Elizabethan hero, New World colonizer and scorned Jacobean explorer (and alleged traitor)Sir Walter Raleighmet his bloody end on this October day nearly 400 years ago at the dull end of an executioners axe. The much scorned diplomat - once a favorite of England’s Queen Elizabeth I of Tudor fame - would have spent much of the latter half of his life in and out of prison – beginning in 1591, when the newly minted Knight (Elizabeth had bestowed upon him the honor six years previous) had the audacity to wed one of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting in camera, for which the enraged monarch had both the nobleman and his bride holed up in the Tower of London. By the time Elizabeth expired in 1603, the recently released free man had already gotten himself embroiled in a national scandal: his alleged involvement in a plot to overthrow her royal replacement: Elizabeth’s distant cousin, son of the ill-fated Queen of Scotland Mary Stuart,King James VI & I- and place his cousin, Arbella in his stead – a crime for which Sir Raleigh narrowly escaped execution when King James opted to have him imprisoned instead. Once more, the chevalier would find himself forcibly confined within the walls of the Tower of London – this time, for a staggering period of some thirteen years. It would only be after an early release granted by King James in order for the maligned explorer to seek out the legendary "City of Gold" –El Dorado- believed to be located in Spanish-controlled Guyana that Sir Raleigh would come to face the execution block - this time with no hope of a pardon or converted sentence – after the King learned of the explorers' (and his mens) failed exploits: not only had Raleigh neglected to find the mythical city and returned without handfuls of untold riches - the men under his command were accused of having ransacked a Spanish Outpost – a direct violation on the terms of his pardon/release and the nations' Peace Treaty with Spain. Upon his return to England, pressure by the Spanish ambassador on the King of England began to take its toll. Despite James having been informed of Raleigh’s direct command to his men –– to avoid any form of violence on property or person in Guyana (which had fallen on deaf ears - with immediate and disastrousresults: Raleigh’s own son was fatally gunned down during the ransack), the King, in order to maintain peace between both empires, promptly overturned Raleigh’s pardon, re-instating the scorned Knight’s conviction of Treason against England, and had him sent to the chopping block. In the final hours leading up to Sir Raleigh’s execution, the condemned criminal is alleged to have penned a manifesto of sorts, in the form of a poem entitledWhat is our life?Its doleful verses expose the prisoner’s inward struggle to make sense of a life filled with riches, and a legacy ultimately besmirched by tragedy:
“What is our life, our life? A play of passion. Our mirth the music of division. Our mother's wombs the 'tiring houses be, where we are dress'd for this short comedy. Heav'n the judicious sharp spectator is, that sits and marks still who doth act amiss. Our graves, that hide us from the searching sun are like drawn curtains when the play is done. Thus march we, playing to our latest rest; Only we die in earnest, that's no jest."
Sir Walter Raleigh at his execution
What is Our Life? would later be immortalized in the form of a madrigal by the English composerOrlando Gibbons,who, interestingly, was a lifetime member of King James’ Chapel Royal and later organist at Westminster Abbey under the King. Given the close nature of Gibbons relationship with the monarch, and the musicians choice to honor Raleigh in such a persisting manner, one must wonder what words of regret may have been uttered by the King behind closed chamber doors. Whatever James’ personal feelings were for the condemned, whether or not his hand was forced in an effort to maintain some sense of détente with Spain: the end result of Raleigh’s imprisonment, it appears, came as a source of comfort to the crestfallen former hero. After inspecting the sharpness of the (notoriously dull) blade of the axe, Raleigh is said to have remarked to his executioner"This is a sharp medicine, but it is a physician for all diseases and miseries."
It was but a front: all bravery would be lost to the scorned prisoner when he laid his head on the block and cried out:
“At this hour my ague (fever) comes upon me. I would not have my enemies think I quaked from fear…strike, man! Strike!!”
Listen below to Gibbon’s setting of Raleigh’s poem “What is Our Life:” The First Set of Madrigals and Mottets, 1612, no 14:
Unraveling Musical Mythsis proud to presentPART IIof"13 SINISTER SPECIMENS YOU WON'T FIND ON A TYPICAL HALLOWEEN PLAYLIST (BUT YOU SHOULD)"
Let's finish where we left off with a little Shostakovich. Grab your safety blankets, you'll soon be cowering underneath them!
