopin
“Études pour l’Apothéose d’Homère” /
“Studies for The Apotheosis of Homer“ (1826 – 1827)
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
____________________
what’s an étude
you tell me
here are 12, all by Chopin, his first
set of two, his Opus 10
in English, étude is a study
enjoy
R ! chard
psst: if you said they’re technical
pieces, warm-up exercises,
in preparation for more
substantial stuff, you’re on
it should be noted that Chopin,
after the more rudimentary
undertakings of the earlier
Czerny, for instance, or Clementi,
say, added the required substance,
the missing transcendental
element, turning his otherwise
mere digital pyrotechnics into
utter poetry, into prestidigitatorial
magic
December 22, 2018
from act 4, scene 3 – Othello
when Desdemona learns that Othello
suspects her of adultery, she asks
her maidservant
Dost thou in conscience think,–tell me, Emilia,–
That there be women do abuse their husbands
In such gross kind?
Emilia, older, wiser, replies
There be some such, no question.
But I do think it is their husbands’ faults
If wives do fall: say that they slack their duties,
And pour our treasures into foreign laps,
Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us,
Or scant our former having in despite;
Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace,
Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know
Their wives have sense like them: they see and smell
And have their palates both for sweet and sour,
As husbands have. What is it that they do
When they change us for others? Is it sport?
I think it is: and doth affection breed it?
I think it doth: is’t frailty that thus errs?
It is so too: and have not we affections,
Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
Then let them use us well: else let them know,
The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.
“fall” in the second verse, for this is
indeed a poem, in iambic pentameter,
could easily be replaced by “fail“,
nearly even calls out for it,
homophones but for the timbre of
their vowels
say that their husbands slack, she says,
then lists the several manners in which
husbands might betray their marital
duties, by “foreign“, she means “other“,
foreign to the family circle
“laps“, incidentally, is a wonderful
metaphor to accompany “treasures“,
suggesting intimate physical contact,
much more so, say, than “hands“
would’ve, for instance, been
“restraint” means conditions, stress,
impositions
“scant our former having“, to diminish
that which formerly had been given,
of either material or psychological
goods – “having” is a noun here, not
a participle
“in despite“, which is to say, “out of
spite“
“galls“, a synecdoche for internal
organs, a synecdoche, the word
that means a part which signifies
the whole
“affection” is “lust“
we’re equal partners, Shakespeare
says, men and women, in a shared
humanity, indeed Shakespeare is
one of the first Humanists after
centuries of religious subjugation,
centuries of the suppression of
independent thought, a defining
notion, not incidentally, of the
Renaissance
R ! chard
December 20, 2018
andante / polonaise, Chopin
“Chopin’s Polonaise – a Ball in Hôtel Lambert in Paris“ (1859)
Teofil Kwiatkowski
___________
what’s the difference between
one, an andante spianato
two, a polonaise
you tell me
both, of course, by Chopin
“andante” is a pace, a tempo, a little faster
than adagio, slower than allegro, “spianato”
is an Italian word for “smooth”, “even”
“et” is “and” in French
“polonaise” is a French adjective for
“Polish”, as a noun it means a Polish
dance
R ! chard
psst: if you said intention, you’re again
right, everything else is, of course,
Chopin, two different perspectives
on a related issue
think of two distinct elements
coming together, formally
conjoined, as in a mariage,
for better, ever, or for worse
or as in this Andante Spianato et
Grande Polonaise Brillante, a
conjunction which has lasted,
indeed brilliantly, for nearly two
hundred years, despite individual,
sometimes divergent, even
conflicting, outlooks
enjoy
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
December 16, 2018
a waltz / a nocturne, Chopin
“Nocturne“ (1991)
Eyvind Earle
________
what is the difference between
one, a waltz
two, a nocturne
both by Chopin
you tell me
R ! chard
psst: if you said the beat, you’re
entirely on your way, the
rest is, in either case,
entirely Romantic
mantic
November 26, 2018
on the third day of C***mas
“Les musiciens“ (1952)
Nicolas de Staël
___________
on the third day of C***mas, I needed to
ready myself for the onslaught, I was
hosting, yikes, for someone from out
of town
I thought I’d had it all figured out, but
obstacles occurred, of course, to my,
nearly cowed, consternation
I needed help
I’d anticipated more violin concertos
to get me going, but, among my
several bookmarks, King Crimson
came up, a group I’d admired
tremendously in my formative years,
the 70s, when freedom of expression
prevailed, in all of its innocent
expectations
they are tremendous, if you like that
sort of thing, entirely progressive
rock
you’ll think me eccentric if I relate
them to Classical considerations, not
only are they rigorous about tempo,
tonality, and repetition, essential
Classical components, but reach
further into even tribal configurations,
their minimalism – later formalized by,
incidentally, Beethoven – of infinitely
repeated rhythms, like thumping,
intoxicating, essentially, thrusts,
heartbeats meeting heartbeats, very,
in other words, primitive, primeval
add to that, later, their superimposed
atonal riffs – Jimi Hendrix meets the
jungle – a direct reference to
Schoenberg‘s breakdown of the
orthodoxy of the musical scale, and
cadence, and reiteration, you’re left
with a history of our culture’s sonic
aspirations in a single incandescent
concert, despite a couple of egregious
commercial interruptions in the
download, a 21st-Century, it seems,
corporate roadblock
Richibi's Weblog 