# A moody day...



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

...in musical history. My daily e-mail says that on this day in 1687, Lully got a bit enthusiastic in his conducting and struck his toe with the staff he used to beat the time. A few weeks later he was dead from gangrene.

And in 1972, Shostakovich premiered his final symphony, No. 15. Many consider it pretty moody and, moreover, steeped in ambiguity and mystery. Still, it seems pretty popular among concert-goers. One of my favorites, in fact...


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

KenOC said:


> ...in musical history. My daily e-mail says that on this day in 1687, Lully got a bit enthusiastic in his conducting and struck his toe with the staff he used to beat the time. A few weeks later he was dead from gangrene.
> 
> And in 1972, Shostakovich premiered his final symphony, No. 15. Many consider it pretty moody and, moreover, steeped in ambiguity and mystery. Still, it seems pretty popular among concert-goers. One of my favorites, in fact...


Dread day indeed. 
But the spirit of Lully lives on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was briefly misled by the thread title, but at least it meant that I took a few minutes to remember *moody*, a major character on TC & my friend. :tiphat:


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

KenOC said:


> ...in musical history. My daily e-mail says that on this day in 1687, Lully got a bit enthusiastic in his conducting and struck his toe with the staff he used to beat the time. A few weeks later he was dead from gangrene.
> 
> And in 1972, Shostakovich premiered his final symphony, No. 15. Many consider it pretty moody and, moreover, steeped in ambiguity and mystery. Still, it seems pretty popular among concert-goers. One of my favorites, in fact...


I suppose it's popular with a certain sort of concert-goer because they recognise the William Tell Overture. Who are these "many" who consider it ambiguous, mysterious and moody? People in your family?


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Mandryka said:


> I suppose it's popular with a certain sort of concert-goer because they recognise the William Tell Overture. Who are these "many" who consider it ambiguous, mysterious and moody? People in your family?


'A _certain sort of concert-goer_'?!? 
Who are these people?

One of those who consider it ambiguous etc was a music critic from _The Guardian_.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/t...23/symphony-guide-shostakovich-15-tom-service


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Ingélou said:


> 'A _certain sort of concert-goer_'?!?
> Who are these people?


People like Ken.

Ah yes, Tom Service, I know him.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

In my neck of the woods, those who can sit through a Shostakovich symphony are pretty highbrow. A colleague once told me that there where many empty seats in the second half which featured some modern Russian symphony. I can’t remember. Take your pick which of two composers that could be. Both wore glasses but one of them was follicly challenged.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Mandryka said:


> People like Ken.
> 
> Ah yes, Tom Service, I know him.


Good to know that you know Tom Service - you'll be able to ask him why he thinks the piece is ambiguous, and whether he is a member of Ken's family.


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## Guest (Jan 9, 2019)

*The 50 Darkest Pieces of Classical Music - *






Play one piece per day and you can be moody until the middle of March... Perhaps by then Volume Two will be released and you can have another go at being mercurial until sometime early in May...

This is a link to each of the 50 "Darkest Pieces of Classical Music" -






And this is a list of the 50 -

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-50-darkest-pieces-of-classical-music-mw0002228792


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Donny Brook said:


> *The 50 Darkest Pieces of Classical Music - *
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Moody - moodier - moodiest...
:tiphat: Thanks, @Donny Brook - I feel worse already.


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## Guest (Jan 9, 2019)

Ingélou said:


> Moody - moodier - moodiest...
> :tiphat: Thanks, @Donny Brook - I feel worse already.


@ Ingélou - I'm not entirely certain whether it's appropriate to say "You're Welcome!" in this particular situation as I take no pleasure in the misfortune of others especially when I'm the source of said misfortune so allow me to make amends by offering this -






*"Happy Baroque Music" -*






(you can't help but notice the sunny smiles on both Vivaldi and Bach so the tunes must be quite cheery as this is what Vivaldi looked like before listening to these tunes -









and what Bach looked like -









- hope the lovely smile as evidenced in your profile returns quickly!) -

*Gach dùrachd!*


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

KenOC said:


> A moody day ...in musical history.
> 
> ... in 1972, Shostakovich premiered his final symphony, No. 15. Many consider it pretty moody and, moreover, steeped in ambiguity and mystery. Still, it seems pretty popular among concert-goers. One of my favorites, in fact...


I had never listened to a Shostakovich symphony & your post piqued my curiosity.

