Bach is the only other Baroque master, other than Vivaldi, that resounds within me. His complex tonalities and movements give breadth and depth; complimenting Vivaldi's immense passion. He is for me, like those few great thinkers whose work i return to after a long hiatus and always learn something new.
I, too, would ban music like this in my country - if my goal was to teach hate, disgust and to preserve ignorance of all that race's beauty to whom the composer belonged.
This Wagner piece is accursed, demonstrating Christian affliction; with a solemn lament transitioning to a powerful ascent suppressed and humbled by a great power, back to solemnity and for a relenting into neurotic humor, glee. The up/down dichotomy of Abrahamic nihilism - to deny world, deny self, while attempting to reconcile it with suffering. Only to, at the end, hear the regal call of trumpets once again - to a more grounded nobility, despite the buzzing bicameralism. How can something so noble, so powerful, come out of something so fragile? Of course, at the very end, is an unconstrained blowing of trumpets - a nihilistic affirmation of the absolute which is the only ideal capable of drowning out such a dichotomous energy. But, for those that wish to promote its (absolute) opposite, a total suppression of ego and spineless cowardice, they find it frightening - that the (to them) spiritual arrogance and supremacy of their intended slaves might overwhelm them.
Tannhauser is dangerous to wanna-be 'masters', since it tells a story of great lamentation, great suffering and indignity, while coming out victorious - however inauthentic or nihilistic that victory is. Demoralization requires the loss of hope, or fighting spirit. It is also dangerous to all who sympathize with it, as it will teach a nihilistic hope - a nihilistic resolution. Abrahamism is nihilism - and the Bible even asserts such - to deny self/deny the world.
Tannhauser was, a satire of the Christian guilt complex juxtaposed with the pagan power structure in nature. Tannhauser finds genuine truth from his time in Venus' grotto, and knows that is where real truth about his nature was experienced and he is unable to deny it. He dies, not of a mortal injury, but of guilt and grief. Princess Elizabeth is the 'pure' feminine vessel (the Virginal Mary) of divine authority which redeems him through her own spiritual death in his stead. Both of their deaths, compounded, is a melodramatic illustration of Christian self-destruction that leans more towards ennobling Wagner's pagan undercurrent in the performance. As you put it, there was no victory to be had for anyone. Tannhauser was a man aspiring to an ideal of nobility of such heights that only the absolutism of God could offer him his self-knowledge and destiny. Wagner insightfully stultified this idea with the disillusion of Tannhauser's pilgrimage.
Wagner's genius itself was accursed with being inside and outside his time and place. He was however, underneath his artistic facades, a pagan and Aryan at heart. His sensual acumen of Wotan as a cursed wanderer, was proof of his spiritual intelligence. His portrayal of Christian nihilism was always conflicted in his operas leading up to the most conflicted of all, Parzival. He retained and honored the legend of the Knights Templar to pay tribute to pagan roots within Christianity. Lohengrin is a great example of this. In fact, Lohengrin is probably more Christian than Tannhauser, due to its sharper emphasis on denigrating the Gods and glorifying the 'humble' noble spirit in dramatic flair.
Christianity is only ever contrasted against paganism in his operas. Nietzsche disavowed him because he could not accept this and understood Wagner's taste for being more of a revolutionary genius, rather than one of staunch centered individualism. And he was right.
A totality of the musical expression; its ideal, is what Wagner strove for, and he found it in the absolutism of the Christian complex of ultimate self-destruction and the ‘purity of weakness’ it is based on. His thematic preference of “love” was a main source of all-consuming providence and was his inspiration because it denotes the chaos of need. The force of suffering drives his characters to their ends, and the suffering of Christian inferiority served him well to depict that. Wagner was a Dionysian soul above anything.
His Tristan and Isolde overture plays on the restlessness of the longing spirit. To ascend but continue to suffer, relentlessly. No climax, no resolution, only spiritual weariness, need, a breaking through with a power that can only grow to self-destruction. The idea of self-destruction was his guiding principle to the only resolution to his musical ideal he could find and he used it well.
This is my favorite scene in his ring series. Wotan, with a heavy heart, honors himself and his power, despite the chaos of the wisdom and need within him, pulling him in directions he must deny himself. He is bound to himself and his power, beyond even his control. I've seen many versions of this scene and no matter the singers or actors, it impresses me every time.
