Just a small selection of tunes for Halloween.
Dvorak's The Water Goblin
Mussorgsky's Night on Bare Mountain (via Rimsky-Korsakov)
Grieg's March of the Trolls
Schubert's The Erl King
Berlioz's March to the Scaffold
Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre
There are many, many more of course. This is just a taste! Enjoy and explore!
Reviews and thoughts from the music appreciation tentacle of Giant Squid Creations.
Wednesday, 30 October 2013
Monday, 21 October 2013
Beethoven Sonata Course in Reflection
The course on Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas finished up recently. It was a fun and insightful series of lectures and if it runs again I recommend doing it. Aside from learning about Beethoven and his music you get to listen to snippets of works played by Jonathon Biss and that’s well worth it too (here's a sample).
So what did I learn? Quite a bit to be honest and I’m not going to go into all the detail and everything here. What I want to talk about is how the course helped shape something of my idea of the history of music because I’ve come to see Beethoven as a pivotal figure in ways I didn’t understand previously.
I studied a course on the Ancient Greeks at the same time as this one and in it was discussed that history works out in big forces and movements – migrations, economic upheavals etc, etc – but there are also certain individuals who manage to alter the course of history through sheer force of will or some similar manifestation of their brilliance. Alexander the Great was one standout example.
From what I learned in the Sonata course this is also very much the case. There were big movements taking place during Beethoven’s lifetime, but his talent and his unrelenting personality played their own role in shaping music’s path heading into the 19th century.
At the beginning of his lifetime music was still largely a court affair. Joseph Haydn spent most of his career in the employ of one such court; he wrote what his employer wanted, he managed the court’s musicians etc. Late in his life his employer did give him incredible freedom and allowed him to write what he wanted instead. Mozart, unable to cope with the strictures of being a court composer tried his hand as a freelancer but with variable success.
The way was becoming clear however and courts were no longer the bastions of classical music. If we consider the social and political upheavals that were happening at this time, it’s little wonder Beethoven never had to consider being employed as a court musician. He was free from the beginning to do his own thing. The individual was free.
And free from such constraints, Beethoven’s talent and strong personality led him to explore musical forms in all new ways. He took the sonata form, perfected it, toyed with it to test its limits, then tore it apart and reshaped it in his own way. He broke all the rules and paved the way for further experimentation down the track. And he allowed music to truly ambitious and completely about self-expression. He could paint emotional landscapes freely in ways previous composers could not and in so doing he set the Romantics up to do what they did.
So while history’s big movements were most certainly in play – it’s one of the most dramatic shifts in Western history in all fields of endeavour – Beethoven’s individuality and precocious talent shifted the history music very much to follow his footsteps and no-one else’s.
So what did I learn? Quite a bit to be honest and I’m not going to go into all the detail and everything here. What I want to talk about is how the course helped shape something of my idea of the history of music because I’ve come to see Beethoven as a pivotal figure in ways I didn’t understand previously.
I studied a course on the Ancient Greeks at the same time as this one and in it was discussed that history works out in big forces and movements – migrations, economic upheavals etc, etc – but there are also certain individuals who manage to alter the course of history through sheer force of will or some similar manifestation of their brilliance. Alexander the Great was one standout example.
From what I learned in the Sonata course this is also very much the case. There were big movements taking place during Beethoven’s lifetime, but his talent and his unrelenting personality played their own role in shaping music’s path heading into the 19th century.
At the beginning of his lifetime music was still largely a court affair. Joseph Haydn spent most of his career in the employ of one such court; he wrote what his employer wanted, he managed the court’s musicians etc. Late in his life his employer did give him incredible freedom and allowed him to write what he wanted instead. Mozart, unable to cope with the strictures of being a court composer tried his hand as a freelancer but with variable success.
The way was becoming clear however and courts were no longer the bastions of classical music. If we consider the social and political upheavals that were happening at this time, it’s little wonder Beethoven never had to consider being employed as a court musician. He was free from the beginning to do his own thing. The individual was free.
And free from such constraints, Beethoven’s talent and strong personality led him to explore musical forms in all new ways. He took the sonata form, perfected it, toyed with it to test its limits, then tore it apart and reshaped it in his own way. He broke all the rules and paved the way for further experimentation down the track. And he allowed music to truly ambitious and completely about self-expression. He could paint emotional landscapes freely in ways previous composers could not and in so doing he set the Romantics up to do what they did.
So while history’s big movements were most certainly in play – it’s one of the most dramatic shifts in Western history in all fields of endeavour – Beethoven’s individuality and precocious talent shifted the history music very much to follow his footsteps and no-one else’s.
Monday, 16 September 2013
Beethoven Piano Sonata Course First Two Weeks
I’m now two weeks into the course on Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas being run by the Curtis Institute of Music through Coursera and it is really interesting. In essence it’s spending about an hour watching a series of short videos where Jonathon Biss talks about Beethoven’s music in a engaging and insightful way.
