Looking back

[Peter]

Since Beethoven towards the end of his life looked back for inspiration (though I think a work such as the Grosse fugue bypasses the 19th century and plunges straight into the 20th) I would like to know if anyone has anything positive to say about Purcell who I am currently interested in finding out more about? I would also like to know if you are familiar with the work of Handel's great rival of the time Giovanni Battista Bononcini and Johann Adolph Hasse.

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'Man know thyself'

[Rod]

Originally posted by Peter:
Since Beethoven towards the end of his life looked back for inspiration (though I think a work such as the Grosse fugue bypasses the 19th century and plunges straight into the 20th) I would like to know if anyone has anything positive to say about Purcell who I am currently interested in finding out more about? I would also like to know if you are familiar with the work of Handel's great rival of the time Giovanni Battista Bononcini and Johann Adolph Hasse.

I've heard nothing from the C20th that reminds me of this fugue, unless you can give me a sample? I suggest Beethoven was above his time in this respect, not ahead of it. The future was/is a slow and steady decline.

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Peter]

Well this isn't what I wanted to discuss in this thread but since you want to make an issue out of one comment:

"And Beethoven was the third great influence on Bartók. The affinity lies very deep. Bartók has the same ruthless will to form, to personal form, the same intensity of violence and tenderness, the same compelling, childlike directness of vision. These qualities may give his music its frequent harshness, even uncouthness, but they give it also its reality, its power and value."

For two differing views on this work - take the 19th century attitude and the 20th and you will see exactly what I meant:
Louis Spohr called it, along with the rest of Beethoven's late works, an "indecipherable, uncorrected horror." Igor Stravinsky said of it, "it is an absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever."


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'Man know thyself'

[This message has been edited by Peter (edited 09-20-2006).]

[robert newman]

Hi Peter,

I'm also interested in the life and career of J.A. Hasse (1699-1783) - a composer of great importance in western music. Certainly in opera. I've mentioned Hasse a couple of times to Rod in connection with Bach and the missing cycles of Bach cantatas. Hasse lived between 1764 and 1773 in Vienna and was associated with those who helped the careers of Haydn and later Mozart.

(I also respect and admire Purcell, composer of the 'Fairy Queen' and much other really fine music. I couldn't help laughing that at a local supermarket I saw recently 'Persil' soap powder stacked next to 'Fairy Liquid'. And both produced by the same company !).

[HaydnFan]

Peter, in music class last night, we were discussing Purcell (albeit breifly) but I liked what I heard. I have to say that it is difficult to make any real judgements, as I do not have access to any sort of meaningful amount of his work.