November / Month of the Sonata – 23
.jpg!Large.jpg "The treachery of images (This is not a pipe), 1928 - 1929 - Rene Magritte")
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November 22, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 22
“Piano“
José Garnelo
_____
having heard Stravinsky’s Concerto for
Two Pianos already, if you’ve taken in
my last instalment, you’ll find it perhaps
the most instructive of any of my
suggested comparisons to hear beside
it Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos, the
first, written in 1935, the second, 1781,
you’ll hear the passage of time fly by
both here are played by the same two
performers, brothers, incidentally, an
extraordinary couple, making your
aesthetic decision that much more
contained, straightforward
though Stravinsky might be here
utterly unexpected, even disarming,
he’s evidently much more in tune
with the Twentieth Century, even
the 21st, than the more bucolic
music of, energetic as it is, Mozart,
who is not of our era, however still
entirely relevant
with Stravinsky, you hear the traffic,
the hustle and bustle of modern life,
the pulse and frenzy of a more
frenetic century, though it must be
remembered that Mozart wrote his
piece between the American, 1776,
and the French, 1789, Revolutions,
a couple of historically seismic
events, not at all not turbulent
if you listen, you can hear it all in
the music, art is like that
enjoy
R ! chard
November 21, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 21
“Sonata“ (1911)
Marcel Duchamp
_______
as I was about to listen to Stravinsky’s
Sonata for Two Pianos, an intriguing,
I thought, combination, I came upon,
entirely inadvertently, his Concerto for
Two Pianos, which, to my confusion,
was for only two pianos
a concerto is a piece of music consisting,
indeed, of more than one movement,
but with an accompanying orchestra,
according to the definition, Stravinsky
must’ve been playing with words, his
Concerto for Two Pianos, however,
suits my project, a month of, specifically,
sonatas, irrespective of his erroneous
nomenclature
and it is entirely delightful, though
maybe in your face, listen
this is where I might elaborate on the
meaning of sonata, it is nothing more
than a piece of music consisting of
more than one segment, called
movements, anything can happen,
much like in a novel, consisting of
chapters, where anything also can
happen
the term sonata is used for pieces of
music written for one or two instruments,
for the one which can only play one note
at a time, anything not a keyboard,
requires harmonic accompaniment, it is
a tradition, though not absolute
a piece of music written for three
instruments consisting of more than
one segment, movements, is called
a trio, for four, a quartet, five, a
quintet, and so forth, until one stops
counting and we call it a symphony,
a symphony is a sonata written for
an indefinite number of instruments,
which is to say an orchestra
a concerto is a symphony with a
soloist, it’s named according to
the soloist’s instrument
but they’re all, essentially, sonatas
a piece of music consisting of more
than one segment of music, or
movement, written for two instruments
only, as far as I’m concerned, is called
a sonata, so, to my mind, this Concerto
for Two Pianos should be called a
sonata
but that’s just my opinion
what do you think
I think one should ever read the fine
print, even with Stravinsky
enjoy
R ! chard
November 20, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 20
“Double Self-Portrait“
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
________
Ravel’s Violin Sonata no 2, of 1927, is a
long way from the Romantics, though I
usually settle Ravel among the
Impressionists, this piece seems rather
to reflect the later Expressionists in art,
see above, for its virulence and eccentric
tonalities and performance techniques
in both the violin and the piano, the age
had given us the First World War, and
would soon lead to the Second
the three Classical imperatives of tonality,
tempo, and repetition are maintained still,
but their descendants are unruly, willful,
bold and impervious, there are no holds
barred here, they take no prisoners
listen
R ! chard
November 19, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 19
“Over the Town“ (1918)
Marc Chagall
________
Johannes Brahms is pretty well the last of
the great Romantics, 1833 – 1897, he wrote
his Piano Sonata no 3, in F minor, Opus 5,
when he was not quite twenty, with the
same bravura as Beethoven, let me point
out, his sonata has five movements, a sign,
as I’ve said before, of bristling confidence
as a form grows from its original, pristine,
shape, it can only grow by evolving,
becoming something, eventually, that it
wasn’t, by dint of breaking all the rules,
transgressing
style becomes the manner in which a
work is transformed from its integral
state into something more decorated,
more intricately designed, like adding
lace to a perfectly adequate collar, or
making a soufflé out of an egg
but who wouldn’t, won’t
a point is reached where style overcomes
substance then, and becomes the focus
of the entertainment, one watches the
bravura
to my mind, this, however wondrous,
sonata, hasn’t the emotional appeal
that I’d heard in the earlier Romantics,
that would keep me rapt to the end,
the draw for me is the prestidigitation,
the manual dexterity, which is like
watching someone fly through the
air with the greatest of ease, but be
not otherwise moved, see above
but that’s me, and that’s to my mind
incidentally, since this is Brahms’
last sonata, he only wrote three,
this is probably the last of the
great Romantic sonatas, after
which Impressionism
R ! chard
November 18, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 18
“A Melody of Schubert“ (c.1896)
Francesc Masriera
________
though there are other, and quite significant,
composers who fit into this category,
Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin pretty
much define, all by themselves, the
Romantic Period
Chopin composed only two sonatas of note,
plus one more that is overlooked for being
an early, student effort, not up to the
standard of his later ones, Chopin, rather,
wrote mostly shorter pieces, nocturnes,
études, preludes, polonaises, and more,
that later became the very stuff of his
reputation
Schubert wrote enough sonatas that he
