The organ

[+ g56whiz]

Of course there was one tenor who transposed it down even further to B-flat major... He was known as "The King of the Be Flat"!

 

Let me guess: Carlo Bergonzi!!

 

There was no way to mask the leap of a major third that occurred just prior to Sempre Libre

in the first act of La Traviata. The whole act up till then had been transposed to accommodate him.

[whipped guy]

Let me guess: Carlo Bergonzi!!

 

There was no way to mask the leap of a major third that occurred just prior to Sempre Libre

in the first act of La Traviata. The whole act up till then had been transposed to accommodate him.

LOL! Well I heard that quip in relation to Pavarotti who was originally marketed as "King of the High C"... and more about that below.

 

However, I most definitely did think of Carlo Bergonzi when I was typing it as he certainly probably never sang it in C major! He did record an album of the complete Verdi arias and I always wondered if he did indeed transpose "Di quella pira" down to B-flat. For the record I have always had the greatest respect for Signor Bergonzi and especially in his prime. In almost any opera by Puccini or Verdi he could be relied upon to more than satisfy... add in some Donizetti as in Lucia and Elisir (there is a MET broadcast with the most meltingly beautiful "Una furtiva lagrima" imaginable) plus even Bellini's Norma and you had the perfect all purpose tenor. As such I always thought that he was underrated and often taken for granted.

 

Getting back to Pavarotti later in his career... I knew the director of the now defunct Connecticut Opera and when they sponsored a Pavarotti recital at one of the local Indian Casinos he told me that Pav came with virtually every aria transposed into two additional lower keys for the benefit of his accompanist. Depending on his vocal condition they would decide which keys to perform the arias more or less as the recital was progressing!

 

Along those lines I saw Pav in Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment at the MET later in his career. I swear that the big aria was transposed so that the infamous 9 high C's were no higher than a B-flat and possible even an A!!!! I also saw him in Il Trovatore at the MET and likewise wondered in what key "Di quella pira" was performed.

[TruHart1]

...

Of course there was one tenor who transposed it down even further to B-flat major... He was known as "The King of the Be Flat"!

Let me guess: Carlo Bergonzi!!

 

There was no way to mask the leap of a major third that occurred just prior to Sempre Libre

in the first act of La Traviata. The whole act up till then had been transposed to accommodate him.

Ha HA! And here I thought you were dropping the old Kurt Baum on us @whipped guy!!!

 

TruHart1

[AdamSmith]

BTW!!! I am pretty sure (too lazy to look it up, just going on the sound) that this performance is on the recently restored Aeolian organ. Embedded, mostly, in stone chambers at the front of the crossing of Duke Chapel. With a few, mainly decorative, publicly presented ranks. [Contrast with the visual presentation of the Flentrop gallery instrument's pipe ranks is most instructive.]

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolian_Company

 

Fenner wanted to rip out & throw away this absolutely most glorious production of the Aeolian Co.! He and his fellow tracker-action purists had, themselves, their own demons & blind spots!

 

I crawled through it, under Fenner's guidance, in 1979, and agreed with him at the time.

 

Thank ye Gods that appreciation has since dawned of the glory of the early electropneumatic instruments.

Before the 'eclectic' movement took hold.

Note the 32-foot Bombarde stop very audibly pulled in the last verse!

[whipped guy]

Ha HA! And here I thought you were dropping the old Kurt Baum on us @whipped guy

 

TruHart1

Very funny.... Mr. TruHart1!!! Well Mr. Baum certainly bombed out enough times in his career. So much so that some of his work is the stuff of party recordings! Actually as you know he liked to hold onto high notes forever and a certain soprano (no prize for guessing her name ) got sweet revenge by interpolating a high E-flat at the end of the second act of Aïda to outdo him!

 

Now the other tenor who transposed quite frequently was Placido Domingo. That was just prior to when he became a baritone. I can't recall the opera. Was it I Pagliacci? I'm not sure, but virtually the entire role was transposed down to make things comfortable for him. The last time that I saw Domingo at the MET it was as Orestes in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride and that was a role written for a very low baritonal type tenor. I even wondered then if things might have been taken down a bit !

 

Note the 32-foot Bombarde stop very audibly pulled in the last verse!

Leave it to Mr. Smith to try and get this back to the topic of the organ!

[AdamSmith]

Leave it to Mr. Smith to try and get this back to the topic of the organ!

Can you think of a better fetish?

