#cantabile you were the worst of the whole journey

[arkiwii]

I can't believe all it took was to complain on Tumblr

Here she is. After 133 pulls.

laughing and crying at the same time rn i can finally be at peace with myself. that's it i got all the birds they're all home

[dailymusingsofamedic]

12th June 2020 - Górecki

Henryk Górecki (1933-2010)

String Quartet no.3 ‘…Songs are Sung’ (1995-2005) https://open.spotify.com/album/5FvQStsE67xa0jazNGv6pO?si=SjDDBEY9SYq88RPIT1wIHw

I am 100% certain I have listened to a piece by Górecki, but I can’t for the life of me think of what it is. Safe to say, I’m not familiar with most of his repertoire however. It’s been a while (if at all) since I’ve done a string quartet, so I decided to review one today. I’m quite excited. Anything’s better than Fux surely. Ha.

Above -  B*witched’s lesser known 4th album 

1.       Adagio – Molto Andante – Cantabile. Starts quiet with cello and viola being joined by one of the violins over the top with a more melodic line. The first violin echoes the second’s playing, but higher and more expressively. It’s harmonically interesting and as the chords change through 1:08 and beyond, there’s more interest coming from the harmony than the little melody that the upper parts are playing in octaves. There’s a crescendo which just stops just prior to 2:00 which is exciting. Then more of the same. That’s not a criticism, I love it so far. It’s not predictable in terms of where the harmony’s going. Another crescendo up to 2:50 and then a sudden silence before a new section. This new section is driving and building in intensity through dynamics, tempo and pitch. It’s comforting, oddly to return back to the opening themes at 3:12 though. Its familiarity is welcome. I can picture members of my family saying this is quite the dirge. I suppose it is. I like it though. 4:15 another build up with repeating notes but increasing dynamic. Around 5:00 is really clever, I’m urging it to go up another tone, but it keeps reverting back to the tone below. It finally does go up. and then at 5:24 there’s another climax before a break. 5:52 is again, the familiar first section, but only for one phrase before completely restarting the movement again. I still think repeats are lazy, sorry. This playing so far has all been long, reflective and intense in tone. Lyrical isn’t the right word to use. It’s quite bleak. 8:11 is a really satisfying change of pitch down, just one tone but it makes the piece feel different for a bit. 8:56 is an interesting sound, and I don’t now what’s happening actually. I guess cello and then the three upper parts playing in very close harmony in their low registers. It’s cool. The repeated chord that ends it leaves the piece feeling very unfinished. Not accidentally either.

 2.       Largo – Cantabile. Górecki really makes the most of the low registers of these instruments. It’s great to hear because usually modern composers are like “screech as much as you possibly can”. The chord at 0:50 is very tasty. The melody played by the two violins is fragmented, but starts to build into longer and this time, more lyrical phrases. This isn’t a piece to listen to if you want to relax, nor if you want to be wowed (so far): the harmony is challenging, and the pace is so far dreary – but that makes it wonderfully atmospheric. All though 3:45 etc, the higher parts are so in tune you can forget there’s two instruments playing, and the second violin really does play the perfect accompanying part to the more lyrical melody (even though the rhythm is exactly the same). It’s good, thoughtful playing. The crescendo into 5:11 is subtle, but welcome, and stops it feeling monotonous. Going on through 6:00, 6:40 is more of the same material but I’m not bored, because it’s sensitive playing. 6:44 we get a really, really welcome, and beautiful passage of traditional major playing, it’s heartwarming, and encouraging, and really very beautifully orchestrated. It does end at 7:20 when we’re thrown back into more worrying harmonic language. Luckily it returns again after. There’s nothing wrong with having some traditional, and beautiful musical features in a piece which is modern; it can give it such a lift. The cello must be bored in this movement. There’s not a whole lot to do. 10:10 sounds very much like it’s going to be the end. This movement’s been very quiet, and the playing has been so full of tone, despite the quiet dynamic. Really impressive. I can hear my mother particularly screaming “this is so boring” at me. I would have to disagree. I suppose actually 10:10 is the beginning of the end, and it continues until the end. Gosh, that’s the worst constructed sentence so far; moving on.

Above - apparently Dirge is also the name of a transformer. This piece is dedicated to him.

