What are you currently reading?

[North Star]

Ah, no, it's more that I'm considering how some can find such headstocks aesthetically pleasing, while I can only think of them as being useful if I were stranded on a desert island and could use them for spearing fish or making holes in coconuts or poking snakes or something.

Well I certainly think that violins are rather more aesthetically pleasing (in more ways than one).




Thread duty - Ordered this:

[Brian]

Thread duty - Ordered this:

I guess you knew today is his birthday.

[North Star]

I guess you knew today is his birthday.

Even more appropriately, I actually did not know that. No wonder you would know that, though, Brian.  Happy Birthday.

[Ken B]

I guess you knew today is his birthday.

Is it his birthday, or is it the birthday of some other Borges?

[Karl Henning]

If a stock market goes too long in one relentless direction with little volatility, it's often a sign that investors have mentally checked out.

(Probably worth pointing out, that if that one relentless direction is down, the investors are probably still checked in . . . .)

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2015/0824/Calls-for-calm-Dow-falls-nearly-4-percent-but-is-there-really-a-recession-coming

[Drasko]

Sophocles - Oedipus Rex, Antigone

[Karl Henning]

I cyphered that out, even before I got to Antigona 

[Drasko]

I cyphered that out, even before I got to Antigona 

Funny how these things work, I was listening to Strauss' Elektra a bit recently, and got hankering for some ancient Greek literature. I had this one handy, even though I've read both before, and now planing to move to Homer, whom I haven't read since high school and to complete Aeschylus, some of which I've never read before. 

[kishnevi]

Sophocles - Oedipus Rex, Antigone

No  Οἰδίπους ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ?

Which I think is the finest of the three.

I have Aeschylus and Sophocles in a combination of Penguin and Modern Library.  Herodotus and Thucydides also in Modern Library translations.  But  Richmond Lattimore is the man who Hellenized me.  Homer, Hesiod,  Pindar, Sappho and a host of lesser, fragmentary poets,  all from his pen,  and Euripides, who he translated in partnership with a fellow named Grene.

[Ken B]

No  Οἰδίπους ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ?

Which I think is the finest of the three.

I have Aeschylus and Sophocles in a combination of Penguin and Modern Library.  Herodotus and Thucydides also in Modern Library translations.  But  Richmond Lattimore is the man who Hellenized me.  Homer, Hesiod,  Pindar, Sappho and a host of lesser, fragmentary poets,  all from his pen,  and Euripides, who he translated in partnership with a fellow named Grene.

Can't say I ever liked Lattimore. Certainly not his Homer. Fitzgerald. I have read some very fine versions of Homer and Ovid by Lombardo, who is sort of an anti-Lattimore, emphasizing swiftness and directness. Fagles still awaits. 

[Drasko]

No  Οἰδίπους ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ?

No, I haven't read it, or seen it. Serbian translation of Oedipus on Colonus is bit hard to find these days, haven't had a reprint in ages. Might have to go for English one. It's also the least often staged of Sophocles' Theban Plays (here at least), for instance both Antigone and Oedipus Rex are currently on repertoire of the Belgrade National Theatre, and I can't even remember when was last Oedipus on Colonus.

[lisa needs braces]

I'm 250 pages (of 850 or so) into this and I'm adoring it. The last LvB biography I read was the one by Lewis Lockwood, which I barely remember as I read it ten years ago. I do recall Lockwood kept stating that Beethoven was under-appreciated as a melodist. 

Swafford's book is more sweeping, and it took him 12 years to write. It also serves as a vignette of the last days of the Holy Roman Empire, and I'm appreciating just how helpful the aristocracy was to Beethoven and what a jackass he could be (there's been a running joke in the book so far with many of Beethoven's relationships ending with "unfortunately there was a falling out.")

Something else I'm learning with this book is just how much of a hard worker Beethoven was -- as a teen and a young man in his 20s he labored away thousands of hours in seclusion practicing the piano endlessly, and he wasn't as effortless a genius as Mozart.  Much effort and preparation went into those early opus numbers. For instance, he was trying to sketch a C major symphony for years before producing the Opus 21.

As I read along I'm listening to pieces the author discusses which I'm not familiar with -- the Electoral sonatas, the early piano quartet, the Opus 17 Horn sonata, etc. I like how there's a story behind many of the pieces -- Beethoven composed the horn sonata for a virtuouso of the instrument he was accompanying to some central European city, likewise for those early cello sonatas.

This is a book I'm savoring. 

[Artem]

I bought this book recently too, but I'm of reading it until I'm ready to discover Beethoven. Swafford is a very enjoyable writer. I read his bio of Brahms and it was one of the best books I've recently read.

[TheGSMoeller]

Been revisiting some old comic book favorites, and some I've missed since I took a break. Getting these on my Kindle Fire for a good price.

[asin]B00EARP0HM[/asin]
[asin]B00AAJQYDI[/asin]

[stingo]

The Kindle version of Swafford's Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph Kindle edition is $2.99 just now. Typical price is $22.49.

[asin]B00E78IB3E[/asin]

[stingo]

Finished Life in a Medieval City (Frances and Joseph Gies), and Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (Terry Jones and Alan Ereira). Completing the trifecta in starting Life in a Medieval Castle (Frances and Joseph Gies). Also listened to the Prologue of The Canterbury Tales on audiobook.

[Karl Henning]

The Kindle version of Swafford's Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph Kindle edition is $2.99 just now. Typical price is $22.49.

[asin]B00E78IB3E[/asin]

Thanks for the alert.

[Karl Henning]

Frustrated musicians: The New York Times doesn't want to hear your "continued complaints" about its "Creative Apocalypse" numbers

[Karl Henning]

Japan's worst day for teen suicides

[Mookalafalas]

Picked this up randomly. Had very low expectations (in fact, I thought it would be reactionary and preachy), but it's very interesting, insightful and well written (so far).

[asin]0465031463[/asin]