#Symphony No. 1 in C minor

[falseandrealultravival]

Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68, 4th movement

Herbert von Karajan, Berliner Philharmoniker

In a classical music book I read before, I came across a description that Mendelssohn was not as good as Mozart, Bruckner was not as good as Bach, and Brahms was not as good as Beethoven. I thought it was something like that, but I have a little objection about the last Brahms.

If you listen to the sound honestly, no matter how you listen to it, Beethoven is not as good as Brahms. Beethoven's sound is "too made" and "too theatrical". Goethe, a contemporary, commented on Beethoven's music as "too exaggerated." If you listen to Beethoven's music from such a point of view, even one! There is nothing that can be called a masterpiece.

On the other hand, Brahms was greatly intimidated by Beethoven and was unable to write a symphony, but when he did write it, the 4th movement of Symphony No. 1 was extremely moving. It is somewhat redundant, poisoned by Beethoven's thesis of emotional repression and release. However, I think Brahms is several orders of magnitude better than Beethoven even if it is subtracted. To begin with, Brahms is very honest in his sound creation. He is better at that than Beethoven, who overworks his work.

Babylman

ブラームス交響曲第一番ハ短調作品６８、４楽章

以前読んだ、クラシック音楽の本で、メンデルスゾーンはモーツァルトに及ばず、ブルックナーはバッハに及ばず、ブラームスはベートーヴェンに及ばず・・・と言った記述に出会った。そんなものかとも思ったが、最後のブラームスについては、ちょっと異論がある。

素直に音を聴いてみると、どう聴いても、ベートーヴェンはブラームスに及ばない。ベートーヴェンの音は、「作り過ぎていて」「芝居掛かり過ぎている」。同時代のゲーテは、ベートーヴェンの音楽を「大袈裟すぎる」と寸評した。そういった観点からベートーヴェンの曲を聴くと、一曲も！名曲と呼べるものはない。

一方、ブラームスは、おおいにベートーヴェンに威圧され、なかなか交響曲を書けなかったが、いざ書いてみると、交響曲第1番４楽章など、きわめて感動的ではないか。感情の抑圧と解放といった、ベートーヴェンのテーゼに毒され、幾分冗長ではあるが、それを差し引いても、ブラームスのほうがベートーヴェンより数段優れていると考える。そもそも、ブラームスは、音作りが大変素直である。手を加えすぎるベートーヴェンより、その点でも優れている。

[pepperacity]

"Why are you such a thorn in my side?"

Princess Rose on AO3

(Sorry for the spoilers lol, this won't happen until much later 💀)

[mikrokosmos]

Mozart - Masterpost

For his birthday today (1/27) I compiled all of the blog posts I've written about his music over the years on this blog. There's so much more to write about for a composer with as significant an output as Wolfgang...I hope you enjoy anything you haven't heard yet!

Opera

Abduction from the Seraglio

Masses

Requiem in d minor

Symphonies

Symphony no.25 in g minor

Symphony no.36 in C Major, “Linz”

Symphony no.38 in D Major, “Prague”

Symphony no.41 in C Major, “Jupiter”

Concertos

Piano Concerto no.15 in Bb Major

Piano Concerto no.20 in d minor

Piano Concerto no.24 in c minor

Piano Concerto no.25 in C Major

Violin Concerto no.1 in Bb Major

Violin Concerto no.3 in G Major, “Strasbourg”

Violin Concerto no.5 in A Major “Turkish”

Clarinet Concerto in A Major

Double Concerto for Flute and Harp in C Major

Horn Concerto no.1 in D Major

Piano

Adagio in b minor

Piano Sonata no.8 in a minor

Piano Sonata no.11 in A Major

Piano Sonata no.18 in D Major, “The Hunt"

Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major

Sonata for Piano, Four Hands in F Major

Chamber Music

Clarinet Quintet in A Major

Clarinet Trio in Eb Major, “Kegelstatt”

String Quintet no.1 in Bb Major

String Quintet no.2 in c minor

String Quintet no.4 in g minor

String Quintet no.6 in Eb Major

Piano Quartet no.1 in g minor

Piano Quartet no.2 in Eb Major

Serenade no.10 in Bb Major, “Gran Partita

Divertimento for 2 Horns and String Quartet, “A Musical Joke"

Violin Sonata no.21 in e minor

Misc.

17 Church Sonatas

[estcaligo]

Made this list while I was in the mood

Classical music pieces that I associate with twst characters

* these pieces are available to listen to on youtube. Perhaps I will make a video with them one day. But I doubt it. * I apologize for any mistakes, it was a lot of information to digest * updated because I forgot to add Presto for Malleus, sorry!

Malleus - Vivaldi - The Four Seasons - "Summer" - 1 Allegro Non Molto and 3 Presto (I mean of course these ones. Add evil overblot laugh here too.) ok also Schubert - Erlkönig (The Elf King), D. 328

Sebek - Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 2, The Montagues and Capulets "Dance of the Knights" (it's just him. period.) or Rachmaninov - Musical Moment No.4 in E minor or Rachmaninov - Prelude in C Sharp Minor (Rachmaninov for Sebek in general lol)

Silver - Grieg - Peer Gynt, Suite no. 1 "Morning mood" or Debussy - Clair de lune (from "Suite bergamasque") (Yes, basic, but it fits so so much so)

Lilia - Chopin - Fantaisie impromptu in C-Sharp minor, Op. 66 (first notes - Lilia's evil grin, then whimsical nature and the whirl of memories of countries he has been to. When it goes hard, it's cooking, some violence, and then when it gets gentle, it's when he remembers Silver's childhood. Then he softens in general but also reminds us about his playful nature and strong character.)

Idia - Vivaldi - The Four Seasons - "Winter" - 1 Allegro Non Molto (resembles how Idia speaks when he's getting confident and how his character, in general, opens up. And kinda gives me his genius vibes)

Ortho - Graun - Gigue in B-Flat minor (sounds like super-fast calculation is going on. But also, some notes sound like random signals and/or signs of creativity/sudden thoughts in AI) also Chopin - Etude Op. 10 No. 5 (Black Keys)

*Erik Satie for Octa in general. Gives me mysterious underwater vibes*

Azul - Satie - Gnossienne No. 1 and Gymnopedie no.1 also kinda Chopin - Nocturne Op. 9 No. 1 (pondering, deep in thought, underwater, calculating, but also melancholic…)

Jade - Satie - Gnossienne No.3 (such big Jade vibes)

Floyd - Liszt - Mephisto Waltz No. 1 (hehe)

Leona - Haydn - Symphony No. 49 in F minor ' La Passione ' (it's long, but it's worth listening. I just imagine Leona's character and lore in general here)

Jack - Händel - Suite no. 11 in D minor. Sarabande (not really sure about this one. But it gives me 'strength and determination and values' vibes today)

Ruggie - Mozart - Symphony No. 40 in G minor, IV. Allegro assai (reminds me how he can adapt and be different if needed. Also, it sounds quite boisterous, like Ruggie is going fast, fast, fast and earning a lot, lot, lot!)

