karn@petrus.UUCP (Phil R. Karn) (08/24/85)
I would like to start a discussion on a new topic. I've long been fascinated by the ability of music to evoke vivid images without words, and would like to see what people consider as the best examples. I'm not referring to images based on prior association; I suspect that not many people thought of shuttles and space stations in earth orbit upon hearing An Der Shoen Blauen Danau until after the movie 2001. On the other hand, it is hard to mistake the opening of Also Sprach Zarathustra as anything other than a sunrise, or the Allegro of Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony as anything other than a summer thunderstorm. (The fact that these were the composers' deliberate intentions didn't hurt.) Other examples include The Planets, although the names Holst gave to each movement give it away. Ideally, the kind of music I'm talking about would evoke the same images in almost anyone hearing it for the first time, without being told the name of the piece or the composer's intentions. I'm not sure if Shostakovitch would qualify; in my mind his middle symphonies conjure up vividly effective images of the horrors of a nuclear war, but knowing ahead of time that he wrote them during The Great Patriotic War tends to color my interpretation. Anybody have any personal favorites? Phil bellcore!karn
rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) (08/24/85)
[] hmmm. I find Holst's Planets pretty impenitrable. image-wise. But there is mmm, Glazounov (?) "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon music which could only be lightly wooded northern land with many swiftly running streams in springtime. Von Suppe's light cavalry overture, which could only be a battle with cavalry charge, followed by picking up the dead from the field and a final charge. Tschaikovsky's "Passing Parade" music (you have to be over ...45? to know that one. Liszt' Les Prelude could only be about fate and the ineffibleness of it all. "Over the Waves" could only be a skaters' waltz unless you grew up in Minneapolis long ago and know it means "Buy Northland Ice Cream, It's a Taste Treat Right Out of a Dream..." All of The Seasons by Vivaldi... There are hundreds of examples which not everyone will agree with and many will flame as irrelevant to music. -- "It's the thought, if any, that counts!" Dick Grantges hound!rfg
prk@charm.UUCP (Paul Kolodner) (08/24/85)
Whenever I listen to the last measures of Bruckner's fourth symphony, I get a clear image of a bright moon over water on a dark night, partially obscured by passing dark clouds (evoked by a simple, slow brass melody partially obscured by light figuring in the upper strings). How's that for obscure but specific?
jgd@uwmcsd1.UUCP (John G Dobnick) (08/26/85)
*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** [Sorry, I refuse!] Tone poems, huh? Music evoking "images". Smetana: The Vltava (also known as The Moldau). Definitely a bubbling brook. Wagner: (Wow! *LOTS* of stuff here! Mostly "fragments" from his operas.) I will mention only a few *obvious* items, leaving the rest as an exercise for the net.) Prelude to Act III of Die Walkuere (the famous "Ride"). This may be colored by previous knowledge of the opera. Prelude to Das Rheingold. Primordial nothingness forming into water. Transition music, scene II to scene III, Rheingold; the Descent to Niebelheim, complete with the sound of anvils. Siegfried: Forest Murmurs. Lots of places in the Ring: Magic Fire music. It "sounds" like fire. [Well, these items create images for *me*!] Let's see some more items. -- -- John G Dobnick Computing Services Division @ University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee (...ihnp4!uwmcsd1!jgd)
mmar@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (Mitchell Marks) (08/26/85)
[Naw, I don't really believe there's a line-eater.] really believe there's a line-eater.
Another passage that I always think of as a sunrise is the last section
of the Firebird.
Surely everyone hears a clear sexual metaphor in the Liebestod. I think
it's the best and clearest of these, and he does it all with harmonic tension
and resolution -- I'm always surprised at people who are readier to hear
sex in passages of galloping acceleration.
--
-- Mitch Marks @ UChicago
...ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!mmarmmar@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (Mitchell Marks) (08/26/85)
Paul Kolodner brings up Bruckner in this context. I'm always surprised to
remember that he was a religious man, and that people claim to hear deep
religious sentiment in his music. I always hear an element of cruelty and
indifference. The scherzo mvt in the Ninth Symphony brings to mind a nasty
rampaging god (or just physical giant), stomping everything flat, including
those jaunty picnickers (the bucolic sections). Similarly for the scherzo
of the Seventh. (I listen to it anyway -- it's offputting but fascinating).
