tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post176449366687773198..comments2024-03-29T07:38:17.008-05:00Comments on The Music Salon: Transitional FiguresBryan Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-63811639151744187022018-09-28T09:52:57.159-05:002018-09-28T09:52:57.159-05:00Thanks, Nick? Sorry about the robot filter.
I'...Thanks, Nick? Sorry about the robot filter.<br /><br />I'm a big CPE Bach fan myself. Vivaldi is not, in my view, a transitional figure, but the culmination of the Italian Baroque. Influential, yes. Funny, I have always thought of Monteverdi as an early Baroque composer and only later came to discover his early madrigals, which are more in the style of the Renaissance. Corelli, yes, he was one of the early creators of Baroque style. What I meant by a "transitional" figure is someone who is more between two styles. CPE Bach is really the perfect example.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-50642590833130634502018-09-28T08:06:06.177-05:002018-09-28T08:06:06.177-05:00Interesting article. Good to remember some of the...Interesting article. Good to remember some of the key figures in the evolution of classical music, especially CPE Bach and his role in establishing the Classical era. I must say that I find plenty to admire in his music and of course for a while, even in his lifetime, he was regarded as the greatest composer in history - more so that his dad. Well, hindsight has changed all that but clearly he was a pivotal figure between the baroque and classical, probably more than others including Haydn. Much of CPE's music is very interesting and surprisingly vigorous.<br /><br />Of course, music being so subjective and all... really tying down who the movers and shakers were is quite an undertaking at some 250 years of remove. Or perhaps it's actually easier than at the time. I don't see Vivaldi mentioned much in all this but he is clearly very influential. The view of Monteverdi and the first baroque composer surprises me, he doesn't really sounds at all baroque to me. Or how about Corelli? Pivotal in my view. <br /><br />Nick. ps I am not a robot!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08906247736373135184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-26425572252440280672015-07-23T12:27:59.930-05:002015-07-23T12:27:59.930-05:00Oh, Maynard Solomon's sins are much greater th...Oh, Maynard Solomon's sins are much greater than that! Here is a post I did talking about his Mozart bio:<br /><br />http://themusicsalon.blogspot.mx/2014/01/mozarts-family-life.htmlBryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-63771630537830277442015-07-23T10:54:11.123-05:002015-07-23T10:54:11.123-05:00Ha, yes, yes, the piano concertos.
Yesterday by ...Ha, yes, yes, the piano concertos. <br /><br />Yesterday by coincidence I read a musicologist explaining why Maynard Solomon writing that 'Mozart was buried coffinless in a common burial pit' is nonsense. Marc in Eugenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04331547981498637474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-30378029048284741392015-07-23T10:31:04.917-05:002015-07-23T10:31:04.917-05:00I haven't looked at the Proms schedule, but I ...I haven't looked at the Proms schedule, but I can't see Leif Oves Andsnes doing the Beethoven quartets as he is a pianist? What I do see is that he is doing Beethoven piano concertos.<br /><br />And I am a bit leery of attributing Beethoven's musical inspiration to Romantic poetry.<br /><br />But I wish I was there so I could attend some of these. I just bought tickets to two concerts of the Calder Quartet who are kicking off our chamber music festival with some Beethoven quartets.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-70901926529398291642015-07-22T17:54:50.032-05:002015-07-22T17:54:50.032-05:00Thanks for the books! Am beginning Gardiner's ...Thanks for the books! Am beginning Gardiner's Bach, castle, Heaven so these will go on the list.<br /><br />Just noticed that, the BBC Proms happening these weeks, Leif Oves Andsnes is performing the Beethoven quartets etc. beginning tomorrow or Friday-- the blurb for a pre-concert talk: <br /><br />"German culture experts Professor Karen Leeder and Professor Robert Vilain on the great German Romantic poetry that inspired Beethoven throughout his life, from Schiller’s 'Ode to Joy' to Goethe’s 'Egmont' and Treitschke’s 'Fidelio'."<br /><br />Fascinating how that putative inspiration plays out or doesn't in the creation of the music....<br /><br />[http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/r89mxj/by/date/2015/07/20#2015-07-22]Marc in Eugenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04331547981498637474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-92131626135542487872015-07-22T16:10:06.056-05:002015-07-22T16:10:06.056-05:00Hmm, interesting question. The big book on Beethov...Hmm, interesting question. The big book on Beethoven is by Thayer, but it has been so long since I have looked at it that I am not sure of a Romantic bias. The books by Charles Rosen (The Classical Style and Sonata Forms) are excellent on Beethoven, who occupies perhaps a third or more of each book. Joseph Kerman's The Beethoven Quartets is excellent as are Bill Kinderman's books on Beethoven. But those are specialized studies. As for a general interest book on Beethoven, I am not sure of the recent ones because, frankly, I haven't read them! I know there is new one by Jan Swafford that might be good. There is an older one by Lewis Lockwood. But I would certainly avoid the one by Maynard Solomon as his book on Mozart was awful. I generally avoid recent books on composers for the general reader as they tend to fall prey to all the horrible trends of our day.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-19167753341907698342015-07-22T14:11:07.694-05:002015-07-22T14:11:07.694-05:00Is there a good study of Beethoven as supreme clas...Is there a good study of Beethoven as supreme classicist rather than font of Romanticism? Marc in Eugenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04331547981498637474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-14829972043684258322015-07-20T10:56:04.323-05:002015-07-20T10:56:04.323-05:00Glad you liked it.Glad you liked it.Christine Lacroixnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-41105418928737663172015-07-20T07:24:03.054-05:002015-07-20T07:24:03.054-05:00Thanks, Christine. No, I hadn't seen it and it...Thanks, Christine. No, I hadn't seen it and it is well worth reading!Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-87702660811014034052015-07-20T05:29:09.516-05:002015-07-20T05:29:09.516-05:00I thought you might enjoy this article, in case yo...I thought you might enjoy this article, in case you hadn't seen it: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/07/violinist_hilary_hahn_on_her_two_greatest_teachers_and_on_the_mozart_and.htmlChristine Lacroixnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-87892894788721314132015-07-19T21:43:39.946-05:002015-07-19T21:43:39.946-05:00Yes! Because that is exactly how the Romantics vie...Yes! Because that is exactly how the Romantics viewed him. Our image of Beethoven is filtered through their understanding. And then with an added veneer of how the Modernists viewed him.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-16522836811625912782015-07-19T20:18:11.693-05:002015-07-19T20:18:11.693-05:00I do always think of Beethoven as emblematic of Ro...I <i>do</i> always think of Beethoven as emblematic of Romanticism, the hero gazing off across the valley to the mist-shrouded mountains, like Friedrich's Der Wanderer, and, yes, that is almost certainly down to the people who've constantly written about him in that light. So much to think about in this post, as usual....Marc in Eugenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04331547981498637474noreply@blogger.com