#MENDELSSOHN. why

[dandelion-de-deus]

the real reason I don’t listen to a lot of classical music is because I’ll inevitably start listening to some Mendelssohn sextet and find myself getting really upset over the fact that I don’t live with more musicians

[is-that-sand-in-my-waffles]

I can't rewatch Rogue One too often because it always makes me absolutely unhinged

[supercantaloupe]

easily the most annoying thing about beethoven 9 is that the finale really actually is as good as everyone makes it out to be.

[foxynovacoda]

Me speedreading the book about Beethoven's meetings to start the new one about Mendelssohn's letters

[nightshadeowl]

Was just putting a new case on my phone and it started playing classical music as if it were screaming

[penguininmypocket]

4?

very very difficult to say lol. picking a symphony is hard enough...

I think it's a toss-up between the finale of Beethoven's Eroica, where the descending theme is overlayed really slowly over the melody because it's such a good moment of everything coming together and suddenly making so much sense; or the moment in Beethoven's 5th where the brass first enters in the 3rd movement, because the lower strings just built up so much tension and it's suddenly released and it feels so satisfying

[my-dear-swan]

Man I really came up with a crazy idea.

I want to tell a story, the narrator is a lady from Bayreuth living in late 19th century. The narrator tell the audience that a mysterious elderly lady used to live in her hometown. Rumors ran that she was a witch who did many evils. But the narrator found her a very friendly lady with profound wisdom. They discussed almost everything. The narrator fell in love with a young man, who was equipped with good looks and personality. The elderly lady discovered her secret and , out of curiosity, asked the narrator about how her lover looked. The description made the lady sank into deep thoughts, she told the narrator she had met a talented and noble man in her youth, she loved him, but her love was never returned. She then felt extremely depressed and furious, sweared that she would be forever against the man and his nation. She composed many operas to compete with him, trying to prove that she was the best musician of her generation. She wrote essays throwing nasty words to him. But later she discovered that her love for him wasn't faded completely, instead it shined here and there in her works. She was confused and accidentally started to read Schopenhaur. Then she realized that it wasn't the man's fault not to marry her, it was ration and reality that prevented them from being together. Soon an extraordinary opera was completed, featuring the famous tale of an ill–fated couple, Tristan and Isolde. A King was aware of her talent and decided to provide financial aid to her. She became rich but still hid herself under fake names. Then she moved to Bayreuth, while nobody knew where she came. The elderly lady started weeping after telling her story. The narrator was stricken and determined to help. Later she brought the lady to a prom, her young lover appeared, gently greeting the lady with a kissing on her hand, she let out a cry anf fainted. After this experience, the lady decided to compose her swan song, an opera about the search of the Holy Grail. The narrator and her lover came to assist her, finally their work paid off. Parsifal the Chaste Fool was born. The lady now felt completely relieved, she still loved that man, but she knew that she didn't need to prove it with marrige or sexual connection, her love turned to spiritual ones. The lady asked the narrator to do her a favor for the last time, asking her whether she would walking through the garden with her love when night fell. The narrator agreed without any hestiation. That night, the lady's dream was fulfilled. The next day she went to Venice, three mouths later the narrator heard the news of her death.

[ayaahh00]

Here are the creations made by women that men never mention and completely forget: Rosalind Franklin's critical work on the structure of DNA, which was pivotal yet overshadowed by her male counterparts; Ada Lovelace's development of the first computer algorithm, a foundational achievement in computing history; and Hedy Lamarr's invention of frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology, which underpins modern wireless communication. In literature, Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," a seminal work in the science fiction genre, is often wrongly attributed to her husband. Similarly, the Brontë sisters, writing under male pseudonyms, produced some of the most enduring works in English literature. Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann, both accomplished composers, had their musical contributions minimized or attributed to their male relatives. These examples show the systematic erasure of women's contributions and creations, taking away the very rich history of female innovation and creativity, which deserve recognition. This is why we should not allow men to undermine women's work, especially given the fact that patriarchy literally stripped away women's rights. Regardless, women continued being innovative.