--
-- Mitch Marks @ UChicago
...ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!mmardday@gymble.UUCP (Dennis Doubleday) (08/26/85)
In article <478@petrus.UUCP> karn@petrus.UUCP (Phil R. Karn) writes: >I'm not sure if Shostakovitch would qualify; in my mind his middle >symphonies conjure up vividly effective images of the horrors of a nuclear >war, but knowing ahead of time that he wrote them during The Great Patriotic >War tends to color my interpretation. One of the beauties of textless music is that it can inspire widely differing associations in the minds of listeners. It doesn't seem too likely, though, that Shostakovitch, writing during WWII, intended to evoke images of nuclear war!
par@ihlpl.UUCP (Rupsis) (08/26/85)
When I listen to R. Stauss's "Eine Alpensinfonie" it always reminds me of my
time in the Austrian and Swiss Alps. The most vivid portion of the tone poem
for me is the beginning where the dark gloominess of night is followed by the
gradual crescendo as the morning sky brightens into an array of majestic colors
until finally the sun triumphantly rises above the mountain tops for all to see.
The second most vivid portion of the tone poem is when the climbers are
experiencing the joy, awe, and ecstasy of reaching the peak of the Alp. I really
can relate to it because I was on top of an Austrian Alp looking down on the
"little" city of Innsbruck on a gloriously warm summer day. It made me feel like
jumping up and down and running around singing...
"The Hills are alive with the Sound of Music!"
Paul Rupsisgreg@olivee.UUCP (Greg Paley) (08/26/85)
> I would like to start a discussion on a new topic. I've long been fascinated > by the ability of music to evoke vivid images without words, and would like > to see what people consider as the best examples. I'm not referring to > images based on prior association; I suspect that not many people thought of > shuttles and space stations in earth orbit upon hearing An Der Shoen Blauen > Danau until after the movie 2001. On the other hand, it is hard to mistake > the opening of Also Sprach Zarathustra as anything other than a sunrise, or > the Allegro of Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony as anything other than a > summer thunderstorm. (The fact that these were the composers' deliberate > intentions didn't hurt.) > > Other examples include The Planets, although the names Holst gave to each > movement give it away. Ideally, the kind of music I'm talking about would > evoke the same images in almost anyone hearing it for the first time, > without being told the name of the piece or the composer's intentions. > I doubt that there is any music which would evoke the same images in almost anyone hearing it for the first time. You're dealing here with a process I've heard referred to as "synesthesia" (I'm not at all sure that's spelled right) which is, in artistic contexts, stimuli directed at one sense which evoke a reaction in another. In this case, it's sound evoking "visual" images. This happens all the time in literature, where the printed or spoken word evokes both visual and auditory images. I would say that there is a fairly large body of music which evokes very distinct visual images to a large number of listeners, but that the actual content of those images would vary widely from one to another. However, even something as specific a verbal description as "a cool, ocean breeze wafting across a deserted beach" is going to create widely diverse images in the minds of two people reading it. Just how cool? What color is the water, grey or blue? What kind of trees (if any) surround the beach? A number of friends with whom I've discussed this sort of thing point to the "impressionists" as being sources of music that is particularly evocative of visual imagery, although the actual point of impressionism is not to depict an object itself, but to convey those feelings which the object evoked in the artist. Debussy is the most obvious example, although it was either Aaron Copland or Virgil Thomson who referred to Sibelius as the "impressionist of the North Country" and I find much of his music extremely evocative in this way. I feel that ultimately music makes its own expression which is independent of either verbal or visual means of communication. It "says something" that cannot be said by any other means, although a visual object or a literary work can provide the initial stimulus to a composer. - Greg Paley
jerem@tekgvs.UUCP (Jere Marrs) (08/27/85)
Upon listening to Copland's Appalachain Spring I have the most wonderful feeling of pastoral scenes, warm sun, rolling hills,... in other words, the Appalachains. The remarkable thing is: I heard an interview with Aaron Copland in which he said he wrote the music under commission from Martha Graham *before* he knew the theme of the ballet. Figger that one out. Jere M. Marrs Tektronix, Inc. tektronix!tekgvs!jerem
karn@petrus.UUCP (Phil R. Karn) (08/27/85)