 

http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/gallery/us_southeast/north_carolina/images/durham_duke_aeolian_lg.jpg

 

[whipped guy]

Can you think of a better fetish?

 

http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/gallery/us_southeast/north_carolina/images/durham_duke_aeolian_lg.jpg

 

You ask that of me? BIG LOL! Actually yes!

 

http://38.media.tumblr.com/489e45fa388c22213ce6214eb368867d/tumblr_mzbdbgwBuj1s5ladoo1_400.gif

[AdamSmith]

You ask that of me? BIG LOL! Actually yes!

 

http://38.media.tumblr.com/489e45fa388c22213ce6214eb368867d/tumblr_mzbdbgwBuj1s5ladoo1_400.gif

You're welcome for the setup.

 

[whipped guy]

You're welcome for the setup.

 

And Yes! You indeed set me up and I totally (willingly and happily) fell for it!

 

http://images.clipartlogo.com/files/images/21/213123/bicycle-kick_t

[marylander1940]

 

 

 

Dead dog called Checkers saved his political ass!

[+ honcho]

I'm going to play straight man and respond to a couple of things @whipped guy said out of context

 

http://www.musicnotes.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Joke-1.jpg

 

When I was in high school somebody in Choir showed up with one of those buttons that normally have political slogans on them, but which said "I'm a fermata; hold me"

 

Okay... One... well actually Two more:

 

A pain in the ass:

 

http://www.essential-music-theory.com/images/c-sharp-major-key-signature.png

 

An even worse pain in the ass:

 

http://www.essential-music-theory.com/images/c-flat-major-key-signature.png

 

Why that when this is already bad enough! (Well I know why, but still!)

 

http://www.circleoffifths.com/KeySigs/B%20Major%20Key%20Signature.png

 

Of course, there are some keyboard compositions in these keys, which fit under the fingers well because they are mostly on black keys.

[whipped guy]

I'm going to play straight man and respond to a couple of things @whipped guy said out of context

Of course, there are some keyboard compositions in these keys, which fit under the fingers well because they are mostly on black keys.

Response to "Straight man Honcho", and I would not believe that description of him for even a mili-second!

 

LOL! Yes! When one comes across such a key... one hits a black key when one is totally confused regarding what to do and it usually comes out correctly! Of course the other option is to cheat and ignore the key signature and play things on mostly the white keys. When in high school I recall playing Chopin's Waltz Opus 70 No 1 in G-major as opposed to G-flat major as I simply could not deal with all those flats. Since the piece is not overly harmonically complex it worked and since I was playing it for my own pleasure I could care less.

 

[whipped guy]

Getting back to Beethoven:

 

 

[AdamSmith]

Getting back to Beethoven:

 

 

LMAO!!!

 

Exact behavior of idiot dandified brother Nikolaus 'Johann' van Beethoven...

 

http://assets2.classicfm.com/2013/09/nikolaus-johann-van-beethoven-1776-1848-beethovens-brother-1362501234-view-1.jpg

[AdamSmith]

Coincidentally, thumbnail bio of Albrechtsberger, who taught counterpoint to LvB.

 

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=22313745

 

 

[whipped guy]

LMMFAO!!!

 

Exact behavior of idiot dandified brother Nikolaus 'Johann' van Beethoven...

 

http://assets2.classicfm.com/2013/09/nikolaus-johann-van-beethoven-1776-1848-beethovens-brother-1362501234-view-1.jpg

It also reminds me of the time I went with a friend to an end of year recital by a violinist friend at Yale 30 years ago. I was sure he was going to get out of his seat and applaud for her after the first movement of Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata! I recall untactfully leaning over and placing my hands over his to make sure it didn't happen!

[whipped guy]

Two thoughts about a couple of horrid nights at the opera with unruly opera patrons.

 

Once years ago during Turandot one old fart of a witch shared a spot in a family circle box. It was bad enough that one had to hang half of your body out of the box to see the stage, but even worse this very inconsiderate woman not only sang along, but had to keep telling me the story... my patience with her ended when she did so during "Nessun dorma". I told her, "I came to hear Franco Corelli not you!" She was a tough old buzzard as it didn't shut her up as she continued right to the end.

 

Another time a guy who was totally bombed out of his mind and reaked of not only liquor but tobacco sat next to me and sang... but as sort of a basso profondo... siniging along with the cellos and double basses in the orchestra. I really should have approached an usher during the intermission and asked if I could be moved, but did not. In any event the performance of Norma that evening was no great shakes. I hope that my luck improves with the coming season's production of Norma. At least I had the good sense to convince my friends to avoid the opening night soprano.

