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John W
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« on: 19:53:27, 05-12-2007 » |
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Music appreciation might be the wrong place for a thread where you can post about Music that made you go 'huh?'I thought, however, that this thread might allow another member to enter the discussion with an explanation of how the music can be appreciated or has been appreciated. By appeciated I mean enjoyed and/or understood. Let me kick this off with an item on a charity shop CD, on the London label which I think is/was an export Decca label, and it's astonishing to me that this item was even exported! So, I have just been listening to: Sitwell-Walton - FaçadeIt's a recording from 1954, Sitwell and Peter Pears reciting. Oh my word, we have poems by Sitwell, she calls them in the notes abstract but wouldn't absurd be more appropriate? The accompanying instrumental music might be listenable on it's own, I say might as I have not listened enough to be sure. I haven't googled for Sitwell soundclips for members to listen to but there are clips of a version which Prunella Scales was persuaded to perform, with London Mozart Players/Jane Glover in 1997: Poems-Edith-Sitwell - London Mozart Players/Jane Glover
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #1 on: 20:02:40, 05-12-2007 » |
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And wouldn't you know it... I've known and loved this one for about 20 years now. Especially this recording: Pears is marvellously nimble of tongue (and in Four in the Morning positively creepy) and even if Sitwell is a little wonky from time to time there's so much lurking behind the words when she speaks. The music is some of Walton's best, I think - gorgeously characterful miniatures. But you have a point - it does sometimes seem that the text and music might make more sense separately (and indeed I first heard the music without the text, on a CD from Chicago Pro Musica). The poems are indeed abstract and sometimes even absurd but there's plenty of subtlety there - but hardly any chance of hearing it with all that jolly music going on. Conversely all that seeming gibberish does sometimes seem to distract from the music. But I do keep returning to it for some reason. I can only assume that means I'm inwardly satisfied with the mixture. Perhaps indeed with its very instability?  |
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martle
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« Reply #2 on: 20:06:19, 05-12-2007 » |
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Is your problem exclusively with the words then, John? Those Sitwell poems (if that's the right word) are pretty typical, although very superior, examples of a lot of absurdist writing in the 20s and thereabouts. Walton, through his friendship with and spnsorship by the Sitwells was cashing in a bit early on in his career. But, in their way, they are exquisitely done and frighteningly accomplshed for a composer in his 20s... IMO!
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Green. Always green.
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #3 on: 20:16:21, 05-12-2007 » |
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I think it would be very hard to resist some of them as purely instrumental pieces anyway: things like Popular Song or the Tarantella are among those pieces you've probably heard before somewhere without knowing what they were and Long Steel Grass is also quite gorgeous. And the melody of Popular Song is one of those very rare tunes that sticks instantly in the mind while at the same time being chromatically tricksy enough that it's practically impossible to sing back...
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Bryn
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« Reply #4 on: 20:25:12, 05-12-2007 » |
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Sitwell-Walton - Façade
It's a recording from 1954, Sitwell and Peter Pears reciting.
John, when I was schoolkid, we all had to listen to that recording, both in junior school (to age 11) and secondary school. I still have a soft spot for its lampooning of "Pierrot Lunaire". Cathy Berberian recorded it (along with the "Facade 2", the settings which got left out of the published version of Facade) for OUP. Walton also made orchestral suites from the material, and they used to be quite popular. In 1987 Peggy Ashcroft and Jeremy Irons worked with the London Sinfonietta and Chailly on a recording for Decca. I think it only really works when done dead-pan, as originally intended. Too much inflexion ruins it. |
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time_is_now
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« Reply #5 on: 20:26:26, 05-12-2007 » |
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... where something peculiar seems to have happened to the trellises. |
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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Bryn
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« Reply #6 on: 20:48:27, 05-12-2007 » |
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Any residents of La Belle France out there? If so, would you be willing to act as intermediary in a CD purchase? There's a copy of a CD with Cathy Berberian's Facade on it, priced at €9, (plus p&p), but only for delivery within France, and I want it.
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #7 on: 21:11:42, 05-12-2007 » |
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I'm no longer resident in l'hexagone, but I can certainly help, Bryn - PM me.
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John W
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« Reply #8 on: 21:22:45, 05-12-2007 » |
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Thanks for the responses, I'm sure the poems are clever, but too difficult on my ears with all the music going on too. I should have said that the piece was first performed in public in 1923. In the CD notes Sitwell explained that the only way they could get a satisfactory performance was by the vocalist using a megaphone and performing behind a curtain, presumably the musicians were behind the curtain too and the megaphone peeped out between the curtains? (This was, in 1923, before electric microphones were in use). The music, though, does interest me and I'll look out for the related suites or recordings without the poems. |
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Bryn
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« Reply #9 on: 21:33:18, 05-12-2007 » |
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Thanks for the responses, I'm sure the poems are clever, but too difficult on my ears with all the music going on too. I should have said that the piece was first performed in public in 1923. In the CD notes Sitwell explained that the only way they could get a satisfactory performance was by the vocalist using a megaphone and performing behind a curtain, presumably the musicians were behind the curtain too and the megaphone peeped out between the curtains? (This was, in 1923, before electric microphones were in use). The music, though, does interest me and I'll look out for the related suites or recordings without the poems. Just had a little look on Amazon, et. Seems like only the first suite is around on CD these days, on a BBC Legends disc. I have an old HMVClassics CD with both orchestral suites (CBSO, Fremaux). Might be worth PMing me, John. |
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roslynmuse
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« Reply #10 on: 22:31:34, 05-12-2007 » |
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I like the recording with Constant Lambert (who, I seem to remember, composed a bar or two of one number) reciting, with Sitwell again. Not the whole thing unfortunately. I knew the orchestral suites before hearing the original and hated the recitations first few times round the block. Now, partly thanks to having played the three Sitwell songs so many times, (Old Sir Faulk with the text sung instead of spoken, for eg) the words and music have become inseparable, although scarcely more comprehensible! PS I can't help wondering whether Lily O'Grady (silly and shady) is the real real name of  |
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #11 on: 22:36:08, 05-12-2007 » |
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I like the recording with Constant Lambert (who, I seem to remember, composed a bar or two of one number) Now I'd love to hear that! As I understand it he wrote the beginning of Four in the Morning. |
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roslynmuse
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« Reply #12 on: 22:46:18, 05-12-2007 » |
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A
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« Reply #13 on: 22:47:39, 05-12-2007 » |
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And wouldn't you know it... I've known and loved this one for about 20 years now. Especially this recording: Pears is marvellously nimble of tongue (and in Four in the Morning positively creepy) and even if Sitwell is a little wonky from time to time there's so much lurking behind the words when she speaks. The music is some of Walton's best, I think - gorgeously characterful miniatures.
How I agree with you here ollie, I love this recording. I had the lp a long time ago and have upgraded to the same version in cd form. It never fails to amuse me! Wonderful. A |
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Well, there you are.
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #14 on: 22:58:27, 05-12-2007 » |
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...whose slack shape waved like the sea. Thetiswroteatreatisenotingwheatissilverliketheseathelovelycheatissweetasfoamerotisnoticesthatshe... will... steal... the... (and who can forget Flo the kangaroo?)  |
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