To what extent can instrumental music ‘speak’? And what does it tell us? Examples discussed include Beethoven’s Sonata op. 110, works by Emanuel Bach and (again) J.S. Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia. Complete pieces can be heard in the recital of episode 15.
00:00 Intro
00:38 Beethoven: Arioso dolente
05:32 Music representing music representing speech
07:23 Musical prose
10:12 J.S. Bach: Chromatische Fantasie
16:59 C.P.E. Bach: The free fantasia
21:39 ‘Speaking’ music
24:01 Melancholy and the musical ‘I’
Music fragments:
00:38 Beethoven, Sonata op. 110 in A-flat
11:04 J.S. Bach, Chromatische Fantasie BWV 903
14:23 Vivaldi-Bach, Adagio from Concerto in C BWV 594
18:02 C.P.E. Bach, Fantasie in c from Sonata Wq 63 No. 6
Lodewijk Muns, piano.
For references see:
Lodewijk Muns, C.P.E. Bach, Haydn, and the Art of Mixed Feelings (2008)
idem, Fiction, Truth, and Lies: The Nonassertion Theory of Fiction, Quotation, and Music as Fiction (2021).
Leave a Reply