the minuet | Richibi's Weblog

how to listen to music if you don’t know your Beethoven from your Bach, V

“Waltz” (1891)

________

having brought up the idea of

longevity in my last communication,

**the fantasia, a musical form that**

lasted about 150 years, with hats

off nevertheless to the later Disney

**classic, Fantasia, a tribute, which,**

full of Classical music references,

followed in its spiritual mode, and,

after introducing Chopin, perhaps

the very representation of the

Romantic Era, that we carry, or

intuit, in our very bones, I thought

I’d talk about the waltz, a Chopin

specialty, where he created,

incontrovertibly, utter magic

who hears of the waltz anymore, an

antiquated curiosity, though even in

our not so distant blood we feel the

reverberations of its memory, the

throb of its still vibrant cultural

intensity, relevance, rhythm

tangos, incidentally followed, and

other intimate interactions, which

had been earlier frowned upon

the waltz had been the minuet,

the difference was the physical

contact, young nobles left their

aristocratic salons, however

discreetly, to frequent the

more liberal, if disreputable,

establishments – like to

speakeasies during Prohibition

– where they could explore the

new, licentious venues, as

young nobles, ever, would, for

the lure of intimate connection

with the partner

the waltz was thereby born,

couples touched, breast upon

breast, composers followed

Chopin was metaphysical, you

didn’t dance to his waltzes, you

experienced them, here’s his

here’s his equally delightful

Opus 64, no 2, its companion

but Strauss ll, Johann l‘s son,

got all of Vienna to dance his,

and everywhere else after, until

the waltz fell out of favour

somewhere in the 1950s, leaving

only its memories behind, here’s

his incandescent By the Beautiful

Blue Danube, makes you wish

you’d been there

in the one case, the waltz is

idealized, in the other, it’s the

waltz in action, listen, you can

tell the difference, you won’t

want to dance, for instance, to

Chopin, though you might give

it an ineffectual try, to Strauss,

you’ll careen

R ! chard

String Quartet opus 74, no 1, in C major – Joseph Haydn

“Minuet in Villa“ (c.1791)

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo

_____________

for my father

the Opus 74, along with the Opus 71, were
written as a unit, to deliver to the English
public for presentation, if the opus numbers
differ, it’s probably to do with publication
dates, the 74‘s being later than the earlier,
but they fit the bill together, batches of six
string quartets for Haydn’s opuses up until
now being the standard, each opus here
comprising only half the normal number,
just three

Haydn’s sponsor, Prince Nicholas Esterházy,
had died, leaving his son, Anton, to preside,
but being tone deaf, the descendant fired
the orchestra, however until then illustrious
the fact that these works were no longer,
therefore, court pieces but intended for
larger, paying, audiences, changed the
dynamics, Haydn is not only peripheral
music at an aristocratic court any longer,
he’s the host, and you can hear it

fermatas, where the note, or the pause,
are accentuated, deliver drama, so does
volume, and sudden tempo changes

therefore the Romantic Period

but, interestingly, the Classical
foundation remains, the established
structure – a musical statement, an
elaboration, a second musical,
related, statement, in usually a
complementary key, it’s own
elaboration, then a recapitulation
of either, or both

the minuet, incidentally, stalwart
still, holding on to the very end of
the 18th Century, still applies, a
sure enough, though residual
sign of the earlier Classical
supremacy, even as that era was
inexorably disintegrating

music is an entertainment, it
inspires, however so incidentally,
though it ever, perhaps even
intentionally, makes you often,
indeed, cry, it’s needed, even in
the direst circumstances, for
courage, however ironically,
however contrapuntally, in any
particular moment, it might even
seem cynical so to arouse spirit,
inspiration, I mean the French had
just turned the world upside down,
and here was sparkling creativity

Haydn was doing his stuff, keeping
us musically integrated, speaking
music instead of politics, turning a
bad situation into pearls, keeping
the world going, the very stuff of
oracles

listen

R ! chard

January 26, 2018

String Quartet no. 14 in G major, K. 387, (“Spring”) – Mozart

“The Musical Contest“ (c.1754 – 1755)

Jean-Honoré Fragonard

____________

right about this time, 1782 to 1785, Mozart
was writing his Haydn Quartets, six of
them, in the very fashion, not incidentally,
of Haydn, as a tribute to the master, the
father, the very originator of the string
quartet

here’s the first of them, a not at all
unimpressive tribute

Mozart follows the master in kind, the
number of movements, the selection
of tempi, there’s even again a minuet,
an aristocratic prerequisite, note even
the delicate, the deferential, endings,
to all, not just one, of the movements,
a trait indicative of Haydn, his courtly,
courteous reserve before any too
personalized spotlight, however
manifest his brilliance – noblesse,
in other words, oblige

Mozart follows immaculate suit

you might find it difficult to distinguish
between Mozart and Haydn, I do, the
differences are so subtle as to be
nearly, for the most part,
indistinguishable, their periods overlap,
their contexts were not at all dissimilar,
just even Vienna as their musical core

the aristocracy was still, evidently, in
charge, however henceforth briefly,
and paying the bills, and the mood
required remained respectful, polite,
unpolitical, which both composers
dutifully obliged, neither subjecting
himself to any constraints around
his higher manifest destiny, his
irresistible muse, the pursuit of
pure, and unadulterated, music

this will unfurl, see, for instance,
Shostakovich