#reger

[mikrokosmos]

probably shouldn't perpetuate stereotypes but it's been raining here and I've been in the mood to listen to dark, minor key organ music that makes me think of old castles, cathedrals, and black and white horror movies. So far, I only have Bach and his German inspirations & some descendants

[classical-music-suites-bracket]

This is a redo of the Caucasian Sketches Suite no. 1 vs Suites for Solo Viola poll because I accidentally set it to 1 day instead of 1 week, thank you to everyone who notified me. If you already voted in it, please vote again

Which do you prefer?

Caucasian Sketches Suite no. 1 (Ippolitov-Ivanov)

Suites for Solo Viola (Reger)

Voting ended onDec 12, 2023

Caucasian Sketches Suite no. 1 (Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov):

1 Submission

No propaganda

Suites for Solo Viola (Max Reger):

1 Submission

No propaganda

[opera-ghosts]

OTD in Music History: Composer, conductor, pianist, organist, and pedagogue Max Reger (1873 - 1916) was born 150 years ago in Bavaria. As the central figure of the so-called "Back to Bach" movement that gained steam in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, Reger represents a rather strange case: Many modern day "classical" music fans -- if they are familiar with him at all -- deride him as something of an aesthetic monster; the prototypically tasteless late-Romantic composer of swollen orchestral scores filled with long and pointless fugues on stylistically unsuitable subjects (like his gargantuan "Mozart Variations"). But Reger was actually a remarkably prolific composer, and a good deal of his original music -- which includes beautiful chamber works, charming piano miniatures, profound solo organ music, artful lieder, and daring unaccompanied violin sonatas -- is entirely devoid of the heavy-handed counterpoint which has given him a bad reputation in certain circles. Arnold Schoenberg (1874 - 1951), for one, was extremely impressed by Reger the composer. Schoenberg summed up his thoughts in a 1922 letter that he sent to his friend and colleague, Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871 - 1942): "Reger must, in my view, be played often: 1. because he has written a lot, and 2. because he is already dead and yet people are still not clear about him (I consider him to be a genius)." One story about Reger has achieved a special scatological immortality within certain "classical" music circles: Reger had a very acrimonious relationship with Rudolf Louis, a German music critic who absolutely despised his work. After Louis published a particularly scathing review of Reger's "Sinfonietta in A Major" (Op. 90), Reger responded with a curt letter which read as follows: "Ich sitze in dem kleinsten Zimmer in meinem Hause. Ich habe Ihre Kritik vor mir. Im nächsten Augenblick wird sie hinter mir sein!" ("I am sitting in the smallest room of my house. I have your review before me. In a moment, it shall be behind me!"). What more is there to say? PICTURED: A lengthy six page autograph letter that Reger wrote to a friend in 1913, discussing various musical matters.

Although in his own day he was often viewed with suspicion as one of the "dissonant ultramodernists" (a fact which is almost hard to believe now), as former New York Times Chief Music Critic Harold C. Schonberg (no relation to Arnold) explained:

"Reger himself thought of his music as a continuation of the German tradition. He also claimed that his music was written in the spirit of Bach and Beethoven. 'I can say with good conscience,' he wrote in 1914, 'that of all living composers, I am probably the one who is closest in touch with the great masters of our rich past.' The music of his own day, composed by epigones of Wagner and Strauss, he called 'perverted rubbish'… [and yet at the same time,] Reger himself felt an affinity to [Arnold] Schoenberg. Indeed, he once told the violinist Adolf Busch that of all of the then-modern composers, he felt closest Schoenberg. Likewise, scattered throughout Schoenberg's writings are references to Reger that make it clear that Schoenberg put him on as high a plane as Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss…”

Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that a mutual fan club existed between Schoenberg and Reger -- after all, despite his own fearsome reputation as a "dissonant ultramodernist" (a reputation which, unlike Reger’s, persists to this day) Schoenberg also cut his compositional teeth working well within the lush Post-Romantic idiom (ex: "Verklarte Nachte")… and he too always proudly claimed an artistic lineage that extended straight back to Brahms, Beethoven, and Bach…

[startrekvsfaceapp]

[meant-forsomethingbetter]