[kingofthewilderwest]

The thing with The Greats in classical music is, upon listening to their pieces, you feel why they're The Greats. The music is so high quality it pulls you in more than any composer you've met - and you've met BADASSES. This, this, this, when you hear this, it distinguishes itself as its own class. Almost immediately, you're consumed. On its own, composing music isn't hard. On its own, hearing the works of other colleagues is informative and educational but not intimidating. On its own, personal growth in composing is rewarding and tenable. And you start to think, "Hey, not bad!" But when you sit down and listen to Bach, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns, Schubert, Sibelius, Dvořák, Rachmaninoff, in 20 seconds, you're humbled beyond belief. I could not do this. You are small. In a minute: This is art. This is art. This is art. And you're five minutes in, and the brilliance and maturity and nuance and intricacy and variety of ideas and flow and flawless execution, and you think, I REALLY could not do this. Eight minutes in, and it's almost unbearably incredible. And you look over the breadth of their repertoire. And he did it over and over and over and over again, at THIS level. You are nothing, you are dust. It is emotionally overwhelming. You are loomed over by a class of giants. It could be I chords and V chords and IV chords like everyone else, and you're basking at the toe of the tallest Monuments in the world. How could we make these instruments? How could we assemble these sounds? How could we evoke soul so perfectly but so perfectly human? It is good to feel humbled. It is good to bask in this art. We are blessed we live at a time where these pieces have been written and can be enjoyed at the ready. We are blessed to live in a time where we access this much classical music at our finger tips and at our ear drums. We are blessed we can freely - freely, without cost - access scores and recordings. This isn't some perverted idea of elitism. This is grateful awe. Guys, we get to listen to music. We have access to music. What a wonderful world we live in, with talented humans, the endless flowing of ideas, and art that's stood the test of time.

[calaisreno]

Days on End

Day 7 of MayPrompts2024

221 words / Prompt: Calm

Sometimes Sherlock doesn’t talk for days on end. John doesn’t mind.

The comfortable clatter of the surgery isn’t exactly stressful, but the constant need to put on a smile when he enters an examination room, to listen as a patient spools out their story at painful length, circling around the real issue— these things are stressful. The give and take with the staff, the constantly ringing telephone— why these should grate on him more than the eerie silence of the Afghan desert or the sudden thunder of artillery fire is a mystery.

He returns home to the flat, and Sherlock is still stretched out as he was when John left hours ago. Noise from the street is remote, muffled. Inside 221B might as well be an undiscovered tomb. It’s peaceful. 

“Thai?”

Sherlock hums. 

Food arrives; they eat without a word.

There are days when Sherlock paces and grumbles to himself and shouts. He walks across the furniture and throws things that are in his way. A pen goes flying in front of John’s face. A teacup lies broken on the floor. John might be annoyed at the chaos, weary of the clutter, but he’s never bored.

And after these small storms, there is the violin. John falls asleep at night to Tchaikovsky or Mendelssohn, and has no nightmares. 

Quiet is bliss.

@lisbeth-kk @keirgreeneyes @totallysilvergirl @ninasnakie @friday411 @raina-at @meetinginsamarra

[overlyenthusiasticfictionreader]

Fanbinding of The Perfect Song by dragonofdispair

The Perfect Song by dragonofdispair

To follow his dreams, Jazz offers his virginity and himself to anyone willing to pay. His buyer, Prowl, has a lot of loneliness and a kink for virgins, but dreaming isn’t something he’s capable of. Yet.

Fandom: Transformers - All Media Types Rating: Explicit Archive Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationship: Jazz/Prowl Characters: Jazz, Prowl, Ricochet, Barricade, First Aid, Sky-Byte

The Perfect Song by dragonofdispair 429 pages, letter-quarto/ 50,061 words

Accompaniment: Companion Pieces to The Perfect Song (Adagio, Coda, Cadenza, and Famous) by dragonofdispair 72 pages, letter-quarto / 4,751 words

The Perfect Song was requested as a bind during our local Renegade Exchange 2024 event. My giftee mentioned they liked quartos and also blue, and so I had the first inklings of a design. My giftee also mentioned they wouldn't mind additional gifts, so I decided to bind the rest of the series as a separate book, mostly because i thought it would look cool and then i would have a reason to make a case too (corral all those books together).

Photos and more discussion under the read-more!

