Happy Valentine's Day!! ♥️

Classical Principle Weekly
Feb 14, 2023–Happy Valentine's Day!! ♥️

Let us celebrate this Valentine's Day, not just with chocolates and flowers, but something more substantive and lasting, including the contributions of three great, yet relatively unknown women to American music.

Great classical art (as opposed to self-centred romantic feeling-states), has always been on the forefront of mankind’s fight for human rights and equality, and perhaps no other story is more compelling than the visit of Antonin Dvorak to the United States (1892-1895). Down the road, we will offer many postings about his mission, but on this day, February 14th, we will focus on this specific aspect.

The first of these great women is Jeanette Thurber (January 29, 1850– January 2, 1946), founder of the National Conservatory of Music in New York, who brought Dvorak to the US to head her composition department. She saw education in classical music as a way to stop the erosion of the newly won freedoms of African Americans. Sharecropping, prison labor, and Jim Crow laws all threatened the freedom they had won after a bloody civil war. Scholarships were offered for the children and grandchildren of slaves. She also extended her hand to Native Americans, and to women, including blind women. She personally guided Dvorak in his exposure to American culture and music. Dvorak spent hours at night listening to Harry Burleigh sing to him the negro spirituals (plantation songs).

Dvorak adopted Thurber's mission sense, and shocked America when he stated, in an interview with James Creelman in the New York Herald, printed on May 21st, 1893:

“In the negro melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music. They are pathetic, tender, passionate, melancholy, bold, religious, merry, gay, or what you will...There is nothing in the whole range of composition that cannot be supplied with themes from this source. The American musician understands these tunes, and they move sentiment in him...”

One should not be too surprised to find that the interview occasioned a freakout among hard-core racists. One of them was Boston's chief music critic Phillip Hale, who was livid about Thurber and Dvorak's idea. He wrote:

“…while the negro is fond of music, he is inherently unmusical...and founded his "folk-songs" on sentimental ballads sung by the white women. ... he brought no original songs with him from Africa.”

Hale organized eight American musicial authorities, including the composers, John Knowles Paine (Dean of Music at Harvard), George Whitefield Chadwick, and Amy Beach, as well as leading European musicians, to denounce Dvorak's theory about "negro spirituals". Comments were solicited from them in the May 28th, 1893 edition of the Boston Herald. The responses were very different:

Harvard's Paine shared Hale's racist view. To him the negroes were an underdeveloped race, and he wrote:

“individuality of style is not a matter of imitation, whether of the Heathen Chinese, or Digger Indians.”

George Chadwick dodged the controversy, and wrote:

“I am not sufficiently familiar with the real negro melodies as to be able to offer any opinion on the subject. Such negro melodies as I have heard however, I should be sorry to see become the basis of an American Shool of musical Composition.”

Amy Beach took a different approach, and wrote:

“Without the slighest desire to question the beauty of those negro spirituals, of which he speaks so highly, or to disparage them because of their source, I cannot help feeling justified that they are not fully typical of our country.”

The reaction of composers all over the globe ranged from hostile, to hesitatingly supportive, but mostly confused. What Thurber and friends were proposing, could not really have taken place anywhere else but the American Republic. True classical art had always fought for equality and justice, but this was perhaps an idea of replacing a "Laissez-Faire" approach to the subject, with the equivalent of Colbert's, and Alexander Hamilton's "directed economy."

Dvorak's intervention seems to have invigorated many of them. The next year, 1894, Amy Beach wrote a “Gaelic Symphony”. Chadwick, on hearing it, cheerfully pronounced her "One of the boys." His own “Fourth String Quartet”, composed in 1896, shows the influence of Dvorak's 1893 "American String Quartet." If you listen to the first couple of minutes, you will find that influence.

https://youtu.be/j-SD4JehfwU

Later, Chadwick became the teacher of leading African-American composers, William Grant Still, and Florence Price. Hale accused Chadwick of becoming a follower of the "negrophile" Dvorak.

Sometimes though, even men who dedicate themselves to the fight against discrimination, and for equality, discriminate against women without seeming to be aware of what they are doing. Even Dvorak, who came to America to help change it, and defended both African-American and Native-American music, a daunting challenge for a Czech from a peasant background, was not free of the problem. He made a casual remark in front of the Boston press, in regard to the challenge he was accepting:

“Here all the ladies play. It is well; it is nice. But I am afraid the ladies cannot help us much. They have not the creative power.”

The worst kind of discrimination, to any group of human beings, is the denial of a cognitive identity. Amy Beach answered Dvorak within ten days.

From the year 1675 to the year 1885, women have composed 153 works, including 55 serious operas, 6 cantatas, 53 comic operas, 17 operettas, 6 sing-spiele, 4 ballets, 4 vaudevilles, 2 oratorios, one each of fares, pastorales, masques, ballads, and buffas.

THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION

The 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Columbus' mission, was a battleground. It proposed to present American advances in science and technology, but was limited to the accomplishments of the supposed "White Race." Civil rights activists protested. The great Frederick Douglas, and several others, wrote a pamphlet called "The Reason Why the Colored American is not in the World's Columbian Exposition –The Afro-American's Contribution to Columbian Literature". The pamphlet was distributed by hand, a tradition some of our readers may know. Douglas and the young poet, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, manned the Haitian pavilion. The white organizers of the fair, under pressure, allowed several African-American exhibits, including the paintings of George Washington Carver, whose work with peanuts and sweet potatoes constituted a scientific study of how to revive a deplenished southern agriculture.

Dvorak conducted Czech music at that same World's Fair. Amy Beach, presented, with a friend, Maud Powell, her wonderful “Romance for Violin and Piano”. We present here, a rendition on Contrabass, which eschews much of the usual Romantic exaggeration.

https://youtu.be/t4YJjEDPyTg

The second movement of her 1894 “Gaelic Symphony”, is based on an Irish tune, "The Little Field of Barley." If the music seems to get a bit arbitrary about two minutes in, listen closely, and you will hear that it is a sped-up variation on the main theme. (Ft 1)

https://youtu.be/7jzt8_Q4J-4

Dvorak had unleashed something powerful, and it presented Hale et. al. with a problem. Dvorak did not try to evoke the American spirit through a lot of direct quotes, even from the spirituals that he came to love after hearing them sung by Burleigh. Instead, he sought out the universal principles that existed in both African-American and Native-American (as well as Scottish) music, which he studied intensely.

How could the racists battle that? They had to broaden their field! Paine and Hale joined forces in denouncing "Slavic" music as inferior to German.

One of their cohorts, William F. Apthorp wrote in the Boston Transcript:

“The general rhythmic and melodic character of the German, Italian and French songs stamps them as a higher stage in musical evolution...the great bane of the present Slavic and Scandinavian schools is...the attempt to make civilized music...out of essentially barbaric material....Our negro music has every element of barbarism to be found in the Slavic or Scandivavian folk songs; it is essentially barbarous music.”

Years later, Hale wrote this incredible diatribe against Dvorak:

“The uncultivated Czech is a born musician, a master of his trade. He is interested only in traces of music that he finds in America. Negro airs, not copied, adapted, imitated, tint slightly two or three passages of the symphony without injury to its Czech character. The symphony leaped, Minerva-like, from the head of this uncultured genius. As with nearly all his other compositions, except the operas, it was not stimulated by any foreign assistance, by any consultation of authors, or by quotations, reading, etc., as was especially the case with Brahms.”

So, for Hale, blacks are not cognitive, women are not cognitive, except when they are teaching slaves how to sing. Native Americans are not cognitive, and Slavs are certainly not cognitive, even Slavs who compose works of genius! Music just leaps into their heads. Who is cognitive? He cites Brahms. What a fraud! Two facts:

1. For most of his life, Hale attacked Brahms mercilessly. He only supported him as part of his attack on Dvorak.

2. Brahms was Dvorak's greatest supporter in this mission. At the Vienna Premiere of Dvorak’s “New World Symphony”, Brahms sat in the same box as Dvorak. When questioned as to how well he knew the “New World Symphony”, Brahms answered that he had it memorized.

It begins to emerge that the real enemy for Hale et. al., is not any particular subcategory of humanity (though they are equal-opportunity haters), but everything that threatens to overcome human inequality!

Our third lady, Florence Price (April 9, 1887 – June 3, 1953 ), was born in Arkansas, and faced adversity all of her life. When performing music, she had to pass herself off as Mexican, in order to avoid discrimination against blacks! She aspired to compose symphonies though, and succeeded. She was the first African-American woman to have a symphony of hers produced. She was an inheritor of Dvorak's mission, and you can hear Dvorak's influence in her music. Such things are seldom linear. She was not taught by a student of Dvorak. Her mentor was George Whitefield Chadwick, one of the people solicited by Hale to denounce Dvorak. Chadwick encouraged her to include "Negro" melodies into her work. No wonder Hale saw him as a traitor and follower of the “negrophile" Dvorak!

It can be difficult to find a good performance of Ms. Price’s work. Her 1951 "Adoration" is usually played on stage on piano, or by strings, in a sentimental way. Only when we heard it played on the instrument for which it was written, the organ, did we realize it is a hushed prayer, possibly meant for a church service.

https://youtu.be/PxJtGo6skFU

She insisted that "Negro" music is rhythmically complex, and driving, and included this "Juba Dance" in her first symphony.

Some of her music was lost. Much of it was only discovered in 2009, in her abandoned summer home.

https://youtu.be/2s88H94-REw

Ft 1. Amy Cheney (later Amy Beach) was a child prodigy. It is reported that at the age of 2, she could sing 40 songs in the correct keys, and improvise an alto part to her mother's songs. At age 4, she composed her first piece, and gave her first recital at 7. At age 17, in an examination, she was asked to play Bach Preludes and Fugues from memory, then transpose them into different keys, which she did, easily.

The family could not afford to send her to Europe to study, so she became self-taught in harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration through intense study of scores by the great masters, especially Bach.

Attachments area
Preview YouTube video George Whitefield Chadwick: String Quartet No. 4 in E minor
George Whitefield Chadwick: String Quartet No. 4 in E minor
Preview YouTube video Amy Beach (1867-1944): Romance for Double Bass and Piano
Amy Beach (1867-1944): Romance for Double Bass and Piano
Preview YouTube video Symphony in E Minor, Op. 32, "Gaelic Symphony": II. Alla siciliana - Allegro vivace
Symphony in E Minor, Op. 32, "Gaelic Symphony": II. Alla siciliana - Allegro vivace
Preview YouTube video Florence Beatrice Price: Adoration
Florence Beatrice Price: Adoration
Preview YouTube video Price: Symphony No. 1 in E Minor - III. Juba Dance. Allegro
Price: Symphony No. 1 in E Minor - III. Juba Dance. Allegro

How to Generate True Simplicity: Part 1–Chords

Classical Principle Weekly
January 31, 2023

How to Generate True Simplicity: Part 1–Chords

Please Note: This episode is accompanied by a video. More than usual, we invite you to watch the video to enjoy the full benefit of the ideas discussed in this episode.

There are times when simplicity is essential in art, as in life. What makes it great or not, lies in how you generate and develop it.

Where does it coming from, and where does it lead us? Do you begin from the bottom up, by collecting, classifying, and compiling phenomena, without ideas, hoping they might result in something meaningful? Or, do you begin from the top down, with developed conceptions of the actual universe in which we live, and distill phenomena from those idea—something elementary, but beautiful, that uplifts people.

Are musical chords built from the bottom up, as static fixed vertical piles of notes, succeeding each other like beads on a necklace? Or are chords determined by the beautiful horizontal motion of independent vocal lines, where each voice is crucial, and the chords thus far more transient and fleeting, since the moving voices are the substantives, not the static chords?

The scene from Raphael’s famous “School of Athens” painting depicting Plato and Aristotle in heated debate, gives us a clue. Plato points upward, with a copy of his “Timaeus”, which discusses the principles of how God created the universe according to ideas, and a conception of "the Good." Aristotle points down to the ground, with a copy of his “Ethics”, which denies the existence of universal ideas, and Plato's conception of "The Good."

In his “Prelude in C Major” to the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, Johann Sebastian Bach gave the world a great gift of something simple, yet determined from the top-down, as an example of "The Good." No other part of the WTC can be played so easily by an amateur. This prelude can be mastered by a beginner. In Plato's approach, the microcosm embodies the macrocosm. That is exactly Bach’s approach—a small work like this, when done well, is a miniature universe. We offer a performance by a young man who, in this case, has not yet lost his sense of awe for the prelude.

https://youtu.be/7ZNXBpO-uEo

Conversely, Carl Czerny had the advantage of being a student of Beethoven, but seems to have learned little from him. He was a fan of velocity, built on simple chords and scales, and imparted that ideal to his pupil, Franz Liszt. Here is his very simple “Etude in C major, Op. 261, No. 81”. True, it is a very easy piece, meant to develop the crossing of hands, but all of Czerny's works suffer from the bottom up approach of building on self-evident chords and scales.

https://youtu.be/Ix30gve0BQA

In the video below, we hope to create for you a first approximation of what physics calls a “phase space”, inspired by time lapse photography. Please watch the video, since in this case, words alone are insufficient.

We hope you enjoy the video 🙂.

https://drive.google.com/…/1u85VspmcVUBxI-159br3Tfr52…/view…

Classical vs. Romantic: Part 8–Schumann (and Poe) on Berlioz

Some of us wonder how we arrived at our current cultural predicament, where we sometimes have to look up to see the gutter. It didn’t happen overnight.

Robert Schumann, in founding his Neue Zeitschrift für Musik said that “if you do not attack the bad, you are only halfway defending the Good.” At the same time, he also said that he owed it to new composers, who had worked so hard on their compositions, to work just as hard in evaluating them. By his own admission, he reviewed Hector Berlioz' "Symphonie Fantastique" countless times before writing about it in 1835. He tried to be fair to Berlioz.

Berlioz admired Beethoven, Shakespeare and Goethe. He made enemies at the conservatory because he had little respect for the rules. That sounds good, doesn't it? Yet, the only way to successfully break the rules is by finding a higher order of lawfulness, not by trashing them.

Like Wagner, Berlioz claimed to love Beethoven. In 1829, he wrote:

“Now that I have heard the awe-inspiring giant Beethoven, I realize the point that music has reached. It's a question of carrying it further..no, not further, that's impossible, he has attained the limits of art, but as far in another direction.”

But what is that other direction, and how far will it go? Wagner said the same thing. Were they intimidated by the challenge of going beyond Beethoven? Definitely. But even more, they opposed his rigorous method and morality.

Schumann was only 25-years old when he wrote the review. He divided his reviews between two characters who represent the inner dialogue of the critical mind: Florestan—heroic and impassioned, and Eusebius—a patient, careful thinker. Schumann's Florestan starts out:

“I will show you the composer as I have come to know him, with his virtues and his shortcomings, with his vulgarities and his intellectual sovereignty, as an instrument of destruction and a lover. For I know that what he has presented here can no more be called a work of art than can nature without the ennobling hand of man, or passion without the discipline of a higher moral force.”

The entire work is built on obsession. Berlioz had attended a performance of Hamlet in 1827, in which a young British actress named Harriet Smithson played Ophelia. He instantly fell in love with this woman who he did not know in the slightest. It caused him great anguish. He sent her immediately a series of impassioned letters, to which she did not respond. We don't know why, but who could blame her if she found it a bit creepy, maybe even thought he was a stalker. Berlioz wrote to a friend:

“You don’t know what love is, whatever you may say. For you, it’s not that rage, that fury, that delirium which takes possession of all one’s faculties, which renders one capable of anything.”

Love at first sight: passionate, all-consuming, fiery, and blind, was an obsession of the Romantics. Emotion was everything. The true artist, in order to be an artist, must suffer, and pass through wild out-of-control mood swings such as Berlioz describes in his program notes for the first movement.

In 1829, he wrote to his father:

“I suffer so much, so much, that if I did not take a grip on myself, I should shout and roll on the ground. I found only one way of satisfying that immense appetite for emotion, and that is music.”

Far from Beethoven indeed. Compare such enervation to Beethoven's portrayal of a heroic woman, Leonore, in his opera Fidelio. (Musical examples from the following discussion are in an accompanying audio.)

The entirety of Berlioz' 1830 Symphonie Fantastique centers on this obsessive delusion. He wrote a programme which he insisted had to be handed out to the audience if they wished to make sense of the work. For the first movement, he writes:

“The author imagines that a young musician, afflicted by the sickness of spirit which a famous writer has called the vagueness of passions (le vague des passions), sees for the first time a woman who unites all the charms of the ideal person his imagination was dreaming of, and falls desperately in love with her. By a strange anomaly, the beloved image never presents itself to the artist’s mind without being associated with a musical idea, in which he recognises a certain quality of passion, but endowed with the nobility and shyness which he credits to the object of his love.

“This melodic image and its model keep haunting him ceaselessly like a double idée fixe. This explains the constant recurrence in all the movements of the symphony of the melody which launches the first allegro. The transitions from this state of dreamy melancholy, interrupted by occasional upsurges of aimless joy, to delirious passion, with its outbursts of fury and jealousy, its returns of tenderness, its tears, its religious consolations – all this forms the subject of the first movement.”

Idee Fixe literally means a fixated idea. It's a double Idee Fixe, that applies to both Harriet, and the theme that represents her. Although Berlioz thought his theme to be noble, Schumann's Eusebius found it otherwise, and wrote with great irony:

“One should remember that it was not his intention to represent a great thought, but rather a persistent torturing idea, the kind of thing one carries around for days without being able to get it out of one's head; and this suggestion of something monotonous, maddening, could hardly have been more successfully accomplished.”

...and Florestan did not share Berlioz' view of the other half of of the Idee Fixe, Harriet:

“I picture this creature as I picture the main theme of the whole symphony,-pale, slender as a Lily, veiled, still, almost cold...Read in the Symphony itself how he plunges toward her, seeking to entwine her in all the tentacles of his soul, and how he recoils breathlessly in front of the chill of this Briton...Read it through. It is all written in drops of blood in the first movement.”

The Third Movement describes a scene in the countryside, and clearly references Beethoven's Sixth Symphony. For the first time Berlioz acts more like an adult, and in the program notes writes:

“...this pastoral duet, the setting, the gentle rustling of the trees in the wind, some causes for hope that he has recently conceived, all conspire to restore to his heart an unaccustomed feeling of calm and to give to his thoughts a happier colouring.”

Schumann recognized it in the music:

“What music there is in the third movement!...The metaphor of a deep refreshing breath after a storm is overworked but I know of none more beautiful or appropriate...And here is the place where one who wished to earn the name of artist would have wrapped it up and celebrated a victory of art over life.”

Schumann had warned earlier though, that:

“Fiery young men whose love remains unrequited, tend, sooner or later, to throw out the inner Plato and render countless sacrifices on Epicurean alters.”