3.       Allegro – Sempre ben Marcato. This is something new. It’s not slow. Nice crescendo and subito piano into 0:23. The piece is still quite minimalist, that is there’s not a whole lot going on, but it doesn’t detract from it I don’t think. This movement has a sense of urgency about it. But at 1:13 the lyrical melody is nice. 1:50 becomes more intense and the tempo might even be pushing a little here. It’s certainly ben marcato in the upper parts. 2:25 – wow. That’s exactly what I want. Wow all through to 2:48. So delicious. I think the repetition in this movement is less welcome than in the previous two. In the last movement particularly it contributed to a sense of eternity, but in this movement it gives me a sense of he couldn’t be bothered to write new music. Again I feel sorry for the cellist. He doesn’t even repeat the best bit of the whole movement from 2:25. The end is quite whimsical.

Above - the cellist in this piece...probably

4.       Deciso - Espressivo ma ben Tenuto. The opening few bars have nothing modern about them. This is straight-up romantic writing. Even the slightly dodgy harmony at 0:13. Through 1:15 this is similar style to the second movement, and maybe even some of the same material. I’m not sure the respite of the 3rd movement was quite enough. This one doesn’t seem as good as its predecessors. The chords repeated through 2:16 are lovely, and then 2:20 starts to sounds like the eponymous ‘songs’ for the first time in the movement, it quickly becomes not-quite-right though. The melody, again shared by the two upper voices, doesn’t fit with the accompanying baseline harmonically which makes it feel quite jarring at times. I would actually change something about this writing: I would subdivide the cello less. I think it would make it sound less dirgey. 3:46 is brand new for this piece. Strings playing in the upper register. It’s the most uncomfortable I’ve been so far because there’s a huge gap between the pitch of the two upper and two lower parts. This is clever writing, because it could sound like a lovely song so easily, were it only different harmonically. As it continues it becomes more dissonant. It then increases in dynamic towards 5:47. The diminuendo to 6:03 is skilfully done. 6:52, the nice lyrical song tries to come through again which we’ve heard before, and it arguably lasts a little longer this time, sounding song like right up until 7:24, maybe even 7:37. In fact this section is mostly song like, but with odd bars of dissonance thrown in. 8:26 now makes the top parts even more unrelated the bottom by shifting the rhythm slightly. Only for a while though. 9:27 is a new idea. Which I like. It verges on needing to be a bit livelier now, but judging by the name of the next movement; lively isn’t the theme of this piece. That’s fine. The end is drawn out again. With a glimmer of hope from 10:23. The chord at 10:41 introduces I think the minor sixth (a note that shouldn’t be in that chord anyway) but this resolves quickly and helps keep us in the sound world of everything that’s come before. Beautiful ending.

 5.       Largo – Tranquillo. Finally the cello gets to do something melodic. It’s nice actually, the opening lyrical line from the cello. Quite a lot of vibrato. Not long however before we’re back to the two upper parts versus low parts keeping the rhythm going. It gets dirgier by the minute actually. This boring, repeated 3 note phrase culminates in a great, rich section at 1:40. 2:07 another brief moment of absolutely perfectly constructed harmony. All through 2:45 is boring and repetitive and then the chord at 2:54 is so welcome again. Górecki seems quite good at making you wait for the cathartic moments, but they are there. I can completely see why someone would think this piece is boring to listen to. The last movement particularly has a lot of repetitious passages which add nothing when played over and over again. But subconsciously they do add something, and it’s a feeling of yearning for something else, which when it comes it fantastic. 4:38 for example, what a powerful sound. The notes aren’t even that different but the tone and dynamic have changed the sound completely. At 5:43ish the cello not only sounds dissonant, but also out of tune (maybe quarter tones of something) which again makes the catharsis of chords like 6:30 so much more satisfying. The repetition of the chord here is not boring, or monotonous, it’s great. Even the silence at 7:52 is considered. I do 8:26 ish sounds like it could be the end again. Will this be drawn out for a full 2.5 minutes. Nope, we’re back to the cello melody again at 8:50. Hmm, not sure how I feel about that. All through 9:40 etc, the parts seem a bit more independent of each other somehow. 10:03 seems like this must be the final catharsis. It’s very in tune, very delicately played (although not quite together on the third iteration) and the perfect end to this piece.

Overall – 8/10. This isn’t a piece which is feel-good, or one you’ll be singing the melody to but it’s a really emotional journey. Most of the emotions are misery, despair, sadness etc. but we all need a bit of that sometimes. Great piece. Will be listening to more Górecki.

Below is some more Górecki , apparently he likes intensity.