First up is The Perfect Song! I have been wanting to bind a chonky book, and while I didn't reach maximum chonk, The Perfect Song is a respectable size and satisfyingly hefty in the hand. This book is a variation of the bradel binding style, which supports a thicker book well. I ran with the musical theme: the endpapers have musical notations, the text breaks are a treble clef, and I used the written music for Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream as the background image for chapter titles. I chose the font for titles and dropcaps because it reminded me of a musical scale. The blue bookcloth is homemade using a faux-suede fabric: fuzzy texture!

The black and while endbands were meant to invoke a piano keyboard: I'm not quite sure I got there, but they look classy regardless!

Next is the rest of the series (which I called Accompaniment for the purposes of rounding up the series in a second book), and it uses all the same themes. I like the cohesive look, and really, why mess with a good thing? This is a much slimmer book, bound in a different style from The Perfect Song. This is a modified conservation pamphlet bind.

For both books I used HTV to put a treble clef on the cover, and for The Perfect Song I had enough room to title the spine as well.

I wanted to make cases for all three sets of books (one for my giftee, one for the author, and one for myself). I ran with the same theme and materials, so nothing surprising there, but I think the books in their cases look really snazzy!

I'm very satisfied with how these books turned out! And I am thrilled to be able to gift a copy to the author! Sharing fandom is wonderful experience for me, and I hope some fanart let's the author know how much I appreciate that they shared their stories.

Also located on A03 here.

[talonabraxas]

Walpurgis Night. Hexennacht. April 30.

A Short History of the Night of the Witches The origins of the image of Walpurgis night being a witches’ sabbath are unclear. However, it is striking that it coincides with Beltane and maybe other pagan festivals in earlier time. Goethe presumed in one of his poems such an origin.

St. Walpurga For Christians, Walpurgisnacht is also known as the Feast of Saint Walpurga, that is celebrated from the evening of April 30 to the day of May 1st. Saint Walpurga or Walburga was the daughter of St. Richard the Saxon Pilgrim and sister of St. Willibald and St. Winibald. When her father went on a pilgrimage with her two brothers to the Holy Land, he left Walpurga, who was only 11 years old at the time, with the nuns of Wimborne Abbey, where she was educated and learnt how to write.

She traveled in an attempt to bring German pagans to the Christian faith and she also authored Winibald’s biography, which is why she is considered as one of the first female authors in Germany and England. Walpurga became a nun in Heidenheim am Hahnenkamm, the monastery founded by her brother Willibald, where she became the abbess after his death in 751. Walpurga herself died on February 25 on 777 or 779 and she was canonized by Pope Adrian II on May 1st, around 870, when her relics were transfered to Eichstätt, Germany.

St. Walpurga is prayed to for protection against witchcraft and it is believed that during the night of April 30, she is able to ward off spells, witches, and evil spirits. This belief may stem from the overlapping of her canonization with Hexennacht or the Night of the Witches, the celebration that has its origin in ancient fertility celebrations. Hexennacht is a Germanic tradition more prevalent in the 17th century, when witches and sorcerers gathered together celebrate.

To protect against their magic, the Western Christian Church appointed the night of April 30 to St. Walpurga’s Feast. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Walpurgisnacht was popularized and its witchy connotations were revived through the literature of the time, such as in Jacob Grimm’s work who wrote in 1833: “There is a mountain very high and bare… whereon it is given out that witches hold their dance on Walpurgis night”.

Goethe also dedicated a poem to the celebration called “Die erste Walpurgisnacht” (The First Walpurgis Night), which was set to music by Felix Mendelssohn and published as his Opus 60 in 1843. The poem contrasts sharply with the Walpurgisnacht described in his main work “Faust”. In his ballad, Goethe relates the superstitions around Walpurgis night to the usage of devil’s masks by pagan’s in order to exploit the superstitions of their Christian suppressors and to protect their identities.

[study-with-aura]

Tuesday, August 20, 2024

I know you all were probably wondering why I didn't post the last three days. No? I plan to tell you anyway. 😊

My brother leaves at the end of the week to go back to university, so I have been spending as much time with him as possible, even if that means we are simply in the same room doing two different things. I can't believe I will have to say goodbye to him again. I know it is for a short time if we compare it to forever, but I love having him at home with me. He and Dad have been doing a lot together as well, which I know Julien looks forward to.