[+ sync]

Two thoughts about a couple of horrid nights at the opera with unruly opera patrons.

 

Once years ago during Turandot one old fart of a witch shared a spot in a family circle box. It was bad enough that one had to hang half of your body out of the box to see the stage, but even worse this very inconsiderate woman not only sang along, but had to keep telling me the story... my patience with her ended when she did so during "Nessun dorma". I told her, "I came to hear Franco Corelli not you!" She was a tough old buzzard as it didn't shut her up as she continued right to the end.

 

Another time a guy who was totally bombed out of his mind and reaked of not only liquor but tobacco sat next to me and sang... but as sort of a basso profondo... siniging along with the cellos and double basses in the orchestra. I really should have approached an usher during the intermission and asked if I could be moved, but did not. In any event the performance of Norma that evening was no great shakes. I hope that my luck improves with the coming season's production of Norma. At least I had the good sense to convince my friends to avoid the opening night soprano.

 

It's refreshing to know that the high-brows also suffer from those insufferables.

[whipped guy]

It's refreshing to know that the high-brows also suffer from those insufferables.

One more memory... I recall a guy who was drunk out of his mind in the Family Circle section of the MET. Being the highest balcony it is extremely steep. I really thought that he was gong to do a slip and slide down the aisle after the performance. His companion reminded him as he was gingerly making his way down (with the companions help fortunately) after the performance that the next opera that they would be seeing would be the Magic Flute. His response, "Yep! (Burp!) That's a (Burp!) good one! (Burp!)". Fortunately he was well behaved during the performance so no problems what so ever! Incidentally, the opera was L'Elisir d'Amore so there was already enough drunken action on stage for one evening!

[TruHart1]

One more memory... I recall a guy who was drunk out of his mind in the Family Circle section of the MET. Being the highest balcony it is extremely steep. I really thought that he was gong to do a slip and slide down the aisle after the performance. His companion reminded him as he was gingerly making his way down (with the companions help fortunately) after the performance that the next opera that they would be seeing would be the Magic Flute. His response, "Yep! (Burp!) That's a (Burp!) good one! (Burp!)". Fortunately he was well behaved during the performance so no problems what so ever! Incidentally, the opera was L'Elisir d'Amore so there was already enough drunken action on stage for one evening!

@whipped guy, that story reminds me of when I was attending "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" early (May of 2011) in its Broadway run, starring the late Robin Williams. That theater, the Richard Rodgers Theatre, had a steep balcony but also had a tricky half-step on the row in which I was sitting with my friend. After the show ended, my friend, sitting on the end of the row, stood up to leave, missed the half-step and began to fall, when a kind stranger caught him and kept him from tumbling down. That kind stranger turned out to be...Dick Cavett! My friend, who is a total Broadway QUEEN, was first shocked and then in ecstasy that Mr. Cavett had "saved his life," and furnished him with an anecdote he tells proudly even to this very day!

 

TruHart1

[AdamSmith]

[AdamSmith]

Coaxing the "Wild Man" to Perform

 

I have heard him play; but to bring him so far required some management, so great is his horror of being anything like exhibited. Had he been plainly asked to do the company that favour, he would have flatly refused; he had to be cheated into it. Every person left the room, except Beethoven and the master of the house, one of his most intimate acquaintances. These two carried on a conversation in the paper-book about bank stock. The gentleman, as if by chance, struck the keys of the open piano, beside which they were sitting, gradually began to run over one of Beethoven's own compositions, made a thousand errors, and speedily blundered one passage so thoroughly, that the composer condescended to stretch out his hand and put him right. It was enough; the hand was on the piano; his companion immediately left him, on some pretext, and joined the rest of the company, who in the next room, from which they could see and hear everything, were patiently waiting the issue of this tiresome conjuration. Beethoven, left alone, seated himself at the piano. At first he only struck now and then a few hurried notes, as if afraid of being detected in a crime; but gradually he forgot everything else, and ran on during half an hour in a fantasy, in a style extremely varied, and marked, above all, by the most abrupt transitions. The amateurs were enraptured; to the uninitiated it was more interesting to observe how the music of the man's soul passed over his countenance. He seems to feel the bold, the commanding, and the impetuous, more than what is soothing or gentle. The muscles of the face swell, and its veins start out; the wild eye rolls doubly wild, the mouth quivers, and Beethoven looks like a wizard, overpowered by the demons whom he himself has called up.