Senta, the female antagonist in the Flying Dutchman, dreams of belonging to a superior masculine archetype; she idealizes the conceptual image, of him as a painting, of the mystery of man’s darkness and wandering chaos. Enamored with the profound mysteriousness of the image, she builds and nurtures the unsoiled, untainted, holy construct of him in her psyche. Her feminine void, seeking its absolute fulfillment in grandiose idealism and religiosity, but in tandem with the structure of the masculine; its magnetic threatening spirit. Her white knight idealism (dark knight in this context). The male who is perfect and all powerful. Godly. The one male who cannot ever disappoint as he transcends his own humanity.
But when the Flying Dutchman appears in the flesh, she gazes upon him only as a man and freezes in coquettish and intrigued consternation, her breath catches in her throat and she feels a pang of disappointment. The ideal of him is broken and she is confounded in her girlish dreams and wiles. His earthly form, his mortality, his limitations, has shattered her fantasy, her picturesque alter of worship to his innate sanctity. She is fearful and nervous, yet also curious and enticed like a prey animal sensing a threat it has no sight of. She sees only his brutish exterior with all of its harshness, all its cruelty, all its pain and suffering and weakness and devouring beastliness. She then wishes to save him from his pain and suffering. To belong to his dominion. Her procreative role is made absolute by and through him.
The masculine thus, is the savior in this drama. The one who redeems and actualizes woman of her chaos and ruthless need, and the man who uses woman’s chaos as the means for his resolve of order, of death. The Dutchman longs to find his feminine vessel, lost in its own nebulous longings and urges and untamed desires that he can merge with his own and be at rest with the feminine in himself. To dominate Senta, is to dominate his destiny, through the procreative drive towards the female. The female is the symbol of man’s legacy, his organic destiny. Senta, is the ideal female, lusting, longing, lost in her fantasies of the Dutchman’s archetype, she is the pure heroic female, wishing only to belong to man. The Dutchman is the all dominant male whose wisdom and experience and knowledge are immortal and desperately longs for respite, for absolution and deliverance, by overcoming the only thing that remains, his Echo to his Narcissus.
Slaughtz
Gender : Posts : 2593 Join date : 2012-04-28 Age : 33 Location : A stone.
The beauty of Bach's "Air", it easily sweeps up the listener into a rock-a-bye melody, reminding one of youthful and rich times, when a father kept a place calm so your mother only had to whisper.
However, remarkably, it only takes putting equal volume on the harmony behind the melody or slight change in composition, and one ends up with a very majestic piece, boldly reminding one of a promenade of nobility. No better is this shown than in electronic recreations of the piece ('midi' files). https://www.8notes.com/scores/9752.asp?ftype=midi
Slaughtz
Gender : Posts : 2593 Join date : 2012-04-28 Age : 33 Location : A stone.
The Baroque lute in all its glory. We see most of these half-wit modern artists knowing only how to strum guitar strings listlessly in one pattern to repeat the same effect. These geniuses understood the minute versatility in every string from one end to the other.
It is observable to understand how such an instrument like the lute is played and meant to be played. The chords are tentative and subtle under the pressure of the right pair of hands and to a primitive mind, a modern mind, this sounds weak and dull. This is because inferiority lashes out to compensate for strength and this also results in a desperate disposition. Modern artists or "Fartists" to use Satyr's term, strive only for the impact of the decibels of sound and repeated melodies. When melodies have no complexity or value the artist repeats them over and over again, trying to use force to win praise. The desperate weak mind resorts to force of repetition and over-bearing volume to mask its incompetence and attempt to land of the luck of the draw that people will like the shit he is trying to masquerade as quality.
The skilled musician creates these balanced soft melodies we typically hear because he understands how and exactly what he is playing and why. There is no desire in him of urgency or rashness to achieve the effects he wants; he knows how to get them and therefore takes his time and controls every tempo and every note. By doing this, he is able also to hear what is being played and explore it and master it into further regions of beauty.
Slaughtz
Gender : Posts : 2593 Join date : 2012-04-28 Age : 33 Location : A stone.
Ave Maria! maiden mild! Listen to a maiden's prayer! Thou canst hear though from the wild; Thou canst save amid despair. Safe may we sleep beneath thy care, Though banish'd, outcast and reviled – Maiden! hear a maiden's prayer; Mother, hear a suppliant child! Ave Maria!
Ave Maria! undefiled! The flinty couch we now must share Shall seem with down of eider piled, If thy protection hover there. The murky cavern's heavy air Shall breathe of balm if thou hast smiled; Then, Maiden! hear a maiden's prayer, Mother, list a suppliant child! Ave Maria!
Ave Maria! stainless styled. Foul demons of the earth and air, From this their wonted haunt exiled, Shall flee before thy presence fair. We bow us to our lot of care, Beneath thy guidance reconciled; Hear for a maid a maiden's prayer, And for a father hear a child! Ave Maria!