The movement undergoes an abrupt turn-about:

“But what if she betrayed him!… This mingled hope and fear, these ideas of happiness, disturbed by dark premonitions, form the subject of the adagio. At the end one of the shepherds resumes his ‘ranz des vaches’; the other one no longer answers. Distant sound of thunder… solitude… silence…”

The fourth movement is called March to the Scaffold. Listen to how Berlioz describes it:

“Convinced that his love is spurned, the artist poisons himself with opium. The dose of narcotic, while too weak to cause his death, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of visions. He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned, led to the scaffold and is witnessing his own execution..”

After saying that a true artist would have wrapped it up and called it a victory with the third movement, Schumann's Florestan concludes:

“Tasso continued on into an insane asylum. (Ft 1). But in Berlioz the old lust for destruction is doubly awakened and he lays about him with a Titan's fists. As he pictures the taking of the beloved, and as he passionately embraces the automaton figure, so does the music, ugly and vulgar, cling to his dreams and the attempted suicide. the bells toll to it, and the skeletons play wedding dances on the organ.......... Here, genius turns away weeping.”

The Fifth Movement pictures a witches' Sabbath. Again, from Berlioz' program:

“He sees himself at a witches’ sabbath, in the midst of a hideous gathering of shades, sorcerers and monsters of every kind who have come together for his funeral. Strange sounds, groans, outbursts of laughter; distant shouts which seem to be answered by more shouts. The beloved melody appears once more, but has now lost its noble and shy character; it is now no more than a vulgar dance tune, trivial and grotesque: it is she who is coming to the sabbath… Roar of delight at her arrival… She joins the diabolical orgy… The funeral knell tolls, burlesque parody of the Dies irae, the dance of the witches. The dance of the witches combined with the Dies irae.”

Poe Takes on the Matter

The great American writer, Edgar Poe, who is too often characterized as a romantic or worse, may very well have had this Berlioz story in mind in his hilarious story, The Spectacles, which deflates the romantic idea of "love at first sight." Ft 2

Poe's impassioned young man, M Froissart, begins with:

“Many years ago, it was the fashion to ridicule the idea of “love at first sight;” but those who think, not less than those who feel deeply, have always advocated its existence.”

The situation is remarkably similar. Berlioz saw Harriet at a production of Hamlet and fell in love at first sight. Poe's M. Froissart did the same at the opera. He beheld a figure in the balcony, and said:

“If I live a thousand years, I can never forget the intense emotion with which I regarded this figure. It was that of a female, the most exquisite I had ever beheld. The face was so far turned toward the stage that, for some minutes, I could not obtain a view of it—but the form was divine; no other word can sufficiently express its magnificent proportion—and even the term “divine” seems ridiculously feeble as I write it.”

There is one complication (or ironic twist in Poe’s version). M. Froissart has very weak eyes, and out of shear vanity, refuses to wear eyeglasses.

“My eyes are large and gray; and although, in fact they are weak to a very inconvenient degree, still no defect in this regard would be suspected from their appearance. The weakness itself, however, has always much annoyed me, and I have resorted to every remedy—short of wearing glasses. Being youthful and good-looking, I naturally dislike these, and have resolutely refused to employ them. I know nothing, indeed, which so disfigures the countenance of a young person.”

The question therefore becomes: What happens to love at first sight if you cannot see? In Poe’s story, the woman, Madame Eugenie Lalande and the young man's friends, play along with the young man's infatuation, and even set up a fake wedding. Only after, does he discover who he has actually married. We won't spoil it for you. Ft 3

The pathology of Berlioz deserves compassion and medical help, but not to be set on a stage, and worshipped as artistic genius.

Here’s is the audio accompanying our discussion on Berlioz: https://drive.google.com/.../1SzfPHDI6ecxJDH2J.../view...

Ft 1. Felix Mendelssohn befriended Berlioz (he may have been worried about him), but did not care for his music. He quipped that no matter how hard Berlioz tries to go mad in his symphonies, he never quite succeeds.

Ft 2. One of Poe's many functions was as a music critic in New York City, where he would likely have heard Maria Malibran, who sang there many times. Read this detailed description of a singer from Poe's The Spectacles:

It is beyond the reach of art to endow either air or recitative with more impassioned expression than was hers. Her utterance of the romance in Otello—the tone with which she gave the words Sul mio sasso, in the Capuletti—rings in the memory yet. Her lower tones were absolutely miraculous. Her voice embraced three complete octaves, extending from the contralto D to the D upper soprano, and, though sufficiently powerful to have filled the San Carlos, executed with the minutest precision, every difficulty of vocal composition-ascending and descending scales, cadences, or fiorituri. In the final of the Somnambula, she brought about a most remarkable effect at the words:

Ah! non guinge uman pensiero

Al contento ond ‘io son piena.

Here, in imitation of Malibran, she modified the original phrase of Bellini, so as to let her voice descend to the tenor G, when, by a rapid transition, she struck the G above the treble stave, springing over an interval of two octaves.

Ft 3 A bankrupt Harriet eventually married Berlioz. We will let you guess how that turned out.

Classical vs. Romantic Period: Part 7–Schumann's “Davidsbund” and Chopin

Happy New Year!

In this first episode of 2023, we resume our discussion of whether Nineteenth century music can best be understood by a situation in which such contradictions as truth and fairy tales, reason and blind emotion, science and magic, patriotic republican fervor to move forward and a longing for a past feudal fantasy, can be merged into a bland porridge; or whether our appreciation shall be much enhanced by a fine analysis of the battle between the continuing Classical tradition and the upstart Romantic movement.

Shortly after the death of Beethoven in 1827, Robert Schumann and his friends saw that musical composition is deteriorating, as classical rigor was being replaced with unbounded fantasy and its flip side, literalism (as found in program music). He and his friends met informally to play and discuss new music. He called this informal grouping the Davidsbund—referring to the Biblical David fighting the Philistines. He founded a periodical called "Neue Zeitschrift für Music" in 1834, in order to establish a level of music criticism, which, unlike the puffed-up, self-important reviewers whose columns appeared in news publications, would establish a consistent level of rigor for future musical composition.

Without reference to the terms, which would only later become clear, he was delineating the differences between the classical and romantic methods: he was fighting the Philistines (a Philistine is someone who has no use for beauty, art or intellect. There are plenty of them around today, the kind of person who only wants to know " What's the bottom line?")

One of his associates wished to publish only positive reviews. Schumann's famous response was: "He who fails to attack the bad, only half-way defends the good."

Schumann's first review came earlier in 1831. On obtaining the score for an unknown named Chopin, he penned an article entitled "An Opus 2!" Chopin had composed his Variations on "La ci Darem la Mano", an aria from Mozart's “Don Giovanni”, in 1827 in Poland at the age of 17 ((news travelled much slower in those days). Poland was considered far removed from the musical capitals of the world, and for a teenager to accomplish this was considered unfathomable. In his review, Schumann remarked, "Hats off Gentlemen, a Genius."

For those not familiar with this wonderful music, here is Mozart's seemingly innocent duet, where Don Giovanni is out to seduce a woman on her wedding day. He calls it, "an innocent love," ...

https://youtu.be/-iZHwbxLBO0

... and here is Chopin's wonderful set of variations on that same theme. Before stating the theme, Chopin begins with an introduction that hints at it. Schumann says of it: "I thought I could hear Mozart's "La ci Darem la Mano", woven through a hundred chords."

https://youtu.be/AnjXebgNGTI

However, most of this early review by Schumann is too flowery, too literal, and too romantic. Schumann was grounded in Bach, Plato and Beethoven, and also supported the idea of a republic. This grounding, I believe, enabled him to sort things out as he grew.

Five years later, he published a review of Chopin's Piano Concerti. He attacked supercilious critics, who declared Chopin's works as "not worth burning", and wrote:

“What are an entire year's issues of a musical journal against a Concerto by Chopin? What are the ravings of a pedant against those of a poet? What are ten editors' crowns against the Adagio of the Second Concerto?”

Chopin was informed by the music of Bach and bel-canto singing. He had a simple but beautiful poetic idea for the opening of this Adagio. "Imagine yourself in a beloved childhood area that you have not seen in years. It's dark and you can't see anything. Gradually your eyes adjust and it comes into clear view." When this Adagio is played well, Chopin's mastery of the bel-canto singing voice also comes into clear view.

https://youtu.be/MsIzN8YRsgU

More to come from Chopin.

Schubert's “Death and the Maiden”

Classical Principle Weekly

Dec 13, 2022

Schubert's “Death and the Maiden”:

One great thing about classical art is that it does not preach or moralize. It does not  attempt to teach a lesson. Rather, it leaves the audience free to figure out the solutions for themselves. That does not mean that such art is dispassionate, neutral, or devoid of emotion. Nor is it value-free. Neither is it the liberal "It can mean whatever you want it to mean." It is extremely passionate and holds to deep values. Yet, even in the most heated passion, it prefers to be thought-provoking, rather than didactic.  When a person discovers something through their own powers of reason, their discovery will be real in a way that artificially induced beliefs will not.  

Matthias Claudius (1740-1815), wrote this poem, “Death and the Maiden” ("Der Tod und das Mädchen") in 1774. 

German                                                                  English

Das Mädchen:                                The Maiden:

Vorüber! Ach, vorüber!                 Go away!, Oh go away!

Geh, wilder Knochenmann!          Go, you wild man made of bones!

Ich bin noch jung! Geh, Lieber,    I am not young! Go, lover.

Und rühre mich nicht an.              And do not touch me.

Und rühre mich nicht an.             And do not touch me.

 Der Tod:                                                                       Death    

 Gieb deine Hand, du schön und zart Gebild!     

                                                                       Give me your hand,  

                                                                 you beautiful tender vision!

Bin Freund, und komme nicht, zu strafen.   I am a friend, and come 

                                                                     not to punish you,

Sey gutes Muths! Ich bin nicht wild,   Be of good cheer. I am not 

                                                            fierce,

Sollst sanft in meinen Armen schlafen!   Softly, in my arms, shall you 

                                                                sleep!                      

The poem is designed as a dialogue. How is it to be read? The reciter must obviously create two different voices. The meter helps. The maiden speaks in iambic trimeter (three iambs per line). Death speaks in iambic tetrameter (four iambs per line, except the first which is five.)

What does it mean? The most common interpretation is that it means exactly what it says, that death comes as a comforter, a friend. We live in an age when euthanasia is promoted as caring, and offering relief from pain. But it is also a cost-cutting measure with tremendous potential for for abuse, where some people who are on the edge of despair and require actual comfort, are pressured  “not to be a burden," and agree to end their lives.

In Renaissance paintings, “Death and the Maiden” referred to the kidnapping of Persephone by Hades, the king of the underworld.

How does Schubert set it? A piano prelude in D minor sets a sad tone. The maiden's distraught entrance changes the tone entirely, as she tells death to "get lost."  Death then sings softly on top of the opening piano motif, and on a monotone for most of the first two lines. Is that comforting or menacing?  Does it lack emotion because it's dead? Or is that menace hidden behind a seductive quality?

Listen to the great Marion Anderson

https://youtu.be/9x0kkbjM2nQ

The final tone, if the singer has the range, is a low D. Suddenly it sounds like a man's voice. It reminds us of Schubert's setting of Goethe's “Erlkonig”, where a seductive Elf, suddenly reveals his threatening nature. 

In this recording, Nathalie Stutzmann sings death's repeated tones without vibrato, giving it an even more eerie and lifeless quality. 

https://youtu.be/vVOYjaMvVvM

The piece ends with a repeat of the opening piano phrase, but in D major. We will leave you to contemplate why.

Classical Music and Folk Music in Ibero-America Part 4: The 20th century

Classical Principle Weekly

December 6, 2022

Classical Music and Folk Music in Ibero-America Part 4: The 20th century

Although some Ibero-American composers were drawn into the dead-ends of artificial European trends in atonality and dodecaphony, many of them were too deeply rooted in political reality to endorse theories so existential, so meaningless to their people, and so lacking in any kind of physical basis in natural law. Instead, we hear the love of Bach. We hear the love of Mozart in Nunes Garcia. Although not so much the spirit of Beethoven. Perhaps we missed it. We would be very please, if you, dear readers, will educate us. 

The modern virtuoso guitar tradition is seen as flowing from Spain, through Francisco Tarrega, Miguel Llobet, and especially, Andres Segovia. Although nothing should be denied to these men, a virtuoso tradition was also developing in Ibero-America. 

VENEZUELA

We mentioned in Part 3 that Federico Villena  developed the Venezuelan waltz, which incorporated many indigenous rhythms. Raul Borjes (1882-1967) advanced the Venezuelan waltz. 

1. FLORES DE LA MONTAÑA: Raul Borges

https://youtu.be/mkvu7semSAE

Borjes taught Alirio Diaz and Antonio Lauro. 

When Diaz wished to attend Segovia's master classes, Segovia responded that he had nothing to teach him. When Diaz insisted, Segovia made him his assistant teacher. Here is Diaz playing traditional Venezuelian folk music. I could not separate various pieces, so it's the entire album. Listen to as much or as little as you would like. 

be/gsPBfsE2_oY https://youtu.

Antonio Lauro composed Venezuelan waltzes, the best known of which is number 3, "Natalia." When performed properly, the indigenous and African accents combine with the Bach-like property of creating multiple voices in a single voice. Listen carefully. This piece often consists of a single line of music that, like Bach's solo suites and partitas for violin, imply multiple voices. Many players blur this quality. Here, Sharon Isbin plays it, to our mind, correctly.

2. “Venezuelan waltz No. 3”: Antonio Lauro- played by Sharon Isbin.

     https://youtu.be/A6FV7Xim6fY

In 1931 Venzuelan composer Juan Bautista Plaza composed his Fuga Criollo. He integrated Venezuelan melodies and rhythms with the fugue, especially a dance called the Joropo. 

3. Here is a traditional “Joropo”. 

https://youtu.be/GkTZ1JynFT8

Here is his Fuga Criolla, also in 6/8 time. The very act of a fugal setting  of a Joropo, poses a challenge between what you think you know, and what is new.

4. “Fuga Criolla”: Juan Bautista Plaza

https://youtu.be/H1aGqALjxRM

CUBA

5. Here is an anonymous “Danza Cubana” for 2 guitars.

https://youtu.be/SrGiWSUuICA

Although Estaban Salas Y Castro was primarily a classical century composer, this villancico exudes some of the same spirit as the previous  Danza Cubana:

6. “Que niño tan bello: Estaban Salas Y Castro”

https://youtu.be/WF4UgxFxp6s

7. Here is his “Un Musiquito Nuevo: Estaban Salas Y Castro”

https://youtu.be/QVw8CnEHNiY

 ECUADOR

This traditional Ecuadorian Pasillo features 3 guitars playing very simple lines.

 8. “Pasillo”

https://youtu.be/L2lcVyyl798

Carlos Bonilla Chavez (1923-2010), founder of  Ecuadorian classical guitar, played a Pasillo on one guitar. He also introduced some rhythmic complexities, but in the same 6/8 time.

  9. “Cantares del Alma”: Carlos Bonilla Chavez

  https://youtu.be/qVcV0EwHW_g

ARGENTINA

 Argentine guitarist and composer created this Danza Brasilera.

10. “Danza Brasilera” 

https://youtu.be/o1jJ9ziAR5o

Argentina's Carlos Guastavino (1912-2000) was sometimes known as "The Schubert of the Pampas." Listen to his haunting "La Rosa y sauce" (The Rose and the Willow). 

11. “La Rosa y el sauce”: Carlos Guastavino

https://youtu.be/eBhs9zxzyxc?list=TLPQMjAxMTIwMjJqTngjur8O

Julián Aguirre (1868- 1924), was also from Argentina

12. “Triste No. 5”: Julián Aguirre

https://youtu.be/5cjMkzVFiq4

Here is his Aire Criollos number 3

13.  Aire Criollos number 3: Julián Aguirre

https://youtu.be/ZV50fuh3Mqw

Here is a waltz by Argentine Alberto Williams (1862-1952), grandson of Almancio Jacinto Alcorta, cited in Part 3.  It is in what is sometimes called A B A form. The idea of that form as cyclical, misses the actual transformation. The first half of this waltz is beautiful, but is it an example of creative genius? That question is often best addressed by comparing the irony between the main theme and the middle section. He fares well.

14. Waltz: Alberto Williams

     https://youtu.be/p0wK-57aZo0

                                                                   PARAGUAY

From Paraguay we have Augustin Barrios. The Jesuit reductions had been founded among the Guarini people. Domenico Zipoli taught there. The Jesuits were then kicked out of Ibero America. Later in the century, Brazil's Carlos Gomez wrote an opera, " O Guarini" in respect of the Guarini people. Barrios  may have been born in the Jesuit center of Missiones. He was fluent in music, poetry, and languages (including Guarini). Being of partially Guarini origin, he adopted the name Mangoré (after a Guarini chief), and often played in full Indian garb (see video). Some of his contemporaries thought him to be a better guitarist than Segovia, who spent a lot of time in Ibero America. 

Not to take away from Segovia's accomplishments,but his reputation as sole founder of modern guitar may be exaggerated. Barrios played his composition "La Cathedral" (The Cathedral), with its Bach-like fast section for Segovia, who may have been intimidated by it. Here is a rare 1933 recording of  Augustin Barrios Mangoré playing his own composition, "La Cathedral." 

15. “La Cathedral”: Augustin Barrios "Mangoré"

https://youtu.be/sUSknJSDiME

If you wonder about a few mistakes, one was obliged in those days, to keep a recording within a time limit, often meaning one had to play too fast. 

     BRAZIL

Brazil's Heitor Villa Lobos was, to our mind, a mixed bag. He sought to develop the folk music of Brazil, and helped establish musical teaching institutions. He called many of his pieces “Bachianas Brazileiras”, but to us, only one of them sounds anything like Bach—No. 4–but only for a while. Many feature too much of the 20th century emphasis on dissonance.  Villa Lobos eschewed formal musical training, which may have hindered his ability to invoke the spirit of Bach. He dedicated his Etudes to Andres Segovia, and this one is like a Bach prelude.

16. “Etude No. 2”: Heitor Villa Lobos

https://youtu.be/_Vc-SgD0XTw

His "Choros" were based on skilled street musicians, who could play in many styles. Here, the late great Julian Bream plays his Gavotte Choro.

17. “Gavotte Choro”: Villa Lobos

https://youtu.be/eKwVI4y2ld.

Villa Lobos is usually portrayed as an amateur guitarist, who needed Segovia to bring his works to fruition. Again, wefind this a bit suspicious. Here he is playing his Choro # 1, beautifully, and expertly.

18. Villa Lobos plays his “Choros No. 1”: 1939

https://youtu.be/U-aeiCvQL8w

https://youtu.be/UZkEYK4WKKg

 MEXICO 

Manuel María Ponce Cuéllar (1882 – 1948) combined Mexican folk music with classical beauty. This Andante has a Bach-like quality to it. 