 

-- John Russell -- A Tour in Germany, and Some of the Southern Provinces of the Austrian Empire, in 1820,1821,1822,1828

 

http://www.lucare.com/immortal/perform.html

[AdamSmith]

Deafness

 

Beethoven's career as a virtuoso pianist was brought to an end when he began to experience his first symptoms of deafness. In a letter written to his friend Karl Ameda on 1 July 1801, he admitted he was experiencing signs of deafness.

 

How often I wish you were here, for your Beethoven is having a miserable life, at odds with nature and its Creator, abusing the latter for leaving his creatures vulnerable to the slightest accident ... My greatest faculty, my hearing, is greatly deteriorated.

 

Apparently Beethoven had been aware of the problem for about three years, avoiding company lest his weakness be discovered, and retreating into himself. Friends ascribed his reserve to preoccupation and absentmindedness. In a letter to Wegeler, he wrote:

 

How can I, a musician, say to people "I am deaf!" I shall, if I can, defy this fate, even though there will be times when I shall be the unhappiest of God's creatures ... I live only in music ... frequently working on three or four pieces simultaneously.

 

Many men would have been driven to suicide; Beethoven may indeed have contemplated it. Yet his stubborn nature strengthened him and he came to terms with his deafness in a dynamic, constructive way. In a letter to Wegeler, written five months after the despairing one quoted above, it becomes clear that Beethoven, as always, stubborn, unyielding and struggling against destiny, saw his deafness as a challenge to be fought and overcome:

 

Free me of only half this affliction and I shall be a complete, mature man. You must think of me as being as happy as it is possible to be on this earth - not unhappy. No! I cannot endure it. I will seize Fate by the throat. It will not wholly conquer me! Oh, how beautiful it is to live - and live a thousand times over!

 

With the end of his career as a virtuoso pianist inevitable, he plunged into composing. It offered a much more precarious living than that of a performer, especially when his compositions had already shown themselves to be in advance of popular taste . In 1802 his doctor sent him to Heiligenstadt, a village outside Vienna, in the hope that its rural peace would rest in his hearing. The new surroundings reawakened in Beethoven a love of nature and the countryside, and hope and optimism returned. Chief amongst the sunny works of this period was the charming, exuberant Symphony no. 2. However, when it became obvious that there was no improvement in his hearing, despair returned. By the autumn the young man felt so low both physically and mentally that he feared he would not surive the winter. He therefore wrote his will and left instructions that it was to be opened only after his death. This 'Heiligenstadt Testament' is a long moving document that reveals more about his state of mind than does the music he was writing at the time. Only his last works can reflect in sound what he then put down in words.

 

O ye men who accuse me of being malevolent, stubborn and misanthropical, how ye wrong me! Ye know not the secret cause. Ever since childhood my heart and mind were disposed toward feelings of gentleness and goodwill, and I was eager to accomplish great deeds; but consider this: for six years I have been hopelessly ill, aggravated and cheated by quacks in the hope of improvement but finally compelled to face a lasting malady ... I was forced to isolate myself. I was misunderstood and rudely repulsed because I was as yet unable to say to people, "Speak louder, shout, for I am deaf" ... With joy I hasten to meet death. Despite my hard fate ... I shall wish that it had come later; but I am content, for he shall free me of constant suffering. Come then, Death, and I shall face thee with courage. Heiglnstadt (sic) 6 October, 1802.

 

http://www.lucare.com/immortal/media/testement.jpg

The last page of the 'Heiligenstadt Testament'

 

Just how bad was Beethoven's plight? At first the malady was intermittent or so faint that it worried him only occasionally. but by 1801 he reported that a whistle and a buzz was constant. Low speech tones became an unintelligible hum, shouting became an intolerable din. Apparently the illness completely swamped delicate sounds and distorted strong ones. He may have had short periods of remission, but for the last ten years of his life he was totally deaf.

 

http://www.lucare.com/immortal/deaf.html

[AdamSmith]

After Heiligenstadt

 

After his return from Heiligenstadt, Beethoven's music deepened. He began creating a new musical world. In the summer of 1803 he began work on his Third Symphony - the 'Eroica'. It was to be the paean of glory to Napoleon Bonaparte and like its subject, it was revolutionary. It was half as long as any previous symphony and its musical language was so uncompromising that it set up resistance in its first audiences. It broke the symphonic mold, yet established new, logical and cogent forms. This was the miracle Beethoven was to work many times.