I had complete lyrics written down but lost them somewhere. I am also compiling a massive and chronological list of Western composers and either illegaly downloading their works or buying them and then moving onto a disk(it will also contain a written list with everything that is missing within the written lists of everything else) with pdf. files of their biographies(as much as I can find and have time for) and other interresting works regarding music, i will upload it onto internet when i finish
I found this to be incredibly fascinating. An odyssey of a 40 year period of the form of piano music distinct to Chopin and mastered by many other lessor known artists. I've never heard anything like this. It's like a grand historical musical lecture. It really gives a deeper understanding of this beautiful style. because it's over 6 hours of a compilation, I took the liberty to include the description and track list for convenience. Enjoy.
Description:
Quote :
This set charts not only the development of the Nocturne as a musical form, but also the development of the piano from the closing years of the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries. Two great ‘piano schools’ had emerged, each having some of the greatest performers and composers of the day associated with them. Some of these composers were highly successful businessmen as well – Clementi and Pleyel in particular established highly successful piano manufacturing and music publishing firms.
The English school, with its powerful instruments (of which the pianos of John Broadwood and Co are the best examples) enabled London based composers such as Cramer, Clementi and Dussek to write music with a singing almost bel canto quality. These large instruments had sustaining pedals long before the lighter, crisper sounding Vienese school pianos. Composers such as Hummel and Kalkbrenner were equally happy on either, but Hummel (a pupil of Mozart and friend of Beethoven) had a preference for the Viennese instrument as it managed to sound well against an orchestra, and it’s action was lighter and quicker than the English pianos.
Chopin was greatly influenced by Clementi’s Irish pupil John Field. Field pioneered – indeed invented the musical nocturne, and Chopin played Field’s music throughout his life, eventually meeting him in 1833. The irascible and often drunk Field didn’t warm to Chopin: ‘he has the talent of the sick room’.
Also included on these CDs are nocturnes and works by composers contemporaneous with Chopin – all the Field nocturnes performed on a Broadwood, and the great Third Sonata of Weber, a highly virtuosic work that displays the Viennese piano admirably. A generous selection of Chopin’s nocturnes and mazurkas and his early works complete this fascinating survey of piano music from the years between 1810 and 1850.
Tracklist:
Bart Van Oort 00:00:00 John Field: Nocturne in E flat H24 (1812)
00:03:55 John Field: Nocturne in C Minor H25 (1812)
00:07:31 John Field: Nocturne in A flat H26 (1812)
00:11:43 John Field: Nocturne in A H36 (1817)
00:17:36 John Field: Nocturne in B flat H37 (1817)
00:20:54 John Field: Nocturne in F H40 (1817)
00:25:36 John Field: Nocturne in C H45 (1821)
00:30:37 John Field: Nocturne in A H14e (1813/1831)
00:35:02 John Field: Nocturne in E flat H30 (1815)
00:38:39 John Field:Nocturne in E Minor H46b (1821/1822)
00:41:19 John Field: Nocturne in E flat H56a (1833)
00:46:32 John Field: Nocturne in G H58d (1833)
00:48:55 John Field: Nocturne in D Minor H59 (1834)
00:51:57 John Field: Nocturne in F H62a (1836)
00:56:33 John Field: Nocturne in E H54f (c.1835)
01:06:26 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.9 No.1 in B flat Minor
01:11:37 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.9 No.2 in E flat
01:15:44 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.9 No.3 in B
01:22:06 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.72 No.1 in E Minor
01:25:43 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.15 No.1 in F
01:29:56 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.15 No.2 in F sharp
01:33:27 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.15 No.3 in G Minor
01:38:29 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.32 No.1 in B
01:43:11 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.32 No.2 in A flat
01:48:22 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.62 No.1 in B
01:55:15 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.62 No.2 in E
02:00:46 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne in C sharp Minor Op. posth.
02:04:40 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.27 No.1 in C sharp Minor
02:09:37 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.27 No.2 in D flat
02:15:40 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.37 No.1 in G Minor
02:22:00 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.37 No.2 in G
02:28:31 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.48 No.1 in C Minor
02:34:36 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.48 No.2 in F sharp Minor
02:41:38 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.55 No.1 in F Minor
02:46:22 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne Op.55 No.2 in E flat
02:51:19 Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne in C Minor Op. posth.