Kalim - Mozart - The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492: Overture (specifically wanting to throwa feast)

Jamil - Chopin - Waltz in E minor, Op. Posth. (he's so skillful and makes it look like he's not even trying, but he's super hardworking. Also, some parts sound like his occasional emotional outbursts) also - Chopin - Prelude in E Minor (I can't explain it, but it's just Jamil for me. I feel so sorry for him - he's such a cool and talented (and handsome) guy, and such destiny mgd. Or maybe I'm just in a melancholic mood today)

Vil - Vivaldi - The Four Seasons - “Spring” - 1 Allegro (won't be original meh. like there're so many classical pieces that fit Vil but I don't really wanna bother here so)

Rook - Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro: "Non più andrai, farfallone amoroso" (instrumental) (ookay it was hard with Rook because I think a lot fits him but I'll stop with this one or I'll never finish this list)

Epel - Litvinovsky - Pelléas and Mélisande: III. Galliard. Navire dans la tempête (Galliard. Ship in a storm) (unrelated but my life is divided into before seeing Epel in Book 7 dreams and after)

Riddle - Beethoven - Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 I. Allegro con brio (duh. basic but c'mon. it suits him)

Ace - Litvinovsky - Suite for Strings "Le Grand Cahier": IV. Nos Etudes (yes that's how I feel Ace)

Deuce - Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a: March of the Toy Soldiers (Deuce the honour student edition)

Cater - Beethoven : Sonatina in F Major plus "a glimpse of a depressed real Cater" one - Chopin - Mazurka in A minor, Op.17, No.4

Trey - Beethoven - Sonata No. 8 in C Minor Pathetique, Op. 13 (Adagio cantabile) (I tried to find someting "normal" meh so went with this today)

Special mentions

Rollo - Mozart - Requiem, 3 Dies Irae Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565 Orff - Carmina Burana: Fortuna imperatrix mundi. O fortuna (super super obvious but c'mon it's basically canon)

Baul - Wagner - Ride of the Valkyries (ya Baul has big Wagner vibes for me)

Grim - Edvard Grieg – In the Hall of the Mountain King (the escalation lol)

[tacoteddy22]

Love Drug

Chapter 1 - Let's get started

Pairing: Sylus x fem!OC

Featuring: Zayne, Luke & Kieran

Words: 1,344

Summary: The twins get hurt and go to the ER to be treated by Dr. Valerie Tatsu and she is not intimidated by Sylus at all as he tries to hide his own injury

A/N: OMG first fic. These two have been brewing in my head for a long time. Some real fun stuff is to come :)

C/W: medical talk, some talk of blood and wounds, very minor - I am not a doctor.

Four more hours to go. Four hours and this shift from hell would be over and Valerie could crawl into bed to sleep until the end of time. She closed her eyes and listened to the symphony of the ER - the beeping monitors and the whoosh of a curtain being pulled, the quiet murmur of voices interrupted by a cry or a laugh. She looked around, noted each patient and ran through the mental checklist of each one.

Bed 1: 37 year old female with minor leg lacerations - waiting on sutures.

Bed 2: 14 year old male with a dislocated knee from a fall - ortho consult was called and should be there soon.

Bed 3: 67 year old male with complaint of chest pain- cardio is talking to him about the surgery needed to repair the damage done from a heart attack.

“Dr. Tatsu, two more incoming in the bay, looks like a broken leg from the Wanderer attack.” A friendly voice pulled Val from her thoughts and she focused on the nurse speaking to her. “The other is his twin. No visible injury, but they have a sensory link so he is feeling his brother's pain.”

“Thank you, Judy. Let’s get another bed in the room so they can be together.” Val pulled her long, golden brown hair from her ponytail and quickly retied it up into a bun. She cracked her neck from side to side and stretched her back out, her body sore from being pushed hard for so long today. Early that morning clusters of Wanderers had popped up all over Linkon City and the emergency department of Akso Hospital was packed with victims of the attack. The number of victims arriving had slowed significantly, but there were still patients to be seen that hadn’t been involved in the attacks.

Val took a deep breath and headed over to the ambulance bay to wait for the arriving rig. The patient was a young male, 19 years old. Compound fracture of the left femur. Injured in the Wanderer attack near the N109 Zone. His twin brother was in pain from the sensory link they shared. The ambulance pulled up and paramedics pulled the patients out as they rattled of vitals and what they had done for them in the field. Both had been given pain medication and mild sedation to keep them from worsening the injury and pain management. 

“Kieran, Luke, you’re at Akso Hospital. We’re going to take very good care of you.” Valerie grabbed one of the young men’s hand as she walked in with the rest of the medical team. They quickly moved the patients to the hospital bed and began their examination.

“Let’s get ortho back down here and go ahead and book an OR.”

“Judy, grab cardio from Bed 3! He’s forming some bruising around the chest that they should look at.”

“They are both stable. Let’s keep them comfortable with .2mg of morphine.”

Now that the men were stable, Valerie let the resident doctors and the nurses finish and she turned to the man that came in with him. He was a very tall, brooding man with silver hair and red eyes. He remained calm as he stood with his hands in his pockets observing each person with a lethal calm. His sharp features looked like they were cut from marble and he gave off a 'don't fuck with me' kind of attitude. Valerie approached him without hesitation to find out more about what happened and who her patients were.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Tatsu. I'm overseeing their medical care in the ER today. Are Luke and Kieran your… brothers?” Valerie looked up at him and waited for a response. He raked his eyes over her and wore an expression Val couldn’t quite read. Boredom? Annoyance? Was he trying to intimidate her?

“I’m their employer.” He said smoothly. Despite the lack of emotion in his words, his rich deep voice surrounded her like mist.

“Employer, right. What’s your name? Can you tell me more about their sensory connection, how deep does it go?” Valerie looked the man in the eyes waiting for a response.

“Sylus Qin. Their sensory connection is deep. They can see, feel, hear everything the other does. They can speak telepathically as well," he spoke tightly. He still hadn’t moved from the same spot. If he hadn’t been speaking, one might think he was a statue, maybe he really was cut from marble.

“Thank you, Mr. Qin. I’ll make sure the surgeons know to put Luke under anesthesia as well. Kieran will obviously need surgery to repair his bone and close the skin and there will be quite a bit of recovery time as well. But we can review that with you -” The curtain was pulled back and Dr. Li came in.

“Zayne, I didn’t expect you to come down for a consult. Good of you to come visit us in the trenches!” Val greeted the cardio surgeon warmly and ran through her concerns.

“It has been some time since I've been down here. I agree with your assessment on the bruising. He has an irregular heartbeat and he’s short of breath even under sedation. I’m going to have him put on a heart monitor and I’ll join Dr. Preston in surgery to monitor while under anesthesia,” Dr. Li stated cooly.

"That's great, thank you." Val thanked Zayne as he left and she offered a seat to Sylus.

"Mr. Qin, the nurses will show you to the waiting room while they are in surgery, but you can wait here for now," she gestured to one of the chairs next to Luke's bed. Sylus stared at her and shook his head.

"No, I'll stay standing." His voice sounded strained.

Val cocked her head and looked at Sylus curiously, "This attack was outside the N109 zone, yeah? I don't recall the Association report showing the clusters were very far outside the city center. And the Wanderers that showed up were pretty low level. Nothing large or powerful enough to crack a femur." She slowly stepped towards him as she mused out loud. She was standing before him looking up at him. Fuck, he was tall. And beautiful.

He bent his head down with an amused smirk on his face and stared into her green eyes. "What exactly are you getting at, doctor?"

"I guess this is my way of deducing that the twins weren't the only ones hurt today. You haven't moved since you came in, your voice is strained, your skin looks clammy. What happened?" Val waited patiently for him to answer. They stared each other down for a several seconds before he finally spoke.

