rains lit by neon
Apr. 27th, 2019 10:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yamamanamaAnnie had a small Hand of Fatima with a green gemstone. A woman near her had a purple and neon green windbreaker and purple hair to match. A man was missing his earlobe but the ear on the other side of his face looked normal. I didn't feel right asking about it.
A woman at Boston Shawarma had hair that was either hadeopelagic or bathypelagic, and she was talking about music in other languages and how people sometimes focus on lyrics. On the other side of me, there was a conversation in some Indian language I can’t recognize.
A woman had oceanic blue braids. A woman in Symphony Hall had a bright yellow jacket and cotton candy hair. Another woman had an astronaut tattoo and pale green hair. A woman had streaks of purple in her hair. Huh. Guess Roosh Doony was wrong.
For reasons unknown, probably because “it’s April,” they had the air conditioning on at Symphony Hall.
Charles Ives’ 3rd Symphony was written in 1902 and collected dust until Mahler came upon it and told himself that next season, he’ll conduct it. Mahler died in 1911 and Ives stopped composing in 1918 and the third symphony collected dust until the 1946 and won the Pulitzer Prize. It is a choral symphony without a chorus, a symphony of hymns, none of which I am familiar with aside from a brief quotation of Silent Night. It’s in 3 movements, the old folks, the children that came along with them, and the communion. There was a set of chimes in the hallway, played offstage. Usually it's played by a chamber orchestra. John Adams’ father did not really know Charles Ives.
Usually, Mahler’s 5th symphony is paired up with a concerto or perhaps Strauss’ Emperor Waltz as a portrait of 1890s Vienna, but instead they picked this.
Mahler’s 5th symphony is five movements. The first two are about death and destruction, so they’re paired. The first movement is a funeral march. You can even hear a bit of Star Wars in it. The second has a triumphal theme towards the end but it fades away to sadness. Maybe I think of it as “we’ve won, but it came at a high price.”
The third movement is the longest scherzo ever composed although I want to think at least one composed tried to outdo him on that front. It’s a Viennese dance that occasionally veers into demented parody. Vienna wasn’t just waltzes and coffee for him. There’s intrigues, there’s antisemitism coughpolandcough, there’s a reactionary climate putting down revolutionary ideals and I’m loath to call modern Vienna that. Austria as a whole, though. I only know a little about Austrian politics but I see Vienna and maybe Salzburg as islands of cosmopolitanism in a sea of fascism. As it is in 2019, Europe was a powder keg.
The fourth movement was used in the film Death in Venice and at the funeral of Robert Kennedy but it’s not really sad or anything. It’s more of a love song than anything. Hope rising from the ashes of the old world. It’s played only on strings and harp. The fifth movements is overwhelmingly joyous.
Near me, someone was reading along with the sheet music.
Danielle had a star-shaped pendant. It was hard to draw anyone because the Green Line train was packed and by Arlington I was already planning my escape. The Red Line was mostly empty.
burning question: I had it in my hand. Now, where'd it go, Aurora? I see you up ahead but I don't know if I can go as far as you go.
A woman at Boston Shawarma had hair that was either hadeopelagic or bathypelagic, and she was talking about music in other languages and how people sometimes focus on lyrics. On the other side of me, there was a conversation in some Indian language I can’t recognize.
A woman had oceanic blue braids. A woman in Symphony Hall had a bright yellow jacket and cotton candy hair. Another woman had an astronaut tattoo and pale green hair. A woman had streaks of purple in her hair. Huh. Guess Roosh Doony was wrong.
For reasons unknown, probably because “it’s April,” they had the air conditioning on at Symphony Hall.
Charles Ives’ 3rd Symphony was written in 1902 and collected dust until Mahler came upon it and told himself that next season, he’ll conduct it. Mahler died in 1911 and Ives stopped composing in 1918 and the third symphony collected dust until the 1946 and won the Pulitzer Prize. It is a choral symphony without a chorus, a symphony of hymns, none of which I am familiar with aside from a brief quotation of Silent Night. It’s in 3 movements, the old folks, the children that came along with them, and the communion. There was a set of chimes in the hallway, played offstage. Usually it's played by a chamber orchestra. John Adams’ father did not really know Charles Ives.
Usually, Mahler’s 5th symphony is paired up with a concerto or perhaps Strauss’ Emperor Waltz as a portrait of 1890s Vienna, but instead they picked this.
Mahler’s 5th symphony is five movements. The first two are about death and destruction, so they’re paired. The first movement is a funeral march. You can even hear a bit of Star Wars in it. The second has a triumphal theme towards the end but it fades away to sadness. Maybe I think of it as “we’ve won, but it came at a high price.”
The third movement is the longest scherzo ever composed although I want to think at least one composed tried to outdo him on that front. It’s a Viennese dance that occasionally veers into demented parody. Vienna wasn’t just waltzes and coffee for him. There’s intrigues, there’s antisemitism coughpolandcough, there’s a reactionary climate putting down revolutionary ideals and I’m loath to call modern Vienna that. Austria as a whole, though. I only know a little about Austrian politics but I see Vienna and maybe Salzburg as islands of cosmopolitanism in a sea of fascism. As it is in 2019, Europe was a powder keg.
The fourth movement was used in the film Death in Venice and at the funeral of Robert Kennedy but it’s not really sad or anything. It’s more of a love song than anything. Hope rising from the ashes of the old world. It’s played only on strings and harp. The fifth movements is overwhelmingly joyous.
Near me, someone was reading along with the sheet music.
Danielle had a star-shaped pendant. It was hard to draw anyone because the Green Line train was packed and by Arlington I was already planning my escape. The Red Line was mostly empty.
burning question: I had it in my hand. Now, where'd it go, Aurora? I see you up ahead but I don't know if I can go as far as you go.
