Music out of place

[vaneramos]

My upstairs neighbour only ever watches action movies, the kind where everyone gets blown to bits. As I was passing his door just now, I heard a familiar orchestral strain, and paused, enthralled. It was Wagner's magical prelude to Das Rheingold, a simple rising liquid motif, incessantly repeating and gathering strength like sunlight on the waters of the Rhein. I'm not a particular fan of Wagner, but love the orchestral interludes from The Ring of the Nibelung ("Ride of the Valkyries" being the most famous). This prelude is generally not performed apart from the whole bombastic opera. I stood transfixed in the dark hallway as the episode approached its climax, but instead it died away, giving away to inane dialogue, breaking the spell.

In other musical trivia, this afternoon I heard a choral ensemble performing "I wanna hold your hand" in German, in the style of the father of Lieder. It was awfully convincing, right down to the puttering piano accompaniment. Come to think of it, didn't Schubert really write that? After 500 songs, it's hard to keep them all straight.

Comments

[paulintoronto.livejournal.com]

On August 31, my friend Guy, aka parisianbear, will perform Shubert's Winterreise cycle in London, Ontario. My partner, Bob, aka bobalone, will read translations of the Muller texts, created by me. I realize that Guelph is a ways from London, but I thought I'd mention it, just in case you were interested.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I am interested. I doubt that I can attend, but will you tell me when and where, just in case?

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Sorry to be a nitpicker, but you punched wone of my buttons. When you say Götterdämmerung above I assume you mean the whole Ring -- the Ride of the Valkyries, for instance, is from Die Walküre.

I heard a choral ensemble performing "I wanna hold your hand" in German, in the style of the father of Lieder.

I think I would have found that extremely weird.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I was referring to the entire Ring. What exactly are you nitpicking about?

[rsc.livejournal.com]

This:

love the orchestral interludes from Die Götterdämmerung ("Ride of the Valkyries" being the most famous).

I can't read this as not implying that "Ride of the Valkyries" is from Götterdämmerung.

I see you've corrected two other nits that I didn't bother to pick the first time (the gender and spelling of Götterdämmerung), but while I'm being pedantic I'll point out that the title actually doesn't contain an article at all.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Blarg, I finally get your point. Sorry. I don't know why I was applying Götterdämmerung to the whole Ring. I haven't listened to much Wagner for a long while. I don't have time to edit this right now, but at least you have corrected my brain.

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

My parents owned an album, long ago, called something like "The Baroque Beatles." I don't know whether it contained Beatles tunes done in Baroque style, or traced the Baroque origins of styles the Beatles had played in, or what ... and I know I played it once or twice as a kid, but it was over my head and now I can't recall what I heard.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

It was probably Beatles crossover, done in Baroque style. Most likely performed by a string quartet; I seem to remember that. It was innovative at the time. Now we have crossover music out the wazoo. It's usually disingenuous, bland and annoying. But whoever wrote the particular arrangement I heard yesterday was a genious.