Nate's Notes

[EigenUser]

The audio samples are not visible to me, is there a way I can correct this? If not it's alright, I have these pieces so I can listen along. 

I'm not sure. Are other people getting the samples working properly? They are interspersed with text, so it is possible that people are missing them completely (there are roughly 12 or so per piece). Do you see that something should be there (i.e. some sort of sound/error icon where the player should be), or is it totally invisible?

In case it was a browser issue, I am using Firefox, but I just opened the page in Safari and it worked the same.

[North Star]

I'm not all that familiar with Dutilleux (though I remember enjoying his first symphony) and I am embarrassed to admit that I haven't really heard much Sibelius at all  . I should change this sometime soon, I suppose.

Errr.. perhaps.
Also, listen to Dutilleux's string quartet Ainsi la nuit.

[TheGSMoeller]

I'm not sure. Are other people getting the samples working properly? They are interspersed with text, so it is possible that people are missing them completely (there are roughly 12 or so per piece). Do you see that something should be there (i.e. some sort of sound/error icon where the player should be), or is it totally invisible?

In case it was a browser issue, I am using Firefox, but I just opened the page in Safari and it worked the same.

I'm using Chrome, and there is a blank white bar where the samples should be. I'm using an iMac if that makes a difference.

I'll try another browser. 

[torut]

I'm using Chrome, and there is a blank white bar where the samples should be. I'm using an iMac if that makes a difference.

I'll try another browser. 

I am using Chrome (33.0.1750.152) on MacBook Air (MacOS X 10.9.2), and it works fine.

By the way, this is really a good idea. There are books with accompanying CD, but embedded audio clips in text is much more convenient. Thank you for posting these, EigenUser.

[amw]

I'm using Chrome, and there is a blank white bar where the samples should be. I'm using an iMac if that makes a difference.

I'll try another browser. 

If they're not showing up click on the title of the post (i.e. "Re: Nate's Notes" or whatever it happens to be). That fixes it for some reason.

[Mirror Image]

I've been reading through these 'notes' and really enjoying them. Thanks for taking the time to write all of these, Nate. Keep it up!

[EigenUser]

If they're not showing up click on the title of the post (i.e. "Re: Nate's Notes" or whatever it happens to be). That fixes it for some reason.

Yes, I know what you're talking about. After I make a post here they show up as the "white bars" Greg was talking about, but when I click the title of the thread the clips show up properly.

[TheGSMoeller]

Got them working!  Thanks, gang!

[Ken B]

I just recently attended a concert of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performing La Valse, which was preceded by a performance of the 2 piano version with conductors Robert Spano and Donald Runnicles at the keys. Being familiar with the piece and it's orchestral textures, I was shocked (not in a disappointing way at all) that I found the piano version to come across as more intense and even more macabre. I found more of the lines audible than when sometimes hidden behind percussion and brass.

Anyway, it's a great piece, and your notes were enjoyable to read. Thanks for the post, Nate.

So I listened to La Valse last night. I have Dutoit as well but chose Rattle. My memory was playing tricks as I remember it being about 90 minutes and it's really only about 60 

Ok, I know I am treading on toes here, but while I see the effect Nate describes for me it falls flat.

Seriously though I wonder about the ending, volume, and tempo. Is Rattle's a good and faithful performance? I expect so (alas) Because my impression was
1) yes, Ravel "play it LOUDER"
2) it could actually work well going all Celi on the ending. Slower, more crazed and lurching but not louder. The louder is too obvious, unsubtle.
I am confident that would not be what Ravel wanted, but to me it would help considerably.

Pitchforks! 

[EigenUser]

I've heard a few versions, but not the Rattle so I'm not sure. I really like the Boulez/BPO:
[asin]B000001GPI[/asin]

Ok, I know I am treading on toes here, ...

Not at all, haha  . This is just how I see it. Everyone here must realize that music pretty much has an infinite number of interpretations (even if the composer doesn't want this to be so). As I said, Ravel was vehemently against the WWI interpretation of "La Valse". The first page of the score includes the little program:

"Through whirling clouds, waltzing couples may be faintly distinguished. The clouds gradually scatter: one sees at letter A an immense hall peopled with a whirling crowd. The scene is gradually illuminated. The light of the chandeliers bursts forth at the fortissimo letter B. Set in an imperial court, about 1855."

Letter "B" is only a quarter or so through the piece, so his program doesn't go on. This is what strikes me as odd.

I'm assuming here that you're criticizing my description. If it is the actual piece "La Valse" you take umbrage with, then pitchforks indeed! 

