Monday, March 2, 2015

MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2015

QUOTE:
"One supreme fact which I have discovered is
 that it is not willpower, but fantasy-imagination
 that creates. Imagination is the creative force.
 Imagination creates reality."
AUTHOR: Richard Wagner
MEANING OF THE QUOTE:
"Creativity starts first in your imagination."









                                        
                           
COMPOSER
IVES

"UNANSWERED QUESTION"
Gustavo Dudamel, Conductor

"UNANSWERED QUESTION"
Leonard Bernstein, Conductor
New York Philharmonic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trkFgIMC-Ks
Excerpt from Lecture 5:
The 20th Century Crisis 
Mr. Bernstein uses Ives' short composition
"The Unanswered Question" as a vehicle
to pose the central Question of his
Lecture Series: Wither Music?
"The purpose is not so much to answer
the question as to understand it. To
redefine it. It would be pretentious to
assume that we'll be able to answer the
ultimate question, but it's reasonable
to assume we should be able to make
some educated guesses."
Fridays are funnier with a cartoon at noon.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2013/07/05/199009541/behind-the-music-charles-ives

"UNANSWERED QUESTION"
James Sinclair, Conductor
Northern Sinfonia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkaOz48cq2g

In the 1930's Ives  attached a program
something like what must have been
on his mind in 1906:
The strings play a very quiet cushion of chords
throughout, representing "the silences of the
Druids, who know, see, and hear nothing;" over
this indifferent universal background a lone
trumpet repeatedly intones "The Perennial
Question of Existence," while a quartet of
woodwinds representing the "Fighting
Answerers," scurry about looking for the answer.
As the trumpet keeps asking the same question,
the woodwinds become more and more frantic
with their quest but for all their sound and fury
get nowhere. The trumpet asks once more, but
this time the only answer is silence. The silences
are heard beyond in an "undisturbed solitude."
The program also encompasses a
philosophical idea that Ives would
address incomparably in his music
and in his writings: in contemplating
the sublime mystery of creation, a
question can be better than an answer.

 

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