ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

I'm a Bob Dylan fan and my current favorite album
is The Basement Tapes. The songs were recorded in 1967 in the basement of the now-famous
Big Pink House.... Dylan is backed by The Band. I would recommend the Complete Basement Tapes
which can be found on YouTube.  

A very brief entry today about a poem titled The
Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams. I'll
let you decide about its significance:

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens  

I will divert from my posts about classical music
to mention an Italian singer named Adriano
Celentano. In particular, I'll mention a song of his
called Prisencolinensinaiciusol, released in the
seventies. It contains lyrics of nonsense
gibberish meant to sound like English. English songs were popular in Italy at that time and Celentano
made the song in a humorous spirit. It's quite amusing, and can easily be found in YouTube.

  

Mozart's Symphony 41,:K551 is one of my favorite
works. It is nicknamed "Jupiter," apparently given
by one Johann Cramer who said that it reminded
him of thunderbolts. It is considered one of the
best symphonies ever written by some critics.
A critic named E.L. Gerber described it as "great,
fiery, pathetic (i.e.evoking pathos) and sublime.  

My second favorite composition by Mozart is
The Divertimento in D Major K136, also known as
The Salzburg Symphony. A Divertimento is a
composition meant to be amusing and light
hearted. Divertimentos were used to accompany
banquets or social events. An excellent
performance of K136 by the NYCP can be found on YouTube.  

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is probably the most
famous classical composer. He was a child
prodigy who grew up to be one of the more
imaginative composers ever. I will post a few articles about my favorite compositions of his. To
begin with, I would recommend Symphony 40,
K550, an exciting and engaging piece of music.
There is a great version by the Berliner Philharmoniker on YouTube.  

One of the most haunting pieces by Bach is the
Passacaglia and Fugue in D minor, BWV 582. I
would recommend the version played by Jonathan
Dimmock. "Passacaglia":comes from Italian and
means "to walk down the street." The form is
usually quite serious in tone and is usually
written in 3/4 time.
  

Another very popular piece by Bach is the Concerto For Two Violins, BWV 1043. Bach wrote several concertos, but this is perhaps his best known. It was
a favorite of Albert Schweitzer. Bach's sons
transposed the music to be played on two organs.
and several performances of the Concerto can be found on YouTube, violin and organ alike   

The Brandenburg Concertos (BWV 1046-1051)
were written by Bach around 1721. They were
given to the Margrave of Brandenburg as a gift
showing Bach's appreciation for the Margrave's
support. But the Margrave never got the chance
to organize a performance, and it's speculated
that Bach himself never heard the Concertos
performed at all They are one of Bach's most popular works with contemporary listeners. Interesting
note: the original manuscript of the concertos was
nearly lost in WW1 when the building they were
housed in was bombarded. A concerned librarian
was able to rescue the manuscript.
  

The word "cantata" comes from the Italian
language and means "to sing." Bach wrote over
200 Cantatas, mostly religious in their themes
and meant to be performed as part of Lutheran
church service. Both an orchestra and choir
are used in performances. My personal favorite is
"Christ Lag in Todes Baden," BWV 4. There are
several performances of this cantata on YouTube.  

The Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) were written
by Bach with the intention of being played on a
harpsichord or another type of clavier. However in
the 20th century many versions played on piano
have surfaced, the performance by Glenn Gould
being quite notable. The variations were written
to be performed by one Johann Goldberg, a
musician in the court of a count named Kaiserlin.
It is said that the count suffered from insomnia
and he could only be lulled to sleep by hearing
Goldberg play the variations. This could, however,
be an urban legend.  

The Well-tempered Clavier is a series of short
keyboard pieces by Bach, catalogued as BWV
846 to 893. "Well-tempered" refers to a tuning
method based on the even-tempered tuning
that had become popular in Bach's day. My favorite performance is by Pierre Hantai, played on the harpsichord. Another popular performance is by Glenn
Gould, played on the piano.  

My favorite composition by Bach is the Prelude
and Fugue in A minor (BWV 543). There is an excellent video of the Fugue portion on YouTube, played by Christoph Bull. The video includes graphics by
Stephen Malinowski. It is a very moving performance.  

One of the best performances of the Toccata and
Fugue in D minor is played on the classical guitar
by Tariq Harb. This is unusual, as the piece was
written to be performed on the organ. Harb is a
Palestinian/Canadian guitarist who is currently
considered one of the finest classical guitarists
around.  

My next few entries will concern the music of
Johann Sebastian Bach. I will first mention one
of his best known works, the Toccata and Fugue
in D Minor. Very likely, most people have heard
this piece, due to its inclusion in movie
soundtracks and advertisements, (the latter regrettably). I would urge people to chack out the
version by Helmut Walcha that can be found on
YouTube.  

My current favorite musical performer is Arcady
Ivannikov, a classical guitarist from Russia. I especially enjoy his transcriptions of Bach. A recording of these pieces can be found on YouTube and I
would highly recommend giving them a listen.  

The name most associated with abstract expressionism is that of Willem de Kooning, a Dutch-Amsrican artist who lived from 1904 to 1997. He immigrated to the US in 1929 and worked at first as a house
painter. He started to become known as an artist
from 1940 onwards. He often painted abstract figures of women but many of his later paintings were non-objective. His painting are said to embody feelings of "frustration and inner conflict."  

Jackson Pollock was a pioneering artist, usually
classified as an "abstract expressionist." He is considered the inventor of "action painting." Using a drip technique, Pollock created bold paintings where
fallen drips of paint formed dynamic images. He struggled with alcoholism and was killed in 1956 while driving under the influence.  

Marc Chagall was an early Modernist who was
said to have "synthesized" Cubism, Symbolism, and
Fauvism. In his day, Picasso states that Chagall
"understands what color really is." He was said to have a great sense of humor. Instead of feeling alienated from the modern world, Chagall was
"exhilarated." He painted Paris scenes in a "kaleidoscopic" way.  

Franz Marc painted in the early part of the 20th century. His paintings often depict animals and use
very bright colors. He influenced many other
painters and was the founder of the art movement
called Dar Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). He lived
in Germany and was drafted into the German army
at the outbreak of WW1. He was killed by an
exploding shell in 1916, shortly before he was
scheduled to be released from the army.