I listened to the video on the Guardian Critic's review - https://www.theguardian.com/music/t...23/symphony-guide-shostakovich-15-tom-service
then discovered there was more than a little more to go.  So I found this YouTube video and listened to it all and made notes on how it seemed to me, before reading the Guardian article properly.






There are the jottings I made at the time - my personal response, using minutes rather than movements as I am not an educated listener but rather _The Adrian Mole of Twentieth-Century Music_.

1-8 minutes: Yes, it's Willam Tell, but not for those who love a good tune. It's sinister - surreal fragmentation - insect-like clicks, and later, insect-like whining - a municipal band nightmare - the William Tell theme sounds like gallant but irrelevant posturing - there's some strutting militarism that is unconvincing.

8 minutes - solemn but sinister brass - baleful stern beautiful base notes - uneasiness - but then, compelling tender tragic strings - beautiful cello tones. 14.25 - inexorable movement forward - brooding tones. 18.03 - portentous - pompuus? - then troubled, as if reviewing world history

19 minutes: ticking of the clock - a brooding quality - deeply uneasy. The tinkling sounds in their context are not charming but seem foolishly naive - at risk - and indeed the music does then become more threatening. 23.27 - playful tones quickly become mischievous and possibly malicious. Alarm bells sounding.

27 minutes (after the vinyl record has been turned over) - uncertainty - like someone popping their head out of doors after an air raid. 
Then incongruously at 29.04 comes a beautiful and serene folk theme.
31.17 - again, becomes fragmented with perky tunes - I don't know what to make of it, and I think this is good for me, devoted as I am to rather neater music. 33.57 - Troubled seraching seems significant and weighty - but is this just striking an attitude - who knows?

35 minutes 47 - Despondent music as if face to face with something disturbing - then, back to the playful stuff, but it sounds like 'whistling in the dark' - trying to convince oneself vainly that things are nae sae bad. 
At 38.50 the serene theme comes in again. Then notes of dread break in - and are ignored at first. The childhood tinkles returns, and the unforgiving ticking - it's the end of life - was it all trivial? Did it mean anything?
The bell signals - time's up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm now going to read the Guardian article properly:

I realise straight away that because of my lack of musical education I've missed a lot of the allusions - as Tom Service explains, *The music is set among the ruins of musical meaning, surrounded by broken shards of musical history and Shostakovich's personal symphonic canon, the burnt-out remains of old certainties and delusions.*

I think it's a brilliant review, though, and am heartened to find that the thoughts that occurred to me are much as in the article. Tom Service's introduction sums up the piece very well as far as my experience went - 
*Roll up, roll up for a circus of musical meaning, a surreal carnival where nothing is quite as it seems, where strange musical machines and even a glittering musical toyshop become an existential journey into the beyond.
Welcome to the world of Dmitri Shostakovich's 15th, and final, symphony.*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It remains for me to thank you for posting this, KenOC - :tiphat:
I would never have thought of listening without your thread, and I've enjoyed it and learned something.

This is what Talk Classical is all about, in my opinion.

PS - And by the way, the Symphony is certainly *moody*, among other things.  - 'I am large, I contain multitudes,' as Walt Whitman put it.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Sid James said:


> In my neck of the woods, those who can sit through a Shostakovich symphony are pretty highbrow. A colleague once told me that there where many empty seats in the second half which featured some modern Russian symphony. I can't remember. Take your pick which of two composers that could be. Both wore glasses but one of them was follicly challenged.


Ah heck! Who could you be talking about? A bespectacled modern Russian composer? I wish posters would be clear about what they're saying. I hate what my Russian friends refer to as загадок -- riddles. I'm just not good at solving riddles. Who could it be? Who could it be!?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Ingélou said:


> It remains for me to thank you for posting this, KenOC - :tiphat:
> I would never have thought of listening without your thread, and I've enjoyed it and learned something.
> 
> This is what Talk Classical is all about, in my opinion.


Ingélou, I glad you enjoyed (if that's the right word) the symphony. It's been a favorite of mine since I bought the Ormandy LP so many years ago.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

SONNET CLV said:


> Ah heck! Who could you be talking about? A bespectacled modern Russian composer? I wish posters would be clear about what they're saying. I hate what my Russian friends refer to as загадок -- riddles. I'm just not good at solving riddles. Who could it be? Who could it be!?


Are you serious? It's easy peasy.


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