So many great choices, even the dodgy penalty aria by Ronaldo... This next one is from the opera Tristan and Isolde by Wagner. not an aria, but PaddyP17 will be able to explain the significance of the 'Tristan Chord' to western music. For me this piece of music is heaven. Written by a C_ _ t... https://youtu.be/fktwPGCR7Yw
What a piece of music this is. For me though, I always go to the Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin. Shame that such a massive wanker wrote such beautiful stuff:
As for the Tristan chord - what a phenomenon that is. I can't give a quick summary without missing lots and lots of interesting stuff out - I wish I could, but it's such a significant step in how harmony came to be approached and understood that it necessitates article-length analysis at the least. I'll try and sum up the key points though.
It's not an unusual chord, but the context in which it is placed makes it special. Basically, those four notes come out of nowhere. The musical movement leading up to it is fairly harmonically conventional, and then BAM the Tristan chord comes in. There's no real relationship to what preceded it, and the dramatic pause after the chord emphasises the fact.
Music theorists loved it. It effectively opened the gateway to atonality - which means music without a set key, effectively, and no identifiable harmonic base. Pierrot Lunaire by Schoenberg is a good example.
Hope I've done a decent enough job there, but the Wikipedia article is much more informative.
You did a much better job then i could ever do. I have played the prelude's piano version a few times (badly)and to me it feels like the sequence is constantly teasing you with possible endings but keep stretching on and on (rather like waiting for Leaburne to score) until the wonderful climax...
So many great choices, even the dodgy penalty aria by Ronaldo... This next one is from the opera Tristan and Isolde by Wagner. not an aria, but PaddyP17 will be able to explain the significance of the 'Tristan Chord' to western music. For me this piece of music is heaven. Written by a C_ _ t... https://youtu.be/fktwPGCR7Yw
What a piece of music this is. For me though, I always go to the Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin. Shame that such a massive wanker wrote such beautiful stuff:
As for the Tristan chord - what a phenomenon that is. I can't give a quick summary without missing lots and lots of interesting stuff out - I wish I could, but it's such a significant step in how harmony came to be approached and understood that it necessitates article-length analysis at the least. I'll try and sum up the key points though.
It's not an unusual chord, but the context in which it is placed makes it special. Basically, those four notes come out of nowhere. The musical movement leading up to it is fairly harmonically conventional, and then BAM the Tristan chord comes in. There's no real relationship to what preceded it, and the dramatic pause after the chord emphasises the fact.
Music theorists loved it. It effectively opened the gateway to atonality - which means music without a set key, effectively, and no identifiable harmonic base. Pierrot Lunaire by Schoenberg is a good example.
Hope I've done a decent enough job there, but the Wikipedia article is much more informative.
You did a much better job then i could ever do. I have played the prelude's piano version a few times (badly)and to me it feels like the sequence is constantly teasing you with possible endings but keep stretching on and on (rather like waiting for Leaburne to score) until the wonderful climax...
The sexual metaphor is absolutely legit here btw. (Also, teeheehee innuendo)
Wagner's contemporaries in Paris almost ubiquitously described his music as lustful, or otherworldly, or tempting - whether it was good or bad though is down to opinion and how socially conservative or liberal you were.
The likes of Auguste de Gasperini's response to Tristan und Isolde, for instance, is almost Puritanical - the harmony and music is almost immoral. It's literally not been heard before - to use Lohengrin (different piece, sorry) as an example, the high tessitura, lack of bass, and descent through alto/tenor to bass as a slow burn is really novel. My notes read as follows:
- Chromaticism is perhaps the reasoning behind the unease.
- Sensual female? As it works on a male listener. So he’s afraid of being “un-manned” and invaded by unhealthily chromatic music.
- He’s not alone with chromaticism being this bad thing though. 19th century belief system: we have to understand it, if not agree with it.
- Gautier’s quote: “Genius is a despot” and all.
Whereas writers and creatives lauded the music: Baudelaire waxes about the "creative dream" and the sublime.
To be Wagnerian in 19th Century Paris was either an insult or a badge of honour, depending on who called you it - but there was no middle ground!
Funnily three of my favourites have all come from BBC / ITV intros for their World Cup coverage...
Unfortunately they're going a bit too modern these days yet one of the highlights from the Euros and World Cup was seeing what piece they'd come out with
Japan / South Korea 2002 World Cup - "One Fine Day" - OperaBabes (ITV)
Referee! A whole chorus in a thread about arias? Come on... I was pushing it with a duet.
True Algarve but I don’t know any Arias and desperately wanted to let everyone know how cultured I am.
Fuck that... I make a point of dressing up the same for the concert hall as I would going to the pub. I even clapped between movements once or twice (and I'm super cultured). Opera was and is for the people. It's full of beautiful filth and we need to reclaim it the way we so successfully did with porn on the interweb. 'YES WE CAN' !!!
Flower Duet but also Barcarolle from Tales of Hoffman ever since saw the Italian film Life is Beautiful about the child in the concentration camp. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u0M4CMq7uI
Comments
Wagner's contemporaries in Paris almost ubiquitously described his music as lustful, or otherworldly, or tempting - whether it was good or bad though is down to opinion and how socially conservative or liberal you were.
The likes of Auguste de Gasperini's response to Tristan und Isolde, for instance, is almost Puritanical - the harmony and music is almost immoral. It's literally not been heard before - to use Lohengrin (different piece, sorry) as an example, the high tessitura, lack of bass, and descent through alto/tenor to bass as a slow burn is really novel. My notes read as follows:
- Chromaticism is perhaps the reasoning behind the unease.
- Sensual female? As it works on a male listener. So he’s afraid of being “un-manned” and invaded by unhealthily chromatic music.
- He’s not alone with chromaticism being this bad thing though. 19th century belief system: we have to understand it, if not agree with it.
- Gautier’s quote: “Genius is a despot” and all.
Whereas writers and creatives lauded the music: Baudelaire waxes about the "creative dream" and the sublime.
To be Wagnerian in 19th Century Paris was either an insult or a badge of honour, depending on who called you it - but there was no middle ground!
Unfortunately they're going a bit too modern these days yet one of the highlights from the Euros and World Cup was seeing what piece they'd come out with
Japan / South Korea 2002 World Cup - "One Fine Day" - OperaBabes (ITV)
France '98 - "Pavane" - Gabriel Faure
And of course; Italia 90 - "Nessun Dorma"
Carl Orff (side) or Summertime by Gershwin.
I make a point of dressing up the same for the concert hall as I would going to the pub. I even clapped between movements once or twice (and I'm super cultured). Opera was and is for the people. It's full of beautiful filth and we need to reclaim it the way we so successfully did with porn on the interweb. 'YES WE CAN' !!!