could be compared to Beethoven, indeed
it can be difficult to tell one from the other,
much as it can be difficult to tell Haydn
from Mozart, products in either case of
being both of their respective eras
when I was much younger, a guest among
a group of academics, where I’d been invited
by the host’s wife, a co-worker, what I knew
of Classical music, in the large sense, which
is to say comprising all of the musical periods,
Classicism, Romanticism, Impressionism,
and beyond, was all self-taught
is that Beethoven, I asked the host, about
a piece of music he’d put on
that’s Schubert, he replied, aghast, as
though I’d just farted
I blushed, deep red, confounded
Schubert, having great admiration for
Beethoven, took on many of the older
composer’s lessons, four movements
instead of the Classical three, for
instance, and many of the technical
tricks of his forebear
but there’s an essential component of
their styles that marks one from the
other, an easy way to tell them apart,
Beethoven always composes against
the beat, Schubert following it
listen to the first few notes of Beethoven’s
“Pathétique”, for instance, the beats are
erratic, confrontational, the mark of a
revolutionary, Beethoven was brashly
proclaiming his worth, he had something
to prove
Schubert, who was essentially playing
for friends, just wanted to entertain
them, which he did in spades, without
bombast or bluster
listen to his Piano Sonata in A major,
D959, for example, no swagger, no
ostentation, delivering nevertheless
something quite, and utterly,
enchanting, everything following,
unobtrusively, the beat
enjoy
R ! chard
November 17, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 17
Venus de Milo
_______
about the “Hammerklavier”, I have so much
to say, I’ll try to make it clear and simple
first of all, hammerklavier is the German
word for piano, more specifically, klavier
means keyboard, hammer is a hammer,
what strikes the strings that make the
notes sound, rather than pluck them,
as in the harpsichord
by the time of the “Hammerklavier”, 1818,
the harpsichord had gone a long way, from
fortepiano to pianoforte, through to,
eventually, our modern piano
with the “Hammerklavier”, Beethoven is
into his late stage, he’s not only telling
a story but delivering a thesis, on the
depth and range of the piano, not only
technically, structurally, but also
metaphysically, for that time
listen to the adagio sostenuto, the third
movement, Beethoven transports you,
moments after the first few notes have
been struck, into a meditation
adagios had been only emotional until
then, sentimental
this one’s a precursor to the adagio of
his last piano sonata, his no. 32, so
profound I want them to play it at my
funeral, it’s like looking in a mirror,
but more about that only later, maybe
I remember turning a corner in the
Louvre – I’d been overwhelmed by
the quantity of works, stopped only
briefly before famous representations,
the “Mona Lisa”, for instance, more
historically interesting to me than
aesthetically, dusty, it seemed, with
age – and coming upon the “Venus
de Milo”, shimmering, breathing
apparently, see above, and being
transfixed forever
that someone, centuries ago,
millennia, could create something
so beautiful, so transcendent, so
timeless, full of grace, who’d have
someone, centuries later, be
mesmerized, made me believe
in beauty as a saving grace
this is what happened to me with
the “Hammerklavier”, this is what
always happens
may this happen to you
incidentally, this version is the first
one I ever heard of the piece, a
gift from, if I may be indiscreet,
an Austrian lover, for my birthday,
way back when, the early Seventies
it has served me well
R ! chard
November 16, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 16
“Big Zoo, Triptych“ (1913)
August Macke
________
the “Appassionata”, Beethoven’s Piano
Sonata no 23, sounds a lot like his
Piano Sonata no 21, the “Waldstein”,
both have three movements, fast, slow,
fast, Beethoven still doing Beethoven,
each only about a year apart, 1804,
1805, listen to them side by side, from
movement to movement, the moods
in either are much the same
I’ll point out, however, that the second
and third movements in the “Appassionata”
are linked, there is no pause between them,
Beethoven is making clear that the sonata
is an integral whole, not a collection of
disparate elements
what does that mean, it means that
Beethoven is creating a literature, not
only tunes, but a story, with beginning,
middle and end
compare in art with the triptych, see above,
with artists delivering more than individual
paintings, but a narration
both arts, music, painting, are meant to
transcend their original ends
enjoy
R ! chard
November 15, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 15
“Beethoven“ (1987)
Andy Warhol
______
Beethoven’s piano sonatas are divided in
three sections, Early, Middle and Late,
indeed, the last of his Early sonatas is
his 15th, the “Pastorale”, see my
November / Month of the Sonata – 14
the early ones are all still highly influenced
by his illustrious predecessors, Mozart and
and Haydn, and derive, however
idiosyncratically, from the Classical Era,
though there are notable differences, his
addition of a fourth movement, for instance,
instead of the standard three, an upstart
strutting his stuff, asserting his potent
individuality
with the Middle sonatas, Beethoven is well
on his way to defining the Romantic Period,
nearly single-handedly, the works are bold,
expansive, lush, powerful, a story is told,
movements are chapters in a book, a book
of metaphysical dimensions
with the Late sonatas, Beethoven will leave
the planet, deliver musical revelations
compositional issues apply, which I won’t
get into, for being abstruse, but you can
already hear in his Middle sonatas the
powerful voice of a musical prophet
here’s his Piano Sonata no 21, in C major,
the “Waldstein”, dedicated to his friend
and patron, Count von Waldstein, hence
the name, it straddles the Classical and
Romantic Periods, at home in the salons
of the nobles, but dazzling as well for the
new audiences that are flocking to the
flourishing concert halls
and we’re only at the start of his Middle
Period
stay tuned
R ! chard
November 14, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 14
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