how to listen to music if you don’t know your Beethoven from your Bach, XI
.jpg!Large.jpg "Funeral in the Snow near the Old Tower, 1883 - Vincent van Gogh")
“Funeral in the Snow near the Old Tower“ (1883)
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Tag: the Romantic Era
February 2, 2023
how to listen to music if you don’t know your Beethoven from your Bach, V
“Waltz” (1891)
Anders Zorn
________
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
Minute Waltz, Opus 64, no 1,
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
May 12, 2019
tempo in Beethoven’s Piano Sonata no 32, Opus 111
_
for Lajla, who wondered
where I’ve been these past
few weeks
if music is a communication, as I firmly
believe it is, even listing it as one of my
languages on all of my formal
applications, it should have, much as
in any other communication, a set of
rules, a structure, a grammar, which
indeed it does
where the mood of a verb, for instance,
in English, indicative, I am, conditional,
if I were, subjunctive, that I be, infinitive,
to be, or, indeed, again infinitive, not to
be, that is, indicative once more, the
question
whether ’tis, indicative, nobler in the
mind to suffer, infinitive, the slings
and arrows of outrageous fortune,
or to take, infinitive, arms against a
sea of troubles, and by opposing,
participle, end, infinitive, them – but
you get my drift, in music we have
tempo, adagio, andante, allegro,
presto, among others, to set,
indeed, the mood
as chamber music, an entertainment
for aristocrats, moved from the dance
rhythms of their salons during the
Classical Period to the more diverse
beats, the more varied and evocative
tempi, especially with Beethoven,
into the Romantic Era, music began
to speak, evoke rather than lilt
listen to Beethoven’s 32nd Piano
Sonata, for example, his Opus 111,
in two contrasting movements,
one fast, nearly even frenetic, the
other slow, resigned, subdued,
introspective, the first, angry,
chaotic, frustrated, a burst of
fulgurating intensity, resolving,
in the second, into quiescence,
submission, calm, if ultimately
miraculous incandescence, one
the antithesis of the other
Beethoven juxtaposes fury,
tranquility, loud, soft, short, long
– the serene adagio is twice
length of the boisterous allegro
– and by extension, war, peace,
man, woman, strong, weak, hope,
despair, yin, in other words, yang,
indissoluble dichotomies, a
veritable musical existential
philosophical tract, Beethoven’s
treatise on existence
you can’t dance to it, though,
don’t ask him
but you can thoroughly enjoy,
be inspired
R ! chard
July 8, 2018
String Quartet no 10, opus 74, “The Harp” – Beethoven
“Primavera“ (1478)
___________
it’s 1809 and Beethoven rules, essentially,
the musical environment, he’s setting the
standard, the tone, for the century to
come and no one is anywhere close to
challenging his authority, music students
will remember Carl Czerny, Muzio Clementi,
for instance, but none of these, however
noteworthy, contemporaneous composers,
are even part of, anymore, the recital
curriculum, think of Salieri and Mozart,
for instance, without their mischief, who’s
heard recently of any Salieri
we’re not in Kansas anymore, this is the
start of the Romantic Era, four movements,
but not one of them is a minuet, a signature
element in a Classical composition, nor
could you, would you want to dance to
any of them
and this is where Beethoven starts to talk
rather than sing, music that you don’t just
listen to but read, note the disjointed
rhythms that interject rather than court,
if you’ll pardon the Classical reference,
from the very beginning of each
movement, of each, indeed, recapitulation,
music that is not at all genteel, but rousing,
commanding
how does he do this
note that his rhythms don’t fall on the
anticipated beat, they’re off, and
therefore disconcerting, you need to
get your bearings
then a motive, a musical idea that, as
the word suggests, motivates, like a
key to start an engine, will have an
odd, rather than an even, number of
notes, like trying to fit a square into
a circle, or a circle into a square, a
tricky combination for balanced, by
definition, bar lines, one’s intellectual
functions are thus activated, one
doesn’t rest in the comfort of a
prescribed cadence, but confronts
the rocky, though constantly
astonishing, even miraculous, road
of Beethoven’s invention, adventure,
if, of course, one’s into that
instead of Mary had a little lamb, in
other words, we’re hearing, a little
lamb has Marie, accent on the
wrong syllable, though here we
might call her Mary, she calls her
lamb Mouton, not unsurprisingly,
and it’s always, day after day,
beside her, which Beethoven then
sets, as idiosyncratically, to music
he’s, in other words, toying with
tempo – note the caesurae, the
pregnant pauses in a melody, the
multiplication of tempi throughout
the work as a whole, which imply
a narrative, a story, especially
without the traditional, and
diversionary, dance element
tonality remains essentially stable,
despite unusual juxtapositions, odd
intervals – the tonal reach along the
musical scale, A to G, between two
successive notes – which is to say,
we’re not yet at Stravinsky
but I find it interesting to observe
that recapitulation, the third
Classical imperative, along with
tempo and tonality, remains
uninterrupted, not even
questioned, indeed forcefully
reinvented
can there even be music without
recapitulation, I wonder, whereas
the other two have since lost their
immutability – I’m not sure, I’ll have
to check
thanks wholeheartedly for stopping
by
R ! chard
January 29, 2012
“Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog” – Caspar David Friedrich
“Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog” (1818)
Caspar David Friedrich
__________
upon further reflection I realized that the painting above had also “the same power, the same clarity and precision” to describe the Romantic Era as the first chord of Beethoven’s “Pathétique” Sonata, it is an equally powerful representation of the spirit of that highly introspective time
the Romantic Epoch championed nature, patriotism – on the political heels of the French Revolution – and explorations of the soul, following the latter’s calls to liberty, equality, fraternity, the natural groundwork for what followed, our own period of reverence for human rights
we look with Caspar David Friedrich here upon a nebulous perspective, onto daunting horizons, reflecting, with him, through the painter’s psychological ingenuity and art, upon our own daunting choices, our own murky landscapes, our own obscure and imposing destinies, both physical and philosophical, a profoundly Romantic conception
it was a time when the heart and its irreverent passions took centre stage, stood, in all its permutations, under the light
please excuse my egregious oversight
and of also the inspired Caspar David Friedrich I’ve begged pardon, expressed my heartfelt, humble compunction, and regret, for a not insignificant slight
cheers
Richard
Richibi's Weblog 
