Setting Poetry to Music

Classical Principle Weekly

August 8, 2023

Setting Poetry to Music

The wellspring of creativity for many classical composers lies in their settings of poetry. Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms used poetry to inspire much larger pieces. We are not talking about modern blank verse which lacks musicality and is often no more than prose, but poetry that uses the musical qualities of language, such as rhythm, meter, and rhyme (known collectively as prosody) to communicate ideas and metaphor in a way that cannot be achieved simply by the literal meaning of words.

Here, for example, is a fine Shakespearean actor, the late William Hutt, demonstrating how Shakespeare can convey an image more through the musicality of the poetry than the literal meaning of the words.

https://youtu.be/QZbrFlclp74

Jose Marti (1853–1895) is Cuba's National hero. He led the 1895 revolution to free Cuba from Spanish colonial rule, and while exiled in the USA, published a newsletter in NYC, promoting the independence of Cuba. He was also one of Cuba’s greatest poet and intellect. Someone who combines the spirit of patriotism and poetry is indeed a precious treasure.

Here is one of his most famous poems:

Cultivo una rosa blanca

I cultivate a white rose

en junio como enero

in June as in January

para el amigo sincero

for my sincere friend

que me da su mano franca.

who gives me his frank hand.

Y para el cruel que me arranca

And, for the cruel one, who tears apart

el corazon que con vivo

the very heart by which I live

cardo ni ortiga cultivo

I grow neither thistles nor nettles

cultivo la rosa blanca.

I grow- a white rose.

There are many sincere and pretty settings of this poem, including as a verse in Cuba's most famous song, “Guantanamera”, sung here by its composer, José Fernández Díaz . You can hear the poem in this recording starting about 02:40.

https://youtu.be/UWvlSlQ3CTw

The challenge in a classical setting is for the music to capture the same surprise resolution as the poem. One might easily attribute the idea to "Love Thine Enemies", but Marti uses the poetic device of a return to the opening idea to recreate that idea in our hearts.

So, here is an attempt, by the musicological advisor to the Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture, Fred Haight, on the guitar with his sister Nancy Guice, who really grasped the idea, singing it beautifully.

https://youtu.be/77wnq35FUQQ

We will hear more about the settings of the great composers in the near future.

Poets are the Unacknowledged Legislators of Mankind

Classical Principle Weekly

August 1, 2023

Poets are the Unacknowledged Legislators of Mankind

Today, we repost an essay from February of this year, that together with last week’s essay, present an outlook on Adversity and the role of Culture and Individuals. We hope you will give us feedback and your thoughts on it.

When we think of the major wars that our political leaders seem hell-bent on engaging us in, it seems appropriate that we begin today’s post with a tribute given by President John F. Kennedy to the poet Robert Frost, on October 26, 1963—one year after the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 16-November 20, 1962), and less than a month before his assassination (This year is the 60th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy):

“This day devoted to the memory of Robert Frost offers an opportunity for reflection which is prized by politicians as well as by others, and even by poets, for Robert Frost was one of the granite figures of our time in America. He was supremely two things: an artist and an American. A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.

“In America, our heroes have customarily run to men of large accomplishments. But today this college and country honors a man whose contribution was not to our size but to our spirit, not to our political beliefs but to our insight, not to our self-esteem, but to our self- comprehension. In honoring Robert Frost, we therefore can pay honor to the deepest sources of our national strength. That strength takes many forms, and the most obvious forms are not always the most significant. The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation's greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us.

“Our national strength matters, but the spirit which informs and controls our strength matters just as much. This was the special significance of Robert Frost. He brought an unsparing instinct for reality to bear on the platitudes and pieties of society. His sense of the human tragedy fortified him against self-deception and easy consolation. "I have been" he wrote, "one acquainted with the night." And because he knew the midnight as well as the high noon, because he understood the ordeal as well as the triumph of the human spirit, he gave his age strength with which to overcome despair. At bottom, he held a deep faith in the spirit of man, and it is hardly an accident that Robert Frost coupled poetry and power, for he saw poetry as the means of saving power from itself. When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.

“ The artist, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an officious state. The great artist is thus a solitary figure. He has, as Frost said, a lover's quarrel with the world. In pursuing his perceptions of reality, he must often sail against the currents of his time. This is not a popular role. If Robert Frost was much honored in his lifetime, it was because a good many preferred to ignore his darker truths. Yet in retrospect, we see how the artist's fidelity has strengthened the fibre of our national life.

“If sometimes our great artists have been the most critical of our society, it is because their sensitivity and their concern for justice, which must motivate any true artist, makes him aware that our Nation falls short of its highest potential. I SEE LITTLE OF MORE IMPORTANCE TO THE FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY AND OUR CIVILIZATION THAN THE FULL RECOGNITION OF THE PLACE OF THE ARTIST.

“If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth. And as Mr. MacLeish once remarked of poets, there is nothing worse for our trade than to be in style. In free society art is not a weapon and it does not belong to the spheres of polemic and ideology. Artists are not engineers of the soul. It may be different elsewhere. But democratic society--in it, the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may. In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation. And the nation which disdains the mission of art invites the fate of Robert Frost's hired man, the fate of having "nothing to look backward to with pride, and nothing to look forward to with hope."

“I look forward to a great future for America, a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose. I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty, which will protect the beauty of our natural environment, which will preserve the great old American houses and squares and parks of our national past, and which will build handsome and balanced cities for our future.

“I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well. And I look forward to a world which will be safe not only for democracy and diversity but also for personal distinction.”

Poet and historian Paul Gallagher wrote:

“In August 1962, Stuart Udall, who was President Kennedy’s Interior Secretary, had Anatoly Dobrynin, the Soviet Ambassador, to dinner at his home with the poet Robert Frost, to talk about poetry and politics. Dobrynin at that time clearly knew that Soviet nuclear missiles were likely to be stationed in Cuba... Dobrynin also knew Frost’s poetry was appreciated in Russia, including among dissidents.

“That evening Udall proposed that Frost accompany him on a trip to Russia. JFK “instantly” authorized it, though nothing was announced.

“Udall and Frost went to Russia in the first week of September 1962. Frost met with Soviet poets and writers... Khrushchev met with Udall for over an hour, and the next day had a private meeting with Frost in Crimea which lasted more than 90 minutes. According to Udall’s several accounts, Frost bent Khrushchev’s ear with his vision of “a noble and peaceful rivalry” of the two great powers; he focused it on arts, sciences, sports, and democracy, while Khrushchev responded that it would be primarily economic. Khrushchev gave both men messages for JFK. The Russian poet and head of the Soviet Writers Union Aleksei Surkov accompanied Frost to Crimea and had a separate discussion with Khrushchev there the next day, which seemed “intense”. Frost’s interpreter, the poet F.D. Reeve, wrote a long Atlantic Monthly article in which he described how impressed he was with Khrushchev’s appreciation of Classical art (Ft 1) and his great respect shown to Frost, including the lengths Khrushchev went to, to meet with the 88-year-old American poet who had become exhausted and somewhat ill during the visit.”

Seven weeks after Khrushchev’s meetings with Udall and Frost, came two very surprising literary developments in Russia. On October 21, 1962, a daring poem by Yevgeny Yevtuschenko, “The Heirs of Stalin”, appeared in Pravda. Two days later, Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s first novel, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, was published in Russia. Udall wrote that “Khrushchev was using a Russian version of poetry-and-power to push his program of political reform.” These were also the first days of the world’s Cuban Missiles Crisis.

President Kennedy ended his 1963 speech at Amherst with:

“Robert Frost was often skeptical about projects for human improvement, yet I do not think he would disdain this hope. As he wrote during the uncertain days of the Second War:

Take human nature altogether since time began . . .

And it must be a little more in favor of man,

Say a fraction of one percent at the very least . . .

Our hold on this planet wouldn't have so increased.

“Because of Mr. Frost's life and work, because of the life and work of this college, our hold on this planet has increased.”

The full poem, titled “Our Hold on the Planet”, is as follows:

We asked for rain. It didn’t flash and roar.

It didn’t lose its temper at our demand

And blow a gale. It didn’t misunderstand

And give us more than our spokesman bargained for,

And just because we owned to a wish for rain,

Send us a flood and bid us be damned and drown.

It gently threw us a glittering shower down.

And when we had taken that into the roots of grain,

It threw us another and then another still,

Till the spongy soil again was natal wet.

We may doubt the just proportion of good to ill.

There is much in nature against us. But we forget;

Take nature altogether since time began,

Including human nature, in peace and war,

And it must be a little more in favor of man,

Say a fraction of one percent at the very least,

Or our number living wouldn’t be steadily more,

Our hold on the planet wouldn’t have so increased.

The poems of Robert Frost still await adequate musical settings. In the meantime, here is one set to music by Randall Thompson:

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (Robert Fröst, 1922)

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep

https://youtu.be/E3bUzZmoIRA

Here is "The Heirs of Stalin" by Yevtushenko:

Mute was the marble. Mutely glimmered the glass.

Mute stood the sentries, bronzed by the breeze.

Thin wisps of smoke curled over the coffin.

And breath seeped through the chinks

as they bore him out the mausoleum doors.

Slowly the coffin floated, grazing the fixed bayonets.

He also was mute- his embalmed fists,

just pretending to be dead, he watched from inside.

He wished to fix each pallbearer in his memory:

young recruits from Ryazan and Kursk,

so that later he might collect enough strength for a sortie,

rise from the grave, and reach these unreflecting youths.

He was scheming. Had merely dozed off.

And I, appealing to our government, petition them

to double, and treble, the sentries guarding this slab,

and stop Stalin from ever rising again

and, with Stalin, the past.

I refer not to the past, so holy and glorious,

of Turksib, and Magnitka, and the flag raised over Berlin.

By the past, in this case, I mean the neglect

of the people’s good, false charges, the jailing of innocent men.

We sowed our crops honestly.

Honestly we smelted metal,

and honestly we marched, joining the ranks.

But he feared us. Believing in the great goal,

he judged all means justified to that great end.

He was far-sighted. Adept in the art of political warfare,

he left many heirs behind on this globe.

I fancy there’s a telephone in that coffin:

Stalin instructs Enver Hoxha.

From that coffin where else does the cable go!

No, Stalin has not given up. He thinks he can cheat death.

We carried him from the mausoleum.

But how to remove Stalin’s heirs from Stalin!

Some of his heirs tend roses in retirement,

thinking in secret their enforced leisure will not last.

Others, from platforms, even heap abuse on Stalin

but, at night, yearn for the good old days.

No wonder Stalin’s heirs seem to suffer

these days from heart trouble. They, the former henchmen,

hate this era of emptied prison camps

and auditoriums full of people listening to poets.

The Party discourages me from being smug.

'Why care? ' some say, but I can’t remain inactive.

While Stalin’s heirs walk this earth,

Stalin, I fancy, still lurks in the mausoleum.

There was life and classical culture on both sides of the "Cold War." In 1961, Pablo Casals played for the Kennedy's at the White House, after having tried to organize the UN for a global simulcast of Beethoven's “Ninth Symphony” as a protest against nuclear war. Here is the Andante movement from Mendelssohn's “Trio in D Minor” from that White House concert:

https://youtu.be/IKibEPU-9W0...

Ft 1 F.D Reeve mentioned Krushchev's love of classical art. In 1958, Krushchev shocked the world by intervening to award the 1st prize in the first International Tchaikovsky Competition to an American, Van Cliburn. Kruschchev became a fan of Cliburn. Russian musicians such as Sviatoslav Richter and Kiril Konfrashin played in the U.S. as ambassadors of goodwill. Krushchev was seen smiling and cheering at this 1962 concert of Beethoven.

https://youtu.be/vr2AKxf8m14

Yevtushenko also wrote a poem about the massacre at Babi Yar in Ukraine. Shostakovitch showed great courage in setting it to music, when all of his friends abandoned him. Shostakovitch wrote: "People knew about Babi Yar before Yevtushenko's poem, but they were silent. And when they read the poem the silence was broken. Art destroys silence."

Babi Yar (a few verses)

No monument stands over Babi Yar.

A steep cliff only, like the rudest headstone.

I am afraid.

Today, I am as old

As the entire Jewish race itself.

I see myself an ancient Israelite.

I wander o’er the roads of ancient Egypt

And here, upon the cross, I perish, tortured

And even now, I bear the marks of nails.

It seems to me that Dreyfus is myself. *1*

The Philistines betrayed me – and now judge.

I’m in a cage. Surrounded and trapped,

I’m persecuted, spat on, slandered, and

The dainty dollies in their Brussels frills

Squeal, as they stab umbrellas at my face.

I see myself a boy in Belostok *2*

Blood spills, and runs upon the floors,

The chiefs of bar and pub rage unimpeded

And reek of vodka and of onion, half and half.

I’m thrown back by a boot, I have no strength left,

In vain I beg the rabble of pogrom,

To jeers of “Kill the Jews, and save our Russia!”

My mother’s being beaten by a clerk.

O, Russia of my heart, I know that you

Are international, by inner nature.

But often those whose hands are steeped in filth

Abused your purest name, in name of hatred.

A Concert for Peace

The Classical Principle Weekly

July 25, 2023

A Concert for Peace

On August 6, 2023 at 6PM, the Foundation for Classical Culture is participating in a much-needed “Concert for Peace” of Mozart’s Requiem and other songs in New York City, at the All-Souls Church, at a time of increasing danger of nuclear war.

There is a great precedent for this by one of 20th century's finest musicians and human beings, Pablo Casals (we wrote about him last week in the essay on Bach). Casals' opposition to fascism was so strong, that at the height of his career (and he was the world’s most revered cellist in the 20th century), he protested the Allies' support for the Franco regime in his native home of Spain by refusing to ever perform publically until Spain renounces Fascism.

He did make a few exceptions, and one of them was at the United Nations. During the summer of 1958, Pablo Casals added his voice together with that of the legendary Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) in a manifesto calling on the Russian and American leaders to halt the arms race and nuclear testing.

Shortly afterwards, Don Pablo was invited by Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld to perform in a concert commemorating the 13th Anniversary of the United Nations in New York. Don Casals, who maintained his protest of not playing in Allied countries because of the continuation of Franco’s dictatorship in Spain, accepted the invitation because the headquarters of the United Nations was considered neutral international ground. Casals had, at that point, not played in the United States for thirty years.

A message given to the press by Casals on October 24th, 1958, included:

“....The anguish of the world caused by nuclear danger is increasing every day. All realize the horrifying consequences of a nuclear war....how I wish that there could be a tremendous movement of protest in all countries, and especially from the mothers, that would impress those that have the power to prevent this catastrophe.

“... Music, this marvellous universal language understood by everyone, everywhere, ought to be a source of better communication among men. This is why I make a special appeal to my fellow at the service of mankind...musicians everywhere, asking each to put the purity of his art at the service of mankind, in order to unite all people in fraternal ties.

“The Hymn to Joy of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony has become a symbol of love. And I propose that every town that has an orchestra and chorus perform it on the same day, and have it transmitted by radio to the smallest communities and to all corners of the world, and to perform it as another prayer through music for the Peace that we all desire and work for.

August 24th 1958.”

