by Kenneth Woods | Jan 10, 2007 | A view from the podium, Mahler
Finally, on to the emotional heart of the cycle, “Wenn dein Mutterlein.” If the text of the second song is the most intense, the music of this song is probably the most overtly funereal. Mahler even marks the tempo as schwer (heavy) and dumpf (dull or muffled). If...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 10, 2007 | A view from the podium, Favorite posts, Mahler, Nuts and bolts
Music, even vocal music, is ultimately an abstract art form. Musical ideas, even those attached to words, are inherently abstract. Nevertheless, we all find ourselves searching for the meaning of musical ideas. Wagner went so far as to assign meanings to themes...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 9, 2007 | A view from the podium, Mahler, Nuts and bolts
There are some pieces of music which are widely misunderstood because they’re too popular. I had a “teacher” in grad school who taught the History of Opera course who thought Puccini was an idiot because he was popular, and that we should all be listening to Pfitzner...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 7, 2007 | A view from the podium
Good news, and not surprising to me at all, from Alex Ross. The internet can solve one of the great problems of the classical recording industry- classical buyers tend to graze in larger pasteurs than pop fans. The gap between the best and the worst selling discs is...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 7, 2007 | A view from the podium, Mahler
On to the second song now, and back into the capable hands of Mitch Friedfeld. From a purely subjective point of view, I find this is in many ways the most anguished of all the songs. This poem contains the most intense imagery and the most stylized and heightened use...
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