"My arm. One of them managed to leave a gash before the twins took it down." He said with clear pain in his voice. He pulled out his arm and she winced at the large wound on his right forearm and grabbed a towel to put pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding.

"Oof that is nasty. It doesn’t look too deep, but its already showing signs of infection. I am going to go grab a suture kit. Sit. I'll be right back," she cringed as she inspected the wound further then turned on her heel and left the room, leaving no room for argument let alone a response.

Sylus shook his head and sat in the chair she had commanded he sit in. No one had commanded him to do anything and survived since... well, he didn't like to think about that – about her – anymore. He glanced over at Luke and Kieran. They were sleeping peacefully and guilt panged in his gut. He shouldn't have been out with them so long, they should have gone back to rest. He pushed forward and got Kieran hurt in the process, his own injuries served as punishment for his actions. He took a deep breath and steeled himself once more as Val came back in the room with the supplies need to stitch up his arm.

"Alright, let's get started."

[yuzurujenn]

[2025.02] Echoes of Life 'THE BOOK' - Yuzuru Hanyu x Kiyozuka Shinya Discussion

[The Sensitivity Emanating from the Music Selection]

— The Piano Collection was simply amazing!

Hanyu: Regarding the Piano Collection, from the very beginning I wanted to make this part a philosophical chapter. We discussed whether that would mean skating to classical music in the context of figure skating. Then the two of us really put our heads together and thought hard about how to select the music.

Kiyozuka: So basically, the goal was to express the essence of figure skating, that very abstract and artistic quality, without relying on a storyline, right? But honestly, when I first heard the concept, I thought to myself, “Does that mean you're going to be on the ice the whole time?!” At first I felt like I couldn’t even understand what he was saying anymore...

Hanyu: What I said back then was basically, “Yes, stay on the ice the whole time” (laughs).

Kiyozuka: I understood what he meant literally, but it just didn’t feel like something a real human could actually do. I was honestly thinking, “Did I misunderstand something here?” (laughs)

Hanyu: What I was aiming for wasn’t something emotional or story-driven, but rather a straightforward connection between piano and skating. I told him from the start, “Yeah, it really has to be piano music.”

Kiyozuka: That's right. We didn’t just want this to resonate with fans and the general audience. Our goal was for even those well-versed in classical music to find the program convincing. So we had some really intense discussions about the music choices. In a way, this whole concept brought back memories of when we were still competing—as if we were back in our days as performers and competitors.

— How were these five pieces of music chosen?

Kiyozuka: At first, we listed out a lot of pieces.

Hanyu: How many were there? Must have been more than a dozen, right?

Kiyozuka: Since we weren’t sure which piece would ultimately be the most fitting, we included some slower, more gentle ones as well. For example, Rachmaninoff’s Prelude. As for Brahms, we eventually used 118-3 (Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 118: No. 3 in G minor, Ballade: Allegro energico), but the preceding piece—118-2 (No. 2 in A major, Intermezzo)—which is very famous and beautiful, was also on the list. When I saw the selections Yuzu-chan ended up making, I instantly understood: “Ah, so this is the direction we’re going in.”

— How did you feel when you saw the pieces Hanyu selected?

Kiyozuka: Many of the pieces Yuzu-chan chose this time were in C minor, which made me think of fate and destiny. C minor is a key often used by composers to express turning points in life, like Beethoven’s Fate Symphony, and it usually conveys a heavier, more serious tone. It matched our theme perfectly, and I was honestly amazed at Yuzu-chan’s keen sensitivity in choosing that key.

Hanyu: To be honest, I had no technical knowledge of that. I chose the pieces purely based on feeling. The imagery in my mind and the ideas I wanted to express naturally led me to these works. And as it turns out, there’s even a narration that says,, “Play the sound of your fate,” so in the end, the selections really were quite fitting.

Kiyozuka: The five pieces we chose span over a century, from Bach to Brahms. We agonized over how to order them, like, should it be chronological, or something else? After much thought, we decided to end with a Chopin piece, to mirror Ballade no. 1. I recommended Op. 25 No. 12 in C minor (Ocean), since it's the final piece in Chopin’s set of 24 Études. But in the end, Yuzu-chan chose Op. 10 No. 4 in C-sharp minor (Torrent) to close. When I finally saw the actual performance, I realized it was the best choice. If we had connected it with Op. 25 No. 12 (Ocean), it would have felt too heavy. And if that piece had ended the set, it would’ve felt too complete, making Ballade no. 1 seem unnecessary. Yuzu-chan seemed to see right through that, and in that moment, his sensibility amazed me once again.

Hanyu: We thought about it together for a long time. I even considered whether it might be better to choose earlier-period pieces to better connect with Chopin, or maybe to not include Chopin at all. But in the end, these five pieces felt like the most perfect match in my heart, so I went with them. I was really worried about switching the order of the fourth and fifth pieces, wondering if that might feel awkward to classical music professionals, or if it might come across as disrespectful. I asked Kiyo-chan repeatedly if it would be okay, and when he assured me it was fine, I fully trusted him and made the final decision. That’s how this chapter, including Ballade no. 1, came together.

Experiencing Each Other’s Technical Extremes

— What adjustments did you make when performing the five piano pieces in Echoes, Kiyozuka-san?

Kiyozuka: After hearing the overall concept and flow of Echoes, I felt it truly reflected the poetic, literary, and philosophical qualities that Yuzu-chan often shows when he speaks. It was wonderful. But for this particular section, rather than aiming to move people with emotion, it felt more like a restrained, almost inorganic expression, as if it were showcasing Yuzu-chan’s technical precision, like a cog in the machinery of figure skating itself. So instead of adding indulgent, personal touches, I decided to present the classical pieces in their pure, orthodox form. That’s exactly what piano competitions are about: faithfully interpreting the composer’s intent, not overemphasizing personal flair. So I thought, “Wow, this is basically a piano competition!” (laughs) I paid special attention to playing in a very academic and classical style. Thinking back, this may have been the first time we’ve really tackled something in this style together.

Hanyu: Normally, it’s good to play with emotion. But for this Piano Collection, I asked Kiyo-chan to set aside some of the expressive instincts he had honed as a professional. I knew that “letting go” like that was a tough ask in itself. When you’re playing, it’s natural to want to pour your emotions into it, and I have that urge too. In the end, Kiyo-chan recorded about three different versions of each piece and sent them to me. The versions I chose were the ones with the least emotional interpretation.

Kiyozuka: Yuzu-chan definitely picked the versions that were closer to the orthodox style.

— What did you think when you saw Echoes of Life?

Kiyozuka: To be blunt, I'm just in awe. Even though I had played the music and had a general idea of what the performance might be like, when I actually saw it... what was happening in front of my eyes felt almost unreal. I mean, he just stayed on the ice the whole time and never left it! Right?

Hanyu: (bursts out laughing)

Kiyozuka: Even though I had a general idea of what was coming, seeing the sheer force and raw authenticity he brought to the performance still felt unbelievable. Of course, I’m sure the audience was deeply moved too, but I had been listening and watching from the earliest planning stages. And yet, what unfolded before me instantly brought back memories of Yuzu-chan at a certain moment, and I suddenly realized, “So this is what you’ve been trying to do all along…” That realization brought me to the verge of tears. I’m sure Yuzu-chan knew he was about to face an enormous challenge, but when he spoke to me, he never showed it. He spoke with courage, calmly and sincerely. Honestly, I think he must have been really scared too.

