Elgar

[sprinkleeninow]

[usonian]

1. Well, you caught my fragmented attention again.

This is the 9th variation, “Nimrod” of the set.

Nobody seems to know what the “enigma” is, though maybe it’s like Sherlock Holmes and the musical boxes, where the differences in the variations, “The Swagman” constitute the secret.
(Dressed to Kill)

The Enigma I will not explain – its "dark saying" must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the connexion between the Variations and the Theme is often of the slightest texture; further, through and over the whole set another and larger theme "goes", but is not played . . . . So the principal Theme never appears, even as in some late dramas – eg Maeterlinck's L'Intruse and Les sept Princesses – the chief character is never on the stage

Hmmmmm.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_Variations

This is the “grandest” of the variations, IMO, and like all the music I comment on, I have a piano reduction of it. 🎹

Elgar said that the opening of this variation had a touch of the (famous) second movement of Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata

This one:

[sprinkleeninow]

4. You gone n went all techy on me again 🙃

I do get a charge outta dat! 🤭

Now, where wuz I 🤔 😄

Seriously, I am in awe of your afficionado like technical interest in all things musical.

Remember, I can't read musical notes, but
they still continue to allow me to sing in our church choir. 😀

[usonian]

5. Do't confuse music with tech.

Tech is more like playing with the voices on the Clavinova. I hooked it up to the stereo so I could play with the graphic equalizer. I'm not used to really loud bass notes from the little grand piano.

I used to watch Leonard Bernstein's presentations on TV, and found that insight into the works and composers was great.

As an example, there is a series called "Embrace Everything" about the symphonies of Gustav Mahler.

https://www.theworldofgustavmahler.org/pastseasons.html

Something like this adds to the enjoyment of music. (bot not terribly dry stuff, as far as I am concerned)

And on a simpler level, think of the times that classical music has been used in the movies, or popularized.

Rossini's Lone Ranger Overture, Looney Tunes, Elvira Madigan.

That's an interesting pursuit. I "found" a quote from La Fanciulla Del West in The Music of the Night.

Do you remember any? Stranger in Paradise?
Check out this list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Melodia/List_of_popular_songs_based_on_classical_music

And if you like, the songs in Kismet, the musical, are from Borodin.
Mostly the string quartet.

Just Tchaikovsky:
https://www.tchaikovsky-research.net/en/forum/forum0281.html

Take Tchaikovsky's second symphony, please!

https://thelistenersclub.com/2014/11/17/tchaikovskys-little-russian-symphony/

What happens when a series of folk songs becomes the seed for an entire symphony? The answer can be heard in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2, a piece which earned the nickname, “The Little Russian” because of its use of three Ukrainian folk melodies. (Since the Middle Ages, the Ukraine has commonly been called “Little Russia.”) This is Tchaikovsky’s most Eastern-looking symphony, the closest he came to the music of the largely self-taught, nationalist “Russian Five” composers, who attempted to develop a uniquely “Russian” musical style.

Now, let's call Putin's Russia "Little Ukraine" and the symphony the "Ukraine Symphony"
I believe that his retreat there was destroyed by Putin.

I'm listening to a recording on the Archive, which includes Liadov's " Eight Russian Folk Songs" Got your interest?
https://archive.org/details/lp_tchaikovsky-symphony-no-2-little-russia_nathan-rachlin-kiril-kondrashin/


https://sites.google.com/site/edwardlein/Home/program-notes/peter-ilyich-tchaikovsky/symphony-no-2
Explains the use of folk songs in some detail.

On the heels of Tchaikovsky's tour de force, the next year Mussorgsky would interpolate The Crane into his Great Gate of Kiev (Kyiv?), the final movement of the piano suite, Pictures at an Exhibition.

Not a music student, not a musicologist, nor an "audiophile".

I just grew up with music, made a living in tech and love it. Keeps me young.

Note: I vividly recall Bernstein speaking about a pop song derived from a Tchaikovsky symphony, and that he couldn't get it out of his head. I just can't remember the tune or the symphony. If memory declines with age, I think that musical memory improves with age, just not in this case.

I might have to look up all those lectures!

[KT2000]

2. Thank you so much for posting

I sent it to someone who needs to be reminded of beauty in the world.

[sprinkleeninow]

3. You most welcome! 🩵 Been rough for me lately and I

haven't had the wherewithal/desire to engage much in society or out & about, but the lil birdie on my shoulder goes: "Aw, go ahead now, just do it"...