Quick post for today, at a wedding.


https://youtu.be/mpgyTl8yqbw

"Based on his Bußlied, Tannhäuser became the subject of a legendary account. It makes Tannhäuser a knight and poet who found the Venusberg, the subterranean home of Venus, and spent a year there worshipping the goddess. After leaving the Venusberg, Tannhäuser is filled with remorse, and travels to Rome to ask Pope Urban IV (reigned 1261–1264) if it is possible to be absolved of his sins. Urban replies that forgiveness is impossible, as much as it would be for his papal staff to blossom. Three days after Tannhäuser's departure, Urban's staff bloomed with flowers; messengers are sent to retrieve the knight, but he has already returned to Venusberg, never to be seen again."

"The Venusberg legend has been interpreted in terms of a Christianised version of the well-known folk-tale type of a mortal visiting the Otherworld: A human being seduced by an elf or fairy experiences the delights of the enchanted realm but later the longing for his earthly home is overwhelming. His desire is granted, but he is not happy (often noting that many years have passed in the world during his absence) and in the end returns to fairy-land."

Some of the information in these pictures is technical, aimed at the musicians in this chat, and some is general.

The text I'm posting is a very interesting excerpt from "A Geometry of Music" by Dmitri Tymoczko. While this isn't specifically related to classical music or history, it is generally related to the perspective we have toward music and, therefore, our way of listening to all music.

It should be a quick read, just a few minutes, but it could change the way you see music, especially since it is so common to teach music as a type of language. An inadequate tl;dr -- "What is important is not that you understand the magic trick, but that you feel the force of the illusion"

Apologies for the picture quality, it's from my phone camera.

The formulas at the top are incredibly useful for the practicing composer or improviser. Try them out and see for yourself, it's like a cheat code!

Henryk Wieniawski (b. Lublin d. Moscow 1835 - 1880)

"His mother was a pianist and she took her son, in spite of advice to the contrary, to enter the Paris Conservatoire in 1843. Her faith in his talent was rewarded when he won the first violin prize and graduated when he was still only 11, an unprecedented Achievement.

He played his first concert in Paris in January 1848 and in St. Petersburg in March. He returned to the Paris Conservatoire for further study in 1849 and again won the first prize in 1850. After this, with his brother as accompanist, he toured Russia in 1851-3 and visited London in 1859. In 1860 he was official violinist to the Czar, taught in St. Petersburg, played in a famous string quartet and toured the USA with Antonin Rubenstein in 1872.

From 1877 he began to suffer from a heart condition which killed him in 1880 at the age of 44. He was considered to be one of the greatest violinists of the 19th century; and added to his reputation by writing a masterful Violin Concerto in D minor in the Hungarian manner, still much played, a Legend for violin and orchestra, and numerous other highly regarded works of a virtuosic nature."

When people think of classical music, they usually think of Bach or Mozart or Beethoven, but there were others making music before them and alongside them that don't get the same prestige. We categorize them as "folk" music or something like this, yet they inspire and are often directly responsible for many of the forms of classical music and the inspiration that drove the great composers, like Bartok. They will always be the essence that classical music built on, the songs of the people, the true spirit of a culture, the religious music and the secular "folk" music.

Turlough O'Carolan (Toirdhealbhach Ó Cearbhalláin) was born in 1670 near Nobber, County Meath and died March 25, 1738 at the home of his patron Mrs. MacDermott Roe in Alderford, County Roscommon. He was one of the last Irish harpers who composed and a significant number of his works survive in single line melody. Carolan's fame was not due to his skill with the harp (having started at 18), but to his gift for composition and verse.

Around the age of 18 Carolan was blinded by smallpox. Even before his illness Carolan had shown talent for poetry and may have been taught, even before his illness, by a harper Named MacDermott Roe (possibly Ruari dall who lived with the MacDermott Roes). Carolan studied for three years at the end of which Mrs. MacDermott Roe gave him a harp, a horse and some money to begin his career as an itinerant harper. For forty-five years Carolan would travel throughout Ireland composing tunes (planxties) for his patrons.

Carolan's music reflects his personality. He was "cheerful and gregarious" (Complete Works, 5), enjoying ludicrous stories, practical jokes and, according to Donal O'Sullivan was excellent at backgammon. Like many harpers, he drank a great deal and he had a temper.
Several anecdotes illustrate these characteristics. Carolan was drinking with an old friend, McCabe when MacCabe challenged Carolan to a contest. Whoever got drunk first would pay for all of the drinks. After some time MacCabe fell silent. Unable to see, Carolan asked why and was told MacCabe was sound asleep. Suspecting MacCabe would refuse to honor the bet, Carolan called for a sack and tied MacCabe up. MacCabe slept through the night. MacCabe woke, somewhat annoyed, but forced to concede the bet to Carolan. The incident led, however, to an exchange of "scolding" poems between the two men. Carolan scolded "smelly-fingered Charles, son of Cabe" for not taking the joke as intended and McCabe bid "bad luck and ill-chance befall" Carolan, and berated him for his "insignificant, elementary humor" (O'Sullivan, 78-79). McCabe would later write a touching Elegy to Carolan.
At one point a doctor advised Carolan to stop drinking for a period of time. Complying with this, Carolan began to feel worse instead of better. He then found a doctor who gave him the opposite advice whereupon Carolan spirits immediately became "lively and cheerful". He composed the following poem (translated from the Gaelic).

He's a fool who give over the liquor,
It softens the skinflint at once,
It urges the slow coach on quicker,
Gives spirit and brains to the dunce.
The man who is dumb as a rule
Discovers a great deal to say,
While he who is bashful since Yule
Will talk in an amorous way.
It's drink that uplifts the poltroon
To give battle in France and in Spain,
Now here is an end of my turn-
And fill me that bumper again!

In The Complete Works of Turlough O'Carolan Grainne Yeats relates the tale of Carolan and David Murphy (who was harper to Lord Mayo and once played before King Louis XIV of France). Murphy told Carolan that his tunes were like "bones without beef". Carolan thereupon dragged Murphy kicking and screaming through the room. While Murphy screamed Carolan remarked, "Put beef to that air, you puppy."
Carolan married Mary Maguire who he settled on a farm near Mohill, County Leitrim. They had seven children, six daughters and a son. His wife died in 1733. There is little record of Carolan's children. His daughter Siobhan married Captain Sudley and his son published a collection of Carolan's tunes in 1747. Following the publication Carolan's son began an affair with a married woman and fled to London, where he taught the harp.
Grainne Yeats sums up her biography with an excellent tribute to Carolan. Carolan "bridge the gap between continental art music on the one hand, and the Gaelic harp and folk music on the other." "At his best he wrote music that is distinctively Irish, yet has an international flavor as well. It is this achievement that suggests that Turlough Carolan does indeed deserve the title of Ireland's "National Composer"

Some say that Carolan's Farewell to Music is the last piece of music he wrote before he died, possibly even on the day of his death.

Some also say that his final composition was to his butler, Flinn, who brought him his final drink.
https://youtu.be/RNo-4k6knvo