Out of Charlotte, NC yesterday came the news that starting quarterback Jake Delhomme’s contract was extended by 5 years and includes $20 million in guarantees.
I do not understand this for several reasons.
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Schubert’s Arpeggione sonata was written in 1824 probably for his friend Johann Staufer, a guitar maker who invented an instrument he called the arpeggione. Built like a guitar with frets on the fingerboard and six strings, it was played with a bow in the manner of a cello. The arpeggione fell off the radar soon after it was introduced, and the sonata is the only composition of significance written for the instrument. Thankfully, we are still able to hear it today almost exclusively on the cello (whose range allows for relatively easy transcription) or the viola.
Composed during a time in which Schubert was suffering from depression and social estrangement for his bout of syphilis, the sonata contains many dramatic and sudden mood shifts from the bright and beautiful to dark and frantic.
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I’ve just returned from a wonderful 5-day trip to Rome and Florence. Weather was beautiful, crowds were present but nothing compared to what I imagine the height of tourist season is like, and the food was everything you’d expect from the Italians.
I’m sure nobody mistook me for a local, but I was frankly amazed at how blatantly some foreigners stick out against the normal tourist backdrop. I consider myself a relatively experienced traveler having journeyed through Europe and Asia, so I thought that I would offer a few tips on how to blend in. A lot of this might seem like common sense, but if that was the case I wouldn’t see these things being done time and time again.
The last of a 3-part series discussing Mahler’s Symphony No. 4.
Well I’m a little slow on the draw for this one, but my first (and only) flickr photo was chosen for Gadling’s Photo of the Day on April 19, 2009.
Thanks, Gadling!
We continue our discussion of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with an analysis of movements II and III.
The Fourth Symphony is the last in Mahler’s exploration of the German poems colloquially referred to as “Des Knabben Wunderhorn” (The Youth’s Magic Horn), and is centered around the song “Das himmlische Leben” (The Heavenly Life). Unusually for Mahler, the symphony is scored for a rather light orchestra in which the low brass is severely undermanned (there are no trombones or tuba). As we’ll see, this does not prevent him from creating intense moments of power and majesty.
One of the most popular questions on the Macrumors Web Design and Development forum is “What is a good HTML Editor for OS X?” Here’s a list of the most popular suggestions. While many of the editors I will list have other advanced functions, for now I am writing this for those who want to create a basic webpage containing images, CSS, and perhaps some PHP for those looking to start or maintain a blog. This is what I use my HTML editor for, and I’m sure more advanced users will have stronger opinions.
It occured to me that I’ve been throwing around a lot of terms that might not be immediately clear, especially in the context of classical music. Here’s a short summary of the major musical forms found in the works we’ll be discussing.
1. Sonata Allegro
The most important form of the post-Baroque (“Classical”) era, pieces written in this form usually have a brief introduction followed by the exposition in which the main thematic elements are stated. Usually there are two main themes- one “masculine” and martial in nature (in the home “tonic” key) and the second “feminine”- quiet and lyric- to contrast with the first. The themes are separated by transitions (or “bridges”), which sometimes change key (“modulation”). It is common for the exposition to be repeated, both times ending with a cadence, or closing theme.
Best known to the general public as being the theme for The Steadfast Tin Solder in Disney’s Fantasia 2000, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major, op. 102 was composed in 1957 soon after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953) as a gift to his 19-year old son Maxim, who also premiered the work at the Moscow Conservatory.
Unlike the concertos of the classical era, Shostakovich does not compose a struggle for primacy between the orchestra and the soloist. While not exactly symphonic in the same manner as Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto, the degree of interplay between the piano and orchestra along with the absence of major thematic tension suggests a degree of equality between the two from the onset.
Copyright © 2009 Black Holes and Snowy Mountains
