O Mensch! gib Acht!
Aug. 23rd, 2007 03:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pallas_athenaI realise a lot of my recent posts have been along the lines of went to see something arty and responded to it on a deep and personal level, look how cultured I am, wooooo so if I'm going to do yet more artblogging today, I should start with a confession: I struggle with classical music that doesn't involve voices.
In particular, I struggle with the symphony. I know they're a benchmark for true greatness in a composer, that they're the major landmarks of Western classical music, etc etc-- but all the same, symphonies often leave me cold. Especially Mahler, who must have been on symphonic Viagra or something: his symphonies are HUGE and last for HOURS. I made a last-minute decision to go hear Mahler 3 at the Proms last night with some friends: you know it's a Mahler symphony when there's so much percussion onstage there's no room for the choir. Seriously: two sets of kettledrums, three sets of cymbals, tubular bells, a gong... I've been doing so much Classical lately I'd forgotten about the late-nineteenth-century tendency to stuff the orchestra with all the weird-ass instruments in the universe. Two harps! A genetically-modified supertuba! Piccolos, for God's sake!
As the lights went down our hurried conversation went like this:
"I've forgotten which one Mahler 3 is!"
"It's the one about death and resurrection!"
"They're ALL about death and resurrection!
"Is it the one with the offstage trumpet?"
"No, it's a posthorn..."
"They've ALL got offstage brass!"
"I think it's got a posthorn... and a mezzo singing extracts from Thus Spake Zarathustra and a boys' choir going 'bing bong'!"
(Lights go on in my brain) "Oh! I think I've sung this..."
(As it turns out, I should just have checked Wikipedia. All kinds of useful information there: orchestral forces, silly movement titles, sung text and the fact that the offstage posthorn solo is usually played on a flugelhorn. A B flat flugelhorn, in case you were wondering.)
I had indeed sung in the chorus of a Mahler 3 at university, but that rendition was nothing to this. It was sublime, transcendent. Maybe it was the week I've been having, but an hour and a half of Mahler turned out to be just what I needed. Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra played brilliantly, the maestro often keeping that huge number of players balanced on the finest pianissimo imaginable. It was fresh and exhilarating, and never strayed into bombast. In the last movement, I suddenly noticed that none of the singers were using music: not the boys' choir, not the women's choir, not even the soloist. It was all being sung from memory, which is very rare for a concert of that kind.
I admit my feet were going numb towards the end-- there's only so much transcendence a girl can take. Still, today the angst that's been haunting me all week is mostly gone, so I probably owe a thank-you to old Gustav for that. Maybe I'll get out a few of his songs once I stop LJing and actually get around to doing some practice, which I really ought to do right now. Hope you're all having fun, and see you soon!
In particular, I struggle with the symphony. I know they're a benchmark for true greatness in a composer, that they're the major landmarks of Western classical music, etc etc-- but all the same, symphonies often leave me cold. Especially Mahler, who must have been on symphonic Viagra or something: his symphonies are HUGE and last for HOURS. I made a last-minute decision to go hear Mahler 3 at the Proms last night with some friends: you know it's a Mahler symphony when there's so much percussion onstage there's no room for the choir. Seriously: two sets of kettledrums, three sets of cymbals, tubular bells, a gong... I've been doing so much Classical lately I'd forgotten about the late-nineteenth-century tendency to stuff the orchestra with all the weird-ass instruments in the universe. Two harps! A genetically-modified supertuba! Piccolos, for God's sake!
As the lights went down our hurried conversation went like this:
"I've forgotten which one Mahler 3 is!"
"It's the one about death and resurrection!"
"They're ALL about death and resurrection!
"Is it the one with the offstage trumpet?"
"No, it's a posthorn..."
"They've ALL got offstage brass!"
"I think it's got a posthorn... and a mezzo singing extracts from Thus Spake Zarathustra and a boys' choir going 'bing bong'!"
(Lights go on in my brain) "Oh! I think I've sung this..."
(As it turns out, I should just have checked Wikipedia. All kinds of useful information there: orchestral forces, silly movement titles, sung text and the fact that the offstage posthorn solo is usually played on a flugelhorn. A B flat flugelhorn, in case you were wondering.)
I had indeed sung in the chorus of a Mahler 3 at university, but that rendition was nothing to this. It was sublime, transcendent. Maybe it was the week I've been having, but an hour and a half of Mahler turned out to be just what I needed. Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra played brilliantly, the maestro often keeping that huge number of players balanced on the finest pianissimo imaginable. It was fresh and exhilarating, and never strayed into bombast. In the last movement, I suddenly noticed that none of the singers were using music: not the boys' choir, not the women's choir, not even the soloist. It was all being sung from memory, which is very rare for a concert of that kind.
I admit my feet were going numb towards the end-- there's only so much transcendence a girl can take. Still, today the angst that's been haunting me all week is mostly gone, so I probably owe a thank-you to old Gustav for that. Maybe I'll get out a few of his songs once I stop LJing and actually get around to doing some practice, which I really ought to do right now. Hope you're all having fun, and see you soon!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2007-08-23 05:25 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2007-08-23 09:29 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2007-08-23 08:20 pm (UTC)Bing Bong?! Do they really sing that? Wow. I should go to one of these things some day...
no subject
on 2007-08-23 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2007-08-23 10:47 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2007-08-24 10:24 am (UTC)no subject
on 2007-08-24 07:13 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2007-08-24 08:46 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2007-08-24 11:20 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2007-08-25 02:47 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2007-08-24 05:19 pm (UTC)"It's the one about death and resurrection!"
"They're ALL about death and resurrection!
"Is it the one with the offstage trumpet?"
"No, it's a posthorn..."
"They've ALL got offstage brass!"
"I think it's got a posthorn... and a mezzo singing extracts from Thus Spake Zarathustra and a boys' choir going 'bing bong'!"
(Lights go on in my brain) "Oh! I think I've sung this..."
HAHAHAH! omg, -every- conversation i've ever had regarding a mahler symphony has gone like this :D
no subject
on 2007-08-24 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2007-08-25 09:14 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2007-08-26 12:41 am (UTC)