ponderfrog.blogspot.com
Ponderfrog Music: September 2005
http://ponderfrog.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_archive.html
For the moment, I am using this for the MiddOrch here's my web page. Tuesday, September 27, 2005. Mahler's Poem of Ecstasy. I was just arguing against. In the case of the 6th Symphony, the misconception, I humbly submit, has misled people terribly. Since it is called Tragic (which, by Mahler it usually wasn’t) it is interpreted as being simply and consistently that; tragic. Writers and conductors speak of it as a deeply pessimistic work. Did in performance) is that it makes the symphony more tragic.
ponderfrog.blogspot.com
Ponderfrog Music: Why Did Schoenberg do it?
http://ponderfrog.blogspot.com/2005/08/why-did-schoenberg-do-it.html
For the moment, I am using this for the MiddOrch here's my web page. Tuesday, August 16, 2005. Why Did Schoenberg do it? It seems paradoxical that Arnold Schoenberg was simultaneously the originator of the most relentlessly dissonant style of music, 12-note serialism, and also a person with the most comprehensive mastery and knowledge of every permutation of tonal harmony. Is positively yummy. But people in general do not get used to Schoenberg. As Philip Larkin put it, writing of Charlie Parker,...A mom...
ponderfrog.blogspot.com
Ponderfrog Music: Bruckner's 9th - less is more
http://ponderfrog.blogspot.com/2005/09/bruckners-9th-less-is-more.html
For the moment, I am using this for the MiddOrch here's my web page. Tuesday, September 27, 2005. Bruckner's 9th - less is more. I am so glad that Bruckner did not ruin his 9th symphony by adding a last movement, a finale, to it. Finales were never Bruckner’s strong point, and the 9th benefits greatly from not having one. After all, does anyone feel short-changed after the Schubert unfinished? Let’s take a look at what Beethoven did in his finales. Beethoven’s 5th is probably the most influential symphon...
ponderfrog.blogspot.com
Ponderfrog Music: Restart
http://ponderfrog.blogspot.com/2005/02/restart.html
For the moment, I am using this for the MiddOrch here's my web page. Wednesday, February 09, 2005. After the ghastly experience of being de-computered for a couple of weeks, I start again. I also decided to split into two blogs, one concerned with the comparatively esoteric field of classical music, and the original one for everything else. The other one is to be found here. Posted by Andrew Massey at 2/09/2005 09:38:00 AM. Links to this post:.
ponderfrog.blogspot.com
Ponderfrog Music: Faithful to the Score? Bah! Humbug.
http://ponderfrog.blogspot.com/2005/09/faithful-to-score-bah-humbug.html
For the moment, I am using this for the MiddOrch here's my web page. Tuesday, September 27, 2005. Faithful to the Score? Gunther Schuller is not alone in considering the highest role of the conductor to be that of faithful guardian of the score. He declares the score to be a sacred document (please see my earlier complaint about sacred texts. Use these when he performs. We all must. We have no option. But neither is there any point in pretending that, just because the composer is dead, all of a sudden th...
ponderfrog.blogspot.com
Ponderfrog Music: February 2005
http://ponderfrog.blogspot.com/2005_02_01_archive.html
For the moment, I am using this for the MiddOrch here's my web page. Wednesday, February 09, 2005. After the ghastly experience of being de-computered for a couple of weeks, I start again. I also decided to split into two blogs, one concerned with the comparatively esoteric field of classical music, and the original one for everything else. The other one is to be found here. Posted by Andrew Massey at 2/09/2005 09:38:00 AM. Links to this post. Program note on Beethoven 5. Bol - Bol - ero - ero.
ponderfrog.blogspot.com
Ponderfrog Music: Bol - Bol - ero - ero.
http://ponderfrog.blogspot.com/2006/08/bol-bol-ero-ero.html
For the moment, I am using this for the MiddOrch here's my web page. Monday, August 21, 2006. Bol - Bol - ero - ero. Ravel’s Bolero is, - what? But whereas Schoenberg almost fell off the precipice in his groping for ultimate seriousness, Ravel almost became catatonic in his flirtation with banality and empty-headedness. Even so, from the beginning I was aware that there was something about Bolero that was distinctly odd. Hypnotically, inhumanly so. Why does it stand out so? Now in Ravel’s Bolero, exactly...
ponderfrog.blogspot.com
Ponderfrog Music: August 2006
http://ponderfrog.blogspot.com/2006_08_01_archive.html
For the moment, I am using this for the MiddOrch here's my web page. Monday, August 21, 2006. Bol - Bol - ero - ero. Ravel’s Bolero is, - what? But whereas Schoenberg almost fell off the precipice in his groping for ultimate seriousness, Ravel almost became catatonic in his flirtation with banality and empty-headedness. Even so, from the beginning I was aware that there was something about Bolero that was distinctly odd. Hypnotically, inhumanly so. Why does it stand out so? Now in Ravel’s Bolero, exactly...
ponderfrog.blogspot.com
Ponderfrog Music: Beethoven 5! How about 6?
http://ponderfrog.blogspot.com/2005/09/beethoven-5-how-about-6.html
For the moment, I am using this for the MiddOrch here's my web page. Tuesday, September 27, 2005. Continuing Beethoven's finales,. In the search for a finale that binds a whole monumental work together rather than merely saying, that’s it! Idea, a gesture informing us that success is not yet complete. Good move. Mahler caught on and did that too, ineptly in the 1st, powerfully in the 5th, to the point of genius in the 6th, vacuously in the 7th. Despite being so different in effect, this literary, philoso...