It did not work out quite that way. Instead, a full two days of music, by many musicians, celebrating the 13th anniversary of the UN, were held in Geneva, Paris, and New York. The two day concert culminated with a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony conducted by Ernest Ansermet and L'orchestre de la Suisse Romande. The entire concert, plus Casals' message, was broadcast simultaneously to Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Columbia, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, El Salvador, Finland, France Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the USSR, Tunisia, the UK, USA, Uruguay and Yugoslavia. Delayed broadcasts took place in Australia, Albania, Ghana, Ceylon, Greece, India, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Monaco, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Portugal, Philippines, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, South Africa, and 14 republics of Latin America, for a total of 75 stations in 5 continents.

All of the recordings can be heard at the United Nations Audio-Visual Library. They are for listening only. So we cannot give you a link. Here however is a link to a later performance of the Ode to Joy movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony by Maestro Ansermet and his orchestra. It is quite good.

https://youtu.be/jxMWrGZxeE4

The second time Pablo Casals went to the United Nations was in 1963, when the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, U Thant, invited him to its New York headquarters to conduct his oratorio “El Pessebre” (The Manger) with the Casals Festival Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra Choir. Secretary-General U-Thant described him as “a musical giant of this century” and “a renowned figure throughout the world as a champion of peace and human rights”. Don Pablo said in 1963:

"The most powerful nations have a duty and responsibility to keep the peace. It is my deep conviction that the great masses in these countries want the understanding and mutual cooperation of their fellow men. It is for the governments and those in power to see to it that the achievement of this desire will not become impossible. The United Nations today represents the most important hope for peace. Let us give it all the power to act for our benefit.

“Music, that wonderful universal language, should be a source of communication among men. I once again exhort my fellow musicians throughout the world to put the purity of their art at the service of mankind in order to unite people in fraternal ties. With this objective in mind, I consider it my duty to offer my humble contribution in the form of a personal crusade. Let each of us contribute as one can until this ideal is attained in all its glory; and let us unify our fervent prayers that in the near future all humanity may be joined in a spiritual embrace." Pablo Casals at the UN.

Casals' compositions should not be brushed off. Here is an excerpt, "Els reis Mags", from the 90 minutes long “El Pessebre”. You can hear the main theme of the fourth movement of Mozart's highly contrapuntal "Jupiter Symphony" (No. 41) in it.

https://youtu.be/vPMa9-U6np8

Here is his “Nigra Sum” from the “Song of Solomon”: “I am black but comely Oh ye daughters of Jerusalem" (or I am black and comely). Casals composed it in 1942 to refer to an end of colonization.

Some thought that Casals was naive, but his stature as a musician and as a principled human being was such that it lent tremendous stature to all that he undertook.

https://youtu.be/iCVDtl0fcik

CONCERT for PEACE in NY:

One of the other occasions that Pablo Casals made an exception for was November 13, 1961, when he performed at the Kennedy White House. Certainly, he and JFK were aligned on the issue of democracy, culture, and peace. On June 10, 1963, John F. Kennedy made a speech at Washington D.C.’s American University, eight months after the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The world had just barely avoided destroying itself in a thermonuclear war. Kennedy said then:

“What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children—not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women—not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.”

Full video: https://youtu.be/0fkKnfk4k40

Full text of speech: https://www.jfklibrary.org/.../american-university-19630610

A few months later on November 22, 1963, JFK had been assassinated. Pablo Casals was unspeakably devastated upon hearing the news. He said:

“I have seen much of suffering and death in my lifetime, but I have never lived through a more terrible moment. For hours I could not speak. It was as if a beautiful and irreplaceable part of the world had suddenly been torn away.”

Close to 90 years of age at that point, he pounders further on the ceaseless cause and effects of events, and the what/if’s of human history:

“Who knows what might have happened had President Kennedy lived? No single man, of course, controls the fate of all nations, and yet during his brief time as President one felt how his hand moved to heal the wounds and conflicts of the world. What savage strife we have witnessed since his death! Had he not died, how many of those who have perished in the towns and jungles of Vietnam might also be alive?”

60 years later today, it’s worthwhile to ponder what responsibilities we have as individual human beings to society and future. As Pablo Casals said so eloquently, “I do not feel--nor have I ever felt--that music, or any form of art, can be an answer in itself. Music must serve a purpose; it must be a part of something larger than itself, a part of humanity. A musician is also a man, and more important than his music is his attitude toward life. Nor can the two be separated."

It’s for these reasons that our foundation join Humanity for Peace on August 6th, to commemorate those who should not have lost their lives that day, 78 years ago. We wish to remind humanity that "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought." We will join with others worldwide, who are holding rallies, vigils, musical tributes, poetry readings, and other activities that day, to insist on peace, and demonstrate how to end the escalating danger of nuclear war.

Now is the time to act on President Kennedy’s prophetic words: “Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.”

The Requiem will be conducted by renowned Maestro Gürer Aykal, the Permanent Conductor and General Music Director of Borusan İstanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, and professor emeritus and former conductor of El Paso, Texas Symphony Orchestra.

Attendance: the concert is free and open to the public, first come, first served. Free-will donations welcomed to defray costs. https://www.eventbrite.com/.../humanity-for-peace-concert...

Johann Sebastian Bach

Classical Principal Weekly

July 18, 2023

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is one of the most recognized names in Classical music. But he is anything but what his rather stoggy portrait of a wigged old man suggests. Orphaned at age 10, he sired 20 children, lost 11 of them in infancy or childbirth, lost his beloved first wife of 13 years suddenly in 1720; lived through a period of intense grief, slept with groupies in the organ loft; engaged in fistfights and duels, had many children with his beloved second wife; and in his 65 years on earth, left us 1128 glorious compositions, that 300 years later, still stuns and inspires us.

Yet, when Bach died in 1750, the world put aside his music as old-fashioned. They had to be rediscovered in stages—in 1781 by the then 26-year-old Mozart at the Viennese salon of Baron von Sweten, especially of Bach’s fugues, and from that discovery, made a huge musical leap in composition that are exemplified in his “Fantasie in C minor” K475, or his late string quartets, Mass in C major and so on; then again in 1829 by the then 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn who put together the first performance of Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” in 100 years on his own front lawn; then again in 1890 by a teenage Pablo Casals (acknowledged as the best cellist of the 20th century) who discovered a tattered copy of Bach’s complete Cello Suites in a secondhand sheet music store and spent 13 years practicing these little-known suites before publicly performing them for the first time in their entirety, and ultimately, recording them.

Pablo Casals once said in his biography:

“For the past 80 years, I have started each day in the same manner. It is not a mechanical routine, but something essential to my daily life. I go to the piano, and I play two preludes and fugues of Bach. I cannot think of doing otherwise. It is a sort of benediction on the house.

"But that is not its only meaning for me. It is a rediscovery of the world of which I have the joy of being a part. It fills me with awareness of the wonder of life, with a feeling of the incredible marvel of being a human being. The music is never the same for me, never. Each day it is something new, fantastic, and unbelievable. That is Bach, like nature, a miracle."

Today, we want to share with you another of Bach’s miracles—his “Goldberg Variations”, composed in 1741 when he was already 56 years old. The lecturer is the incomparable Andras Schiff, who will both play and speak from the piano. It is 2 hours long. But don’t worry, it is still not as long as Wagner’s operas and worth every minute.

Here it is: https://youtu.be/Hz4jLkfmIhc

Please enjoy!

Music and Healing: The Evolution of South Africa's National Anthem

Classical Principle Weekly

July 11, 2023

Music and Healing: The Evolution of South Africa's National Anthem.

For do but note a wild and wanton herd,

Or race of youthful and unhandled colts,

Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,

Which is the hot condition of their blood;

If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound,

Or any air of music touch their ears,

You shall perceive them make a mutual stand,

Their savage eyes turn'd to a modest gaze

By the sweet power of music.

Shakespeare—“The Merchant of Venice”

Music has the power to heal in many ways. Today, we tell you the story of the healing of a deep hatred—hatred born of decades of injustice and unspeakable atrocities; the kind of hate that hardens the human heart into unforgiveness. Today we talk about the healing of South Africa.

Music alone could not have healed the abused hearts of South Africa, but it played an important role through the evolution of its national anthem. Afrikaners are descended from predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. Until 1994, they dominated South Africa's politics as well as the country's commercial agricultural sector. While it is true that the Afrikaners were cruel in the extreme towards native Africans, who they treated as subhuman during the decades of South Africa’s Apartheid, which existed from 1948 to the early 1990 (Millions of native Africans were forcibly relocated into Bantustans, stripped of citizenship and voting rights, forbidden to marry whites, left in dire poverty, and sometimes shot in cold blood), it is also true that the Afrikaners were treated as mere beasts by the British Empire during what the British call the “2nd Boer War”, and South Africans call “The South African War” (1999-1902).

It was not the Nazis who first developed the concentration camp. Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl of Kitchener (1850–1916), an Irish born senior British Army officer and colonial administrator did, after taking over from Lord Roberts during the Boer War. Kitchener's policy was slash and burn, destroying entire villages, destroying their food supply, killing livestock, and driving the men out of the villages to shoot them like game flushed out of the bush (he once bragged of having "bagged" 861 Boers in one week.) The women and children left behind were rounded up and put into disease-ridden concentration camps with inadequate food and medicine, where the death rate was high. Out of an estimated 26,000 deaths in the camps, 80% were children. But the British also set up 66 concentration camps for black Africans, to keep them supplying the Boers. 20,000 died in them.

In 1921, South African poet, Cornelis Jacobus Langenhoven wrote a patriotic poem, “Die Stem de Suid Afrika” (The Call of South Africa) that was set to music by Marthinus Lourens de Villiers. In 1938, South Africa declared it to be one of two national anthems, along with the UK's national anthem, "God Save the King." In 1957, “Die Stem“ became the country's official national anthem.

Here is the song with English translation:

youtu.be/wIiQSpiOHQM

AN ANTHEM FOR ALL OF AFRICA

In 1897 a South African school teacher and choir director at a Methodist school named Enoch Sontonga (1873–1905), composed the words and music for a patriotic song in his own language of Xhosa (Xhosa people are the second largest ethnic group in South African whose traditional homeland is primarily the Cape Provinces of South Africa). The song is called "Nkosi sikelel iAfrika" (God bless Africa). Here are the words with translation:

Xhosa

Nkosi, sikelel' iAfrika

Malupakam' upondo lwayo;

Yiva imitandazo yetu

Chorus

Yihla Moya, yihla Moya

Yihla Moya Oyingcwele

Sikelela iNkosi zetu;

Zimkumbule umDali wazo;

Zimoyike zezimhlouele,

Azisikelele.

Sikelel' amadol' esizwe,

Sikelela kwa nomlisela

Ulitwal' ilizwe ngomonde,

Uwusikilele.

Sikelel' amakosikazi;

Nawo onk'amanenekazi;

Pakamisa wonk'umtinjana

Uwusikilele.

Sikelela abafundisi

Bemvaba zonke zelilizwe;

Ubatwese ngoMoya Wako

Ubasikelele.

Sikelel' ulimo nemfuyo;

Gzota zonk'indlala nezifo;

Zalisa ilizwe nempilo

Ulisikelele.

Sikelel' amalinga etu

Awomanyana nokuzaka,

Awemfundo nemvisiswano

Uwasikele

Nkosi Sikelel, Afrika;

Cima bonk' ubugwenza bayo

Neziggito, Nezono zayo

Uwazikelele.

English

Lord, bless Africa

May her horn rise high up;

Hear Thou our prayers and bless us.

Chorus

Descend O Spirit

Descend, O Holy Spirit

Bless our chiefs;

May they remember their Creator;

Fear Him and revere Him,

That He may bless them.

Bless the public men,

Bless also the youth

That they may carry the land with patience,

and that Thou mayst bless them.

Bless the wives;

And also all young women;

Lift up all the young girls

And bless them.

Bless the ministers

of all the churches of this land;

Endue them with Thy Spirit

And bless them.

Bless agriculture and stock raising;

Banish all famine and diseases;

Fill the land with good health

and bless it.

Bless our efforts of union and self-uplift,

Of education and mutual

understanding

And bless them.

Lord, bless Africa

Blot out all its wickedness

And its transgressions and sins,

And bless us.

And here is the song:

https://youtu.be/yZncJ_hJ4pQ

Naysayers refuse to believe that an African could have written such a moving song, so they say he plagiarized it from Joseph Parry's Aberystwyth (Joseph Parry (1841–1903) was a Welsh composer, professor, and head of the Department of Music at University College Wales). You will read that time and again. So here is “Aberystwyth”. Judge it for yourself.

https://youtu.be/moMR1dCwx8M

This song is very different from “Nkosi sikelel iAfrika”. For one thing, it's in a minor key, and the two songs had two different intentions. The allegation that one is based on the other is a disservice to both Sontonga and Parry, who composed his song for Welsh coal miners.

“Nkosi sikelel iAfrika” was adopted as an anthem by the African National Congress (ANC) in 1925, but was banned during Apartheid.

MANDELA

ANC leader Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in 1960, and not released until 1990. During those long years in prison, he sustained himself with many things, including a poem called Invictus.

Invictus

William Ernest Henley

1849 –1903

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

It would be naïve to think that the South African government simply woke up suddenly and saw the error of their ways. They were passionately attached to their system and their views. It was the world, which became increasingly disgusted with Apartheid, that helped them see the error of their ways! Economic and cultural sanctions were hurting the economy and isolating the country. The world began to recognize the brutality of the Apartheid regime after white South African police opened fire on unarmed black protesters in the town of Sharpeville in 1960, killing 69 people and wounding 186 others. That same year, Mandela and other anti-Apartheid leaders were imprisoned. After the U.S. Congress passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act in 1986, many large multinational companies withdrew from South Africa. By the late 1980s, the South African economy was struggling with the effects of internal and external boycotts as well as the burden of its military commitment in occupying Namibia as internal unrest grew. In short, they were up against a wall.

But it would not have worked without Nelson Mandela, a man who believed in equality, democracy, and love.

“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison.

“It is not our diversity which divides us; it is not our ethnicity or religion or culture that divides us. Since we have achieved our freedom, there can only be one division amongst us: between those who cherish democracy and those who do not.” - Nelson Mandela.

No one else could have unified the country. There was too much anger, fear, and desire for retribution.

In 1994 Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa. Both “Nkosi sikelel iAfrika” and “Die Stem” were played at his inauguration. He insisted that both “Die Stem” and “Nkosi solel iAfrika” be co-anthems of the country. Two national anthems proved a bit unwieldy, so a committee of artists, and political leaders from across the "spectrum" was appointed to devise a single national anthem. In 1997, the official National Anthem of the Republic of South Africa was created. It features two verses of Nkosi sikelel iAfrika in 5 different languages, Xhosa, Zulu, Sesotho, Afrikaans and English. The first two verses are the music of “Nkosi sikelel iAfrika” in Xhosa, Zulu, and Sethoso. The third verse is the music of “Die Stem” in Afrikaans. It ends in English. Here it is in translation with all languages identified.

https://youtu.be/UlWcsjVC3n8

Mandela also said:

"Know your enemy — and learn about his favorite sport."

