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John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC
This what I used to learn a little more about Mozart
1. Horn Concerto No. 4 in E flat
major A cheery skipping horn tune coupled with playful strings – Mozart’s Horn
Concerto No. 4 is enough to put anyone in good mood. He wrote it for his friend
Joseph Leutgeb to play on a natural horn, a predecessor to the modern French
horn.
2. The Marriage of Figaro Lively,
cheeky, funny – Mozart had a sense of humour, and you can hear it from the word
go in this cheerful opera. It’s a great love-story, with a few cases of
mistaken identity, trickery, and practical jokes thrown in for good measure.
Musical highlights include the ‘Sull’aria’ duet, and the soprano aria ‘Porgi,
amor’.
3. Piano Concerto No. 21 ('Elvira
Madigan') in C major. Mozart’s 1785 beautiful piano concerto is often used in
films – you’ll hear it in Superman Returns, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Elvira
Madigan, giving the music its unofficial nickname.
5. Così Fan Tutte Expect fiancée swapping, disguises, and
trickery aplenty in this jaunty opera from Mozart. It’s one of the three operas
composed to a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, and the vocal writing captures the
Italian flavour of the words perfectly.
6. Clarinet Quintet in A major
Mozart only wrote one clarinet quintet – a piece for string quartet plus
clarinet – but he’s proven he knows how to get the best from the instrument.
The lyrical tunes and the similarities to the clarinet concerto have ensured
both pieces remain extremely popular: both are in A major, and they were
written for the same clarinetist, Anton Stadler.
7. The Magic Flute. A handsome
prince, a serpent, and three ladies who produce an enchanted flute with the
power to change men’s hearts? Mozart's opera is a bit of a musical pantomime,
with some brilliant songs thrown in for good measure: the famously difficult
‘Queen of the Night’ aria, ‘Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen’, is just
one of them.
8. Symphony No. 41 ('Jupiter') in
C major. A fitting conclusion to Mozart’s 41 symphonies, ‘Jupiter’ showcases
the best of all the composer’s styles. It’s majestic and impressive with a
playful lightness of touch and humour – a perfect mix of musical genius and
friendly accessible tunes.
9. Exsultate, jubilate. If you
like Mozart’s operas, this solo religious motet is bound to impress. Originally
written for a male castrato singer, it’s now usually performed by a female
singer. The final movement, setting just the word ‘Alleluia’ to fast running
quavers, is a masterpiece.
10. Concerto for Flute, Harp, and
Orchestra in C major. When Mozart wrote this concerto in 1778, the harp was
still being developed. This is the only piece of music he wrote for the
instrument, but the writing for each soloist is carefully crafted – it’s
something of a showpiece for harpists who can get their fingers round the
difficult passages.
11. Clarinet Concerto. This
brilliant piece is one of the last works Mozart wrote before he died in 1791.
It seems he was saving the best ‘til last with this concerto for clarinet –
it’s the only concerto he wrote for the instrument. Cheery yet graceful, the clarinet’s
warm tone brings the beautifully simple tunes to life, and it’s always a high
entry in the Classic FM Hall of Fame.
12. Requiem. An anonymous commission prompted Mozart to
start writing his Requiem. After taking on the project, he started experiencing
‘very strange thoughts’, and began to fear he was writing a requiem for his own
death. The result? A moving piece, with passages of fearful angst and resolute
acceptance, left unfinished by the time Mozart died in 1791.
13. Mass No. 15 in C major
('Coronation') This is a much lighter version of Mozart’s Mass settings, one
where he wasn’t fearful of his own death. Regal and grand, the ‘Coronation’
mass shows classical choral writing at its best, and the flowing soprano solo
in the ‘Agnus Dei’ may have inspired the ‘Dove Sono’ aria from The Marriage of
Figaro, written seven years later.
14. Haydn Quartets. Mozart
composed 23 string quartets, but the set of six dedicated to Haydn are some of
the best examples of the genre. From the mysterious ‘Dissonance’ Quartet, No.
19, to the lively ‘Hunt’, No. 17, the six quartets cover a wide emotional
range. What’s more, Haydn loved them, saying Mozart was the greatest composer
he knew.
15. Symphony No. 40 in G
minor. There’s a reason this stormy symphony
is often called ‘The Great G minor’. It’s a powerful piece from the off, and
it’s packed with catchy tunes. Rushing passages are appeased with relaxing
heart-warming harmonies, until the piece comes to a close in a frenzied finish.
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter (born August 25,
1933) is a jazz saxophonist and composer who came to wide prominence in the
late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for Art Blakey's
Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he went on to join Miles Davis's Second Great
Quintet, and from there he co-founded the jazz fusion band Weather Report. He
has recorded over 20 albums as a bandleader. Many of Shorter's compositions
have become jazz standards, and his output has earned worldwide recognition,
critical praise and various commendations. Shorter has won 11 Grammy Awards.
Max Ernst, At the First Clear Word, 1923.
Max Ernst ( April 1891 – April
1976) was a German (naturalized American in 1948) painter, sculptor, graphic
artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada
movement and surrealism. He had no formal artistic training, but his
experimental attitude toward the making of art resulted in his invention of
frottage—a technique that uses pencil rubbings of objects as a source of
images—and grattage, an analogous technique in which paint is scraped across
canvas to reveal the imprints of the objects placed beneath. He is also noted
for his novels consisting of collages.
Films I've watched recently
1917. This is
a quest film. At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers,
Schofield (and Blake are given a seemingly impossible mission. In a race
against time, they must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will
stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers--Blake's own brother among them. If
you were waiting for a good old fashioned war film, you’ll have to keep waiting
because this ain’t it. While this isn’t a chick flick, it ain’t far away from
becoming a chick either. Essentially it’s a good, tense film that does well in translating
the first-person experience of war. The cinematography is beautiful. All of it
is hampered by a predictable script and the film doesn’t deserve the hype it’s
gotten.
You Were Never Really Here. I just
found out the main character is supposed to be a traumatized veteran, which isn’t
at all clear in the film and should be. So without that nugget, I wrongly
assumed I was watching a film about psychopath. Anyway, it’s another quest
film, a killer for hire tracks down a missing girl. Here’s the important part to
know about the film, its written by Lynne Ramsey, a Scottish writer producer
and cinematographer, whose low
on dialogue films are marked by explicit story exposition, a fascination with
children and the recurring themes of grief, guilt, death, and its aftermath. She
uses vivid images, tiny details and sound to carry the story. If you understand
that, the film gets better. But even with that, this a brutal story that left
me sad for the characters. There is an overriding sadness to this film.
Listen up, Philip. This is
one of the films you have to watch to end to appreciate. The film was dubbed “A
complex, intimate, and highly idiosyncratic comedy” and every word of that is
true. Philip is an angry writer awaiting
publication of his sure-to-succeed second novel, yet he has an indifference to
promoting his own work. He is taken under the wing by his literary idol Ike
Zimmerman who offers his isolated summer home as a refuge. This film doesn’t
even make the slightest attempt to be cute or likeable, yet it somehow manages
to charms more than it alienates. While watching it, the viewer must accept the
fact that Philip has an emotional blankness. This is a (darkly) funny and deeply
sad film.
Most people learn
“Most people learn nothing from
experience, except confirmation of their prejudices.”
- Bertrand Russell, Mortals and Others
- Bertrand Russell, Mortals and Others
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