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There is so much in this essay. So rich and thoughtful. I have myself been doing a piece on song and how it helps us access the angels of our better natures. For a long time, I have been fascinated, for example, in the history of the Civil War ballad, Loreena and how it was blamed by one Confederate general for the loss of the war. It is one of my fondest memories, the playing of this for Bhaskar at a seminar at the Institute in London. I have also been doing some work on war and song and contrasting Kubrick and Loach's approaches as shown in Kubrick's Paths of Glory and Loach's Days of Hope. comradely Gary On Mon, Sep 7, 2015 at 4:11 AM, Hans G Ehrbar via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > > Rob Kapilow is a famous conductor, composer, and popularizer > of classical music. His NPR series "what makes it great" > explains specific pieces by Mozart, Beehoven, et al, to a > broad audience. This email here is a comment about > Kapilow's interpretation of Beethoven's Sonata for violin > and piano No 9 Op 47, also called the Kreutzer Sonata. > > > http://www.npr.org/2009/10/14/113764595/beethovens-kreutzer-sonata-connections > > If you follow this link (which is from 2009), you can read: > > > The violin plays the opening in a major key, and then the > > piano reinvents it in a minor key. But what really > > interests Beethoven, Kapilow explains, is how the idea > > ends "with three repeated notes and a resolution down a > > half-step. Just this tiny little fragment. And he starts > > working with it, seeing what he can invent out of it, > > trying it again in the violin and in the piano, always > > three repeated notes, and down." > > > After a bit, Beethoven whittles the idea down even > > further, fiddling just with the half step, taking it both > > up and down. > > In the associated podcast Kapilow speaks this same text in > words while playing Beethoven's motifs on the piano. The > listener can verify that this is what Beethoven is doing, > and better appreciate the beauty of the music because > Kapilow has made some of the structure explicit which makes > the music beautiful. The half note interval at the very end > of the introductory passage is so-to-say the atom, the > building block, from which the entire sonata is assembled. > > > Then Kapilow compares the composer's disassembling and > re-assembling of a musical theme with the creation of the > universe. This is where he goes too far. Instead of > interpreting Beethoven, Kapilow uses Beethoven's authority > to promote a mistaken world view, namely downward > reductionism. It is simply not true that a look at the > atoms puts us into the center of the universe, as Kapilow > says. > > Kapilow explains to the listener, correctly, how Beethoven > is looking for connections between his atomic musical > themes. But Kapilow himself does not give these connections > the ontological priority which they deserve. On the > contrary, he brings the following example (not on the > website itself but this is the podcast at 4:12): > > > It is kind of like, (inaudible) Palestinians and Israelis, > > but Beethoven is always saying, if you look deeper, they > > are just both people. If you go down to the subatomic > > level, we are all E and F. And once we realize what we are at > > base, we can make connections that no one would never had > > made before. > > This passage has it all backwards. Kapilow does not acknowledge > how connected everybody living on this planet is and how > dependent we are on each other. The connections which he > implores the individuals to establish already exist. The > connection is primary, not the atomization. Kapilow does > not see that the atomized interactions between individuals > is an artefact of capitalism. The capitalists are > connected alright but they are pitting the working class > individuals against each other. Instead of seeing that > society consists of connections, and that we have to change > the social structure in which we are embedded in order to > tear down the walls of the open air prison that is > Palestine, Kapilow thinks that society is made up of atomized > individuals and that these individuals must remember that > the individuals on the other side of the wall are human > beings too, in order for this wall to topple. > > Kapilow is preaching all this to the choir in a very literal > sense, namely, to musicians who have devoted their lives to > touching strangers on a deep emotional level, and their > audiences. Those moved by and interested in Beethoven > usually do not have to be told about the humanity that > connects us all, they listen to Beethoven because they long > to experience this bond. The admonition to recognize our > joint humanity can therefore not be directed at the > listeners of Kapilow's podcast. There is no need for these > listeners to act. This absence is the last thing I would > like to mention in this essay. > > Hans G Ehrbar > > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/gary.maclennan1%40gmail.com > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