Movies about real events are usually at least half-fiction. Clint Eastwood's "Invictus" is very accurate and we recommend it. Rugby was the favorite sport of white South Africans, and most of the players were white. But from the 1970s until the end of Apartheid, the South African team—the Springboks—deteriorated in isolation, due to South Africa being banned from international sports competitions. In 1992, President F W De Klerk called for an all-white vote in a referendum to end Apartheid. Part of his campaign was to get the Springboks back into international competition. The referendum won with many whites saying they voted “yes” because they wanted South Africa back into the arena of sports, especially rugby.

Some leaders of the ANC wanted to ban it or change the name of the team. Mandela decided to organize the Springboks to win the World Cup. He rallied the black population behind the idea and took the bold move of appearing at a game wearing a Springboks shirt. Part of rallying the black population behind the idea was to have the mostly white players learn “Nkosi sikelel iAfrika”. The captain of the team asked the team to learn it for the 1995 championship, and they did so enthusiastically.

In 1995, South Africa hosted the World Rugby Cup, with a surge of support for the Springboks among the white and black communities behind the slogan "one team, one country." South Africa won the 1995 World Cup against the New Zealand All Blacks, 15–12 in overtime. President Mandela, wearing a Springbok shirt, presented the trophy to captain Francois Pienaar, a white Afrikaner.

It is inspiring to see it sung at sporting events. Everyone must sing in the five languages.

https://youtu.be/Kw3YZ2R4o_E

“Nkosi sikelel iAfrika” is now the national anthem of 5 African countries, including Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, and South Africa, translates into those different languages.

Dare to be Free—the Quest for Juan de Pareja

Classical Principle Weekly

June 27, 2023

Dare to be Free—the Quest for Juan de Pareja

The portrait of Juan de Pareja (1608-70) by Velazquez (painted 1650, photo below), was that of an Afro-Hispanic painter born into slavery in southern Spain's Andalusia region. He worked as an assistant in the workshop of painter Diego Velázquez. In 1649, Parjea accompanied Velazquez on his second trip to Italy. It was during this trip that Velázquez painted his famous “Portrait of Juan de Pareja”, currently in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The painting was exhibited in the Pantheon of Rome in March 1650, where it won first prize.

It was during that approximately time that Velázquez signed manumission papers granting Pareja his freedom. From then on, until his death in Madrid, Pareja worked as a major independent painter, executing several master paintings. Pareja's 1661 masterpiece “The Calling of Saint Matthew” is on display at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is currently presenting an unprecedented exhibition (through July 16, 2023) on the life and artistic achievements of Juan de Pareja. Arturo Schomburg, Harlem Renaissance writer, historian, collector, and scholar was vital to the recovery of Pareia's work. While Schomburg was in grade school, one of his teachers claimed that black people had no history, heroes, or accomplishments. Inspired to prove the teacher wrong, Schomburg went on to amass thousands of documents in support of his efforts to situate Black cultural achievement at the center of American and European classical culture. His personal collection was purchased by Carnegie Corporation in 1926, and became the center of the "Schomberg Collection" of the NYC Public Library. With the proceeds from the sale, Schomberg traveled to Spain in quest of Juan de Pareja and to further his project.

Attached below is the YouTube link to the Zoom presentation on the broader implications and relevance of this "Quest for Juan de Pareja" for the world today. Please enjoy, and as always, we look forward to your comments.

https://youtu.be/U3xgxK4nqSI

Tchaikovsky on Mozart

Classical Principle Weekly

June 20, 2023

Tchaikovsky on Mozart

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born May 7, 1840, in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Vyatka, Russia, whose family was from Ukraine. Tchaikovsky’s grandfather, Pyotr Feodorovitch was the son of a Cossack, Fedir Chaika (meaning seagull) and he annually spent several months in the Ukraine, where he composed over 30 works. Tchaikovsky wrote: “I found the peace of mind here that I had unsuccessfully sought in Moscow and Petersburg.” He was proud of his Ukrainian heritage, but he was also a proud Russian.

Just as he loved his Russian-Ukrainian heritage, he also drew strength from the West. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one such strength. In fact, he was such a hero to Tchaikovsky that Tchaikovsky referred to him as a “musical Christ”, i.e. both Man and God. Tchaikovsky’s “Orchestral Suite No. 4, Op. 61”, known as “Mozartiana”, was written in 1887 as a tribute to Mozart on the 100th anniversary of that composer's opera Don Giovanni. The composition draws from several works by Mozart, who he wanted to be better known in Russia.

Tchaikovsky conducted the premiere himself, in Moscow in November 1887. It was the only one of his suites he conducted, and only the second at whose premiere he was present.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR0QL_IZrDhucNJP9wHrJe9tDTdVZ5C3Kzl3V9HhKcz_WBLvR0_eQiqQq64&v=6bYRgv-fiY4&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=BartjeBartmans

Pablo Casals Performs Dvorak Cello Concerto

Classical Principle Weekly
June 13, 2023

Last week, we celebrated the 140th birthday of the Czech conductor Václav Talich. The episode ended with a recording of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191, featuring Rostropovitch, conducted by Talich. We think it was one of the best recordings of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto.

This week, we’d like to share the masterclass given by the incomparable Pablo Casals, of this famous concerto. Born December 29, 1876, and living to October 1973 at the age of 96, Pablo Casals was not only The greatest cellist of the 20th century, he was one of its greatest humanist. At the height of his career, Casals withdrew from public performance in protest of Franco’s fascist regime in his native country of Spain. He never went back in his lifetime.

Here is one of our favorite quotes by Don Pablo who said:

"I do not feel--nor have I ever felt--that music, or any form of art, can be an answer in itself. Music must serve a purpose; it must be a part of something larger than itself, a part of humanity; and that, indeed, is at the core of my argument with music today--its lack of humanity. A musician is also a man, and more important than his music is his attitude towards life. Nor can the two be separated."

Here are the three YouTube link to his masterclass on Dvorak’s Cello Concerto

https://youtu.be/a0GSNQSdO9Q

https://youtu.be/1hfLXDQTCVA

https://youtu.be/Zc_QIyyz1U0

Appropriately, we share the recording of Don Pablo’s performance of that very concerto under the banner of Alexander Schneider and the Festival Casals Orchestral of Puerto Rico in 1960 (at age 84).

https://youtu.be/-uZgDFd7AxI

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Vaclav Talich! (May 28th 1883- March 36th 1961)

Classical Principle Weekly
June 6, 2023
Happy Birthday Vaclav Talich (May 28th 1883- March 36th 1961).

March 28th was the 140th birthday of one of the greatest, but least known conductors of the 20th century, Vaclav Talich. You will soon see why he was both.

Several years ago, we sat down with a group of enthusiastic students at the home of the conductor and the foundation’s board president, Maestro Anthony Morss. Tony was not afraid to challenge axioms, and had years ago, the courage to present Beethoven's opera Fidelio at the classical pitch of A at 432hz. As we talked to the students, this exchange occurred:

Fred: I am going to play for you, the very best version of Dvorak's New World Symphony"
Tony: It must be Vaclav Talich!
Fred: How do you know?
Tony: He's incomparable!

THE FIGHT FOR POLITICAL FREEDOM AND CLASSICAL CULTURE AS A UNITY

Rather than tearing down statues, banning books, and canceling great composers who produced masterpieces, we should realize that Classical Culture is a critical component of nation-building. Dvorak was a patriot of what is now known as the Czech Republic (known in his time as Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia). Of his Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70, he wrote, “What is in my mind is Love, God, and my Fatherland." He later said that the 4th movement includes a suggestion of the capacity of the Czech people to display stubborn resistance to political oppressors.

Some 50 years later, Vaclav Talich led the cultural defense of the same country then known as Czechoslovakia, when it was under Nazi occupation run by the brutal Reinhard Heydrich, also known as The Hangman."

Dvorak came to the United States in 1892 to help this country advance to a more perfect union, by elevating the music of some of the people who had been most denied their freedom—African Americans and Native Americans.

THE NATIONAL THEATER

The National Theater in Prague was created as a manifestation of national pride. It contains four tons of gold leaf in its roof alone. Donations poured in from as far away as California. Czech Prince Lobkowitz, from a family that supported Beethoven, gave one of the largest contributions. It opened in 1881, with Smetana's opera Libuše, suffered a fire, and reopened in 1883 after even more generous public support, with the same opera (about the 8th-century queen who prophesied the founding of Prague). The Czech Philharmonic was created in 1894, and Dvorak personally conducted its first performance in 1896.

Dvorak wrote that the opening of his 7th symphony sprung from the patriotic feelings of seeing his countrymen emerge from a train to attend musical performances at The National Theater, which supported the Czech nation. Much later, Talich, when asked why he did not leave Czechoslovakia when it was under Nazi tyranny, cited how much the National Theater and the nation had given him. He could abandon neither.

As a boy, Vaclav Talich attended concerts of that orchestra conducted by Dvorak. When Dvorak learned that the boy's father had abandoned the family, he personally sponsored Talich's study at the conservatory. Talich then went on to lead the Czech Philharmonic to new heights and was given an award by the Dvorak family for his efforts.

The Nazis tried to co-opt Talich and insisted he join their anti-Bolshevik League. He refused, saying that there was a lot of good music coming from the Soviet Union. So, the Nazis put out propaganda and forged his signature! One day, Goebbels asked Talich how things were going. His response was something like: "Not bad, for a small nation that is fighting for its very existence."

An enraged Goebbels calmly stated that Talich would take the Czech Philharmonic on a tour of Germany. To refuse would mean death. Talich, who regularly quoted the Bible and Plato to his players, told them that at present, their only means of resistance was to lift their art to new and unexpected levels of excellence.

Talich took the orchestra on a tour of Germany, and played a piece which had been banned by the Nazis, Smetena's Ma Vlast (My Country). We do not know whether the Nazis were so illiterate as to not recognize it, or simply could not suppress the positive response it met. Either way, Talich restored the work to its rightful place. Here is his brilliant performance of the 2nd movement, Vltava, (the main river—known in English as "The Moldau".)

https://youtu.be/3DWPVu8typM

At the end of WWII, Talich was tried as a Nazi collaborator, as was Furtwangler in Germany. Both were exonerated. However, when the Communists came to power in Czechoslovakia in 1948, they did not give a rat's ass about evidence, declared him a class traitor, and put him in prison. He was freed by public outrage but was only allowed to record, not conduct publicly. Thus, there are only a handful of precious recordings by him extant.

Dvorak’s 9th Symphony “from the New World”, reflects how Dvorak, a Czech patriot, adopted the "Negro Spirituals" as the basis of American patriotism. How ironic and poetic it is that a fellow Czech, Talich, understood what he was doing in the USA better than most Americans! This 24-minute audio identifies just how American the symphony really is, and why Talich conducts it so well, partially because he understands that. We think that you’ll find this analysis unique and we look forward to your comments.

https://drive.google.com/…/1AxOAGcPmXJkQr5Yk6hJ-mGUvd…/view…

THE CELLO CONCERTO

In 1952, Vaclav Talich was ready to record Dvorak's only cello concerto, Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191 (written in 1894 from New York for Dvorak’s friend, the cellist Hanuš Wihan), with a Czech cellist he had groomed for the role. The Communist authorities imposed a young Mstislov Rostropovich on him.

Fortunately, Rostropovich was both talented and respectful. During a session at the piano, Talich asked Rostropovich what he would think about taking a certain return to tempo gradually. The cellist answered that he would do so if the conductor wished for it. Talich responded, "Good, because I learned it from Dvorak himself." Rostropovich then asked him to teach him everything he knew about the concerto. Later, Rostropovich wrote:

“I consider this recording of Dvorak's cello concerto the best I have ever made. And even though later on I recorded the concerto another seven times, it is the one that means the most to me. Throughout my life I have remained faithful to that which Vaclav Talich taught me.”

Here is a recording of that performance, which many believe to be the best ever done.

https://youtu.be/QxHNwrnC3rM

Below photos:
The National Theater Prague
Vaclav Talich
Smetena's tomb
Dvorak's tomb

Andras Schiff Discusses Brahms Piano Concertos

Classical Principle Weekly
May 30, 2023

Today, instead of our regular post, we would like to share with you a great masterclass on Brahms’ piano concertos, by none other than the great Pianist and pedagogue—Andras Schiff. Please enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUJ_UvKpIDY&pp=ygUUYW5kcmFzIHNjaGlmZiBicmFobXM%3D

Tragedy in Opera: Classical or Romantic? Part 3 Finale: Verdi's Rigoletto & Wagner's Lohengrin

Classical Principle Weekly
May 23, 2023

Tragedy in Opera: Classical or Romantic?
Part 3 Finale: Verdi's Rigoletto & Wagner's Lohengrin

Dear readers, please review of parts 1 and 2 for detailed recap.

RIGOLETTO

ACT 1 opens with a grand ball in the court of the lascivious Duke of Milan, who, like a Hollywood mogul, uses his power to seduce every woman he can, despite the havoc he wreaks. Rigoletto, the court jester, tries to lead a double life—that of a good father to his daughter Gilda (who he keeps hidden), and that of a jester who encourages the Duke in his debauchery. This is is a recipe for disaster.

Unknown to Rigaletto, the Duke has already spotted Gilda, and pretends to be a poor student in order to seduce this overprotected and naïve child.

The act ends with a group of the Duke's courtiers abducting Gilda, one of whom is Ceprano, swore vengeance against Rigoletto for encouraging the Duke to violate his wife. Rigoletto's duplicity is shown when he gladly holds the ladder for the kidnappers, believing it is Ceprano's wife they have come for. When he discovers it was his daughter who was kidnapped, he blames the curse put on both him and the Duke, by Count Monterone, whose daughter had also been abused by the Duke. Rigoletto should have had nothing but empathy for the Count. Instead he taunted him, on behalf of the Duke.

The curse, or "Maladizione" was taken very seriously in the time and place, but we gradually come to question how much of it issues from Monterone, and how much of it is self-inflicted, through Rigoletto's own duplicity.

ACT 2 begins with the recitative and aria "Ella fu mi rapita" (She has been taken from me), and "Parmi veder le lagrime" (The tears of my beloved demand it), in which the Duke expresses anguish that Gilda has been abducted. Her innocence and purity have awakened a foreign emotion for him, the idea of enduring love with one person.

So pure that her modest demeanour
almost convinced me to lead a virtuous life!

Notice the "almost." This video includes the English translation: https://youtu.be/kfhTBI9k_5Y?list=RDkfhTBI9k_5Y

When Gilda reunites with her father Rigoletto, she confesses her shame over falling for the Duke's pretenses. The act ends with a duet expressing the tension between the noble emotion of mercy and vile revenge.

RIGOLETTO
Revenge!

GILDA
Forgive him: and then we too may hear
the voice of pardon from Heaven.

RIGOLETTO
Revenge!

GILDA
Forgive him!

RIGOLETTO
No!

GILDA (to herself)
He betrayed me, yet I love him; great God,
I ask for pity on this faithless man!

The ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius warned, wisely, that before one sets out on a mission of revenge, one should be sure to dig two graves.

ACT 3: The main characters converge in a broken-down tavern/home on the right bank of the river Mincio. Sparafucile has been contracted by Rigoletto to kill an unnamed man who has been lured there by his sister, Maddalena. The Duke, in disguise again, approaches singing "La Donna e mobile" (women are fickle).

