Behind The Piano

Education leads to ...

2011-08-02T07:12:00.000-07:00

It has been sometime since I posted to my blog. What role do you think education plays in music appreciation? What about the same for Fine Literature?

Plato was very reluctant to allow the "Arts" into the "Republic" because they were yet another copy removed from the ideal form.

What do you think about the future of a liberal arts education? Should they be allowed into the college? Are we a society who looks toward education as a means to a paycheck and nothing more?

Please add your comments below.

Mr. Piano

Romantic Period

2009-06-30T08:05:00.000-07:00

The Romantic Period 1815-1910.

Romanticism, Goethe started it all and then there was Heines poems. Post Romantic England came in with (Keats, Shelley, Bryon). Of course Paris had (Hugo, Lamartine, Vigny). What is your favorite? I just love how a piece of music either ties in painting or poem.

Romanticism or the Romantic movement was a concept that encompassed different art mediums; from music to painting to literature. The Romantics believed in allowing their imagination and passion to soar spontaneously and transcend it to their art. This was different from the Classical belief of logical order and clarity. During the 19th century, Vienna and Paris were the centers of musical activity.

Summary of the Romantic period

The romantic period in classical music ran from the early 19th century until the early 20th century (although many later composers may be said to still write in a romantic style). Although the word "romantic" now most usually means "something related to love", romantic music as spoken about by musicologists and academics is not necessarily about this and does not always sound like what would nowadays be thought of as "romantic" in the general sense. It is instead related to the wider concept of romanticism which flourished in the arts around this time.
It is difficult to define exactly what qualifies a piece of music as being in the romantic style, but a romantic piece is often distinguished by attempting to express something definite, something from outside music itself. This could be the composer's state of mind, a thunderstorm, or a poem, for example.
Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in the late 18th century and stressed strong emotion, imagination, freedom from classical correctness in art forms, and rebellion against social conventions.
Romanticism was an attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography in Western civilization over a period from the late 18th to the mid-19th century. Romanticism can be seen as a rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization, and rationality that typified Classicism in general and late 18th century Neoclassicism in particular. It was also to some extent a reaction against the Enlightenment and against 18th-century rationalism and physical materialism in general. Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental.
Among the characteristic attitudes of Romanticism were the following: a deepened appreciation of the beauties of nature; a general exaltation of emotion over reason and of the senses over intellect; a turning in upon the self and a heightened examination of human personality and its moods and mental potentialities; a preoccupation with the genius, the hero, and the exceptional figure in general, and a focus on his passions and inner struggles; a new view of the artist as a supremely individual creator, whose creative spirit is more important than strict adherence to formal rules and traditional procedures; an emphasis upon imagination as a gateway to transcendent experience and spiritual truth; an obsessive interest in folk culture, national and ethnic cultural origins, and the medieval era; and a predilection for the exotic, the remote, the mysterious, the weird, the occult, the monstrous, the diseased, and even the satanic.
The term 'Romanticism' derives ultimately from ' Roman'. In particular it derives from the 'Romances' written during the Middle Ages, such as the Arthurian cycle. In English, the term 'Romantick' was often used in the 18th century to mean magical, dramatic, surprising. But it was not until the German poets and critics August Wilhelm and Frederich Schlegel used the term that it became a label for a wider cultural movement. For the Schlegel brothers, 'Romanticism' was a product of Christianity. The culture of the Middle Ages created a Romantic sensibility which differed from the Classical ideals embodied in the philosophy, poetry and drama of ancient Athens. While ancient culture admired clarity, health and harmony, Christian culture created a sense of struggle between the dream of heavenly perfection and the experience of human inadequacy and guilt. This sense of struggle, vision and ever-present dark forces was allegedly present in Medieval culture. The Schlegel brothers were also responsible for making Shakespeare into an internationally famous writer, translating his work into German, and promoting his plays as the epitome of the Romantic sensibility. Many later Romantic dramatists sought to imitate Shakespeare and to reject Classical models for drama.
While this view partly explains Romantic fascination with the Middle Ages, the actual causes of the Romantic movement itself correspond to the sense of rapid, dynamic social change that culminated in the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era. However, Romantic literature in Germany preceded these crucial historical events. The 'Sturm und Drang' (Storm and Stress) movement in German drama was associated with Frederich Schiller, and the early work of Goethe, in particular his play "Goetz von Berlichingen", about a Medieval knight who resists submission to any authority beyond himself. Goethe's novel "The Sufferings of Young Werther" (1774) had huge international success. This too concerned an individual who felt a strong contradiction between his own internal world of intense feeling, and the external world that failed to correspond to it. Werther eventually commits suicide. In later works Goethe rejected Romanticism in favour of a new sense of classical harmony, integrating internal and external states.
German music was also the model for Romanticism, in particular the work of Ludwig van Beethoven. In music the concept of Romanticism is used to cover a much longer historical period than in the other arts. The German musical tradition of the 19th Century is typically labelled 'Romantic', including the work of Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner.
This extended usage is typical within music history. The term 'Romantic' is used to label composers of various nationalities such as Jean Sibelius, Samuel Barber and Ralph Vaughan Williams, all of whom lived into the middle of the 20th Century. See Romantic period in music. However in art and literature its use is typically restricted to the late 18th Century and early 19th Century.
In Britain Romanticism develops in a different form slightly later. It is mostly associated with the poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whose book "Lyrical Ballads" (1798) sought to reject Augustan poetry in favour of more direct speech derived from folk traditions. Both poets were also involved in Utopian social thought in the wake of the French Revolution. The poet and painter William Blake is the most extreme example of the Romantic sensibility in Britain, epitomised by his claim 'I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's'. Blake's artistic work is also strongly influenced by Medieval illuminated books. The painters J. M. W. Turner and John Constable are also generally associated with Romanticism. Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley and John Keats constitute another phase of Romanticism in Britain. The historian Thomas Carlyle and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood represent the last phase of transformation into Victorian culture.
In Roman Catholic countries Romanticism was less pronounced than in Protestant Germany and Britain, and tended to develop later, after the rise of Napoleon. In France Romanticism is associated with the nineteenth century, particular in the paintings of Theodore Gericault and Eugene Delacroix, the plays of Victor Hugo and the novels of Stendhal. The composer Hector Berlioz is also important.
In Russia the principal exponent of Romanticism is Alexander Pushkin, though Russian composers are also given the label. Pushkin's Shakespearean drama 'Boris Godunov' (1825) was set to music by Modest Mussorgsky.
Isolated examples of Romanticism are found elsewhere in Europe. The movement had little immediate impact in America, though Transcendentalist writers such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson show elements of its influence, as does the work of Walt Whitman.
Related to Romantic nationalism, Radicals, Revolutions, Nazism, Surrealism, Heroism, Martyrdom
Opposed to Liberalism, Utilitarianism, Rationalism, Enlightenment.
Czech Romanticism
Karel Hynek Macha (poetry)
French Romanticism
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (philosophic grounds)
Hector Berlioz (composer)
Eugene Delacroix (painter)
Theodore Gericault (painter)
Victor Hugo (poet, novelist, dramatist)
Stendhal (novelist)
German Romanticism
Ludwig van Beethoven (composer)
Caspar David Friedrich (painter)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Friedrich von Schiller (poet, dramatist)
Friedrich Schlegel (poet, theorist)
Franz Schubert (composer)
Richard Wagner (composer)
Russian Romanticism
Alexander Pushkin
Peter Illyich Tchaikovsky
Spanish Romanticism
Francisco Goya (painter)
British Romanticism
folklore
William Blake (painting, engraving, poetry)
Lord Byron (poetry)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poetry, philosophy, criticism)
John Constable (painting)
John Keats {poetry)
Charles Lamb (poetry, essays)
Sir Walter Scott (literature)
Percy Bysshe Shelley (poetry)
Robert Southey (poetry, biography}
Joseph Mallord William Turner (painting)
William Wordsworth {poetry)
Other Countries
Adam Oehlenschläger, Denmark
Esaias Tegnér, Sweden
http://www.searchbeat.com/musicbeat/romantic.htm

