Music That Does Not Evoke Angst

[Operahaven]

Thank you all for your suggestions...  but remember that the key phrase was music that evokes a mood of  'innocent pleasure'...



These sound the most appealing to me:

Medtner's last piano sonata, the aptly named Sonata - Idylle op.56

Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending.  Very pastoral, not-a-cloud-in-the-sky kind of music. 

[BachQ]

innocent pleasure

Mozart, Piano Concerto no.'s 17 and 21.

So let it be written.
So let it be done.

[Cato]

Mozart, Piano Concerto no.'s 17 and 21.

So let it be written.
So let it be done.

I thought Yul Brynner died!   

As a Catholic I am highly suspicious that "innocent pleasure" is not in fact an oxymoron!   

[BachQ]

As a Catholic I am highly suspicious that "innocent pleasure" is not in fact an oxymoron!   

We derive a certain innocent pleasure from your post ...........

[Haffner]

We derive a certain innocent pleasure from your post ...........

laughing with guilty pleasure

[quintett op.57]

Like Jochanaan : any work by Haydn

His sonata Hob.XVI:49 in particular helped me in my first really painful mourning.

[Moldyoldie]

Per Mendelssohn:

Ah, that telling word almost.

Let us not forget String Quartet No. 6 in F minor (Op. 80).

Bingo.

[Cato]

laughing with guilty pleasure

Given that picture under your name, Andy "Haffner" D., there seems to be a good deal of guilty pleasure going on!   

Or maybe not so guilty!   0:)

[BachQ]

Given that picture under your name, Andy "Haffner" D., there seems to be a good deal of guilty pleasure going on!   

Or maybe not so guilty!   0:)

Once again, we derive certain innocent pleasures from your witty posts ..........

[greg]

la la la la la.......

Elgar......

[Monsieur Croche]

Thank you all for your suggestions...  but remember that the key phrase was music that evokes a mood of  innocent pleasure

Any Pettersson symphony would fit that criterion.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Any Pettersson symphony would fit that criterion.

Very droll, Monsieur Croche!

[Monsieur Croche]

Very droll, Monsieur Croche!

Don't you fear for my soul, Jezetha?

Serious now: I'm surprised no one has mentioned Ravel's Ma mere l'oye.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Don't you fear for my soul, Jezetha?

No, I'm fearing for all those emotional composers who have to contend with your mocking soul... 

Serious now: I'm surprised no one has mentioned Ravel's Ma mere l'oye.

Enchanting piece, indeed.

[Monsieur Croche]

No, I'm fearing for all those emotional composers who have to contend with your mocking soul... 

No, no, Jezetha, you misunderstood my intentions. In truth I have never meant anything that is not noble or good in my remarks... Will the music of, say, Shostakovich, be the same had he not been subjected to the artistic repression of the Stalinist regime? Harsh circumstances can provide a strong catalyst for creative achievement, dear friend - surely you agree with me on this? Therefore it follows that, if there are any living composers that you highly admire, mock them mercilessly to encourage them, lest they fall into complacency and conceit, and revere them publicly only after they have proven themselves and their storm-tossed bodies lie slumbering in the grave.

[MN Dave]

Purcell  0:)

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

No, no, Jezetha, you misunderstood my intentions. In truth I have never meant anything that is not noble or good in my remarks... Will the music of, say, Shostakovich, be the same had he not been subjected to the artistic repression of the Stalinist regime? Harsh circumstances can provide a strong catalyst for creative achievement, dear friend - surely you agree with me on this? Therefore it follows that, if there are any living composers that you highly admire, mock them mercilessly to encourage them, lest they fall into complacency and conceit, and revere them publicly only after they have proven themselves and their storm-tossed bodies lie slumbering in the grave.

That's quite a passage!

As an artist who has known adversity - personal and professional - and survived it, I know what you are saying. Although I don't think any régime that makes the lives of artists miserable is doing that just to help them fulfill their potential... Sometimes their actions took on the form of actually killing the artists in question, which didn't exactly help them. So I think you really must distinguish between the personal and the political.

I like criticism that makes me stronger (any artist with any sense would). But criticism Zhdanov-style is of another order - he or she who can withstand that, deserves our admiration. I wouldn't want to see it as a prerequisite for artistic growth, though.

But returning to what started this: I think you, in your turn, have misunderstood me. When you cited Pettersson as a composer who gives the listener 'innocent pleasure', you were joking, weren't you? I find Pettersson harrowing. That's why I quipped the way I did about your 'mocking' soul against which emotional composers wouldn't stand a chance...

(Btw - your writing style is incredible. Who are your models?)

Johan

[jochanaan]

Serious now: I'm surprised no one has mentioned Ravel's Ma mere l'oye.

There's a good reason for that.  Whenever I listen to it, I find my eyes inexplicably misty, especially at the very end.  I don't know if it's just me...

[Monsieur Croche]

That's quite a passage!

As an artist who has known adversity - personal and professional - and survived it, I know what you are saying. Although I don't think any régime that makes the lives of artists miserable is doing that just to help them fulfill their potential... Sometimes their actions took on the form of actually killing the artists in question, which didn't exactly help them. So I think you really must distinguish between the personal and the political.

I like criticism that makes me stronger (any artist with any sense would). But criticism Zhdanov-style is of another order - he or she who can withstand that, deserves our admiration. I would'nt want to see it as a prerequisite for artistic growth, though.

But returning to what started this: I think you, in your turn, have misunderstood me. When you cited Pettersson as a composer who gives the listener 'innocent pleasure', you were joking, weren't you? I find Pettersson harrowing. That's why I quipped the way I did about your 'mocking' soul against which emotional composers wouldn't stand a chance...

I heartily agree with what you say, Jezetha, and surely it is testament to Shostakovich's outstanding artistic integrity that he managed to produce the works that he did in that kind of environment. But to clarify matters: you understood me full well the first time round, but not this time. My post above was actually intended to be partially humorous; I pretended to misunderstand your post, and went on to take a fairly reasonable proposition (that criticism may aid artistic growth) to rather absurd conclusions. You could say that I am one of those people who keep a straight face all day but have a perpetual mischievous twinkle in their eyes... I generally avoid putting smileys in my post, or otherwise make my humorous intentions too obvious, since that would take away the mystery that made my jokes all the more delicious (to me at least). I sincerely hope you will grant me this little indulgence, from which I have derived much pleasure, innocent or otherwise.  (Oops. I've done it this time.)

BTW, what kind of artist are you, Jezetha / Johan ? (How do you prefer to be addressed?)

(Btw - your writing style is incredible. Who are your models?)

Johan

Berlioz, Schumann, G.B. Shaw, and generally all music criticism written in the 19th-century - even those by Hanslick (but the fact that I learned how to write from him still does not excuse his premature death).

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Monsieur Croche,

I don't always signpost my 'wit' either (as in my last post). But although you may have reached an absurd extreme in what you said about the helpfulness of criticism, I know for a fact that there are those who would say 'bring on a dictatorship, it would sharpen the artists'! So that's why I answered in the serious way I did.

I am a (Dutch) writer. I have published in literary magazines, and am busy finishing a first novel.

My moniker here is Jezetha (JZH are my initials). But I am a Johan.