Оглавление
Alex Ross. Listen to This
CONTENTS
PREFACE
1 LISTEN TO THIS CROSSING THE BORDER FROM CLASSICAL TO POP
2 CHACONA, LAMENTO, WALKING BLUES BASS LINES OF MUSIC HISTORY
FOLK LAMENT
THE ART OF MELANCHOLY
OPERA
FRENCH AND ENGLISH CHACONNES
CIACCONA IN D MINOR
ROMANTIC VARIATIONS
THE LIGETI LAMENTO
THE BLUES
3 INFERNAL MACHINES HOW RECORDINGS CHANGED MUSIC
4 THE STORM OF STYLE MOZART’S GOLDEN MEAN
5 ORBITING RADIOHEAD’S GRAND TOUR
6 THE ANTI-MAESTRO ESA-PEKKA SALONEN AT THE LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC
7 GREAT SOUL SEARCHING FOR SCHUBERT
8 EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPES BJÖRK’S SAGA
9 SYMPHONY OF MILLIONS CLASSICAL MUSIC IN CHINA
10 SONG OF THE EARTH THE ARCTIC SOUND OF JOHN LUTHER ADAMS
11 VERDI’S GRIP OPERA AS POPULAR ART
12 ALMOST FAMOUS ON THE ROAD WITH THE ST. LAWRENCE QUARTET
13 EDGES OF POP KIKI AND HERB, CECIL TAYLOR AND SONIC YOUTH, SINATRA, KURT COBAIN
SONIC YOUTH AND CECIL TAYLOR, 1998
FRANK SINATRA, 1998
KURT COBAIN, 1994
14 LEARNING THE SCORE THE CRISIS IN MUSIC EDUCATION
15 VOICE OF THE CENTURY MARIAN ANDERSON
16 THE MUSIC MOUNTAIN INSIDE THE MARLBORO RETREAT
17 I SAW THE LIGHT FOLLOWING BOB DYLAN
18 FERVOR REMEMBERING LORRAINE HUNT LIEBERSON
19 BLESSED ARE THE SAD LATE BRAHMS
NOTES. PREFACE
1. LISTEN TO THIS
2. CHACONA, LAMENTO, WALKING BLUES
3. INFERNAL MACHINES
4. THE STORM OF STYLE
5. ORBITING
6. THE ANTI-MAESTRO
7. GREAT SOUL
8. EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPES
9. SYMPHONY OF MILLIONS
10. SONG OF THE EARTH
11. VERDI’s GRIP
12. ALMOST FAMOUS
13. EDGES OF POP
14. LEARNING THE SCORE
15. VOICE OF THE CENTURY
16. THE MUSIC MOUNTAIN
17. I SAW THE LIGHT
18. FERVOR
19. BLESSED ARE THE SAD
SUGGESTED LISTENING
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
WHERE TO LISTEN
COPYRIGHT
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
Отрывок из книги
Listen To This
ALEX ROSS
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The ostinato in Zefiro torna exudes a giddy, carefree air. The one in Lamento della ninfa is different. First, obsessive repetition focuses and magnifies the melancholy affect of the stepwise descent. Indeed, as the musicologist Ellen Rosand maintains, this work made the association almost official; the falling motif became an “emblem of lament,” one that composers employed consciously, with reference to Monteverdi’s model. Second, the ostinato has a symbolic function, carrying a tinge of psychological compulsion. The voice keeps tugging against the bass line, pushing upward, stretching its phrases beyond the two-bar unit, giving rise to dissonant clashes, breaking down into chromatic steps. The implacability of the bass suggests that these attempts at escape are in vain. Instead, the piece ends in a mood of shattered acquiescence, as the voice subsides to the note from which it began. Even so, there is no denying the seduction of repetition, the psychic pull of the circling motion. The ceremony of lament interrupts the ordinary passage of time, and therefore, paradoxically, holds mortality at bay.
In the early seventeenth century, opera spread across Italy, becoming more of a commercial entertainment in the process. In 1637, one year before Monteverdi published Lamento della ninfa, a touring troupe brought opera to the republic of Venice. The season took place during Carnival, the time of dissolution and self-reinvention. Opera was reborn as a many-layered, stylistically ravenous form, combining lyric tragedy with lewd comedy—the musical counterpart of the high-low drama of Shakespeare and Lope de Vega. Mythological subjects took on a modern edge; castrato singers flamboyantly restyled classical heroes; star divas enacted scenes of madness and lament; and a diverse public showed lusty approval. For the remainder of the century, up to five theaters were operating in Venice at one time, drawing an audience that included not only the upper crust but also courtesans, tourists, well-born students, and a smattering of ordinary people. In Ellen Rosand’s words, “opera as we know it assumed its definitive identity.”
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