Hanyu: I just kept thinking, as long as I have Shinya Kiyozuka’s piano with me, I’ll be okay. Really.

Kiyozuka: I'm really happy to hear that, of course. But truthfully, I was overwhelmed with all the emotions and intentions Yuzu-chan had poured into it. So many feelings welled up in me. And honestly, I was completely blown away by him. That he had this side to him, the ability to conceive and perform such a philosophically rich story, hit me like a revelation. Or maybe it was more like I was suddenly reminded, "Ah, that’s right, he��is someone with such immense technical power." He threw that truth right in front of me, clearly and strongly.

Hanyu: It’s exactly what I told Kiyo-chan when I asked him to play! I know Kiyo-chan’s pieces have been used in TV dramas, collaborations with pop music, and many other places, but here what I wanted was to show everyone, “This is Shinya Kiyozuka, and this is how incredibly he plays." I think both I and the audience feel that “Shinya Kiyozuka is really good at playing classical music—”

Kiyozuka: Yuzu-chan told me before that he absolutely had to show how he’s grown since transitioning from athlete to professional. And I was thinking, “Wow, Yuzuru Hanyu really never lets up.” I admired that and told him so. Then he goes, “So Kiyo-chan, you have to do the same too~” And I thought, “Oh no, here we go again!” (laughs)

Hanyu: I said, “Yuzuru Hanyu will go all out in training and execute every technique with full intensity, so I hope Kiyozuka will also perform with the same strong energy. I'm counting on you.” Even though it was a really busy time for him with his own concert tour, he still practiced so hard.

Kiyozuka: Oh man, you’re not kidding. Even though I was super busy, I practiced every night until the early hours of the morning. But looking back, I’m genuinely grateful. Having a friend like Yuzuru Hanyu by my side, someone who never lets me slack off, that means the world to me. During that time, I practiced intensely and, as a result, I regained a lot of my technique. My coordination between mind and fingers improved so much.

Memories of Meeting, and Where We Are Now

— You first collaborated on “Haru yo, Koi” at Fantasy on Ice in June 2018, correct?

Hanyu: You played Haru yo, Koi really fast back then! I remember thinking, “Wait a second, Kiyozuka-san, this piece is supposed to be 2 minutes and 50 seconds, why did it end in 2 minutes and 30? That’s way too fast, slow down!” But then for the final show, you stretched it by about 30 seconds. (laughs)

Kiyozuka: I just wanted to savor the piece a little more toward the end! (laughs)

Hanyu: I was thinking, “For the last spin, how many turns should I make?!” (laughs)

Kiyozuka: One thing that really surprised me when we were working on Haru yo, Koi was the music arrangement process. I had assumed that I’d be the one making about 90% of the decisions regarding how the music would be cut and pieced together, but I was completely wrong. He said to me, “I want the sound here to feel like you just turned around and discovered a whole new world.” I was like, “Wait... am I talking to a musician or a producer right now?” That really stunned me at first. And what’s more, his ideas were incredibly precise.

Hanyu: Even though Haru yo, Koi wasn’t a piece composed entirely from scratch for me, it was the first time a song had been newly arranged specifically for me. So I had a particularly strong attachment to it, and all sorts of ideas like “I want it to be like this here” or “I want that part to be like that” just came pouring out. It was through this kind of back-and-forth exchange that the two of us gradually became close…

Kiyozuka: Exactly. The friendship between me and Yuzu-chan was built through our collaboration and shared sense of artistry.  We’re not the kind of friends who have to tiptoe around each other or say polite things just for the sake of it. I really like that about our relationship.

The Short Program "Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso" (2021–2022 Season)

— The arrangement and performance of “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso” for the 2021–2022 short program were also done by Kiyozuka-san, correct?

Hanyu: From the very beginning, I had my heart set on expressing Rondo through piano. At that point, I had already mentally prepared myself that it was going to be my final piece, my last program as a competitive skater. So I only wanted Kiyozuka to play it.

Kiyozuka: That makes me so happy... At that time, Yuzu-chan had a kind of seriousness and self-discipline that was very different from now. It was a state that appeared gentle and calm on the outside, but inside, his passion was fiercely burning.

Hanyu: It was like I was in a rush to die.

Kiyozuka: Yeah, I think Yuzu-chan really was in that mental state back then… That intense discipline he had, just being near him made me feel like I could be swept up in it too. It gave me this feeling of awe, like I was in the presence of something sacred. I can still feel that sense even now. I wanted to reflect that feeling in Rondo. He told me from the start that it was probably going to be his last short program of his competitive career. Even though the piece originally had some brighter parts, I ended up removing all of them.

Hanyu: You really did remove them all.

Kiyozuka: Lately, I feel that since turning professional, Yuzu-chan has begun taking on roles as a creator and director, expressing his entire worldview through his own words. This version of Yuzu-chan brings not only me, but also the audience and fans, closer to his heart.

Hanyu: Yeah, I think it’s only recently. Through RE_PRAY, I started to truly feel how precious it is to be supported and the warmth of being in a live setting, and I think my heart has gradually opened up. Because all this time, I’ve been fighting and always felt I couldn’t rely on that kind of warmth. I always thought that if I did, I wouldn’t be able to create good work. But now, including this side of myself, I’ve become able to rely on Kiyo-chan more.

Kiyozuka: Yuzu-chan shares his ideas with me and sometimes he’ll even sends videos of his practice sessions, saying, “It’s not finished yet, but this is kind of the feeling I’m going for.” I just want to take this chance to brag to all the fans a little~

Hanyu: (big laugh)

Kiyozuka: I’m the only one who’s seen those videos, hehe! You know… I’ve been watching him work so hard all this time, and although it sounds a bit strange to say, when I go to watch the performances and see the audience cheering and crying around me, I think, “You have no idea how hard this guy had to work to get here.” His effort, his determination, and how gentle and considerate he is to the staff even before stepping onto the battlefield — that figure looks truly noble. It’s a feeling more sacred than loneliness; it’s nobility. Like a lone swan quietly floating on a still lake. It looks so sacred, yet you can’t help but worry if it’s cold or lonely. As someone who has witnessed his growth, I wonder how much fear and resolve he carried standing there… So when I see the audience beside me crying and cheering for him, my feelings are all mixed up inside.

Hanyu: You probably see it that way because I’ve been sending you videos of myself training alone, even late at night. But I do feel that I’m changing bit by bit. The biggest change is that I’m starting to learn how to rely on the people around me. I’m realizing more and more that I can’t create truly great things on my own. It’s precisely because I call myself a professional figure skater that I’ve come to understand more than ever that without the help of other professionals, I can’t create something truly professional. So, I’ll be bothering you again in the future, please take care of me!

Kiyozuka: Right after this interview, I’ll go straight to practice! (laughs)

Indeed, in recent years, from the expression he has at the end of his performances and what he says to his fans, I feel that he has become a warmer Yuzu-chan, which gives me a sense of comfort. Also, watching his performance this time, I noticed his hand movements have become especially elegant. Although he has always paid great attention to his hands, now his hands move in harmony with the rest of his body. He fully controls every detail of his body for expression and has perfect command over his body in his performance. People used to say he was someone who could “perfectly synchronize with music.” But thinking about it now, being in sync with music is still moving to “match” the music. Now, though, it doesn’t feel like he’s matching anything. Rather, the grace just flows naturally from within him. It’s no longer “choreography” or “musicality," but it’s gradually becoming Yuzuru Hanyu’s own form of expression. That touches me deeply. Lately, I’ve been moved by him more than ever before…

Hanyu: Thank you. So, how would you rate my “musical interpretation” this time?