19. Sonata Classic II: Manuel Ponce

         https://youtu.be/HIQLs1zvfVs

How shall we end? You may recall that in the late 18th century, the composer Joseph Bologne (Chevalier de St Georges- sometimes known as the black Mozart), went to Haiti to join the slave revolution. In the early 20th century, Ludovic LaMothe was known as the black Chopin. His song “Nibo”, became a liberation anthem, as it celebrated the withdrawal of American troops in 1934, after an almost 20 year occupation. Here is his Ballade in A minor.

20. “Ballade in A minor”: Ludovic LaMothe

https://youtu.be/S03WC8ov1co

How beautiful is this music from Haiti!

Classical Music and Folk Music in Ibero-America Part 3: the Revolutionary Nineteenth Century

Classical Principle Weekly

November 29, 2022

Classical  Music and Folk Music in Ibero-America Part 3: the Revolutionary Nineteenth Century

The Nineteenth century was a very exciting time for Ibero-America, and its music. Up until then, the new music of Ibero-America, although integrated with local folk music, still largely followed European trends. Now, it sought independence from Europe (though never abandoning what Europe had accomplished), as virtually all of Ibero-America moved towards  independence, and fought to become Republics. (Even though many nations experienced different steps towards independence over the years, most of them took the first steps between 1800 and 1830).

Despite whatever flaws Ibero-America may have inherited from the French Revolution and elsewhere, it is today, almost all independent, with the exception of a few islands in the Caribbean.  One cannot help but think that the high level of musical culture established in Ibero-America from the very beginning (see Part 1) contributed to the ideas of patriotism and independence.

                               VENEZUELA 

Take José Lino Gallardo (1773-1837), and Juan Francisco Meserón (1779-1850?)

As a core part of their openly expressed patriotism, these composers participated in institutionalizing musical education as an essential part of nation building. José Lino Gallardo established a music academy and philharmonic society in early 1800s. Meserón wrote “Explicación y conocimiento de los principios generales de la Música” (1824), the first book on music theory in Venezuela.

1. Canción Americana :José Lino Gallardo (1773-1837)

    https://youtu.be/dMVI8K9Zmvw

2. Colombianos, la fama publica (1827): Juan Francisco Meserón (1779-1850?)

    https://youtu.be/IdURCdmF9ss

While such men composed such openly patriotic vocal works, great instrumental beauty complemented such sentiment. Two generations later, Felipe Larrazábal (1816-73), who studied with Meserón—a prominent politician, journalist and lawyer—founded a journal, El Patriota, governed a province, wrote one of the first biographies of Bolivar, and drafted the Law for the Abolition of Slavery in Venezuela. He was also one of the best Venezuelan pianists and composers.

The 3rd movement of this delightful Mendelssohn-like trio, displays the same spirit and soul:

3. Trio # 2 in A - 3rd movement: Felipe Larrazábal 

https://youtu.be/u83f8ltFLTQ 

Later in the century, Venezuelan composer Federico Villena (1835-1889 ), composed a Quintet with the same unusual instruments employed by Franz Schubert in his Trout Quintet (including a double bass.) We present the entire Quintet for your enjoyment. 

4. Quintet in e minor: Federico Villena

https://youtu.be/Ld2dcGYvRHU

He is also said to be the father of the Venezuelan Waltz, which changed the European waltz in form, and by adding African and local rhythms. We shall hear some Venezuelan waltzes in part 4, the 20th century. Meanwhile here is a beautiful performance of a Peruvian waltz.

5. https://youtu.be/ZzGOFEb10mQ

                           GUADELOUPE 

But before we continue, we must return to the previous century and acknowledge a leading revolutionary of the era—the French-speaking Joseph Bologne (1746-1799), also known as the Chevalier Saint Georges. He was the son of a wealthy planter in Guadeloupe, and a 16-year-old African slave girl named Nanon. Fortunately his father acknowledged him, and sent him off to Paris at age 7 with his mother, where they might have a better chance. 

There, he rose to heights. He excelled in violin, fencing, conducting, and dancing, just to name a few. He joined the bodyguard of the King, and became music teacher to Marie Antoinette. He commissioned Haydn to compose the "Paris Symphonies" for his orchestra "Le Concert Olympique", and he conducted their world premiers. When he was nominated to conduct the Paris Opera though, racism reared its ugly head, and objections were made because of his skin color.  He withdrew.  In 1778 he lived for 2.5 months next to Mozart in the Chaussee d'Antin. Some say that Mozart’s famous “Sinfonia concertante in E-flat major, K.364” came from St. Georges’ Sinfornia Concertante, the form of which St. Georges created the year before. Beethoven is said to have admired him. He later became an abolitionist and travelled to London to meet with William Wilberforce and the King, to lobby against slavery. 

When the French Revolution broke out, he formed an all-black regiment, the Legion de St. Georges, to defend France (in 1790?) Later, like LaFayette, he was imprisoned.  The revolution in St. Domingue (which in 1804 established the free nation of Haiti) broke out in 1791. (ft1) Boulogne went to Haiti to serve as a military leader, and to found an orchestra. 

6. Sinfonia Concertante in G major: Chevalier de St. Georges-Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble

 https://youtu.be/VRBUA5rgaLs

Ft 1 This is one of the great failures of civilization. The world should have welcomed the first slaves' revolt.  It inspired many, including in South America.  Toussaint L'Ouverture was inspired by the French and American revolutions. It was the first revolution in the western hemisphere after the American Revolution. He sought their support. The British, even while at war with France, sent troops to suppress him. The U.S. betrayed him. Napoleon betrayed him. The son of General Rochambeau, who played a key role in the American victory at Yorktown, loaded sulphur on to ships full of slave rebels, set the ships afire, and called it "fumigation." Their punishment  for that rebellion, is that today, Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. 

                         ARGENTINA 

Music and political advances were closely connected in Argentina. A few historic Argentinians served as both politicians and composers. It’s quite wonderful to see. 

1. Amancio Jacinto Alcorta (1805-1862) was elected in 1826 to the Argentine Congress.  He formed part of the modern Senate's first Committee on Customs Regulation. He was also a noted supporter of the expansion of domestic credit, which he hoped could avoid excess reliance on the often usurious loans obtained in Paris. He wrote a treatise, “Banks and Their Usefulness in Argentina”, which lead to his appointment to the Public Credit Administration, and he served as President of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange from 1855 to 1857. With all this and 9 children he managed to compose numerous waltzes, minuets, nocturnes and contra dances, as well as numerous pieces of chamber music for piano and flute, as well as numerous works of sacred music. 

2. Juan Pedro Esnaola  (1808-1878), from Buenos Aires occupied several official positions, including the administration of the Serenos (night watchmen), the direction of the provincial mint, the presidency of the bourgeois Club del Progreso (1858), and that of the Bank of the Province of Buenos Aires (1866).

2. Alcorta's friend, Juan Bautista Alberdi (1810 – 1884) was an Argentine political theorist and diplomat who influenced the Argentina Constitution of 1853.  Although he worked to balance national and local interests, he was heavily in favor of a strong federal system to create a unified state. 

7. The following link presents 3 Minuets, by Alcorta, Esnaola, and Alberdi, in that order. 

https://youtu.be/PkJpyKIhvlI

Alcorta begins at 00:00. Esnaola at 03:25. Alberdi at 05:19

Later in the century, Afro-Argentine composer Zenón Rolón (1856-1902), who had studied with fellow Afro-Argentine, Alfredo Quiroga, organist of the Iglesia de la Merced (Church of Our Lady of Mercy), wrote “Dos palabras a mis hermanos de casta” (Two Words to my Caste Brothers), a political pamphlet on the role of Afro-Argentines in wider Argentine culture. He wrote a Funeral March for the Argentinian hero, known as the liberator of Argentina Chile and Peru, General Jose de San Martin. Rolón himself conducted its premiere performance when San Martín's remains were repatriated to Argentina in 1880. He also began a music publishing company to promote the works of Argentinian composers.

8. ¡Ay! Madre mía! ZENÓN ROLÓN 

  https://youtu.be/IJ9I5AkVOng

Francisco Hargreaves was an Argentinian opera composer. Here is a Tango-like piece by him.

9. La Rubia: Francisco Hargreaves

https://youtu.be/OJ0HKlc-aFY

                          BOLIVIA 

Modesta Sanjinés Uriarte (1832-1887 was a Bolivian composer. Her "El Alto de Alianza"  (the end of the alliance) lamented the end of the Peru-Bolivia alliance against Chile with the battle of Tacna.

10. https://youtu.be/cSx FOxeS 1h8

                             BRAZIL 

The great José Maurício Nunes Garcia (1767–1830) reached new heights in Brazil, and became, in fact, Director of Music for the Portuguese Empire, unprecedented for a mulatto. Listen to  his 1809 “Te Deum”, and you will understand why (See Classical Principle of Aug 9th )

Nunes Garcia trained most of the next generation of Brazilian musicians. He was so poor that they all learned on one guitar that they shared. One of his students, Francisco Manuel da Silva, founded the Imperial Academia de Música e Ópera Nacional (National Imperial Music and Opera Academy), of Sociedade Beneficência Musical e Conservatório Imperial de Música, which became Instituto Nacional de Música (Nacional Music Institute) and is called the Rio de Janeiro University Music School.

Da Silva composed the Brazilian National Anthem, but saved its release for the very day in 1831, April 13th, when the Emperor resigned and sailed back to Portugal. It sounds like an opera chorus, and to this day it poses a real challenge to soccer fans. How can fans remain silent when their national anthem is playing?

11. Hino National Braziliero: Francisco Manuel da Silva

https://youtu.be/SyyOahYXhUQ

Louis Moreau Gottschalk was a U.S. patriotic composer, who made Fantasias on "The Union", and The Battle Cry of Freedom", celebrating the Union’s victory in the Civil War.  He was a good enough pianist, that Frederick Chopin told him that he had the potential to become the best in the world. He lived in Brazil, and wrote a Fantasy on their national anthem. Unfortunately his music can tend towards the "flashy" side.

Late in the 19th century, Alberto Nepomuceno (1864-1920), defended republican and abolitionist causes, and was active in campaigns that ultimately led to the overthrow of the Monarchy and the establishment of the First Brazilian Republic in 1889. 

He actively championed the use of the Portuguese language in opera and song, against those who thought the language was unsuitable for bel canto singing, and composed mostly in Italian. Here are two songs by him, in Portuguese, that incorporate folk elements.

12. Xácara" and "Cantilena:  Alberto Nepomuceno

https://youtu.be/UUX1uLYp3II

He also undertook the difficult task of setting a Sonnet by Dante Alighieri, in Italian. The sonnet is from  Dante’s “Vita Nuova”, and describes Beatrice, who guides Dante through Paradiso. 

Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare

la donna mia quand’ella altrui saluta,

ch’ogne lingua devien tremando muta,

e li occhi no l’ardiscon di guardare.

Ella si va, sentendosi laudare,

benignamente d’umiltà vestuta;

e par che sia una cosa venuta

da cielo in terra a miracol mostrare.

Mostrasi sì piacente a chi la mira,

che dà per li occhi una dolcezza al core,

che ’ntender no la può chi no la prova:

e par che de la sua labbia si mova

uno spirito soave pien d’amore,

che va dicendo a l’anima: sospira

( this translation may not be the best and we welcome a better one:

So kind and so honest

my lady seems, when she greets others,

that every tongue becomes, trembling, mute,

and their eyes do not dare to look.

She goes, feeling praised, 

dressed in kindness and humility,

and it seems that it is something that has come

from heaven to earth, to show a miracle.

Showing itself so pleasant to those who aim at it

 who give a sweetness to the heart of her through their eyes,

that 'ntender can't do it who can't try it;

and it seems that from her lips moves

a sweet spirit full of love,

which is saying to her soul: she sighs. 

13. Un soneto del Dante: Alberto Nepomuceno

https://youtu.be/Ih5olndP36M

                                MEXICO  

Cenobio Paniagua y Vásques (1821-) conducted the same Cathedral of Mexico City as Zumaya and Ignacio Jerusalem y Stella in the previous century (see Part 2), but also composed this rousing chorus: 

14. La independencia: Cenobio Paniagua y Vásques (September 30, 1821-1882)

https://youtu.be/PvB0jrpqfuU

Later in the century,  Felipe de Jesús Villanueva Gutiérrez (1862 -1893) composed a tribute for piano, to Mexican President Juarez, who had collaborated with Abraham Lincoln.

15. Lamento a la memoria del gran patricio Benito Juárez: Felipe de Jesús Villanueva Gutiérrez (1862 -1893) https://youtu.be/1oNhIzyzjG8

On a less programmatic note, he composed classical dances.

16. Tercera Mazurka, Op 27: Felipe Villanueva

https://youtu.be/rm_Cj0FV0c0

If you have ever been ice skating, you have heard the waltz, " Sobre los Olas". What you may not know, is that it was conducted by a young Otomi Mexican, Juventino Rosas, who began as a street musician, and only lived to the tender age of 26. It is so good, that it was long attributed to Johann Strauss Jr.!

17. Sobre los Olas: Juventino Rosas:

     https://youtu.be/N2YvhEv7ykM

                         PUERTO RICO 

Manuel Gregorio Tavárez Ropero (1843 –1883), was known as the "Chopin of America," and "Father of the Puerto Rican Danza." This piece features local dance rhythms in its middle section.

18. La Sensitiva: Manuel G. Tavarez

https://youtu.be/Z00gXQbJbpM

Felipe Gutierrez y Espinosa (1825-1899) was another famous Puerto Rican composer.

19. La Despedida (The Farewell): Felipe Gutierrez y Espinosa

https://youtu.be/nKrCYO7POd0

We apologize to composers, or even entire nations that have been left out. It is a huge area.  We hope that these postings encourage more research and discourse. 

We will end with the Brazilian composer, Carlos Gomez (1836-1896), who, in the late 19th century, was the first Ibero-American composer to win the acclaim of Europe, including their greatest opera composer, Verdi, who said that Gomez' operas expressed "true musical genius." (See posting of August 9th)

He composed "Lo Schiavo" polemicizing aginst the institution of slavery, as well as “Il Guarany”, prtraying the virtue of the native people in the Paraguay area, as well as " A Salute from Brazil" for the American Centennial exhibition in Philadelphia.

A young Alberto Nepomuceno became head of the Carlos Gomez Club in 1882 at the age of 18. You can hear his Ave Maria, and duet from I Guarini. 

The wealth of beautiful music is stunning. No other colonization in the world ever experienced such an infusion of culture. Equally stunning is that it had functioned, from the earliest efforts, in the service of freedom.

Part 4 will discuss the 20th century.

The Classical Principle: Classical music and folk music in Ibero- America: Part 2. 1700-1800

Classical Principle Weekly

November 22, 2022

The Classical Principle: Classical music and folk music in Ibero- America: Part 2. 1700-1800 

In the first part of this series, we covered classical music in Ibero-America and its interaction with folk music, from its inception in the mid-1500's to the end of the 17th century. Now, in parts 2 and 3, we will examine the tremendous progress over the next two centuries. Part 4 will be on the 20th century.

There are many musical examples in this post. We want to emphasize two things to our readers:

1. European composers incorporated native folk music into their scores. However, that does not mean that everything in the featured recordings is in the score. Modern performances take a lot of liberties in incorporating percussion, flutes etc. It often works, because the music was reaching out to indigenous practices. But if anyone wishes to perform one of these pieces, we recommend looking at the score first. We have eschewed performances that take to many liberties. The interplay between cultures is what matters.

2. There is so much wonderful music, that we apologize for anything left out. 

We mentioned in Part 2 that “Hymn to the Virgin” of Guadeloupe may well have been composed by a Mexican student of Hernando Franco, and thus be the first classical work composed by a native Mexican. That, however, is not certain. What is certain, is that after   years of European leadership (Bermudez, Fernandes, Padilla), Juan Garcia de Zespedes (1619-1678), who was born in Puebla, became a singer in Juan Padilla's chorus at the age of 11, and, that after Padilla's death in 1664, Zespedes led that same chorus, at that same Cathedral, even though he was not fully trusted with the title of Maestro de Capilla until 1670. This is reminiscent of the process we followed in Russia (see Classical Principle June 1st, 2022). There, Italian opera composers were brought in for 70 years to train and build the chorus. Finally, the Ukrainian-born composer, Dmitro Bortniansky, after a long apprenticeship in Italy, became the first locally-produced musician good enough to lead music for the Czar's Imperial Chapel Chorus.

 Zespedes conducted, composed, taught, played the viol, and performed religious functions.  His musical compositions ranged from sacred pieces to secular pieces inspired by folk music.

 Here is his Villancico, "Convidando está la noche" (Inviting is the night). A Villancico is a religious piece played in a popular style. This is a Christmas song.

1. Convivando está la noche: Juan Garcia de Zespedes

https://youtu.be/ZBMi8qdQGUc

 The Guaracha is a comical piece that originates in Cuba. Here is Zespedes' "Ay que me abrazo" If it reminds some listeners of the "Canarios" of Spain's Gaspar Sanz, it's not plagiarism. Composers often used the same progressions. 

2. Ay que me abrazo: Juan Garcia de Zespedes

https://youtu.be/492HFO2SDfY

THE 18TH CENTURY

The next century brought an explosion of progress into music. In the Ibero-American part of the New World, that progress combined new levels of play between classical and folk music, as well as the introduction of opera.

We ended Part 1 with Domenico Zipoli (1688-1726). Let us open the 18th century with him. This Adagio is unlike anything we have heard so far. He operated though, in the Jesuit Reductions of Paraguay, controversial institutions that were eventually expelled. 

3. Adagio for Oboe, Cello, organ and orchestra: Domenico Zipoli

https://youtu.be/tMTMAoRceJY

Santiago de Murcia, an excellent guitarist, probably never set foot in the Americas, but his works were well known there. Here is a popular dance called the Fandango by him from 1730. The dance is probably of Moorish origin. (See Classical Principle on Convivencia Oct 11th). 

4. Fandango: Santiago de Murcia

https://youtu.be/I3gXoZli5mk

This first opera composed in the New World was in Peru, in the year 1701, by Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco (1644-1728), " La púrpura de la rosa" (The Blood of the Rose). We cannot convey a conception of the opera here. Please join us in delighting in the vocal qualities present in 1701 Peru:

5. From La Purpura de la  rosa , Calderón de la Barca - Torrejón y Velasco

https://youtu.be/SJxSiQdsHm8

The opera includes a movement based on the Fandango

6.La Púrpura de la rosa: La Chácara

https://youtu.be/jQQ_2mjuP_w

José de Orejón y Aparicio (1705-1765)was born in Peru, and studied with the Italian master Roque Ceruti. His "A del dia, A de la  Fiesta", also has some of the qualities of a Fandango. 

