I was quite prepared to find myself out on a limb with Brahms, and am used
to this. However, the composer that carries the biggest blank for me is one
whom many people consider the most religious of all, Bruckner. Not to put
too fine a point upon it, he bores me. 'Oh, Bach, Bach without any doubt.
Bach every time for me.'
I'm sorry you blank at George Eliot though -- I find her as vividly full of
life as so many seem to find Dickens (but not me there either I'm afraid).
best joanna
----- Original Message -----
From: "MJ Walker" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 9:16 PM
Subject: Re: Snap - Jones
Joanna, I knew someone would say that - quite rightly, though I could
argue that it's not a true Requiem. But, what the hell, I just cannot
warm to it, though I love much of Brahms's music, some of it
compulsively, like the D minor piano concerto, of which I collect
recordings, the Piano Quintet or Opus 78. Everybody has these blanks, I
know. I have a lot. Dvorak, most of the time. Dickens, though I think I
might now feel differently if I try him again; Robert Graves; George
Eliot...I've a history of blanks, blankness at the heart of moon, in
fact, to quote Bob, having nothing of my own:
Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying.
Boy, do I blank out. :-\
mj
Joanna Boulter wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "MJ Walker" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 8:27 PM
> Subject: Re: Snap - Jones
>
>
>> .Actually, Ken, Fauré was not so religious as all that; I quote from a
>> convenient website
>> (http://members.macconnect.com/users/j/jimbob/classical/Faure_Requiem.html):
>> Fauré spent much of his life in the service of the church, but his
>> personal views on religion were unconventional at best, downright cynical
>> or agnostic at worst. These are his thoughts on spirituality in the
>> /Requiem/:"Everything I managed to entertain in the way of religious
>> illusion I put into my Requiem, which moreover is dominated from
>> beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest."< Nox
>> est perpetua una dormienda. And Verdi was an atheist, I believe. Berlioz
>> wasn't too croyant, either, so that more or less wraps up 19th C requiems
>> of genius...(Well, OK, Cherubini, Dvorak...)
>> mj
>
>
> Will no one speak up for Brahms? He wasn't much of a believer in a regular
> church, and wrote his Requiem to texts from the German bible, hence its
> name, 'A German Requiem'. I happen to think it's a magnificent work, both
> in the music and in his choice of texts; but then, I like and admire
> Brahms.
>
> best joanna
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