The first week was an introduction to two things, first Beethoven’s predecessors Bach, Haydn and Mozart, then to sonata form. The predecessors were covered necessarily very rapidly but Biss raised the question of the role of composers in society. Bach was never anything but a servant, even at his peak he was required to teach singing; Haydn started as a servant, was given leave to do his own thing at times, then eventually had enough success to go it alone. Mozart on the other hand couldn’t handle being a servant and went freelance before the idea was really around. It worked for a time but his genius didn’t extend to budgeting. However, both he and Haydn showed more daring and creative exploration when freed from court duties.
When Beethoven emerged the court composer role was dying off and he never had to write what he was told, so from the beginning he was free to try new things – but he still had to make money. Which puts an interesting dynamic into his early works.
The sonata form, which is a form of a single movement not a description of a sonata – someone needs to work on that bit of nomenclature – is also very interesting. Biss explained it really well too. I won’t go into the details but in essence it’s a journey, you start with at home, being the key the piece is written in, then go to the ‘dominant’ which is a fifth above the home key (also called the tonic), from there the movement goes on a harmonic journey as it tries to get back to the tonic/home. I love how it’s a basic narrative structure – story really is fundamental to our existence.
The second week was a look at the earliest sonatas – 1-11 and 19-20, which were written before but published after 12 – with particular emphasis on Sonata No 4, Beethoven’s Opus 7. It would take too long to go into what was said now but the assignment for the week was interesting. We had to list how one of the other early sonatas conformed with and differed from No 4, which meant listening to a Sonata in an all new way for me. I picked No 1 because it has almost exactly the same movement structure. It was fascinating to actively listen to the music, ask ‘what’s he doing here?’ and notice when phrases come in and go out. I can’t pick a key change to save my life so that’s a disadvantage but the experience did give me a new appreciation for the music.
This is definitely a journey worth taking.
The first week was an introduction to two things, first Beethoven’s predecessors Bach, Haydn and Mozart, then to sonata form. The predecessors were covered necessarily very rapidly but Biss raised the question of the role of composers in society. Bach was never anything but a servant, even at his peak he was required to teach singing; Haydn started as a servant, was given leave to do his own thing at times, then eventually had enough success to go it alone. Mozart on the other hand couldn’t handle being a servant and went freelance before the idea was really around. It worked for a time but his genius didn’t extend to budgeting. However, both he and Haydn showed more daring and creative exploration when freed from court duties.
When Beethoven emerged the court composer role was dying off and he never had to write what he was told, so from the beginning he was free to try new things – but he still had to make money. Which puts an interesting dynamic into his early works.
The sonata form, which is a form of a single movement not a description of a sonata – someone needs to work on that bit of nomenclature – is also very interesting. Biss explained it really well too. I won’t go into the details but in essence it’s a journey, you start with at home, being the key the piece is written in, then go to the ‘dominant’ which is a fifth above the home key (also called the tonic), from there the movement goes on a harmonic journey as it tries to get back to the tonic/home. I love how it’s a basic narrative structure – story really is fundamental to our existence.
The second week was a look at the earliest sonatas – 1-11 and 19-20, which were written before but published after 12 – with particular emphasis on Sonata No 4, Beethoven’s Opus 7. It would take too long to go into what was said now but the assignment for the week was interesting. We had to list how one of the other early sonatas conformed with and differed from No 4, which meant listening to a Sonata in an all new way for me. I picked No 1 because it has almost exactly the same movement structure. It was fascinating to actively listen to the music, ask ‘what’s he doing here?’ and notice when phrases come in and go out. I can’t pick a key change to save my life so that’s a disadvantage but the experience did give me a new appreciation for the music.
This is definitely a journey worth taking.
Tuesday, 3 September 2013
Getting this blog going
This is just a quick post to announce the new way I'm hoping to run this blog. I'm going to try to be a bit more methodical and committed to it. I've started by adding a Facebook page which will announce when I post here and also share smaller things like links and quick happy birthdays to composers long dead and maybe even living ones from time to time.
I'm also going to have a Composer of the Month. I'll announce who on the Facebook page on the first Wednesday of the month and post a YouTube link to a piece written by them every Wednesday. I'll also do a post about them here sometime during the month and maybe some album reviews.
This month it's Beethoven. Yes, a fairly obvious choice but it made sense. I'm studying his Piano Sonatas in an online course this month so he's already on my mind and in my ears. Doing that course was a bit of serendipity actually. My wife just gave me the Beethoven-Willems Collection featuring all the sonatas and concertos plus more, and I was looking at courses on the Coursera site and saw it there - it was meant to be. I'll let you know what it's like later in the month.
