Kevin's Watch

Now that Foul has these pieces (performed by Perlman), I figured it's time to give them a thread. My Senior Project for my BA was a 30-page paper on this stuff. I won't get into that much depth now.

Atiaran's voice enthralled him. No instruments aided her singing, but before she had finished her first line, he knew she did not need them. The clean thread of her melody was tapestried with unexpected resonances, implied harmonies, echoes of silent voices, so that on every rising motif she seemed about to expand into three or four singers, throats separate and unanimous in the song.

SRD surely knew Bach's music for unaccompalied violin, because this is a perfect description of them. With one violin, showing an absolute understanding of its capabilities, Bach wrote music that cannot be believed, no matter how many times you hear it.

The key is these "implied harmonies" and "echoes of silent voices." The violin CAN'T play four different notes at once, much less four voices' worth of melody & harmonies. So Bach wrote in such a way that, even when one voice must drop out, for the sake of another voice, we "hear" what the silent voice would be playing.

The most extreme examples are in the three fugues that are in this collection. To understand what a feat this is, you should read my post in Foul's "The Art of Fugue" thread. After you've tried to wrap your brain around that, try to imagine such a thing being done on ONE VIOLIN!!!! Genius beyond anything I'll ever imagine.

One of the great - GREAT - movements of these pieces is the monstrous chaccone in D-minor. For something like 12-15 minutes, a harmonic pattern of several measures is repeated, over and over, while the way this pattern is manifested changes and changes and changes. And talk about implied harmonies!!, the whole thing ends on one note!! But what your mind hears.....

Sounds like something I should definately listen, too, Fist.

Fist , I love the way you said that. I am a "by ear" musician, and the only musical education I have had is what I have picked up from other musicians and others like you and things you just wrote. Your post is melodic in content and I can "hear" what you are saying. It is lovely. I understand completely without knowing how to respond in appropriate words. Beautiful.

Thanks, Cate. I hope I've inspired you to buy this music!! All recordings of it are two-disc sets. The two I recommend most, Perlman and Mintz, are both available at mid-price. Usually about $20 last I saw.

Can't go wrong with Perlman. But you just know I'm going to bring up Arthur Grumiaux's name. His version is available at midprice as well, on the Phillips label (438 736-2). So there.

Although I have no problem believing Grumiaux's recording is superb, I haven't heard it. But for midprice, maybe I should add it to my collection. There's an empty space there now.

Matrixman wrote:Can't go wrong with Perlman. But you just know I'm going to bring up Arthur Grumiaux's name. His version is available at midprice as well, on the Phillips label (438 736-2). So there.

That's the one I picked up. Listened to it this morning. Wanted to thank Fisty for pointing this music out to me.

Very nice, duchess. I hope the music (and the music-making) pleases you. And thanks indeed to Fist for bringing up this great work of Bach's.

Excellent, duchess! Have a blast!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaah, Bach

Wow, it's been almost a year since I've had these Perlman CDs! They're a true treasure, Fist--and a deep one! Every time I listen, I feel like I'm only skimming the surface, despite hearing them many times.

Lord Foul wrote:Wow, it's been almost a year since I've had these Perlman CDs!

It took me about that long to get to the post office and send them to you!

So any parts particularly stand out for you?

I dunno, really; there's so much quality in each; I guess I'd go for the first track, where the violin kind of just erupts out from nothingness into beautiful sound, like a bird taking off into flight--or something.

Yeah, I understand the difficulty. Out of the, what, 30-ish movements, if pressed, I could probably narrow it down to my favorite 27.

I really love the sound of violin music, well alot of string music to be honest, what CD's would you recommend from say... Amazon.com? I did a search for "Perlman", but am still not too sure what im looking at. Consider me "a totally uneducated symphony/whatever lover".

Hey lhaughlhann! The recording I sent to Foul is this:
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000002 ... 59-7955806
I said above that it was mid-priced, but I see I was wrong. No idea why I thought it was mid.

The other one I mentioned IS mid-priced:
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/ ... =classical
That's the one I first heard, and still rate as good as any.

The one Matrixman and duchess are talking about is here:
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/ ... =classical
I'd be surprised if Grumiaux ever recorded a bad note in his life, so even though I've never heard it, I'm sure it's a safe bet. If you read all of these classical threads, you know that MM takes music seriously, and knows what he's talking about.

Gosh, what nice words...er, I'm just doing my part to contribute to the discussion of all things classical, as there is next to zero discussion of it in my real life.

Yeah, I'm serious about my music listening (whether classical or any other kind), but I really don't know a whole lotta classical works. Enough to get me into trouble, not enough to get me out.

Thanks Fist, certainly going to check them out!