[Ken B]

I've heard a few versions, but not the Rattle so I'm not sure. I really like the Boulez/BPO:
[asin]B000001GPI[/asin]
Not at all, haha  . This is just how I see it. Everyone here must realize that music pretty much has an infinite number of interpretations (even if the composer doesn't want this to be so). As I said, Ravel was vehemently against the WWI interpretation of "La Valse". The first page of the score includes the little program:

"Through whirling clouds, waltzing couples may be faintly distinguished. The clouds gradually scatter: one sees at letter A an immense hall peopled with a whirling crowd. The scene is gradually illuminated. The light of the chandeliers bursts forth at the fortissimo letter B. Set in an imperial court, about 1855."

Letter "B" is only a quarter or so through the piece, so his program doesn't go on. This is what strikes me as odd.

I'm assuming here that you're criticizing my description. If it is the actual piece "La Valse" you take umbrage with, then pitchforks indeed! 

No your assumption is wrong. I am criticizing the piece, and especially the way it ends. 
Have you heard Karajan's gorgeous but weird Rite? I'd want to take that approach and slower tempo. Which I am confident is anti-score.

[Mirror Image]

I've heard a few versions, but not the Rattle so I'm not sure. I really like the Boulez/BPO:
[asin]B000001GPI[/asin]
Not at all, haha  . This is just how I see it. Everyone here must realize that music pretty much has an infinite number of interpretations (even if the composer doesn't want this to be so). As I said, Ravel was vehemently against the WWI interpretation of "La Valse". The first page of the score includes the little program:

"Through whirling clouds, waltzing couples may be faintly distinguished. The clouds gradually scatter: one sees at letter A an immense hall peopled with a whirling crowd. The scene is gradually illuminated. The light of the chandeliers bursts forth at the fortissimo letter B. Set in an imperial court, about 1855."

Letter "B" is only a quarter or so through the piece, so his program doesn't go on. This is what strikes me as odd.

I'm assuming here that you're criticizing my description. If it is the actual piece "La Valse" you take umbrage with, then pitchforks indeed! 

I'm not a big fan of La Valse either. Now, Daphnis et Chloe, on the other hand, I'm a huge fan of.

[Ken B]

No your assumption is wrong. I am criticizing the piece, and especially the way it ends. 
Have you heard Karajan's gorgeous but weird Rite? I'd want to take that approach and slower tempo. Which I am confident is anti-score.

I took my own suggestion, hunted out Celi doing it on youtube and listened to the last 3 minutes. Much much better. Still needs a more extreme version of the same treatment -- not the faintest hint of speed much less accelerando, I'd slow down -- with the inner lines brought forward -- but closer to what I mean. I will watch it all later.

Some scores need improving, and that's my suggestion for this one. 

/runs for his life

[North Star]

I took my own suggestion, hunted out Celi doing it on youtube and listened to the last 3 minutes. Much much better. Still needs a more extreme version of the same treatment -- not the faintest hint of speed much less accelerando, I'd slow down -- with the inner lines brought forward -- but closer to what I mean. I will watch it all later.

Some scores need improving, and that's my suggestion for this one. 

/runs for his life

I'm sending some drones over there 

[listener]

The clips work using Firefox but not Outlook Express.   Firefox for me is awful,  I keep it only for when I want to see/hear media clips.

[Mirror Image]

When can we expect more notes from Nate?

[EigenUser]

When can we expect more notes from Nate?

The second Tuesday after the first Monday, if all of the stars are lined up properly, and if the spirits are at rest...

Or, probably tomorrow. I got writer's block, but yesterday I made it halfway through "Rothko Chapel".

[Mirror Image]

The second Tuesday after the first Monday, if all of the stars are lined up properly, and if the spirits are at rest...

Or, probably tomorrow. I got writer's block, but yesterday I made it halfway through "Rothko Chapel".

Oh, I'd love to read your thoughts on Rothko Chapel.

[EigenUser]

Morton Feldman: Rothko Chapel

"The often noted paradox is that this immense, verbose man wrote music that seldom rose above a whisper. In the noisiest century in history, Feldman chose to be glacially slow and snowily soft."
-Author and music critic Alex Ross

The odd thing about Feldman is that his serious musical interests began with the music of Bela Bartok -- not a composer that you'd expect to influence music that "seldom rises above a whisper". However, "Rothko Chapel" is deeply connected with Bartok's style, even though this is not clearly evident on the surface.

Although nothing short of a continuous work, the recording of "Rothko Chapel" with California EAR Unit is divided into five movements (possibly other performers have done this, too). No such enumerations are found in the score, but the divisions make it much easier to discuss the piece and each "movement" seems to have its own characteristics.

Morton Feldman wrote "Rothko Chapel" specifically to be performed within the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas. It is scored for the one-of-a-kind ensemble including solo viola, wordless chorus, celesta, and percussion (three timpani, tubular bells, vibraphone, and temple blocks). In effect, it is a kind of micro-concerto for viola.

