CLASSICAL OPUS no.5

Johannes Sebastian Bach – “Agnus Dei from Mass in B Minor”

ヨハネス・セバスチャン・バッハ – 「アグナス・デイ・イン・ミー・イン・マイナー」

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 6 minutes

This is autumnal messianism by 1000 cuts, wailing subcutaneously at all of life’s regrets.  Bach excels in tetrahedral combination of dextrously crafted coincidences that morph into a seamless, melancholic whole.  The emotional pendulum marks the pivotal element of a Roman Catholic mass, located here in the 24th movement of ‘Mass in B Minor’.

 

MUSIC

 

INFO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_in_B_minor

 

A REFLECTION

Now, O Christ, seal my eyelids

Let ice on my lips be spread

All the hours are superfluous

All the words have been said!

 

Gabriela Mistral: “Ecstasy”

Published in: on December 26, 2018 at 5:51 pm  Leave a Comment  

CLASSICAL OPUS no.8

Johannes Sebastian Bach: “Erbarme Dich, mein Gott, no.39 Matthaeus Passion”

ヨハネス・セバスチャン・バッハ：「「憐れみ給え、わが神よ」、39番マタイ受難曲」

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 8 minutes

The prime aria from the second part of the “Passion” has a contemplative, lilting rhythm framing a rather resigned mood – a proper metaphor for the spiritual traditions of the mainly Jewish audience that Matthew targeted in his Gospels.  Kathleen Ferrier’s classic 1950 recording with von Karajan is a priceless document, but the trimmed down orchestration in the second video is more transparent, with the lamenting violin, comforted by the cello under the organ’s warm eiderdown.

 

MUSIC

 

 

INFO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Matthew_Passion

 

A REFLECTION

Over this your white grave

covered for years, there is a stir

in the air, something uplifting

and, like death, beyond comprehension.

Over this your white grave

oh, mother, can such loving cease?

for all his filial adoration

a prayer:

Give her eternal peace

 

Karol Wojtyła: “Over This Your White Grave”

Published in: on December 23, 2018 at 5:03 pm  Leave a Comment  

CLASSICAL OPUS no.15

Domenico Scarlatti – “Sonata in D Minor k141”

ドメニコ・スカラッティ – 「ソナタのDマイナーk141」

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 3 minutes

This intense rococo carousel of swirling torrents leaves a trail of stubborn aftershocks.  And yet, we crave for more.  Luckily this is only one of this composer’s 555 keyboard sonatas.  Just imagine his lightning harpsichord speed competition with Haendel, the other eminent expatriate of that era.  But while Haendel peddled his fare to England, Scarlatti departed for Portugal.

 

MUSIC

 

INFO

https://www.e-musicmaestro.com/members/resources/view/97

 

A REFLECTION

The startling reality of things

Is my discovery every single day

Everything is what it is

And it’s hard to explain to anyone how much this delights me

And suffices me

 

Fernando Pessoa: “The Startling Reality”

 

Published in: on December 16, 2018 at 5:00 pm  Leave a Comment  

CLASSICAL OPUS no.18

Georg Frideric Haendel: “Sarabande (4th mvmt from Suite in D Minor)”

ゲオルグ・フリードリヒ・ヘンデル：「サラバンデ（第4楽章）スイート・ディ・マイナー」

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 2 minutes

Misanthropic, inertial and ponderous, the fleeting epitaph engraves its farewell lines with elegiac fluency.  This least florid and most forthright of all baroque greats was unparalleled in generating tormented, dramatic harmonies.  In 1975, the intricately interwoven choppiness of this segment was immortalized in Stanley Kubrick’s sunset-lit historical drama, to immense effect.

 

MUSIC

 

INFO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_suite_in_D_minor_(HWV_437)

 

A REFLECTION

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses

your understanding.

Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its

heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the

daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem

less wondrous than your joy;

 

Kahlil Gibran: “On Pain”

Published in: on December 13, 2018 at 5:20 pm  Leave a Comment  

CLASSICAL OPUS no.32

Johannes Sebastian Bach: “Badinerie”

ヨハネス・セバスチャン・バッハ：「バディネリエ」

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 2 minutes

Essentially a jocular dance, this is a showpiece for solo flutists, extracted from Orchestra Suite no.2 in B minor.  A nimble, laconic, scherzo-like structure is however presented with a tempo only suited for the most agile of the courtiers.  Like a childlike, droll pamphlet of grave consequences, it is subverted in the second version by a youthful James Galway.

 

MUSIC

 

 

INFO

https://www.redlandssymphony.com/pieces/suite-no-2-in-b-minor-bwv-1067

 

A REFLECTION

Orpheus with his lute made trees, 

And the mountain tops that freeze, 

Bow themselves when he did sing:

To his music plants and flowers 

Ever sprung; as sun and showers 

There had made a lasting spring. 