7.  A del dia, A de la  Fiesta: José de Orejón y Aparicio

https://youtu.be/jUlAFspJids

Here is a beautiful work by him:

8. Mariposa de sus Rayos: José de Orejón y Aparicio

    https://youtu.be/FzcgDAZ_Jwo?list=TLPQMTcxMTIwMjIRDK0u7EeTMA

Manuel de Sumaya (1680-1755) was born in Mexico, and entered the choir of the Cathedral of Mexico City at age 10. Four years later, the chapel master, Antonio de Salazar, recognizing his talents, obtained special leave for Sumaya to travel and study the organ. He composed the first opera in Mexico in 1711, and was appointed chapel master of the large and important Cathedral of Mexico City in 1715. Under his tenure the Cathedral acquired  "violins, violas, violincellos, horns, bugles, basses, bass and other wind instruments"; He mastered  both "Renaissance" and "Baroque" styles. You can hear that in these two selections. The first, represents a (modern) world premier.

9. Adjuva nos Deos: Manuel de Sumaya

https://youtu.be/w5Jsy63sQ5k

     Adjuva nos, Deus salutaris noster,

     et propter gloriam nominis tui Domine libera nos.

     Et propitius esto peccatis nostris, propter nomen sanctum tuum. 

     Help us, O God, of our salvation;

     and for the honour of thy name deliver us.

     O Lord, Be merciful to our sins, for the sake of your holy name.

(The next  possibly concerns the story of Saint Peter.)

10. O Muro mas que Humano: Manuel se Sumaya

   https://youtu.be/9NJyk9sR6jU

Sumaya was succeeded at the Cathedral of Mexico City by Ignacio Jerusalem y Stella (1707-1769), who made good use of Sumaya's building of an instrumental inventory.

11. ¡Clarines, Sonad! (Let the trumpets sound):  Ignacio Jerusalem y Stella

   https://youtu.be/UzFhGOvrfw8

Raphael Antonio Castellanos (1735-1791) was born in Guatemala, and remained there all his life. He studied under his uncle, and eventually replaced him as chapel master.   

12. Dulces Philomenes:Raphael Antonio Castellanos

  https://youtu.be/z-yqYGUvAWA

The Codex Martínez Compañón (c.1782–1785), is a manuscript edited in nine volumes, assembled by the bishop of Trujillo-Peru, containing 1,411 watercolours and 20 musical scores, often called Tonados, documenting life in his diocese. This work was sent to King Charles IV of Spain, who included it in the Royal Library in 1803. 

The Chimur culture was wiped out by the Incas before the Spaniards arrived. The Tonado de Chimo is the only work left in their extinct Mochica language. Notice an eerie similarity to Chopin's funeral march from much later.

13. Tonado de Chimo: from the Codex Martínez Compañón

    https://youtu.be/LG1HHqkQqyY

14. Baile de Chimo (Dance from Chimo): from the Codex Martínez Compañón

     https://youtu.be/z7VP2vHTjt0

In closing, though we covered Brazil on August 9th, we will repeat the piece that made Jose Mauricio Nunes Garcia  famous in 1790, his Funeral Symphony. I hear the spirits of Haydn and Mozart in this.

15.Sinfonia Fúnebre 1790: Jose Mauricio Nunes Garcia

 https://youtu.be/hPviAq38CSs

We hope this may have challenged some of your preconceptions, in a joyous process of discovery. More to come!

Classical and Folk Music in Ibero-America

Classical Principle Weekly

November 14, 2022

Classical and Folk Music in Ibero-America

Part 1: The 16th-17th centuries 

Ibero-America (countries or territories in the Americas where Spanish or Portuguese are predominant languages) has an astounding repertoire of classical music, much of which derives partly from its beautiful folk music. We have covered some of this in the case of Brazil, and the amazing Jose Mauricio Nunes Garcia, in the August 9th posting. We recommend combining that article with this 4-part series for a fuller picture of this rich history of the region and its great music. 

The best known music from south of the Rio Grande comes from the twentieth century, and we find a very important role there for the guitar, as well as a love of Bach, which tells us that both the music and the guitar were there from the beginning. Before addressing what came before though, a few words are necessary. 

Only a few decades ago, Columbus' mission to found a New World was accepted as one of the greatest advances in history. Now, a cynical cancel-culture tells us that it should never have happened. Though our purpose here, is not to take sides, but to identify the role of the establishment of great music in the New World; the truth, however, is that it was a battleground, and a few things have to be understood, in order to understand the role of this music. 

THE NEW WORLD: SLAVERY OR EVANGELIZATION?

Great minds like Nicholas of Cusa, Erasmus, Rabelais, Thomas More, Shakespeare, and Cervantes—all saw the New World as a way to outflank the entrenched European oligarchy, and finally establish a society where all mankind could become as brothers. That oligarchy saw the spread of mass slavery as their best shot to subvert this brotherhood. 

From 1501-1518, a raging battle took place over the mass shipment of black African slaves to the New World. The great artist, Albrecht Durer drew these heads of an African Man and Woman in 1508 (see picture 1).  Unlike the caricatures of Africans at the time, which were meant to desensitize people to slavery, Durer's works show the inner beauty of their souls. He depicts them as  loving and fully human. Durer should be regarded as part of the Christian opposition to slavery. The same goes for Sir Thomas Moore. In his 1516 book, “Utopia”, Moore could not oppose slavery outright, but insisted that it should not be hereditary, or racial, and that the only people who should be slaves should be criminals, who had been sentenced to death, and thus find a reprieve in enslavement. 

Previously all "races" had been subject to slavery if they were conquered in war. The identification of skin color as grounds to enslave an entire people was new and barbaric, and meant to undermine the New World, which still had very few slaves at that early point. From 1501-1518, black African slaves could not be sent directly to the New World. They had to pass through Madrid or Lisbon first, and did so only in small numbers. But in 1518, Emperor Charles V granted a charter allowing the direct shipment of 4,000 slaves from Africa to the colonies. That was a severe blow against the New World idea.

Many of the Conquistadors and planters were desperate to enslave the native population, but were hampered by the fact that Queen Isabella had forbidden it. So had the Pope, saying that they should be converted to Christianity, and not enslaved, although he left a loophole by saying that they could be enslaved if they rejected Christianity. The Conquistadors and theirs contemporaries then made their attempt at converting the "natives" as perfunctory as they could, merely going through the motions. Because they did not want Christians!  They wanted the natives as slaves!

Sometime in the 1520's, those who were dedicated to the New World idea got serious about evangelization.  For them, "Christianizing the natives" was not just a matter of the religion they so fervently believed in, but integrating them into an advanced civilization, and thus rescuing them from slavery. This required all the beauty that this advanced civilization had created, and music was a key part of it. The wealth of composers and great music in Ibero-America over the next three centuries is astounding. Some of the best composers from Spain, Portugal, and Italy came over. 

There is room for argument that the reason for this was also control. The French Empire had a policy of: "instruire les masses et désengager les élites" (Educate the masses and disengage the elites), meaning "educate them all, find the smart ones, and recruit them as colonial administrators." 

Even if the motivation was mixed, you cannot judge the situation by the events of the time. Wait until you get to part 3, the revolutions against colonial rule, and assess then, what role classical education, especially in music, played. It may not have been what the colonial powers intended. 

                                 MEXICO

One of the early centers was Puebla Mexico. Juan Guttierez Padilla (1595- 1664) from Malaga Spain, moved to Puebla in 1620, and was appointed maestro de capilla (chapel master) in 1628, succeeding Gaspar Fernandes.

 1. Here is his “Stabat Mater”, which depicts Mary standing over the corpse of her son, Jesus. It is very beautiful for the time.

      https://youtu.be/KTYAJM7J_SA

     The "Indians" in the area had some of the richest folk music, and the composers were quick to integrate it with their own polyphonic style. Imagine yourself a composer, and find the potential in it.

2. Zuni Sunrise

https://youtu.be/n5u5KUU8JGs

     Before Padilla, Gaspar Fernandes (1566-1629) was a Portuguese composer who moved first to Guatemala, then to Puebla, and became chapel master in 1606. His  XICOCHI CONENTZINTLE adapts "Indian" metrical traditions, and is in the Nahuatl language.

The words are:

Xicochi, xicochi,                                                                   Sleep, sleep

Xicochi, xicochi                                                                    sleep sleep

Xicochi conetzintle                                                               sleep my child

Xicochi conetzintle                           sleep my child

Caomiz hui hui xoco in angelos me While the angels sing with you.

Caomiz hui hui xoco in angelos me While the angels sing with you.                               

Caomiz hui hui xoco in angelos me While the angels sing with you.

Allelujah allelujah.                             Allelujah, allelujah.

3. Xicochi Conetzintle

  https://youtu.be/5EfnresedHo

     Some of the opponents of Indian slavery also thought that if blacks came from Africa, they should be "free labor", not slaves. A type of song developed called the “Guineo”, or “Negrilla”. They were humorous, playful accounts of African "immigrants" that mimicked African dances, song, and language. The same Fernando Fernandes wrote "Eso rigor e repente" for 5 voices. It's a mixture of Spanish and pseudo-African patois, about Africans (The Magi?) visiting baby Jesus at the manger, and sometimes interpreted as "We don't need to worry that Jesus was white." Here is an attempt at a hopefully more subtle translation of this very funny piece (Who did he sing this with)?

Then I said, suddenly:

"I swear that little boy,

although he is born a bit white,

 is our brother."

We are not afraid of the great white one.

-Come on cousin, let's dance.

Husié, husiá, paracia.

Negrito plays the little drum.

Sing, brother:

"Zarabanda, the dance that dances,

Zumba casú cucumbé."

Tonight we will be white,

Oh, Jesus, what a laugh we have.

Oh, what a laugh St. Thomas.

Let's go blacks from Guinea

to the manger alone;

don't go blacks from Angola,

who are all ugly blacks.

We want the child to see

polished and beautiful blacks;

that he is our brother,

we have a great desire.

Touch the vihuela, and

We will dance with joy.

A choker made of Garnets,                          

(the gifts of the Magi?)

we bring the little boy,

mantilla and rebocillo,

and curuba candies.

And a girdle we bring him,

an elegant shirt,

A Capita of Frisa

and a tobacco pipe.

Play fast, but skillfully

the guitars, happily.

Sing, brother:

"Zarabanda, the dance that dances.

Zumba casú cucumbé."

Tonight we will be white.

Oh, Jesus, what a laugh we have.

Oh, what a laugh St. Thomas.

4. Eso rigor e repente

     https://youtu.be/H2h2nI3n-u8

     Before Gaspar Fernandes came Pedro Bermudez from Granada Spain (1558-1605.) Bermudez spent a while in Peru, then Guatemala, after which he moved to Puebla, and became maestro de capilla in 1603. 

5. This is his Deus Adjuvadium:

     https://youtu.be/1bqarfXtKLE

Therefore, at the Cathedral in Puebla, there were Pedro Bermudez (1603-1606). Gaspar Fernandes (1606-1627). Juan Padilla (1628- ).  Even earlier, we have Hernando Franco (1532-1585.) He became maestro de capilla at the Cathedral of Santiago in Guatemala by no later than 1571, and later, he served in Mexico City. 

6. Here is Hernando Franco’s “Sancta Maria”:

https://youtu.be/GcgIU1KU6_U

These men had composition students as well as choristers. Here is a beautiful Hymn to the Virgin of Guadeloupe, or "Dios Itlazohnantziné", sung in Ilhuicac (classic Nahuatl, meaning sky or heaven), from about 1599, by "Don" Hernando Francisco.  Some scholars believe that it is actually by one of Franco's "Indian" students, using his teacher's name, only making it Francisco, instead of Franco. If so, it may be the first piece of classical music composed by a native person.

7.  Dios Itlazohnantziné

https://youtu.be/5gVapS7XeAM

                                    PERU

At approximately the same period in history, the Viceroyalty in Peru organized the former Inca Empire. Here is “Hanacpachap cussicuinin”, in the Quechua language, from 1631 attributed to Juan Pérez de Bocanegra, a Catholic priest and member of the Third Order of St. Francis, who was a musician, and specialist in the indigenous languages of colonial Peru (1598–1645). 

8. Hanacpachap cussicuinin

 https://youtu.be/WGNCCSJBPIY?list=TLPQMTUxMTIwMjL7EhUar2CyfQ

9. Ay Andar by Juan de Araujo (1648-1712) : Come walk, touch and dance.

https://youtu.be/Mc59nmAxFr8?list=RDEM5Tip4zBAwSnYPFwmFKkOLg

Juan de Fuentes composed a piece combining an Incan hymn with European strains.

In part 2 we will explore the 18th and 19th centuries. We will leave you with a taste—a gorgeous work from an Italian contemporary of Bach, Domenico Zipoli, which was probably composed in Paraguay.

10. Air Domenico Zipoli 

https://youtu.be/F0yLRm94Hpc

The Greek Revolution in Art, Science, Statecraft, and: THE MEANING OF THE INDIVIDUAL LIFE

Classical Principle Weekly

November 8, 2022

The Greek Revolution in Art, Science, Statecraft, and: THE MEANING OF THE INDIVIDUAL LIFE

While ancient Greece is often cited as the birthplace of Western civilization, we must clarify that there are older civilizations, such as those that existed in China, India, and Egypt, that pre-date Greek advances. Nevertheless, the role of the Greeks is critical and unique. 

In this essay, we will look at the period spanning roughly one century—centered in 500 B.C.E.  We shall find that military strategy, classical art, statecraft, and science all worked hand-in-hand, in an unprecedented way, to advance the cause of humanity. The battles of Marathon, Thermopylae (the 300 Spartans), and Salamis, are engraved in history, not only as military victories, but as great victories for human freedom.

THE PERSIAN WARS

Greek civilization, under the constitutional reforms of Solon (630 – 560 BC), was moving forward, but a huge problem arose. In 550 B.C., Cyrus the Great of Persia (600–530 BC) overthrew the Medes, and united several tribes to form the Persian, or Achaemenid Empire. It became the largest empire ever seen (Example 1 Map of Persian Empire), and is sometimes referred to as the world's first superpower. It established practices carried out by later global empires, such as the Roman and British.  Because of its size, the Persian Empire encompassed many colonies of different languages and religions, and was obliged to tolerate them. The colonies were known as satrapies, and were ruled by appointed Satraps, who, as Viceroys, had the absolute authority of the Emperor invested in them. The satrapies were "tributaries", in that they paid "tribute" to the Emperor, both in the form of heavy taxation, and forced conscription into military service. 

The Emperor was the sole sovereign authority, directly empowered by Heaven, as God's Viceroy. (ft 1)

Despite certain claims to human rights, monotheism, and multi-culturalism, the Persian Empire was a militaristic, slave society. Males were taken from their mothers from age 5 to 20 for military training, and could be conscripted until age 50 (the total size of the military is estimated at about 150,000 plus troops from the "tributaries"). Elite divisions of 10,000 were called “The Immortals”.  Historian Herodotus writes of them at the Battle of Thermopylae:

     “Of all the troops in Persian army, the native Persians (Immortals) were not only the best but also the most magnificently equipped; their dress and armor I have mentioned already, but I should add that every man glittered with the gold which he carried about his person in unlimited quantity. They were accompanied, moreover, by covered carriages full of their women and servants, all elaborately fitted out. Special food, separate from that of the rest of the army, was brought along for them on dromedaries and mules."

The Persians were brutal in their conquests. In countries they invaded, the cities were often sacked and burned, and most of the population deported to the Persian Gulf as slaves. Most territories just submitted to Persian demands for earth and water—meaning that the surrender to the Persians recognized the Persian authority over everything, including all rights to the land, and every product of the land. Even their lives belonged to the Persian King. Most became incorporated into the empire without a fight.

There was resistance from the Greeks though. The Ionian revolt lasted from about 499 B.C. to 493 B.C. What made that possible? We don’t know whether this affected all Greek states, but earlier, long before Democritus, the lawgiver Solon of Athens, in his 594 Constitution, legislated that all citizens participate in the Ekklesia (general assembly), and the Heliaia (court). That was revolutionary. It recognized not just the rights of the citizens, but also their duties. It started the process that saw every citizen's participation in public life as important and necessary. (Ft 2)

In 492-91 B.C., the Persians, in anger, sent emissaries to present surrender terms to the Greeks for their support of the Ionia during their revolt against the Persians. 

The Spartans threw the Persian emissary down a well, and the Athenians did something similar. This led to the first invasion of Greece under  "Darius the Great." A decisive battle took place at Marathon, about 25 miles outside of Athens in 490 B.C.  Although badly outnumbered, Greek strategy enabled a stunning victory. Before Marathon, battlefield heroics were often characterized as the greatest warriors in one-on-one combat. However, Athenian soldiers, called Hoplites, were heavily armed, and locked themselves together in an impenetrable phalanx, enabling greater cohesion. (Example 2: Greek Hoplites in a Phalanx )

GREEK CULTURE AT THE TIME

1. At the time, Greek statuary consisted mostly of Egyptian-style Kouroi. They were meant to commemorate deceased individuals, but were very generic, and static: arms hanging straight, left foot slightly ahead, faint smile. (Examples 3, 4, and 5)

2. Not much is known about earlier Greek theater. It seems to have come out of the worship of Dionysius, and sometimes only allowed one speaking role on the stage at a time. 

Great changes in art would occur during, and after the wars. 

SALAMIS

The Persians withdrew after Marathon, but Darius' hot-headed son Xerxes, invaded again in 480 B.C. Two great battles occurred.

1. Thermopylae: 480 B.C. A handful of Spartan warriors held off the mighty Persian army at a narrow pass for days, and inflicted great damage on them, buying time for Athens. They were eventually, however,  overwhelmed. Xerxes marched on, burning villages, sacking Athens, and capturing and burning the Acropolis (literally high city). Most Greek cities had an Acropolis at the highest point, which served as a religious, cultural, administrative, and military stronghold. The burning of the Acropolis had great symbolic value. It seemed like all was done. Many Greeks fled Athens. All that was left was a decisive naval battle.

2. Salamis: Also 480 B.C. Persia's King of Kings Xerxes, was so confident of a naval victory, that he had a sort of grandstand built, in the Athenian port, the Piraeus, to view the festivities. The Greek commander, Themistocles, a man of humble origins, laid a trap. His ships appeared to be in retreat, and the overconfident Persians, as expected, followed them in hot pursuit into an inlet by the island of Salamis. (Example 6 )

There, they found themselves unable to maneuver, and faced lines of hidden ships firing upon them, while other ships cut off their escape route. The Greeks had a very fast ship that featured triple oaring. (Example 7)

Xerxes had a front-row seat to witness an easy victory, but instead saw the very destruction of his own fleet. How must he have felt?

The battle of Salamis turned the tide in the Persian Wars, and in a final  land battle, at Plataea, the Greeks mustered 110,000 soldiers from 30 cities, and dealt the decisive defeat to Persia. 

