Understanding Classical Music

Posted by: mikeeschman on 23 March 2010

After a while, you come to understand that every good piece of classical music conveys some compelling story, complete in every way, the same way a really great novel does.

Being so closely related to speech, the only other medium capable of such emotional eruptions besides music, it is best comprehended as a story.

To put a good story across, first and foremost, the reader must have impeccable diction, so that every word is recognized instantly.

Beyond that, the reader's inflection must convey his feelings, and if the reader is good, the treatment of pitch will add a great deal to the moment being represented.

That is a good thumbnail sketch of how I pick stuff to keep for decades :-)

Anyone have a different experience?
Posted on: 09 April 2010 by Earwicker
There can be an episodic, narrative quality to some fugues though, especially Beethoven's. Certainly those of the Hammerklavier sonata, the cello sonata Op 102 No2, the Grosse fuge, and the great fugues from the Missa solemnia, Credo and et vitam venturi saeculi. Once you get away from strict 'canonical' fugue writing, they can be as narrative as any other 'strict' form I suppose. Worth also mentioning perhaps that fugues tend to be episodes in a piece rather than stand-alone compositions.

EW