Discuss -

[Dorsetmike]

From a conversation on a radio web site

Composers who write Classical music want to describe a situation in their lives that has affected them.

Is this always so?

If so it makes me wonder what sort of trauma inspired Gorecki's ghastly Symphony of Sorrowful songs?

or what sort of a boring repetitive existence does Einaudi have?

Are they both maybe affected by the present day round of disasters and depression heaped upon us by the "meejah"

Whereas Bach must have had many wonderful experiences and some solemn ones too.

 

[JHC]

I can't go along with that quote where did it come from? modern composers must have had very twisted and dull lives if it is true.

 

[Dorsetmike]

I can't go along with that quote where did it come from? modern composers must have had very twisted and dull lives if it is true.

Hence my comment re Gorecki and Einaudi.

 

[JHC]

Mike who is responsible for the quote?? it seems just a bit childish to me. I think we could rip it apart

 

[musicteach]

Music always tells a story, paints a picture. Now of course, who sees what and what the inspiration to it are, well those are in the eye of the beholder. But the quote is...inaccurate I'd say. Gorecki could have walked through a cemetery, talked to an old fellow, who told him about his Grandfather who served in some war on foreign ground.

 

[JHC]

Music always tells a story, paints a picture. Now of course, who sees what and what the inspiration to it are, well those are in the eye of the beholder

A well known example of this is "Morning mood" from Peer Gynt, when asked what you imagine when hearing this almost every one says a misty morning in the Forest/River/Fjord or to that effect when in fact Greig was depicting sunrise in the Sahara.

 

[Serassi1836]

IMHO the situation depicted in the quote could only refer to Romantic aesthetic. The idea of art, and so music, deeply linked at composer's life and experiences is a romantic one (think at Wordworth: poetry is a spontaneous flow of powerful feelings). On the other hand, think about the symphonic poem: it's a genre which borns in the Romantic national schools. It's a way to describe musically not only a man's but also a nation's experiences. But, in the music aesthetic I accept (which is not the romantic one, but the structurist and classicist one) it can't be true. Bach did not compose a fugue in order to remeber a life experience but to show a technical ability in order to respect structural rules and to experience freedom. The result: Bach's music is absolute, with no time and place, is undoubtly perfect, metaphisically, it speaks with God; Grieg's one refer to experiences but is linked to a specific time, place, man, nation. It is not classic, but only romantic.

 

[Dorsetmike]

Mike who is responsible for the quote?? it seems just a bit childish to me. I think we could rip it apart

It's quoted from the website of a uk classic radio station's web site, they have a section where presenters pose a question or make a comment and invite replies, this question was "What is Classical Music", to my mind a better question would be "what is not clasical music" possibly with a rider such as "that we play on this station" I could go on for pages on that, starting with film music (is it even music?).

 

[JHC]

IMHO the situation depicted in the quote could only refer to Romantic aesthetic. The idea of art, and so music, deeply linked at composer's life and experiences is a romantic one (think at Wordworth: poetry is a spontaneous flow of powerful feelings). On the other hand, think about the symphonic poem: it's a genre which borns in the Romantic national schools. It's a way to describe musically not only a man's but also a nation's experiences. But, in the music aesthetic I accept (which is not the romantic one, but the structurist and classicist one) it can't be true. Bach did not compose a fugue in order to remeber a life experience but to show a technical ability in order to respect structural rules and to experience freedom. The result: Bach's music is absolute, with no time and place, is undoubtly perfect, metaphisically, it speaks with God; Grieg's one refer to experiences but is linked to a specific time, place, man, nation. It is not classic, but only romantic.

I was drafting a reply along the same lines "The Classical Symphony is music for music's sake" but you have put it much more eloquently than I could have.

It's quoted from the website of a uk classic radio station's web site, they have a section where presenters pose a question or make a comment and invite replies,

That explanes it Mike.

 

[Serassi1836]

I was drafting a reply along the same lines "The Classical Symphony is music for music's sake" but you have put it much more eloquently than I could have.

If you want read something about it, then read "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas Hofstader. It talks about music and structure analyzing Bach's Musikalisches Opfer together with Escher's work and Gödel theorems in formal system. Music is so considered a formal system. What "personal experience" is there in a 6 parts Ricercare on that difficult royal theme? This proves the quote is not right (but quarendo invenietis).