PART II: VII-XIII*
VII. ALLEGRO MOLTO – String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 100 (Mvmt. 2) - Dmitri Shostakovich
This ravenous quartet for strings boasts a back story as frenzied and unsettling as its mania-inducing rapid tempi. Shostakovich’s 8th, the so-called“War Requiem” was composed bearing a heavily burdened and fearful mindset by the 54-year old musician in just three days at Dresden in 1960. Not only had the Soviet composer been recently diagnosed with an incurable affliction of the heart and a motor neuron disease (now known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), Shostakovich was fresh off the heels of joining - with much hesitation - the Communist party of the Soviet Union. The 8th quartet, in particular it’s allegro molto was fashioned by the emotionally overwhelmed composer as an exposé on the brutality and the destructive nature of war. Shostakovich, who dedicated the piece to victims of war and fascism, was said to have become so overwhelmed by memories of wartime, that he buried his face in his hands and openly sobbed upon hearing the work performed for the first time. Led Lebedinsky, a confidante of the composer, would later claim the work to be a manifesto for the composers’ suicide, which Lebedinsky believed was imminent.
It’s time again for another installment of creepy classical music: 13 Frightening works* selected by Unraveling Musical Myths that are guaranteed to set the spine a-shiver thisAll Hallow’s Eve in a segment I am calling
13 SINISTER SPECIMENS YOU WON'T FIND ON A TYPICAL HALLOWEEN PLAYLIST (BUT YOU SHOULD)
*Note from the Author:In the interest of quicker loading times (and due to an injured hand that really should be resting!) I have opted to divide this post into two parts. Part II to follow shortly.
PART I: I-VI
I.MASKED BALL – Jocelyn Pook:
This chilling number written by modern film composer Jocelyn Pook brought the unconventional musician to prominence when it was featured in Stanley Kubrick's 1999 drama,Eyes Wide Shut. It's haunting blend of strings (Pook herself appears on viola) and a seemingly incomprehensible, Satanic-sounding chant is made even more disturbing to the listener when he one realizes what they are actually hearing is a fragment of Orthodox Liturgy - detailing"God's" instructions to his "apprentices"to pray to the Deity for the "peace, salvation...and forgiveness"of mankind's manifold sins, sung by Romanian monks in reverse - strongly suggesting the fall of Babel, and the salvageable man - forever lost in translation as he succumbs to his eternal and convoluted perversions.
This sinister gem is sure to become your next guilty pleasure:
"In my dreams of Heaven, I always see the great Masters
in a huge hall in which they all reside.
Only Mozart has his own suite."
-Victor Borge
Enjoy below Herr Mozart's "heavenly" duettino, Sull'aria(the Letter Duet) from the third act of Le Nozze di Figaro. Performed by Austrian lyric soprano Gundula Janowitz and soprano Edith Mathis of Lucerne under the baton of maestro Karl Böhm:
Attention bibliophiles and classical music aficionados! My review for Hermann Abert's classicW.A. Mozart (Yale version) can now be found in Reviews by Rose. More reviews coming soon.
"There are works that persist through the passage of time... that permeate the dusty sheath that both binds and separates the past from the present. Works that, when filtered through a retrospective lens, continue to maintain the very essence of a divine-like creation, like the building blocks of an intricately complex monument - a world wonder that has existed though the ages. One that sparks generations of inquiry by those drawn to it’s magnificence, to it’s penetrating and majestic force..inspiring countless scholars to remark upon it’s persisting existence.
Marvels such as these command the historian and layman alike to persist in discovering its secrets to longevity, ever eager to teach subsequent generations. The Egyptians have the pyramids. The British have Stonehenge. Germany – and now the English-speaking world - have Hermann Abert’sW.A. Mozart..."
264 years ago today, on October 18, 1752, France would bear witness to what may be arguably described as a Prelude to a Musical Revolution. It would begin at the royal court of King Louis XV of France – it’s chief instigator, the esteemed Swiss-born philosopher and composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His arme de choix: a pandering, self authored pamphlet“Lettre sur la Musique Française” -a churlish treatise against the music of France (of which he contested was in poorly scant supply of anything revelatory), and of it’s musical future (of which he insisted would never come into existence) - not withstanding the“unfit”nature of the French language itself, which the emerging musician found most uncouth for distinguished ears. How odd then, it must have appeared to the King, and later, to the French public, to have been introduced on that fateful autumn day to “Le Devin du Village”* an opera performed in French, and written in French by one of the nations most vocal adversaries, Rousseau himself.