A great vocal quartet "Bella figlia dell’amore" takes place between the Duke, Maddalena, Rigoletto and Gilda, who are watching through the window.

I am convinced that this quartet is inspired by another vocal quartet, "Mir ist so Wunderbar" from Beethoven's Fidelio. Why? The music is so different. Beethoven's quartet is a canon, in which soprano, alto, tenor and bass, all sing the exact same notes (though in different octaves) at different times, but with different words. However, while singing the same tune, all four characters have completely different perceptions of what is going on. One sees love, another, danger. The words "es ist Klar" (this is clear), take on great irony. It's too much to explain here, but for those readers who wish to engage in the fun of exploration, here is a video with notes and text.

https://youtu.be/nlY0VgQ1_78

Verdi uses the same four voice species, all of whom also have different perspectives on the matter.

In this quartet, the Duke sings his usual BS, but sings it beautifully and seductively :

DUKE
Fairest daughter of love,
I am a slave to your charms;
with but a single word you could
relieve my every pain.
Come, touch my breast and feel
how my heart is racing.
With but a single word, etc.

Maddalena sees through him.

MADDALENA
Ah! Ah! That really makes me laugh;
talk like that is cheap enough...
...believe me, I know exactly
what such play acting is worth

Gilda is mortified.

GILDA
Ah, these are the loving words...
...he once spoke to me.
...O wretched heart betrayed,
do not break for sorrow.

Rigoletto tries to calm his daughter and becomes more set on revenge.

RIGOLETTO
Haven’t you seen enough? etc.
Hush, weeping can do no good, etc.

This video includes the English translation. The quartet begins at 1:35.

https://youtu.be/II9AiASFHl4

Rigoletto pays Sparafucile to kill the Duke but Maddalena has developed a soft spot for him, and wants to show him mercy. Her idea of mercy? Kill Rigoletto instead. Sparafucile responds with his idea of honor:

SPARAFUCILE
Kill the hunchback? What the devil do you mean?
Am I a thief? Am I a bandit?
What client of mine has ever been cheated?
This man pays me, and I shall deliver.

They then compromise on killing an innocent passerby, stuffing him into a bag, and delivering him as being the Duke (as if that were not cheating the client).

Meanwhile Gilda has returned disguised as a man, and laments.

GILDA (to herself)
Ah, my reason has left me!
Love draws me back...

She hears the discussion and decides to sacrifice herself for the Duke. She knocks on the door, knowing she will be murdered. Sparafucile does the deed, and hands the body-bag to her father. Rigoletto rejoices in having bagged a dead Duke, but his blood chills when he hears "La donna e mobile" being sung in the distance. He opens the bag. His final duet with a dying Gilda moves us to tears, even as we question how he got there. He calls Gilda his only joy on this earth, while earlier he expressed his hatred of the courtiers. Does that not echo the cry of so many Hollywood movies, "My family is all I care about. The rest of the world can go to Hell”? What supports our families? Society! If you love your family, you do not detest the society that made its present and future existence possible. If that society is corrupt, change it!

Rigoletto's final word is "Maladizione". The curse on him was bad enough before. Now, instead of mercy and forgiveness, he multiplied it by seeking revenge and murder. Is it Monterone's curse? Count Monterone, when being led to the dungeon said that his curse had failed, and the Duke would now be free to just party on. Rigoletto did not create the curse. The society was accursed. He brought the curse of that society down upon his and Gilda's heads through his own duplicity.

The Finale: https://youtu.be/RdqAfXZyQ-Q

LOHENGRIN

Wagner once called this opera a fairy-tale, and indeed it is. In Act 1, Lohengrin shows up as literally a knight in shining armor, to rescue a damsel in distress. He defends her in combat with her accuser Telramund (*Friedrich"), but does not kill him. Wagner composed his own libretto, where he revealed his prejudice for feudalism.

HERALD
(standing in the middle of the circle)

Hear me, listen carefully:
let no man disturb this fight!
Keep away from the battle ring,
for if anyone disrespects the law of peace,
if freeman, he shall pay with his hand,
if serf, he shall pay with his head!

ALL THE MEN
If freeman, he shall pay with his hand
if serf, he shall pay with his head!

There is a sort of curse on Lohengrin, but not one related to the real world. It's more like a jinx. Lohengrin is a Knight of the Holy Grail, an object so sacred that:

it was brought down by a host of angels;
every year a dove descends from Heaven
to fortify its wonderous power:

A Knight of the Grail will retain marvelous power, wherever he goes, unless his secret identity be exposed, in which case he must up and leave.

Friedrich and Ortrud are secret pagans (followers of the same Norse Gods who Wagner later glorified). Ortrud is also a secret witch. They will use every trick in the book to force Lohengrin's identity out into the open. They challenge the legitimacy of the combat because:

1. Lohengrin was aided by magic (as if the whole opera isn't based on magic).
2. An anonymous man cannot become victor.

Friedrich, in front of the King and his men, challenges Lohengrin to either reveal his true self, or forfeit the victory in combat. Lohengrin, however, will only submit to his beloved wife Elsa's demand for his name. She, however is rightly troubled at being Mrs. John Doe, or Lady X. She submits a reasonable question to her husband, whether the Christian principles of mercy and forgiveness ought to apply to her desire for an answer.

Lohengrin's answer is a flat no, and in front of the King and his men, he sings this deservedly famous aria: https://youtu.be/hLAQuI7Rs6E

LOHENGRIN
(looking ahead, solemnly transfigured)

In a far-off land, inaccessible to your steps,
there is a castle by the name of Montsalvat;
a light-filled temple stands within it,
more beautiful than anything on earth;
therein is a vessel of wonderous blessing
that is watched over as a sacred relic:
that the purest of men might guard it,
it was brought down by a host of angels;
every year a dove descends from Heaven
to fortify its wonderous power:
it is called the Grail, and the purest, most blessed faith
is imparted through it to the Brotherhood of Knights.
Whosoever is chosen to serve the Grail
is armed by it with heavenly power;
the darts of evil prove powerless against him,
once he has seen it, the shadow of death flees him.
Even he who is sent by it to a distant land,
appointed as a champion of virtue,
will not be robbed of its holy power,
provided that he, as its knight, remains unrecognised there.
For so wondrous is the blessing of the Grail
that when it is revealed it shuns the eye of the uninitiated;
thus no man should doubt the knight,
for if he is recognised, he must leave you.
Hear how I reward the forbidden question!
I was sent to you by the Grail:
my father Parzival wears its crown,
I its knight - am called Lohengrin.

Elsa is left with no other emotional resort but remorse and especially GUILT.

ELSA
(devastated)

I swoon! What dreadful darkness!
I gasp! I gasp for air, wretch that I am!

(She is about to collapse when
Lohengrin catches her in his arms)

LOHENGRIN
O Elsa! What have you done to me?
When I first set eyes upon you
I felt myself overwhelmed with love for you
and I quickly recognised a new happiness:
the noble might, the wonder of my origin,
the strength granted me by my secret,
all these I wanted to dedicate to serving the purest of hearts: why did you force me to reveal my secret?

ELSA
My husband! No! I will not let you leave this place!
Remain here, that you might witness my repentance!
You must not escape my bitter repentance,
I lie before you, that you may punish me!

WOMEN
Woe, now he must leave you!

LOHENGRIN
I must, I must! My sweet wife!
The Grail is already angry that I have not returned!

ELSA
If you are truly as divine as I believed,
banish not God's mercy from your heart!
........................................................
Do not repudiate me, however great my crime,
Do not leave me, oh do not leave me, as the most wretched of women!

LOHENGRIN
There is but one punishment for your crime!
Alas! I, as you, feel its cruel pain!
We must be parted, separated:
this must be the punishment, this the atonement!

(Elsa falls back with a cry)

Christian mercy has no sway against the will of the Grail, and what kind of husband chooses a cup over his wife? How could a man sworn to protect his secret identity ever hope to marry and settle down? What would their 50th anniversary look like? What would they name their kid? Is this really Christianity, or paganism in disguise?

The swan shows up, boat in tow, to take the Knight back to wherever. Lohengrin sings to the swan with a love that should give us pause. Did he ever sing to Elsa this beautifully?

https://youtu.be/BLTQzddd4AA

My beloved swan!
Ah, how gladly I would have spared you
this last, sad journey!

At the end of a year
your time of service would have come to an end -
then, freed by the power of the Grail,
you would have appeared to me in a different form!

Lohengrin them heaps more guilt upon Elsa:

O Elsa! I had longed to witness
just one year of happiness by your side!
Then your brother, whom you thought dead, would have returned,
accompanied by the blessed retinue of the Grail!

Oops! Now she has inadvertently prevented her brother's return. There are huge plot gaps here. It turns out the witch Ortrud had turned Elsa's young brother into a swan. Why this is called a year of service we know not. Why the all-powerful Grail had to wait another year to free him, we also know not. The romantics were big on magical objects. Lohengrin gives Elsa his horn, sword, and ring for when Gottfried comes home (but didn’t Lohengrin just said Gottfried's return depended on them being together for a year?)

Soon, after Ortrud gloats over her apparent victory, Lohengrin turns the swan back into Gottfried, and announces that he shall be their leader. As Lohengrin disappears into the sunset, Elsa cries out "My Husband, my Husband", and sinks lifeless to the ground, giving us a taste of Wagner's misogynism, since she is the most real person in the opera.

CAREFUL CONSIDERATIONS ON CAUSALITY

We invite our readers to add their own thoughts on the matter.

Let’s investigate both operas. In “RIGOLETTO”, All the main characters had at least some chance to break out of their tragic path.
1. The Duke was almost moved to change his life by Gilda.
2. Rigoletto could have adopted Gilda's idea of mercy rather than revenge.
3. He did not need to encourage the Duke's depravity.
4. Verdi called Shakespeare "Papa." A jester might seem helpless, Rigoletto might have imitated the fool, but he is the only person who could tell King Lear the truth.

(King Lear, Act 1, Scene 4.)
LEAR: Dost thou call me fool, boy?
FOOL: All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou wast born with.

(King Lear, Act 1, Scene 5.)
FOOL: E’er since thou mad’st thy daughters thy mothers. For when thou gav’st them the rod and put’st down thine own breeches.
FOOL: Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise
LEAR: Who can tell me who I am?
FOOL: Lear's shadow

5. Gilda, who had had a rude awakening, should not have persisted in her naivety, and sacrificed herself for an irredeemable Duke, knowing how it would devastate her father.

How could anyone have changed anything in Lohengrin? All of the characters exist in a fantasy world.
1. If Elsa had been satisfied not to know her husband's name, could that have ever worked out? What would be their child's last name?
2. If Lohengrin had stayed with Elsa, would the Grail be happy? The very necessity of a secret identity suggests that visits abroad were meant to be short term.

Our modern entertainment culture is dominated by such sword and sorcery fantasy. We never ask if it will ennoble us, or help us become better people. In his essay, "ON THE USE OF CHORUS IN TRAGEDY", the great poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller, identifies the difference between art and mere entertainment.

“Every person, indeed, expects from the arts of imagination a certain liberation from the bounds of the real world; he wants to take pleasure in
what is possible and give room to his own phantasy. He who sets his expectations the lowest, still wants to forget his business, his common life, his particular individuality, he wants to feel himself in extraordinary situations, he wants to delight in the strange combinations of chance, if he is of a more serious nature, he wants to find the moral world-government, which he misses in real life, upon the stage.

“But he himself knows quite well, that he is engaging in but an empty play, that in fact he takes delight only in dreams, and when he returns from the theater back to the real world,
it will surround him once more with its full, oppressive constriction; he is its booty as he was before, and it has not been changed in the slightest.

“Thus, nothing but a pleasant delusion of the moment has been won, which disappears when one awakens. And just for that reason, because the intent here is but a temporary illusion,
all that is necessary is thus but an appearance of truth, or popular probability, which one so gladly sets in the place of truth.

“True art, however, does not aim merely at a temporary play; it seriously intends not to transpose a person into a merely momentary dream of freedom, but to make him really and in fact free, and to accomplish this by awakening in him a force, exercising it and developing it, to thrust the sensuous world, which otherwise only presses upon us as crude material, bearing down upon us as a blind power, into an objective distance, to transpose it into a free work of our mind, and to achieve mastery over the
material with ideas.”

This, we hope, will help our readers understand why we are the "Foundation for the REVIVAL of Classical Culture." We hope you not only enjoyed out 3-part essay comparing the two operas, we hope it gave you food for thoughts. As always, we welcome your comments.

Tragedy in Opera: Classical or Romantic Part 2 Lohengrin and Rigoletto: Intermezzo

Classical Principle Weekly
May 16, 2023

Tragedy in Opera: Classical or Romantic Part 2
Lohengrin and Rigoletto: Intermezzo

In the last episode, we examined the first parts of two operas, Wagner's “Lohengrin” and Verdi's “Rigoletto”. This week, we follow up on both of them, looking at, not so much "how it turns out", but "why it turns out" the way it does. To do that, we must have an intermezzo to examine some finer tuning.

Let us briefly review Part One and add a bit to it. Let us also add Mozart into the equation.

Rigoletto

The groundwork for what follows, is all laid in Act One, Scene One, at the Duke's debauched ball.

It opens with the Duke saying that he has seen an unknown beauty attending church, who he would possess. For tonight though, he sets his sights on the wife of Count Ceprano, boasting:

And if one woman pleases me today,
tomorrow, likely as not, another will.
Fidelity – that tyrant of the heart –
I shun like the plague.

The duplicitous Rigoletto encourages the Duke, even going so far as to suggest cutting off Count Ceprano's head. The Duke warns Rigoletto (who believes that, as the Duke's favorite, no one can touch him), that he takes his jokes too far, and might endanger himself.

Meanwhile, the courtiers have discovered that it is Rigoletto who has been accompanying the unknown beauty to church. Perhaps Rigoletto's own immoral behavior at court, helps lead them to conclude that he is an old lecher, and Gilda is his mistress.

Next, in a scene at least somewhat reminiscent of Edgar Allen Poe's "Mask of the Red Death", and certainly of the statue of the Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni, the Duke's mad ball suddenly freezes, when an old man, Monterone intervenes in a loud, commanding voice:

https://youtu.be/wysewL1hC5o

MONTERONE
I would speak with him. (Chi'o gli parli)

DUKE
No!

MONTERONE (coming forward)
I shall!

BORSA, RIGOLETTO, MARULLO, CEPRANO, CHORUS (in a shudder)
Monterone!

Rigoletto foolishly taunts Monterone on behalf of the Duke, mimicking, and distorting Monterone's "Chi'o Gli parli" ( I would speak with him). Rigoletto goes so far as to taunt Monterone:

Rigoletto:
What mad impulse is this, that night and day
you make complaint about your daughter’s honor?

Little does Rigoletto suspect that his own daughter has already been targeted! Monterone is not dissuaded:

MONTERONE
(fixing the Duke with a look of fearless pride)

Yes, Monterone. My voice, like thunder,
shall make you quake wherever you go...
Ah yes! I shall disrupt your orgies; I shall come here to complain
so long as the atrocious insult to my family remains unpunished.
And if you give me over to your hangman, I shall haunt you as a terrifying spectre,
carrying my skull in my hand, crying to God and man for vengeance!