Statues in Motion

It is rare that advances in art and statecraft are simultaneous.  Compare the static statues from before to Zeus throwing a lightning bolt (Example 8 ). What a change! This statue was created in 480 B.C, the same year as the Greek victory at Salamis! For the first time, Greek statuary displayed not only motion, but motion with a purpose, and each statue represented not only an individual, but an important individual act! (How did Xerxes feel? Perhaps like he had been struck by a lightning bolt!!)

This revolutionary change grew and continued. There was no going back. This was a victory for civilization, and growing recognition of the importance of the individual, versus a false image of a great civilization based on sheer power, and an enslaved humanity.

The Parthenon 

Although Salamis and Plataea were respectively the turning point, and  the definitive defeat of the Persian Empire by the Greeks, skirmishes continued for the next 30 years until the Peace of Callias formally ended hostilities in 449 B.C., and ushered in the beginning of Greece’s "Golden Age" under Pericles (495 – 429 BC, politician and general).  

It was not enough to merely rebuild the Acropolis, the heart of Athens, which had been razed in 480 B.C. as part of the attempted humiliation of the Greeks. It not only had to be rebuilt, something new and unprecedented had to be added. Two years after the final Peace of Callias, the construction of the great Parthenon, as part of the Acropolis (high city), began in 447 B.C., as a celebration of Greek society and culture. (Examples 9  and 10.)

The word “Parthenon” refers to a virgin, and the building is dedicated to Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and War.  The Parthenon follows the geometry of musical proportions, as known at the time. Most importantly, it is not a Lego set. The parts are not interchangeable. Each stone is shaped in a slightly different manner, so that each of them has only one match. Great effort is made to sand them down to create this match. It is coherent with the idea of the uniqueness and the importance of every citizen.

Aeschylus and Drama 

Not much is known about previous Greek tragedy. Aeschylus was the first of the great Greek playwrights, and his first known play is "The Persians", from  472 B.C., only eight years after the Battle of Salamis. A huge amphitheater (Example 11-12) was constructed at the Parthenon, so that his plays could be presented to the entire population of Athens. Unlike today's mass-entertainment which functions as a distraction from reality, Greek plays were meant to induce a deliberative process among all attending, regarding important matters at hand. Aeschylus could have easily written cheerleading propaganda. He chose instead to examine the quality that led the seemingly invincible Persian Empire to lose: hubris. Hubris is the arrogance that one is so powerful, that there is no need to respect the laws of the universe. One can do whatever one wants. That was the potential pitfall for the Greeks, who were in danger of acting on that same sense of hubris after their tremendous victory; of thinking "we are the greatest", and losing sight of what made that victory possible.

The greatest advances in art: theater, statuary, and architecture, were born out of, and gave birth to a new type of civilization that successfully opposed tyranny to ensure that this civilization, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

On his tombstone, Aeschylus chose not to identify his legacy, not with his great plays, but only the simple words:

"Fought at the Battle of Marathon."

Ft 1. King Darius had had the following inscribed in cuneiform at Persepolis. 

Darius the great king, king of kings, king of countries: This is the kingdom which I hold... what Ahuramazda, the greatest of gods, bestowed upon me. 

His son, Xerxes followed suit:

“I am Xerxes, great king, king of kings, the king of all countries which speak all kinds of languages, the king of the entire big far-reaching earth.”

 When Alexander the Great approached the Persian city of Persepolis, known as the "Gateway to the World", and "Capital of the Entire Orient", he encountered the elderly Greek craftsmen who had built the place. Most of them had had a hand or a foot removed to prevent their escape. Alexander called it "The most Hateful Place in Asia", and ordered his men to destroy it. Some reports say he threw the first torch himself.

2,000 years later, the great poet Percy Shelley wrote the following:

   OZYMANDIAS

     I met a traveller from an antique land

     Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

     Stand in the desart.[d] Near them, on the sand,

     Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

     And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

     Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

     Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

     The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:

     And on the pedestal these words appear:

     "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

     Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

     Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

     Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

     The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Only modern archeology restored Persepolis.

Ft 2. Solon was way ahead of his time. He outlawed most of Draco's harsh punishments, including the death penalty, and seizing the body of a debtor as your personal property. What a shame that debtors' prisons  had to be outlawed again 2,400 years later in England!

Classical Music and the Cold War

Classical Principle Weekly 

November 1, 2022

CLASSICAL MUSIC AND THE COLD WAR 

The topic of “War” has been on our tongue, much of this year. In light of this, we would like to remember a similar situation when classical culture fostered a more rational approach in world leaders.

In 1956, then the world’s most beloved and famous cellist, Pablo Casals, who protested the acceptance of fascism in Spain by living in French Catalonia and  lrefusing all public perform (except for a brief interlude in 1950-52), established the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico. In 1958, he established the Puerto Rico Symphony, and in 1959, a conservatory there. In an effort to reach out to the USA, in November of 1961, he accepted an invitation to play at the White House for JFK and Jackie Kennedy.  (Casals at the White House for JFK in 1961: https://youtu.be/lnpB0lFnbFY)

The Soviets had stunned the world with Sputnik in 1957, and the First International Tchaikovsky Competition, in 1958 was meant to demonstrate Soviet cultural superiority. The jury was supervised by composer Dmitri Shostakovitch, chaired by pianist Emil Gilels, and included Sviataslav Richter, Lev Oberon, Dimtry Kabalevsky, as well as some international judges, such as Sir Arthur Bliss. The story goes that the fix was in for Lev Vlassenko to win for piano. Richter in particular was upset by this, and reportedly started giving perfect 25's to Cliburn, and very low numbers, including 0's, to Vlassenko and others, so that Cliburn would not be eliminated. 

The then 23-year-old Texan, Van Cliburn was a remarkable pianist. His mother had started teaching him at the age of 3, and taught him to sing everything, before playing it. There was a fear in the jury of giving the award to an American. Gilels nervously approached General Secretary Krushchev about the matter. Krushchev asked, "Is he the best?" On behalf of the jury, Gilels said "Yes." Krushchev replied, "Then give him the award."  

 In that same year, 1958, Pablo Casals joined forces with famed organist, Bach expert, and missionary, Albert Schweitzer in calling for an end to the arms race. Casals led a “Concert for Peace” at the United Nations to celebrate the UN's anniversary. In his message to that concert, he wrote:

          “...Never has the world been closer to catastrophe than at this moment.... The anguish of the world caused by the continuation of nuclear war..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..  The Hymn for Joy of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony has become a symbol of love. And I propose that every town that has an orchestra and a chorus should perform it on the same day, and have it broadcast 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 wait for.”

The concerts took place in New York, Paris and Geneva, including David Oistrakh and Yehudi Menuhin playing the Bach Concerto for two violins, Ravi Shankar (before the Beatles), and Beethoven's Ninth conducted by Ernest Ansermet (a close friend of the late Maestro Tony Morss), and  broadcast through 4 continents by 75 channels. 

Van Cliburn is the first and last American to ever win the International Tchaikovsky  Competition. He is also the only classical musician to ever be honored with a ticker tape parade in NYC. At that parade he said:

     "I appreciate more than you will ever know that you are honoring me, but the thing that thrills me the most is that you are honoring classical music. Because I'm only one of many. I'm only a witness and a messenger. Because I believe so much in the beauty, the construction, the architecture invisible, the importance for all generations, for young people to come that it will help their minds, develop their attitudes and give them values. That is why I'm so grateful that you have honored me in that spirit." 

In the USSR, he became affectionately known to millions  as "Vanusha". In the U.S., the cold war aspect was played up. The CIA had been promoting anti-communism through the CCF (Council for Cultural Freedom) with its unfortunate choice of ugly atonal music. However, Van Cliburn's recording of the Tchaikovsky Concerto was the first classical album to sell over a million copies. Krushchev became a fan of Van Cliburn, and arranged many exchanges. Later in 1960, Richter performed a sensational all-Beethoven concert at Carnegie Hall, and Cliburn brought Soviet conductor Kiril Kondrashin to the USA. 

In May of 1960, the Cold War escalated with the U-2 incident, the shooting-down of a high-altitude U.S. spy plane. All diplomatic missions were abruptly shut down, but Kruschev surprised everyone when he insisted that a Van Cliburn concert scheduled for June in Baku, Azerbaijan, take place. It did.  

In 1960, Casals was brought to teach in the U.S. at the Marlboro Festival at the invitation of Rudolf Serkin and the Busch brothers. He came every year for the next 12 years.  Casals had a wry sense of humor. When asked why he still practiced the cello every day in his 90's, he responded: " I'm beginning to notice some improvement." When criticized for marrying a 21 year-old at the age of 80? "I look at it this way. If she dies, she dies."  

In 1963, Casals conducted his Oratorio "Le Pessebre" (The Manger), in another peace conference at the UN. A young William Warfield sang in it. 

In 1962, Cliburn initiated the First Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth Texas, and invited competitors from all over the USSR to come over and compete in it. For the party, he specified southern-fried chicken, cornbread, black-eyed peas, mustard greens, okra "without the slick", and peach cobbler. Ans on June 14th 1962, Van Cliburn performed in Moscow. Krushchev and Gromyko were in the audience and applauded vociferously. That is only four months before the Cuban Missile Crisis! 

Why tell these stories? We would like to present a hypothesis that leaders steeped in classical culture will treasure what humanity has accomplished, and be far more willing to make every effort to save it. Nations that discover that they share a rich cultural heritage will think differently. What is the culture of today's leaders? What is their view of humanity? 

What was Castro's view at the time? He was furious at Krushchev for removing certain missiles that the U.S. did not know about, without Cuban consent, and urged him to fire all the missiles, in the event of an invasion of Cuba he was sure would come. On October 27th, 1963, a U.S. spy plane was shot down by a Soviet SA-2 missile. That almost started a war. Kennedy withheld from responding with an attack, as he had stated he would do. Krushchev told his son that it was likely done by Raul Castro.  The same day, the U.S. dropped "practice" depth charges on a Soviet submarine. The sub captain and the political officer ordered a nuclear strike. Fortunately the Chief of Staff of the flotilla was on board and prevented it. We came very close.

If you want to hear Van Cliburn's vocal qualities, listen to his Beethoven from June 14th 1962 in Moscow. Hear how the long descending passages change voice.

https://youtu.be/vr2AKxf8m14

Convivencia Part 2: The Caliphate of Cordoba and the Reconquista

Classical Principle Weekly

October 25, 2022

Convivencia Part 2

The Caliphate of Cordoba and the Reconquista

In Part 1, we discussed how a progressive faction of Islam, the Umayyad Dynasty, under the direction of Emir Abd ar Rahman I, in Muslim occupied Andalucia (Southern Spain), led Europe out of the dark ages, and initiated “Convivencia”—a long period where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived in peace and growing prosperity, starting in the 8th century A.D. and growing from there.

In 929 A.D., under Abd ar Rahman III, Cordoba advanced from being an Emirate, to a become a Caliphate (a major capitol of Islam).  His son, Al-Hakam II succeeded him as Caliph in 961, making peace with the Catholic kingdoms of the North, building irrigation works to develop agriculture, widening the streets and building markets. If you are not familiar with these names, it’s time to remedy this, as our very existence may have been made possible by them.

Al-Hakam II was very well versed in numerous sciences. He purchased books from Damascus, Baghdad, Constantinople, Cairo, Mecca, Medina, Kufa, and Basra.  During his reign, a massive translation effort was undertaken, and many books were translated from Latin and Greek into Arabic. He himself wrote a history of al-Andalus. (See photo 1: Al-Hakam II, and photo 2: Ibn Rushd, translator of Aristotle).

Women played an important role. There were over 170 literate women in Cordoba who were employed as copyists for the library. Lubna of Cordoba was one of many people freed from slavery by Al Hakam II. She became his personal secretary, and was put in charge of the library.

She was much more than a copyist though. A self-educated scientist (who learned much from copying manuscripts), she went outside the palace walls to tutor children in math, and wrote commentaries on Archimedes and Euclid. It was said of her that: "she was thoroughly versed in the exact sciences; her talents were equal to the solution of the most complex geometric and algebraic problems.”

Copying manuscripts went much faster in Andalucia than the rest of Europe because of:

            1. The higher level of education of the copyists

            2. The use of paper instead of parchment.  

Beautiful calligraphy was not sacrificed for speed though.

(See photo 3: Lubna of Cordoba, and Photo 4: Beautifully copied Koran.)

THE OLIGARCHY'S REACTION

Who could possibly oppose such progress? Who would want to undermine it? The term “hater” is unfortunately used these days to indicate someone who merely disagrees with media-led popular opinion and fads. That is healthy disagreement, not hate. There are, however, vested interests that has pitted people who should be allies against one another.  These vested interests are more interested in controlling the rest of humanity for personal power.  They hate that which unifies humanity, more than they hate any particular race or creed.  Their continued power and control depends upon the continued servitude of the people. This is implemented through divide and conquer. They would replace Schiller’s “Alle Menschen werden Bruder” (All mankind will become as brothers), with “Die ganze Menschheit wird Feinde bleiben.” (all mankind will remain as enemies to each other.)

This oligarchical motivation, and dark nature, is alien and incomprehensible to most decent human beings, but it has to be understood, if it is to be defeated.  Edgar Allen Poe captured this soulless nature in the fourth movement of his poem, “The Bells":

-Iron bells!... every sound that floats

From the rust within their throats

Is a groan.

And the people—ah, the people—

They that dwell up in the steeple,

All alone,

And who tolling, tolling, tolling,

In that muffled monotone,

Feel a glory in so rolling

On the human heart a stone—

They are neither man nor woman—

They are neither brute nor human—

They are Ghouls

We quote this, because there is no other way to understand the degeneration of Spain, nor prevent it from happening again, than by comprehending such evil. All institutions are factionalized, whether they be governments, nations, or religions. All have an oligarchical faction. You cannot characterize any such institution as simply good or bad. They all run the gamut from good to outright evil. 

The beautiful Convivencia of Cordoba broke down as religious fundamentalism began to arise within Islam in North Africa. Strict interpretation of the Koran was used to question the morality of public officials, and to question the authority of Baghdad, the center of science and learning. Infighting took place in Islamic Spain, which led to fragmentation. General Abu Amir al Mansur (the conqueror), was a fanatic who carried a copy of the Koran with him at all times, and declared Holy War against the Christians, personally leading some 57 raids and battles in the late 900’s. Not surprisingly, he burned all of the secular books in Hakam's Cordoba library. Later, angry Berbers sacked Cordoba, stole all of the books, and may have burned the library down. By 1031, the Cordoba Caliphate had disintegrated into pieces.

In the meanwhile a sort of Christian fundamentalism, called the “Reconquista” also arose. Like the idea of the Crusades (retaking the Holy Land from Muslims), the idea of taking Spain back from the Muslims became an obsession. It had started earlier in northern provinces, such as Asturia, and finally spread to Andalucia. At first the “Reconquista” was fairly respectful of the Muslim culture which had done so much for Spain and Europe. When Cordoba was taken in 1236, the Mezquita was turned into a Cathedral but without totally violating its integrity.                                                          

                                                                                                                       (See Photos 5 and 6. The great Mezquita turned into a Cathedral.)

The capture of Seville in 1248 was even more respectful. King Ferdinand III built a Real Alcazar (Royal Palace) in the Mudejar style, using both Islamic and Christian architecture. You can see that here. 

(See photos 7: the façade of the Real Alcazar, and 8: ecumenical dedication of that building).

The dedication is in two languages. Around the outside, the King and God are praised in Spanish for building the palace. The letters in blue are Kufic, an old form of Arabic. They are in a mirror image that says: “The Glory belongs to Allah alone.” The vertical line is the mirror image’s point of reflection.

I know of no other dedication of a palace to both the Christian God and Allah.

HOWEVER, CONVIVENCIA WAS NOT DEAD.                                                

                                                                                                 Alfonso X (the Wise), Christian King of Castile (1221-1284), had a cosmopolitan court that promoted learning. Jews, Muslims, and Christians were encouraged to have prominent roles. The king himself wrote poetry and set it to music. He wrote many hymns to the Virgin Mary. Ironically, the nature of Mary is treated more extensively in the Koran than the Bible. The 19th chapter of the Koran is known as “Surat Maryam”.

Here is the King’s beautiful Cantiga 156. The happy change into a fast major key towards the end, reflects a miracle by the Virgin Mary, in returning speech to a man who had had his tongue cut out for speaking the truth. Remember, this is almost two centuries before Renaissance composers such as Dufay and Dunstable.  

https://youtu.be/d93CWzp4jfI

Another beautiful song from the time is Scalerica D’Oro (little ladder of gold), a Jewish Sephardic wedding song. The words go as follows:

A little Golden Ladder of Gold and Ivory

The bride will climb up

To take her wedding vows.

We came to see, we came to see

May they have joy, may they prosper

And may they have much abundance.

The bride doesn't have money.

May they have good fortune.

 May they have plenty of good fortune.

he Music: Scalerica D'Oro:  https://youtu.be/DTyqzqHpO1I

It became known as a Moroccan song when expelled Jews carried it there. Who could hate a people who produced such beautiful music, or clothing?  

(See Photo 9: The Golden Thread, in the Sephardic museum in Cordoba.)

Nonetheless, anti-Semitism was fostered in Spain and it grew. The demand was made of Jews to convert to Christianity. When many did so willingly (they loved the culture of Convivencia, and considered themselves proud Spaniards as well as Jews), the racists were not satisfied. To them, Judaism was in the blood, and they demanded “Lipieza de sangre”, or purity of blood (in a country with so many ethnicities?) People spied from rooftops on their neighbors to see if they were practicing “secret Judaism”.

Centuries later, Wagner felt the same way. Many emancipated Jews had made great contributions to German society. They were proud of being Jews, but also proud of being German. They were becoming integrated. That bothered Wagner.  It did not matter to him that Felix Mendelssohn had been baptized as a Christian at the age of 7, he still had Jewish blood running in his veins. Wagner quoted arch-racist, le Comte de Gobineau, author of "On the Inequality of the Human Races",  on how European "blood" had been corrupted.

     “We asked Count Gobineau, returned from weary, knowledge-laden wanderings among far distant lands and peoples, what he thought of the present aspect of the world; to-day we give his answer to our readers... he proved the blood in modern manhood's veins, and found it tainted past all healing."

(See The Classical Principle -September 5th 2022 : "The Mendelssohn Mission continues.")

People who believe that your identity rests in your blood have a huge problem. There is no science to support it-at all! So-called race-science has been proven to be bunk!  It got worse. When Ferdinand and Isabella unified Castile and Aragon into Spain, hostility to Jews and Muslims reached fever pitch. Columbus sailed in 1492. That may have been the only good thing that Ferdinand and Isabella did, as that same year began the expulsion of the Jews. The Moriscos were expelled more slowly and quietly.