> One of the beauties of textless music is that it can inspire widely > differing associations in the minds of listeners. It doesn't seem too > likely, though, that Shostakovitch, writing during WWII, intended to > evoke images of nuclear war! You're right. I'm fast coming to the conclusion that TRULY "descriptive" music is actually quite rare. Virtually all of the visual images that come to mind when I hear a piece are the result of past associations, some quite conscious (e.g., from the title, or from having been used in a memorable movie) while other associations were probably formed in events I've long forgotten. The best example of "descriptive music" I could think of, the storm in Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony, is effective mostly because it imitates a natural sound (a thunderstorm) with an artificial one (tympani). Conjuring up a purely visual image with sound alone is probably much more difficult. I'm reminded of the Bloom Country strip a couple of years ago. Opus the Penguin is talking with Portnoy the Groundhog about his favorite song, the Beatles' "Yesterday". He says that this song has always been very sentimental to him, in that it evoked images of his youth with porpoises frolicking under antarctic rainbows. That was, until he saw the MTV version, complete with half-naked women and explosions; afterwards all he could think of were half-naked, exploding porpoises! Phil
gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett) (08/27/85)
Holst's "Mars" (from "The Planets") has brought to my mind visions of
war (surprise!), but in particular, the final "blast" being that of
a nuclear bomb. I also associate some of the discordant tones with
drawings by Goya of mutilated victims of war. And there is of course
the mindless marching of soldiers on both sides committing these
attrocities.
Because of these associations, this music has always been at once
a thrilling and terrifying experience. After it all, there is the
refreshing reassurance of "Venus" -- I haven't decided if this is a
pastoral view of an earlier time, or the regrowth of the (now human-less)
world after the holocaust.
--
Gordon A. Moffett ...!{ihnp4,cbosgd,hplabs}!amdahl!gamrchrd@well.UUCP (rchrd = Richard Friedman) (08/28/85)
In article <1950@amdahl.UUCP>, gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett) writes: > Holst's "Mars" (from "The Planets") has brought to my mind visions of > war (surprise!), but in particular, the final "blast" being that of > a nuclear bomb. By the way, has anyone heard the original 2 piano version of the suite. There is a recording... I heard it on the radio once. Absolutely fascinating. -- [rchrd] = Richard Friedman Pacific-Sierra Research, 2855 Telegraph #415 Berkeley, CA 94705 (415) 540 5216 UUCP: {dual,hplabs,ptsfa,apple}!well!rchrd
asente@Cascade.ARPA (08/28/85)
In article <1950@amdahl.UUCP> gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett) writes: >Holst's "Mars" (from "The Planets") has brought to my mind visions of >war (surprise!), but in particular, the final "blast" being that of >a nuclear bomb. I also associate some of the discordant tones with >drawings by Goya of mutilated victims of war. And there is of course >the mindless marching of soldiers on both sides committing these >attrocities. In addition to the marching soldiers, I always get images of tanks rolling forward and relentlessly crushing everything and everyone in their paths. I think it's interesting that virtually everyone "sees" marching in that piece, especially since it's written in 5/4! I find Wagner's "Venusberg" music from "Tannheuser" (I think that's spelled wrong but every spelling I tried looked equally bad) almost pornographic in its depiction of sexual activity. And "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" by Shostakovich has the most descriptive orchestral passage I've ever heard: immediately after the seduction scene, there's a series of irregularly spaced downward trombone slides. -paul asente asente@Cascade.ARPA decwrl!Glacier!Cascade!asente
chabot@amber.DEC (All God's chillun got guns) (08/28/85)
Well, it seems to me that anyone who's ever heard a donkey would be reminded of it by certain parts "Grand Canyon Suite". But then, that's an auditory to auditory, not auditory to visual. (Sorry, but I grew up on GCS.) L S Chabot ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-amber!chabot
fred@mnetor.UUCP (Fred Williams) (08/30/85)
In article <401@uwmcsd1.UUCP> jgd@uwmcsd1.UUCP (John G Dobnick) writes: > >Let's see some more items. Flight of the Bumblebee - couldn't be anything else! Cheers, Fred Williams
prk@charm.UUCP (Paul Kolodner) (08/31/85)
How could I have forgotten to mention the scene in Strauss' "Don Quixote" where the Don attacks the herd of sheep? It sounds just like...a herd of sheep! To this city boy, anyway.
cmpbsdb@gitpyr.UUCP (Don Barry) (09/01/85)
So much music conjures images in my mind (even the non-programmatic
and "pure" music) that it is difficult to select the most evocative
examples.. Surely anyone who has ever heard the Sibelius 4th (what
I call the "Antarctic" symphony) sees desolate drifts, empty swirls
with an absence of humanity and lifelessness. And of lifelessness
a more vacuous, primordial aspect is present in "Neptune" from the
Planets by Holst.
