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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 31, 2019 10:51:36 GMT -8
The cartoon shows who was popular at the time.
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 31, 2019 11:03:37 GMT -8
Here is a short piece on Bach and math. One often hears that Bach's pieces are more complicated, mathematically, than anyone else's. It is like he is creating a great puzzle or Erecto set. I make no pretense at understanding it all. I wonder if he was obsessive?
In any case, the man loved God and music. He composed a piece (or at least worked on an existing one) on his death bed.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 31, 2019 11:04:39 GMT -8
Per your suggestion, right now I’m listening to The Barber of Seville as presented by the London Symphony Orchestra and James Levine. Yeah, this has Bugs Bunny written all over it. And yet I’m sure I’ve never listened to it all the way through. One interesting (and somewhat unexpected) aspect of having Apple Music is the ability to switch between recordings. I started with the London Symphony version (which sounded great) but wondered what another version might sound like. I selected the next on the list, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Alceo Galliera & Philharmonia Chorus version. Not only did the arrangements sound dull the actual technical sound quality of the recording itself did not sound as good. So you do find some clear variances like this. A real connoisseur could no doubt describe dozens of significant differences even between recordings that sounded more-or-less the same to me. But in this case, the London Symphony recording is clearly superior. I’m not surprised that they would set a high standard. |
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 31, 2019 11:05:25 GMT -8
So that's Leopold. What a great image of a man.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 31, 2019 11:14:10 GMT -8
I’m assuming a true J. S. Bach enthusiast would say “Wonderfully so.”
I don’t pretend to understand any of that either. I just know what I like….which can change over time.
But the one hilariously outspoken and stern lecturer that I had mentioned goes superficially in detail about how notes are a product of the vibrations of strings. And how a note that vibrates at exactly one half the frequency (via a piano wire one-half the length) is considered the same note but in a different octave. Etc. Etc. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know.
The actual mechanics of music are extremely mathematical. There are heavy aspects of that in fine painting as well. Getting the perspective correct requires a more than passing familiarity with geometry. Those who mix their own paints (as in old) would be de facto chemists as well. And if they made their own brushes, they would be craftsman of various degrees about various things.
But I don’t look at the Mona Lisa and consider it even remotely as a deep expression of mathematics. But, geez, with some of Bach’s stuff (especially the way this highfalutin lecturer describes it) definitely evokes the image of the performer as technician rather than artist. I say that knowing that Bach purists or enthusiasts would consider me worse than a Cretin. But I’m going by the Reagan rule of “Don’t be afraid to see what you see.” Or hear what you hear, in this case.
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 31, 2019 11:18:34 GMT -8
Durant goes into some detail on this in "The Renaissance." It is amazing how many of the great painters of the time really were "Renaissance" men who were accomplished in fields as diverse as painting to military engineering.
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 31, 2019 11:31:24 GMT -8
The opening bars of the first movement were often heard in a bowlderized form in the cartoons of the 1930s-1950s. The viewer was set up with an idyllic scene unfolding, and just when the feeling of peace and wholesomeness was achieved some crazy rabbit or another nut would appear and spoil things.
I recommend you listen to the whole piece which is extremely beautiful. I also like the artwork chosen by the one who posted this.
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Post by timothylane on Dec 31, 2019 11:52:08 GMT -8
Stokowski makes a direct appearance at one point in Fantasia. After their performance of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", Mickey Mouse comes out and shakes hands with Stokowski (I have a copy of the music in my MP3 collection.)
Classical themes appeared in many places. Pocketful of Miracles included a couple of short excerpts from The Nutcracker. Of course, the opening music in 2001 came from Wagner's Also Sprach Zarathustra. No doubt there are plenty of other examples.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 31, 2019 12:21:25 GMT -8
I found the entire Grieg: Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites / Sibelius: Valse Triste on Apple Music. It’s a recording from March 1, 1993. And when I hear that beautiful Suite No. 1, I think of the version I caught on PBS once as done by the Kraut, Helmut Lotti (Belgian, whatever), and Lene Siel. It’s a little schmaltzy but it’s stuck with me. It doesn’t hurt that she is drop-dead gorgeous with an extremely sexy voice. The video of them doing this seems to have been scrubbed from the web.  |
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 31, 2019 12:26:53 GMT -8
One wonders if the ubiquity of this music in movies and such isn't because, one, they are stupendous and, two, are likely in the public domain.
