tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post8735111881981913704..comments2024-03-27T23:06:03.736-05:00Comments on The Music Salon: Schubert: Trio No. 2 in E flat major, D. 929Bryan Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-12278621354516304982015-10-05T09:52:21.118-05:002015-10-05T09:52:21.118-05:00After reading the Wikipedia article on Karl Jenkin...After reading the Wikipedia article on Karl Jenkins, I'm surprised I haven't heard of him. Listening to the Benedictus now. There seem to be a lot of British composers successfully working in a zone between commercial music and "art" music. In North America I don't think that zone exists to much extent. One comment I might make is that it is not an unalloyed aesthetic good if a piece of music is only pretty all the way through. This is the problem with new age music. It is like sleeping on a bed of marshmallows from a compositional point of view. Just too squishy!<br /><br />My composition teacher has remarked to me that in order for a piece of music to be art music it must contain some kind of internal tension. In Shostakovich, for example, we find beautiful passages contrasted with biting ones, and I think that gives greater substance to the work.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-22738911706639243272015-10-05T09:31:15.698-05:002015-10-05T09:31:15.698-05:00I included a link to the Jenkins piece but you'...I included a link to the Jenkins piece but you'd have to put up with your favorite duo again!<br />Here's Benedictus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_RjlIPuqyc<br />I'm guessing you won't find it 'interesting'. But maybe that's something only great composers can do, take a lovely melody, repeat it, and still make it interesting?<br /><br />Yes, you have given me some other perspectives on how to listen. I guess my neo cortex hasn't participated much in the process up until now. If you could do a brain scan of your brain and the average listeners while listening I'm sure a whole lot more areas would light up in yours. Christine Lacroixhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02006109075551438090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-85142687393032372082015-10-05T09:12:49.092-05:002015-10-05T09:12:49.092-05:00Yes, isn't it!! Nobody like Schubert. Yeah, mu...Yes, isn't it!! Nobody like Schubert. Yeah, music has a kind of chameleon aspect: it can be used in so many different ways. A Clockwork Orange did Beethoven an enormous injustice. I don't think I have ever quite forgiven Kubrick, whom I used to like. On the other hand, the way Peter Weir uses music seems to honor it, not trash it.<br /><br />Not brainwashed, I hope? But perhaps offered some other perspectives on how to listen?<br /><br />Don't know Jenkins, I'm afraid!Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-18601055569719584202015-10-05T01:08:20.973-05:002015-10-05T01:08:20.973-05:00That is so beautiful Bryan. Thanks. I'd heard...That is so beautiful Bryan. Thanks. I'd heard it in Barry Lyndon but didn't know it was Schubert. Unfortunately for me music seems to become irretrievably associated with the images from the movies it was used in, the horrific violence in a Clockwork Orange, the cartoon images in Fantasia. There should be a warning at the beginning: This movie may ruin Beethoven for you for the rest of your life.....<br /><br />As an unsophisticated listener, a haunting melody helps, especially when it's repeated. Schubert keeps it interesting (I never thought I'd use that word to describe music, you've brainwashed me). <br />Have you heard Benedictus by Karl Jenkins? One of my friends finds it too repetitious but I quite like it.<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_RjlIPuqyc <br />Christine Lacroixhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02006109075551438090noreply@blogger.com