Kiyozuka: 25,000 points.

Hanyu: That’s too much! The full score is only 10! (laughs)

Source: Source: https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309405174507181834385

[cloudwritesblockblorbos]

MY SMALLETHO ORCHESTRA AU IS HERE!!! I've been working on this for ages and I'm so so excited to share it, this is some of my best writing I think :D

symphony no. 5 in C sharp minor: iv/adagietto (5655 words) by cloudwriting Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Hermitcraft SMP Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: EthosLab/Joel | SmallishBeans Characters: EthosLab, Joel | SmallishBeans, ZombieCleo, Welsknight, GeminiTay , Xisumavoid Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Orchestra, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Sleepy Kisses, Kissing, Light Angst, Fluff, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Joel | Smallishbeans plays double bass, EthosLab plays cello, Mentions of alcohol, some sexual references, Mentioned Lizzie | LDShadowLady (Video Blogging RPF), Not RPF, seriously I'm so proud of this, Enemies to Lovers, Joel | Smallishbeans POV Summary: Joel can't stand the orchestra's new cellist. As if some good-looking, sweetheart cello prodigy from Canada with a name like Etho deserves all the praise he gets. He hates him, and that's all there is to it. Until Etho starts playing. And then maybe Joel falls in love with him. Just a little bit. This loosely follows the structure of Mahler's 5th Symphony's 4th Movement; There’s tension, there’s quiet, there’s parts that feel like breathing quietly, parts that feel like waiting, parts that feel like being held. There’s uncertainty, fear, discord. And then the beautiful resolution; to the tonal centre, to home, and for Joel, that means; to Etho.

[cervviidae]

The song playing during this scene adds so many layers of tragedy, echoing the same heartache and beauty that accompanied the song that played during Hannibal's first visit to Will in prison at the end of season 1. It encapsulates the turmoil within Hannibal, the confluence of romance and despair once you grasp the depth of the deception. It’s both achingly sorrowful and profoundly lovely.

The notes are a honeyed trap, drawing them both into a moment of raw connection, each with their masks set aside, unguarded in the shared solitude of their company. Even though betrayal looms, the song suggests a fragile peace, like the tentative bloom of flowers in a desolate place, or the first gentle throb of a heart rediscovering safety. Hannibal feels an almost giddy relief, as if someone finally sees him for who he truly is, not banished or condemned, but understood.

The music stirs sensations akin to falling in love, its melancholic beauty carving a space in the heart where longing and tenderness coexist. Each note holds the pulse of an impossible hope, like the bittersweet awareness that even a fleeting connection can seem eternal when it fills a void so long ignored. Hannibal is a man who prides himself on seeing through facades, yet in this moment, he allows himself to believe in a lie, to trust the brief sanctuary of a kindred spirit. He lets himself feel, if only for an instant, what it's like to be loved. 🙁

[koshigurajumy]

Stanislav Bunin plays Rachmaninov - Piano Concert No.2 C-minor Op.18: 1. Moderato (1990) Conductor: Yuzo Toyama / 外山雄三 NHK Symphony Orchestra / NHK交響楽団

[bebop-station]

Shostakovich and Aziraphale

I was thinking (and talking to @balance-of-probability endlessly) about the choice to have Shostakovich's fifth symphony feature so heavily in S2 ep 1, and how it struck me as a little odd as there are a bunch of composers Aziraphale loves mentioned in the book and Shostakovich isn't amongst them.

Backstory: In 1934, Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtensk premiered to huge popular acclaim, which was very briskly walked back in 1936 after the Stalinist newspaper Pravda published an article denouncing it.

Actually more than denouncing it, condemning it. It wasn’t credited but was authored by a guy called David Zaslavsky who was almost definitely scribing for Stalin himself. Lady Macbeth was banned in the USSR until 1961.

Anyway by 1936 Shostakovich had written his fourth symphony, which he withdrew from public performance until 1961 because it was more of the same thing that had made the Soviet leadership cancel Lady Macbeth – it was unconventional, anti-patriotic, and indicated that Shostakovich was a “bourgeois formalist”.

So he shelved it and started working on Symphony No. 5 which is, on the surface at least, Soviet as fuck. And that’s what we hear Aziraphale listening to in S2E1.

(Sidebar this story is told in Julian Barnes’ The Noise of Time which is either a literary wank soup or a masterpiece depending on how cranky you are when you first read it)

So basically what Dmitri Shostakovich did in those years between the fourth and fifth symphonies was something that might be familiar to S2E6 enjoyers/agonisers: he decided to toe the party line.

Kind of.

Listening to the finale of the fifth symphony (and if you want to listen along it’s the recording of Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic, it’ll be called something like Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47; iv. Allegro non troppo) without the context of the rest of the symphony or in fact Shostakovich’s life is like ah yes that’s a bit of a Soviet battle anthem let’s march into Leningrad or whatever.

But it is, as critics have increasingly understood in the years since Shostakovich demurely described it as “a Soviet artist's no-nonsense response to fair criticism”, dripping with irony. This man reviled the Stalinist line on art and life – he takes the Soviet anthem and turns it into a sort of fucked up evil clown march. The whole thing gives me this vibe:

(gif from @goodomensedit)

There’s a lot of stuff about that time in Shostakovich’s life that is extremely hard to verify. There’s a “memoir” which is for sure at least partially fabricated called Testimony in which there’s an alleged quote from our man saying that final movement is a parody, that “it's as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying, "Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing", and you rise, shaky, and go marching off, muttering, "Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing"."

Whether or not Shostakovich said that (some of his friends who outlived him support that reading, including Rostropovich who conducted a bunch of his work) you can definitely hear it in the piece and you can definitely see how it gives us a clue into the decision Aziraphale makes at the end of the season.

What Shostakovich had to decide back in the 1930s was whether he would a) flee to somewhere like the US, where many other artists targeted by Stalin went; b) stay and become a public nuisance, leading almost definitely to an off-the-books execution; or c) become a party-approved Soviet Artist and hope for change. Even nudge it along in a subtle way. Even get on the inside and work to bring it down. We don’t know how true that was for old mate Dmitri and we don’t yet know exactly what Aziraphale has planned. But yeah:

tl;dr: Shostakovich 🤝 Aziraphale

          Staying inside a rancid and destructive militarised culture in the hope that it can change

[ikarasu]

🕊️Songbird🕊️

Romeo x Carlo x Reader

NS to the FW

Part 1: 🕊️Euphonious🕊️

Minors scram!

❤️~🕊️~👑~🐈‍⬛~🕊️~👑~🐈‍⬛~🕊️~👑~🐈‍⬛~❤️

❤️~🕊️~👑~🐈‍⬛~🕊️~👑~🐈‍⬛~🕊️~👑~🐈‍⬛~❤️

Warning: male x male penetration, threesome, and possibly female x male penetration, cum eating, and ass slapping

❤️~🕊️~👑~🐈‍⬛~🕊️~👑~🐈‍⬛~🕊️~👑~🐈‍⬛~❤️

“What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?”

Carlo approaches the two with a smirk on his face. Leaning down and grabbing (Name) by the ankles closer to him.

