This magical piece for piano by Claude Debussy should give you some good shivers as we approach the shortest day of the year and prepare for the deep winter season. Once you’ve read the title “The Snow is Dancing”, it’s nearly impossible not to hear the gentle flakes falling from the sky, layering on top of one another until your vision is obscured into a sea of white. If this makes you shiver, your heart will warm when you learn that the composer wrote this and other pieces in a set called Children’s Corner, which he dedicated to his infant daughter.
For some people, today is a major shopping day. For others, it’s a day when post-Thanksgiving diets are begun (only to be abandoned by December 1st, when the “holiday diet” of cookies and candies begins.) For me, it is a day of repose. The only thing on my agenda is to eat leftovers.
Whether today is a “go get ’em” or a “no way am I taking off my pajamas” day for you, today’s piece will hit home. Like yesterday‘s Carmina Burana, you’ve heard the beginning part of today’s piece, but probably not the whole thing. The Stanley Kubrick film 2001 – A Space Odyssey made this piece so popular that most people identify it with the film rather than the philosophical novel which provided the piece’s original name – Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
If you’re heading out shopping, listen to the beginning. You’ll know when to stop. But when you come back, with arms full of packages and wallet empty of cash, and you realize there’s something big missing from your life – you can fill that empty hole by listening to the rest of Also sprach Zarathustra, by Richard Strauss.
Personal opinion about all of Strauss’ works: the horn is his father, he is the violin, and the waltzes are the Viennese audiences he had to write for (all three were love-hate relationships).
My favorite parts:
the organ at 1:43 – the übermensch of instruments
the über romantic string section, from 2:44-4:33
the famous, creepy weird fugue that begins at 10:52
the waltz at 21:04 – you can take Strauss out of Bavaria, but you can’t take the Bavaria out of Strauss
You’ve heard Carmina Burana before – everyone has, thanks to the opening chorus. People can’t get enough of this one. You can find it in movies, video games, commercials, sports events, and flash mobs (I was there!) But unless you’ve gone to a performance of the complete work, you probably haven’t heard this selection.
It’s sort of the swan-song of, well, a swan – a swan who was roasted and eaten. Just pretend it’s a turkey and it’ll work fine for tomorrow’s “gobble till you wobble” meal.
While the performance below is okay, I wasn’t able to find a video of a performance that I really liked. This aria is written in a horrible range for a tenor to sing in – it was written to sound drunken and terrible. All the videos I found had singers who sounded too good, and the effect is lost. The awkward, silly bassoon solo at the begins sets the mood for some trashy singing. Perhaps tomorrow, after I feast on bird, I will record myself singing this, and post it tomorrow so you can hear what it should sound like.
I wish you safe travels if you are on the road or in the air today. Happy Thanksgiving!
When I was a swan, I was beautiful; I lived on the lakes. O how miserable! Now I am charred and fiercely roasting! The servant turns me on a spit; I burn upon my pyre; the waiter serves me for dinner. O how miserable! Now I am charred and fiercely roasting! I lie upon a plate; I will never fly again; all I see are gnashing teeth. O how miserable! Now I am charred and fiercely roasting!
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