This is a fast update as we must head out so I can get to ballet on time. I hope everyone has a wonderful week! 💛

Tasks Completed:

Algebra 2 - Completed worksheet on applications of linear equations and inequalities

American Literature - copied vocabulary terms + read chapters 10-11 of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne + learned about The Bay Psalm Book + read over reflective essay assignment (due 9/20)

Spanish 3 - Reviewed stem-changing verbs in the present tense + completed three graded quizzes (all 10/10)

Bible 2 - Read 2 Samuel 12-13

Early American History - Read about French explorers + looked at maps showing the routes of exploration of NA by the Spanish and the French + answered question on study guide + read "Resisting the European Onslaught" from Civilizations under Siege: The European Conquest of the Americas

Earth Science with Lab - Answered questions about yesterday's reading on the Big Bang utilizing details about the scientific theories and where they fall short

Music Appreciation - Watched a listening guide to Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto + listened to Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (soloist Ray Chen with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Kent Nagano)

Khan Academy - Completed US History Unit 2: Lesson 1 (parts 1-3)

Duolingo - Studied for approximately 30 minutes (Spanish + French + Chinese) + completed daily quests

Piano - 60-minute piano lesson + practiced for two hours in one hour split sessions

Reading - Read pages 205-241 of Stateless by Elizabeth Wein

Chores -  Laundry

Activities of the Day:

Personal Bible Study (Numbers 30)

Ballet

Pointe

Journal/Mindfulness

[supercantaloupe]

regarding that composers poll i just went into lecture mode for like ten straight minutes at my almost-totally-musically-illiterate roommate about romantic composers and why i think schubert is the most babygirl (and why tchaikovsky is NOT) and he just stared at me with this like. charmed but lost grin the whole time

[wrongnote-lc]

[AU] Detective Mr. Berlioz & Detective's assistant Mr. Liszt & Police officer Mr. Mendelssohn 🕰🔍

After solving a major case together, there's a bit of discontent from police officer Mendelsohn, who's constantly being paired with this duo by higher-ups. Then there's the peculiar detective, whose methods are always a mystery but oddly effective. And with a handsome face, Liszt seems capable of doing other things well enough, so it's puzzling why he's following around the detective as an assistant.

[bookreviewcoffee]

Virginia Woolf "A Room of One's Own."

The essay was published in 1929. Almost a hundred years have passed. Surely all the problems that Wolfe talks about have been resolved and there is no point in talking about them? Unfortunately no. I had no idea what this book was about. For some reason, I was sure that this was Virginia Woolf’s autobiography, in which she talks about her craft. But it turned out that this was an appeal in the name of justice. First of all, this concerns the infringement of women's rights. How women were not respected and not valued is very difficult to read. Women were forced to write in attics when they had a rare 30 minutes, to hide them at the slightest rustle, and published works under a male pseudonym. The girls were allowed to write prose, but no lyrics. It was believed that women could not think. In general, girls in Victorian England, if they were lucky, were taught languages at home, since college was closed. They had to stay at home, knit, cook, raise children and serve their husbands. It’s interesting, by the way, what Virginia Woolf said about female composers of classical music. They simply don't exist! More precisely, I personally could not remember a single one.

I had to look. I've certainly found a few of these, but none of the names are familiar to me! But I read some interesting information:

    “Fanny Mendelssohn

During her lifetime, the sister of the famous composer was known only to her family. She was constantly encouraged to write music, but... Then give what she wrote to her brother. It is known that he published several of her works as his own. She died young, from a stroke, at a concert rehearsal, where, along with other people's works, she wanted to openly play her own. The inconsolable widower did everything so that Fanny would posthumously receive her calling. Her correspondence, diaries, notes were published, her works were given her name back.”

Virginia Woolf believes that these men were simply afraid of smart women. They were afraid to show themselves in an unfavorable light compared to them.

In general, the essay is not limited to the topic “women and literature”, it touches on the general position of women, the topic of how important equality is for us. Although it is a stream of consciousness, the book is easy to read. In the process, the author gives us food for thought. “A room of your own” makes you think about how important personal space, income, and education are. Who is the creator? Why have we lost perhaps great works? Why is equality necessary? Why were women belittled? Why do women and men creators need their own room? And much more.

This was my introduction to Woolf,and now I am very eager to get to know her further.

@litterascriptamanet @coffeeacademia @chaoticelegant @silverystardustt @betryl @arcanewraith @ancientsstudies @abernathyvalois