He curses Rigoletto, who he calls a serpent. Curses were taken very seriously at the time.

BITTER IRONY

In Part 1, we mentioned the bitter irony in Gilda's aria, “Caro Nome”. She is in love, and is celebrating it in song! The only problem is, she is languishing over her lover's name, Gaultier Malde, and it is not even his real name. The Duke disguised himself as a poor student, and made up that name, in order to seduce her.

Verdi follows the example of the great Mozart, whose opera “Don Giovanni”, was about a sex-crazed pervert similar to the Duke in Rigoletto. Compare the bitter irony in Gilda's aria, “Caro Nome” (discussed in Part 1) to the famous duet, "La ci Darem la Mano" in Mozart's Don Giovanni.

In that duet, they sing of an innocent love. Ha! Innocent? The Don attempts to seduce a peasant girl, Zerlina, simply because it is her wedding day. It would be a notch in his belt! That is his only interest in her. Like Verdi in Rigoletto, Mozart makes it beautiful. You have to appreciate the beauty and the bitter irony at the same time- a real challenge for the listener.

In the following excerpt, the duet does not begin until 07:20. Up until then, there is the joyous anticipation of a coming wedding. At 7:30 the famous duet begins. The sleaziness of Don Giovanni, however, is well portrayed, in contrast to the usual romantic renditions. They sing of an innocent love! Innocent?! Zerlina was getting married that day. Don Giovanni's only interest in this peasant girl was to see if he could seduce her on her wedding day. At 10:25, the would-be idyllic scene is interrupted by one of his former "conquests" who now realizes how she was used. Neither Mozart's Don Giovanni, nor Verdi's Duke, are able to find much rest between confrontations. Like certain Hollywood moguls, they have left too many victims behind.

https://youtu.be/4KnU07tVugE

The same revelation irony takes place in a duet between the Duke and Gilda in Rigoletto. Most tenors crescendo up to the high Bb in this passage. They are more interested in displaying their vocal technique than conveying the poetic intent. In the following short audio, we compare a typical rendition by Swedish tenor Jussi Bjorling, to the great Soviet-Ukrainian Ivan Kozlovsky, who does an amazing decrescendo up to that Bb, because the Duke is lying to Gilda, telling her sweet nothings, just to get her into bed.

Adunque amiamoci, donna celeste
D'invidia agli uomini sarò per te

So let us love together celestial woman,
I will be the envy of all men, for you.

Listen to the file as it demonstrates the difference between a performance that shows off the voice, and one that shows the Duke is lying his head off to Gilda: https://drive.google.com/…/15Sno6W_V2mIvjfP3K4w7A5pbu…/view…

After the ball scene, a greatly disturbed Rigoletto approaches his home, muttering "that old man cursed me." He is confronted by temptation, in the form of a professional murderer, Sparafucile, who offers him his services. Rigoletto declines "for the time being", but asks how to get in touch with him. Sparafucile's wavering low tone, might remind us of how Beethoven portrays evil in his "Ghost trio".

https://youtu.be/DcvO0G-upV0

Lohengrin

Elsa of Brabant has been accused by Count Telramund, of killing her younger brother, Gottfried, to become Dutchess of Brabant. Telramond claims the land for himself, being the lawful guardian of Gottfried. The King of Saxony calls on her to answer the awful charges. She responds by singing of a knight in shining armor, who will protect her.

The courtiers call for trial by combat, and call for this mysterious knight to appear. After a long wait, Lohengrin appears, in a boat, drawn by a swan. He defeats Telramund in combat, but spares his life.

Lohengrin promises to marry Elsa on one condition: she never try to find out his real name.

Lohengrin is a sort of Superman, empowered by the Holy Grail. Telramund and Ortrun are secret pagans, worshippers of the Norse Gods. Ortrun slowly reveals herself to be a witch, and tells her husband:

ORTRUD

What would you give to find out
if I told you that, were he forced
to reveal his name and origin,
that strength would vanish
that is granted him by magic alone?

This may upset some readers, but early comic book heroes were loosely determined by Nietzsche's and Wagner's ideas. Thus, Superman is vulnerable to magic, and can never have his secret identity revealed.

They conspire to involve Elsa in tricking the knight into revealing his name.

Act Three begins with an energetic, triumphant and rousing Prelude that anticipates the marriage of Elsa and her mysterious new husband. The background scene in this prelude is the wedding feast, and the bridal bed.

https://youtu.be/tRQCnnxfeO0

It is followed by one of the most famous and beloved bridal marches of all time. The original is much better than what you may have heard. Hear the full thing.

https://youtu.be/vqCQ7GkaEfo…

After a protracted bedroom scene that consists mostly of talking, Elsa expresses normal human doubt...

ELSA
Ah, what power have I
to bind you to me?
Full of magic is your being,
a miracle brought you here;
how can I ever hope to be happy,
how can I ever be sure of you?

...and she soon pleads with him

ELSA

Nothing can bring me peace,
nothing can tear me from my madness,
save - even if it should cost me my life -
knowing who you are!

LOHENGRIN
Elsa, what do you venture to say?

ELSA
Ill-fatedly noble man!
Hear the question I must ask you!
Tell me your name!

LOHENGRIN

Stop!

ELSA

Whence did you come?

LOHENGRIN

Woe unto you!

ELSA

What is your origin?

LOHENGRIN

Woe unto us, what have you done?

Brahms' associate Hanslick, wrote:
“We find ourselves on Elsa's side as she succumbs to 'culpable curiosity' and loses her husband. In vain, she pleads at Lohengrin's feet that he remain as 'witness of her penance.' He has no other answer than: "I must go, I must; the Grail will be angry with me if I remain."”

If you think we are exaggerating, read the libretto:

LOHENGRIN
I must, I must! My sweet wife!
The Grail is already angry that I have not returned!

People in Wagner's operas seldom act out of free will. They are under the command of a love potion or a spell.

To be continued

Tragedy in Opera: Classical or Romantic? Part One: Verdi's Rigoletto & Wagner's Lohengrin

Classical Principle Weekly
May 2, 2023

Tragedy in Opera: Classical or Romantic?
Part One: Verdi's Rigoletto & Wagner's Lohengrin

In the Classical Principle of June 7, 2022, we discussed some of the fundamental differences between the romantic and classical outlooks. A quick review of that article would be very helpful in appreciating this one.

Today, we look at two contemporaneous operas—Wagner's Lohengrin was premiered in 1850, and Verdi's Rigoletto in 1851. Operas are, of course, large works, so we shall limit ourselves to a single aspect: the question of tragedy and its role and meaning.

The reviewer's task is a difficult one. We cannot pretend to be neutral, and treat the operas as equals. But, to present a mere bias as truth also does no good. The discovery of the difference between the two operas is only meaningful if the listener discovers that difference for his or her self. For that reason, the reviewer has to go back and recreate his or her own process of discovery, even if it were long ago.

If Johannes Brahms himself said that he was not such a fool as to not see the beauty in some of Wagner's better moments, we shall follow suit. Brahms however, knew what the problem with Wagner was better than most, as did Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, and many others. Rossini's quip summed up one aspect..

"Wagner has some great moments, and some bad quarters of an hour."

...but there was a lot more than that amiss.

THE ROMANTIC NOTION OF TRAGEDY

Why do we study tragedy? Is it because we like to feel sad? The Romantics, in the late 18th century, found themselves in the midst of global revolutionary movements, and disliked the modern world and its science, rationality, free societies and republics. It also disliked the effort to eliminate class distinctions and promote growing equality amongst the people. They longed for magic, superstition, empires and kingdoms, and the strict fixed class divisions of feudalism. They preferred dreams to reality, choosing to set their stories in the fairy-tale world of dragons, castles, magic rings, and knights in shining armor, as in the legends of King Arthur, and the Knights of the Holy Grail. For them tragedy often came when the real world sadly intervened to upset these fantasies.

LOHENGRIN

Wagner himself referred to this opera as a fairy-tale. The story of Lohengrin, the swan-knight, was first written in about 1200 A.D. by Wolfram von Eschenbach in his story "Parzival". Parzival and his son Lohengrin, were Knights of the "Holy Grail", the "Sacred Cup", which had caught the blood of Jesus at His Crucifixion. Later in that century, Konrad von Würzburg wrote Schwannritter, the story of the Swan Knight, Lohengrin. Wagner read them, but as usual, wrote his own Libretto.

In the Overture, Wagner attempts to capture the image of the Holy Grail slowly descending to earth, escorted by an Angelic Host, which it did yearly, with all the elegance and gracefulness of a swan. It opens with four violins playing in harmonics, up in the stratosphere. A regular string section comes in below, and later the full orchestra, all on a single theme. No-one played it better than Wilhelm Furtwangler, so we will hear him perform it. You, the reader, must bring your own aesthetic judgement into play, so we urge you to listen carefully. On its own, it is beautiful. But, it is only the Prelude to an opera. We urge you to think about it, then come back and listen again after having studied both operas. at least a bit.

https://youtu.be/ExGw3UxaC-o

The opera opens in 10th century Antwerp, with Elsa being accused by Count Telramond of the murder of her brother, the child-Duke Gottfried, so that she might become Duchess of Brabant. She could be saved, should someone in the court defend her honor in a duel, but there are no takers. When a visiting King Henry demands she answer the charge, she refuses, and goes into a dreamy state about an unknown champion, while singing a beautiful aria:
https://youtu.be/xyeAJkQk_LQ

ELSA

Lonely, in troubled days
I prayed to the Lord,
my most heartfelt grief
I poured out in prayer.
And from my groans
there issued a plaintive sound
that grew into a mighteous roar
as it echoed through the skies:
I listened as it receded into the distance
until my ear could scarce hear it;
my eyes closed
and I fell into a deep sleep.

In a short interlude, Wagner quotes the Overture, as Elsa's visage is transformed from dream-like detachment to frenzied transfiguration (Wagner's words), when she envisions, literally, a knight in shining armor.

Einsam in trüben Tagen
hab ich zu Gott gefleht,
des Herzens tiefstes Klagen
ergoss ich im Gebet. -
Da drang aus meinem Stöhnen
ein Laut so klagevoll,
der zu gewalt'gem Tönen
weit in die Lüfte schwoll: -
Ich hört ihn fernhin hallen,
bis kaum mein Ohr er traf;
mein Aug ist zugefallen,
ich sank in süssen Schlaf.

ELSA
In splendid, shining armour
a knight approached,
a man of such pure virtue
as I had never seen before:
a golden horn at his side,
leaning on a sword -
thus he appeared to me
from nowhere, this warrior true;
with kindly gestures
he gave me comfort;
I will wait for the knight,
he shall be my champion!

In Lichter Waffen Scheine
ein Ritter nahte da,
so tugendlicher Reine
ich keinen noch ersah:
Ein golden Horn zur Hüften,
gelehnet auf sein Schwert, -
so trat er aus den Lüften
zu mir, der Recke wert;
mit züchtigem Gebaren
gab Tröstung er mir ein; -
des Ritters will ich wahren,
er soll mein Streiter sein!

Lo and behold, a knight in shining armor does appear, and as it turns out, he has been sent to rescue the damsel in distress. What's more, he is in a small boat, drawn by a swan. Could the lady ask for more? The knight, Lohengrin, promises to defend her in the duel, and even marry her, if she fulfills only one condition, that she never ask his name, his origin, or from whence he came.

Huh?

The Knights of the Holy Grail (like comic book superheroes), could never reveal their secret identities. Wagner himself, compared it to the philandering Greek God Zeus.

"The god is in love with a human woman and approaches her in human form. The lover finds that she cannot recognize the god in this form, and demands that he should make the real sensual form of his being known. Zeus knows that she would be destroyed by the sight of his real self. He suffers in this awareness, suffers knowing that he must fulfill this demand and in doing so ruin their love. He will seal his own doom when the gleam of his godly form destroys his lover."

Wagner's fantasy ignores the fact that the ever-concupiscent Zeus could not reveal his true identity, largely because his dalliances consisted of violation. Love never worked out too well for Nietzschean comic book superheroes (most of whom never married), the Gods, wenching Kings, or the romantics (see Classical Principle-Jan 17th 2023, on Berlioz).

Eduard Hanslick was a protege of Robert Schumann as a music critic, and was a friend of Johannes Brahms. Both Hanslick and Brahms were much harsher than today's critics. To them, Art was not mere entertainment, but part of the advancement of civilization and the human mind. In his review of Lohengrin, Hanslick wrote:

"Can we be moved to joy and sorrow by his love of Elsa, knowing that his only real emotional problem is the safeguarding of his secret? Can his insistence that his "beloved wife", Elsa, may never ask his name, or his origins, strike us as anything but inhuman? The bond of love is fashioned by confidence, not by secrecy."

CLASSICAL TRAGEDY

Classical tragedy proceeds from a different standpoint. Why do we study tragedy? Is it because we like to suffer? Schiller thought that the audience should leave the theater as better people than when they went in. Suffering, therefore, has the purpose of revealing the degree of courage shown in overcoming it. How does that work? The essence of classical tragedy lies in what is not there. It does not give answers. You, the audience, have to conceptualize the answers.

It is often said that tragedy is about the tragic flaws of the hero, or protagonist. Not quite! The tragedy is that of a person lives in a tragically flawed society. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, something was indeed "rotten in the State of Denmark."

The protagonist has to rise ABOVE that rotting society, at great personal risk, including that of becoming UNPOPULAR. To many, that feels like death. It certainly did to Hamlet. Yet, to avoid it, he rushed towards his death. From his famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy:

To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause—there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th'unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?

RIGOLETTO

Verdi revered Shakespeare and called him "Papa." His Rigoletto is based on a play by Victor Hugo, "Le Roi S'Amuse" (The King Amuses Himself). Verdi was not allowed to make it about a King, so the subject became a lesser entity, the Duke of Mantua. Unlike Wagner's unreal fairy-tale world of anonymous avian knights travelling incognito, the opening of Rigoletto is set in a very real, and very ugly world. The Duke of Mantua is a profligate, licentious and dissolute rake, whose main joy in life is seducing innocent women. In the opening scene, he essays to seduce the Countess Ceprano, right in front of her enraged husband, who dare not complain, lest he face death.

Rigoletto, the deformed Court Jester, is a most unlikely protagonist. For him to rise above this degeneracy, and by opposing, end it, seems even more daunting than it did for Hamlet, who was, after all, a Prince (although Rigoletto might have seized upon the example of the fool, who could tell King Lear truths that no-one else dared to). Instead, Rigoletto resorts to adopting a dual identity. In court, he eggs the Duke on in his seductions, even going so far as to suggest beheading Count Ceprano, in order to gain access to his wife.

At home, he insists that he is a different person. He despises the court, and loves his daughter Gilda.

You are my life!
Without you, what would I have on earth?
Ah, my daughter!

In order to protect Gilda from the degenerates at Court, and especially the Duke, he has hidden her away, not allowing her to leave the house, except to go to church. In a strange resonance with Lohengrin, he will not tell her his name, or any family history:

GILDA
You sigh! What makes you so sad?
Tell your poor daughter.
If you have secrets, share them with her:
let her know about her family.