The introduction of Le Devin marked a turning point for 18th century musical France, a nation already in conteste with Italy – chiefly with it’s infiltration on national operatic culture and customs. Reigning King of the tragédie lyrique (the preferred form of musical stage drama for the French), Jean-Philippe Rameau, with his soul-wrenching oeuvre, was made to bear witness to the injection of the customs of the Italians, in the form of Italian burlettas (intermezzi) – light comic relief, performed in the Italian tongue, to balance out the serious nature of French libretti.
French king Louis XV was an early
supporter of Rousseau's composing
endeavors. He famously offered (and
was refused) life-long patronage of the philosopher-cum-composer.
Results were immediate, and public reaction was as hotly divided as it was swift: French opera connoisseurs split into two sects: those who favored the change, and those who rallied against it – sometimes though violence. The public, it seemed, had no choice but to endure the makings of a revolution: the Italian company responsible for the musical interjection had officially received permission in 1752 to use what wiles they possessed to attempt to integrate the two very different formats.
The answer to the question of the philosopher-cum-composer's true musical allegiance that must have plagued members of Louis' royal court would soon be revealed: Rousseau, in a most ingenious fashion (and undeniably spurned on by a raging competitive spirit following the successful run of young Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s comic opera La Serva Padrona – an Italian opera, by an Italian composer, performed by a visiting Italian troupe no less - which had held its premiere in Paris just two months prior to Le Devin’s premiere at Fontainebleau) would present his latest work as a sort of hybrid: designed and touted as an opera for the French, Le Devin would incorporate facets of the Italian opera buffa throughout – most notably in the use of recitative, and in it’s Overture, which employed the Italian style of fast, slow, fast in it's sections. The pandering to French interests on behalf of the composer would be further emphasized by the press, who were quick to point out that the libretto for the opera, written in the country’s native tongue, held the distinction of being the first operatic text to have been written by the composer of the same work. Almost immediately following Le Devin's public premiere, Rousseau's most important musical ally, Jean-Philippe Rameau - who was presently the undisputed king of opera in France - would turn into a rival. Compounding the matter was the fact that, according to Rameau - who had previously corresponded on a semi-frequent basis with the Swiss composer - Rousseau had once expressed through his letters to the Frenchman a showing of espousal to French traditions. The production, then, of Le Devin, using popular Italian styles was undoubtedly viewed by Rameau as the ultimate betrayal. It seemed Rousseau was making enemies in high places.
Public fallout - albeit temporarily - would quickly follow.
Overture of Le Devin, in the Italian Style: Allegro, Lent et gai, Allegro
Rousseau may have thought his machinations infallible - soon however, just as we have seen in the fractured relationship between the two former allies, the operatic newcomer Rousseau’s ‘allegiance’ became inevitably blurred in the eyes and ears of the Parisian melophiles. So heated was the public divide, it has been recorded by contemporary historians in the time of Rousseau that his own orchestradetested not only their maestro’s views on their countrymen, which they considered an attack on France itself – but also, of the composer’s rampant hypocrisy. It is said following a performance of Le Devin, the musicians took to the theater lobby, erecting hastily fashioned gallows,whereupon they proceeded to“burn” the composer in effigy!
"In how severe a strife "Le Devin" was nurtured we may judge from the circumstance of the French orchestral players conspiring - so Gretry tells us - to hang Jean Jacques in effigy. "Well," replied the Swiss, "I don't wonder they should hang me now, after having so long put me to the torture." But the fiddlers built their gallows in vain..."
Today'sBook Review takes us behind the crimsoned veil of the classical music elite, revealing to the reader a vast and sordid demi-monde of debauchery, betrayal and carnal sin - ultimately triumphed by compassion, unyielding kinship and personal sacrifice. Unraveling Musical Myths is proud to introduce to the readerLauren Rico'sdebut novel,Reverie:
You will never hear the Cello Suites in quite the same way again:
"Here, in the darkness, it’s almost as if the cello and I are a single entity. I supplement the instrument’s delicate panels of wood, and tough lengths of gut string with my own flesh, blood, and breath. I inhale every phrase, and my entire body moves in a circular pattern, cello lovingly embraced between my knees. It takes me to places I don’t usually allow myself to go, places buried deep in the back of my mind. My mother lives here, in this place where the music brings me. She’s a young woman, not much older than I am now. I can see her pretty, fair face. She has freckles like me, and a head full of coppery curls. I imagine her leaning over me and tucking me in. She brushes the hair from my forehead and tells me to have sweet dreams. But they are not sweet at all. As my bow slices across the strings, I hear her and my father yelling through the night. I dig into the Bach harder, recalling the crash of objects hurled and the smack of a hand on someone’s face. Whose? I don’t know. My fingers move frantically now, recklessly. The music could break apart and shatter in an instant. But it doesn’t. It slows and begins the lament. The crying. Her tears. There it is. He slapped her, this time. The cello is a wordless voice, heaving and sighing with the weight of her sorrow. The bow carries my fear with it as it swings to each string in turn. They are so volatile. They cannot hold our fragile life together. It just spirals out of control, picking up speed again, until it reaches a fever pitch. Without warning, my hand slips across the D string, lurching forward and sending my bow flying across the room. It hits the floor with a sickening ‘thwack,’ returning me instantly to the tiny, pitch - black room in which I have lost myself once again.”
