“They saw their injured country's woe;
The flaming town, the wasted field;
Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;
They took the spear, - but left the shield.”
―Philip Freneau
.
And by a prudent flight and cunning save A life which valour could not, from the grave. A better buckler I can soon regain, But who can get another life again?
Archilochus
Brubeck must have gotten his inspiration from the second movement ("Allegro con gracia") of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony ("Pathetique") symphony, which is written in 5/4 time –– unique in Tchaikovsky's day, I believe.
You may listen to it at the following link, if you like:
I think Brubeck's direct inspiration was from the Bulgarian folk tradition -- see his Blue Rondo a la Turk from the same album. (And now I look up the track listing, I see that the saxophonist Paul Desmond wrote Take 5, not Brubeck.)
Funny, I see "the whole" of jazz as being of the "turkish" inspiration.
As for Tchaikovsky's 6th... we can see how this "fits" this "turkish" tradition (of jazz) as well Tchaikovsky critic Richard Taruskin writes, "Suicide theories were much stimulated by the Sixth Symphony, which was first performed under the composer's baton only nine days before his demise, with its lugubrious finale (ending morendo, 'dying away'), its brief but conspicuous allusion to the Orthodox requiem liturgy in the first movement and above all its easily misread subtitle. . . . When the symphony was done again a couple of weeks later, in memoriam and with subtitle in place, everyone listened hard for portents, and that is how the symphony became a transparent suicide note. Depression was the first diagnosis. 'Homosexual tragedy' came later."[9] Yet critic David Brown describes the idea of the Sixth Symphony as some sort of suicide note as "patent nonsense".[10] Says critic Alexander Poznansky, "Since the arrival of the 'court of honour' theory in the West, performances of Tchaikovsky's last symphony are almost invariably accompanied by annotations treating it as a testimony of homosexual martyrdom."[11] Other scholars, including Michael Paul Smith, believe that with or without the supposed 'court of honour' sentence, there is no way that Tchaikovsky could have known the time of his own death while composing his last masterpiece.
It has been claimed[12] that Soviet orchestras, faced with the problem of an enormously popular yet profoundly pessimistic piece, switched the order of the last two movements in order to bring the work to a triumphant conclusion in line with the principles of Socialist realism.
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN, WHETHER HE THINKS SO, OR NOT.
"A prig is a believer in red tape; that is, he exalts the method above the work done.
"A prig, like the Pharisee, says: "God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are"—except that he often substitutes Self for God.
"A prig is one who works out his paltry accounts to the last farthing, while his millionaire neighbour lets accounts take care of themselves.
"A prig expects others to square themselves to his very inadequate measuring rod, and condemns them with confidence if they do not.
"A prig is wise beyond his years in all things that do not matter.
"A prig cracks nuts with a steamhammer: that is, calls in the first principles of morality to decide whether he may, or must, do something of as little importance as drinking a glass of beer.
"On the whole, one may, perhaps, say that all his different characteristics come from the combination, in varying proportions, of three things—the desire to do his duty, the belief that he knows better than other people, and blindness to the difference in value between different things."
~ From MODERN ENGLISH USAGE by FOWLER first edition
Fowler never mentions how close to PRICK the word PRIG is in substance, spirit and pronunciation, but I'm sure the similarity must have crossed his very proper, all-too-gracious mind somewhere along the line. ];^}>
13 comments:
👍👍👍
Brubeck must have gotten his inspiration from the second movement ("Allegro con gracia") of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony ("Pathetique") symphony, which is written in 5/4 time –– unique in Tchaikovsky's day, I believe.
You may listen to it at the following link, if you like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P880P0XSDQ
I think Brubeck's direct inspiration was from the Bulgarian folk tradition -- see his Blue Rondo a la Turk from the same album. (And now I look up the track listing, I see that the saxophonist Paul Desmond wrote Take 5, not Brubeck.)
I mean Turkish folk tradition, although Bulgaria's might have worked just as well.
Funny, I see "the whole" of jazz as being of the "turkish" inspiration.
As for Tchaikovsky's 6th... we can see how this "fits" this "turkish" tradition (of jazz) as well Tchaikovsky critic Richard Taruskin writes, "Suicide theories were much stimulated by the Sixth Symphony, which was first performed under the composer's baton only nine days before his demise, with its lugubrious finale (ending morendo, 'dying away'), its brief but conspicuous allusion to the Orthodox requiem liturgy in the first movement and above all its easily misread subtitle. . . . When the symphony was done again a couple of weeks later, in memoriam and with subtitle in place, everyone listened hard for portents, and that is how the symphony became a transparent suicide note. Depression was the first diagnosis. 'Homosexual tragedy' came later."[9] Yet critic David Brown describes the idea of the Sixth Symphony as some sort of suicide note as "patent nonsense".[10] Says critic Alexander Poznansky, "Since the arrival of the 'court of honour' theory in the West, performances of Tchaikovsky's last symphony are almost invariably accompanied by annotations treating it as a testimony of homosexual martyrdom."[11] Other scholars, including Michael Paul Smith, believe that with or without the supposed 'court of honour' sentence, there is no way that Tchaikovsky could have known the time of his own death while composing his last masterpiece.
It has been claimed[12] that Soviet orchestras, faced with the problem of an enormously popular yet profoundly pessimistic piece, switched the order of the last two movements in order to bring the work to a triumphant conclusion in line with the principles of Socialist realism.
;)
More on the "court of honour" theory surrounding Tchaikovsky's death.
;P
Once is a mistake, twice is jazz.
...three times is sedition.
no no no...
Awwwww. You're SUCH a romantic, beamish!
just needed perspective...
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN, WHETHER HE THINKS SO, OR NOT.
"A prig is a believer in red tape; that is, he exalts the method above the work done.
"A prig, like the Pharisee, says: "God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are"—except that he often substitutes Self for God.
"A prig is one who works out his paltry accounts to the last farthing, while his millionaire neighbour lets accounts take care of themselves.
"A prig expects others to square themselves to his very inadequate measuring rod, and condemns them with confidence if they do not.
"A prig is wise beyond his years in all things that do not matter.
"A prig cracks nuts with a steamhammer: that is, calls in the first principles of morality to decide whether he may, or must, do something of as little importance as drinking a glass of beer.
"On the whole, one may, perhaps, say that all his different characteristics come from the combination, in varying proportions, of three things—the desire to do his duty, the belief that he knows better than other people, and blindness to the difference in value between different things."
~ From MODERN ENGLISH USAGE by FOWLER first edition
Fowler never mentions how close to PRICK the word PRIG is in substance, spirit and pronunciation, but I'm sure the similarity must have crossed his very proper, all-too-gracious mind somewhere along the line. ];^}>
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