I'm still working my way through the B-W collection but the discs I've played so far are magnificent. Not only is the playing good, the recording is crystal clear. It's an all-round brilliant effort.
Let the music play!
I'm also going to have a Composer of the Month. I'll announce who on the Facebook page on the first Wednesday of the month and post a YouTube link to a piece written by them every Wednesday. I'll also do a post about them here sometime during the month and maybe some album reviews.
This month it's Beethoven. Yes, a fairly obvious choice but it made sense. I'm studying his Piano Sonatas in an online course this month so he's already on my mind and in my ears. Doing that course was a bit of serendipity actually. My wife just gave me the Beethoven-Willems Collection featuring all the sonatas and concertos plus more, and I was looking at courses on the Coursera site and saw it there - it was meant to be. I'll let you know what it's like later in the month.
I'm still working my way through the B-W collection but the discs I've played so far are magnificent. Not only is the playing good, the recording is crystal clear. It's an all-round brilliant effort.
Let the music play!
Thursday, 25 July 2013
Miriam Hyde's Centenary
Today as I listened to Classic Breakfast with Emma Ayres I learnt that it's Miriam Hyde's centenary year. I also learnt there was an Australian composer called Miriam Hyde. Looks like maybe I should've known this already and I admit her face rings vague bells but really, how many Australian composers can you name? How many women composers? So how many Australian women ... anyway the point is I now know about her and would like to hear more of her music.
There's a good biography of her at the Australia Music Centre's website (click here for that). Turns out she was a successful composer, pianist, poet and musical educator with an OBE and AO and the International Woman of the Year (1991-2). Her piano concerti were performed by major English orchestras in the 1920s too, with her as the soloist.
Most of her music appears to have been written for piano, including learning pieces of various levels, some set to her poems. I found this performance of one on YouTube entitled Forest Stream and it does seem to flow and bubble as a stream winding through a forest and over rocks might do.
From that page I found a link to a recording - possibly of the WASO in 1965 with her as soloist but I can't swear to that - of her second Piano Concerto. It also has some text from a Keys to Music program Graham Abbott must have run last year about Miriam Hyde the composer. And I'm glad the link was there. It's a very good concerto, full of drama and virtuosity without being a show-off piece, and quite Romantic in feel, at least to my ear.
There was also this short Reverie, which may be one of her 'exam' pieces but has a lovely dream like quality to it; and this in turn led me to a piece called Spring. This performance is for an exam but still the piece is a wonderful evocation of that season so beloved of artists.
Which in a strange way leads me to what I will finish with, a quote from Miriam Hyde on music and her compositions - I feel my music can be a refuge for what beauty and peace can still be omnipresent...the triumph of good over evil. I make no apologies for writing from the heart.
I think we can all be thankful she did.
PS Closing tabs I discovered this performance of her Fantasy Trio by Trio Fidelis, and it's a good closer. There's more out there - get listening!
There's a good biography of her at the Australia Music Centre's website (click here for that). Turns out she was a successful composer, pianist, poet and musical educator with an OBE and AO and the International Woman of the Year (1991-2). Her piano concerti were performed by major English orchestras in the 1920s too, with her as the soloist.
Most of her music appears to have been written for piano, including learning pieces of various levels, some set to her poems. I found this performance of one on YouTube entitled Forest Stream and it does seem to flow and bubble as a stream winding through a forest and over rocks might do.
From that page I found a link to a recording - possibly of the WASO in 1965 with her as soloist but I can't swear to that - of her second Piano Concerto. It also has some text from a Keys to Music program Graham Abbott must have run last year about Miriam Hyde the composer. And I'm glad the link was there. It's a very good concerto, full of drama and virtuosity without being a show-off piece, and quite Romantic in feel, at least to my ear.
There was also this short Reverie, which may be one of her 'exam' pieces but has a lovely dream like quality to it; and this in turn led me to a piece called Spring. This performance is for an exam but still the piece is a wonderful evocation of that season so beloved of artists.
Which in a strange way leads me to what I will finish with, a quote from Miriam Hyde on music and her compositions - I feel my music can be a refuge for what beauty and peace can still be omnipresent...the triumph of good over evil. I make no apologies for writing from the heart.
I think we can all be thankful she did.
PS Closing tabs I discovered this performance of her Fantasy Trio by Trio Fidelis, and it's a good closer. There's more out there - get listening!
Tuesday, 2 July 2013
Janacek's Birthday
To celebrate Janacek's birthday I thought I'd find some nice YouTube clips of his music. Starting with what is arguably his most famous work his Sinfonietta. This is a powerful version by the Wiener Philharmonika conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras. The opening of this work is such a stirring piece, but with that edge that something is different. Then it launches into a dance of instruments before a gentle clarinet leads us to a meadow, then back to the dance and on the piece goes, it really is an amazing work.
