{"id":5206,"date":"2024-04-11T15:06:16","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T22:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=5206"},"modified":"2024-04-11T15:06:55","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T22:06:55","slug":"more-classical-triumph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=5206","title":{"rendered":"More Classical Triumph"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By popular demand, here come a few more triumphant and mostly triumphant (or at very least stirring) works of classical music, each one with a link to a recording on YouTube. I\u2019ve considered all suggestions and rejected several for not having enough melody (Adams\u2019 \u201cA Short Ride on a Fast Machine\u201d) or enough energy (Rimsky-Korsakov\u2019s \u201cProcession of the Nobles\u201d) to carry off the feel of triumph. I like those too, but I\u2019m on a mission here, and feeling sprightly tonight. <\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m about out of time for fooling with Contra today and want to post this before supper. I\u2019m still looking for candidates and still considering a few, like Respighi\u2019s \u201cThe Pines of Rome\u201d and Aaron Copland\u2019s \u201cOutdoor Overture,\u201d which is a touch peculiar but deserves way more play than it gets. Again, I\u2019ll start collecting pieces for a third entry, though it won\u2019t be soon, since I\u2019m at 104,000 words and struggling to finish <em>The Everything Machine<\/em>. So let\u2019s have at it!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=j3T8-aeOrbg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">William Tell Overture: March of the Swiss Soldiers<\/a>,<\/em> by Rossini, 1829. Ok, guilty: I skipped this one the first time because who doesn\u2019t know, well, <em>The Lone Ranger<\/em> theme song? Although nominally a march, it always sounded to me more like a mad scramble or (in most people\u2019s minds) a guy on a galloping horse. The music world now agrees that the piece is indeed a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Galop\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">galop<\/a>,\u201d which was a rapid dance movement in the 1700s that became the forerunner of both the polka and \u2026wait for it\u2026 the <em>can-can<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BX-P23NUNT4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A Moorside Suite: March<\/a><\/em><em><\/em> by Gustav Holst, 1928. The conclusion of a three-movement suite, all of which is worth hearing. This concluding march expresses both confidence and triumph right through its final bars, which don\u2019t explode but instead say, \u201cWe won. <em>Live<\/em> with it!\u201d<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rsFFCpH-BzE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Running Set<\/a><\/em>, by Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1933. Here we have, not a lead-up to an explosive ending, but an absolutely manic five minutes beginning to end that I often characterize as \u201can Irish jig on meth.\u201d It is probably Vaughan Williams\u2019 most obscure work, drawing on four folk dance tunes and cranking the meter up to 11. Here\u2019s about as much <a href=\"https:\/\/www.windrep.org\/Running_Set,_The_(arr._Daehn)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">description<\/a> as I found on a quick scan. Ok, sure, no explosion at the end, just a single forward chord. But given what came before it, hey, that\u2019s all that I require.<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=77eXmbkNo6Q\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">March of the Trolls<\/a><\/em> by Edvard Grieg, from his \u201cLyric Suite,\u201d 1894. The orchestra tries to play a pretty melody, and here come those darn trolls, not marching but madly scrambling from rock to rock in their cave and making an awful racket. They go away, and the orchestra tries again. Can\u2019t have that. Here come the trolls, back from whateverthehell trolls do, scrambling into their cave, double time. March? Trolls don\u2019t just <em>march<\/em>. Moral: Don\u2019t try to play pretty melodies near the trolls\u2019 cave. They\u2019ll win every time.<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7GUzJ7fQBtg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Troika<\/a><\/em> by Sergei Prokofiev, from \u201cThe Lt. Kije Suite,\u201d 1934. It was a movie: The previous incarnation of Captain Tuttle is born, falls in love, marries the girl, and then goes for an invigorating sleigh ride! That\u2019s the life\u2014but make sure you stop there, because the next movement is a downer. Really, it\u2019s ok; Lt. Kije (like Captain Tuttle) never actually existed.<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4nMUr8Rt2AI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hall of the Mountain King<\/a><\/em> by Edvard Grieg, from his \u201dPeer Gynt Suite\u201d (1876). Sure, how can we play \u201cMarch of the Trolls\u201d and then not go to the next mountain over and try to sell the Mountain King some solar panels? No, King Carbon lives above a coal mine and avoids the Sun. So you have to sneak out again, with the King\u2019s bodyguard following along behind. You go faster, they go faster, and before you know it, it becomes (yes!) another mad scramble to jump over chasms and race down the mountain to the valley, where there are fewer grouchy kings (or trolls) and more pubs.<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cao6WyF-61s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Symphonie Fantastique 5: Dream of a Black Sabbath<\/a><\/em>, by Hector Berlioz, 1830. Most people in the classical music universe consider this a musical depiction of an occult nightmare. It\u2019s not. It\u2019s something utterly different and better: a musical metaphor of good triumphing over evil. So it begins: the creepy crawlies skitter and gesture and finally join together in an infernal dance (1:18) The nightmare is underway, and the minor evils make themselves known, posturing to each other, some noticing a brief bit of a different force (2:27) that strikes fear in their hearts. At about 2:50, the Big Bad opens up its Eye in the tower and, with funereal bells in the background, looks down at its minions while the Deus Irae pronounces its rank as top of the evil heap. But at 4:52 something new and terrifying happens: The Army of Good arrives at the gate and makes its presence known with the rhythm of marching stallions. Sneaking around circa 6:35, evil starts to worry. That\u2019s quite an army that Good has out there. Time to engage! Down the gates fall and in comes the army, trampling the minions and making its way up the Tower to confront the Bad Boss. Up the tower stairs the minions retreat, sneaking and hopping (8:20) and falling over the railings (6:12). None can truly face the forces of Good. At the top of the stairs, Good unleashes its power against the Big Bad. Big Bad responds (9:01) Good overpowers evil, the Deus Irae plays for the end of Big Bad, and the Tower crumbles to dust and rubble on top of the doomed minions. Good rides off triumphant. No matter how bad you think you are, don\u2019t mess with those guys. Really. <em>REALLY<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Heh. I\u2019ve wanted to write that last item that for a long, <em>long<\/em> time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By popular demand, here come a few more triumphant and mostly triumphant (or at very least stirring) works of classical music, each one with a link to a recording on YouTube. I\u2019ve considered all suggestions and rejected several for not having enough melody (Adams\u2019 \u201cA Short Ride on a Fast Machine\u201d) or enough energy (Rimsky-Korsakov\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-noneoftheabove"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5206"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5208,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5206\/revisions\/5208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}