-Reverie, Lauren E. Rico, pp. 10-11
Bach’s famously haunting Prelude, much akin to it’s namesake, foretells of the cornucopia of raw emotions to come in author and SiriusXM radio host Lauren Rico’s debut novel “Reverie:” a soul-wrenching blend of hope, despair, passion, vitriol, tragedy and ultimately triumph over seemingly unshakable obstacles that sees our heroine Julia James free herself from the harrowing and confining shackles of abuse. Reverie’sis a dialogue all too common in modern society – James’ tragic story reads like a discourse on the mental and physical ramifications of years of generational abuse and shines a bright spotlight onto the torturous practice of “gas lighting:”a many-tiered form of emotional exploitation that sees it’s victim subjected to a systematic and lengthy process of forced memory distortion by a trusted and loved assailant, ultimately leading to the ‘patient’ (or in this instance, the ‘case subject’) questioning his or her own memory – and, in the ultimate coup de grâce for the abuser – leaving the victim questioning his or her own perception of abuse. Told in present time (with allusions to the protagonist’s past), Reverie takes us painstakingly through the private lives of budding master musicians, revealing the grit behind the "pomp," and the reality behind the "circumstance" of the perceived perfectionism commonly associated with classical music and with that of it’s practitioners, blending seamlessly the steadfast dedication and passion of rising within elite musical ranks and within social and intimately personal ones – revealing most expertly the fragility of man at his most vulnerable, and the unshakeable ability for the human soul to continue to seek love and triumph over any obstacle. James' story is a story for the mind, an exultation for the soul, and a powerful testament to mental health. A remarkable debut from an equally musically inclined author: Reverieis officially Rico’s first opus, and this review is simply raving!
It’s time for another installment ofMAYHEM BEHIND THE MUSIC: TRIVIA EDITION! Feat.Did you Know?
Today’s entry features an amusing cornucopia of insanity – from Antonio Vivaldi’s delightfully charming perfectionism to the violent wiles of a homophobic King who was literallylosing his mind, with a sprinkling of Beethoven’sinfamous rage (this time unleashed upon a member of the press) and a dash of racism to boot. This may just be the mostscandalousinstallment of MAYHEM yet!
We begin in Italy:
Did You Know?
…that the much belovedFour Seasons concerti (thought to be the world’s first tone poem collection), with it’s famously frenzied violin work, carried with it much in the way of performance instruction of the most humorous nature?
Italian baroque composerAntonio Vivaldiincluded alongside his score for the catchy work highly descriptive instructions for each movement, including directions for the viola to embody the sound of the composers“most faithful dog barking”in the second movement of“Spring,”and, as for the Adagio Molto in“Autumn?”why, that was to represent“drunkards who had fallen asleep”after a morning of getting hammered alongside their fellow peasants at a harvest celebration.
Vivaldi, clearly catering to class perception of the time, notes in an additional accompanying sonnet for the concerto (there were sonnets for each of them - which the composer likely wrote himself):
“The cup of Bacchus[1] flows freely”
Celebrating the Fall season with Antonio Vivaldi’s L’autunno (Autumn): Concerto No. 3 in F major, Op. 8, RV 293 with Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante:
October 2, 2016, marks the 63rd annual observance of late Danish/American comic musicianVictor Borge’s(real nameBørge Rosenbaum) inaugural performance of “Comedy in Music,”the one-man Broadway act featuring“The Clown Prince of Denmark”himself, which opened to American audiences at New York’s John Golden Theatre on this day in 1953, becoming“the longest running one-man show in the history of theater with 849 performances by the time it closed on January 21, 1956”[1]earning it a coveted spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. To mark the occasion, Unraveling Musical Myths nominates asalbum of the montha recording of the act, as found on YouTube. The video below features such quotable worthy and delightful gems as:
“and now for the numbers: one is Clair de lune, and the other one... isn’t." "Clair de lune... English translation: 'Clear the Saloon!' ”
and humorous ascriptions to members of JS Bach’senormous family (the virile master of the baroque and his wives were notoriously fertile, giving life to some twenty offspring):
Whilst in between many a storied (and compulsively interrupted) performances at the piano, the Clown Prince takes to endearing his audience with his very own historical expertise of composers past, through the use of highly informative biographical sound bytes, which Borge delivers to his unassuming audience with all of the - er...finesse - of a most learned musical historian:
"and now Brahms
- Joey Brahms! -
...spelled backwards Smharb!"
"Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky: ... Pete was born in Votkinsk, May 7th, 1840. When he was a little boy, he never played out in the streets of Votkinsk like the other little children of Votkinsk …because when Tchaikovsky was one month old his parents moved to St. Petersburg!"
The video: Comedy in Music, as performed by Victor Borge, in two parts:
A legend has sadly passed: Sir Neville Marriner, British conductor and Founder / President of the illustrious chamber orchestra known as the Academy of St Martin in the Fields quietly left this musical sphere in the somnolent hours of Sunday October 2, 2016 at his home in London at the advanced age of 92 years. Marriner, arguably one of the most important and influential conductors of the present generation, began a most notable musical career as violinist for the LSO immediately following the outbreak ofWWII –a turbulent period in which the then 17-year-old Lincoln native briefly left his studies at the Royal College of Music in London to serve in a reconnaissance role in the British Army before returning to the college and eventually to the much esteemed Paris Conservatoire to continue his studies in 1943 following injuries sustained whilst serving. By 1958 Marriner had founded the Academy of St Martin in the Fields,a historically informed Chamber Orchestra - originally envisioned for performing and recording the baroque repertoire – to substantial critical acclaim. The musician-turned-conductor Neville Marriner would become Sir Neville in 1985 after he was officiallyKnightedfor his service to music. Coincidentally, the honor bestowed to the newly inducted chevalier came just one year after the release of the smash-hit period-piece Amadeus – an American drama film based on British playwright Peter Shaffer’s 1979 stage play of the same name which set to the movie screen an account of the mythical legend of the Mozart-Salieriliaison dangereuse. It would be through this most excellent and highly entertaining quasi-biopic that thousands of newcomers to the world of Classical Music would become introduced to composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri - and indeed the art form of Classical Music and Opera itself - though Sir Neville’s most enduring contribution to the film’ssoundtrack: one was almost guaranteed to come away from the film humming a newly familiar tune – sparking a further interest into music's most fascinating genre. As Classical Music fans, we are forever indebted to his service. “It is miraculous:”
After nearly two centuries of query, search and indefatigable hope, the second of Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated vessels, the HMS Terror has been found in a Nunavut Bay (appropriately named "Terror Bay") some 92 km South of it’s long assumed burial site (believed to have been somewhere under the frigid waters of King William Island and Victoria Island in Canada’s Arctic Archipelago) by private charitable organization The Arctic Research Foundation.
The historic find comes just two years after it’s sister ship, the HMS Erebus was located in Canadian waters on the second of September 2014 by a Parks Canada team headed by Ryan Harris and Marc-André Bernier as part of the nation’s effort “to reinforce Canada's claims regarding sovereignty over large portions of the Arctic.”[1] The present find, and that of the HMS Erebus in 2014 has huge implications in the annals of both Canadian and British history (Franklin was English) and the modern interpretation of Franklin’s doomed route across the frigid waters of the Great White North that had led the Naval Officer to pursue a brave effort to smash though (i.e. to complete) a crossing of the Northwest Passage.
The Expedition Entering Baffin Bay in Search of John Franklin
- Stuart Henry Bell, 1850.
The Erebus, commanded by James Fitzjames under Sir John Franklin, and the Terror, by fellow British Naval Officer Francis Crozier (also under Franklin), failed to achieve it’s mission when both vessels famously became ensconced in the unforgiving icy waters of the Canadian North, forcing crews (some 105 remaining explorers of an original crew of 129) to navigate on foot – braving harsh weather, fatigue and starvation – perhaps even succumbing to cannibalism in a brazen attempt to survive – as they unsuccessfully sought out a trading post via the Back River, many hundreds of miles to the South. All men would succumb to the elements, exhaustion and disease (pneumonia and tuberculosis); the unforeseen divergence had already taxed the rationed supply of food, giving way to scurvy. 20th century expeditions to retrace Franklin’s mission led by Canadian anthropologist Owen Beattie in the 1980’s would also reveal certain crew members had suffered the pain and psychosis brought about by botulism – courtesy of poorly sealed tin cans laced with the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, and lead poisoning - the key ingredient used to solder the poorly sealed cans. The precise location of each wreck – kept under lock and seal for preservation and to avoid looting – has been designated a National Historic Site of Canada, thus granting the country a further stronghold over disputable autonomous regions in the North.
