November / Month of the Sonata – 12
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Tag: Beethoven
November 9, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 9
Jules Delsart
______
at the end of the Romantic Period, 1886, and
encroaching on the upcoming Impressionistic
Era, César Frank wrote his Violin Sonata in
A major, a musical glimpse into a new age,
this is not Chopin, not Beethoven, not
Schubert, despite obvious, if you’re
listening, homages, references
you’ll note the atonality, musical progressions
that seem askew, eccentric, not as harmonious
as those earlier composers, like a neurosis
taking over
tempo, a second essential element of music
in the West, however changeable might it be,
even within the individual movements, is
recognizable
repetition, the third pillar of Western music
is keeping us on track, bringing us back to
the original statement, to the air each
movement presents at their several
introductions
Frank’s sonata was so appreciated by an
accomplished cellist friend, Jules Delsart,
that he asked if he would transcribe it for
cello, their joint Sonata in A major for
Cello and Piano remains to this day a
stalwart on the cello circuit
compare, an exercise in sharpening your
aesthetic pencil, try it, enjoy
R ! chard
November 8, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 8
“Schubert at the Piano II“ (1899)
Gustav Klimt
______
before going any further, it’s about time
I brought up Schubert, had he survived,
he might, I think, however conservatively,
have rivalled Beethoven
he died at the age of 31, of a sexually
transmitted disease, I believe the reason
for his relative obscurity
but he is titanic
listen to one only here of his sublime piano
sonatas, his Piano Sonata No 21 in B-flat
major
though one mustn’t discount his other
transcendental masterpieces, his D956,
for instance, for string quintet, is, well,
characteristically, transcendental,
you’ll leave the planet, I promise
listen
enjoy
R ! chard
November 1, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 2
“Joseph Haydn“ (1791)
Thomas Hardy
________
Haydn, profoundly underrated, was the
other pillar of Classical music during that
period, Beethoven, with half a foot only
in that era, uses its elements to yank us,
yelling and screaming, into the next, the
Romantic Era, 1800 to 1870 more or less,
more about which later
if Haydn sounds a lot like Mozart, it’s that
this piece was also written in 1789, both
were catering to the aristocracy, courts,
salons, music was therefore frivolous,
meant to be entertaining, not inspirational,
trills, a lot of decoration, technical agility,
prestidigitation over profundity
Beethoven will change all that, stay tuned
meanwhile, listen to, enjoy, Haydn’s Piano
Sonata in A-flat major, no 31, Hob XVI-46,
today’s prescribed apple
R ! chard
November 1, 2023
November / Month of the Sonata – 1
“Still Life with Seven Apples“ (1878)
Paul Cézanne
_____
a sonata is to the concerto what an apple
is to an apple pie, its essential component,
after which the rest is decoration, however
inspired
sonatas existed before Mozart, but he’s
the one, along with Haydn, as well as
early Beethoven, who put them on the
musical map, 1750 to 1800, more or
less
it seems to me appropriate, therefore,
to start my Sonata Month then
here’s something by Mozart, 1789, his
last piano sonata, No. 18, in D major,
K. 576
three movements, fast, slow, fast – allegro,
adagio, allegretto – a perfect example of
the sonata as it was establishing itself
then, a piece of music consisting of
several distinct sections, movements,
meant to highlight contrasts, musical
agility in the artist, compositional
imagination
listen, enjoy
R ! chard
April 26, 2023
how to listen to music if you don’t know your Beethoven from your Bach, XII – on rhapsodies
“Rhapsody“ (1958)
_____
if, in my last instalment, I compared iconic
funeral marches, let me do the same for
a couple of iconic rhapsodies, another
musical form that came and went, that’s
come and gone, but not forgotten
what’s a rhapsody
as far as I can make out, it’s much the
same as a fantasia, if you can remember
what a fantasia is, a free form composition,
but with a Romantic, which is to say a
heartfelt, twist, more pathos, less
technical wizardry
Gershwin wrote his Rhapsody in Blue
in 1924, you can hear New York, Times
Square, Broadway, from the first wail
of the languid horn
Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme
of Paganini, written in 1934, ten years
later, gives you, however, Vienna, its
Romantic Period, the traditions of,
a century earlier, Beethoven, Schubert
Rachmaninov is personal, introspective,
tragic, Gershwin is extroverted, social,
fun
Rachmaninov looked back to his
European, Old World, traditions,
Gershwin augurs an entirely new
voice
listen, you can hear it
enjoy
R ! chard
February 7, 2023
how to listen to music if you don’t know your Beethoven from your Bach, Vl
“The Potato Eaters” (1885)
Vincent van Gogh
___________
where do you start with Chopin, he is
in our Western cultural bloodstream,
as identifiable in music as, say, van
Gogh is in painting, you don’t need
to be interested in any kind of art to
have not been given even only a
whiff of these iconic artists
nearly anything I might present here
of Chopin you’ve probably already
heard somewhere before, if only in
bits
of van Gogh, well, he goes back in
the public imagination to at least
Vincent, 1971, the song, no one
doesn’t know about him, when I
heard it playing in Amsterdam at
the museum, with the first piece I
