davide lorenzato

Note e struttura terziaria

D., Friday 28 November 2008, 11:46 | Thoughts, remarks, aphorisms | 0 Commenti

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Prassi: vai col lissio

D., Thursday 27 November 2008, 8:27 | Thoughts, remarks, aphorisms | 0 Commenti

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italiano.

Musicisti “sui genesis”

D., Wednesday 26 November 2008, 7:49 | Thoughts, remarks, aphorisms | 3 Commenti

From a dense forest of tall, dark, pinewood,
Mount Ida rises like an island.
Within a hidden cave, nymphs had kept a child;
Hermaphroditus, son of gods, so afraid of their love.

As the dawn creeps up the sky
The hunter caught sight of a doe.
In desire for conquest,
He found himself, within a glade he’d not beheld before.
Hermaphroditus: Narrator:
“Where are you my father “Then he could go no farther
Give wisdom to your son” Now lost, the boy was guided
by the sun”

And as his strength began to fail
He saw a shimmering lake.
A shadow in the dark green depths
Distrubed the strange tranquility.
Salmacis: Narrator:
“The waters are disturbed “The waters are disturbed
Some creature has been stirred” The naiad queen Salmacis
has been stirred”

As he rushed to quench his thirst,
A fountain spring appeared before him
And as his heated breath brushed through the cool mist,
A liquid voice called “Son of gods, drink from my spring”.

The water tasted strangely sweet.
Behind him the voice called again.
He turned and saw her, in a cloak of mist alone
And as he gazed, her eyes were filled with the darkness of the lake.
Salmacis: Narrator:
“We shall be one “She wanted them as one
We shall be joined as one” Yet he had no desire to be one”

Hermaphroditus: “Away from me cold-blooded woman
Your thirst is not mine”
Salmacis: “Nothing will cause us to part
Hear me O gods”

Unearthly calm descended from ther sky
And then their flesh and bones were strangely merged
Forever to be joined as one.

The creature crawled into the lake
A fading voice was heard:
“And I beg, that all who touch this spring
May share my fate”
Salmacis: Narrator:
“We are the one “The two are now made one,
We are the one”. Demi-god and nymph are now made one”

Both had given everything they had.
A lover’s dream had been fulfilled at last,
Forever still beneath the lake.

La biblioteca musicale di Babele

D., Tuesday 25 November 2008, 7:59 | Thoughts, remarks, aphorisms | 0 Commenti

Today you can find soo many music scoores on line, that you feel you should learn all of them: only ten years ago the “must” was only to study the scores you had at home.
You feel yourself, as you were in the Borges’ Babel Library.
In this babel music box you risk to loose your head if you’re not able to satisfy yourself…

While Henry Hamilton-Smythe minor (8) was playing croquet with Cynthia Jane De Blaise-William (9), sweet-smiling Cynthia raised her mallet high and gracefully removed Henry’s head. Two weeks later, in Henry’s nursery, she discovered his treasured musical box. Eagerly she opened it and as “Old King Cole” began to play, a small spirit- figure appeared. Henry had returned – but not for long, for as he stood in the room his body began ageing rapidly, leaving a child’s mind inside. A lifetime’s desires surged through him. Unfortunately the attempt to persuade Cynthia Jane to fulfill his romantic desire led his nurse to the nursery to investigate the noise. Instinctively Nanny hurled the musical box at the bearded child, destroying both.

Play me Old King Cole
That I may join with you,
All your hearts now seem so far from me
It hardly seems to matter now.

And the nurse will tell you lies
Of a kingdom beyond the skies.
But I am lost within this half-world,
It hardly seems to matter now.

Play me my song.
Here it comes again.
Play me my song.
Here it comes again.

Just a little bit,
Just a little bit more time,
Time left to live out my life.

Play me my song.
Here it comes again.
Play me my song.
Here it comes again.

Old King Cole was a merry old soul,
And a merry old soul was he.
So he called for his pipe,
And he called for his bowl,
And he called for his fiddlers three.

But the clock, tick-tock,
On the mantlepiece -
And I want, and I feel, and I know, and I touch,
Her warmth…

She’s a lady, she’s got time,
Brush back your hair,
And let me get to know your face.
She’s a lady, she is mine.
Brush back your hair,
And let me get to know your flesh.

I’ve been waiting here for so long
And all this time has passed me by
It doesn’t seem to matter now
You stand there with your fixed expression
Casting doubt on all I have to say.
Why don’t you touch me, touch me,
Why don’t you touch me, touch me,
Touch me now, now, now, now, now…

Feynman, novità e rito

D., Monday 24 November 2008, 8:28 | Thoughts, remarks, aphorisms | 0 Commenti

To be able to teach so as Feynman did, would be my dream. To prepare lessons that give always something new to the beginners and to the experts at the same time, in an always rising knowledge whirl is THE right way of teaching.
I try to do it when I teach music, no idea if I’m really able…

Le papesse Giovanna d’oggi

D., Sunday 23 November 2008, 7:39 | Thoughts, remarks, aphorisms | 0 Commenti

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Scopri il Bruckner che c’è in Haydn

D., Saturday 22 November 2008, 8:25 | Articoli di Prassi esecutiva, Thoughts, remarks, aphorisms | 0 Commenti

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italiano.

