Corruption
Scrub SOPA
The Editorial Board at National Review is thoroughly against SOPA, PIPA and any other lame piece of trash that blocks creativity and censors the end user. I understand that Anonymous wants to make a point by shutting down and attacking websites, this will end up backfiring on them in the end. The reality is that [...]
Argentina takes control of newsprint supplies
Unfortunately, Argentina has a long history with fascism, and an act like this should be called for what it is. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, President (and, one would presume, wanna-be dictator of the country), doesn’t like Clarín, a newspaper who has rightfully criticized her shoddy leadership. Her husband, the late Néstor Kirchner, was marginally better [...]
My Scratchpad
Tchaikovsky - Romeo and Juliet, fantasy-overture for orchestra
Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela
Gustavo Dudamel, cond.
from the album Tchaikovsky and ShakespeareShakespeare’s work was demonstrably important to the literary-minded Tchaikovsky; in addition to this work, certainly one of the best-loved programmatic pieces in the literature, he also composed music based on Hamlet and The Tempest. Romeo and Juliet was a “breakout” piece for the young composer: in addition to earning him the (temporary) admiration of The Five, after an initially cool public reception it quickly rose to become a living staple of the concert repertoire. Tchaikovsky was so frequently asked to perform it at private gatherings that he soon learned to play the entire overture from memory at the keyboard.
Both Balakirev and Tchaikovsky considered the latter’s first symphonic poem, Fatum, a failure; afterward Balakirev proposed that Tchaikovsky write a work based on Shakespeare’s famous play, and offered numerous rather forceful suggestions as to how such a thing might best be done. The first version, premiered in March 1870, differs quite substantially from the final revision from 1880 which is the one almost exclusively performed today.
The work is in a sonata-allegro mould framed by an introduction evoking Friar Laurence and an epilogue following the death of the lovers. The result, and the principal magic of the work, is that it does not attempt any linear narration. Rather, it musically depicts the opposing forces at work in Shakespeare’s plot and gives an abstract sense of their collisions and unhappy resolution through means of musical development.
(photo of Verona by mario bellavite)
Autumn
Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want | The Smiths
For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.
Vincent van Gogh (via floralnymph)Se l’aria mi raccontasse di te
Eugenio Montale (via valiumpost)
vorrei perdermi per sempre nel vento,
lì ascolterei le tue parole e i tuoi sospiri,
lì sarei vicino alla tua anima e al calore del tuo cuore.
