Gurn's Classical Corner

[Gurn Blanston]

Bought this book yesterday, it's in the mail. I have found it a challenge sometimes to get information on keyboard instruments; Google can lead you down some paths better left untrodden.


Hopefully having a good reference book at hand will make things more interesting and enjoyable for me. I'll report back on it, it may be of interest to some others here.

[Florestan]

I'll report back on it, it may be of interest to some others here.

Please do.

BTW, have you encountered any book dealing, even tangential, with the shift from violin to keyboard as the main instrument for composing and experimenting and its implications for the whole history of music? I stumbled upon this idea in a Yehudi Menuhin book (The Music of Man, or something like that), found it very interetsing but unfortunately he doesn't elaborate it.

[Florestan]

[...]Beethoven played both piano and violin, very well, [...]

Beethoven a very good violinist? I had no idea about that. 

Are you sure, though?

[Gurn Blanston]

Beethoven a very good violinist? I had no idea about that. 

Are you sure, though?

He had 2 jobs in the Elector's orchestra while growing up: he was the backup organist and he played the viola in the orchestra. My guess is that if he was a good violist (he was, by all accounts) then he was at least a competent fiddler. 

[Gurn Blanston]

Please do.

BTW, have you encountered any book dealing, even tangential, with the shift from violin to keyboard as the main instrument for composing and experimenting and its implications for the whole history of music? I stumbled upon this idea in a Yehudi Menuhin book (The Music of Man, or something like that), found it very interetsing but unfortunately he doesn't elaborate it.

Not so much specifically about that, but tangentially, yes. I'll have a look around tonight and see what I can find.

I know it was pretty much an Austrian thing. Haydn and Mozart wrote every lick of their music at the keyboard. I wouldn't necessarily agree with Leon about Haydn's capabilities as a pianist. He was very competent. As he was on the violin. He says of himself that he was no virtuoso, however others say he was very good indeed. In any case, when Mozart moved to Vienna, he wrote to his father that "Hier ist doch gewis das Clavierland!"  ("Here is the Land of the Piano!"), which says to me that the Cult of Pianism already held sway there. At that time, "Italy" was still dominated by the violin. My personal inference from this is that the reason that High Classical Style was mainly a Viennese thing, and the center of music moved from Italy to Austria, is that the keyboard came to the front rank instead of being a support mechanism.

That's my opinion, I may be wrong.

[Florestan]

My personal inference from this is that the reason that High Classical Style was mainly a Viennese thing, and the center of music moved from Italy to Austria, is that the keyboard came to the front rank instead of being a support mechanism.

That's Menuhin's thesis as well.

[Gurn Blanston]

That's Menuhin's thesis as well.

He was a wise man.  0:)

[Florestan]

He was a wise man.  0:)

Of course, after all he was Enescu's pupil. 

[DavidW]

Of course, after all he was Enescu's pupil. 

Ha!  It comes back to Enescu!

[Florestan]

Ha!  It comes back to Enescu!

Enesco, actually. 

[Gurn Blanston]

Enesco, actually. 

That's some UN agency, isn't it? 

[Florestan]

That's some UN agency, isn't it? 

Hah!

[SonicMan46]

Ha!  It comes back to Enescu!

Yep!    For those interested, check out the photos of in the Enescu thread HERE way back in 2008!

Gurn - that looks like an interesting book on the history of the piano (which has occasionally been a big topic of discussion here!) - not sure why 'Giraffes & Black Dragons' appears in the title, but I'm going to check Amazon for some pricing - Dave 

[DavidW]

Thanks Dave, looks like an interesting but brief thread.  Perhaps MI will pump that thread up like he did with Koechlin.

[Gurn Blanston]

Yep!    For those interested, check out the photos of in the Enescu thread HERE way back in 2008!

Gurn - that looks like an interesting book on the history of the piano (which has occasionally been a big topic of discussion here!) - not sure why 'Giraffes & Black Dragons' appears in the title, but I'm going to check Amazon for some pricing - Dave 

Dave,
I think those were models of keyboards. Odd, eh?   I used the ISBN number in the ASIN function and it gave me the cover picture but no link. I got it "Used - Like New" for $20. A bargain!   



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Now playing:
The English Concert \ Andrew Manze - K 525 Serenade #13 in G 1st mvmt - Allegro

[Leo K.]

Bought this book yesterday, it's in the mail. I have found it a challenge sometimes to get information on keyboard instruments; Google can lead you down some paths better left untrodden.


Hopefully having a good reference book at hand will make things more interesting and enjoyable for me. I'll report back on it, it may be of interest to some others here.

I look forward to your thoughts on this book! Looks like my cup of tea 

[Gurn Blanston]

I look forward to your thoughts on this book! Looks like my cup of tea 

Soon, hopefully. It is published by Stanford University Press, so at the least I expect accuracy.   



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Now playing:
The English Concert \ Andrew Manze - K 546 Adagio & Fugue in c pt 2 - Fugue

[Leo K.]

  (please excuse my chuckle). First timer I heard a baryton I thought it was a duet between a cello and a guitar. My reading about it had said that the backside strings played sympathetically, but in fact this player was picking them (with his thumb?). And it sounded like a guitar. Anyway, my surmise it that you got taken in precisely the same way I did. Haydn very rarely wrote any pizzicato because the prince wasn't up for it. It will be nice to hear this Abel for a different take on the instrument.

BTW, here is a very fine disk of Abel's solo gamba works.



He must have been a very talented player.




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Now playing:
L'Archibudelli - Bia 153 Op 9 Trios (3) for Strings (HIP) #1 in G 3rd mvmt - Scherzo: Allegro

Speaking of Abel, this is a Viola de Gamba disk I have, and I'm listening now...so rapturous and stunning!

[Que]

Speaking of Abel, this is a Viola de Gamba disk I have, and I'm listening now...so rapturous and stunning!

I was actually a bit dissapointed by that disc....by the music, to be more precise.

It proofed as disappointing this time around. Despite Pandolfo's enthusiasm for Abel's music in the liner notes and despite the great performance and recording quality, the music simply fails to convince. Abel tries to built on the foundations of the French baroque gamba tradition music that fits in the newer transitional Baroque-Classical style, and fails. It sounds laborious, unfocused, uninspired and indistinctive.

Q

[Gurn Blanston]

I was actually a bit dissapointed by that disc....by the music, to be more precise.

Tell us how you really feel, Que...