Beethoven's Shadow

One of the most interesting things to me about Romanticism as a musical movement was the different ways different composers lived under Beethoven’s legacy. Ludwig van Beethoven, probably the greatest composer the world has ever saw and will ever see, was the most instrumental figure in the transition between Classicism and Romanticism. He cast a long shadow that composers of the Romantic Era worked to come to terms with.

The Schumann Ballade

 

Chopin’s second Ballade is less well-known than his first and has often been criticized as “less ingenious”. I can see where this sentiment is coming from because I too prefer Chopin’s Ballade No. 1, but I find his Ballade No. 2 – which I fondly call the “Schumann Ballade” – to be a hidden gem.

Things I would say to my younger musician self

Dear 4-year-old Michelle, I know you hate playing the keyboard, but in just a few years you’ll be playing an actual piano, which will be great. Also, music is fun. It may make you angry, but you’re doing great. Trust me.

Happy Birthday Gustav Mahler! 7 July 1860

 

Some piano music just wasn’t meant for the piano

I’m not sure if this is just me, but I wish people played J.S. Bach less on the piano and more on the instruments he actually composed his “piano” pieces for (harpsichords and clavichords). I often dislike how Bach pieces sound on the modern piano and absolutely can’t stand when I have to play Bach on the piano.

Don’t get me wrong – I love some good Bach – the pieces of his that are often played on the piano these days were written for claviers (which, at his time, were harpsichords and clavichords rather than fortepianos or modern pianos). The claviers of Bach’s time were very different from modern pianos (despite being forerunners to the modern piano), which may explain why it always feels so wrong and difficult every time I have to play Bach on the piano.

To a much lesser extent my desire to have Bach played on the instruments he composed for rather than the piano applies to Mozart too, because he composed for the fortepiano rather than the modern piano. However, I’ll let slide the fact that Mozart’s piano pieces are most often played on the modern piano rather than the fortepiano. After all, I feel that Mozart’s piano pieces are actually pretty good on the modern piano, whether played or listened to. (Besides, Mozart’s fortepianos are closer to modern pianos than Bach’s claviers.)

Originally posted April 6, 2019 on WordPress

Happy Birthday Igor Stravinsky! 17 June 1882

 

Watching Musicals As A Classical Music Enthusiast

When I watched Cats about a month ago, I realized that classical music remains with us always in a variety of modern musical forms, including musical theatre.

The Overture to the hit Broadway musical Cats, to me at least, borrows both resonant and/or tonal elements from the Classicism and Romanticism movements, as well as dissonant and/or atonal elements from later composers such as Debussy and to an extent 20th-century composers such as Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern. The beginning of the Overture contains almost exclusively musical tension for a solid third of the two-and-a-half minute long piece, leaving the audience waiting and waiting for resolution and when it finally arrives around the 1:10 mark it’s glorious.

That’s just one example of how classical music influences modern musical theatre, and musical theatre is just one modern musical form that has influences from classical music. I am glad that I can appreciate modern music as someone who also has a background in classical music, because this allows for me to enjoy the music through an interesting lens.

Originally posted March 30, 2019 on WordPress