The orchestral suite from his opera The Cunning Little Vixen is a new discovery for me, thank you internet. Strong opening with strings and brass, moving into a beautiful softer passage - Leos was clearly one for shifts in mood. And the flutes and violins moving against the deeper percussive sounds are stunning. Why have I not heard this before? Rustic in feel but with drama and beauty mixed. The ending is strong percussively but strangely stark compared to the rest of the work.
I'll provide some quick links to two of my other favourites of his - the Lachian Dances, which are a collection of dances he wrote towards the end of his life looking back at the countryside the modern world had changed forever; and his Taras Bulba Rhapsody, written in response to the novel of the same name by Gogol.
There's a lot more great music Janacek wrote I'm sure. Keep exploring people!
The orchestral suite from his opera The Cunning Little Vixen is a new discovery for me, thank you internet. Strong opening with strings and brass, moving into a beautiful softer passage - Leos was clearly one for shifts in mood. And the flutes and violins moving against the deeper percussive sounds are stunning. Why have I not heard this before? Rustic in feel but with drama and beauty mixed. The ending is strong percussively but strangely stark compared to the rest of the work.
I'll provide some quick links to two of my other favourites of his - the Lachian Dances, which are a collection of dances he wrote towards the end of his life looking back at the countryside the modern world had changed forever; and his Taras Bulba Rhapsody, written in response to the novel of the same name by Gogol.
There's a lot more great music Janacek wrote I'm sure. Keep exploring people!
Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Man behind the rock - Graeme Revell
Graeme Revell was one of the first movie composers I could name other than John Williams, mostly because of The Craft. I bought the soundtrack, not the score, and it included a track from the score and so his name was on the track listing. Around the same time I learnt he wrote the score for Spawn, another soundtrack I bought and listened to excessively. So the name stuck but until now I didn’t know much else about him.
Turns out he’s a kiwi who worked in Australia for a while – in a psychiatric hospital. His first film score was actually the Australian thriller Dead Calm, for which he won an AFI. Here's a selection from it, it features some operatic singing and even rhythmic breathing all with drum machine and electronic sounds which are quite evocative.
His music is often electronic and quite dark but he’s got some orchestral scores in there too. A quick look at his film credits shows mostly action films and horrors, which works with the darker side of things. A good example of all that is this music from Aeon Flux. Also see the opening music to - The Crow, Spawn and Tomb Raider
He certainly demonstrates great versatility and a willingness to experiment with instrumentation. The first piece I knew of his – Bells, Books and Candles from The Craft – is quite esoteric. Then there's the theme for Elektra as a character in Daredevil (as in not the theme to the movie Elektra) which is stripped back, no electronic stuff, just piano and acoustic guitar until synth and voice section comes in with a string section. It is utterly haunting and captivating.
As both those examples and the stuff from Dead Calm shows, the use of voice as instrument is something Revell is interested in and he took this further in the score for Red Planet which made extensive use of the voice of Emma Shapplin. The opening of the movie doesn't but here's a bit anyway because it's piano and strings and truly beautiful. I can't actually find a good example of the use of her voice under the score sadly but here's a song she sings for the movie - The Fifth Heaven.
So while he seems stuck in a particular oeuvre, his music is emotionally rich and explores many ways of making music itself. So Revell is well and truly worth checking out. The trick is most of his best work is hidden behind the rock soundtracks it works with.
Turns out he’s a kiwi who worked in Australia for a while – in a psychiatric hospital. His first film score was actually the Australian thriller Dead Calm, for which he won an AFI. Here's a selection from it, it features some operatic singing and even rhythmic breathing all with drum machine and electronic sounds which are quite evocative.
His music is often electronic and quite dark but he’s got some orchestral scores in there too. A quick look at his film credits shows mostly action films and horrors, which works with the darker side of things. A good example of all that is this music from Aeon Flux. Also see the opening music to - The Crow, Spawn and Tomb Raider
He certainly demonstrates great versatility and a willingness to experiment with instrumentation. The first piece I knew of his – Bells, Books and Candles from The Craft – is quite esoteric. Then there's the theme for Elektra as a character in Daredevil (as in not the theme to the movie Elektra) which is stripped back, no electronic stuff, just piano and acoustic guitar until synth and voice section comes in with a string section. It is utterly haunting and captivating.
As both those examples and the stuff from Dead Calm shows, the use of voice as instrument is something Revell is interested in and he took this further in the score for Red Planet which made extensive use of the voice of Emma Shapplin. The opening of the movie doesn't but here's a bit anyway because it's piano and strings and truly beautiful. I can't actually find a good example of the use of her voice under the score sadly but here's a song she sings for the movie - The Fifth Heaven.
So while he seems stuck in a particular oeuvre, his music is emotionally rich and explores many ways of making music itself. So Revell is well and truly worth checking out. The trick is most of his best work is hidden behind the rock soundtracks it works with.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)