RIGOLETTO
You have no family.

GILDA
What is your name?

RIGOLETTO
What does it matter?

GILDA
If you are unwilling
to tell me about yourself...

RIGOLETTO (interrupting)
Never leave this house.

GILDA
I only go out to church.

RIGOLETTO
Oh, that is good.

GILDA
If you will tell me nothing of yourself
let me know at least who my mother was.

Rigoletto is doing this for very different reasons than Lohengrin. He seeks to protect his daughter by denying her all knowledge and access to the degenerate world she lives in: He does not want her to know what he does for a living! The results are disastrous. YOU CANNOT LIVE A DOUBLE LIFE. YOU CANNOT KOWTOW TO EVIL IN YOUR PUBLIC LIFE, YET BE MORAL AND LOVING IN YOUR FAMILY LIFE. IT WILL ALWAYS FAIL!

Rigoletto has himself turned Gilda into a sitting duck for the degenerate Duke.

IS TRUTH TO BE FOUND IN IRONY AND PARADOX, OR IN LITERALISM?

While irony is severely lacking in Lohengrin, it is the key to Rigoletto. When the Duke sings his famous aria, " La Donna e Mobile", about how fickle (mobile) women are, he is really describing himself:

https://youtu.be/IjVJ1lIoUBw

DUCA
La donna è mobile
qual piuma al vento
muta d’accento
e di pensier.
Sempre un amabile
leggiadro viso,
in pianto o in riso
è menzognero.
La donna è mobile, ecc.
È sempre misero
chi a lei s’affida,
chi le confida
mal cauto il cor!
Pur mai non sentesi
felice appieno

DUKE
Women are as fickle
as feathers in the wind,
simple in speech,
and simple in mind.
always the loveable,
sweet, laughing face,
but laughing or crying,
the face is false for sure.
Women are as fickle, etc.
If you rely on her
you will regret it,
and if you trust her
you are undone!
Yet none can call himself
fully contented

We, the audience, a-muse ourselves, as we see that the Duke really believes his own delusions, and Verdi gives him the music to express it. In fact, Verdi, like Mozart in his Don Giovanni, gives the "cad" enough swagger that many male listeners are easily drawn into it, and even ask what is so bad about what the Duke is doing.

In Act Two of Lohengrin, Count Telramund (Friedrich), and his Lady MacBeth-like wife Ortrun, who are secret pagans (followers of the Norse Gods who Wagner later presented so positively in his Ring cycle), seeking to undermine the happy couple. Their main ploy is using every trick in the book to force the knight's secret identity out into the open, including the subversion of Elsa.

The next excerpt is optional, and illustrates what Rossini meant by some bad quarters of an hour, (though we have mercifully limited it to 3 and 1/3 minutes). We hear Wagner using dissonances such as the Lydian interval for purely arbitrary effect.

Hanslick wrote of this effect:

"In order to match every turn of the dialogue with a surprising musical coloration, he has recourse to perpetual modulation. I know of nothing so fatiguing as these half-recited songs in Lohengrin that never stay more than four measures in the same key but, with infinite evasiveness, carry from one deceptive cadence to the next, until the ear, exhausted and resigned to its fate, lets them go where they will...the listener soon reaches the point where he is incapable of further astonishment.”

Listen to as much or little as you like. The German is in the video's captions.

https://youtu.be/Ev_E8Inw7qM

FRIEDRICH
(suddenly standing up)

Arise, companion of my shame!
Daybreak must not find us here.

ORTRUD
(without changing position)

I cannot go, I am bound here as if by a spell.
From the splendour of this our enemy's feast
let me suck a terrible, dearly poison
that will end our shame and their joy!

FRIEDRICH
(moving over to Ortrud, darkly)
O fearful woman, what spell binds me
to you still?

Why do I not leave you be
and run away, away
to where my conscience might find peace again!

Through you I lost
my honour, all my glory;
never again shall praise adorn me,
my knighthood is but shame!
I am condemned as an outlaw,
my sword lies smashed,
my coat of arms broken,
and cursed is the house of my fathers!
Wherever I turn
I am shunned, condemned;
lest he be defiled by my countenance,
even the robber flees me!
Would that I had chosen death,

for I am so wretched!
I have lost my honour,
my honour, my honour is no more!

That is only a portion of that section. It goes on for much longer. One might say that this is no different than the role of recitative in any other opera, but Mozart, Verdi, and others were capable of integrating arias, recitative, duets, etc. into a single coherent dramatic flow. Ironically, Wagner's "Music Dramas" often lose that dramatic flow and become static.

There is a problem with literalism. The characters in Lohengrin are stick figures. Worse, their motivations are not human. The Holy Grail is literally giving them their marching orders.

IRONY-CLAD CAUSALITY

Despite accusations by Telamund and Ortrun that Lohengrin is an imposter, practises sorcery, and that an anonymous dueler cannot claim victory, Lohengrin and Elsa are married, in one of the world's most famous, beautiful, and most utilized wedding marches. Please hear how superior the original is to what you are used to:
https://youtu.be/5C5FOW2ekHo

What can possibly intervene?

The opera sees Elsa as under the spell of Ortrun, when she caves in to the demand to know her husband's name:

ELSA
Ill-fatedly noble man!
Hear the question I must ask you!
Tell me your name!

LOHENGRIN
Stop!

ELSA
Whence did you come?

Hanslick however, sees it not as sorcery, but as only human:

"We find ourselves on Elsa's side as she succumbs to 'culpable curiosity' and loses her husband. In vain she pleads at Lohengrin's feet that he remain as 'witness of her penance.' He has no other answer than: "I must go, I must; the Grail will be angry with me if I remain."

Hanslick then invokes Schiller's "On the Sublime":

"A person who must, is no hero of a drama, for he is not of our kind. He is a 'seraphic soldier', whose will and consciousness repose not in his own bosom, but in the furrows of his divine field commander's brow.

“Our first requirement of a drama is that it present us with real characters, persons of flesh and blood, whose fate is determined by their own passions and decisions. We wish to witness the reaction of free will to great conflicts, and to volunteer our own emotional and intellectual participation. What does Lohengrin know of such things? ... The Holy Grail ...alone commands and occupies their thoughts, their feelings, and their deeds.”

Hanslick had earlier referred to this as: "armed ecstasy." The irony however, lies in Hanslick's commentary, not the opera.

A far more beautiful irony is attained in Gilda's aria, "Caro Nome." Due to her father's over-protection, she has never really met a man, and falls head over heels for the first man to come along. After the Duke briefly meets her, Gilda tells her nurse, Giovanna, that she might love him even more if he were a poor student. The Duke then introduces himself, as, guess what?- A poor student named Gualtier Maldè. What biting irony lies in Gilda's recitative (Scena) that fauns over the name:

Gualtier Maldè...nome di lui sì amato,
Walter Maldè...name of the man I love,
ti scolpisci nel core innamorato!
be thou engraved upon my lovesick heart!

She is swooning over a name that is not real! The Duke made it up in order to seduce her! Gilda is incredibly naive, but we know why. She was raised in a bubble. She is not so much lovesick as love-starved. Verdi could have easily been a cynic, and let you laugh at her, but instead he presents the listener with a great moral paradox. Her aria is beautiful! It captures the purity of innocent, and untainted love, not of a first lobe, but of a first being in love. She is not at fault for anything happening.

But, it also captures her naïveté, although it does not do that in a timid voice. She sings in a full, full adult voice. This ambiguity of meaning, brings a tear to even the most jaded eye. Please listen to the entire recitative and aria, and if you can, follow the score in the video.

https://youtu.be/qvWZvriW3CU

Gualtier Maldè...nome di lui sì amato,
ti scolpisci nel core innamorato!

Caro nome che il mio cor
festi primo palpitar,
le delizie dell'amor
mi dêi sempre rammentar!
Col pensiero il mio desir
a te ognora volerà,
e pur l' ultimo sospir,
caro nome, tuo sarà.

Gualtier Maldè, name of the man I love,
be thou engraved upon my lovesick heart!

Sweet name, you who made my heart
throb for the first time,
you must always remind me
the pleasures of love!
My desire will fly to you
on the wings of thought
and my last breath
will be yours, my beloved.

As the aria ends, do you notice a sinister note creeping in? The Duke's creeps are there, ready to abduct her, while she returns to praising his name.

Stay tuned for Part 2, to find out not "how" both operas turn out, but "why" they turn out as they do.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SERGEI RACHMANINOFF

Classical Principle Weekly
April 25, 2023

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SERGEI RACHMANINOFF
A great Russian, and a lover of America

The world recently celebrated the 150th Anniversary of this great composer, even though it took a while for the world to have a true appreciation of his genius.

Rachmaninoff is often interpreted as the "last of the Romantic composers", when, in fact, he was one of the last in maintaining the classical tradition. His All-Night Vigil (Vespers) was little-known in his lifetime. The Soviet Union had banned religious music, and produced only one recording of it, which sounds like the Red Army marching. He had requested that the 5th song in this work be played at his funeral. It was not, and had to wait for Robert Shaw to revive the Vespers in the 1980's. We will end with that work.

For a long time Rachmaninoff's works were dismissed as Romantic and "gushing melodies." His younger compatriot, Igor Stravinsky said of him, "He was a six and a half foot tall scowl” and that "he painted watercolors, in imitation of Tchaikovsky, and later, at the age of 25, turned to oils, and became a very old composer indeed." Rachmaninoff seemed to many, as stuck in the past, while new and vibrant ideas were flowing forth.

Often omitted, is the second part of Stravinsky's quote:

"But, do not expect me to denigrate him for that. In fact he was an awesome man, and there are too many others to be denigrated long before him."

Rachmaninoff had stated that he tried to compose in the style of the 20th century, but his heart was just not in it. Thank God for that! His talent was anchored in the Russian bel-canto tradition, and his technique owed a lot to his counterpoint teacher, Sergei Taneyev. Taneyev, a student of Tchaikovsky, wrote huge treatises on formal counterpoint, and became a mentor to his own teacher,Tchaikovsky. The Russian bel-canto tradition had its origins in liturgical "a capella" choral music. The St Petersburg Imperial Chapel Choir was known as one of the best in the world, and was developed with the help of Italian opera composers, as Czar Peter the Great sought not only to westernize Russia, but do something new, and unprecedented. (see photos). The chorus was trained in the best Italian bel-canto technique.

Tchaikovsky helped to launch a program to elevate the Moscow Synodal Choir to the same heights as St Petersburg, under the leadership of the great Stepan Smolensky. Rachmaninoff was only one of the many composers and conductors involved in the project for decades. This great chorus was a "sensuous laboratory" where many conductors learned to compose.

Settings of Russian hymns by both great and minor composers are almost always gorgeous. It is a long-standing tradition. This is as simple as a hymn can be:

TEBE POEM (We "hymn" thee.)

Тебе поем,
Тебе благословим,
Тебе благодарим, Господи,
и молим Ти ся, Боже наш

Tebe poem
Tebe blagoslovim
Tebe blagodarim, Gospodi
I molim Ti sia, Bozhe nash.

We sing to you,
we praise you,
we thank you, O Lord,
and we pray to you, our God.

Now, please listen to four great settings of that same hymn, over 100 years, and ask yourself how they all could be so incredibly beautiful?

1. Dmitro Bortniansky circa 1810
https://youtu.be/OesNR8FQGDs

2. Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky 1880
https://youtu.be/kW7oH6jbPf8

3. Sergei Rachmaninoff 1910
This recording includes a short introduction. The piece proper begins at 1:12. In this work, a boy soprano is better than an adult soprano. Please forgive the visual's recruiting for the church.
https://youtu.be/cGJD_b5DSyI

4. Pavel Chesnikov remains relatively unknown. He was a conductor who learned to compose by conducting the great chorus—the Moscow Synodal Choir. He stayed in the USSR to try and keep the tradition alive. The Russian a capella choruses developed choral orchestration, including oktavists—very low basses. The great oktavist Vladimir Pasyukov sings in this recording of Chesnikov's Tebe Poem. He does not growl. The lowest notes sing beautifully!

https://youtu.be/pI8qFWQa4YQ

Russia produced not only great choruses, but soloists. The tenor Ivan Kozlovsky sang Rachmnaninoff's songs beautifully. Here we present him singing a folk song with incredible nuance, while accompanying himself on guitar.
https://youtu.be/n5SxLw2ea8A

Kozlovsky was a proud Ukrainian, who sang many Ukrainian folk songs, but also performed for Soviet troops going into battle in WW II. Stalin gave him an award for purchasing a tank for the war effort. Russia and the US were allies in those days. Most Ukrainians joined the Red Army to fight Hitler.

PIANO

The Russian piano tradition was also bel-canto. Listen to Rachmaninoff play Chopin's Nocturne, Op 9, # 2, and hear how he treats it as an aria, unlike so many modern performances.
https://youtu.be/kj3CHx3TDzw

His version of Chopin's Grand Valse Brillante, Op. 18, displays a sense of humor, also lacking in many modern performances. He adds a short phrase to Chopin. See if you can detect it, and tell us if it detracts from the piece, or adds to it. (to be honest, his alterations of Bach sometimes showed poor taste.) Here, he, as composer, was in the service of another great composer.
https://youtu.be/Fk7eZR1fdx8

Many people insist that other pianists play his works better than he did. We often find his performances of his own works to be the best. Take a modern performance of the Etude tableaux Op. 39, No. 6. Does it sound like it's about "Little Red Riding Hood."
https://youtu.be/tVuP1BjbhAg

Now, let the composer, a loving grandfather, play it: https://youtu.be/GUb6Jsnepe4

While in the United States, conductors such as Eugene Ormandy appreciated the
Russian tradition of the full and rich string sounds in the orchestra (The author got to appreciate that when Yuri Temirkanov was conducting the Baltimore Symphony). Here he is playing the second movement of his Second Piano Concerto with Leopold Stokowski.
https://youtu.be/GnqytVlbNL8

He loved the United States, and loved automobiles, but had difficulty composing without the inspiration of his beloved Russia. While in the US though, he composed his "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini". The 18th variation is sometimes played at romantic slop,
https://youtu.be/ThTU04p3drM

but see if you can hear it as a variation on Paganini's Capriccio 24, which is itself a “Theme and Variations.”
https://youtu.be/UcL0IsklM3M

Brahms had made two sets of variations on this work

Rachmaninoff loved jazz, and his15th Variation is based on the great Jazz pianist Art Tatum.

Here is Rachmaninoff's 15th Variation
https://youtu.be/u4jcTQZecUY

and here is Art Tatum's "Theme for Piano"
https://youtu.be/cC9WXLG5cVM?list=PLA3354DFAD8257C1C

In his older recordings Rachmaninoff brings out the different human voices in the piano. Listen to the middle section of his Prelude in g minor, beginning at 1:15.

It stands out even on the Ampico player piano recordings.
https://youtu.be/M8RyWFA7PSY

The Andante of his Cello Sonata is too often played Adagio, another Romantic distortion. These two musicians take a tempo closer to what is indicated in the score. The movement explores the interval of the fifth as divided at the major and minor thirds.
https://youtu.be/k_aBwXWGyrs

Earlier settings of Russian liturgy ignored the chants, and celebrated the spirit of the text. Stepan Smolensky, head of the Moscow Synodal Choir insisted that composers keep the chants intact, as Bach had done with Lutheran Hymns. Many did so, but only Rachmaninoff could really pull it off. This is the song he wished to be played for his funeral, St Simeon's Prayer.

