sonatas, continued (Beethoven – Opus 44)
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December 9, 2023
sonatas, continued (Beethoven – Opus 97)
“Wisdom“
Constantin Brâncuși
_________
the best way to sharpen your aesthetic pencil
is always to put one thing up against another,
then decide which you like best, the outcome
is never right or wrong, it is quite simply a
function of your aesthetic sensibility, the
more you exercise that taste muscle, holding
one element up against another, to compare,
the more you develop an informed, if not ever
conclusive, opinion, which develops eventually
into, if not authority, at least wisdom
what do you want to be when you grow up,
I asked myself in my very early teens, I
want to be wise like my grandmother, I
answered, have I reached my goal, you
tell me, though it is still, and ever will be,
my quest
you’ve heard already in my last instalment
Frank’s Opus 1, no 1, a trio, here’s
Beethoven’s “Archduke“, also a trio, his
Opus 97
which do you like best, there is no correct
answer, but your choice will tell you a lot
about yourself
enjoy
R ! chard
December 7, 2023
sonatas, continued (César Franck – Opus 1, No. 1)
“Trio“ (c.1936)
Cyril Power
______
my Month of the Sonata might be over,
November, 2023, but I still abide by the
belief that a sonata a day keeps the
doctor away, so I’ve continued, more
or less, my medicine
but a sonata exceeds its definition, a
piece of music, consisting of more
than one segment, called movement,
for one or two instruments, the second,
should it be included, being harmony
for an instrument that can play only
one note at a time, which is to say,
everything except the piano
but a piece of music written for three,
instead of just one or two, instruments
is also called a trio
a work consisting of more than one
movement, but performed by three,
instead of just one or two, usually
different, instruments, is as well
called a trio, just to confuse you
here’s one, for violin, cello, and piano,
by César Franck, a Romantic composer,
his Opus 1, No. 1
I didn’t expect much, it being, manifestly,
his first composition, Opus 1, No. 1, but it
was part of the program I got tickets for
coming up at our recital society here in
February, I had to investigate
to my surprise, it was, is, magical
enjoy
R ! chard
November 30, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 30
“Moses“ (1956)
Marc Chagall
________
Beethoven’s Opus 111 is, to my mind,
the equivalent of the Sermon on the
Mount, or Moses’s rendering of the
Ten Commandments, see above, in
our post-Christian world, the world
where God is dead and where we’re
all left to our own devices for better
or for worse
Beethoven confronts a Listener,
who is, or is not, there, pleading
for meaning, purpose
the first movement is rebellious,
despite, ever, his reverence for
his abstract Interlocutor, bowing
before, heeding, this self-anointed
Adjudicator, the Deity we fashion
for ourselves
we are witness to this interchange
the second movement is more
subservient, pleading more
rationally, less explosively, his
case, we hear this too
there are only two movements,
dichotomies, war, peace, man,
woman, chaos, order, none of
them a choice
Beethoven says to exist, to be,
itself, encompasses its own
glory, that is our grace,
whether or not there is a
hereafter
listen
R ! chard
psst: thank you so much for your
participation, however
intermittent, in my Month
of Sonatas, I am not only
grateful, but honored, by
your presence
November 29, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 29
“Evening Prayer“ (1888)
Anna Ancher
_______
from the very first few notes of Beethoven’s
Piano Sonata no 31 in A-flat major, Opus 110,
we understand we’ve entered an entirely other
reality, the melody is unorthodox, not a lyric,
but, talking against the grain, the beat,
become a sentence, we are witness to
Beethoven addressing the infinite,
Beethoven at prayer, see above
the notes are clear, concise, naked,
happening, again, against the beat,
profoundly intimate, arhythmic,
unadorned, unadulterated, they are,
consequently, prophetic, not only
entertaining, but a moral code, a
metaphysical example of our role
in the shared fate of our nebulous
universe
Beethoven says we must believe
in our own beauty, our worth, it is
our only salvation
it is a mighty revelation
listen
R ! chard
November 28, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 28
“Geranium”
Odilon Redon
_______
we’re reaching the end of November, with
only three sonatas to go, which will be
devoted to Beethoven’s last three, they
exist in their import, impact, beyond
whatever’s been since, or before,
recorded
if Beethoven’s Hammerklavier was a
treatise on the physical possibilities
of a piano, its breadth of tonal range,
the scope of possible volumes, soft,
loud, not to mention its ability to, in
one instrument, play all the scales,
his following three sonatas, evolved
from the physical to the metaphysical,
“To be, or not to be”, he might as well
be asking, much like Shakespeare
there’d been metaphysical works before,
Bach’s cantatas, Handel’s Messiah, but
this metaphysics was of another order,
there’d been a revolution in France, the
Christian God had been there even
made illegal, Christians sent to the
guillotine, see Poulenc’s formidable
Dialogue of the Carmelites for proof
of that
Beethoven’s prayer, his evocation, in
his last three works for solo piano,
were to the Entity that might, or might
not be, out there, “To be, or not to be,
that [remained] the question”
the miraculous is that Beethoven, with
profound humility and respect, notes
that are clear, concise, and
straightforward, confronts the Entity
with nothing but his unadorned self,
at a loss in a sea of meaning, even
suffering despair, presenting, as an
argument the evidence of his life,
his art, his manifest and irrevocable
being, much as a flower would,
could it speak, no more, admittedly,
no less, but nevertheless a flower,
see above, and there is, Beethoven
says, glory in that
here’s his Opus 109, listen, enjoy
ponder
R ! chard
November 27, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 27
“Sweet, piercing sweet was the music of Pan’s pipe“
Walter Crane
______
a sonata can be written for any instrument,
some just more prevalent than others,
here’s one for clarinet, Brahms’ Opus 120,
no 2
after the distortions of later composers
you might remember from these pages,
it’s nearly quaint to return to the
traditional templates for the sonata,
more than one movement, no more
than two instruments, and attention
to the Classical imperatives of tempo,
tonality, and repetition
Brahms doesn’t put a foot wrong, all
of the requirements are observed
punctiliously, you could even sing
or dance to this music, something
you couldn’t later do, unless with
choreography, see, for instance,
Nijinsky
talking about Nijinsky, the clarinetist
here is as feral as the faun Nijinsky
portrays, via Nureyev in this replicated
version, in his homage to Debussy’s
The Afternoon of a Faun, 1912, he
even seems, the clarinetist, the very
god Pan, come down from Olympus
to frequent the backwoods of Ionia,
to beguile those who would be
beguiled, with his flute, see above
his accompanist is equally hot
watch
enjoy
R ! chard
November 26, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 26
“Portrait of Dmitri Shostakovich“ (1963)
Martiros Sarian
________
Shostakovich is especially interesting
for being a political composer, caught
up in the Soviet experiment, his soul
is Russian, you can hear it in the folk
music that grounds his compositions,
strict tempo, an aspiration towards
melody
but the tonality is off, the singer sings
off key, the dancer’s legs are broken
Shostakovich describes a people,
an exuberant people, lusty,
warm-hearted, whose spirit has
been broken, you can hear it
had there been a Nobel prize for music,
Shostakovich would’ve won it, along
with his contemporary, and compatriot,
Boris Pasternak, for literature, at the
time, whose Doctor Zhivago was a
phenomenon, back in the 1960s
both were, incidentally, persecuted
by their government
here’s Shostakovich’s Violin Sonata,
Opus 134, 1968, written for his friend,
the noted violinist, David Oistrakh,
for his sixtieth birthday
enjoy
R ! chard
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
November 24, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 24
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