Sunday Afternoon Music: One of the Most Beautiful Melodies You’ll Ever Hear
Many people don’t know Anton Bruckner’s symphonies, and those who do often don’t know the 6th. But it is one of my favorites — and this particular passage struck me as something that I didn’t want to keep to myself today. I have carved out 2 1/2 minutes for you to listen to. Even if you normally skip my music posts, give this short clip a shot. This is the second theme from the second movement, an Adagio.
It hurts to cut it off. Even more beautiful music lies just around the corner, mere seconds after the end of that short clip. But I wanted to keep the excerpt short, so more people would give it a chance. If you’re intrigued, you can pull the video progress bar back to the beginning and listen to the whole symphony — all 58 minutes of it.
The Karajan recording is my favorite version, and I’m very pleased to see it freely accessible on YouTube.
Bruckner is one of my very favorite composers. I used to check out his symphonies on vinyl from the Fort Worth Public Library as a child. I had a particular fondness for the Bruno Walter/Columbia Symphony Orchestra version of the Ninth. (But there I go repeating myself, I realize; I already told you this in 2009. When an old blogger starts repeating his stories, just nod politely and smile.)
If I introduce just one person to Bruckner, that’s — well, that’s not enough. But it would still improve the world a little bit. And that’s the best that we can try to do, on any given day.
[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]
Seriously, just give it 30 seconds if 2 1/2 minutes is too long.
Patterico (115b1f) — 4/1/2018 @ 1:58 pmAnd no, I’m not rickrolling you or doing some other lame April Fool’s joke.
Patterico (115b1f) — 4/1/2018 @ 1:59 pmThe Fourth B!
Beldar (fa637a) — 4/1/2018 @ 4:10 pmThanks Mr Patterico.
If we’ve lost anything as humans it’s probably attention span.
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 4/1/2018 @ 4:19 pmIf you listen to the full symphony, you’ll notice one section which could easily have served as part of the soundtrack to Lawrence of Arabia. In a way, Bruckner was the father of the epic film score.
And Happy Easter to everyone.
Kishnevi (1a00bd) — 4/1/2018 @ 4:35 pmYou’re right kish, not the middle movements
https://youtu.be/64FGAWlluoY
narciso (d1f714) — 4/1/2018 @ 8:12 pmMaybe I’m just a musical Neanderthal, but music like this makes me feel like I’m in a Soap Opera. It doesn’t calm me down, but makes me tense as if all the air in the room is being sucked out.
Yes, I’ve had music appreciation in both High School and college, and I do appreciate classical music on a certain level, but not much. For me, “Give me that ol’ time Rock and Roll” – Seger.
Tillman (a95660) — 4/2/2018 @ 7:17 amThe kana probably threw everyone off.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 4/2/2018 @ 7:27 amFortunately I speak Japanglish.
Burucknaaaa’
Basubaruu
Don’t worry, I come across just as funny to them.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 4/2/2018 @ 7:34 amI enjoy Keeping up with the Karajans.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 4/2/2018 @ 7:39 ami deletered my Amazon Music app so I can’t get to the music store anymore this year
it’s a crappy app anyway and you can’t really manage your playlists with it
happyfeet (28a91b) — 4/2/2018 @ 7:39 amyou know who’s super dead is Winnie Mandela
happyfeet (28a91b) — 4/2/2018 @ 7:44 amIts a gomenasai (I think I have the spelling right) there is something sub
narciso (d1f714) — 4/2/2018 @ 7:45 amTime about the music of this period.
Sublime, perhaps when our orientation was skyward instead on join our selves
narciso (d1f714) — 4/2/2018 @ 7:56 amhere’s an music
has nothing AT ALL to do with skanky skanky hillary that’s just an unfortunate happenstance
happyfeet (28a91b) — 4/2/2018 @ 7:57 amPro tip. Kichigai.
That means crazy in Japanese. So, lots of Americans like to get that tatted on their bods. The really, really stupid ones put it on their necks.
Here’s the dealio, daddy-O.
What they think they are expressing is that they are cool, unconventional, free thinkers.
What they are telling the Japanese is that they are vicious and criminally insane.
Lots of idioms work like that. I made the same mistake myself. “How are you?” In Japanese that’s not a brush-over question. It means you think you’re talking to a sick person, are seriously concerned, and you actually want to know how that person is doing.
On the other hand, if you really don’t give a s*** but you’re just trying to be polite, you ask where the are going.
And the polite, unthinking answer is, “Just over there.”
That’s it for now.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 4/2/2018 @ 8:03 amI don’t even like to get “crazy” tatted on my body in English.
Actually I don’t like tattoos at all. I’ve showered with too many guys at the pool who thought it was a great idea to get a a tat in Honolulu back in 1942.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 4/2/2018 @ 8:14 amAt the end of the war when the Japanese WANTED TO MOVE ON it was the crazy ones who wanted to keep fighting.
Something to keep in mind while considering your kichigai tat.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 4/2/2018 @ 8:22 amyes the smart ones like kodama, and sasagawa and kichi (abe’s grandfather) buried into the system like hydra, the last is running into some head winds, (you know like the perfect storm)
narciso (d1f714) — 4/2/2018 @ 9:55 amPerfect “day after Easter get back to work music”, reminder that there is still beauty in the world. Haven’t heard in a long time – thanks for that. A priest in high school said that ” beautiful music is a proof of the existence of God”, or words to that effect, then would play the “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Ninth. Hard to argue with that.
Bill Saracino (78f41f) — 4/2/2018 @ 10:30 amI could not agree more.
Patterico (115b1f) — 4/2/2018 @ 11:07 amSteve 57
I used to work with a guy who had “Born to Lose” tattooed unironically on his arm.
My son has the Captain America shield on his right bicep but he is Army after all. He’s in Daegu right now, actually. Are you familiar?
Pinandpuller (4e7801) — 4/2/2018 @ 11:47 amThat was sublime! Thank you for introducing me to a wonderful composer!
SicSemperTyrannus (74a6ba) — 4/2/2018 @ 5:42 pmI know it as Taegu, P and P.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 4/3/2018 @ 3:07 amYou must be proud of your son. I am.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 4/3/2018 @ 3:08 amI still wouldn’t get a tattoo. I know what it looks like when
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 4/3/2018 @ 3:10 amyou get out of the pool sixty years later.
I spent a lot of time in the pool.
I didn’t want to drown.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 4/3/2018 @ 3:14 amThe Adagio section of B’s fifth symphony is beautiful as well but nothing compared to the adagio movement of Rachmaninov’s 2nd symphony. For pure melodic.it is unmatched! Try the YouTube at SvuitFzDxG with Radio Filharmonisch about 30 minutes in.
PhilB (8e8818) — 4/6/2018 @ 10:37 am