Ны́не отпуща́еши раба́ Твоего́, Влады́ко, по глаго́лу Твоему́ с ми́ром;
я́ко ви́деста о́чи мои́ спасе́ние Твое́,
е́же еси́ угото́вал пред лице́м всех люде́й,
свет во открове́ние язы́ков, и сла́ву люде́й Твои́х Изра́иля.

Nyne Otpushchaeshi raba Tvoego, Vladyko,
po glagolu Tvoyemu s mirom:
yako videsta ochi moi spaseniye Tvoye,
ezhe esi ugotoval pred litsem vsekh lyudei,
svet vo otkrovenie yazykov, i slavu lyudei Tvoikh Izrailya.

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel.

Rachmaninoff's setting keeps the entire chant intact. He dedicated the All Night Vigil (Vespers) to Smolensky. The basses sink to a breathtaking low Bb at the end.

https://youtu.be/XrXnVXxmb1Q

The Classical Principle and Love: Part 1

Classical Principle Weekly
April 11, 2023

The Classical Principle and Love: Part 1

The Classical principle is not limited to the boundaries of what is known formally as classical music. It is a Principle of Love.

Emily Tuck was a 17 year-old student in Nova Scotia who was killed in a school shooting on April 18, 2020. Nova Scotia, and particularly Cape Breton Island have struggled to keep the tradition of the Scottish Highlands, and of highland fiddling alive, long after it was cleared out of the highlands itself. For that reason they have North America's only Gaelic College, and the "Big Fiddle" in Sydney.

Highland fiddling is a masterful tradition, and Natalie Macmaster is one of the best. Natalie and her daughter Mary decided to join a recording of Emily's playing, and thus create a fine performance which never existed in real time, but lives forever, in what might be termed "The Simultaneity of Eternity."

It is important to immortalize individuals in such a way, so that they do not simply "slip between the cracks". Natalie helped Emily to become what she surely would have become, if given half a chance.

https://youtu.be/ywQoD8xtanw

Happy Birthday Joseph Haydn 🥳—Part 2

Classical Principle Weekly
April 4, 2023
Happy Birthday Joseph Haydn 🥳—Part 2

In part 1, we traced Haydn's remarkable progress over almost 50 years, despite all hardships and opposition. Now, we look at his last quarter century, as located in the most intense musical, scientific, and social development.

In 1781, the 25 year-old Mozart moved to Vienna, and deepened his relationship with "Papa Haydn." Haydn told Mozart that with his six quartets, Op 33, he had developed an entirely new way of writing string quartets, which we heard in part 1. The next year, Mozart became steeped in the music of J.S. Bach and Handel at the salon of Baron van Swieten. Although Haydn had been inspired by Bach's son, Carl Phillip Emmanuel (1714–88), and Mozart had studied with another of Bach's sons, Johann Christian Bach (1735-82), the music of their father, J.S. Bach (1685-1750), was so suppressed, that neither Haydn nor Mozart knew much about him.

In 1782, Mozart attended the salon of Baron van Swieten, and drank deeply from the sweet music of Bach and Handel. Although Haydn followed the lead of van Swieten in composing his “Creation”, we see little evidence that he, Haydn, at the age of 50, accepted the revolutionary challenge of Bach in quite the same spirit as Mozart. He did however, continue to grow.

Mozart combined his discoveries from Bach, with Haydn's breakthroughs, in his Six String Quartets dedicated to Haydn, called “Haydn Quartets Op. 10”. He composed them over three years, and dedicated them thus:

“To my dear friend Haydn,

A father who had resolved to send his children out into the great world took it to be his duty to confide them to the protection and guidance of a very celebrated Man, especially when the latter by good fortune was at the same time his best Friend. Here they are then, O great Man and dearest Friend, these six children of mine. They are, it is true, the fruit of a long and laborious endeavor, yet the hope inspired in me by several Friends that it may be at least partly compensated encourages me, and I flatter myself that this offspring will serve to afford me solace one day. You, yourself, dearest friend, told me of your satisfaction with them during your last Visit to this Capital. It is this indulgence above all which urges me to commend them to you and encourages me to hope that they will not seem to you altogether unworthy of your favour. May it therefore please you to receive them kindly and to be their Father, Guide and Friend! From this moment I resign to you all my rights in them, begging you however to look indulgently upon the defects which the partiality of a Father's eye may have concealed from me, and in spite of them to continue in your generous Friendship for him who so greatly values it, in expectation of which I am, with all of my Heart, my dearest Friend, your most Sincere Friend,
W. A. Mozart”

You can hear how Mozart has taken Haydn's discovery of the "Motivfuhrung" much farther in this, the first movement of his String Quartet No. 18 in A major, K. 464, Op. 10, No. 5 (10 January 1785):
https://youtu.be/Kz9VhDz0dko?list=TLPQMTQwMzIwMjOGKs641lHLpQ

On hearing these quartets, Haydn told Mozart's father Leopold:

"Before God, and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name. He has taste, and, what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition."

When the young Beethoven set out to compose his own set of string quartets, his Op. 18, he wrote out this A major quartet of Mozart by hand, just as Mozart had written out Haydn's D Major Symphony decades earlier.

Haydn went on to become the most famous composer in Europe. He led his Paris Symphonies in France, at the invitation of the mulatto composer from Guadeloupe, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de St Georges, who had risen to near the top, and deserves to be better known. When a slave revolution broke out in Haiti, Bilogne gave up his court position to go and join the fight for freedom. Here is his Symphonie Concertante in G major:

https://youtu.be/VRBUA5rgaLs?list=TLPQMTQwMzIwMjOGKs641lHLpQ

Beethoven

Too much is made of the supposed acrimony between Beethoven and Haydn. Beethoven was never going to be a servant of the court, and a tension between them did exist around that issue, but so did mutual respect.

Beethoven's sponsors had hoped to send him to Vienna to study with Mozart, but by the time it happened, Mozart was dead, so Haydn was chosen as his teacher. After meeting the 22-year-old Beethoven in 1792 in Bonn, on the way back from London, Haydn wrote to Beethoven’s patron, the elector of Cologne, Max Franz:

“Beethoven will one day be considered one of Europe’s greatest composers, and I shall be proud to be called his teacher.” However, at the time, Haydn was the most famous composer in the world, and had little time for teaching. Beethoven did not leave Haydn to study with Albrechtsberger, Haydn recommended him to him, saying that with a couple years of counterpoint he should be fine.

Haydn made two visits to England, one in 1790, where he was treated with great respect, and visited the composer and astronomer William Herschel to view his gigantic telescope. He wrote how happy he was, for the first time, not to be treated as a servant. There he lobbied for the works of Mozart to be played, but to no avail. When he heard in 1792 of Mozart's 1791 death, he wrote:

"I was for some time quite beside myself... I could not believe that Providence could have so quickly called such an irreplaceable man into the other world." Later he said, "friends often flatter me that I have some genius, but he stood far above me." Fifteen years later he broke into tears on hearing the name of Mozart, saying "Forgive me, I must ever, ever weep when I hear the name of my Mozart."

In 1794 he returned to London, and considered taking the young Beethoven with him. His final symphonies show the influence of both Mozart and Beethoven. His Symphony No. 104, employs variations on the same motif for three out of four movements, as had Mozart's 40th. Mozart learned the "Motivfuhrung" from Haydn, and Haydn, in his own way, continued to learn from Mozart, even after his death. Even though he could not bring Beethoven with him in body, he may have brought him along in spirit! See if the Minuet from Haydn's “Symphony in Bb, Op. 102” of 1794, does not remind you of the young Beethoven's sense of humor.

https://youtu.be/Olot6TM072A

Beethoven wrote his first piano sonata No. 1 and dedicated them to Haydn in the same year. Here is the Scherzo from sonata No. 2.

https://youtu.be/8taHehOYxvg

Can you hear a shared joy in using short motifs, with abrupt interruptions?

Haydn had a great sense of humor in life and in music. He once jumped out of a carriage when he heard one of his works being played in a wealthy mansion. He burst in, protesting it as bad music. The wealthy patrons grew very angry, until one of them said: " Hey wait a minute. That's Haydn!

His creative sense of humor was matched with courage. In 1772 he headed music in the somewhat isolated palace of Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy. The musicians were long overdue for a visit home, but the Prince requested they remain for another new symphony. They complained to Haydn about it, which put him in a delicate situation. He could not simply make the request to a Prince so arrogant that he wore a diamond-studded jacket. He had to drop a hint—a big one. He finally told the story to biographers in his old age.

Haydn told them that he composed his Symphony No. 45, known as the "Farewell Symphony" in an unusual key at the time—F# minor. The first three movements are filled with the unexpected, and with surprises, but the last movement is unique in all of music. It begins as a fast Presto, which is typical. About three minutes in, it switches to an Adagio. That is rare enough, but the audience would fully expect it to return to the Presto after a while. Instead, it remains an Adagio, and incredibly, musicians keep putting their instruments in their cases, and leaving the stage, until only two violinists are left, Haydn and his concert master. The Prince got the hint, and the musicians went home.

It can perhaps only be fully appreciated through a reenactment such as this:

https://youtu.be/4r8v8daJ4RA

But perhaps his most daring sense of humor is in his canons, which he cherished, but did not publish until the end of his life, such as "To a stupid nobleman" by that great advocate of human equality, Gottfried Lessing. Follow the words with the score.

https://youtu.be/QypOLn0k65w…

Haydn and the Masses

Many are convinced that his greatest work was his 1798 "Missa in Angustiis", the so-called Nelson Mass. It actually means "Mass in a Time of Anguish." Napoleon was threatening Austria very early in his career. Four battles had taken place, and later, Vienna was eventually occupied. There is no evidence that Haydn dedicated it to the British Empire's Lord Nelson, who had dealt Napoleon a severe blow at the time.

When Beethoven composed his Mass in C for Esterhazy's grandson (a very nasty character), he wrote:

"...may I just say that I will hand the mass over to you with great trepidation, as Your Serene Highness is accustomed to having the inimitable masterworks of the great Haydn performed."

Beethoven meant it. He studied Haydn's Masses intensely in preparation for the project.

Here is the opening "Kyrie" from Haydn's “Missa in Angustiis”. His setting of the words "Lord, have mercy on us", expresses the anguish of a nation that has been invaded.

https://youtu.be/4r8v8daJ4RA

One can learn a great deal from comparing different musical settings of the Mass. Perhaps not so much in religion, but the epistomology that underlies religion. The first four lines of the Sanctus are:

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus
Dominus Deus Sabaoth.
Pleni sunt cæli et terra gloria tua.
Hosanna in excelsis.

Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God of Sabaoth;
heaven and earth are full of thy glory.
Hosanna in the highest

This opening of the "Sanctus" is often played with a loud and triumphant tone, "Holy, Holy Holy", reflecting the sanctification (cleansing) of the soul. Take for example the magnificent Sanctus from Mozart's Requiem (whatever Süssmayr's role may have been).

https://youtu.be/8v7BwZyJ1

Even though Beethoven studied Haydn's Masses, his own works are very different. Perhaps we can see a couple of influences though. In both of his masses, Beethoven inverts the sentiment, and makes it a hushed and somewhat prayerful, even tenuous moment. He may have taken that from Haydn. Here is the Sanctus from Beethoven's “Mass in C” (he developed the concept farther in his Missa Solemnis).

https://youtu.be/GLs73fDxsmw

Here is Haydn's Sanctus from the "Missa in Angustiis".

https://youtu.be/KPbFz5xWwqY…

Let us end with a timeline of Haydn's life, as situated in the great century, accompanied by a simple piece, the Andante from his Trumpet Concerto!

https://drive.google.com/…/1MBQ6Wpkm6HSdQvSBeFq0ZQLo2…/view…

Happy Birthday Joseph Haydn! 🥳 Part 1

Classical Principle Weekly
March 28, 2023
Happy Birthday Joseph Haydn! 🥳 Part 1

On March 31st, two great composers will celebrate their birthdays with our enthusiastic help. Johann Sebastian Bach will be 338 years old, and Franz Joseph Haydn will be 291. In deference to youth, we will celebrate Haydn's birthday first.

Haydn was at the center of the most intense and revolutionary musical progress the world has yet seen. That period lasted a little over a century, from J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier of 1722, till the death of Beethoven in 1827. For that reason, we will interweave Haydn's life within that century, and showcase compositions by many composers. You might be intrigued to hear the dialogue amongst them, and recognize shared ideas. To do justice to Haydn and his colleagues, we divide this into two parts.

HAYDN’S YOUTH

While many of the great composers grew up in a rich environment of great music, Franz Joseph Haydn really was a self made man. One of the chapters in Karl Geiringer's biography "Haydn, a Creative Life in Music'', is entitled "Making Something out of Nothing", and Haydn is indeed a man who made something out of nothing.

He grew up in the small villages of Rohrau and Hainburg in Austria, villages still scarred by war from the Turkish invasion of 1683, where his ancestors suffered greatly. It was an area filled with immigrants from Croatia and Hungary with their rich tradition of folk songs. There were no educated musicians in his family history, and no musicians of note around to teach him; but his family loved folk songs, and often gathered to sing them. He had a beautiful voice and sang these folk songs with his family, accompanying them on a small harp.

Let us skip ahead, just for a moment, to his old age. Haydn loved these folk songs for all of his life, and employed them often. Listen to this Croatian folk song:

https://youtu.be/Y8soRM2Qyz8

and hear it in the final movement of Haydn's last symphony, No. 104. Haydn represents the folk song faithfully, but also develops it in a universal and playful way. Can one be fixated on a narrow parochial identity amidst such surprising change? Here we see the classical principle at work, as a humanizing and universalizing instinct.

https://youtu.be/0m-TsUWDxVQ

His musical talent was so obvious that at the age of six he moved to Rohrau to study with a relative, and at eight, he moved to Vienna to sing in the choir at the famous St. Stephen's Cathedral. The boy was so poor that he made every effort to sing at concerts where free food was offered for the choristers. He complained that worse than starving the body was starving the mind, because he could find out nothing about musical composition. Young Haydn learned the practical way, by playing, singing, and listening. Yet, it was not enough.

He seized every opportunity to learn that he could. When he discovered the six keyboard sonatas by Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach (CPE Bach, son of J.S. Bach) he did not leave the keyboard until he had mastered them all. He had become accustomed to the light and fluffy Rococo works of the time, and here he found serious music that lifted his spirits when depressed. Later he wrote, "Who knows me well, must have found that I owe a great deal to Emmanuel Bach, that I have understood and diligently studied him" Haydn regarded CPE Bach (1714-1788) as a father figure, and studied his "Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments" intensely. Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach commented wryly, that at least one person had understood his book.