The famous sunrise in Also Sprach Zarathustra is interpretable in
more ways than the literal. The fabled Zarathustra, having
spent years in isolation and contemplation, has arisen to bring
his learning into the world. The awakening is spiritual, physical,
and a metaphoral life turning point. The sequence is of such
import that Strauss can only vaguely quote it in the body of the
work, lest he suggest a similar step of evolution has occurred.
Naturally, this was perfect music for the allusory steps of genesis
of mankind in the movie 2001.
In the grand climax of the Adagio in Mahler's 10th symphony, I
see and *feel* a terrorized break with reality - a shocked
descent into tumult and death - a trial by fire with the outcome
entirely ambiguous. The few bars, all too short, form one of the
most moving phrases in Mahler's total oeuvre.
Beethoven's pastoral contains quite a realistic storm, but unlike
even more purely physical depictions that were to come later
(Eine Alpinsinfonie, Cloudburst(Grofe), etc) the storm's generic
destruction fits all universal calamities. Berlioz was terribly
impressed by this movement and claimed it as a personification of
Nature's destructive element. Far more than a game for Zeus (as
in Fantasia), there is a calamatous air to this movement and the
violins remind us of constant paralysis in the face of overwhelming
force.
I, too, love the opening of Das Rheingold by Wagner. I always
think of how much music had progressed since Haydn's perhaps
initial attempt to bring order out of Chaos in The Creation.
The cyclic, ever rising arpeggii out of a pedal tone form a
perfect description of fulminant, primordial power. This power,
too raw for human control, is encapsulated in the ring with its
creation, and never released in pure form until the final scene of
the tetralogy.
But somehow, I always find my strongest impressions, if not strongest
visions, in pure symphonic music. Especially in the music of
Bruckner and Mahler, I find palettes of emotion, that though
not forcing pictures upon me, admitting pictorial description.
The Bruckner 8th is most varied in this sense for me. The first
movement suggests to me a celestial rotisserie, with the listener
alternately faced with the searing heat and frigidity of naked
space. The second movement is often termed a dynamo, and perhaps that
image has been too firmly planted in my mind to admit an original one,
but it seems remarkably correct. The third movement, withdraws one
again into a human setting, but a profoundly introspective time
of contemplation punctuated by bursts of unrestrainable yearning
and unfulfilment. The final movement, the implacable march, leads one
to victory in the most forceful way. Especially the final 4 minutes, like
in all Bruckner symphonies, so impeccably cast. Robert Simpson termed
this coda as the smoky phrases in the strings incandesced by the sunny
brass that alights upon them, the ending in flame. I see a more tragic
element that lasts until the final tortured repeated phrase in the beginning
of the coda is resolved and the sun shines unimpeded.
I have never seen indifference in the Bruckner symphonies - Even in
the 9th, the evanescent trio of the scherzo with its descending
woodwind quotes, truncated by a note at the beginning on each repeat,
reminds me how lighthearted it is. The Scherzo aside from the trio is
very harsh, but always the flutes and cyclic accompaniment enter and
assuage it. How does this reflect on Bruckner? Although intensely
religious and gullible beyond belief in normal subjects, his music was
remarkably free from overt influence. He may have used Wagner tubas,
but contrary to Edward Hanslick, his embracing of Wagner's ideas
did not greatly exceed this. I see a celebration of life, both
physical and mystical, in his works. The Scherzo represents to me
the onset of fear in Bruckner's work, always hidden by supreme nobility
until now, but still a fear that however unshakeable, could be
lived with until the grand analysis of the adagio starts. How I
wish Bruckner had lived to finish the work. It would be wonderful
just to hear snippets of the (disjointed) sketches of the fourth
movement he completed.
I would be interested to hear more impressions of the images in
the Bruckner and Mahler symphonies. What about the Marche Funebre
of the Mahler 5th? The implacable horn solos in its Scherzo?