In that same year, Ferdinand and Isabella led the unnecessary conquest of the Alhambra. Here you see the fortifications they constructed for that conquest. They destroyed any books from the Cordoba Library still circulating, in an effort to wipe out all memory of Islamic Spain. (See Photo 10: Ramparts)

The Spanish Inquisition (which differed from the Europe-wide Dominican-led inquisition based in Rome),  had started a few years before. It thrived, and practiced unspeakable tortures, that can only be described as prurient and unbridled sadism. (See Photos 11 and 12. Please tell us how this is in any way Christian?)

Why do we stress these hideous points? Do not forget Poe’s point:  “They are neither beast nor human, they are Ghouls.”

WHEN SOME AMERICANS STILL KNEW WHAT IT MEANS TO BE AMERICAN 

Fortunately, the great writer Washington Irving, who wrote biographies of both George Washington and Muhammad, undertook several diplomatic journeys to Spain, eventually as Ambassador. On his first mission, he chose to reside in a small room at the dilapidated Alhambra. Here is a plaque, commemorating his stay there. (See Photo 14)

To us, this can only be seen as in protest, to what had happened centuries earlier. King Ferdinand had captured the Alhambra in 1492, despite all lack of military necessity. The expulsion of the Jews began the same year. The expulsion of the Moors and Moriscos was slower, and less dramatic, but even more relentless. Washington Irving was quite clear on where his sympathies lie. He composed his great “Tales of the Alhambra” there, but also wrote:

     “Never, was the annihilation of a people, more complete, than that of the Morisco Spaniards. Where are they? Ask the shores of Barbary, and its desert places. They have not even left behind, a distinct name, though for eight centuries, they were a distinct people. They have left behind, only a few broken monuments. Such, is the Alhambra.”

That is the view of an American patriot, who sided with the oppressed of the earth, rather than the oppressors. 

Fortunately, there were late 19th century composers who rescued the Islamic tradition in Spanish music. Isaac Albeniz wrote that, “like it or not, our music is Moorish.” Albeniz discovered Pablo Casals, playing in a café, and sponsored his musical education. How much did their music owe to the intervention of Washington Irving?

Francisco Tarrega also knew Casals. He could have become a virtuoso pianist, but instead chose to promote the guitar, and founded a guitar school that launched the guitar into the 20th century.  His simple study in tremolo: “Recuerdos de la Alhambra” (Memories of the Alhambra), is so beautiful that it remains a major concert piece today (His use of tremolo may be a tribute to the Oud, which uses a picked  tremolo, instead of fingers, as in classical guitar). Here, it is accompanied by photographs of the Alhambra.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h8H-Hz2gGDi3FsQQNcmruWrT7P60v5Mj/view?usp=drive_web

Convivencia (part 1)

The Classical Principle Weekly

October 11, 2022

Convivencia (part 1) We need it again. Now!

 The world today is once again mired in hate, mistrust, and war. Can the problem ever be solved?  

What would you say then to the idea that for three centuries, over a thousand years ago in southern Spain, that problem was resolved? What would you say to the fact that in a peace known as “Convivencia”(living together), Jews, Muslims and Christians all prospered under Muslim rule? What would you say to the reality of the Classical Principle in “Convivencia”—where advanced education, rising standard of living, and classical beauty, came together hand-in-hand to uplift everyone?

Why have most of us never heard of it?

ANDALUCIA 

In 711 A.D. (an easy date to remember), Moorish (Morrocan) Muslims, crossed the Straits of Gibraltar into southern Spain. They found that Europe was still reeling from the collapse of the Roman Empire, and barbarian tribes from Visigoths to Vikings ruled. In Spain, it was a tribe known as the Vandals. The Moors named it Al-Andalus (Land of the Vandals), hence out modern name Andalucia. Under Muslim rule, Andalucia became an inspiration to the world.

CORDOBA 

Many cities prospered, but under the rule of the Ummayad dynasty, Cordoba became known as “The ornament of the world.” Abd ar Rahman I, the first Ummayad ruler of the area, founded an Emirate in 756, and began building the great Mezquita (Mosque) of Cordoba in 785. It grew for two centuries and became a centre of learning and teaching for all of Europe. (See photo 1-3)

Cordoba had running water, paved streets with lights, sanitation, poetry, philosophy and science. It had a library with possibly as many as 400,000 volumes, and could support a population of 400,000 (compared to Rome with 35,000, and Paris with 20,000).

Many cities in Andalucia had libraries and universities. Students flocked there from all over Europe, and Christians converted to Islam in droves.

Spain and Portugal were known to Jews as Sepharad. The Sephardic Jews fared much better under Muslim rule than they had under Christian. There were more Jews in Spain than the rest of Europe put together. This author took a stroll through the narrow streets of the Jewish quarters in Cordoba.  There I found a small but delightful Sephardic Museum, and a square dedicated to the great 12th century Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides, with a beautiful statue of him. (See photo 4-5)

The effect of Convivencia was still strong enough at the time, that Maimonides wrote his famous” Guide for the Perplexed” in Arabic, but with the Hebrew alphabet.

The Moors brought music with them, the most famous instrument being the Oud, from whence comes our instrument the Lute. The Lute and the Guitar differ from the Oud though, in that the Oud is unfretted, and sounded with a plectrum, or pick.  (See photo 6)

Our modern notion of polyphonic classical music was still a long way from seeing the light of day, yet one might expect high standards from such a culture. Their music was not written down, yet many traditions have survived, so that in listening to certain modern performances, we can gain some idea of the old.

Taksim Oud is improvised, and demonstrates great virtuosity. Listen to an Egyptian master.

https://youtu.be/YUoHJfH6fsA

This might remind you of Flamenco. I often wondered how Flamenco guitarists became such virtuosos. It comes from a long tradition.

Flamenco is some kind of hybrid between Gypsy, Jewish and Arab music.  Although Flamenco is a combination of dance, singing and guitar, I will limit myself to guitar here. The Flamenco guitar is fretted and played with the fingers, not a pick. Listen to a Flamenco master play an “Arab Dance.”

https://youtu.be/f2VROY01EAg

Visual art consisted of calligraphy and geometric patterns. (See photos 7-8)

Cordoban poetry is famed, though next to impossible to translate. The beauty of both the writing, and the spoken voice is part of it.

Here is a short verse:

One must be serious sometimes,

and at other times lighthearted,

Like the wood from which comes

Both the singer’s lute

And the warrior’s bow

Scientific studies followed the lead of Baghdad. They studied optics, both Greek and Indian mathematicians, and invented Algebra, decimal place values, and developed our modern Arabic numeral system (based on 1-10) out of the Indian numeral system. They also adopted the dust-board from India, where calculations could be written in chalk, then erased as the process continued.

Omar Khayyam advanced Algebra. (See photo 9)

How did a people living in the deserts of the Middle East come up with such knowledge?

THE SILK ROAD

The people of the Middle East had many caravans along the Silk Road which connected them to the high civilization of China, including the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.), a high point of Chinese civilization. Another great civilization, India, was on the Silk Route. Compare the architecture. (See photos 10-12)

What happened to all this? The answer may not be what you think!

Classical and folk music, Part 3

Like a good play, this series on Folk music has two subplots:

1. Examine the “Romantic Period”

2. Explore the relationship of Classical Music to Folk Music.

Part one of the second subplot examined Bach's elevating of Lutheran Hymns (July 19th 2022), and Part 2–the classical treatment of folk music in Brazil, and its relationship to the quest to end slavery (August 9th 2022.)

Today, we shall examine the case of Johannes Brahms. Many classical composers drew from folk song settings. Especially notable are Beethoven's Scottish and Irish songs (April 9th 2020 Sept 11th 2020, October 9th 2020, October 30th 2020, Nov 2nd 2020, all from our series: "A Daily Dose of Beethoven”).

BRAHMS AND FOLK MUSIC

Brahms “set” over 200 folk songs. In each case, he kept the original folk song intact, note for note, even when no one was quite sure what the original was. He felt that it was important to make the transition from folk-song to art song as an intelligible process that could be replicated. Some of the primary means of making this transformation for Brahms were:

1. His piano accompaniments. Though they were simple compared to his more advanced settings, they reflected the same brilliance.

2. Changing tempo and the piano accompaniment about half-way through, to make the songs less strophic, and more thorough-composed, as the words often demanded.

Here is one example: Schwesterlein

The poem and song are strophic, They repeat each stanza. In reading the poem, we see that it progresses from innocent to distraught.

Er:

Schwesterlein, Schwesterlein,

Wann geh’n wir nach Haus?

Sie:

Morgen wenn die Hahnen kräh’n,

Woll’n wir nach Hause geh’n,

Brüderlein, Brüderlein,

Dann geh’n wir nach Haus.

Er:

Schwesterlein, Schwesterlein,

Wann geh’n wir nach Haus?

Sie:

Morgen wenn der Tag anbricht,

Eh’ end’t die Freude nicht,

Brüderlein, Brüderlein,

Der fröhliche Braus.

Er:

Schwesterlein, Schwesterlein,

Wohl ist es Zeit.

Sie:

Mein Liebster tanzt mit mir,

Geh’ ich, tanzt er mit ihr,

Brüderlein, Brüderlein,

Lass’ du mich heut’.

Er:

Schwesterlein, Schwesterlein,

Was bist du blass?

Sie:

Das macht der Morgenschein

Auf meinen Wängelein,

Brüderlein, Brüderlein,

Die vom Taue nass.

Er:

Schwesterlein, Schwesterlein,

Du wankest so matt?

Sie:

Suche die Kammertür,

Suche mein Bettlein mir,

Brüderlein, es wird fein

Unterm Rasen sein.

He: Sister, little sister,

When shall we go home?

She:

Tomorrow at cockcrow

We shall go home,

Brother, little brother,

Then we’ll go home.

He:

Sister, little sister,

When shall we go home?

She:

Tomorrow at daybreak,

Before the fun is ended,

Brother, little brother,

The happy revelry.

He:

Sister, little sister,

Now it is time.

She:

My love is dancing with me,

If I go, he’ll dance with her,

Brother, little brother,

Leave me for now.

He:

Sister, little sister,

Why are you so pale?

She:

That is the morning light

Shining on my cheeks,

Brother, little brother,

All wet with the dew.

He:

Sister, little sister,

Why do you stagger so faintly?

She:

Find the bedroom door,

Find me my bed,

Little brother, all will be well

Under the turf.

When sung as a folk song, the strophic element is emphasized and the change is difficult to bring out.

https://youtu.be/oeGgnrVksw8

Brahms wrote one piano accompaniment for the first three verses, and another for the last two. He also marked a slower tempo for the last ones. The rest is up to the performers. In this case two great singers took the role of brother and sister. The result is stunning.

https://youtu.be/FQci0XgDg3A

In Stiller Nacht is another beautiful German folk song.

In stiller Nacht,

Zur ersten Wacht,

Ein Stimm begann zu klagen,

Der naechtige Wind

Hat suess und lind

Zu mir den Klang getragen;

Von herbem Leid und Traurigkeit

Ist mir das Herz zerflossen,

Die Bluemelein mit Traenen rein

Hab ich sie all begossen.

Der schoene Mond

Will untergahn,

Fuer Leid nicht mehr mag scheinen,

Die Sterne lan

Ihr Funkeln stahn,

Mit mir sie wollen weinen.

Kein Vogelsang,

Kein Freudenklang

Man hoeret in den Lueften,

Die wilden Tier

Trauern auch mit mir

In Steinen und in Klueften.

In silent night, at first watch,

A voice begins to lament.

The night wind has sweetly and gently

Carried the sound to me.

With bitter pain and sorrow

My heart is melted.

With simple tears and flowers

I have watered all of them.

The lovely moon will now set,

For sorrow it doesn’t want to shine,

The stars stop their gleaming,

They want to weep with me.

No birdsong nor joyous sounds

Can be heard in the air.

Even the wild beasts grieve with me

In rocks and ravines.

The melody is near perfect. How can that be improved on?

https://youtu.be/0qeiK69vOvE

Brahms set it twice, once in 1864. His mastery of vocal writing created a simple but beautiful 4 part setting. The polyphony magnified the song's beauty.

https://youtu.be/mIDX-HCYSIg

He set it again in 1864, for soloist with a haunting piano part.

https://youtu.be/gJkvCvC9-Js

These are folk song settings by Brahms that keep the melody intact. There are instrumental pieces that invoke the idea without quite quoting it. The 18th century philosopher Herder collected folk songs from around the world. One of them was a Scottish song called “Lady Anne Bothwell's lament”. It is a lullaby for her child, after LOrd Bothwell, a war hero, had abandoned them. Brahms Intermezzo Op. 117, No. 1 was inspired by this song. He wrote over it:

“Schlaf sanft, mein Kind, schlaf sanft und schön! Mich dauert´s sehr, dich weinen sehn. (Schottisch, aus Herders Volksliedern)”

“Sleep softly my son, sleep soft and beautiful

It it hard for me to see you cry.”

Here is Lady Bothwell's Lament:

https://youtu.be/0U39nLva99M

and here is Brahms Intermezzo:

https://youtu.be/CvhWk6j2tFw

The Mendelssohn Mission (continues)

Moses Mendelssohn changed the world. His profound discoveries forced King Frederick the Great (1712-1786), to grant him the status of "Protected Jew."

Frederick undoubtedly had profound respect for Moses, although the culture of the time could not have allowed him to accept a Jew as his equal. Stories abound. Moses critiqued Frederick's enamoration with French romanticism. When the King grew angry, Moses simply responded, "Your majesty, I am like a pin-boy. Every bowler needs a pin-boy to tell him what the score is."

A hearty laugh can change much.

Today, we appreciate the Jewish people as intelligent, cultured and refined. That was not always the case. In the 18th century, the people were largely illiterate. They mostly spoke Yiddish. In 1755, Moses Mendelssohn began publishing Qohelet Musar "The Moralist", regarded as the beginning of modern writing in Hebrew, and the very first journal in the language. In his last years, Moses Mendelssohn translated the first five books—the Pentateuch of the Old Testament (Torah)—into high German. By doing so, he expressed his wish to "dedicate the remains of my strength for the benefit of my children or a goodly portion of my nation", which he did, by bringing the Jews closer to "culture, from which my nation, alas! is kept in such a distance, that one might well despair of ever overcoming it". He gave a gift of culture to a people who were impoverished in more ways than one.

His efforts were a success. Jewish emancipation in Germany, as in Italy, was related to progress in the unification of the German nation, the advance of culture, and humanist reform. (After much debate, the National Assembly of revolutionary France voted in 1791 for the complete emancipation of the Jews, on the ground that the Jewish people had to be given equality if the promise of equality was to mean anything. Ft 1)

In this maelstrom of creativity, sometimes known as the “Haskalah”, or Jewish Enlightenment, Lewis Lewandowski (1821-1894), became head of music at the Jewish institutions. Here are two works by him that integrate Hebrew chant with modern polyphony, a huge step forward. It may remind readers of similar efforts by Russians and Ukrainians discussed in the June 1st, 2022 posting.

https://youtu.be/XiX4FQybWTo

In this piece, the chant is prominently featured, but is transformed by surrounding voices.

https://youtu.be/TyUryjUqZVQ

Such works reveal facts relatively unknown to us. German Jews went from poverty and relative illiteracy, to playing a major part in advancing German culture, largely flowing out of the work of Moses Mendelssohn. Classical artists were drawn up in this motion. Beethoven was asked to compose the music for the opening of a new synagogue in Vienna. He was given copies of the Kol Nidre and other Jewish music, in order to immerse himself in the mindset. Although his commission was never fulfilled, listen to this recording.

https://drive.google.com/.../129tWzu9.../view...

The emancipation of the Jews was inextricably wound up with the efforts to end feudalism and usher the people of Europe into an Age of Reason. Several positive steps took place, including removing the restrictions against the Jewish people and moving closer to equality, which occurred through the Prussian Edict of Emancipation in 1812. When Germany was unified as a nation in 1871, Jews in all of Germany gained full rights of citizenship.

Would you not think that all true artists would welcome such progress?

Romantic Opposition to the Mendelssohns

A: Franz Liszt

Felix Mendelssohn, grandson of Moses Mendelssohn first heard a Liszt performance at a concert in Paris in 1825, when both were teenagers. In his opinion: “Liszt had many fingers but few brains, and his improvisations were absolutely wretched." There was a lot of debate over whether Liszt's performances lacked artistic beauty, and his compositions, creativity. Liszt struck back, reporting:

“Mendelssohn, on one occasion, drew a picture on a blackboard of the devil playing his G minor concerto with five hammers on each hand instead of fingers. The truth of the matter is that I once played his Concerto in G minor from the manuscript, and as I found several of the passages rather simple and not broad enough, if I may use the term, I changed them to suit my own ideas. This, of course, annoyed Mendelssohn, who, unlike Schumann or Chopin, would never take a hint from anyone. Moreover, Mendelssohn, although a refined pianist, was not a virtuoso, and never could play my compositions with any kind of effect, his technical skill being inadequate to the execution of intricate passages. So the only course laid open to him, he thought, was to vilify me as a musician.”

Please listen to this performance of the first movement of that same Piano Concerto in G Minor (1830-31) by Mendelssohn. Tell us whether you think he was a virtuoso or not. Please tell us how Liszt might have improved the concerto, as a virtuoso work, without undermining its lyrical beauty.

https://youtu.be/-ovqyalGZfc

At a later date, Liszt reports:

“Mendelssohn most graciously condescended to sit down at the piano, and to my astonishment, instead of treating us to one of his own compositions, he commenced my Rhapsody No. 4, which he played so abominably badly, as regards both the execution and the sentiment, that most of the guests, who had heard it played by myself on previous occasions, burst out laughing. Mendelssohn, however, got quite angry at their mirth, and improvising a finale after the thirtieth bar or so, dashed into his Capriccio in F-sharp minor, No. 5, which he played through with elegance and a certain amount of respect. At the conclusion we all applauded him.”

Liszt had his revenge and played the same Capriccio by Mendelssohn. He reported:

“Mendelssohn, instead of bursting out with indignation and rage at my impudence and liberty, took my right hand in his, and turned it over, backward and forward, and bent the fingers this way and that, finally remarking laughingly that since I had beaten him on the keyboard, the only way of vindication was to challenge me to a boxing match. However, since he had now examined my hand, he would have to abandon that particular course of action.”

It’s doubtful that events went quite that way. Perhaps Mendelssohn was not playing Liszt badly, but making fun of him. Perhaps the audience was not laughing at Felix' playing but the parody of Liszt. Liszt seems to be somewhat lacking in a sense of humor here.

Just to get an idea, here is Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 4:

https://youtu.be/MnkN-BVWC3s

and Mendelssohn's Scherzo a Capriccio in F#, Op. 5:

https://youtu.be/lT7_zXd0adE

How Mendelssohn might have morphed one to another, we can only guess. Historian David Shavin reports that shortly after Robert Schumann had served as a pall-bearer at Mendelssohn's funeral, Liszt appeared and made veiled anti-semtic remarks.

