Weekend Concert 26: The Tempest
2007/1/28 10:56:02
Whether in nature or in the heart, tempests are rare, but a person who has never experienced a tempest basically cannot become a truly complete person. Recording tempests through music takes two common forms: one uses pure sound to simulate nature's storms; the other lets the inner tempest sweep notes into a surging flood. Music about tempests is thus pulled between these two entirely different sensibilities and characters.
Today's selection consists of four works with passages related to tempests.
The overture written for his finest grand opera, and one of the most famous overtures,
the most famous and finest part is not the storm depiction,
because that is merely some not-very-clever imitation,
but rather the pastoral shepherd's pipe after the storm,
which has nothing to do with melody and everything to do with the inner self.
This passage of music seems to foreshadow that this was his last opera.
In his prime, he withdrew from public life afterward, leaving endless debate after sweeping across Europe.
Rossini -- a genius, a genius who never reached the heights he should have.
The tempest on the piano neither needs nor permits imitation.
Here there is only the inner world, only the collision between Shakespeare's inspiration and this tempestuous genius.
This purest of storms comes from the most violent namelessness in life's depths.
A waltz passage used as background music for a weather forecast,
which perfectly illustrates this music's impurity.
Music too imitative of nature or too deeply from the heart is unsuitable as background.
This kind of surface-level music that can please the vast majority of ears is undoubtedly most suitable.
The only thing worth lamenting is that this nineteenth-century pop music
has become quite classical amid today's clamor.
Here, everything is natural, everything is of the inner self,
nature illuminated by the inner self and the inner self cooled by nature,
everything so pure, neither made by heaven nor by human hands,
this -- is just this, nothing more.
Replies
Chán Zhōng Shuō Chán 2007/1/28 11:03:31
This ID is going for a stroll on the frozen river outside — there's winter sunshine there, and under Beijing's still insufficiently transparent sky, the not-so-distant hazy silhouette of the Western Hills.
Heading off, goodbye.
Chán Zhōng Shuō Chán 2007/1/28 11:00:16
Attention everyone
To download, go directly to the "Friends Links" on this blog and find
Chán Zhōng Shuō Chán's Music Podcast
Click to download whichever work you like (each one has a download link below it), but you apparently need to register on that site first. Note: do not use for commercial purposes — personal enjoyment only. Please don't get this ID into trouble.
Just rest well on the weekend — don't talk about stocks. So dull.