The giant fresco-like Bruckner 5th? The all-too-moving Mahler 9th?
Don Barry (Chemistry Dept)
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta Georgia, 30332
UUCP: ...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!cmpbsdbrchrd@well.UUCP (rchrd = Richard Friedman) (09/02/85)
In article <1062@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP>, mmar@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (Mitchell Marks) writes: > Paul Kolodner brings up Bruckner in this context. I'm always surprised to > remember that he was a religious man, and that people claim to hear deep > religious sentiment in his music. I always hear an element of cruelty and > indifference. The scherzo mvt in the Ninth Symphony brings to mind a nasty > rampaging god (or just physical giant), stomping everything flat, including > those jaunty picnickers (the bucolic sections). Similarly for the scherzo > of the Seventh. (I listen to it anyway -- it's offputting but fascinating). Bruckner's god was a vindictive god. Fire and brimstone. There is a wonderful biog of Bruckner, written in the last 20 years. (But I/ve forgotten the author.) Story has it he could be struck with fervor in the middle of a lecture (he taught in a boy's perochial school) that would drive him to his knees. I think his music always shows that intensity. (Sadly) there is no place for this sort of thing in the (serious) music of today. Same sort of ferver exists in Mahler (and, to a degree, Shostakovitch.. esp the last quartets.). -- [rchrd] = Richard Friedman Pacific-Sierra Research, 2855 Telegraph #415 Berkeley, CA 94705 (415) 540 5216 UUCP: {dual,hplabs,ptsfa,apple}!well!rchrd
rchrd@well.UUCP (rchrd = Richard Friedman) (09/02/85)
In article <472@olivee.UUCP>, greg@olivee.UUCP (Greg Paley) writes: > > I feel that ultimately music makes its own expression which is > independent of either verbal or visual means of communication. It > "says something" that cannot be said by any other means, although > a visual object or a literary work can provide the initial stimulus > to a composer. > True. But some composers do a very good job of mimicing nature, or the human sounds around us. Immediately comes to mind: Lark Ascending, by R.Vaughan-WIlliams (which greatly impressed an ornithologist friend of mine who studies bird songs) Arcana, by Edgard Varese (urban sounds) -- [rchrd] = Richard Friedman Pacific-Sierra Research, 2855 Telegraph #415 Berkeley, CA 94705 (415) 540 5216 UUCP: {dual,hplabs,ptsfa,apple}!well!rchrd
rchrd@well.UUCP (rchrd = Richard Friedman) (09/02/85)
In article <307@ihlpl.UUCP>, par@ihlpl.UUCP (Rupsis) writes: > > When I listen to R. Stauss's "Eine Alpensinfonie" it always reminds me of my > time in the Austrian and Swiss Alps. I think the Mahler 3rd does a better job. Once when hiking with a friend in the Alps, his friend remarked how beautiful it all was. Mahler responded saying it was all in his 3rd symphony! I agree. -- [rchrd] = Richard Friedman Pacific-Sierra Research, 2855 Telegraph #415 Berkeley, CA 94705 (415) 540 5216 UUCP: {dual,hplabs,ptsfa,apple}!well!rchrd
rchrd@well.UUCP (rchrd = Richard Friedman) (09/02/85)
In article <1198@tekgvs.UUCP>, jerem@tekgvs.UUCP (Jere Marrs) writes: > > Upon listening to Copland's Appalachain Spring I have the > most wonderful feeling of pastoral scenes, warm sun, rolling hills,... > in other words, the Appalachains. > I agree. Just like Vaughan-Williams music has an incredible feeling of the English countryside. I once spent a year in England primarily because of the lure of his music. (Well, thats actually streching it a bit... but it did have an effect, and still does.) -- [rchrd] = Richard Friedman Pacific-Sierra Research, 2855 Telegraph #415 Berkeley, CA 94705 (415) 540 5216 UUCP: {dual,hplabs,ptsfa,apple}!well!rchrd
joan@ISM780.UUCP (09/04/85)
Whenever I hear the beginning of the last movement from
Mozart's 40th symphony, I see a cartoon-type cat-and-mouse
chase. The violins are the little mouse and the rest of the
orchestra is the big, clumsy cat.
