Monthly Archives: April 2020

The time of friends

Friends operate on their own time.  The time they spend together cannot be estimated by calendars and schedules since they walk together at the unique pace of their friendship. When friends communicate, the time they share expands.  It grows flexible … Continue reading

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Learning from the listening skills of composers

When we discuss musical classical works that draw on other classical works we focus on allusions, references, quotes, paraphrases, parodies and the like, trying to see how new compositions revise and appropriate earlier ones.  However, I have been thinking that … Continue reading

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“The price of the revolution”

I propose that Heiner Müller wrote the learning play Mauser (1970) to show that rebellion against party discipline means betrayal of the revolution and deserves punitive measures.  To convey this lesson, he composed a pre-tragic ritual for chorus only, where … Continue reading

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Sheltered listening (Beethoven’s “Archduke Trio” under quarantine)

Why did classical music first, among all the artistic genres, respond with enthusiasm and generosity to the current quarantine, making large quantities of its resources freely and globally available?  Even though it is among the least popular genres, why did … Continue reading

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