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| Author |
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| 25 new of 203 responses total. |
chelsea
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response 175 of 203:
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Nov 29 00:44 UTC 1995 |
Another quick story about Pachelbel's Canon that I should probably
be to embarrassed to tell...
When I was brand-spanking new to the cello I knew it was going to be quite
a while before I could play anything very interesting, so to help measure
my progress I decided to set both a short-term and a long-term goal. My
short-term goal was to be able to play the cello part to a recording of
Pachelbel's Canon (it was written as a quartet). So it was maybe a week
after getting the instrument and having my first lesson when I called
Southern Music and asked if I could purchase just the cello part of the
piece.
There was silence for a moment before the voice at the other end asked me
to state, again, the part I was interested in ordering. Again, I asked,
and yet again the salesperson hesitated before repeating my request back
to me, saying he wanted to make sure he got it right. Yes, they'd be able
to find the part and ship it out. We completed the transaction, but my,
that guy was quirky, I thought.
About a week later the music arrived and I could immediately see why my
order put him a bit off balance. The cello part for Pachelbel's Canon in
D consists of eight notes, the same eight notes, played over and over and
over. And two of them are the same notes! All quarter notes: D, A, B,
F#, G, D, and A. 57 measures worth of the same notes without variation.
Cello players hate playing Pachelbel's Canon. Can you blame them?
I'm still working on the second edition of my short-term goal.
Fool me once... ;-)
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bmoran
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response 176 of 203:
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Nov 29 04:54 UTC 1995 |
Try Eno's "Three variations on the cannon " for something different. The
pieces are set up so the pitch determines the tempo of the players, and
quickly the whole thing seems to fall apart. Most satisfying!
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omni
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response 177 of 203:
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Nov 29 05:38 UTC 1995 |
I just discovered that I can play, er pick out Beethovan's "Ode to Joy"
on the keyboard. I'm pretty good at it, and I do it all by ear.
either that means I'm better than I thought, or Betthovan, by the time he
got around to the Ninth, was Really Deaf (tm). ;)
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orinoco
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response 178 of 203:
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Nov 29 22:44 UTC 1995 |
bmoran...sounds scary
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birdlady
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response 179 of 203:
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Nov 29 23:17 UTC 1995 |
I agree..."Three Variations" sounds scary. =) Congrats on "Ode to Joy" omni!
I would love to be able to play more Beethoven.
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omni
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response 180 of 203:
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Dec 1 19:46 UTC 1995 |
it's not like it sounds. I only can do it with one finger, and that's it.
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orinoco
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response 181 of 203:
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Dec 2 16:19 UTC 1995 |
just to be picky, the piece is Beethoven's ninth, movement 4.
The poem he based it on is the "ode to joy"
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vasi
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response 182 of 203:
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Dec 12 22:42 UTC 1995 |
Nooooo It's a mistake !!!! sOrry :)))))
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md
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response 183 of 203:
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Dec 13 20:48 UTC 1995 |
Relistened to Ralph Vaughan Williams's "An Oxford Elegy" after
many years. (Couldn't use our turntable for a long time, and the
one CD of this piece wasn't in the catalog long enough for me to
order.)
The composer was in his 70s when he wrote this exquisite music.
It's a setting for speaker, chorus and orchestra of parts of two
related poems by Matthew Arnold, "The Scholar Gypsy" and
"Thyrsis". The two poems, written decades apart, are both set in
the countryside surrounding Oxford University. What I love about
"An Oxford Elegy" is that the outdoor setting of the text forced
Vaughan Williams to return to the pastoral style of his earlier
music, only with a more mature note of nostalgia blended in.
The composer's matching of music to words is breathtakingly beautiful,
from the "air-swept lindens" to "that sweet city with her dreaming
spires" to the "distant wychwood bowers" to the "full moon and the
white evening star" to the concluding chorale on "Roam on! The
light we sought is shining still. Our tree yet crowns the hill.
Our scholar travels yet the loved hillside."
If you can find this one, it's definitely worth a listen.
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orinoco
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response 184 of 203:
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Dec 14 01:20 UTC 1995 |
sounds good
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birdlady
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response 185 of 203:
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Dec 14 02:40 UTC 1995 |
I just bought a two-cd set called _Heavy Classix_. It has songs like
"1812:Overture - conclusion" "Ride of the Valkyries" "Flight of the Bumblebee"
and basically stuff with lots of drums, cymbals, crescendos, and most are at
allegro tempo.
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albaugh
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response 186 of 203:
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Dec 14 16:59 UTC 1995 |
Interesting: I wouldn't consider "Flight of the Bumblebee" particularyly
"heavy". Something more like "Light Cavalry" or "anything by Mahler" :-)
would be more appropriate.
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scott
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response 187 of 203:
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Dec 14 17:18 UTC 1995 |
Unless it was the Spike Jones version, played on a tuba.
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rcurl
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response 188 of 203:
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Dec 14 17:36 UTC 1995 |
Re #185: more like _Heavy (with) Old Saws_.
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chelsea
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response 189 of 203:
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Dec 15 01:49 UTC 1995 |
Mahler is not particularly "heavy". Wagner is "heavy".
