Category: thoughts

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184 Years is a Long Time

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This is something that baffles and fascinates me. I may have mentioned it here in passing before, but let’s talk about it some more.  We’re on a  little string of piano concertos here (first Arensky, then Rachmaninoff, then Prokofiev, and the next two weeks [well, this week and next week] [at least]), and Mahler is getting VERY in the way of me preparing for these. I’ve been on a kick with listening to LOTS of different interpretations of his pieces (at the time of this writing, I’m currently finishing up a listen to Boulez’s performance of the eighth with Staatskapelle … Continue reading 184 Years is a Long Time

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No, you don’t like classical music

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For a blog like this with the purpose of sharing and explaining (at least the basics of) classical music, that may seem like a strange title. And I’m going to step up on my soapbox for a bit here, but really…. For most of you, you don’t like classical music.  When I tell people I enjoy classical music or that it’s all I listen to or that I write about it, some respond with (in Chinese) “I love classical music!  The moonlight sonata is my favorite,” or they hum Beethoven’s fifth or talk about how much they love Clair de … Continue reading No, you don’t like classical music

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It’s been a year!

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I started this a year ago, first on Tumblr (old site), and migrated to our current location, and had the deluded belief that I could listen through about a piece a day and “get” it. I’d listen multiple times and think I could write something intelligent on it. Looking back, that was definitely not the case, and there are at least 15 or more posts that I will be revisiting. I’ll keep the original write-ups for nostalgia, but want to do those pieces justice like I couldn’t before. Myaskovsky 2 and Bruckner 6 and Nielsen 2 come to mind (won’t … Continue reading It’s been a year!

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Thinking about Mahler’s ninth

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As I’ve said before in multiple places here, I have lots of anticipation and ideas and thoughts about Mahler’s ninth that may or may not be accurate, but I have certainly built it up a lot in my head, and I am realizing that it may all be a bit overblown. It doesn’t much matter, because that whole dream image of how I planned to enjoy Mahler’s pinnacle work for the first time is coming to an end much earlier than I’d expected.  I read this article that describes Mahler’s ninth as a great symphony. I then sort of ran … Continue reading Thinking about Mahler’s ninth

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What is music?

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https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/6wDreAmNgHQ&source=uds That sounds like such a vague, stupid question to ask, but I love Krystian Zimerman’s (whose name I always manage to spell wrong) description of how music is more than just sound. Watch, listen and enjoy.  Aside from Zimerman’s incredible talent, and his incredible musicality, he has a really nice voice (not to mention the beautiful Schubert impromptu in the background). I have featured his performance of a Chopin ballade here, and he is truly a musician and artist of the highest order, and therefore, as you will see, incredibly in touch with his craft.  He makes a wonderful … Continue reading What is music?

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Schubert and Mahler

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There’s something about these two…. This is a complicated heavy topic, one which I am not really quite ready to address. I have been more and more enthralled with the music of each of these great composers (mostly the symphonies), but I see similarities that link them on an intriguing, deep, almost spiritual level. (They even look a bit like each other in the photos above, no?) There are the obvious parallels: they were both Austrian composers who left the world nine-ish symphonies with some unfinished bits. They are both known for their ninth symphonies (among other works) (see the … Continue reading Schubert and Mahler

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Completed: A month of compositional efforts

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I tweeted about this a few weeks ago. I decided that for the month of June, I would write SOMETHING on a staff every day.  The idea behind it was the idea behind my early attempts at photography (I’m colorblind, so there’s that) : if I take 30 photographs of this one thing/person/place/event, and then another 30 from a different angle, etc., there’s BOUND to be a good (or even usable) one in the bunch. Cast a wide net.  Some days I only got two bars of the treble staff on the piano done, and poorly. Other days, I managed … Continue reading Completed: A month of compositional efforts

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A Stickler for Structure

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Why I don’t really get what’s going on in tone poems (or other stuff…)   While I wouldn’t say I am a serious traditionalist (things like Scriabin’s one-movement sonatas or Sibelius’s single movement seventh symphony don’t bother me), there are some distinct advantages for a listener to sticking to something resembling a familiar form. It serves almost as a map, an outline, a way to know at least roughly what should be going on at what point in the story. That being said, unless we’re dealing with something as obvious as Beethoven’s fifth or a very traditional first movement, I … Continue reading A Stickler for Structure

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The favorite symphonies list

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A musical scavenger hunt of sorts. “He’s making a list… he’s checking it…” oh, only about half a billion times.  I got this idea from this thread at Talk Classical which you may not be able to read without logging in.  This is essentially an exercise in musical sudoku. There is ZERO inherent quality that a first symphonies of multiple composers would have in common, save it being the first one they wrote. Prokofiev’s first as a kind of musical caricature is so different from the ambitious first symphonies of Brahms or Mahler or Rott (his only, as I know, thanks … Continue reading The favorite symphonies list

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Why I love the piano sonata

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I tend to vacillate between the simple, straightforward sonata, and the heavy-hitting, drawn out, intense Romantic-era hour-long symphony in my listening habits. For me, it’s either a huge, monumental work like a 90-minute Mahler symphony (or something slightly less overwhelming like Sibelius or Tchaikovsky) or something pared down, simple, straightforward, an exquisite example of form, structure and style like a piano sonata.  Truth be told, I haven’t even gotten much into anything between these two extremes, things like quartets or other instrument sonatas (violin, viola, cello, etc.) that are often accompanied by piano. Part of the reason that the recent … Continue reading Why I love the piano sonata

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Ernst Krenek on completing unfinished works

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I want to share a very long quote I was pleased to read the other day about a subject I had been thinking about not too long ago. As the title suggests, it’s from Erst Krenek, regarding his opinion based on his experience of finishing works left incomplete by other composers. He says the following: Completing the unfinished work of a great master is a very delicate task. In my opinion it can honestly be undertaken only if the original fragment contains all of the main ideas of the unfinished work. In such a case a respectful craftsman may attempt, … Continue reading Ernst Krenek on completing unfinished works

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Nerds (geeks?) and Classical Music

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I couldn’t agree more with this article. I was giddy when I found it. Read it and then come back.  (Buckle up. The first few paragraphs are outrageously tangential, and then we get to the main point.) I am coming to have a closer relationship with classical music after realizing that it is perhaps the only thing that helps me enjoy or look forward to washing dishes. I don’t have a dishwasher, and I cook a ton (and I’m a messy cook), so there’s lots of washing up to be done in a very small kitchen, but instead of setting a … Continue reading Nerds (geeks?) and Classical Music