J.S.B., più umano più vero…

D., Friday 21 November 2008, 9:14 | Thoughts, remarks, aphorisms | 0 Commenti

Let’s speak Bach with his “Erbauliche Gedanken eines Tobacksrauchers”

Each time I take my pipe’n tobacco
With goodly wad filled to the brim
For fun and passing time with pleasure,
It brings to me a thought so grim
And adds as well this doctrine fair:
That I’m to it quite similar.

The pipe is born of clay terrestrial,
Of this I am as well conceived.
Ah, one day I’ll become earth also—
It falls and breaks, before ye know’t,
And often cracks within my hand:
My destiny is much the same.

The pipe our wont is not to color,
It’s always white. And thus I think
That I as well one day while dying
In flesh at least shall grow as pale.
But in the tomb my body will
Be black like it when used at length.

When now the pipe is lit and burning,
We witness how within a trice
The smoke into thin air doth vanish,
Nought but the ashes then are left.
And thus is mankind’s fame consumed,
Its body, too, in dust assumed.

How oft it happens when we’re smoking
That, when the tamper’s not at hand,
We use our finger for this service.
Me thinks, then, when I have been burned:
Oh, if these cinders cause such pain,
How hot indeed will hell yet be?

I can amidst such formulations
With my tobacco ev’rytime
Such practical ideas ponder.
I’ll smoke therefore contentedly
On land, at sea and in my house
My little pipe adoringly.
(J.S.Bach)

So do Italian people “smoke on the water”

Bach il burlone

D., Thursday 20 November 2008, 9:37 | Articoli di Prassi esecutiva, Thoughts, remarks, aphorisms, musica | 0 Commenti

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italiano.

Beethoven, sinfonie trascritte per pf: Liszt vs Singer

D., Wednesday 19 November 2008, 8:12 | Analysis, Articoli di Prassi esecutiva | 0 Commenti

Some ideas after the collation and comparison of some piano reductions of Symphonies by Beethoven.

This is the first article of the project I was writing about in the article “Piano arrangements from 19th century and interpretation”.

When we compare the piano “arrangements” of the Beethoven’s symphonies by Franz Liszt (Breitkopf & Haertel, Leipzig 1840 and Haslinger, Wien, 1840: I didn’t notice differences between these edition and those by Breitkopf 1871 and the Durand 9618-20 (1919) I’ve got) and Otto Singer (Peters, 1905), we notice first of all two different purposes.
Both of them were very good pianists, but whereas Singer tries to semplify the orchestral score so much as possible, just to show what the melodies and harmonies are, Liszt wonts to realise with the piano his own idea of the Beethoven’s symphonies.
The Singer’s “arrangement” is a tipical good piano reduction of an orchestral score.
The Liszt’s “arrangement” is the re-composition of the musical idea of a symphony.
If we want to play a concertpeace, we’ll play for sure the Liszt’s one.
But if we want to study Beethoven’s composition we will find there too much Liszt’s and it will be much better to use Singer’s trascriptions.

The only changes Singer makes are the tipical “piano translations” of tremoli, pizzicati, timpani’s rolls: it is always possible to understand what was written in the orchestral score or even to complete it. The notes are easy to play and it is possible to understand all phrases and melodie’s movements.

Liszt never changes the original structures (it’s transcriptions and not “phantasies on themes from…” we’re speaking about), dinamics or harmonies (exept for timpani’s rolls, where he decided often to change the position of the chord to give a better effect of the timpanis: with the old pianos it was the best solution, today the effect is too noisy). And you must be really a good pianist to make music from these arrangements…
His main variations to the original are (I don’t mention the tipical variations of piano reductions, but only the ones that are “altering” the original idea by Beethoven):
- Alteration of notes (ex: S1 I b.126; S2 IV b.145; S4 I b.289; S5 IV b.705)
- triplets instead of semiquavers (ex: S1 I b.95, 198, 285; S3 I b.440, )
- arpeggios instead of semiquavers (ex: S1 I b.138),
- addition of octaves up and down (ex: S5 IV b.702, 705)
[For barnumbers see the last articles of this blog; you can find all the scores I'm speaking about at Beethoven's works].

When I’ll find the time, I’ll write something about the collation of the fourhand piano transriptions (reductions, adaptations, settings, arrangements…) of the same symphonies by Hugo Ulrich (Peters 6312, year 1880), Czerny (Richault 2066, year 1836) e Scharwenka (Universal 970, year 1905)

If you find errors in this article or you know other websites in which it is possible to find informations like these (maybe for others composers or compositions too), please leave a comment! For instance, all the dictionaries are not clear about the difference in English between piano transriptions, reductions, adaptations, settings, arrangements…

Davide