Musaeus
08-02-2010, 06:06 PM
I wonder if the following is any good.....
Mozart K421 in D minor– First movement
Each instrument has a voice. The first violin is heard above the others, high and controlled, on the tonic. Its first theme has simplicity, decisiveness, delicacy, seriousness, a slightly plaintive tone. The first’s voice is graceful, dare I say feminine, but confident and poised, having more to say than the others. The first’s character is charming – you would like to be with ‘her’ – to please her. In bar 5 she strikes an urgent note, however, high-pitched, indicating that this dialogue will be, although always decorous and delightful, passionate at times
Each of the four is wonderfully sensitive to the others, but in particular they seem to love the first violin, deferring to her moods (which are changeable) and assertions – sometimes she is very definite and forceful, at other times light as gossamer, but she is always graceful and beautiful.
She leads the others on …. When she says something the others respond with symmetrical phrases, that never repeat what she says but amplify or echo or answer her. None of them is ever dull or out of place.
Round bar 28 she launches into a series of wonderfully playful and fluent triplets, and one imagines her saying witty clever things and smiling: everyone is animated.
She calls the conversation to a halt and they are all quiet for a moment. In the beginning of the second section around bar 43 ff there is a period of uncertainty and hesitation…. No flight of melody but a meditation – nobody is quite sure what is going to happen next
But then they all launch into a beautiful recapitulation of the exposition – just as beautiful, in fact exactly the same, as it was before – how lovely that everything can be just the same – that elegant, delightful grace and serenity, expressed with restraint and just tinged with a slight pathos.
The cello is content to the provide the harmonic anchor for the others – with that lovely depth which only he can provide. Sometimes he steps down the tones in stately minims that beautifully set off the other voices.
In bars…. , near the end, the cello has a beautiful piece of counterpoint – in these few intense bars he seems to express his restrained but deep feelings for the beautiful first violin, and perhaps for the other two instruments. He seems to say how wonderful she is, how lovely, and how beautifully she has performed. He only says so briefly, but perhaps she and the others sense the power of this moment.
There is such harmony here – it is not like life – but an ideal state where the four interact with perfect understanding and sympathy. But as we listen we might think of a rather stately dance, where each person moves with great elegance and sensitivity to the others. A dance too where the dancers speak to each other….
What kind of voices do we hear in this piece? They speak the language of peaceful harmony, of calm, of a serene life of the soul. The language they speak is beautiful, sophisticated, almost heavenly. It is really too good, almost, for this Earth.
Mozart K421 in D minor– First movement
Each instrument has a voice. The first violin is heard above the others, high and controlled, on the tonic. Its first theme has simplicity, decisiveness, delicacy, seriousness, a slightly plaintive tone. The first’s voice is graceful, dare I say feminine, but confident and poised, having more to say than the others. The first’s character is charming – you would like to be with ‘her’ – to please her. In bar 5 she strikes an urgent note, however, high-pitched, indicating that this dialogue will be, although always decorous and delightful, passionate at times
Each of the four is wonderfully sensitive to the others, but in particular they seem to love the first violin, deferring to her moods (which are changeable) and assertions – sometimes she is very definite and forceful, at other times light as gossamer, but she is always graceful and beautiful.
She leads the others on …. When she says something the others respond with symmetrical phrases, that never repeat what she says but amplify or echo or answer her. None of them is ever dull or out of place.
Round bar 28 she launches into a series of wonderfully playful and fluent triplets, and one imagines her saying witty clever things and smiling: everyone is animated.
She calls the conversation to a halt and they are all quiet for a moment. In the beginning of the second section around bar 43 ff there is a period of uncertainty and hesitation…. No flight of melody but a meditation – nobody is quite sure what is going to happen next
But then they all launch into a beautiful recapitulation of the exposition – just as beautiful, in fact exactly the same, as it was before – how lovely that everything can be just the same – that elegant, delightful grace and serenity, expressed with restraint and just tinged with a slight pathos.
The cello is content to the provide the harmonic anchor for the others – with that lovely depth which only he can provide. Sometimes he steps down the tones in stately minims that beautifully set off the other voices.
In bars…. , near the end, the cello has a beautiful piece of counterpoint – in these few intense bars he seems to express his restrained but deep feelings for the beautiful first violin, and perhaps for the other two instruments. He seems to say how wonderful she is, how lovely, and how beautifully she has performed. He only says so briefly, but perhaps she and the others sense the power of this moment.
There is such harmony here – it is not like life – but an ideal state where the four interact with perfect understanding and sympathy. But as we listen we might think of a rather stately dance, where each person moves with great elegance and sensitivity to the others. A dance too where the dancers speak to each other….
What kind of voices do we hear in this piece? They speak the language of peaceful harmony, of calm, of a serene life of the soul. The language they speak is beautiful, sophisticated, almost heavenly. It is really too good, almost, for this Earth.