Learn more about the historic discovery and the “pristine” condition of the Terror (includes exciting footage of the wreck!) by viewing the news segment below and by perusing the links that follow:
What a time to be alive! I was just but 10 years old when I first ‘discovered’ the ill-fated tale of the doomed Franklin Expedition. There I was: a little girl-bibliophile, enthusiastically perusing the latest Scholastic inventory when I stumbled upon the synopsis for Owen Beattie’s “Buried in Ice: The Mystery of a Lost Arctic Expedition.”
John Torrington, discovered by Beattie's team in 1984.
Noble men, a brave endeavor, man’s perseverance, and his fragility – inpioneering, camaraderie, disease, tragedy – death – what was not to love?I set my eyes on the frozen cadaver ofJohn Torrington– inset on the book’s cover – grim, perhaps – fascinating – you bet! There Torrington lay, perfectly preserved in his blue striped tunic, his expression denoting a peaceful oblivion spent submerged under frigid waters –Canada’swaters – MY waters – and I knew right then and there, I was to be a student of history - and the fate of this man and that of his comrades has both mesmerized and fascinated me ever since.
But it didn't stop there. Beattie’s ‘expedition’ piqued my curiosity far beyond a mere historical aspect asI became navigator, peeling through page after page – only to close the back flap and start once more from the beginning. I would come across the cadavers ofshipmatesJohn Hartnelland William Braine– both in equally pristine condition, and I began to marvel at the preservation of man and the persistence of nature, even long after death. As I read about scurvy and the rat infestation that had plagued both ships, it became immediately clear to me that when pressed and taxed to the utmost extreme, the human body – engendered by an emboldened spirit – could be quite capable of superhuman strength, and astonishing ability. Somewhere along the way, my interests in history, anatomy and remarkable human feat would bring me into the realm of classical music and opera – not just through the shared enormous physical and emotional effort it requires, but via it’s equally rich history: it’s association with Kings and Conquerors, it’s presence in times of war and times of détente, it’s dogged quest for Nationalism, recognition, remembrance – and above all, for it’s ingenuity, it’s perseverance over generations past, and the richly rewarding future it’s history will bestow upon generations to come. With the Erebus, and now the Terror, once more laying claim to our collective conscience, I am reminded of the spirit of those brave men, who, much like personal favorite composers like Wagner and Mozart, courageously sought dominance over uncharted waters – and who, while preternaturally meeting an untimely and most unfortunate demise – have absolutelyconqueredthough the eyes of posterity.
What a truly prosperous day for Canada and the Commonwealth!
Today's Quote of the Dayis perfectly suited for capturing the essence of this proud historical event, and comes to us courtesy of Edvard Grieg.* Celebrate the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror with a recording of the lustrous Solveig’s Sang - incidental music penned by the composer for Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's 1867 play Peer Gynt. (Barbara Bonney Soprano):
“The winter may pass and the spring disappear
The summer too will vanish and then the year
But this I know for certain: you'll come back again
And even as I promised you'll find me waiting then...”
- *text by Henrik Ibsen. From Solveig's Sang (Song), Peer Gynt, Edvard Grieg
...then Decca Classics and Deutsche Grammophon have just the gift for you! The iconic classical record labels have partnered with the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation to release what the foundation calls"the most authoritative, complete and scholarly box set ever devoted to the work of a single composer."