"Liszt then proceeded to attack Mendelssohn as not up to Meyerbeer's level... Liszt knew that claim could not be taken seriously. However, Meyerbeer and Mendelssohn were distant cousins, both being descended from the famous Rabbi Isserles of Samocz. Liszt was lumping them together, implying to Schumann that Jews are to be compared with Jews, and we non-Jews can resume our own activities. The normally taciturn Schumann rose from the back of the room: "Meyerbeer is a pigmy compared with Mendelssohn ... an artist who has done great work not only for Leipzig but for the whole world, and you would do better to hold your tongue!"

Romantic Opposition to the Mendelssohns

B. Richard Wagner

If Liszt hinted at anti-semitism, Wagner trumpeted it from the rooftops. In 1850, he published an article called "Das Judenthum in der Musick" ("Jewishness in Music"). Lest one think that this was an excess that he later regretted, he republished it verbatim with some additional thoughts in 1869. In 1876 he met Comte Arthur de Gobineau, author of "An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races." In it, he argued that aristocrats were superior to commoners, and that aristocrats possessed more Aryan genetic traits because of less interbreeding with inferior races. He insisted that the white race had created all of the great culture on the earth. Despite secondary differences, Wagner embraced de Gobineau's theories, and wrote, after meeting him:

“We asked Count Gobineau, returned from weary, knowledge-laden wanderings among far distant lands and peoples, what he thought of the present aspect of the world; to-day we give his answer to our readers... he proved the blood in modern manhood's veins, and found it tainted past all healing. (Ft 2)

That represents at least 29 years of continuous racism on the part of Wagner. But what did Wagner say in this famous essay? His hatred of the Jews is scorching. He was the first, before the Nazis, to compare them to vermin eating the vitals of a healthy body:

"So long as the separate art of music had a real organic life-need in it ... there was nowhere to be found a Jewish composer.... Only when a body's inner death is manifest, do outside elements win the power of lodgement in it, merely to destroy it. Then, indeed, that body's flesh dissolves into a swarming colony of insect life.”

Yet, had they "remained in their place", he might have passed on the matter. What Wagner most objects to, is the Renaissance—the emancipation that uplifted Jews, Germans, and others around the world. Ft 3

“...our modern Culture was before accessible to no one but the well-to-do, ... When we strove for emancipation of the Jews, however, we virtually were more the champions of an abstract principle, than of a concrete case: just as all our Liberalism was a not very lucid... since we went for freedom of the Folk without knowledge of that Folk itself, nay, with a dislike of any genuine contact with it — so our eagerness to level up the rights of Jews was far rather stimulated by a general idea, than by any real sympathy; for, with all our speaking and writing in favour of the Jews' emancipation, we always felt instinctively repelled by any actual, operative contact with them.”

He rails against the change in status for the Jews.

“Henceforward, then, the cultured (rich) Jew appears in our Society; his distinction from the uncultured, the common Jew, we now have closely to observe. The cultured Jew has taken pains to strip off all the obvious tokens of his lower co-religionists: in many a case he has even held it wise to make a Christian baptism wash away the traces of his origin.”

What Wagner hates more than the Jews themselves, is the ongoing Renaissance that was transforming the lives of Jews, Germans, and the world. Germans, he feels, have their roots and deep feelings in pagan myths, feudalism, and ancient Nordic Gods. Here is an attack on language:

“The Jew speaks the language of the nation in which he dwells...but always speaks it as an alien... far more weighty, nay, of quite decisive weight for our inquiry, is the effect the Jew produces on us through his speech; and this is the essential point at which to sound the Jewish influence upon Music. The first thing that strikes our ear as quite outlandish and unpleasant, in the Jew's production of the voice-sounds, is a creaking, squeaking, buzzing snuffle : add thereto an employment of words in a sense quite foreign to our nation's tongue, and an arbitrary twisting of the structure of our phrases — and this mode of speaking acquires at once the character of an intolerably jumbled blabber; so that when we hear this Jewish talk, our attention dwells involuntarily on its repulsive how, rather than on any meaning of its intrinsic what.

“Now, if the aforesaid qualities of his dialect make the Jew almost incapable of giving artistic enunciation to his feelings and beholdings through talk, for such an enunciation through song his aptitude must needs be infinitely smaller. Song is just Talk aroused to highest passion.”

Wagner then zeroes in on his main target:

“All these are intensified to a positively tragic conflict in the nature, life, and art-career of the early-taken FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY. He has shewn us that a Jew may have the amplest store of specific talents, may own the finest and most varied culture, the highest and the tenderest sense of honour—yet without all these pre-eminences helping him, were it but one single time, to call [94] forth in us that deep, that heart-searching effect which we await from Art... , in hearing a tone-piece of this composer's, we have only been able to feel engrossed where nothing beyond our more or less amusement-craving Phantasy was roused through the presentment, stringing-together and entanglement of the most elegant, the smoothest and most polished figures —as in a kaleidoscope's changeful play of form and colour.”

This was the unkindest cut of all. For many years, even people who considers themselves anti-racists have sometimes played Mendelssohn as though he were merely clever and gifted, but superficial.

Let us put this myth to rest with one piece. Felix composed his “String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 80”, at the death of his beloved sister and musical collaborator Fanny. He called it a “Requiem for Fanny”. After a passionate and distraught first movement, we might expect a playful scherzo or a beautiful Adagio. Instead, the second movement is a Scherzo that is even more heart-rending.

https://youtu.be/68w0usB_9Ko

A kaleidoscope?

We live in a time of intense consciousness to be anti-racist. Yet, the defenders of Wagner went to great lengths to write off all of his indisputable hatred. Their chief argument is that you can separate his racism from his music. We will return to this theme somewhere down the road. Some very capable researchers have found evidence of his social theories in his music.

A Bientot!

Ft 1 A similar argument was made during and after the American Revolution, about the status of African-American slaves. Unfortunately, that battle took another 100 years to become law..

Ft 2 De Gobineau and Wagner were two of the greatest influences on Nazi race theory. Hitler did not only admire Wagner, he told the author of "Hitler Speaks", Hermann Rauschning: "I RECOGNIZE in Wagner my only predecessor. ... I regard him as a supreme prophetic figure ":

Ft 3 There is an old saying that a Leopard cannot change its spots. Is this true? In a Renaissance, many people do challenge their own prejudices., and do change their axioms. A dyed-in-the-wool racist seldom does.

Classicists love the advancement of downtrodden people. Felix loved his grandfather Moses, whom he had never met, and identified with his cause. When collaborators intervened and demanded that his “Oratorio Elijah” be Christianized, Felix, though an ardent Lutheran since 1 year old, objected, and said: "No this is about my people." When visiting England with his father Abraham, he grew excited about freedoms being granted to the Jews, while Abraham did not.

The Mendelssohn Mission Part 1

Two weeks ago, we wrote about Mendelssohn and Bach. Today, we go back to the beginning of Felix Mendelssohn’s story—one that starts with his grandfather, Moses Mendelssohn. The difference between the Classical Principle and Romanticism is nowhere else more clear.

Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786) changed the world in a way that few people do. He was born into a poor Jewish family, and was largely self-educated. He challenged society's prejudices: in philosophy, as witnessed in his defense of Leibniz and Plato, against the more popular British empiricism, and the French Enlightenment's Voltaire. He also overcame prejudices about the Jewish people and their religion, through the power and beauty of his own mind. He taught himself Greek, German, French, English, Italian, and Latin. As a young boy, he mastered the “Guide for the Perplexed” by Moses Maimonides, and later the “Theodicy”of Leibniz.

He even challenged his own name. Tradition said that he should be known as Moses Dessau, i.e. Moses from the town of Dessau. His father was named Mendel. He called himself Moses Mendelssohn (i.e. son of Mendel), thus establishing a family name. What a travesty that Moses' son Abraham (who had many good qualities), challenged his son (Felix) to take the name Bartholdy, in order to obscure his Jewish origins. Felix revered his grandfather Moses, and kept his last name.

Moses Mendelssohn studied Homer and Plato, and translated the first three books of Plato's “Republic” into German. Several of his philosophical treatises are written in Platonic dialogue form, and his famous work, “Phaedon, or On the Immortality of the Soul” (1767), is based upon the “Phaedo” of Plato. It was this work, which catapulted Mendelssohn into the role of preeminent philosopher of Europe, earning him the appellations of "Berlin Plato" and "Jewish Socrates." He also translated Shakespeare into German.

He became friends with the great playwright Gottfried Lessing. Moses Mendelssohn became the model for Nathan in Lessing's play "Nathan the Wise", which presents religious tolerance between Christians, Jews, and Muslims, not in a modern situation, but in Jerusalem amidst The Crusades! (FT 1) Lessing and Mendelssohn were active in the court of King Frederick the Great at Potsdam. They defended the tradition of Leibniz against Voltaire, and the sense-certainty of empiricism.

Mendelssohn wrote:

“To you, immortal Leibniz, I set up an eternal memorial in my heart! Without your help I would have been lost for ever. I never met you in the flesh, yet your imperishable writings ... have guided me to the firm path of the true philosophy, to the knowledge of myself and of my origin. They have engraved upon my soul the sacred truths on which my felicity is founded ... Is there any slavery harder to bear than the one in which reason and heart are at loggerheads with one another?”

You may find yourself asking, "If Leibniz is so important, how come I never heard of him? " To which we answer, "His importance is precisely why you never heard of him." We will attach suggested readings at the end of this article.

At the court of Frederick the Great, Lessing and Mendelssohn became friends with the music director, CPE Bach, the fifth son of the famous J.S. Bach. J.S. Bach had visited the court in 1747, where he met a monumental challenge from the King with his breakthrough work, "A Musical Offering", which included a 6 part Ricercar (basically a fugue) on the King's Theme.

https://youtu.be/OSm9LEYixvA

This was in opposition to the light-as-air music proposed by Jean Jacques Rousseau (Yes, the author of "The Rights of Man"). Rousseau is said to have revolutionized taste, by "meeting the people where they're at." Here is his "L'Air de la Troupe Marchant" (Song of the Marching Troops).

https://youtu.be/Qi9vO5osN2c

As hard as it is to believe, this mediocrity was composed decades after the death of Bach.

You do have to meet the people where they are at. You cannot shoot miles over their heads and expect them to respond. The question is: Do you meet them where they are, in order to educate and uplift them to something higher; or to placate and stroke them, like a pet? Bach thought that fugal polyphony was natural to human beings. He took simple well-known hymns, transformed and uplifted them, in a way that could not but help uplift the listener.

Rousseau insisted that counterpoint was confusing and got in the way of melody. He even tried to "simplify" music for the people. Instead of reading left to right, then switching all the way to the left again, he proposed having music read left to right, then the next line right to left, to make it easier for the people. Never mind how language has been read for millennia. Rousseau functioned as a romantic, before the so-called romantic period in music even began.

Moses Mendelssohn and Lessing were at the Court of King Frederick the Great, and were friends with another man who was trying to uplift and educate that monarch, and that court, CPE Bach, the 5th son of J S Bach, and director of music at Potsdam. Though he loved the written works of both Lessing and Mendelssohn, he chose to set another poet.

Christian Fürchtegott Gellert (1715–1769) was a professor of philosophy and poetry at the University of Leipzig during the last years that Johann Sebastian Bach was Cantor at the Thomaskirche (choir director at Saint Thomas' Church) in that city. He was an advocate of "natural theology": finding God in nature, science, and philosophy, and the Goodness of the Creator as expressed in the best qualities of humanity; rather than through an overemphasis on "revealed religion" and mysticism. He was loved by his students for his calm qualities of humility, generosity, modest piety and friendliness. He practiced what he preached, and strove to be a living example of God's goodness.

As a poet, he is seen as a founder of a new German school of lyricism that led to Lessing, Goethe, and Schiller. He is credited with beginning the process of liberating German poetry from Gottsched's stifling rules of the French Academy, which followed Aristotle's arbitrary restrictions.

In 1757, Gellert published his "Sacred Odes and Songs," and suggested that they could be sung to traditional chorales (hymn tunes). His close friend, J.S. Bach's son, CPE Bach, thought that they deserved better (small wonder, his father was the master of elevating simple hymns). CPE Bach set all 54 of them to original music (though he re-ordered the poems). Although his settings are somewhat hymn-like, they may also be the foundation for a new form: "Lieder", or the "Art Song. Here is the text to song 1.

Song 1: Bitten (I ask of you)

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!

God, your goodness reaches so wide,

As far as the clouds go;

You crown us with mercy,

And hurry to help us.

Lord, my castle, my rock, my treasure,

Take my torch, remember my word,

For I will pray before you.

Here is the setting by CPE Bach:

https://youtu.be/xKKKjO4QOxQ

Some 45 years later, Ludwig van Beethoven set several of the same songs. He knew and respected the settings of CPE Bach. In fact, his setting of Bitten pays tribute to CPE Bach. The third last line, "Herr, meine Burg, mein Fels, mein Hort" is sung in Bach's version on a single note. Beethoven follows suit. Please compare that line in both settings.

Here is the setting by Beethoven

https://youtu.be/EQzGWGXRPZ0

What does that tell us? Is Beethoven a revolutionary? He certainly is! He goes way beyond his predecessors. At the same time, his respect for them grew as he learned. He is a revolutionary who does not discard the past.

Instead of a cancel-culture movement, we need the opposite. Or, as Verdi puts it: " We should study the past. It will allow us to move forward." Future advances depend on studying past ones.

Ft 1. Lessing stated that at the time of his play (about 1,000 A.D.), the Muslims and the Jews were the only civilized people in the world. The overwhelming motiv in the play is: "Is it not enough to be human?" During the 20th century holocaust, many German Jews named their children Lessing, in honor of what he had done.

Was Tchaikovsky, Russian, Ukrainian, or American?

In the past months, we saw the travesty of institutions and symphony orchestras banning Russian music under the rubric of "Free Ukraine". In particular, they banned the work of Russian composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (even the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition was banned). This is beyond travesty—it is sheer idiocy.

But the idiocy was fortunately curtailed in Ukraine itself. On June 16, 2022, the Pyotr Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kiev announced that it will not remove Tchaikovsky’s name from their Academy. Yury Rybchinsky, a prominent Ukrainian songwriter and member of the Academy’s supervisory board said: “Governments and armies can fight, but cultures can never fight each other”. He argued: “Tchaikovsky, like Shakespeare, like Joan of Arc, like Christ, does not belong to one specific people, he belongs to the whole world.” He also noted that Tchaikovsky even came from a family of Zaporozhzhian Cossacks (in Ukraine), that he “treated Ukraine with incredible love” and that he used motifs from Ukrainian folk music in some of his works. This discovery was echoed in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, when someone realized that Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 17, composed 1873, is a celebration of Ukrainian folk music, and even performed it in a concert for Ukraine.

TCHAIKOVSKY

Whatever one may think about Tchaikovsky's music, or neuroses, one should look at his overall role in building Russian culture.

The composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Votinsk Russia, where his father Ilya managed the iron works, which produced anchors. Under Ilya's leadership, it was converted to machine production, and produced boats and steam engines for railroads. It also became the first open hearth furnace in Russia.

The family came from Ukraine. The composer's grandfather, Pyotr Feodorovitch was the son of a Cossack, Fedir Chaika (meaning seagull). He studied at Kiev Academy, and later St. Petersburg, where he changed his name to the more Russian-sounding Chaikovsky.

His grandson, the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, was a Russian patriot, but also proud of his Ukrainian heritage. He took a leading role in organizing Russian music. He personally catalogued the complete works of Dmitro Bortniansky, the founder of modern Russian music. Bortniansky was head of the Russian Imperial Court Chapel Choir in St. Petersburg, but was a product of the singing school in Hukhliv Ukraine, which trained all of the singers for that imperial choir. The Czar declared that Bortniansly set the musical standards for the entire Russian Empire. Bortniansky was chosen by Beethoven to conduct the world premier of his Missa Solemnis. He was Ukrainian, but led Russia in music, after studying in Italy for 11 years.

Here is a short work for a capella choir by Bortniansky: Tebe Poem- We Praise (Hymn) Thee

https://youtu.be/KYKEhD2GfdU

When a decision was made to elevate the Moscow Synodal Choir to the same level as the St. Petersburg Court Choir in 1880, Tchaikovsky played a leading role. He wrote a Liturgy of St. John of Chrysostom for it, and recommended the conductor Orlov, resident composer Katalsky, and others.

Here is Tchaikovsky's a capella setting of the same Orthodox hymn: Tebe Poem

https://youtu.be/9Ey-er_1PCc

Thirty years later, the Moscow Synodal Choir become great, and in 1910, Russian composer Rachmaninoff composed another beautiful a capella setting of “Tebe Poem”.

https://youtu.be/mlPcU_BrJdY

That is three beautiful renditions of the same hymn, coming out of the same a capella tradition.

RUSSIA

Tchaikovsky was a Russian patriot. The famed conductor, Evgeny Mravinsky, played his 5th Symphony in such a way, that it served as an inspiration for the Russian people during WWII, a war in which it lost 26 million people. One cannot emotionally bullshit a nation which suffered such losses. The music had to be real.

Though the horn solo in the second movement of His Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64, composed 1888, is marked Con Alcun Licenza (with no licence), it is often played with great licence, as though full of Alpine longing. Even great conductors and soloists commit this error.

https://youtu.be/eEbO80q66ak

The famous conductor and pedagogue, Evgeny Mravinsky, played this symphony as a rallying cry for the Russian people during WWII, who lost 26 million to the war. He was famed for deemphasizing the neurotic side of the composer. Here is his rendition of the second movement. The horn solo is performed like a tenor aria( we could not isolate the solo, so we included the entire movement. The horn solo lasts up 'till about 2:20 :

https://youtu.be/O8uwOT860S8

What a world of difference!

Another example of Tchaikovsky's patriotism is the third act of his opera “Mazeppa”, which celebrates Peter the Great's victory over Sweden at Potlova, with the folk song, "Glory, Glory, to the Sun in the Sky". This is the same song Beethoven had set much earlier in his String Quartet, Op. 59, No. 2, as requested by Count Razumovsky.

His Marche Slav was written to celebrate Russian support for the Serbs in a war against the Ottomans, who had brutally dominated the area for centuries.

UKRAINE

Tchaikovsky visited Ukraine for several months every year, where he found inspiration, and incorporated many Ukrainian folk songs into his works. His works were performed in Odessa, Kharkiv, and Kiev, where he worked closely with local performers.

Ukrainian nationalist Mykola Lysenko (1842-1912), was the central figure in Ukrainian music, who insisted on writing in the Ukrainian language. The text of his opera, “Taras Bulba”, was written in the Ukrainian language, and was banned during his lifetime. Tchaikovsky had been friends with Lysenko, and participated in the production of “Taras Bulba” after his death. In 1885, Lysenko composed the “Prayer for Ukraine”.