“Go on~ You were singing so beautifully for Romeo just a second ago, little songbird?”

He purrs against their ear before consuming their lips into a kiss. While Romeo’s hands ghost around their thighs. Keeping them nice and spreaded wide for Carlo. The two stare at each other before nodding and meeting in a kiss. Carlo pulls away first and slithers down (Name)’s body. Their hole is still dripping freshly with Romeo’s cum. The intense stare makes (Name) squirm, but Romeo’s grip keeps them spreaded.

“S-stop staring so much, y-you tease!” (Name) whines out helplessly

“Be nice, cantante. Carlo, was gracious enough to do patrols all by himself today. He deserves a reward, does he not?” Romeo nips at their neck to remind them of their place.

Carlo leans in and laps at their hole before they could respond. (Name) cries out and they squirm in Romeo’s hold. Biting their lip to muffle their moans causing them to receive a rough slap to the ass from Carlo. Those honeyed brown eyes staring them down. Almost challenging them to try staying quiet again. His tongue works more fervorously and Romeo smirks at the sight.

“Cantante, sing out his name~ you know how much it feeds his ego~” Romeo purrs into their near before giving it a light nip.

“C-Carlo! Please… I’m so close- ah!”

Carlo grunts his tongue swirls around and he slurps at their hole determined. His hands snake up to jerk off Romeo’s still sensitive cock. Forcing a choked out grunt to leave Romeo as (Name) is a moaning mess. The two come so close to their second release only for Carlo to pull back with his face covered in their shared juices. His eyes hungry as he stares at his two lovers quivering and panting.

“That’s for having fun without me” he says with a teasing smirk.

Carlo lifts up (Name) and places them on the bed. His hand ghosting along their spine earning a shiver from them. The plush of their ass slightly raised as they pant into a pillow.

*slap*

(Name) whines from the rough smack to their ass. Carlo smirks, watching a red impression of his hand print form. Leaning forward he grabs their hips before slowly sliding in. Ripping a loud moan from (Name)’s throat.

“That’s right, little songbird~ sing for me” he says before biting down on their shoulder and beginning to thrust.

“I think you forgot about someone” Romeo speaks up suddenly behind Carlo.

“I think the little cat has forgotten his place. What a bad kitty”

Romeo slides into Carlo from behind causing him to let out a strangled moan. The pace suddenly changed as Romeo began to thrust into Carlo. Making him thrust deeper into (Name). Romeo runs his hand into Carlo’s dark curls before tugging on it. He watches with a smirk as Carlo and (Name) moan at the fast rough pace he sets. Their hips slap together as the room heats up more. Carlo’s mind feels as if it’s melting from having his cock buried in a tight wet heat while being filled by Romeo. The three are left in a symphony of moans, grunts, and whimpers. They all cry out as they all come crashing down from their orgasms. Hot sweaty bodies are left tangled with each other as they all try to recollect themselves. Romeo is the first to remove himself from the two. Walking off to bring the two some water. Carlo stays tangled with (Name) pressing soft kisses along their spine. Coming back with the water, Romeo stares happily at the sight of his two lovers on the bed. He joins them after making sure they hydrate. Gently using a rag to clean them both up and pressing soft kisses along their skins. Eventually the three lay asleep on the bed embracing each other.

❤️~🕊️~👑~🐈‍⬛~🕊️~👑~🐈‍⬛~🕊️~👑~🐈‍⬛~❤️

Authors note: sorry for super slow update. Life has been life-ing and college is kicking my butt.

@sunflower-lilly ~ @mahirublue ~ @bbrendanlluv

[mikrokosmos]

The Gothic in Classical Music History (1760s-1920s)

Intro Back in high school I fell in love with two things; classical music, and Edgar Allan Poe. I’ve always loved Halloween, October, spooky things, ghost stories, horror and slasher movies, etc. And I always loved finding classical music that was also spooky, or dark, or evocative of the same eerie experience of a cold and foggy October day. Thinking about these memories made me want to put together a short list of Gothic Classical music.

But what do I mean? There is no true “Gothic music” as in a specific movement in classical history, because the traditional Gothic refers to literature. Not all art movements have corresponding trends in all mediums. Even so I thought it would be fun to say, if there was such a thing as Gothic music, what would that include?

18th Century

John Henry Fuseli - The Nightmare (1781)

Music of the 1760s-1790s, corresponding with the first wave of “Gothic Novels” in the English language. Some names in this era include Horace Walpole (The Castle of Otranto), Ann Radcliffe (The Mysteries of Udolpho, The Italian) and Charles Brockden Brown (Wieland). The closest we have to music of this same era would be in the Sturm und Drang style. Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) was used to describe music written in a minor key that was restless, agitated, intense, emotional, and more extreme than the typical expectations for restraint and lightness/clarity, music that aristocrats in powdered wigs and velvet and lace could relax with. Strong changes of emotion and more emphasis on subjectivity, reflected by sudden modulations and pulsing rhythms.

The most famous piece that I associate with Sturm und Drang is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “little” g minor Symphony no.25, K.183 (1773). It is famously used in the opening of Miloš Forman’s Amadeus (1984). It is a fun piece, and that opening movement is full of fire, and probably the young Mozart having fun (he wrote it at 17. If you ever want to lower your self esteem, look up what music Mozart wrote at your current age.). Another major work would be Joseph Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony no.45 (1772), written in the very unusual for the time key of f# minor. And of course, even though he comes later, anything Ludwig van Beethoven published in a minor key has a lot of muscular passion to it, and his early/classical era of the 1790s is no joke. Check out the final movements of his Piano Trio no.3 in c minor and his Piano Sonata no.1 in f minor, or his most famous early sonata, the Pathetique.

But if the Sturm und Drang style and Gothic genre also emphasize the disturbed and the psychological, we can include programmatic works that do the same. Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni (1788) has an incredible moment in the finale. The sociopathic hedonist is confronted by the ghost of the man he murdered in the first act, who possesses a statue and confronts Don Giovanni with his sins. Don Giovanni doesn’t repent, so he is dragged into hell with a chorus of demons. Always a good reminder that Mozart wasn’t the eternal child who wrote pretty melodies.

19th Century

Caspar David Friedrich - The Abbey in the Oakwood (1810)

Music of the early 19th century corresponds better with Gothic fiction because Romanticism in art brought greater interest in the supernatural, in the subjective, in emotional reactions to the universe… major names in fiction include the poetry of Lord Byron (Darkness), Mary Shelley (Frankenstein, The Last Man), and Sir Walter Scott (The Bride of Lammermoor). Greater emphasis is put on the anxiety of the unknown, supernatural fears beyond our control.

Of all Franz Schubert’s songs, Erlkönig (1815) best exemplifies the Gothic (and this is a bold claim because I only know about a fraction of Schubert’s extensive song output). In it, a father and son are riding on horseback. The son is sick with fever. As they ride, the son cries out that he can hear the Elf King calling out to him, some evil spirit or demon that wants to take the son’s life. The father tries to calm him down, but the Elf King gets closer and closer. By the time they reach home, the son has died. Was the Elf King real? Was the son hallucinating from fever? How literal should we take this text? The ambiguity of subjective experiences and how we interpret and understand reality is a major theme in Gothic fiction.