CPE began the tradition of German song-setting called Lieder by setting the poems of the man some considered to be Germany's first lyric poet, Christian Fürchtegott Gellert. Here is "Bitten."

https://youtu.be/xKKKjO4QOxQ

Bitten

Gott, deine Güte reicht so weit,
So weit die Wolken gehen,
Du krönst uns mit Barmherzigkeit
Und eilst, uns beizustehen.
Herr! Meine Burg, mein Fels, mein Hort,
Vernimm mein Flehn, merk auf mein Wort;
Denn ich will vor dir beten!
So bitt ich dich, Herr Zebaoth,
Auch nicht um langes Leben.
Im Glücke Demut, Mut in Not,
Das wolltest du mir geben.
In deiner Hand steht meine Zeit;
Laß du mich nur Barmherzigkeit
Vor dir im Tode finden.
Bitten

God, your goodness extends
As far as the clouds travel.
You honour us with compassion
And are quick to our support.
Lord, my fortress, rock and refuge,
Hear my petition and heed my words,
For it is in your presence that I desire to pray.
I ask of you, Lord Zebaoth,
Not for a life that’s long;
Humility in fortune, in need to be strong;
That that should be my lot.
My days rest in your hand;
When in death before you I stand,
Show me your mercy.

Later, Beethoven set the same poem, with remarkable similarities, especially the way both composers set "Herr! Meine Burg, mein Fels, mein Hort", on a single note for the voice.

https://youtu.be/MZGMCq6NYL4

The music of Emmanuel's father, J.S. Bach had been suppressed enough that except for WF (Wilhelm Friedemann) Bach, his sons no longer wrote fugues. Simple melody and accompaniment had come into favor. Haydn knew Emmanuel Bach, and Mozart knew J.C. Bach, but it was only through the efforts of Baron van Swieten that J.S. Bach (and Handel) were brought back into focus.

Haydn caught another break when Niccolo Porpora moved to Vienna in 1752. Porpora was considered a rival to Handel in his day. He had studied at the famous conservatory Poveri di Gesù Cristo (The Poor of Jesus Christ), in his native Naples. The Naples conservatories were orphanages, and developed Partimenti (similar to figured bass but different) to educate orphans in music. This Conservatory produced several prominent composers and their activities reflect the beatitude: "Blessed are the Poor in spirit, For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven". Listen to an aria by Porpora, and you will understand why Haydn became his valet in 1753, in order to study with him.

https://youtu.be/HJy7jckJw18

Haydn cleaned his shoes, beat his coat, endured being called a blockhead and a beast, and received sundry cuffs from the elderly and crotchety man. It mattered not to Haydn, as long as Porpora was willing to correct his valet's compositions. In a mere three months, Haydn learned the Italian language, bel-canto singing, and "the genuine fundamentals of composition." He began writing symphonies and string quartets around 1757, at the age of 25.

An American musicologist, H C Robbins Landon (1926–2009), was the man who restored Haydn's works, in a manner similar to restoring great paintings by removing the discoloring varnish. His editions of the scores reveal unsuspected treasures, and he worked with the great Hungarian conductor Antal Dorati to record his entire symphonies and operas. One of Robbins-Landon's greatest insights was into a breakthrough made by the composer in 1772. He suggested comparing any slow movement from years previous to 1772, to any that came after. The earlier movements had a certain stiffness about them. Starting with 1772's Symphony No. 42 in D major, they flowed and sang beautifully. The difference? In between, in 1771, Haydn had composed an Italian opera, and his mastery of bel-canto flourished. Hear the difference for yourself.

Let's start with the Andante from Symphony No. 1, composed in 1759. Haydn's was a genius from the beginning, but it does betray a certain march-like stiffness and predictability.

https://youtu.be/DYAlRmpjBpo

Next, the Andante from Symphony No. 29 in G minor of 1767/68. It has the same match-like stiffness, but it features much more wit, playfulness, and surprise.

https://youtu.be/Rkn5Ao4wk_c…

Next, the “Andantino e cantabile” from Symphony No. 42 in D major of 1772. What a difference!

https://youtu.be/PVTGkN3yqPM…

Haydn was bringing his increasing mastery of the bel-canto singing voice to instrumental music. The teenaged Mozart was so inspired that he wrote out the entire symphony by hand, (as Beethoven later did with a Mozart string quartet) in order to learn from it. He then composed his own symphony in D major, number 20.

Here is the Andante from Mozart's Symphony No. 20.

https://youtu.be/peUtaeCbmcg

Question: In this work, has Mozart already moved beyond the master, or is he still learning from him? Some of my readers might say, "Just enjoy this beautiful music." True enough! It is important though, to identify progress in musical composition, just as you would in physical science. Mozart did say at one point that everything he knew, he learned from "Papa Haydn." Both works are delightful, and even more delightful is the way the two genii fed off each other. In 1781, Mozart moved to Vienna, and he and Haydn strengthened their friendship.

Haydn is often credited with inventing both the modern symphony, and string quartet. There is truth in this. He composed his first string quartets around 1757, shortly after Mozart's birth. Twenty-four years later, in 1781, when he composed his Op. 33 String Quartets, he told Mozart that he had invented an entirely new method of writing string quartets, which he identified with the "Motivfuhrung", or leading by developing a motiv.

It is difficult to hear the breakthrough in his Op. 33 quartets of 1781, over his Op. 20, of 1772. Remember that we have already identified 1772 as a breakthrough year. We are not comparing a breakthrough to an uncreative period, but one breakthrough to another. We might fare better by comparing three works over those 24 years.

1. Here is the first movement of String Quartet Op. 1, No. 1 from 1759. It's about 2 and 1/2 minutes long, fun but not too daring.

https://youtu.be/Nnb2fsWuCnk…

2. Here is the first movement of Haydn's String Quartet, Op. 20, No. 5 in F minor from 1772. It is one of a set of six called the “Sun Quartets”.

https://youtu.be/wm_aLVH4YdI

3. The first movement of Quartet No. 1 in b Minor from the six quartets Op. 33, of 1881. Perhaps, you can hear how his discovery of the “Motivfuhrung” (a composition led by a motif, a short phrase of only a few notes) allows him both a new degree of compactness (musicians might call it "tighter") and surprise.

https://youtu.be/gb4qFPRW3q4

The story of Haydn is a story of the greatest progress in music that occurred over a period of a little over 100 years. We will continue this in Part 2. In the meanwhile, let us end Part 1 with something extraordinary and beautiful. Haydn's canons were his prize possessions. He did not publish them until the end of his life, and over 40 of them are framed and hanging above his piano at the Haydnhaus in Vienna. This one is called: “The Mother to her Child in the Cradle”

You may follow the words with the video:

https://youtu.be/IRVYwGUkf-Q…

Chords: What They Are and What They Are Not (Part 2)

Classical Principle Weekly
March 21, 2023

Chords: What They are and What They are not. Part 2

Last time we examined the first 19 measures of Bach's Prelude in C Major from the Well-tempered Clavier, Book One. We borrowed the idea of a phase space from physics and used the musical equivalent of time-lapse photography to create a musical phase space. That experiment helped us discover that chords are not built from the bottom up, as vertical triads strung together like beads on a string, but arise out the interplay of horizontal motion in different voice species.

Now we will continue our analysis of Bach’s prelude in C as it encapsulates all of the discoveries that go into the Well-Tempered Clavier—discoveries that changed the face of music forever.

A. The Different Human Voice Species
B. The Vocal Registers
C. The Diatonic Octave Scale
E. The Major-Minor complex.
F. The Chromatic Scale
G.The Tonic-Dominant-Subdominant Complex.

Here is the video!

https://drive.google.com/…/1ZMWu3iYA63b4HC3h0h3thYlK8…/view…

Part 3 will examine the role of the Lydian (tritone) intervals.

Happy Birthday Frederic Chopin 🎶 🎼 📣 📯

Classical Principle Weekly
March 7, 2023
Happy Birthday Frederic Chopin 🎶 🎼 📣 📯

March 1st, 2023 was Frederic Chopin's 213th birthday, and his music sounds as fresh as ever. Chopin may be one of the most misunderstood composers. So we would like to celebrate him by telling you some things about him that you might not know!

CLASSICAL COMPOSER

Today, Fredric Chopin is almost always referred to as a Romantic composer. Yet, he is steeped in the Classical tradition. His idols were Bach and Mozart. Chopin loved Bach’s music so much that he memorized all 48 prelude and fugues of Bach’s Well-Tempered Claviers. He would play them at concerts and salons, and he had his students play Bach every day as well. He composed preludes in all 24 keys, after the example of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.

Let us take an example. Etude, Op. 10, No. 1, the famous "Waterfall", which is often played as quickly as possible.

https://youtu.be/fyhr_pghIvs

Musicologist Wim Winters, who investigates many long-accepted "traditions" on his YouTube site: "Authentic Sound", insists that Chopin's metronome markings are accurate, and indicate this tempo.

https://youtu.be/aZZMuX6-1Sw

While we cannot vouch for this, you certainly can hear the relation to Bach's famous Prelude #1 in C major from the Well-tempered Clavier, Book 1.

https://youtu.be/gVah1cr3pU0

Then, take Bach's Prelude in C# minor from the WTC

https://youtu.be/9iGj4U7nqqY

and compare it to Chopin's Mazurka, Op 50, # 3, also in C# minor.

https://youtu.be/qPp0ppCjBVU

Some very good accounts of Chopin's method can be found in the works of Jean Jacques Eigeldinger.

INSTRUMENT

The instrument Chopin played was quite different from today's concert grand. He was not fond of loud playing, and would often compare it to a dog barking. Liszt's favorite piano, the Erard, was increasingly built for the speed, volume, and projection of romantic music and flamboyant pianists. Chopin called the Erard a "perfidious traitor" (according to a student), with its pre-shaped beautiful sound. He preferred his Pleyel, which he called "bien nuancé" where he had to work to extract the sound he wanted. Pleyel was from Vienna, and the Viennese pianos featured a lighter, more shallow action that was more like a chamber instrument. Nevertheless, Chopin revolutionized piano technique.

Here is a recording from 1948, of Polish pianist Raoul Koczalski celebrating Chopin's 138th birthday by playing on Chopin's personal 1847 Pleyel piano. The pieces include the “Nocturne in Db major, Op. 27 No. 2”,, “Waltz in Bb major, Op. 18, and the “Berceuse in Db, Op. 57 (cradle song).

https://youtu.be/fcV3P6zS30Q

Here’s a recording from Moritz Rosenthal, who was a student of Chopin's teaching assistant, Karol Mikuli. He preferred the Viennese instruments, which allowed for a very light and rapid phrase. Modern grands can be played this fast,or faster, but seldom achieve the same degree of light articulation.

https://youtu.be/FmINcVLJDCY

BEL CANTO VOCALIZATION OF POETRY

“Under his fingers each musical phrase sounded like song, and with such clari­ty that each note took the meaning of a syllable, each bar that of a word, each phrase that of a thought.”
- Karo l Mikull, student of Chopin

Chopin understood that music and language are intimately linked together. He said: “Thought is expressed through sounds. The indeterminate language of men is sound. Word is born of sound—sound before word."

Chopin’s student, Jan Kleczymki said: “All the theory which Chopin taught to his pupils rested on this analogy between music and language… In a musical phrase of something like eight measures, the end of the eighth will generally mark the termination of the thought, that which, in language written or spoken, we should indicate by a full point; here we should make a slight pause and lower the voice. The secondary divisions of this phrase of eight measures…after each two or four measures, require shorter pauses..commas or semicolons.”

Jan Kleczynski reported that Chopin's ideas on declamation were grounded on rules that guide vocalists, and that he exhorted his students to hear specific “bel canto” singers singing specific works. He constantly cited the tenor, Rubini, as a model for pianistic declamation.

Chopin took his piano students to the opera, and was said to be able to imitate the great singers on the keyboard. "This is the way Rubini would sing it, always full voice in the head register." He could also imitate the great female singers, Pasta and Malibran. One of his prized possessions was an autograph score of Bellini's great aria, "Casta Diva."

Here is well known modern pianist playing the “Nocturne in Eb Major, Op. 9, No. 2. It is beautiful, and you can hear vocal qualities. However, does it sound like an aria to you?

https://youtu.be/tV5U8kVYS88

Now, listen to the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, who knew the voice very well, play the same work like an aria.

https://youtu.be/kj3CHx3TDzw

Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman, after what many considered a definitive performance of the Chopin Concerti in 1980, formed the Polish Festival Orchestra, and spent 10 years mastering Chopin's works for piano and orchestra. Here, they play the 2nd movement of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1, with a beautiful singing sound.

https://youtu.be/V0gwZxnpYNU

In Anticipation of St Patrick's Day

Classical Principle Weekly
February 28, 2023
In Anticipation of St Patrick's Day:

The harp is Ireland's national instrument. harpists were celebrated in ancient Ireland. Legend tells us that the last high king of Ireland, Brian Boru (who died in 1014,) loved the harp so much that his son is said to have presented his father’s beloved instrument to the Pope as a sign of respect. A document dating from 12th century Ireland implies that the harp was the only music played during the Crusades. The harp was so revered all over Europe that most monarchs and lords had a resident “Master Harper/Harpist.”

The harp was so recognized as a part of Irish culture, that in an attempt to gain control of Ireland, laws were enacted by the English Crown making it illegal for the Irish to speak their language, play their music, own land, become educated and to marry. The penalty was death. In 1603, a proclamation was issued by the Lord President of Munster, where the Marshal of the Province was strictly charged “to exterminate by marshal law all manner of Bards, Harpers,” etc. Within ten days after this proclamation, Queen Elizabeth herself ordered Lord Barrymore “to hang the harpers wherever found, and destroy their instruments.”

Oliver Cromwell took the persecution of harpers to new extremes. Between 1650 and 1660, Oliver Cromwell ordered all harps and organs throughout Ireland be destroyed. In Dublin alone, 500 harps were seized and burned. Harpers in cities large and small were forbidden to congregate. By the late 18th century, traditional Irish harpers were nearly extinct.

Because harp music had always been handed down orally, very little of it has been preserved. The most important attempt to save the music was made in 1792, by a nineteen year old Armagh church organist named Edward Bunting who was hired to archive the music.

In order to encourage and preserve the old harping tradition, a festival was held in Belfast and newspaper advertisements invited all Irish harpers to come and play for cash prizes. Only ten harpers, ranging in age from fifteen to ninety-seven, could be found. It is due to the effort of Denis Hempson, one of the old Harpers, and Edward Bunting, that as much of the terminology and their traditional music was preserved.

Bunting became the first archivist of Irish folk tunes, and he made it his life's work to travel the length and breadth of Ireland collecting old traditional tunes that were on the verge of disappearing forever. He collected not only the music, but much lore and technical information from the harpers. Bunting had so much enthusiasm during the festival that he continued to collect traditional tunes throughout his life, publishing three collections, in 1797, 1809, and 1840. In 1840, the publication of his landmark book “The Ancient Music of Ireland” saved hundreds of classic Irish airs from extinction.

Turlough O'Carolan’s music dates from that period. He was a poor blind harpist who travelled the country composing music for his patrons. His music bridges classical and folk. Here are two beautiful examples.

O'Carolan's Concerto

https://youtu.be/LgZuF3tswFg

Carolan's Dream

https://youtu.be/QFlKx3YPL5I

Attached the image of Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin, shaped like a harp.