Heavenly music

Dear reader,

I rarely hear "pure" classical music. I do listen to a lot of soundtracks. Soundtracks speak to more, because good soundtracks tell a story of their own even without the pictures.

Year ago, I became again interested in magic and found Derren Brown. In his stage show "Something Wicked This Way Comes", the second act starts with him getting a woman from the audience on stage, sitting her across from him at a table, signing a brick of wood for her and then hammering a nail in his nose, well the nose hole. To finish, he hammers the nail in the brick (perfectly timed with the playing music) and hands the brick to her as a present. All of that is with almost no words, he only whispers when she should hold the nail and when he asks for her name to sign the brick for her. This is accompanied by Beethoven's fifth piano concerto, in english areas also known as "The Emperor". It is a strange thing to see someone hammering a nail in the nose, although I'm well aware that this act is not a trick, but really possible. Those of you, who can't see that sort of thing, should just click on the video to start it and look away or close your eyes. Everyone else can, of course, also close your eyes and just enjoy the music. The piece itself is the second of three and about 9 minutes long. Those of you who want to listen to the whole piano concerto and haven't yet, be warned: the transition from the second to the third part is very instant and very loud.

The second part is, not least because of Derren Brown, my favourite part. Although it doesn't hurt trained people to hammer a nail in the nose, it still has become the essence of relaxation and especially analgesia for me.

You have been warned, Derren Brown hammers a nail in his nose in this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNbnuZR2wd4

I heard the second, in my opinion divine, piece, in the movie "Master & Commander". A crew is sailing around on a ship. The captain enjoys playing the violin and the doctor plays the cello. Preferably, and much to the dislike of the rest of the crew, they play classical pieces. This is why there are at least some excerpts f those classical pieces on the CD of the soundtrack, too. An ingenious movie with the combination classical pieces with the captain and the doctor, by the way. Normally the two of them play always together. So all pieces are for violin and cello. The only exception is when they stop at the galapagos islands, to treat the injured doctor and give him a rest. On the island, on land and among many interesting new animals, he is in his element. That's the only moment, when you can hear a piece for solo cello, namely Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007.

My favourite piece however can be heard when they sadly have to abandon a sailor, a cut version (of about 16 minutes cut down to about 5 minutes) of "Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis" by Ralph Vaughun Williams. It's a bit complicated, I know. Thomas Tallis lived about 1500 until 1580-ish and has composed a hymn. Vaughun Williams was born about 1890-ish and died in 1960-ish. He was very interested in english folk songs and was inspired by Tallis' hymn. Vaughun Williams composed his wonderful piece in 1910, in which it was also performed for the first time in the Gloucester Cathedral. The special thing about it is, that the musicians are not all sitting together. some of them are sitting in a smaller ensemble somewhat apart. Vaughun Williams did that for the sound effect. In the link, which I'll give you in a bit, which by the way is also Gloucester Cathedral, the group is sitting, like they were in the premiere, so the spacial arrangement can be seen. I find it unbelievably exciting to hear the high strings at the beginning playing their melody and the low strings replying with the strings being plucked. The strings need quite some time, until they find to each other and really play together.

I'm not a music theorist. Others could tell much more about that piece. If you're interested, you'll certainly read up about it. I was lucky and found a very insightful audio sort of documentarydiscussion on the internet. It is about 45 minutes long. Let me know, if you want to listen to it. This should be it with explanations today.

Here it is now, the heavenly "Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis" by Ralph Vaughun Williams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihx5LCF1yJY

With this I wish you all a heavenly christmas!

If you like, you can post your own favourite classical music in the comments,

Until next blog,
sarah