Thursday, January 25, 2007

Classical Music

I’ve decided I want to learn about classical music. For the last couple of years, I’ve been slowly immersing myself into it. When I find a CD I like, I’ll listen and listen and listen to it until the musical sounds become familiar to me. Second nature. But I can’t identify one composer from another. That’s my present project. Learn one composer at a time.

This all rather evolved from reading about George Sand that included her long-term love affair with Chopin. Because I have read her writings, I wanted to know his music. It paints an entire picture that way. The person and their talent cannot be separated. To know one must be to know the other.

Franz Liszt was a friend to both Sand and Chopin. His father tried to warn him “Beware of women, stick to your music.” Alas he became the playboy of the day, night actually, flitting from one society belle to another. Whether they were married or not made no difference. Top society dame, excuse me, Countess Marie d’Agoult was a passionate affair that lasted a long time. They managed to have three children and a divorce, in disgrace, from her husband. Of course in time the passion between them turned to disgust.

Liszt begged Richard Wagner not to break up the marriage of Liszt’s daughter Cosima. Ah, in the heat of passion, who listens? Wagner was a prima dona to beat all prima donas. He refused to work for money demanding that his friends support him and his expensive habits. He managed to marry Cosima. She remained with him until his death. She never again spoke to her father until the day he also died. Fascinating
I think these were the rock stars of yesteryear. For years I thought classical music and all it entailed was boring. Boy was I a dummy.

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