February 10, 2004
Speaking of Birthdays...
Ferbruary 9th is Alban Berg's birthday. Berg remains one of my all time favorite composers (off the top of my head, that list would include Webern, Stockhausen, Berio, Tchaikovsky, Harrison, Rzewski, Domenico Scarlatti, Monteverdi, Liszt (late works), Bach, Debussy, Feldman, Respighi, Verdi, Couperin (probably a tribal thing with harpsichordists), Saluzzi, Monk (both Meredith and Thelonius), Anderson (Laurie, not LeRoy), Gershwin, and Mozart). I particularly recommend his opera Wozzeck, the Lyric Suite, and the Violin Concerto. My favorite is actually his Piano Sonata, opus 1, an early work of free atonality that, in the hands of a good pianist, brings me to tears every time.
I probably listen to more Webern these days than Berg, although nothing fits a stormy night better than the Violin Concerto and a single malt scotch (well, maybe the Art of the Fugue and a good, unfiltered sake - an unusual combination, but one that always works for me when the wind is driving the rain in horizontal sheets).
My first exposure to Berg was in college. It was Wozzeck, and nothing in music has been the same to me since. Certainly my view of opera has been forever changed by the experience (I always loved and still love Italian opera, but this one blew me away much more than anything before or since). Wozzeck and Porgy and Bess have been the two operas that have stopped me in my tracks and made me listen without the slightest mind wandering from beginning to end.
Berg, much more than Schoenberg, realized how gripping twelve tone music could be. He also showed, again more than Schoenberg, how organic a development atonality was from late Romanticism. Berg is one of those composers who changes the way one listens to earlier music. I hear Wagner, and I think of Berg. I hear Beethoven's Grosse Fuge and think of Berg. I hear Chopin, even, and think of Berg. I hear Phil Glass and I desperately want to hear Berg, just to get that drivel out of my ears.
After hearing Berg, I was a committed dodecaphonic fanatic. Notice that when folks attack twelve tone music, they first aim their guns at folks like Elliot Carter. This is appropriate, as Carter was among those who turned the excitement of twelve tone into a deadly academic trap: preciousness without the slightest charm. Berg had none of that. His music was virile and exciting and supremely beautiful.
The poor fellow had his share of shortcomings and faults in his personal life and beliefs. He, like many nervous moderns, drifted from religion straight into the idiocy of superstition and esoteric folly. However, like Kandinsky, Berg's creative output transcended all of that. The beauty in the work of artists like that shows that beauty does not originate from man, rather from God.
Posted by erik at February 10, 2004 12:53 AM | TrackBackRyan,
Never met a Siciliano who ommited the onions! For a blue cheese salad, I use poached pears and mixed greens (our farmer has been adding a lot of herbs to his winter lettuces - really good).
Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at February 10, 2004 10:50 PMErik,
I like that one too...I throw a few crumbles of good blue cheese and walnuts on it less the onions. If you need a copy of South Park, perhaps the next time I show up at your house, I will bring my copy of the DVD. Its intense hatred of Canada is almost as good as Austin Powers' hatred of the Ducth in "Goldmember".
Ryan
Ryan,
A good alternative to arugula and citrus is fresh fennel and blood orange salad (balsamico and diced red onion or shallot and blood orange juice for the dressing (with a splash of EVOO, natch)). It is still citrus, but quite different.
Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at February 10, 2004 12:59 PMWarning: don't expose Amalia to South Park yet (but I guess you already know that).
Posted by: KTC at February 10, 2004 11:54 AMAll of the South Park Movie's songs are much like Broadway musical numbers. Some are direct parodies (loving, affectionate, intelligent parodies).
The "Uncle F***a" song is amazingly "choreographed" with animation, and ends like the song "Oklahoma."
The song that the cartoon Satan sings so longingly is a take-off on "A Whole New World" in The Little Mermaid!
It's pretty amazing--and the darned stuff's so SINGABLE!
I laugh and laugh at that show. Those guys are far from hating the Lord and believers--I think they get a bad rap.
Posted by: KTC at February 10, 2004 11:51 AMErik,
I have tried to e-mail you a happy birthday a couple of times now. This darned thing keeps getting returned to me. Anyhow, Happy Birthday, I followed your instructions, minus the splash of H20 in my precious gin and celebrated for your 29 years on this earth. I like you, long for the produce of summer at this point of the year. I am getting really tired of arugula and citrus salads, and I want a vine ripened tomato so bad I can scream. On the bright side though, the weather is getting to the point that breaking our the old bb-q might not be such a bad idea, and I can again enjoy the quick grilled meats of the warmer climate. Good day to you sir, and Happy Birthday.
Ryan
You know, I have not seen , and certainly not for reasons of guarding myself against being offended (Bad Santa was my favorite movie of last year. Not that I saw that many movies last year, but Bad Santa was great). The reason I have not seen it is that we do not have cable. I really would like to see it, but so far the opportunity has not presented itself. I heard that the movie was about invading Canada, which is something I have proposed many times.
Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at February 10, 2004 9:49 AMThere was an episode of South Park that "featured" the work of Philip Glass. Did you see it? (Many Catholics refuse to watch South Park because the language is purposely crude).
Anyway, during rehearsal of the school Christmas play, a Jewish boy was cast as Joseph at the Nativity. His mother raised a ruckus, and soon everybody in town had some political correctness ax to grind.
When it finally came time for the Christmas play, it ended up being a presentation of the work of Philip Glass!
The audience staged a MUTINY--then all the adults came to their senses about the lunacy of political correctness taken to the extreme!
(That Trey Parker is quite a guy!)
Posted by: KTC at February 10, 2004 4:51 AM