This post isn’t meant to be morbid; I just want to point out how an artistic idea can grow, bloom and flourish. In chronological order:

1. Date unknown: humans or pre-humans become aware that they everyone will eventually die
2. Ancient: humans create artwork depicting death and the afterlife
3. Medieval: poetic idea of “Dance of Death” – no matter what one’s station in life is, we begin and end the same
4. 18th c.: Matthias Claudius writes the poem “Death and the Maiden”
5. 1817: Franz Schubert writes an art-song (in German, lied) using Claudius’ poem (you can hear it here)
6. 1824: Schubert writes a string quartet, whose second movement uses the same music as the art song he wrote seven years earlier

The quartet is a lengthy piece, and was written just four years before the composer died, at 32 years old. I’m not sure if he saw death dancing at his door at the time; not many of us know when, but we all know that he will.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NKEHosQf2k

7. afterthought – 1971, George Crumb‘s piece Black Angels quotes “Death and the Maiden” and freaks us all out big time.

A few weeks ago I posted about the “Queen of Chorales”, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern. The tune has been used by many composers – today we’ll hear from Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn is often praised for championing and reintroducing JS Bach’s music to European audiences. Like Bach, he was an absolutely genius of a composer, and wrote in a conservative style for his time. Mendelssohn wrote a number of fantastic oratorios; when he died at the young age of 38, he left an unfinished oratorio, Christus. This chorus tells part of the story of the birth of Christ. It begins with a traditional-sounding recitative, followed by a short section sung by the Three Wise Men, and closes with a chorus – which ends, like many of Bach’s cantatas, with a chorale. The Queen of Chorales, that is.

Compare the end of the two pieces to get a sense of the chorale, and the stylistic difference between 1730 and 1830.

Bach: chorale starts at 20:45
Mendelssohn: chorale starts at 4:49

listen to this amazing overture to Richard Wagner’s opera Parsifal.

It has nothing to do with winter or snow, but it’s such a great piece, and perfect for watching the weather and contemplating your existence. No other composer can successfully write music that has essentially one chord for five minutes, and then twist you around an amazingly complex harmonic progression that rips your heart right out of your chest. And the horns … so many horns … no, not horns on a Viking helmet, I’m talking about the instrument he invented, the Wagner tuba.