Quiz: Mystery scores

[lukeottevanger]

And when is Dm going to post any scores? (Hint: they do not all have to be in Dm.)

No, they do. And all by Brahms too. Should make it easier.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Letter by Robert Craft re Walsh:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506EFDE133EF93BA15756C0A9609C8B63

[karlhenning]

Motivation aside (and no, I can't answer that either), it does seem to be a very negative portrayal especially in the final years. I don't have time right now (got to get to work, and listen to that Tango 5 times), but I've had friends claim that wherever there are two versions of an event, Craft's and someone else's, Walsh almost invariably disbelieves Craft's.

Seeming a negative portrayal especially in the final years is aptly said.  Is that vindictive?  If Walsh considers that he cannot place complete confidence in Craft's account of a series of events in which Craft is necessarily an interested party, is this vindictive on Walsh's part?  My questions are rhetorical, naturally.  This moment in Stravinsky Studies seems, alas, to have reached a point where the musician who is the most significant living resource, has to some degree compromised his own credibility.

[I see I've crossed with a link from Johan, but I'll let this stand, and mash after.]

[lukeottevanger]

One of the best things about this thread - the most wide-ranging discussions without once going OT

(personally I'm enjoying the vision of Sforzando partaking of a silent tango on his commute in to work)

(and 'partaking of a silent tango' isn't the euphemism it appears to be  )

(at least I hope not, for the sake of his fellow commuters)

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

One of the best things about this thread - the most wide-ranging discussions without once going OT

(personally I'm enjoying the vision of Sforzando partaking of a silent tango on his commute in to work)

(and 'partaking of a silent tango' isn't the euphemism it appears to be  )

(at least I hope not, for the sake of his fellow commuters)

Now now, don't steer this thread to the Dark Side, Luke! 

(May the Force be with you, always.)

[(poco) Sforzando]

Seeming a negative portrayal especially in the final years is aptly said.  Is that vindictive?  If Walsh considers that he cannot place complete confidence in Craft's account of a series of events in which Craft is necessarily an interested party, is this vindictive on Walsh's part?  My questions are rhetorical, naturally.  This moment in Stravinsky Studies seems, alas, to have reached a point where the musician who is the most significant living resource, has to some degree compromised his own credibility.

[I see I've crossed with a link from Johan, but I'll let this stand, and mash after.]

All right, forget the word "vindictive." (Craft thought it was, but that doesn't make it so.) The better question is whether it is an accurate portrayal. And since Craft is most definitely an interested party, it is entirely likely that Walsh is the more "objective" of the two here. (Needless to say, given Craft's extreme taste for minutiae, he doubtless has dissected every possible small misstatement of fact that Walsh has made.)

[(poco) Sforzando]

(personally I'm enjoying the vision of Sforzando partaking of a silent tango on his commute in to work)

After listening to the same 4-minute D minor work 4 times this morning (traffic was better than usual), I am certain that if the Tango ever appears on this thread again, I will not miss it.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Well, if you ask me (and maybe you aren't), that is too much penance . . . .

That's for sure.

[karlhenning]

All right, forget the word "vindictive." (Craft thought it was, but that doesn't make it so.) The better question is whether it is an accurate portrayal. And since Craft is most definitely an interested party, it is entirely likely that Walsh is the more "objective" of the two here. (Needless to say, given Craft's extreme taste for minutiae, he doubtless has dissected every possible small misstatement of fact that Walsh has made.)

Well, and alas! that continues to give the impression of Craft crying It really is all about me!  I don't see Walsh as offering to the world The Final Say;  so, sure, there should be additions and amplifications (so I see Craft's pointing out that Michael Tilson Thomas would be a good resource in the light, not of damning Walsh for "incompleteness," but as a suggestion for the next stage, whoever takes it).  Craft is at once moaning about Walsh supposedly focusing on 'discrediting' him, personally, and yet he offers the lacunae as (supposed) discreditation of Walsh.

I suppose Craft feels this is something he has got to do, but he manages to look poorly even in his protestation;  and, for the sake of his fine musical work, I hope he's stopped the shrieking.

[lukeottevanger]

After listening to the same 4-minute D minor work 4 times this morning (traffic was better than usual), I am certain that if the Tango ever appears on this thread again, I will not miss it.

It certainly is a tedious key, isn't it?

[karlhenning]

It certainly is a tedious key, isn't it?

You think that's tedious, wait until the obligatory shift to the parallel major! 

[Guido]

And on that subject...

One of my previous score samples too (in the pre-Jezetha days IIRC). I see that in all hopefullness I put 'I suspect this is fairly well-known, so no clues yet' at the top of it, but IIRC it took quite a long time and a few clues before Larry identified it. So it seems it wasn't as well-known as I thought/hoped. Maybe I should upload that one too, then - it's such a fine work.

Yes do!

[(poco) Sforzando]

It certainly is a tedious key, isn't it?

Not as used in The Art of Fugue.

[karlhenning]

(YHM Guido.)

[lukeottevanger]

Not as used in The Art of Fugue.

[clutching at straws] Yes, but that's only because, played at a historically accurate pitch, a baroque D minor is closer to D flat minor  - and that's one of Janacek's favourite keys, of course. It all makes sense now, you see!

[(poco) Sforzando]

[clutching at straws] Yes, but that's only because, played at a historically accurate pitch, a baroque D minor is closer to D flat minor  - and that's one of Janacek's favourite keys, of course. It all makes sense now, you see!

Clutching indeed. When A is regularly tuned to 465 50 years from now, will the AoF be in D# minor?

[lukeottevanger]

Here's hoping!

[karlhenning]

I'd suggest spelling it E-flat minor . . . .

[lukeottevanger]

I vote F double flat minor. As an act of Dzorelashvilian homage.

[lukeottevanger]

Yes do!

OK - knock yourself out!

Suk - Pohadka leta (A Summer's Tale)

1 - Voices of Life and Consolation
2 - Noon
3 - Intermezzo - Blind Musicians (a haunting interlude scored for a unique chamber grouping - two harps, two cors anglais, solo violin, solo cello (full violins join in last bars) - this is the one in my previous score sample)
4 - In the Power of Phantoms
5 - Night

So much better than other composers often seen in a similar bracket (pantheistically-inclined late Romantic gargantuanism or some such). I'm thinking of figures like Marx, whose comparable works (e.g the Natur-Trilogie) are eminently forgetable IMO when set alongside Suk's spiritually charged, potent music. Though maybe it's time to listen to the Marx again...

(boy oh boy - I'm listening again as they upload. Suk is just such a powerful composer! Such a unique harmonic style, too - and in this piece, especially, such wonderful orchestration)

I'll take these down tomorrow, I think - the other Suk too. So those of you who've been foolish enough to download the first of the 'Mother' pieces and not bother with the rest, you'd better hurry to rectify your mistake!