******************************************************************************
Joan "the VMS group is moving mountains" Alexander
Interactive Systems,
Santa Monica, CA
cca!ima!ism780!alexander
decvax!vortex!ism780!alexander
"Opinions expressed herein were not mine originally, but
were forced on me at gunpoint by the Interactive Systems
Corporation"linda@amdcad.UUCP (Linda Seltzer) (09/05/85)
Many beautiful tone poems can be found in Chinese classical music for the p'ip'a and the ch'in. There are many fascinating portrayals of running strams and brooks. What many of us call "extended techniques" in string writing are ancient techniques in Chinese music, and their integration into Chinese compositions is masterful. Some examples of techniques: in the course of a section, the music will move from metered to unmeterd and back; rubbing the strings near the bridge is used as a soft marking of certain beats in the measure while other notes played on these string instruments have freer rhythm. There are many harmonics, vibrato notes, and portamento notes, and the concept of Klangfarbenmelodie (melody of tone colors a la Schoenberg) is an ancient practice in these tone poems. Linda Seltzer
dave@cylixd.UUCP (Dave Kirby) (09/06/85)
In article <31800001@ISM780.UUCP> joan@ISM780.UUCP writes: > > Whenever I hear the beginning of the last movement from > Mozart's 40th symphony, I see a cartoon-type cat-and-mouse > chase. The violins are the little mouse and the rest of the > orchestra is the big, clumsy cat. Thanks, Joan. You have forever ruined the 40th symphony for me. :-) (I am one of those poor folk who can't listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of you-know-who.) Now I'm going to break out laughing at the next Mozart concert because my mind will be filled with images of "Tom and Jerry." ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Kirby "There is no great genius without RCA Cylix Communications some touch of madness." - Seneca Memphis, TN ...!ihnp4!akgub!cylixd!dave (The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of RCA Cylix. They may not even reflect my own.)
wws@whuxlm.UUCP (Stoll W William) (09/07/85)
> > (I am one of those poor folk who can't listen to the William Tell > Overture without thinking of you-know-who.) Now I'm going to break out > laughing at the next Mozart concert because my mind will be filled > with images of "Tom and Jerry." > A librarian once taught me the words to the first movement of Mozart's 40th... "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a Mozart...." Bill Stoll, ..!whuxlm!wws
karn@petrus.UUCP (Phil R. Karn) (09/07/85)
> Whenever I hear the beginning of the last movement from > Mozart's 40th symphony, I see a cartoon-type cat-and-mouse > chase. The violins are the little mouse and the rest of the > orchestra is the big, clumsy cat. That's an interesting interpretation that hadn't occurred to me before, but I guess I can "see" it now that you mention it. Actually, the piece that had always conjured up a "cartoon cat-and-mouse" image to me is near the beginning of the last movement to Beethoven's Eroica. (It starts in bar 12, right after the introduction Antony Hopkins says Beethoven wrote to "impress the natives".) Even commentators like Hopkins have some pretty amusing things to say about this section. Phil
jeffw@tekecs.UUCP (Jeff Winslow) (09/10/85)
> A librarian once taught me the words to the first movement of > Mozart's 40th... > > "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a Mozart...." > Then there's "This is the symphony, that Schubert never ever finished..." (2nd theme) Doesn't scan as well as the Mozart. But then there's Bach WTC:1 G minor fugue: "My <socks> are filthy - and I don't give a damn!" Maybe this should be a forbidden subject... Jeff Winslow "Why do you like the Socratic method?"
jerem@tekgvs.UUCP (Jere Marrs) (09/10/85)
Summary:Closeted Mozart In article <834@whuxlm.UUCP> wws@whuxlm.UUCP (Stoll W William) writes: >> >> (I am one of those poor folk who can't listen to the William Tell >> Overture without thinking of you-know-who.).... > >A librarian once taught me the words to the first movement of >Mozart's 40th... > > "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a Mozart...." > >Bill Stoll, ..!whuxlm!wws In good ol' Humanities 501 (in prehistoric times back in undergraduate school...) we learned, mnemonically of course, to remember the last movement of Mozart's 40th with: Mozart's in the closet Let 'im out! Let 'im out! Let 'im out! Jere M. Marrs Tektronix, Inc.