Many famous German operas lean into the supernatural and magical. In this period we get Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz (1821), considered to be the first Romantic opera. In it, our main character Max who needs to win a shooting contest so he can be allowed to marry his lover, Agathe. He is given a gun that can shoot magic bullets by another forrester Kaspar (who has his own plans). Kaspar tells Max to meet him in the “Wolf’s Glenn” in the woods at midnight for more magic bullets. In the Wolf’s Glenn, Kaspar calls for a spirit, the Black Huntsman Samiel, to help him curse the other characters, offering Max’s soul in exchange. Making deals with demons/the devil was another fascination in Romanticism.

Legends of a diabolical nature were springing around great musicians. At the end of the 1700s, Giuseppe Tartini wrote his most famous composition, the “Devil’s Trill” Violin Sonata in g minor which is full of virtuosic passages. Tartini claimed that the Devil appeared to him in a dream, and that he sold his soul in exchange for the Devil to be his servant. He handed the Devil his violin, and the Devil “…played with such great art and intelligence, as I had never even conceived in my boldest flights of fantasy. I felt enraptured, transported, enchanted: my breath failed me, and I awoke” Source

Similar stories came about with violinist Niccolò Paganini, who astonished the audiences of the early 19th century with his (for the time) otherworldly technique, dazzling them with scales and leaps and scratches the likes of which you can hear across his 24 Caprices for solo violin. A young Franz Liszt was at one of Paganini’s concerts and he was enthralled and inspired to become the “Paganini of the Piano”. He too would dazzle audiences with his percussive intensity, glittering arpeggios, and dreamy modulations to possess women with the spirits of hysteria and other dated misogynistic diseases. Cliche to say but before Bieber Fever, before Beatlemania, there was Lisztomania.

The sense of Faustian bargains comes through in the pieces Liszt wrote after Goethe’s Faust. The Faust Symphony (1857) includes a movement for Mephistopheles, the demon/ the Devil that bargains with Faust. The Mephistopheles movement has no original theme, but takes and corrupts the themes of Faust and his lover Gretchen into a mocking tone. Later on, Liszt was inspired to write a tone poem “The Dance in the Village Inn” or Mephisto Waltz no.1 (c.1862). He also wrote it for piano around the same time. The story has Mephistopheles taking Faust to a wedding in a village and playing the violin so madly, the partygoers are intoxicated by the music and go off dancing in the woods. Emotions taking over and making one act irrationally was another fascination in Gothic fiction.

Liszt would go on in his later years writing a few more Mephisto waltzes, with a lot of forward thinking harmonies and piano writing, unfortunately not as popular. Mephisto waltz no.2 (1881) has moments that make me think of Debussy, and the third (1883) has glittering and ethereal moments. But the best example of Liszt’s interest in the Gothic would be his earlier concert piece Totentanz (1949), or Dance of Death (Danse macabre). In it, the piano and orchestra play out variations on the Medieval chant Dies Irae, always reminding us of the inevitability of death. The variations depict skeletons dancing wildly all while the Mephistopheles at the piano unleashes his seductive tones.

The Dies Irae chant goes across our pop culture, with one famous iteration being a synthesized version of passages from Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique that Wendy Carlos wrote for Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) after Stephen King’s novel of the same name. And it was Berlioz’s symphony that enchanted audiences in 1830 with new, titanic sounds beyond what orchestra music had been before. In the story of the Symphonie fantastique, an artist has tried to overdose on opium after feeling rejected by unrequited love, but instead he has a vivid drug induced nightmare where he is sentenced to be beheaded via guillotine, which was still a traumatic living memory for the Parisian audience. He then sees himself among ghosts and monsters during a witches’ sabbath, the lovely woman’s beautiful theme is distorted into a grotesque mockery, the Dies Irae comes back among the cackling. It was a new degree of imagination expected from the audience. Later, Berlioz would depict demons in Pandæmonium (the Capital of Hell in Dante’s Inferno) at the end of his Damnation of Faust.

Through the mid to late 19th century we get authors of Gothic literature such as Edgar Allan Poe, Elizabeth Gaskell, Emily and Charlotte Brontë, Nathaniel Hawethorne, and Victor Hugo. We also get two more operas that have Gothic themes. First is Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman (1843). In this opera, a ship on the North Sea collides with the Ghost Ship of the Flying Dutchman who is cursed to sail the seas forever, but is allowed to come ashore once every seven years and if he can find a wife, he will be freed. I’m sure you can guess how this opera ends. The overture is often played in concert for a condensed version of Wagnarian thunder and romance. The next important opera is Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth (1847), because Shakespeare was being revived and translated in different languages across Europe and Verdi loved his plays. In the opera, Macbeth comes across a chorus of witches that foretell his success and downfall. He is too ambitious and goaded by Lady Macbeth, plans to take the throne through deception and murder. Lady Macbeth is later haunted with phantom blood on her hands which only she can see. And Macbeth succumbs to his inevitable fate.

We also get two significantly “Gothic” pieces of orchestra music. They are both tone poems, which also reflects the concert goers’ tastes. The one that has always been a quintessential “Halloween classical” piece is Camille Saint-Saens’ Danse Macabre (1875), opening at the stroke of midnight (softly evoked by the harp), a violin shrieks out the tritone (the “Devil’s interval” which the Romantics thought meant was cursed by the superstitious Medievals, really it was an idiom for “hard to use in music”) and introduces ballroom music along with the clacking bones of skeletons dancing in the graveyard (evoked by the xylophone). The skeletons dance through the night until the rooster crows at dawn.

The other great Halloween concert piece is Modest Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain (1867) which depicts another witches sabbath, this time on St. John’s Night, a major holiday in Slavic Eastern Orthodox culture. Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1940) would help bring this poem to life with an animated phantasmagoria of ghouls and skeletal horses and other demons flying around the mountainous demon Chernoberg.

[Here I want to give a quick shoutout to Cesar Franck’s Le Chasseur maudit (The Accursed Huntsman), a tone poem about a Count who doesn’t go to church one Sunday, and instead rides around to whip peasants for his own amusement, so demons drag him to hell. Not nearly as famous a concert piece as the others mentioned in this list but it has colorful orchestration so you should check it out.]

The initial idea for Fantasia was for Disney to repopularize Mickey Mouse by writing him into an animated version of Paul Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. The original poem by Goethe was a classic that Paul Dukas set to music in 1897. In it, we hear the Sorcerer leave his Apprentice to clean the floors of his workshop. The Apprentice uses magic to bring a broom to life so it can do the chores for him. The Broom mindlessly pours buckets of water all over the floor, and the Apprentice isn’t good enough with magic to stop it. He chops it up into pieces with an ax, but they regenerate into several brooms which go back to marching water in. The Sorcerer returns to clean the mess and scolds his Apprentice. This charming tale has a darker and more diabolically fun tone in Dukas orchestra.

20th Century

Harry Clarke - Illustration for "Masque of the Red Death" (1919)

In the same exact year of Dukas’ tone poem, we get Bram Stoker’s Dracula. At this turn of the century other major names include Gaston Luroux (The Phantom of the Opera), Robert Lewis Stevenson (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), Henry James (The Turn of the Screw), Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray). At this time, there are a few more pieces that continue trying to evoke Gothic subject matter. One comes from Gustav Mahler’s Symphony no.7 (1905), sometimes dubbed “Song of the Night”. Two of the symphonies five movements are titled “Nachtmusik” (night music), the first is more in line with Gothic anxiety and spookiness than the second which is more like a serenade. But the most Gothic movement is the Scherzo which sits in the middle of the symphony and is like a Viennese ballroom full of dancing corpses and skeletons as waltz music decays with them.