saw, The Potato Eaters, dominating
the first wall, insisting on van Gogh’s
vision, his prophecy, his profound
compassion, I cried, I understood
what art is, see above
Chopin exerts a different kind of,
however equally potent, magic
Mozart might sound like Haydn,
Beethoven might sound like
Schubert, all of the Impressionists
sound like all of the Impressionists,
be they Ravel, Debussy, Satie, or
Saint-Saëns, to the untrained ear
but no one sounds like Chopin,
he’s, culturally, a North Star
here’s one of his nocturnes, the
moonlit one, in E flat major
here’s a polonaise, here’s an étude,
in English, a study, a finger exercise,
an iconic, here, prestidigitation
here’s an impromptu, his very,
indeed, Fantaisie-Impromptu, just
to get your categories going
consider its construction, having
some information already about
fantasias, a work of the imagination,
open to any experimentation within
the confines of one movement, with
an impromptu, something purported
to have been created on the spot,
also in one movement
the answer requires you to sharpen
your aesthetic pencil, always a
delight – an impromptu, a
spontaneous invention, a fantaisie,
a work of the imagination, how do
they differ, which part is a fantaisie,
which an impromptu, how do they
nevertheless coalesce
this exercise is the first step in
listening
enjoy
R ! chard
April 14, 2020
art in a time of crisis
“Prelude to Alice“ (1955)
Charles Blackman
__________
in all the fallout from the very early
reactions still to the present global
crisis, self-isolation, a retreat from
the, not only usual but consolidating,
aspects of our communal interactions,
there remain effective manners of
dealing with this sea, this profoundly
existential, change we are viscerally
experiencing
a social animal is being asked to
eschew – Gesundheit – social contact,
this is not an inconsequential ask
religions might’ve earlier been common
recourses for many believers, but the
restrictions on assembly are already
impeding such solutions, we are left,
therefore, to find personal answers to
our prescribed isolation – what do I do
with my time, how do I subsist when
my supports are disintegrating
let me suggest immersion in the lessons
art has bequeathed us through the ages
it isn’t a bad time to review, for instance,,
the majesty of Homer’s Iliad, Ovid’s
Metamorphoses, his interpretation of
the origin of the world, its genesis,
Shakespeare’s tragedies, Beethoven’s
transcendental music, since many of us
are confined to our homes
rather than rue, bristle, use our time, I
suggest, to contemplate, learn, discover
in looking for flowers recently, for a
friend who’s undergone her own
private agony, unrelated to the
recent international medical crisis,
I fell upon, again, the magical
inventions of this utterly inspired
painter
like many other, even celebrated, even
revered, artists, this, however insulated,
however apparently isolated, visionary,
with the strength of his inspiration,
gives weight to the power of mere
poetic passion, a thrust towards what
is thought of as beautiful, however
individual, suggesting that each our
own aesthetic is of value, when
fervently followed, pursued,
check him out
meanwhile, I’m learning to sing, creating
a repertoire, what have I got to lose
R ! chard
February 15, 2019
“Années de pèlerinage”, 2nd Year – Liszt
“Petrarch“ (c.1450)
Andrea del Castagno
___________
for John, who would’ve
been 60 today
though the suite might’ve started with
Bach’s string of dance pieces in the
early 18th Century, it becomes evident
during the 19th Century, after a lapse
of nearly 100 years, while it fell into
disfavour, that its resurrection as a
valid musical form might’ve kept the
original structure, which is to say its
several separate parts to make up a
whole, its movements, but that it
now was serving a different purpose
where music had, through to the early
Romantic Period, followed dance
rhythms, or variations of tempo,
adagio, andante, allegro, and the like,
it now presented itself as a background
for settings, be it ballets, as in
Tchaikovsky’s, plays, as in Edvard
Grieg’s celebrated , “Peer Gynt Suite“,
after Ibsen‘s eponymous play,
specific locations, as in Debussy’s
“Children’s Corner“, or more
expansively, both geographically
and in its compositional length,
these very “Années de pèlerinage”
of Liszt
this is in keeping with the exploration
of consciousness of that era, which
would lead to not only Impressionism,
but to Freud, and the others, and the
development of psychoanalysis
you’ll note that music seems much
more improvisational in Liszt than in
Chopin, or Beethoven, prefiguring
already even jazz, more evocative,
less emotional, more personal, not
generalized, idiosyncratic, a direct
development of the newly acquired
concept of democracy, one man, at
the time, one vote, one, indeed,
voice, however individual, however
even controversial
listen, for instance, to Liszt’s “Années
de pèlerinage”, 2nd Year, Italy
1. Sposalizio
2. Il penseroso
3. Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa
4. Sonetto 47 del Petrarca
5. Sonetto 104 del Petrarca
6. Sonetto 123 del Petrarca
7. Après une lecture de Dante: Fantasia Quasi Sonata
today you can listen to suites
from famous films, for instance
“Blade Runner“, the beat, in
other words, goes on
but note the renovations, find them,
I dare you, you’ll be surprised at
your unsuspected perspicacity
listen
R ! chard
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
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