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birdlady
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response 190 of 203:
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Dec 15 17:51 UTC 1995 |
Well, what the cd's mean by "heavy" is basically allegro tempo and/or
fortissimos up the wazoo. =)
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orinoco
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response 191 of 203:
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Dec 15 22:06 UTC 1995 |
Wagner is not merely "heavy". That is like calling the cosmos "big"
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albaugh
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response 192 of 203:
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Dec 18 17:03 UTC 1995 |
Well, even a salad can be "heavy" if you eat enough of it! :-)
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sweetbrd
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response 193 of 203:
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Feb 10 03:56 UTC 1996 |
Ok, my very favoritest composer in the whole wide world is Mozart. The
first(and only) OPera I saw was The Magic Flute, at the MET. I am now at the
Interlochen Arts Academy studying Voice...It is lots of fun. I"m in Opera
Workshop here, and we just performed three Operas(not complete) La
Cenerentola, Gianni Schicci, and The Telephone...it was sooooooo much fun...I
played Clorinda in Cen..well, gotta go now...
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sweetbrd
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response 194 of 203:
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Feb 10 21:07 UTC 1996 |
I wanted to continue before, but I was being pressed to get off the
computer...people here are anal. Oh well, so where was I? I wanted to talk
about the Magic Flute...this was the one the year after it was broadcast, you
know, the one with Kathleen Battle, Kurt Moll, Francisco Araiza, and others.
It was highly enjoyable...that was when I decided to pursue a career in opera.
I think that it is one of the best forms of art ever. There are so many
aspects to it. You have the vocal music, the orchestral music, the stage
design, the costume design, and of course the acting...but of course, the
music comes first...the vocal music that is. One can do an opera with a
piano, sure its not quite so impressive, but it is still highly enjoyable.
Ok, so anyhow that is my position..well a rather limited bit of it, but the
whole thing would take several pages, and so I won't burden you all with that.
I am soooooooo excited that Cecilia Bartoli just premiered at the MET...not
last night, but the night before...well, I'm off...and I'm done stick a fork
in me
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srw
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response 195 of 203:
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Feb 16 07:33 UTC 1996 |
As it happens, this is one of my favorite operas. I don't think there's
a single portion of it that I don't enjoy.
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sweetbrd
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response 196 of 203:
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Feb 17 04:34 UTC 1996 |
YaY!!! Another Magic Flute lover!!!
Happy day!!! Byee!
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srw
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response 197 of 203:
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Feb 17 22:39 UTC 1996 |
There's so much to like.
The Queen of the Night's Aria.
Papageno/Papagena near the finale.
Papageno's introduction (with panflute)
The boy soprano trio.
The Overture!
much more. Mozart kept getting better and better. This is one of his later
works. I'm a clarinet player, and of course the K.622 concerto is very well
know (justifiably). It was also written near the end of Mozarts all-too-short
life.
(Not to mention his last three symphonies, of course)
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md
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response 198 of 203:
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May 2 12:44 UTC 1996 |
After enjoying Pierre Boulez's conducting all these years, I started
feeling guilty that I've never paid much attention to his own
compositions. The reason Boulez started conducting in the first place
is that he couldn't stand hearing other conductors mangle his music
anymore.
So I went out and picked up a DG recording of Boulez's music: pianist
Pierre-Laurent Aimard playing "Notations"; Aimard and Florent Boffard
playing "Structures pour deux pianos, Livre II"; and Boulez himself
conducting the Ensemble Intercontemporain in his "...explosante-
fixe...". (I'm wearing a beret, smoking a Gauloise and sipping Pernod
and ice water as I write this.)
I've only heard this CD though once, so all I can offer are first
impressions which in my case are always subject to revision.
The "Notations" (1945) are a series of 12 miniatures lasting a total
of 10'43". Perfect for my attention-span. They sound hideously
difficult and are full of youthful smartass tricks. Right around the
time he was composing this music, as a young student in Paris, Boulez
gained instant fame by leading a group of radicals in booing down Igor
Stravinsky at a concert.
"Structures" (1956-1961) is a more mature work, even more difficult
sounding, if that's possible, but less show-offy. I first heard it
through headphones (I wouldn't inflict this music on anyone else),
which gave me the impression of two pianos chasing each other around
inside my head, bouncing off my skull, scrapping furiously, then
slinking off to separate corners to sulk.
"...explosante-fixe..." (1991-1993), which I think we can translate as
"Frozen Explosion," is a work for orchestra and electronic sounds of
some sort. Boulez composed it in memory of Igor Stravinsky (yes, the
same guy he booed when he was young and stupid). I think this music
represents Pierre Boulez the composer on the lonely outpost of
modernism on which the younger generation long ago abandoned him.
It's full of energy and movement, with episodes of relative calm, and
there is a consistent effort on the composer's part to *sound*
interesting -- his downfall in the eyes and ears of the young Parisian
radicals nowadays, who dismiss Boulez's music as "bien decoratif."
This piece makes me think Boulez has been influenced by Elliott
Carter. Or maybe Carter has been influenced by Boulez. Or maybe
they're both members of the same club (members all aging, elderly;
fewer and fewer showing up; trophies of past glories on the shelves).
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md
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response 199 of 203:
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May 6 13:56 UTC 1996 |
[My daughter came into my office the other day to see what I
was doing. I was writing at the computer while listening to
"...explosante-fixe..." on the above Boulez CD. Lauren leaned
on my shoulder for a few minutes watching the screen as I wrote
and rewrote a sentence. Then she kissed me on the cheek, said
"Spooky music," and left.]
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