Shostakovich Symphony No.7 Leningrad

2009-06-11T12:04:00.000-07:00

It is interesting to read about how the 7th symphony got started and its interpretation. I am reading the book "Listen To The Music A Self-Guided Tour Through the Orchestral Repertoire" by Jonathan D. Kramer. The symphony was written in 1941 and planned before the German attack, it cannot be said that it was a reaction to the attack. However, since it was a work in progress during the Nazi attack, you can't say that this did not have a substantial influence on the score.

What is more fascinating is Shostakovitch's interpretation of the score. While the symphony was still very new he discusses the various movements and states that he tries to give an emotional image of war. Many years later Shostakovitch indicated a much different interpretation to this piece, he states it was planned before Hitler's attack and that the invasion theme had nothing to do with him. He states that I "Shostakovitch" suffered for everyone who suffers or was tortured. He further indicates that he does not mind calling the seventh the Leningrad Symphony, but it is not about Leningrad under siege; it is about the Leningrad that Stalin destroyed and that Hitler merely finished off.

It really makes you wonder how "free" Shostakovitch was in his statements or if he was merely stating something the government would approve of, remember that he was denounced twice in his life by the government.

Classical Music 101

2009-06-02T12:26:00.000-07:00

Classical Music 101

From time to time I will post bits and pieces about what I am reading in the area of classical music. The following is from the book called Classical Music 101 by Fred Plotkin.

I wanted a book that would walk me through the so called standard repertoire with some commentary about the particular work. Well, here is the table of contents so you will get the idea.