 

Stephan von Breuning, with whom Beethoven shared rooms, reports a thunderous episode in connection with the 'Eroica' Symphony. In December, 1804, the news arrived that Napoleon, that toiler for the rights of the common people, had proclaimed himself Emperor. In a fury, Beethoven strode over to his copy of the Symphony, which bore a dedication to Napoleon, and crossed out the "Bonaparte" name in such violence that the pen tore in the paper. "Is he, too, nothing more than human?" he raged. "Now he will crush the rights of man. He will become a tyrant!"

 

For the next few years in Vienna, from 1804 to 1808, Beethoven lived in what might be described as a state of monotonous uproar. His relationships suffered elemental rifts, his music grew ever greater, and all the time he was in love with one women or another, usually high-born, sometimes unattainable, always unattained. he never married.

 

His Fifth and Sixth Symphonies were completed by the summer of 1808. The Fifth indeed takes fate by the throat; the Sixth (Pastoral) is a portrait of the countryside around Heilingenstadt. These and other works spread his name and fame.

 

In July 1812 Beethoven wrote a letter to an unidentified lady whom he addressed as The Immortal Beloved. It was as eloquent of love as his 'Heiligenstadt Testament' had been of despair. The following is a summary of the letter (follow the above link for more):

 

My angel, my all, my very self - a few words only today, and

in pencil (thine). Why such profound sorrow when necessity

speaks? Can our love endure but through sacrifice - but through

not demanding all - canst thou alter it that thou art not wholly

mine, I not wholly thine?

 

So moving an outpouring may well have resulted, at last, in some permanent arrangement - if the lady in question had been free, and if the letter had been sent. It was discovered in a secret drawer in Beethoven's desk after his death.

 

His brother Casper Carl died in November 1815. The consequences brought about something that neither the tragedy of deafness nor Napoleon's guns could achieve: they almost stopped Beethoven composing. Beethoven was appointed guardian of his brother's nine-year-old son, Karl - a guardianship he shared with the boy's mother Johanna. Beethoven took the appointment most seriously and was certain that Johanna did not. He believed her to be immoral, and immediately began legal proceedings to get sole guardianship of his nephew. The lawsuit was painful and protracted and frequently abusive, with Johanna asserting "How can a deaf, madman bachelor guard the boy's welfare?" - Beethoven repeatedly fell ill because of the strain. He did not finally secure custody of Karl until 1820, when the boy was 20.

 

The Ninth Symphony (Choral) was completed in 1823, by which time Beethoven was completely deaf. There was a poignant scene at the first performance. Despite his deafness, Beethoven insisted on conducting, but unknown to him the real conductor sat out of his sight beating time. As the last movement ended, Beethoven, unaware even that the music had ceased, was also unaware of the tremendous burst of applause that greeted it. One of the singers took him by the arm and turned him around so that he might actually see the ovation.

 

http://www.lucare.com/immortal/after.html

[AdamSmith]

His Death

 

http://www.lucare.com/immortal/media/mask.jpg

A life mask of Beethoven make by Franz Klein.

 

In the autumn of 1826, Beethoven took Karl to Gneixendorf for a holiday. The following is an account of Beethoven the possessed genius as he worked upon his last string quartet:

 

At 5:30 A.M. he was at his table, beating time with hands and feet, humming and writing. After breakfast he hurried outside to wander in the fields, calling, waving his arms about, moving slowly, then very abruptly stopping to scribble something in his notebook.

 

In early December Beethoven returned to Vienna with Karl and the journey brought the composer down with pneumonia. He recovered, only to be laid low again with cirrhosis of the liver, which in turn gave way to dropsy. His condition had deteriorated dramatically by the beginning of March and, sensing the worst, his friends rallied round: faithful Stephan brought his family and Schubert paid his respects.

 

Beethoven's final moments, if a report by Schubert's friend Huttenbrenner are to believed, were dramatic in the extreme. At about 5:45 in the afternoon of 26 March, 1827, as a storm raged, Beethoven's room was suddenly filled with light and shaken with thunder:

 

Beethoven's eyes opened and he lifted his right fist for several seconds, a serious, threatening expression on his face. When his head fell back, he half closed his eyes...Not another word, not another heartbeat.

 

Schubert and Hummel were among the 20,000 - 30,000 people who mourned the composer at his funeral three days later. He was buried in Wahring Cemetery; in 1888 his remains were removed to Zentral-friedhof in Vienna--a great resting place for musicians-- where he lies side-by-side with Schubert.

 

http://www.lucare.com/immortal/final.html