If the comment relating this work to Bartok is unsettling to some readers, consider two clips from opening of Rothko chapel [audio]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/xiqrw7dmoh61j9o/FeldmanRothkoChapel-1.mp3[/audio] [audio]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/aemeyarf1x5pdux/FeldmanRothkoChapel-2.mp3[/audio] . Clearly, Feldman isn't referring to folk-tune Bartok, nor is he referring to rhythmically-percussive Bartok. Rather, this is from the probably most-forgotten style that Bartok developed -- the "night music" Bartok. The Bartok of lonely, introspective melodies sympathetically answered by crickets, frogs, distant thunder, things that go 'bump' in the night. In fact, this is (so far) eerily reminiscent of the 3rd movement from Bartok's "Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta" (which also uses timpani, a woodblock/xylophone, and viola). After paying this homage, Feldman moves on with the entrance of the chorus [audio]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ndkb9040gkncd85/FeldmanRothkoChapel-3.mp3[/audio] . In just the first movement, he shows his ability to produce such unusual timbres with a most unlikely group of musicians [audio]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/4a6l77hkyiyus77/FeldmanRothkoChapel-4.mp3[/audio].

The second movement gives the listener a stronger sense of rhythm with the presence of a two-note timpani motif which resembles a distant, ghostly funeral procession [audio]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/aa4zcp0l9qvz8me/FeldmanRothkoChapel-5.mp3[/audio] . Accompanied by drones of varying volume in the chorus and viola solo, it becomes slightly agitated and then temporarily fades away [audio]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/xiwj2gpurx4jpw8/FeldmanRothkoChapel-6.mp3[/audio]. Answering the mood, the chorus dramatically crescendos to the loudest volume heard so far in the work, landing on a sudden glowing pianissimo chord [audio]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/lrcc97spa0hnc6b/FeldmanRothkoChapel-7.mp3[/audio] . The viola solo has an intense recitando passage which also lands on the same chord [audio]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/2dtc4feyhhm6qtu/FeldmanRothkoChapel-8.mp3[/audio] . A  The timpani returns with its funeral-procession, occasionally stopping and starting to allow for the glow of the chorus.

The viola is tacet in the third movement; only the chorus (marked in the score as "barely audible") and the occasional chimes play (a church bell tolling in the distance?) [audio]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/hf0zjeqtj3nj6e2/FeldmanRothkoChapel-9.mp3[/audio] . Here, the score looks like it could be from Ligeti's "Lux Aeterna" with the staggered and imperceptible choral entrances.

The mood of the fourth movement is markedly different than that of the static third movement. While far from dynamic, it contains the widest variety of sounds in the piece so far. Four notes plucked on the viola signal the transition -- particularly striking due to the contrast with the smoothness of what was before. The chorus has a unison motif that was heard in the second movement, but Feldman further develops the motif into what appears to be a quote from Debussy's "Sirenes" (the third of the "Trois Nocturnes") [audio]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/3v8jhz5vo9exfsf/FeldmanRothkoChapel-10.mp3[/audio] . The viola and chorus converse for a while. The apparent Debussy quote strikes again. If it wasn't entirely clear the first two times that Debussy was, in fact, being quoted, it is almost unmistakable the third time, where the next few notes are revealed [audio]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/c5bi3tofefgq919/FeldmanRothkoChapel-11.mp3[/audio] . More viola recitando leads into the choral "glow" chord that seems to be the trademark of this piece [audio]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/7eeuy5brce5fdaw/FeldmanRothkoChapel-12.mp3[/audio].

The fifth movement opens with a repeated four-note ostinato from the vibraphone emerging from the glow, by far the most structured backdrop heard in the work so far [audio]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/24mhgumjxo7t9s2/FeldmanRothkoChapel-13.mp3[/audio] . After only six bars, something remarkable happens. A full-blown melody -- not just a motif or fragment -- is played by the viola, very simply [audio]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/zwsqftoagvu0vv4/FeldmanRothkoChapel-14.mp3[/audio] . This is coming from an era where it seemed that everything except melody was to be included in classical music. John Cage was flipping coins; Milton Babbitt was computing sets; Karlheinz Stockhausen was generating sine-tones. It's almost as if Feldman is being the most avant-garde of them all. The viola repeats the melody a few more times and dissolves into the vibraphone's ostinato [audio]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/hu489emyiml8d36/FeldmanRothkoChapel-15.mp3[/audio]. The ostinato dissolves into the choral glow. The choral glow dissolves into -- nothing.

Below: "Rothko Chapel" performed in the Rothko Chapel -- your argument is invalid!

(from rothkochapel.org)

[Mirror Image]

Great job, Nate. I enjoyed reading, and listening, to your assessment of Rothko Chapel. Certainly a favorite work of mine.