Table of Contents

1. First Hearing: Developing Your Listening Skills 1
2. Making Music 11
3. Some Thoughts on the Recordings Used in Classical Music 101 33
4. The Voices of the Orchestra 45
5. Colors and Pictures: More Thoughts About Listening 109
6. Second Hearing: Beethoven's Seventh Symphony 145
7. Theory, and Practice 161
8. The Symphony 181
A Conversation with James Levine 191
9. Attending a Live Performance 243
10. The Piano 281
A Conversation with Emanuel Ax 310
11. The Violin 337
A Conversation with Joshua Bell 344
12. Stringing Along: Music for Viola, Cello, and Double Bass 367
13. The Woodwinds 379
14. The Brass Family 391
15. The Percussion: Bells, Whistles, Thunder, and a Beating Heart 399
16. Early Music: From These Roots 409
17. The Singer's Art: Lieder and Vocal Music 421
A Conversation with Marilyn Horne 452
18. Lift Every Voice: Music with Chorus 477
19. Feeling Music: Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 507
20. Mount Olympus and Elysian Fields: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony 519
21. Coda: Some Final Notes 529
Discography for Classical Music 101 541
Resources for the Classical Music Lover 563
Traveling to Hear Classical Music: Concert Halls and Theaters Around the World 569
Index 647

It really is a good book for a beginner. While I have many books on classical music this seems to be one I like to return to often. I am currently working through chapter 5 again on colors and pictures.

The author makes this statement, "Writers such as Baudelaire, Mallarme, Verlaine, and Maeterlinck were deeply involved in Symbolism. ...Debussy's work is the musical equivalent of Impressionism, in which formal structures are rejected in favor of a style that emphasises color, sensuality, exoticism, and a new means to perceive familiar things. Debussy said that he did not believe he was an Impressionist, and felt much closer to Symbolism, in which images and symbols often represent their literal selves as well as underlying ideas."

Fascinating concept that the author makes. Here is a poem by Baudelaire.

BEAUTY

by: Charles Baudelaire

I AM as lovely as a dream in stone,
And this my heart where each finds death in turn,
Inspires the poet with a love as lone
As clay eternal and as taciturn.

Swan-white of heart, a sphinx no mortal knows,
My throne is in the heaven's azure deep;
I hate all movements that disturb my pose,
I smile not ever, neither do I weep.

Before my monumental attitudes,
That breathe a soul into the plastic arts,
My poets pray in austere studious moods,

For I, to fold enchantment round their hearts,
Have pools of light where beauty flames and dies,
The placid mirrors of my luminous eyes.

Or

EXOTIC PERFUME

by: Charles Baudelaire

HEN with closed eyes in autumn's eves of gold
I breathe the burning odours of your breast,
Before my eyes the hills of happy rest
Bathed in the sun's monotonous fires, unfold.

Islands of Lethe where exotic boughs
Bend with their burden of strange fruit bowed down,
Where men are upright, maids have never grown
Unkind, but bear a light upon their brows.

Led by that perfume to these lands of ease,
I see a port where many ships have flown
With sails outwearied of the wandering seas;

While the faint odours from green tamarisks blown,
Float to my soul and in my senses throng,
And mingle vaguely with the sailor's song.

I can see how this might pair up with La Mer (The Sea) by Debussy. What do you think?

The Walters Art Museum

2007-08-12T03:57:00.000-07:00

This is one of my all time favorite places to visit. Here is a brief description...

The museum
The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland is internationally renowned for its collection of art, which was amassed substantially by two men, William and Henry Walters, and eventually bequeathed to the City of Baltimore. The collection presents an overview of world art from pre-dynastic Egypt to 20th-century Europe, and counts among its many treasures Greek sculpture and Roman sarcophagi; medieval ivories and Old Master paintings; Art Deco jewelry and 19th-century European and American masterpieces.

I really like the Icon art that they have displayed. See picture above.

Or check out Courbet.

The special exhibition Courbet and the Modern Landscape presents the perfect opportunity to explore unresolved attribution questions surrounding the late lanscape paintings of Gustave Courbet. This small companion show will feature 10-12 late landscapes and related prints, the attribution of which continues to be debated by Courbet specialists. After learning about Courbet's complex painting technique, visitors will be invited to draw their own distinctions between the master's touch and that of his followers and forgers.

Check out more at the www.thewalters.org

The best part of the trips ends with a cup of coffee and desert at a local coffee shop. I will post more in this Blog of outings and musings present and past. Enjoy.

What Books You Say.....

2007-08-03T09:06:00.001-07:00

Here is the latest book that I have been reading. The title is 'A Separate Peace' and it is another coming of age story. A classic must read. Here is a summary...

John Knowles' beloved classic has been a bestseller for more than 30 years and is one of the most moving and accurate novels about the trials and confusions of adolescence ever written. Set at an elite boarding school for boys during World War II, A Separate Peace is the story of friendship and treachery, and how a tragic accident involving two young men forever tarnishes their innocence.

Another interesting book is James Salter's 'Last Night'. Here is a summary...

"Last Night is a collection of stories about passion - by turns fiery and subdued, destructive and redemptive, alluring and devastating." "In ten stories, Salter portrays men and women in their most intimate moments. A book dealer faces the truth about his life - as it is and never will be again - when he is visited unexpectedly by his brash former girlfriend. A lonely married woman, after a disturbing encounter with a drunken poet at a dinner party, finds herself irresistibly drawn to his animal surrogate, a huge tawny-eyed dog. A lover of poetry must come to terms with his wife's request to give up what may be his most treasured relationship. And in the title story, a translator, tormented by an agonizing sense of inevitability, assists in his wife's suicide even as he performs a last betrayal."--BOOK JACKET.

So what are your favorite books?