A surprising example (at least, because of how relatively obscure it is) comes from Claude Debussy with parts of an opera based on Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher that he worked on between 1908-1917. Not too much a surprise on the one hand because French translations of Poe’s work became popular and influential. On the other hand Debussy is more known for evocative sound pictures, unique musical colors, and subtlety. Perhaps he was drawn to symbolist and psychosexual interpretations of The House of Usher, the same interests that preoccupied him with his only finished opera Pelleas et Melisande. Roger Orledge reconstructed the opera and tried to stay true to Debussy’s style, so what we do have is passable and as shadowy and vague as his other orchestral masterpieces.

Maybe the hardest work to recommend (but I do recommend regardless, give it a chance) is a Modernist song cycle for chamber ensemble. Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire (1910) uses freely chromatic atonality to give a demented color of psychosis experienced by Pierrot, personified version of a stock character for old Commedia dell Arte plays, a clown who over time became the “sad clown”. Maybe a precursor to the demon from Stephen King’s It, or the demented clowns and jesters that laugh at the madness of the cosmos across Thomas Ligotti’s short stories.

This was only meant to be a small overview of works that could fit my own view of the Gothic in music. There are more examples I could include, so as a hint toward today, I’ll end with a piece that was written about a century ago, yet sounds as if it could have been written today. Henry Cowell’s The Banshee (1925) is a short piano piece, so if you can, at least listen to this one. Instead of playing with the keys like you’re “supposed to”, Cowell asks the performer to drag their fingers along the wires directly. This creates disturbing reverberations and scratching sounds that tingle the back of your neck, that feel like the otherworldly cry of a Banshee.

Happy Halloween.

[lesser-known-composers]

Eyvind Alnaes (1872–1932) - Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 7: I. Allegro patetico ·

Latvian National Symphony Orchestra · Terje Mikkelsen ·

[mozartbachtoven]

BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, November 19, 1824 (very approximately)

Beethoven presumably goes to Archduke Rudolph today as promised, and gives a composition lesson. To Beethoven's consternation, the Archduke, who has been without Beethoven's lessons for many months, wants to take advantage of his presence and have lessons every single day. Moreover, he wants these lessons to be two hours long each. Beethoven has little choice but to agree; he cannot afford to disappoint his most faithful patron. But as we shall see, Beethoven also will find excuses not to give these long lessons, possibly as soon as tomorrow.

Sometime about now, Beethoven begins using desk sketchbook Autograph 11/2. This sketchbook of 30 leaves is held by the Berlin Staatsbibliothek. This, together with Autograph 11/1 from 1816, with which it is today bound, was dubiously claimed by former unpaid assistant Anton Schindler as having been promised to him before Beethoven's death. It thus does not appear in the sale of Beethoven's effects for his estate.

This sketchbook was handmade by Beethoven from leftover paper, comprised of seven different paper types. It was held together by seven stitches. As Douglas Johnson notes, with such sketchbooks, there is always a possibility that some of the material already had sketches from Beethoven on them when it was stitched together, so chronology is far from certain. An example of this situation here is that there are 1823 sketches for the first movement of the Ninth Symphony on page 1r. Also, since the gatherings of paper are irregular, it is difficult to tell when pages have been removed.

The sketchbook is mostly devoted to the last three movements of the String Quartet op.127, on folios 2-17, 21-22 and 27-28. Since there is no sketch work here for the first movement, Beethoven probably begins using this desk sketchbook sometime after he started using the pocket sketchbook Grasnick 4, which begins with sketches for the first movement, and later covers much the same ground as this desk sketchbook. Leaving time for Beethoven's lengthy and fairly debilitating illness in late October and early November, it seems likely that this sketchbook starts being used in the second half of November.

Op.127 is not the only work found in this desk sketchbook. On folios 18-21 are sketches for Opferlied, op.121b; the proposed B-A-C-H Overture, Unv 4; and Bundeslied, op.122. The last 8 folios also include sketches for the Quartet op.132 in A minor and the Grosse Fuge, which will initially be part of op.130 but then separated off as op.133. The B-A-C-H Overture had been percolating for quite a while, with sketches for it also found in Artaria 201, Grasnick 4, and Autograph 9/1, covering a period from 1822 through 1825. Although the Opferlied and Bundeslied had been finished and even offered for sale for some time, there seem to have been changes for these vocal works considered while preparing the engraver's copies for publication, which were delivered in February, 1825. The existence of related sketches for Opferlied and the B-A-C-H Overture in the pocket sketchbook Grasnick 4, used contemporaneously with this desk sketchbook, confirm that there was in fact work continuing to be done on these songs in very late 1824.

There are a few other tidbits of interest in this sketchbook. On 9v there is (as seen here) a very brief sketch of a couple measures in 2/4 time, for a work labeled by Beethoven as being piano four hands. This may well be an initial idea for the sonata in F major for four hands that Anton Diabelli had requested from Beethoven, and which Beethoven agreed to compose for a price of 80 ducats, though it never amounted to anything. Unfortunately, most of the sketches in this book identified later by Schindler as belonging to this sonata are actually for the second movement of op.127. This fragment is the only one that can even tentatively be tied to the promised sonata for Diabelli.

Writing a Mass for the Emperor was also still very much on Beethoven's mind, for there are sketches for a Dona nobis pacem on pages 17v and 29r. There are also some brief sketches for an unidentified work in the rather unusual time signature of 5/4. On folios 4v and 5r there are sketches for a movement "La gaiete" that was intended for op.127, but then abandoned.

Folios 12 and 13 are bound in upside down; folio 13 (front and back) had previously been partially used by Ludwig and Nephew Karl for the boy's lessons in figured bass and harmony. These are exercises copied from Daniel Gottlob Türk's Kurze Anweisung zum Generalbaßspielen [Short Instructions for Playing Figured Bass.]

Schindler made gifts of some pages from this sketchbook, usually with a dedication that shows their provenance. Some other leaves held elsewhere have been identified as belonging to this desk sketchbook at one time. All of these pages contain sketches for the finale of op.127. Among these are Mh 99 (SBH 677) held by the Beethovenhaus, seen here:

https://www.beethoven.de/en/media/view/5332963675865088/scan/0

This sketchbook will continue to be used until about January of 1825.

Thank you The Unheard Beethoven FB @Ludwig van Beethoven Group

[corleonewrites]

La Vérité masterlist

AU: Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

Vincent Renzi x Original Female Character fanfic

Summary: Two people connected by the same past. Two lawyers. And one tangled case which brought them back together again, giving them the opportunity to sort out their feelings towards each other, no matter how painful memories are to both of them can be.

Chapters

Chapter 1. Consolations, S. 172: No. 3 Lento placido

Chapter 2. Nocturne No. 8 In D Flat Major

Chapter 3. Suite Española No. 1, Op. 47: V. Asturias - Leyenda Arr. for String Orchestra

Chapter 4. Gnossiennes: No. 1

Chapter 5. Fantasie in F Minor, Op. 103: D. 940

Chapter 6. Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90 - III. Poco allegretto

Chapter 7. Concerto No. 4 in F minor (L’inverno/Winter) RV297 (Op. 8 No. 4): I. Allegro non molto

Chapter 8. Symphony No. 5 in C-Sharp Minor: IV. Adagietto. Sehr langsam

Chapter 9 (Final). Suite Bergamasque, L. 75: Clair de Lune