Klarinet Archive - Posting 000043.txt from 2010/02

From: "Dan Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Book review
Date: Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:26:40 -0500

I shall tell you a secret, and if you want to conductor to open his eyes in
astonishment, you can tell him the secret too.

Towards the end of the opera, specifically in scene 16, a quartet begins
with the four lovers singing. It goes on for a while, and you have no idea
what is about to happen, because nothing like this has ever happened in
opera before. It is a case of the sublime that is about to fall on your
head. What generally takes place is that the singers sing to each other, and
one in a while to themselves. But then the miracle happens.

At m. 173, a larghetto begins and TIME STOPS!! A canonical quartet is
introduced, first with Fiordiligi all by herself expressing her innermost
thoughts, then Ferrando, and then the other two at their places in the
canon. And for the space of about 30 measures, each character is alone with
their thoughts. At the end of the canon, time starts again and things go
back to where they were.

Now this idea of the stopping of time while the characters tell you -- one
at a time -- what is on their minds and emotions, was so revelatory, that
Beethoven took the idea in the first act of Fidelio, specifically in the
canonical quartet, "Mir is so wunderbar." There, time stops, and each
character tells the audience what they are feeling at that moment. It is
absolute magic.

Then Wagner uses the same technique in Meistersinger, the characters being
Walter, Hans Sachs, Eva, and maybe some others. THEY STOP TIME.

And finally, in Rosenkavalier, the same thing happens, but with only three
people stopping time: the Marshallin, Octavian, and Sophie.

So the invention of Mozart in Cosi was picked up by Beethoven, then Wagner,
and then Strauss, all of which shows their good taste.

Pay attention to this moment. You won't regret it.

Dan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Forest Aten" <forestaten@-----.com>
To: <klarinet@-----.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 07, 2010 5:57 AM
Subject: RE: [kl] Book review

> Congrats Dan!
>
> Here's a/the link to your Library of Congress presentation about the
> Partitta....
>
> http://www.loc.gov/radioconcerts/programs/past/program6.html
>
>
>
> Daniel N. Leeson, Gran Partitta. A Book About: Mozart's Serenade in
> B-flat,
> K. for 12 Wind Instruments and String Bass, Bloomington, Indiana 2009, 168
> Seiten, zahlr. Abb. Notenbeispiele (in englischer Sprache).
>
> The book is described at: www.leesonbooks.com
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>

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