music

[Hobbit]

Oh Les what a simply brilliant story   Made me laugh and brought a lump to my throat at the same time.

[guiltypleasure]

Les, you are such a crack up.  Won't be long till your nephew turns 40.  Could you do a revival performance perhaps?

[a non-amos]

I guess I have a question for the crowd.

I am told that a specific Beethoven tune was inspired by a Bach tune.  We are working on that same Bach tune.

Would it be horribly wrong to interrupt the Bach for an interlude of Beethoven?

Quite frankly, I cannot play this Bach piece without also hearing the Beethoven in my mind.

- A

[mkenuk]

Just my humble opinion. for what it's worth.

I think, at least unconsciously, you already know the answer to your own question by your use of the word 'interrupted' and by your use of the modifier 'horribly' in 'horribly wrong'. This suggests to me that you know that it would be 'wrong' but are just not quite sure of the degree of wrongness! 

What justification can there be for 'interrupting' a performance of a piece of music?
Great music deserves to be played and heard, by the audience, as the composer wrote it and intended it to be listened to. 

If I were a member of the audience at a performance of any kind of music, but especially of classical music, I would be extremely annoyed to have part of the performance 'interrupted' like this.

If indeed the two pieces are related, by all means play them both, but consecutively - the Beethoven first, as a prelude to the Bach, after telling the audience about the connection. If you have a programme, include a note to this effect in there too.

MK

[rogue_mother]

Would it be horribly wrong to interrupt the Bach for an interlude of Beethoven?

A, I would think that it depends on the Beethoven and the Bach. It seems to me that the Beethoven could be inserted as a cadenza if it is not too bizarrely different than the Bach. The nature of the melody would have to govern here, as well as how seamlessly the two pieces could be melded. Simplicity would be key as regards the Beethoven.

[TRex]

Great music deserves to be played and heard, by the audience, as the composer wrote it and intended it to be listened to.

That, my dear sir, is an enormously controversial topic amongst classically-trained musicians. At one extreme of the opinions, musicians are expected to take zero liberties, reproducing exactly what the composer has dictated in the score. The other extreme is that musicians are creatively active in the reproduction of the music and expected to put their own interpretation into the result, freely deviating from that which is written.

My favourite example is the finale to Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, especially the last section. I have one recording which gets to the last section 10:45 after the movement begins and concludes at 12:18 (93 seconds) and another recording which gets to the last section 8:08 after the movement begins and concludes at 8:50 (42 seconds). That's a huge difference. (The faster is conducted by L. Bernstein who was rather infamous for fast tempi.)

Expectations have also changed over time. Music of the Baroque period (which includes J. S. Bach) was considered a starting point for musicians who were expected to add embellishments to the music (failure to do so was regarded as unmusical).

[a non-amos]

Dear MK,

I did not mean an abrupt interruption.  If it works as planned, it would slide seamlessly from one tune into the other and then back to the first.  I completely agree that abrupt starts and stops would ruin the enjoyment of both tunes.

Dear TR,

Your response is very much in the spirit of the question I was trying to ask.  Many purists might take offense at this melding.

In my book, the classics are still alive and well.  They are not dead archives moldering away only to collect dust.  We need to adopt them, take them to heart, and let them bloom.  That also implies that they can be interpreted by modern eyes.  This does not equal disrespect; the ultimate disrespect would be to let them molder and collect dust.  My opinion.

Dear RM,

These are not bizarrely different.  Some research has shown that the Beethoven might have been inspired by the Bach.  These tunes go hand in hand; that is why I cannot play the Bach without also imagining the Beethoven.

I must also admit that researching the history of the tunes we play has also been delightful.  These tidbits of knowledge also give me something to chatter about if and when Sue needs to retune the guitar.  Dead air time is, well, I guess, deadly?

We will give it a try, with no guarantees.  It might not work.

[a non-amos]

Egads, this is terrible.  It seems that although I can smoke a regional music festival and then smoke a national music festival, I cannot book a local gig for our Irish band to play on Saint Patrick's Day.  Our local parade and celebration is tomorrow.

This is a major black mark on my record as a leader.  If I can't even do that, what good am I as a leader?

I resolved to do better.  I made some new contacts.  When 3 doors close, 12 new doors open.  I guess we will see how many of the new doors lead to ladies or tigers.

This evening I discovered a possible reason we had been turned down for recent performances.  Rather than making a demo disc, we posted some music on a web site.  The web hosting service failed to renew our domain name, so nobody could download music.

This sounds dreadful, but might work out better in the end.  I am hoping that some of those 12 doors don't have tigers.

- A

[pat]

Smoke?

[a non-amos]

Dear Pat,

This is similar to "dusted" in other posts.  I left them behind in my dust, or I left them behind in my exhaust fumes and/or the smoke from my tires.

As mentioned before, a more accurate statement would be that I smoked most of the people there but not all of them.  This was not just an opportunity to show off; I learned much and also taught a bit. 

No, they did not expect a first time newbie to teach, but they got over it.  I tried to represent Roanoke well.  I had to.  I made a promise to a dear friend.

[pat]

An interesting 'across the pond' difference in expressions. Over there, your expression of leaving someone in the smoke or dust implies that the impresser is roaring away leaving the impressee stranded. We tend to use the expression of blowing someone away, where the impresser remains stationary but the impressee disappears. I think you once used a similar expression to ours when you described the impressiveness of one of your performances as blowing people back in their chairs.

[a non-amos]

Pat, this is a delightful topic.  We could spend much time in comparing the differences in basic word definitions (what do you mean by "bloody") and general usage (a few years ago in the UK I was in a train with a few young drunkards calling each other muppets.  I had to ask what they meant, and they were most gentlemanly in explaining it.  They were rude to each other but polite and generous to the foreign guest).

On this side of the pond many of our analogies equate going further with going farther (or faster).  Also, many of our metaphors are centered about motorcars.

Getting back to the topic of music, this has also helped me in my profession.  Public performance of music has helped me not have the same degree of fear of public speaking and has helped me deal with what anxiety remains.  More recently, voice lessons seem to have made me a better speaker.

The band gigs will come.  I have made new contacts and will continue to do so.  I had been a bit dispirited and angry with myself, but that is no reason to give up hope; this is the time to do better.

- A