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 31, 2019 12:39:11 GMT -8
Small correction. It Richard Strauss who wrote that. I almost included him in my earlier list as he wrote some very nice Tone Poems, such as "Ein Helden Leben" and "Till Eulenspiegel".
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 31, 2019 12:49:53 GMT -8
I have to agree that it is schmaltzy. My solution is to listen to the rendition I linked to and look at the picture of the female you supplied. Excellence in both cases.
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 31, 2019 13:15:54 GMT -8
It is likely a mixture of the two, but it should be remembered that it is great music and few composers for TV or film have been considered really top-notch. John Williams is famous and writes some good music, but he too often "borrows" from the great composers such as in his Star Wars theme which is almost a direct copy of Holst. It was Dmitri Tiomkin who when accepting one of his Oscars for best musical score (1955) started thanking the great composers who had influenced him. He included Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov among others. Apparently, other film composers got on his case for giving away their secrets.
When reading the Wikipedia bio on Tiomkin, I ran across this wonderful line from his autobiography.
"A steppe is a steppe is a steppe...The problems of the cowboy and the Cossack are very similar. They share a love of nature and a love of animals. Their courage and their philosophical attitudes are similar, and the steppes of Russia are much like the prairies of America."
That's why he could compose such wonderful music for great Western films.
If you want to hear a wonderful piece with grandiose intent, listen to the following:
It starts out very subdued and then at about 2:30 minutes it breaks out in a big way. It them goes back to a very different tone until the last 3 or 4 minutes when grandiosity returns. This might be considered the first Tone Poem written. It is interesting that it is Liszt who wrote it. For years, I thought is was written by Wagner.
I have chosen this rendition because the Berlin Philharmonic has a tradition of an excellent brass section. Even though, I am still not quite satisfied, and I will keep looking and listening for something which comes closer to my ideal.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 31, 2019 17:00:43 GMT -8
That’ll work. And if the speakers break, I’m still okay. In a vague way, she reminds me of one of my old girlfriends. (Hey, Leftists can live in a fantasy world; why can’t I?):  Téa Leoni There is some hilariously bad stuff with her in Jurassic Park III. But that has to do with Spielberg. He got rich by never underestimating the taste of the public. How he got away with some of that corn, I’lll never know. But this leads me to my conundrum: Can I, Mr. Kung, listen to Peer Gynt Suite No.1 while looking at a picture of Téa Leoni? It seems doable but I wasn’t quite sure of the protocol. |
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 31, 2019 17:11:15 GMT -8
They didn’t have the Alamo or John Wayne. But point taken.
In contrast to the Dire’s Straights song, “Money for Nothing,” that wasn’t banging on the bongos like a Chimpanzee. Can I pay a higher compliment?
The guy who conducted it could have played Leopold in the Bugs Bunny cartoon.
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 31, 2019 18:08:45 GMT -8
I suggest caution as it might lead to sensory overload.
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 31, 2019 18:10:27 GMT -8
I have to admit, I am not and never was a Dire Strait's fan.
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Post by timothylane on Dec 31, 2019 18:39:09 GMT -8
I just checked, and our MP3 collection includes a couple of Dire Straits CD images, so someone among our group evidently likes them. I don't know who it is. None of the song titles sounded familiar, though I will note that "Money for Nothing" is on one of them. It's possible I might have heard something by them on a CD image with multiple performers.
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Post by artraveler on Jan 2, 2020 9:56:34 GMT -8
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 2, 2020 10:22:47 GMT -8
Time to catch some IRA-based flicks just to stay sane. James Mason's Odd Man Out is one possibility. Anyone who wants anything to do with this woman (let alone pay her for doing nothing) is morally sick. |
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