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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