Lysenko Hymn for Ukraine

https://youtu.be/zn0_p1ZR3hg

AMERICA

Although we know little of Tchaikovsky's opinion on industry, the following stands out:

1. His father's industrial leadership.

2. His patron was Nadezhda von Meck, widow of the man who built the first phase of Russian railroads. She and her son continued to build railroads.

3. When Tchaikovsky visited the U.S., in order to conduct his own music for the opening of Carnegie Hall, though he had his neurotic moments of self-pity, he met steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. They got along famously. Tchaikovsky found Carnegie very knowledgeable about Russian developments. He commented:

"I am ten times better known here than in Russia. Of all the people I have met, [the Americans] are the most generous and open hearted."

And, after a reception in his honor, wrote:

“The Americans are absolutely amazing! Their sincerity, generosity, friendliness and desire to please are absolutely out of this world! Nowhere but in Russia have I ever seen so much love for foreigners. The American way of life is really so good me!”

“I wish the Americans knew more about the intellectual life and progress in Russia, As far as I go, I’m really enchanted by your country and I’m sure that some day I will do my duty and familiarize the Americans with the musical achievements we have in Russia… I’m certain that this is not my last visit to America.”

In 1891, Tchaikovsky invited his friend Antonin Dvorak to visit Russia. There, Dvorak is reported to have studied the Ukrainian Dumka with Lysenko. Dvorak may have learned a lot about the Dumka from Lysenko, but he went far beyond him, and was composing them before his visit to Russia. Here is a Dumka composed by Dvorak for his Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81 (composed 1887):

Dumka from Quintet in A Dvorak

https://youtu.be/9-r4fmPeJuo

Do you see a certain intensity of events in the following?

1. 1890: Dvorak visits Russia at Tchaikovsky's request.

2. 1891: Tchaikovsky visits the U.S. to open Carnegie Hall.

3. 1892: Dvorak comes to New York to head the composition department in the National Conservatory of Music in New York. Carnegie is a financial sponsor. Brahms proofreads the compositions that Dvorak composes in the U.S.

UKRAINIAN FOLK MUSIC

Tchaikovsky frequently incorporated Ukrainian folk songs. The best example is his Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 17, sometimes known as the "Little Russian Symphony". It utilizes at least three Ukrainian folk songs. The fourth movement consists of variations on A Ukrainian folk song called "The Crane".

Rather than play that, we play for you the “Andante Cantabile” from his String Quartet No. 1 in D major Op. 11, composed 1871. It features two themes. The second one is of his own invention. The first however, is a rather complex folk song he heard an Russian carpenter singing:

https://youtu.be/lDQuWlz37iw

Classical music And Popular Culture in Brazil

On July 9th, we discussed J.S. Bach’s Cantata 140, “Wachet Auf”. Bach sought to uplift and transform the hymns sung by everyday people through his music. The same is true for folk music. Classical musical composers often took folk songs and transformed them in such a way that showed people something that they did not know, about either the songs or themselves. In the case of Brazil, folk music and Classical music played an important role in the advancement of political freedom that eventually contributed to overturning the institution of slavery.

Jose Mauricio Nunes Garcia (1767-1830)

Over 250 years ago, 70% of immigrants to Brazil were black African slaves. Brazil imported the largest number of African slaves (at least 5.8 million), and was the last place in the western hemisphere to ban slavery (until 1888). Slave-masters did things like pitting mulattos against Africans, and native slaves against both, in order to control them. The fights were intense. Before Nunes Garcia, Brazilian music was typified by the Portuguese court composer, Marcos Portugal. Here is a typical example.

https://youtu.be/6y_7GPzndXo

Jose Mauricio Nunes Garcia was born in Rio de Janeiro. Though his parents were free mulattos, they did not have an easy time of it. He showed much musical talent and his parents went to great expense to give him a musical education. It took all they had. At the age of 12, he began to teach music, even though he had no access to a keyboard. He learned to play at the same time as he taught, i.e. on his students keyboards, and was said to be able to reproduce anything he heard. He became famous as an improviser.

In 1790, this Funeral Symphony made him famous, at least in Rio. Some performances zip through it in half the time as this:

https://youtu.be/hPviAq38CSs

In 1792, he became a priest. He had to pass three requirements:

1. He had to declare himself and his parents to be true Catholics. Easy enough.

2. He had to own a house. A rich parent of one of his students gave him one.

3. He had to be free of any "color defects." He asked that this requirement be dismissed, and it was.

In 1795 he started a free music program in his house, even though his only instrument was a guitar, played in succession by students. He trained most of the next generation of Brazilian musicians there on that guitar. He improvised Modinhas, a type of Brazilian folk song, of Portuguese origin, often accompanied by only a guitar. He and his students would sometimes play Modinhas in the park next to his house.

Here is Nunes Garcia 's Modinha # 8, recorded in 2020.

https://youtu.be/USwvxmIYi6w

Here is another Modinha by him: "Beijo a mão que me condena" (“I kiss the hand that condemns me”). We didn’t include the translation because it did not seem right.

https://youtu.be/0XkSc_M5gcs

Beijo a mão que me condena

A ser sempre desgraçado

Obedeço ao meu destino

Respeito o poder do fado

Que eu ame tanto

Sem ser amado

Sou infeliz

Sou desgraçado.

In 1798, he became Chapel Master, and the leading musician in Brazil. He also seems to have gotten the celibacy requirement dismissed, since he had five children.

In 1808, Prince John VI of Portugal arrived in Rio with a retinue of 15,000 (basically the entire court) fleeing Napoleon. They were relocating to Brazil. When the Prince decided to create a Royal Chapel, the Portuguese clergy demanded that no Brazilian clergy be accepted into it, to avoid the sight of someone with a "visible physical defect”—meaning Garcia. They were afraid. The Haitian Revolution of 1804 had inspired many Brazilians, and soldiers of African descent wore the medal of Dessalines. Despite more such hostile actions against Nunes Gracia, the prince appointed him as head of the Royal Chapel, making him the first musician in all of the Kingdom of Portugal!

His compositional powers grew, and he composed this great Te Deum in 1809.

https://youtu.be/Ch8Od0x2yjQ?list=TLPQMjEwNjIwMjLOUDSzvlOUyA

Although we don’t have the full story, by 1811, he was replaced by former court composer Marcos Portugal.

Francisco Manuel da Silva (1795-1865)

Da Silva, also from Rio, was one of Nunes Garcia's students, who founded the National Imperial Music and Opera Academy, the National Music Institute, and the Rio de Janeiro University Music School.

Brazil achieved independence from Portugal in 1822, but it was a slow process. In 1822, Jose Bonifacio de Andrade e Silva, the man referred to as the "Father of Brazilian Independence", called an end the slave trade and phase out slavery.

Francisco Manuel d Silva composed the Brazilian National Anthem, but waited to present it until April 13th, 1831, the day that Emperor Pedro I (who had resigned six days earlier), set sail back to Portugal. The Anthem is reminiscent of a Donizetti Aria.

https://youtu.be/SyyOahYXhUQ?list=TLPQMjEwNjIwMjLOUDSzvlOUyA

In 1835, the first major slave revolt occurred. Besides the Modinha, the Lundu was the other popular style of Afro-Brazilian music and dance. It was of African origins. Here is a traditional anonymous Brazilian Lundu.

https://youtu.be/_BOqBcrmfGg?list=TLPQMjEwNjIwMjLOUDSzvlOUyA

Da Silva composed this delightful Lundu de Mariquinha.

https://youtu.be/8L-4TaqWiEo?list=TLPQMjEwNjIwMjLOUDSzvlOU

He also composed religious music. Here is a section of his Te Deum in G.

https://youtu.be/9HAH8RzjKMI?list=TLPQMjEwNjIwMjLOUDSzvlOUyA

Antonio Carlos Gomez (1836-1896)

Gomez was the first New World composer to be celebrated in Europe, including, apparently, by Verdi. He studied at Da Silva's Rio de Janeiro Music School. He composed “O saluto de Brazil” for the 1867 U.S. Centennial in Philadelphia.

https://youtu.be/TwTQshm4QdA

He also composed “Colombo", and "O Guarini", about a forbidden love affair between a native (Guarini) prince, and a Portuguese-Brazilian woman. It was premiered at La Scala. Here is a duet.

https://youtu.be/bJhC3Tjae3Q

He composed Lo Schiavo, in opposition to slavery. Here are some excerpts.

https://youtu.be/djMxyaicb8A

Mendelssohn and Bach

Last week, we revealed the profound connection between the young Felix Mendelssohn and (especially) the late Beethoven. That connection was so deep that one might think it admitted no other. Yet, for Felix, as for the best of the post-Beethoven classical composers, the tradition must be anchored in Bach.

Historian David Shavin has documented the connections of the Mendelssohn family to Bach from early on. Although Mozart revived Bach's polyphonic method, after participating in the 1782 salons of Baron van Swieten, it was Felix Mendelssohn who decided to revive not just Bach's method, but Bach himself—and he did it in a big way.

In 1828, at age 19, Mendelssohn organized what was thought to be the first performance of Bach's “St. Matthew's Passion” in 100 years. It was a huge risk. If it did not succeed, his career would have been doomed.

Once again, music and science were wed. The great scientist Lejeune Dirichlet was married to Felix' youngest sister Rebecka. All things worked for The Good on the Mendelssohn estate. To quote historian David Shavin:

“When Lejeune Dirichlet, at 23 years of age, worked with Alexander von Humboldt in making microscopic measurements of the motions of a suspended bar-magnet in a specially-built hut in Abraham Mendelssohn’s garden, he could hear, nearby in the garden-house, the Mendelssohn youth movement working through the voicing of J. S. Bach’s “St. Matthew’s Passion.”

How wonderful! Imagine the excitement in the mutual interchange between scientific and artistic thought! Mendelssohn was not just a composer. He was a painter, and scholar. After a meeting in 1837, Franz Liszt exclaimed that: “Mendelssohn draws wonderful sketches, plays the violin and the viola, can read Homer fluently in Greek and speaks four or five languages.”

Felix Mendelssohn sought to keep Bach alive. He was an accomplished organist. Many composers imitated Bach's “Preludes and Fugues”, and ended up with just that, imitations. Mendelssohn's Op. 37, No. 1, does not imitate, but captures Bach's spirit, and combines it, with advances made in the classical spirit.

https://youtu.be/vYaH0tFD8_o

As enthusiastic as this writer might be, his enthusiasm cannot surpass that of Robert Schumann, who said that Mendelssohn's Fugues "planted beautiful flowers, in the same forests where Bach had planted mighty oaks!"

Mendelssohn and the Voice

One of the advances made after Beethoven was in vocal music (though Beethoven's music is in no ways as unvocal as sometimes assumed). Schumann once remarked that the only progress that had taken place since Beethoven, was in Lieder (poetry set to music.)

Perhaps one of the reasons why Mendelssohn composed his "Songs without Words" for piano, is his statement that "music begins where poetry leaves off." That is true in a way. Poetry is implicitly polyphonic, but lacks the explicit polyphonic development of music. The reciprocal relation between poetry and music is not over though. The Scottish poet Robbie Burns, took Irish melodies and wrote poems to fit them. He remarked that he could not get away with humdrum singing of the tunes. He had to sing them with utmost passion to find the right words (Thomas Moore did that as well with Irish melodies that lacked words). Perhaps Mendelssohn's "Songs without Words" does something similar, encourage the listener to envision the poetry behind the melodies (was Mendelssohn was encouraging a more vocal approach to the keyboard than the virtuosos that dominated Paris?Though these virtuosos made variations on opera arias, their overall approach was mechanistic.)

It takes a special touch to make Mendelssohn's “Songs without Words” truly sing. You can play them so that they are shaped like a song, but to breathe life into them requires nuance. These nuances are shaped by what pianists often call illusion. A far better word is metaphor. How can a piano achieve crescendo and diminuendo on a single note? Listen to a 1930 performance by Polish-Jewish pianist, Ignaz Friedman, an expert in Chopin.

https://youtu.be/XnQAMvsPCB4

This may seem like a silly song, but in the hands of a master, how it sings!

https://youtu.be/PL5t6P3W6nc

The question of Liszt, as pianist, remains open. He played Mendelssohn's G Major Concerto, to the composer's dismay.

Liszt reports: “Mendelssohn, on one occasion, drew a picture on a blackboard of the devil playing his G minor concerto with five hammers on each hand instead of fingers. The truth of the matter is that I once played his Concerto in G minor from the manuscript, and as I found several of the passages rather simple and not broad enough, if I may use the term, I changed them to suit my own ideas. This, of course, annoyed Mendelssohn, who, unlike Schumann or Chopin, would never take a hint from anyone. Moreover, Mendelssohn, although a refined pianist, was not a virtuoso, and never could play my compositions with any kind of effect, his technical skill being inadequate to the execution of intricate passages. So the only course laid open to him, he thought, was to vilify me as a musician.”

Was There Such a Thing as a Romantic Period? Part 4: The Young Felix Mendelssohn and Beethoven

“NOW I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

It is a common practice today to categorize all 19th century composers as part of the “Romantic period”. Certainly, Felix Mendelssohn was also been "pressed" into service. However, Mendelssohn made many unique discoveries that were firmly rooted in the tradition of Bach through Beethoven. Mendelssohn was not of the Romantics camp. He characterized Liszt as having "many fingers, but few brains", and no talent for composition.

Felix Mendelssohn was the grandson of the great philosopher and founder of the Jewish Enlightenment, Moses Mendelssohn, whose salons included such scientific genii as the Humboldt brothers—Alexander was a polymath, geographer, naturalist, and explorer; his older brother Wilhelm was a philosopher and linguist who performed great educational reforms as the the Prussian minister.

Although the Mendelssohn family was steeped in music, Felix and his sister Fanny were way ahead of their time. As a teenager, Felix, with great enthusiasm, would play Beethoven's late String Quartets on the piano for anyone who would listen, even before they were published. Most people found them to be incomprehensible. Even Felix' father Abraham, agreed with the competent, but conservative composer Louis Spohr, that they were: "an indecipherable, uncorrected horror". Spohr represented "the understanding", which respected a fixed set of rules. Beethoven, and the young Mendelssohn, represented "reason", which came, to not overthrow those rules, but to fulfill them.

In 1825, at the age 16, Felix sent his sister Fanny a copy of Beethoven's monumental “Hammerklavier” Piano Sonata No. 29 in B♭ major, Op. 106. While it is often claimed that the first successful performance of this difficult work was by Franz Liszt in 1836, Felix often said, on being praised for his piano playing, "Wait 'til you hear my sister!" She might very well have been the first to play it.

On hearing the news of Beethoven's death in 1827, Felix, then age 18, composed a song, "Frage", or "Question" as part of his (and Fannie's) Op. 9. For a long time the words were credited to a poet named Voss. Later, Felix' nephew insisted that Felix wrote both the music and the poem! It is rare that the poet and composer are the same person! The poem goes as follows:

Frage -Question

Ist es wahr? Ist es wahr?

Daß du stets dort in dem Laubgang,

An der Weinwand meiner harrst?

Und den Mondschein und die Sternlein

Auch nach mir befragst?

Ist es wahr? Sprich!

Was ich fühle, das begreift nur,

Die es mit fühlt,

Und die treu mir ewig,

Treu mir ewig, ewig bleibt.

Question

Is it true? Is it true?

That you will always be there

In the leafy walkway

By the vineyard wall, still waiting?

And that you implore the moonlight

And the stars to tell

Whither have I gone?

Is it true? Pray tell!

What I feel, can only be grasped

By the one whose feels with me

And who true to me ever,

True to me ever, will ever remain.

(Translation by Rick Sanders)

This video includes the words in German only.

https://youtu.be/nQ7P_HJ8wv8

Who remained true to whom? Mendelssohn to Beethoven, or Beethoven to Mendelssohn? The short song was an immediate response, in preparation for a much longer work, that took months of work and became the “String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13.” In this work, we see a type of love unique to the Classical Principle. Do you know any 18 year olds who show such emotional maturity? This is not sensuous love. It is not grandfatherly love. It is the love of creativity, the love of one creative mind for another, not for its own sake, but for sake humanity! Mendelssohn saw himself in Beethoven, found himself in Beethoven, and pledged to remain true to Beethoven. And, Beethoven found himself in Mendelssohn-remained true to Mendelssohn.

But how could Beethoven, who could not possibly have known of Felix' existence, remain true to him?

“WHAT I feel is only understood by the one who feels it with me." 

When Felix played those late quartets for family and friends, he may have been the only one (outside of Schubert and a few others in Vienna) who deeply felt the creativity that went into them. When Felix composed, his conscience would have envisioned Beethoven looking over his shoulder, gently.

Beethoven was one of the most uncompromising minds in history. He never compromised on principle. When other artists degenerated morally during the intellectual repression that followed the Congress of Vienna in 1812, Beethoven demanded new levels of creativity from himself, and was adamant that he was not doing it for his contemporaries, but for the future. Beethoven was faithful to humanity, to his Creator, to himself, and especially, to the future (including an unknown Felix in the cradle.)

“BUT then shall I know even as also I am known.”

The first movement of Mendelssohn's “Quartet in A Minor” starts out with a slow theme that is reverential and Beethovenesque. A couple of minutes in, Mendelssohn plays the three-note theme of “Ist es war?” (Is it true?), from the song “Frage”. Compare it to Beethoven's three-note motiv, “Muss es sein?” (must it be?) from the Fourth movement of his “String Quartet No. 16 in F Major, Op. 135.” (please listen to the audio file: https://drive.google.com/.../10A2rjiv41tz8.../view....)

So, what does "Ist es war" mean? In the most simple sense, is it true that Beethoven is dead? For that matter, what does Beethoven's "Muss es sein" mean? Simply, "Must I die?" (Op 135 was Beethoven's last completed work). Or, do they both mean more?

Mendelssohn's quartet is in A Minor, and bears an overall relation to Beethoven's String Quartet No. 15, Op. 132, also in A Minor. The audio compares the opening of the first movement (after a short introduction), of Beethoven's Op. 132, with the opening of the first movement of Mendelssohn's Op. 13 (again after a short intro). The connection is hard to miss.

Then we present the recitative-like section that is the transition from movement 4 to movement 5 in Beethoven's Op. 132, with the recitative-like section, that is the transition from movement 3 to movement 4 in Mendelssohn's Op. 13.

Then we compare the fughetta from the second movement of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95, with the fughetta from the second movement of Mendelssohn's Op. 13.

These quotes are loving and unmistakable, from three late Beethoven quartets, some of which had not even at the time, yet been published (Op. 95, Op. 132, and Op. 135)!

The fourth movement of Op. 13 begins quickly, but suddenly halts, and ends the quartet with an incredible synopsis of the entire process.

Here is the all-important audio file again:

https://drive.google.com/.../10A2rjiv41tz8.../view...

If music history valued creativity and agape, the highest form of love, this work would be much more in the center of the repertoire than it currently is. We provide the entire quartet with score, for those whose curiosity is sufficiently piqued!

https://youtu.be/jYZtkRyn-ec