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In the Forum: Musical Discussions
In the Thread: Surprising: the most interesting composer of 20 century.
Post Subject: I'll try..Posted by op.9 on: 1/23/2008
Well, I found Janacek strange and unfathomable. I was brought up on
Haydn-Beethoven-Schubert-Brahms-(Mahler)-Schoenberg route... so I had no
entering point for Janacek. I also loved Dvorák and Smetana... but this
was no help either.. (its only now I can see the connection)
So, luckily I had an 'in at the deep end' experience with the 2nd
quartet 'intimate letters' . You simply cant miss what this piece has
to say. And I was with it - completely. but it went against all the
'logical understanding' I knew. Rhetoric is turned on its head! Repetition and obsession have different
or even opposite meanings from the classical tradition. And there is no
preparation for this. You either get it or not. Same as much (serious)
new music written since 1980?
I had to throw out all sorts of
preconceived ideas about how music actually works. Since then I've
gradually tried to re-rationalise some of it... not always very
successfully. To me, Janacek is like a compilation of all those 'special
Mozart phrases' where he sums up the universe with a moment of genius.
Nothing is unimportant - everything is chocked with meaning. We can
easily get side tracked by the folky nature of it all - nothing really
fundamentally to do with it...
any use?
op.9
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