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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:
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.
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.