two suites – Debussy
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January 19, 2019
Jean Cocteau
his “Children’s Corner”
January 11, 2019
two suites – Debussy / Ravel
“Minuet“ (1756)
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo
_________
two pieces
one by Debussy, his “Pour le piano“
or, in English, “For the Piano“
a second, by Ravel, his “Le tombeau
de Couperin“, or “Couperin’s Coffin“
how are they similar
how are they different
you tell me
a couple o’ clues
“Pour le piano“
Prélude
Sarabande
Toccata
“Le tombeau de Couperin“
Prélude
Fugue
Forlane
Rigaudon
Menuet
Toccata
R ! chard
psst: both these works are suites, in
the manner of Bach, compositions
with more than one segment, the
first a prelude, followed by, at
least, two dance pieces
the form had remained fallow for
nearly two hundred years until it
was revived, atavistically, during
the Impressionist Period
if you can’t tell your sarabande
from your rigaudon, your forlane
from your toccata, don’t fret, they
are now defunct dances, not to
mention that they’ve always been
stylized, these suites, in other
words, weren’t made for dancing,
as the saying goes, but for
performance, listening
January 7, 2019
Preludes – Debussy / Gershwin
“Rhythm“ (2008)
Romul Nutiu
______
here’s Book 2 of Debussy’s “Préludes”,
for a total of 24, as many as in Chopin’s
undivided set, his Opus 28, but with
different motivations, different musical
imperatives, which I won’t get into here
for being, for the present, too abstruse
here are three, meanwhile, by George
Gershwin, just for kicks, his only three
what are the differences
you tell me
R ! chard
psst: Gershwin, to my mind, adds,
indeed stresses, rhythm,
fascinatin’, as it were, rhythm,
he’s no longer as unrelentingly
meditative, serious, as was
Debussy, a distinguishing
characteristic of the
increasingly American 20th
Century
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 23, 2018
Chopin / Beethoven
“The Sonata“
Childe Hassam
________
what’s the difference between
one, Chopin’s “Andante spianato et
grande polonaise brillante“
two, Beethoven’s Piano Sonata no 32,
opus 111
you tell me
that one is Chopin, the other Beethoven,
doesn’t, of course, count
R ! chard
psst: if you considered the intervening
pause between the two distinct
musical segments, you’re on, the
pause makes clear the separate
sections, though these be
nevertheless profoundly, and
incontrovertibly, interconnected,
you can feel it
the pause determines the form,
once there are two portions, you
have movements, movements
are the essential components of
a sonata, no movements, no
sonata
the Chopin has no movements,
just one continuous elaboration,
however multiply constructed,
and is so called – “Andante
spianato et grande polonaise
brillante” – note the conjunction
both, however, juxtapose
contrasting, though intimately
conjoined, musical pairings to
be experienced as couplings,
for better or, as ever, for worse
both, incidentally, are profoundly,
and inexorably, Romantic, which
is to say, personal, and probing
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
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