Slated to be released Friday October 28th, 2016, the 200-CD box set (which comes complete with "autographs" - copies of the maestro's famous works as they were handwritten on paper - and two "lavishly illustrated"hardcover books - including a long-awaited new biography on the Salzburg Wonder authored by leading Mozart Scholar Cliff Eisen of King's College London) arrives just five and a half weeks ahead of the 225th annual observation of the famed Austrian's untimely demise at the tender age of 35 at Vienna (after a period of ultimately fatal physical decline from a still undiagnosed, highly speculative illness). The iconic musician died the 5th of December, 1791. The set promises a fully updatedKöchelcatalogue and modern performances featuring the latest Mozart-related discoveries, including a recording of the composer's K.477a solo cantata"Per la Ricuperata Salute di Ofelia"- a work only discovered in 2015, which, much to the astonishment of Mozart-Salieri conspiracy theorists around the globe, featured a collaboration between the two famous "frenemies" (listen to the cantata/learn about this exciting discovery here on unraveling musical myths) alongside"600 world-class soloists and 60 orchestras." Perhaps most exciting to fellow Mozart enthusiasts are 5 solid hours of new recordings featuring the use of the Mozart's personal instruments: his violin, fortepiano and viola - currently preserved on display at the Mozarteum (check them out here).
Dubbed "W.A. Mozart 225 - The Complete Edition,"this massive box set (which also incorporates latest technology in the form of a so-named"libretto app"featuring full texts and translations) is the perfect gift for the non-discerning listener who wishes to have in his or her possession the illustrious maestro'sfully updated oeuvre. Those curious can preview artist/orchestra selections on the foundation's website by clicking here: MOZART 225
Teaser below(prepare yourself for possible drooling):
Footnotes:
*Approximate value after taxes (Canada). As of August 30, 2016, Amazon's current pre-order price in Canada is $524.36 before taxes and $479.36 in the U.S.A, also before tax. The lowest price for the U.K. I could find on Amazon was £300.50. Do check prices often on this product - I have seen the price fluctuate in Canada from as low as $524 to as high as $700 dollars.
Learn more about the Mozart 225 box set on Youtube.
A young Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe. The previously unknown
writer was only 23 when he sat to
pen The Sorrows of Young Werther.
August’s aria of the month goes to 19th century romantic composer Jules Massenet’s“Pourquoi me Réveiller” (Why do you wake me) from the Frenchman’s 1892 opera Werther, a drame lyrique loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s highly influential (and remarkably controversial at the time of publication) epistolary novel Die Leiden des jungen Werther (“The Sorrows of Young Werther” – henceforth referred to as “Werther”), and has been selected in honor of Goethe’s 267th birthday – which is observed in literary Germany – and indeed around the globe, on this day - Sunday August 28th, 2016. Goethe, Germany’s answer to Britain’s Shakespeare, Italy’sDante, and Spain’s Cervantes remains a giant in the literary sphere. Most commonly identified in the English-speaking world as the author of the groundbreaking tragic play Faust,[1] it was actually through the publication of his 1774 semi-autobiographical epistolary Werther that the young German would burst onto the international literary scene, catapulting the 24 year old writer into an overnight sensation and securing his status as a leading influential cultural icon.[2]
Das Leiden des Jungen Werther, first edition, 1774.
The novel is composed in the form of a series of “letters” between the fictional Werther (whose character was in fact loosely based on Goethe himself), a young artist of meager pretensions, and his confidante, Wilhelm, in which the love struck romantic rhapsodizes and despairs over the unrequited affections of one Charlotte – a young maiden affianced to Albert – a man eleven years her senior, and the unyielding object of frustration for the novel’s protagonist - consistently driving young Werther to distraction. Both the characters and story line ofWertherhad roots in the real life of the works’ author: Goethe did indeed fall hopelessly in love with an attached woman – also named Charlotte (Buff) – a hopeful romance which proved most unfruitful when the object of his desire exchanged nuptials with fiancée Johann Christian Kestner, officially excising herself from the singles club. It would be from this very painful experience that the then-23 year old unknown writer would pen his frustrations in the form of art – completing Wertherin a relatively short span of just six weeks.
The real Charlotte (Buff-Kestner).
It was she who was the inspiration
for Die Leiden des Jungen Werther
Wertherwould draw as much criticism as it would praise from Goethe's intellectual peers and the greater public – Napoleon Bonaparte would famously carry with him a copy of the novel whilst campaigning in Egypt, and had even penned a soliloquy wholly inspired by it’s author. Male readers across Europe would don themselves in attire reminiscent of the book’s nominal figure, Werther, in a bizarre display of presenting themselves before prospective mates of the female persuasion as sensitive, romantic figures (so prevalent was this new trend, it even had a name: locals dubbed the phenomenon“Werther Fever”). Goethe himself, however – would notoriously distance himself from the epic work in his later years – listing amongst his many grievances for the novel it’s cultural impact on unstable young men – many of whom acted out in real life the dramatic scenes penned by the author at the conclusion of the novel: swarms of scorned Romeos would take to Germany, committing suicide by self-inflicted gunshot to the head in what they must have believed was the grandest of romantic gestures, in a display of penance for their failed attempts at marital bliss. Goethe would also later claim much guilt for drawing unsolicited attention to the real Charlotte Buff. The rising body count that tolled as a direct result of Goethe’s magnum opus led toWerther– and the character’s style of dress – being banned in Leipzig by 1775, with both Italy and Denmark quickly following suit.
