January 27,2023
I was listening again to Leos Janacek’s Intimate Letters (second string quartet) and reminded myself that I visited his home in Brno (https://www.leosjanacek.eu/en/memorial-house/). There in the sitting room he met from time to time with Kamila Stasslova a married woman 40 years his junior whose husband waited in another room while he talked with her about his love for her. He wrote over 700 letters to her and composed this astounding piece of music. https://www.npr.org/2009/09/14/94294582/janaceks-love-letters-with-strings-attached
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_Quartet_No._2_(Jan%C3%A1%C4%8Dek)
https://www.ariannaquartet.com/janacek-quartets-program-notes
His yearning, intimate feelings, and need for connection to her was so eloquently and unabashedly expressed in this music so through music he could be with her as through a love letter they were entwined.
Hector Berlioz wrote Symphony Fantastique in part to a British Shakespearean actress who he first saw at a play. This music has us identify his love object and follows the lover to his overdose on heroin, a witches sabbath, and his march to the guillotine!
Wagner wrote the Siegfried Idyll for his wife on the birth of their son. His infidelity and more untrustworthy nature is well documented. Nevertheless, Some of Wagner’s music is so beautiful (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Qd1WOGEco). To me the introduction to Tristan and Isolde and his Siegfried Idyll are beautiful and emotional If interested listen to Bernstein’s recording of Tristan and Isolde (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHrs9qDi_vA).
Music is a human creation and experience that enriches us but also serves many other purposes in our communication to each other. If you want to have a big band parade easily experienced go watch that episode on the movie Hello Dolly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njp9BCSQyCo). Our taste in listening, performing, and composing is so astounding to me. I learned to play the piano but hated the lessons so I was a poor pupil at our home when about 12 years old. I has handed a clarinet in the fourth grade and squeaked and sometimes hit a correct note. In high school I was handed a big tuba for the band which I never mastered. Only near retirement did I take to the piano by going to our local community college and taking two years of piano. Now I can struggle and sometimes play decently all sorts of piano pieces up to the intermediate level.
Fortunately, I've been exposed to many different forms and styles. Our neighbor was in barber shop singing so we went to his competitions. My grandson learned to play classical guitar which we attended his recitals. Our granddaughter sung in musicals in school which we attended and she currently has some songs on Spotify. Another grandson was into ballet as a child and now we listen to his guitar albums. Our daughter in law sung with a group which performed at my wedding. My nephew's wife has a beautiful voice and did cabaret singing for a time. Our grandson’s father is a music teacher and performed in a band.
Plato said that “music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything”. Mar 31, 2016 (source google)
Some philosophers view music as a representation of our minds
thought and emotion processes
externalized through sound, tempo,
time, etc. Oliver Sachs wrote a compendium type book Musicophilia
very interesting in showing how the brain and music relate.
Synesthesia is an experience in which someone may experience sounds
and music as colors or other sensations. Music hallucinations occur
with various conditions such as tinnitus. Absolute pitch may be
present in some people. People who have a tonal language may have a
higher percentage with absolute pitch. Hemisphere dominance may play
a role so that left hemisphere dominant people who suffer a left hemisphere stroke now may be more able to learn music than before
since the right hemisphere is now no longer inhibited. People with
Parkinson Disease can become more animated, less frozen, and able to sing, dance, and be more mobile while listening,
dancing and singing along. Participation in singing and even playing music can animated more severely
demented people.
Music like every other human activity can have its dark side. The Nazi regime used certain styles of music in their propaganda. Various music authors are shunned by some because in their music prejudice and banned subjects are objectified (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_controversies). Some rap and RAVE music have become controversial. Music can be characterized by adjective such as jazz, classical, romantic, country and western, opera, etc. Different cultures have certain styles such as klezmer, Ukrainian, Hawaiian slack key, etc. Religious music include Gregorian chants, Torah and Haftorah chants, Indian Raagas, etc. Instruments vary and the human voice is trained so we hear a familiar or a new sound with or without words. The pleasure, interest, and meaning we experience often cannot be put into print and words.
In conclusion, listen to Chopin his 2nd Sonata 3rd movement celebrate with his lyric interlude after having us mourn listening to his funeral march https://youtu.be/l1nTb5QoYrs (skip to 2:55 seconds)
Leonard
Comments
Post a Comment