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Play the King to Sleep
Stay thirsty, Nan.— February 10, 2011 9:49 a.m.
Attention Must be Paid.
"I'm not sure why we think 17 year olds can handle material like that, let alone enjoy it." Exactly. Kids and teens are much better served by themes of heroism and virtue than by angst. They already have angst. We should give them something to shoot for, not more mud to wallow in.— February 7, 2011 9:54 a.m.
Play the King to Sleep
Fair enough. Haydn -- I believe this is the proper spelling -- certainly composed for the aristocracy. They were his customers and patrons, after all. But I wouldn't say he composed the music that they liked. Rather, he composed great music, and they liked it. Further, if you think about it, it's possible to react to perceived snobbery with a reverse snobbery. E.G. You compose music for the aristocracy, but I compose music for the common man. I'm one of the people, you're one of THEM. You can't look down at me, because I'm already looking down at you.— February 7, 2011 9:45 a.m.
Play the King to Sleep
Surprising that you would write a piece on string quartets and not mention the (undisputed?) king thereof, Haydn. Haydn' quartets never fail to delight me. I suppose one might fault them for being rigidly classical, in the strict sense of the word classical. I won't argue that. But, wow, what fun "Papa Haydn," as Mozart called him, put into his quartets. Such playfulness, and such a sense of conversation, as you mention above, Garrett.— February 4, 2011 12:24 p.m.
Attention Must be Paid.
My junior year of high school, we had to read Death of a Salesman and Long Day's Journey into Night. Novel-wise we read Catcher in the Rye and the Great Gatsby. Wall-to-wall depressing crap. Thank God I liked to read more uplifting books that weren't assigned to me. They offset the depression factor. I've never been a fan of the people-in-small-rooms-driving-each-other-crazy school of play writing. It all seems so forced. Homer, isn't saying: "Willy is no more crazy than you or I. He has only lost the ability to keep his thoughts to himself" something like saying "He's not crazy, he's just lost his ability to act like a sane person" ?— February 4, 2011 10:43 a.m.
Moonlight
Liszt forbade his students from playing the first movement. He felt their amateur attempts at this sublime masterpiece were something akin to sacrilege.— January 26, 2011 10:55 a.m.
Sitz
Liu's suicide aria always steals the show. She becomes the sympathetic figure in the show, and the crowd at that point hates Turandot who essentially caused the suicide. Puccini realized he'd turned his heroine into an anti-hero and the dead slave girl into a heroine. He committed the opera-composition equivalent of painting oneself into a corner. That's why he never finished writing it. Everything after that is tacked on nonsense written by someone whose name I can't remember.— January 26, 2011 10:38 a.m.
Cataracts and Hurricanoes, by Joseph O'Brien
I agree with Nan. The imagery of friendship being a lose shingle adhering despite the storm of the life in this world is brilliant. Bravo O'Brien. I look forward to more.— January 20, 2011 1:22 p.m.
Friday Night Rant
Love the Talking Heads reference, too.— January 4, 2011 2:35 p.m.
Friday Night Rant
What a wonderful, heart-felt picture of life this is. Deep but not despressing, troubled yet hopeful. Don't worry, lorferanza, I think you see things very clearly. Your kids and wife -- and your employer for that matter -- are lucky to have you.— January 4, 2011 2:33 p.m.