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Architects Music

Architect

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A thread about classical music. There's a number of threads here on classical music recently, so I'm going to talk about music I like, I've played, the musical world and anything else I feel like. I'd recommend everybody have some familiarity with this form of music, and maybe I can post some directions here. Questions welcome.

Pavane pour une infante défunte Maurice Ravel

"Pavane for a Dead Princess".

Click the link and listen to the audio on Wikipedia.

Notes:
The pavane is a slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century. This antique miniature is not meant to pay tribute to any particular princess from history, but rather expresses a nostalgic enthusiasm for Spanish customs and sensibilities, which Ravel shared with many of his contemporaries (most notably Debussy and Albéniz) and which is evident in some of his other works such as the Rapsodie espagnole and the Boléro.

Performance:
You can read a little about the performance history of this piece on Wikipedia. I think the version attached to that page is a little fast, a little more measure and care would work better in my opinion. Tempo is incredibly important to interpretation, a small difference in tempo and approach can turn the tragic to the optimistic.

Archie's Take
Wonderfully Ravel. I first heard this as an encore to a bombastic Saint-Saëns concerto - and it was charmingly opposite. Though written early you can clearly hear Ravel come through, at 0:35 the right hand playing the melody, with a dark undercurrent in the left hand, we sense it's going to come out, which is does in the counterpoint to the main melody, at 0:40 (the power in that phrase played at 0:40 is in the parallel octaves - one strong tune played in three octaves simultaneously, two in the left and one in the right). To my ear I hear this tonal "balance beam" between the left and the right hands (dark bass and bright treble), and it mirrors the two main ideas which is the opening melody (treble) and the darker undercurrent (at 0:40). At 1:50 we hear another idea, one of stability and finality. So there's a tug of war between light-dark, movement and stability. See how the piece keeps moving between the poles..

This highlights why I only listen to classical music; there are worlds within worlds, even in a simple little piece like this, written by a genius while at music school.

Regardless these are just words - don't think about them but listen to the grace and beauty in the notes and the chords - is it sad? is it happy? we don't know.
 

Rocco

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Embarrassingly enough, I've only been exposed to Ravel's Pavane through DJ William Orbit's trance remix. His work is actually how I became acquainted with Samuel Barber (another trance remix of Adagio for Strings). It's high time I went on another Ravel kick... Maybe tomorrow after work.

Oh, and nice writeup, too. I wish I were already familiar with the piece so I could supplement my own impressions with yours. I'm sure your reviews and my familiarity will eventually overlap, heh heh.
 

Architect

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Embarrassingly enough, I've only been exposed to Ravel's Pavane through DJ William Orbit's trance remix. His work is actually how I became acquainted with Samuel Barber (another trance remix of Adagio for Strings). It's high time I went on another Ravel kick... Maybe tomorrow after work.

That's OK, however we get there. Speaking of Bartok maybe I'll get to the Concerto For Orchestra, which I performed in Buda-Pest once. Before building up to that we should start with Mikrokosmos where we can see the worlds that Bartok creates in a microcosm.

When I was there the city was still under communist rule. I remember a huge Russian statue they put on a hill overlooking the city, to commemorate the "liberation" of Buda-pest. We all knew it was bullshit of course. I ducked our guide (spy actually) and walked around the city and found bullet strafes which still hadn't been repaired. At the concert that evening the Hungarians wouldn't stop clapping so we gave them The Star Bangled Banner as an encore which brought the house down.

It wasn't until I met my friend who is also an INTP, who was living in Buda-Pest at the time that I found out why they so much loved the cheek of us playing that. His take on the city was to tell me of affairs he's had, and where. He also shared a site where people put up pictures from old Hungary, from the 1930's.

Life is odd that way.
 

Architect

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Here's a TED talk by MTT, only 20 minutes that will give you an introduction to the wonderful history of music in our Western culture. By the way, I was conducted once by MTT, when he was the 'wandering conductor' before he was famous - he has a powerful personality and understanding of the dramatic.

Michael Tilson Thomas: Music and emotion through time | Video on TED.com

Around 9:30 he talks about the balancing forces in music, playing between our instinct/emotions (Fe) and intelligence (Ti) which could easily be described and viewed in typological terms. Of course we all have intelligence and emotion, but I think for INTP's the two play a special role (and for ISTP's also) as that Ti-Fe dominant-inferior dynamic. This seems to be why music has a special role in my life.
 

QuickTwist

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Here's a TED talk by MTT, only 20 minutes that will give you an introduction to the wonderful history of music in our Western culture. By the way, I was conducted once by MTT, when he was the 'wandering conductor' before he was famous - he has a powerful personality and understanding of the dramatic.

Michael Tilson Thomas: Music and emotion through time | Video on TED.com

Around 9:30 he talks about the balancing forces in music, playing between our instinct/emotions (Fe) and intelligence (Ti) which could easily be described and viewed in typological terms. Of course we all have intelligence and emotion, but I think for INTP's the two play a special role (and for ISTP's also) as that Ti-Fe dominant-inferior dynamic. This seems to be why music has a special role in my life.

Just want to see what video Architect linked.

Also, would like to revive this thread for all things classical music.

I have two pieces I would like to share that I think are fantastic:

 

Polaris

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The Light, by Philip Glass.

A composition commissioned by the Michelson-Morely Centennial Celebration.

SYNOPSIS:
A portrait in music of the scientists Albert A. Michelson and Edward W. Morley and their studies of the velocity of light through their memorable experiments concluded at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 1887.

NOTES:
“The Light” is the first composition of a series of symphonically conceived “portraits of nature”:
“(…) I have described this one-movement work as a portrait. In the past I have written portrait operas – Einstein, Gandhi, Akhnaten are the subjects of the first trilogy. In this case, this is a portrait not only of the two men for whom the experiments are named but also that historical moment heralding the beginning of the modem scientific period”.
— Philip Glass


Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find the entire concert anywhere on youtube, so here is a link to a concert recorded by NRK (Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra):

https://radio.nrk.no/serie/paa-konsert-radio/mkrk07021317/30-03-2017#t=4m4s
 

QuickTwist

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The Light, by Philip Glass.

A composition commissioned by the Michelson-Morely Centennial Celebration.

SYNOPSIS:
A portrait in music of the scientists Albert A. Michelson and Edward W. Morley and their studies of the velocity of light through their memorable experiments concluded at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 1887.

NOTES:
“The Light” is the first composition of a series of symphonically conceived “portraits of nature”:
“(…) I have described this one-movement work as a portrait. In the past I have written portrait operas – Einstein, Gandhi, Akhnaten are the subjects of the first trilogy. In this case, this is a portrait not only of the two men for whom the experiments are named but also that historical moment heralding the beginning of the modem scientific period”.
— Philip Glass


Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find the entire concert anywhere on youtube, so here is a link to a concert recorded by NRK (Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra):

https://radio.nrk.no/serie/paa-konsert-radio/mkrk07021317/30-03-2017#t=4m4s

I am slightly amused at how overpoweringly INTP this is. Thanks for sharing.
 

QuickTwist

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i don't get why any of this music is particularly suited to architects

(i know that doesn't make sense either XD)
 
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