Here, the harpsichord plays rambling, circular figures, busy music that basically goes nowhere. Weinberg continues to play with this phone-ringing motif on and off throughout the movement. Projecting deep feeling into the sounds you discover will bring them to life. By playing and practicing inside the Matrices and Cosmograms a musician will develop dexterity on any instrument in ways that are different from practicing scales and arpeggios.
- Scabeni’s ‘Swank and Hatter’ seduces the listener with the metallic textures present throughout the piece.
- And clearly, by the time he wrote the Seventh Symphony for harpsichord and orchestra in 1964, Weinberg’s sadness had clearly set in.
- Both the theme statement, fragmented and almost as an allusion rather than a solid statement, and the variants move very slowly, building incrementally over a period of time.
- The essence of music he held to be rhythm, which finds its counterpart in the innermost self.
And Witzel’s solo is an extension of that theme, using its harmonic base to improvise on but also extending the time—and the harmony—within his improvised choruses. In other words, the solo, too, is a composition, just a spontaneously created one. While my readers know very well that I am not a big fan of this modern trend towards soft-grained jazz guitar playing, it is what Witzel plays rather than the style in which he plays it that grabbed my attention. His solos are wonderfully creative, far better than the first “soft jazz” guitarists of the 1990s were.
Both the theme statement, fragmented and almost as an allusion rather than a solid statement, and the variants move very slowly, building incrementally over a period of time. Being a dream, one does not reach a fulfillment so much as just one dream stage after another. Each of the three solo instruments play individually and independently of one another, adding their minimalist contributions in bits and pieces, fits and starts, but never quite conclusions. I was immediately struck by the “waves” Rattle created with the cello figures in the opening section as well as the depth of feeling he projects. This is not a shy or “moody” Mahler 9th, but a full-blooded performance, and Rattle pours every drop of emotion he has in him into this performance.
THE ART MUSIC LOUNGE
Music interested them in terms extrinsic to itself, in its observable effects; in its connections with dance, religious ritual, or festive rites; because of its alliance with words; or for some other extramusical consideration. The only common denominator to be found, aside from the recognition of different types of music, is the acknowledgment of its connection with the emotional life, and here, to be sure, is that problematic power of the art to move. Various extramusical preoccupations are the raison d’être of “contextualist” explanations of music, which are concerned with its relation to the human environment.
Style
Writing such reflective, slow music for the last movement is surely unusual, but in time the tempo doubles as both lower strings and winds in the orchestra play syncopated figures. He brings a rare combination of seriousness and light-hearted insouciance to this music, which makes it work quite well. Eventually, the busy elements of this movement fade away, there is a moment of silence, and whet it resumes it is again moody and reflective. Being five movements long rather than just three or four, Weinberg has a lot to say in this work. One is struck, for instance, how the solo harpsichord passages somehow manage to sound sad as well, since this is one of the most cheerful-sounding instruments in the world. I must give kudos to Kirill Gerstein for his sensitive, outstanding performance as well.
Immersive, experience-led learning is at the heart of all of our programs in Art & Music Histories. On campus, faculty and students collaborate with the Syracuse University Art Museum and the Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University Libraries. Within the local community, our partners include the Everson Museum of Art, Light Work, and the Society for New Music, to name just a few. Faculty regularly organize field trips to New York City to network with curators and other cultural heritage professionals, many of whom are alumni of the Art & Music Histories program.
Music Art Images
Crank out albums full of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Brahms and Rachmaninov, and you’ll be hailed as a genius and make a ton of money. Specialize in music of your own time or at least in the modernist vein, and you’re relegated to the backwaters of being a “niche” performer. Home to various collections on the visual arts, art theory, architecture, photography, and music, the library offers individuals and small groups several features that aid scholarship and foster curiosity.