 

William Shakespeare: “Orpheus with his Lute Made Trees”

Published in: on November 29, 2018 at 5:16 pm  Leave a Comment  

CLASSICAL OPUS no.44

Henry Purcell: “Rondeau”

ヘンリー・パーセル：「ロンドロー」

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 2 minutes

Centuries before his country modernized rock music with obsessive bass lines, Purcell utilized them in flamboyant court music, here performed with instruments d’époque.  He perfected the art of recurrence, often carrying the pieces to anti-climactic, cathartic aphasia.  His musical heritage dribbles with royal patronage, but England had to wait until the 20th century to become the musical center of the world.  It is then that Purcell’s influence re-emerged, not least for the vintage Michael Nyman (in the second video).

 

MUSIC

 

 

INFO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdelazer

 

A REFLECTION

Busy old fool, unruly Sun,

Why dost thou thus,

Through windows, and through curtains, call on us?

Must to thy motions lovers’ seasons run?

 

John Donne: “The Sun Rising”

Published in: on November 16, 2018 at 12:56 pm  Leave a Comment  

CLASSICAL OPUS no.52

Johannes Sebastian Bach: “Toccata & Fugue in D minor”

ヨハネス・セバスチャン・バッハ：「トッカータ＆フーガ・イン・Dマイナー」

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 8 minutes

This apotheosis of pipe organ’s ferocity is not only stately, aggressive, vivacious or fiery.  It combines interlacing melody lines through Bach’s signature counterpoints, even though this piece appears more linear than most of his famed bequest.  It is, however, invariably virtuosic and improvisatory, with the toccata part substituting for a prelude to the fugue.

 

MUSIC

 

INFO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toccata_and_Fugue_in_D_minor,_BWV_565

 

A REFLECTION

Keenly, without blinking, through pallid, stray

clouds, upon the child in the manger, from far away—

from the depth of the universe, from its opposite end—the star

was looking into the cave. And that was the Father’s stare.

 

Josip Brodsky: “Star of the Nativity”

Published in: on November 8, 2018 at 5:22 pm  Leave a Comment  

CLASSICAL OPUS no.53

Claudio Monteverdi: “Lettera amorosa”

クラウディオ・モンテヴェルディ：「ラブレター」

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 4 minutes

We owe to him the introduction to contrasts in music – texture, timbre and (later) tempo – all with a dose of healthy unpredictability.  While essentially maintaining the structure of a song, the composer sought a wider range of emotional expression, mining the potential of color in vocal rendition.  After all, doesn’t human voice possess more intrinsic emotional quality than any man-made instrument?  Some results may have been inconclusive, others sound ultramodern even today.  Regardless of the final verdict, Monteverdi left behind many resplendent, hallucinatory canticles.

 

MUSIC

 

INFO

https://cappellamediterranea.com/fr/productions/22-monteverdi-a-voce-sola

 

A REFLECTION

I choose to love you in silence

For in silence I find no rejection

I choose to love you in loneliness

For in loneliness

No one owns you but me

 

Rumi: “I Chose to Love You in Silence”

Published in: on November 7, 2018 at 5:51 pm  Leave a Comment  

CLASSICAL OPUS no.61

Antonio Vivaldi: “Winter”

アントニオ・ヴィヴァルディ：「冬 – 協奏曲第4番 イン・マイ・マイナー」

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 10 minutes

The fourth ‘Season’ sparkles with filigrane, intoxicating dose of virtuosity, yet manages to remain both cohesive and lustrous.  It is suffused with onomatopoeic elements – the  rapidity of spine chills competes with the grind of crackly ice.  You have to give the composer credit for making this piece so deceptively free-flowing, despite it being boxed in the ‘slow-fast-slow’ straightjacket of baroque concertos.

 

MUSIC

 

INFO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Four_Seasons_(Vivaldi)

 

A REFLECTION

The winter evening settles down

With smell of steaks in passageways

Six o’clock

The burnt-out ends of smoky days

And now the gusty shower wraps

The grimy scraps

Of withered leaves about your feet

 

T.S. Eliot: “Preludes”

Published in: on October 30, 2018 at 4:55 pm  Leave a Comment  

CLASSICAL OPUS no.68

Jean-Philippe Rameau: “Le rappel des oiseaux”

ジーン・フィリップ・ラモー：「鳥の呼び声」

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 2×3 minutes

We are instantly inebriated with the speed at which these cascades of notes flocculate, pollinate and reinject themselves relentlessly into the advancing theme.  Accused by his compatriots of being ‘italianate’, Rameau subverted with such kamikaze speed the established complexity of gallant productions that prevailed in the grand wig era.  Intriguingly, I find the version for guitar duo much less hectic.  The celebrated, somewhat gritty, earthy transcription for two saxophones (by Goebbels and Harth) falls somewhere in between.

 

MUSIC

 

 

 

INFO

http://thunderswallow.blogspot.com/2015/05/rameau-le-rappel-des-oiseaux.html

 

A REFLECTION

In the same way that a fresh, red rose shows its petals to the sun,

so this female eagle blushed when she heard all this.

She gave no answer, neither a ‘yes’ nor a ‘no’, she was so taken aback, until Nature said:

‘Daughter, there’s nothing to be frightened of, I assure you.’

 

Geoffrey Chaucer: “Parliament of Fowls”

Published in: on October 23, 2018 at 4:51 pm  Leave a Comment  
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