carolp@hpvcla.UUCP (carolp) (09/14/85)
> Then there's > "This is the symphony, that Schubert never ever finished..." (2nd theme) > Doesn't scan as well... I once had a music teacher who *insisted* that we seventh-graders give our elders the respect due them, and besides, "This is the symphony that Mister Schubert never finished." scans better, too :-) Carol Peterman hplabs!hp-pcd!hpvcla!carolp
rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen) (09/14/85)
>>A librarian once taught me the words to the first movement of >>Mozart's 40th... >> "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a Mozart...." > Then there's > "This is the symphony, that Schubert never ever finished..." (2nd theme) > Doesn't scan as well as the Mozart. But then there's Bach WTC:1 G minor fugue: > "My <socks> are filthy - and I don't give a damn!" [WINSLOW] How about: "Ei-... -ne klei-... ne nachtmusick das ist Writ-... -ten by... Herr Mozart not by Liszt" > Maybe this should be a forbidden subject... Too late... -- "iY AHORA, INFORMACION INTERESANTE ACERCA DE... LA LLAMA!" Rich Rosen ihnp4!pyuxd!rlr
mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) (09/21/85)
> >A librarian once taught me the words to the first movement of >Mozart's 40th... > > "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a Mozart...." > >Bill Stoll, ..!whuxlm!wws Let's not forget the movement of a Mozart Horn Concerto immortalized ?-) by Flanders and Swann in "The Drop of a Hat", in which Flanders sings the entire Horn part in a horn-like voice, starting "I purchased a horn and I wanted to play it ...." and with the refrain (after the neighbours stole the horn) "Where's that horn Where's my horn ...Gorn" I can't hear that movement without the vocal part! -- Martin Taylor {allegra,linus,ihnp4,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt {uw-beaver,qucis,watmath}!utcsri!dciem!mmt
rwfi@ur-tut.UUCP (Robert Fink) (09/25/85)
In article <210@decwrl.UUCP> chabot@amber.DEC (All God's chillun got guns) writes: >Well, it seems to me that anyone who's ever heard a donkey would be reminded >of it by certain parts "Grand Canyon Suite". But then, that's an auditory to >auditory, not auditory to visual. While we're on the subject of donkeys, let me bring up Mendelssohn (that's right, Mendelssohn!), whose Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream contains the clearest "HEE-HAW"'s in all music. (listen for the falling ninths)
rwfi@ur-tut.UUCP (Robert Fink) (09/25/85)
In article <5674@tekecs.UUCP> jeffw@tekecs.UUCP (Jeff Winslow) writes: >> A librarian once taught me the words to the first movement of >> Mozart's 40th... >> >> "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a Mozart...." >> > >Then there's > > "This is the symphony, that Schubert never ever finished..." (2nd theme) > >Doesn't scan as well as the Mozart. But then there's Bach WTC:1 G minor fugue: > > "My <socks> are filthy - and I don't give a damn!" > >Maybe this should be a forbidden subject... > > Jeff Winslow > "Why do you like the Socratic method?" Well, as long as we're going to do this, we might as well do it right: Mozart Gm: "Its a bird, its a plane, no its Mozart" Schubert Unifinished: "This is the symphony, that Schubert wrote and never finished, This is the symphony, that Schubert wrote--" (get it?) If you'll all sing these for yourselves (quietly, please, don't disturb your neighbors!), you'll see that they scan almost perfectly. I've got more, but I'll spare everyone (unless, of course......). Bob Fink
chai@utflis.UUCP (Henry Chai) (09/29/85)
>In article <210@decwrl.UUCP> chabot@amber.DEC (All God's chillun got guns) writes: >>Well, it seems to me that anyone who's ever heard a donkey would be reminded >>of it by certain parts "Grand Canyon Suite". But then, that's an auditory to >>auditory, not auditory to visual. > In article <131@ur-tut.UUCP> rwfi@ur-tut.UUCP (Robert Fink) writes: >While we're on the subject of donkeys, let me bring up Mendelssohn (that's >right, Mendelssohn!), whose Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream contains >the clearest "HEE-HAW"'s in all music. What about Saint Saens' "Carnival of the animals" ?? It's really a riot. Donkeys hee-hawing, hens clucking, not to mention the waltzing elephant and the turtle doing a VERY SLOW Can-Can!!! -- Henry Chai Faculty of Library and Information Science, U of Toronto {watmath,ihnp4,allegra}!utzoo!utflis!chai