1x21 - The Return of the Archons

5/10. A slow-paced episode this time around, with a mystery unfolding on a planet that hosts eerie natives and the remnants of the lost starship Archon. After Sulu returns from a recon mission on Beta III, he is unnaturally placid and unresponsive to his crewmates. Kirk and co. beam down to see what happened, and are confronted with a society that engages in what can only be described as the Purge, at least from my 21st century perspective. The planet’s inhabitants are being controlled by an entity called Landru, who has organised them with uncanny precision into a community that commit to absolute tranquility outside the ‘festival’ - A.K.A the Purge. Kirk and Spock work to unravel the scheming of this Landru, enlisting the help of some seditious natives, and manage to uncover the fact that this godlike being is in fact an ancient computer programme, coercing the people around it into a society that is as toxic as it is artificial. They trick it into a self-destruct by making it self-aware of its own violence in a world of ostensible peace, and return Beta III to the human population. 

This episode was a bit meandering, to say the least, especially since the most prominent identifier of the planet’s issues was ‘the festival’, an event that is never actually explained. We can infer why there is a scheduled time of unlawfulness, as stated previously, but Landru never actually tells the characters why it happens. It makes the rest of the story seem like it jumped the shark in the first act, honestly. Like, let’s go back and learn about this Purge thing and why a computer thought it would make people less violent. It’s sociologically interesting. 

Favourite quote: “Creativity is necessary for the health of the body.” - Spock. // He’s right on all counts, technically. This episode felt sort of like a snap back at communism, with emphasis placed on the value of the individual, and the danger of ‘absorption’ into ‘the body’, which admittedly sounds terrifying when put like that. Maybe I’m just hyper-aware of the time at which this was written, although with sets and acting like it has, it’s difficult not to be. I wonder if any American media adequately criticises capitalism. 

Sidenote: This screenshot is all of us looking back at 2020

[lesser-known-composers]

- Composer: Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (19 March 1873 -- 11 May 1916) - Performer: Markus Becker (piano) - Year of recording: 1999 (?) 6 Intermezzi for Piano, Op. 45, written in 1900. 00:00 - 01. Sehr aufgeregt und schnell 01:24 - 02. Äußerst lebhaft, anmutig 06:18 - 03. Langsam, mit leidenschaftlichem, durchaus phantastischem Ausdruck 10:01 - 04. So schnell wie möglich, mit Humor 14:47 - 05. Mit großer Leidenschaft und Energie 18:15 - 06. So schnell wie nur irgend möglich

[afemalesebastian]

SO REMEMBER THAT HYPOTHETICAL CONCERT I MENTIONED????

It's not hypothetical anymore!! My brother in law is a priest, and he just approved the first concert of a potentially 4 concert series at his parish, starting in November 2017 I am so excited, guys. This first concert is going to be a Concert of Remembrance for all the loved ones of the parish who have died in the past year. It'll be for tenor, cello, and piano (meeeee!!). Here's the set list that I proposed: I. BWV 55, Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht, for tenor, cello, and piano. (This cantata is all about being afraid to stand before God because of our sinfulness, and remembering that through Christ's passion, we are brought into God's grace, love, and mercy.) After this, the audience prays together the chaplet of the Divine Mercy (which is basically the rosary summary of the previous cantata) for the souls of all who passed away during the last year. II. Aus Tiefer Not, Op. 67, No. 3, Max Reger (for cello and piano) 2 Melodies Hebraiques, Maurice Ravel (for cello and piano) Goin' Home, based on a theme of Antonin Dvorak (for cello and piano) Piano solo on the chants from the Requiem Mass while a freewill donation is taken up III. "Death, Be Not Proud", from the Holy Sonnets of John Donne, Op. 35, Benjamin Britten (tenor and piano) "Now In These Fairylands", from the Songs of Humbert Wolfe, Gustav Holst (tenor and piano) "The Call", from the 5 Mystical Songs, Ralph Vaughan WIlliams (tenor and piano) "The Bird's Song", a setting of Psalm 23 from Pilgrim's Progress, Ralph Vaughan WIlliams (tenor and piano) "I Know that my Redeemer Liveth", Messiah, Handel (tenor, piano) "And I Saw a New Heaven", (Rev 21:1-4), Edgar Bainton, (arr. for tenor, cello, and piano) Guys, I can't tell you how happy I am to get to do music like this again. It's going to be such a great opportunity. I'll be posting recordings of this stuff over the next few weeks so you can share in the beauty with me, haha.

[mementohomo]

Reger piano version of Bach

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygUGl8NAE30)