02:54:14 Charles-Valentin Alkan: Nocturne alla Field in B flat
02:58:56 Friedrich Kalkbrenner: Les Soupirs de la Harpe Eolienne: Nocturne in A flat Op.121 No.1
03:03:07 Friedrich Kalkbrenner: Les Soupirs de la Harpe Eolienne: Nocturne in F Op.121 No.2 (à trois mains)
03:07:10 Clara Schumann: Nocturne in F Op.6 No.2 (Soireés musicales)
03:12:18 Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély: Nocturne in D flat Op.54 ‘Les Cloches du monastère’
03:17:31 Edmund Weber: Nocturne in D flat Op.1 ‘Première pensée’
03:21:19 Charles-Valentin Alkan: Nocturne in B Op.22
03:26:59 Charles-Valentin Alkan: Notturnino innamorato in F sharp Minor Op.63 no 43
03:29:09 Mikhail Glinka: Nocturne in E flat
03:34:53 Maria Szymanowska: Nocturne in A flat ‘La Murmure’
03:37:56 Ignacy Feliks Dobrzynski: Nocturne in G Minor Op.21 No.1
03:42:51 Ignacy Feliks Dobrzynski: Nocturne in E flat Op.21 No.2
03:48:55 Ignacy Feliks Dobrzynski: Nocturne in F Minor Op.24 No.1
03:53:04 Ignacy Feliks Dobrzynski: Nocturne in D flat Op.24 No.2
03:58:28 Ignacy Feliks Dobrzynski: Nocturne in G Minor ‘Pozegnanie’
Costantino Mastroprimiano 04:01:06 Frédéric Chopin: Early Works: Polonaise in A flat (dedicated to Zywny) (1821)
04:05:12 Frédéric Chopin: Early Works: Rondo in C Minor Op.1 (1825)
04:14:28 Frédéric Chopin: Early Works: Mazurka in G (1825–6)
04:15:36 Frédéric Chopin: Early Works: Mazurka in B flat (1825–6)
04:17:09 Frédéric Chopin: Early Works: Polonaise in B flat Minor (1826)
04:23:28 Frédéric Chopin: Early Works: Rondo à la Mazur in F Op.5 (1826)
04:33:56 Frédéric Chopin: 3 Polonaises Op.71 (1827–9): in D Minor
04:40:23 Frédéric Chopin: 3 Polonaises Op.71 (1827–9): in F Minor
04:50:30 Frédéric Chopin: 3 Polonaises Op.71 (1827–9): in B flat
04:57:30 Frédéric Chopin: Polonaise in G flat (1829)
05:05:47 Frédéric Chopin: Variations in A ‘Souvenir de Paganini’ (1829)
05:09:41 Frédéric Chopin: ‘Casta Diva’ from Bellini’s Norma (transcription for P. Viardot)
Cor de Groot 05:12:45 Frédéric Chopin: Mazurka Op.17 No.4 in A Minor
05:15:11 Frédéric Chopin: Mazurka Op.24 No.1 in G Minor
05:19:36 Frédéric Chopin: Mazurka Op.30 No.3 in D flat
05:22:34 Frédéric Chopin: Mazurka Op.50 No.3 in C sharp Minor
05:25:34 Frédéric Chopin: Mazurka Op.59 No.2 in A flat
05:30:30 Frédéric Chopin: Mazurka Op.7 No.1 in B flat
Jan Vermeulen 05:33:13 Carl Maria von Weber: Piano Sonata No.3 in D Minor Op.49: I. Allegro feroce
05:45:42 Carl Maria von Weber: Piano Sonata No.3 in D Minor Op.49: II. Andante con moto
05:53:11 Carl Maria von Weber: Piano Sonata No.3 in D Minor Op.49: III. Rondo: Presto
Stanley Hoogland 06:00:39 Charles-Valentin Alkan: Barcarolle
06:04:15 Charles-Valentin Alkan: Petit Conte
Fred Oldenburg 06:08:06 Franz Liszt: Études d’exécution transcendante: Ricordanza
06:19:47 Franz Liszt: Études d’exécution transcendante: Harmonies du soir
Hopefully one day, if the Gods allow us to reach advanced age, and after what ever ravages modernity has accomplished, we can tell any remaining loved ones or fellow brethren who care to hear about the glory of our heritage and that its genius was not in its mind but its spirit, and it is the spirit which conquers lands and moves mountains.
Good pick. The problem with many Chopin interpreters that I've noticed, especially when dealing with his nocturnes, is thier over-emphasis on using apprehension in certain notes to create a softer aura and it ends up being too lackluster and stagnate. His nocturnes are complex and require a pianist with a very discerning mind who understands how to apply force and energy where it is needed.