In the video below, Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti, accompanied by the Munich Radio Orchestra under maestro Emerson Buckley performs Massenet’s rendition of Goethe’s Werther in the act 3 aria “Pourquoi me Réveiller,” in which the character of Werther reads to his beloved Charlotte poetry from Ossian. This is an important aria in Massenet’s opera, as it is here that Werther realizes, much to his dismay, that Charlotte does indeed share his feelings of love, but that she is forbidden to act on them due to her marriage to Albert. After an all-too-brief embrace, the two depart: Charlotte, presumably to carry on with her new station as a wife, and Werther – to begin preparations for his impending death.
So acclaimed was Goethe’s version of the legend of Faust and Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, that both writers would inadvertently become synonymous with the famous works, and are often erroneously identified as the originators of the fables.
[2]The successes of Goethe’s Werther and Faust thrust the writer not only into the exclusive realm of the literary elite, but also certified the playwright as a go-to source for libretti. His poetic verses would be interpreted well across the classical music sphere, from Beethoven to Brahms,Liszt to Schubert,Schumann to Wolf – and his famous tragic play Faust would be interpreted in many a format, from opera to oratorio under such prolific composers as Berlioz,Boito,Gounod,Mahler and the aforementioned Liszt, Schubert and Schumann. Music from Liszt’s Faust Symphony was recently used in the late 20th century in a revival of Kenneth MacMillan’s Royal Ballet production Mayerling.
Did you know?
..that aside from his most gratuitous foray into the realm of authorship, the polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe remains a pivotal figure in the history of medicine?
Goethe, as he would have appeared around the time of his discovery.
In fact, Goethe may be considered a pioneer of the Theory of Evolution. Although current research reveals a discovery in 1779 of the ever elusive “intermaxillary bone”(a bone found in the upper jaw of amphibians, reptiles and mammals, previously thought to be absent in humans by contemporary theologians) by the French naturalist Pierre Broussonet,a perhaps unsuspecting Goethe would bring the discovery to light – a discovery he believed to have been his own – in March of 1784, writing to his confidante Johann Heinrich Merck:
“I have found neither gold nor silver, but something that unspeakably delights me—the human Os intermaxillary! I was comparing human and animal skulls…hit up the right track, and behold—Eureka! Only, I beg of you, not a word—for this must be a great secret for the present. You ought to be very much delighted too, for it is like the keystone to anthropology—and it’s there, no mistake!...”
Although Goethe took his findings to mean that there existed no distinction whatsoever between man and apes, the landmark discovery would become key evidence for leading Evolutionists around the globe. Until Goethe made his announcement, the prevailing theory on the concept of evolution was one based on the Divine Creation Theory. When a Dutch physician – a man of science – living in the mid 18th century announced his findings that what separated man from the apes was the“missing intermaxillary bone”in man – present in almost all other species, the theory of Divine Creation had all but become law. Although Goethe may or may not have been aware of Broussonet’s finding 5 years earlier (in an age of religion, it would certainly not be thought infeasible that the Frenchman’s findings would have found themselves suppressed by a highly influential Theocratic society), the author's ignorance of the discovery, through the ever revealing bright light of posterity, should be received with some circumspection: this was, after all, the same man who once claimed to have been in possession of the heisted skulls of Beethoven and Mozart - not to mention fellow playwright Friedrich Schiller! The American Journal of Medical Genetics has a fascinating treatise on Goethe's "Eureka!" moment, with an in-depth analysis of the polymath's 'working' history in the study of craniology and boasts a wealth of diagrams, sketches and images on the subject. It can be found here.
Read more about Goethe’s “discovery,” and the crude machinations of Merck, former confidante and proposed intermediary selected by the playwright to present his findings to the revered anatomist Petrus Camper – and discover a possible link between his foe’s duplicity and the character of the devil himself that would come to dominate the German literary scene as Faust’s ally-turned-nemesisMephistopheles! (at US National Library of Medicine)
Read an English translation of Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther" (at Project Gutenberg)
