Blog Break

Comment moderation intermittently enabled.

Real life, this time, pleasurable real life, supersedes virtual life!

Warren is coming for a visit — his second visit to Washington, D.C.!

There's too much going on here to work on publishing blog posts.

Then, once Warren arrives, he and Mr. AOW and I are off to the National Museum of American History, the National Gallery of Art, the Holocaust Museum, Mount Vernon, the National Museum of Health and Medicine, and whatever other attractions we can manage to squeeze into our schedule.  We're also having a shed sale here.  Tools, tools, tools!  A real Toolapalooza!

During this blog's hiatus, enjoy Impressionism: Ravel & Debussy...


About Impressionism in music:

Impressionism in music was a movement among various composers in Western classical music (mainly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries) whose music focuses on suggestion and atmosphere, "conveying the moods and emotions aroused by the subject rather than a detailed tone‐picture". "Impressionism" is a philosophical and aesthetic term borrowed from late 19th century French painting after Monet's Impression, Sunrise. Composers were labeled impressionists by analogy to the impressionist painters who use starkly contrasting colors, effect of light on an object, blurry foreground and background, flattening perspective, etc. to make the observer focus his attention on the overall impression.

The most prominent in musical impressionism is the use of "color", or in musical term, timbre, which can be achieved through orchestration, harmonic usage, texture, etc. Other elements of music impressionism also involve new chord combinations, ambiguous tonality, extended harmonies, use of modes and exotic scales, parallel motions, extra-musicality, and evocative titles.

Index to selections on the video:

1. Debussy - Deux arabesques, L. 66: No. 1 in E Major, Andantino con moto 0:00
2. Debussy - Ballade, L. 70 4:50
3. Debussy - La plus que lente, L. 121 11:45
4. Ravel - Valses nobles et sentimentales, M. 61: No. 3, Modéré 15:27
5. Ravel - Valses nobles et sentimentales, M. 61: No. 4, Assez animé 17:04
6. Debussy - Children's Corner, L. 113: No. 1, Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum 18:16
7. Debussy - Children's Corner, L. 113: No. 2, Jimbo's Lullaby 20:39
8. Debussy - Children's Corner, L. 113: No. 3, Serenade for the Doll 23:54
9. Debussy - Children's Corner, L. 113: No. 4, The Snow Is Dancing 26:18
10. Debussy - Children's Corner, L. 113: No. 5, The Little Shepherd 28:21
11. Debussy - Children's Corner, L. 113: No. 6, Golliwog's Cake-walk 31:07
12. Ravel - Valses nobles et sentimentales, M. 61: No. 7, Moins vif 33:53
13. Ravel - Valses nobles et sentimentales, M. 61: No. 5, Presque lent, dans un sentiment intime 36:53
14. Debussy - Rêverie, L. 68 38:23
15. Ravel - Valses nobles et sentimentales, M. 61: No. 6, Vif 42:36
16. Ravel - Miroirs, M. 43: No. 3, Une barque sur l'océan. D'un rythme souple 43:19 17. Ravel - Miroirs, M. 43: No. 5, La vallée des cloches. Très lent 51:50
18. Ravel - Pavane pour une infante défunte in G Major, M. 19 57:46
19. Debussy - Préludes, Premier livre, L. 117: No. 10, La cathédrale engloutie. Profondamente calmo 1:04:45
20. Debussy - Images, Deuxième série, L. 111: No. 1, Cloches à travers les feuilles 1:11:29
21. Debussy - Images, Deuxième série, L. 111: No. 2, Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut 1:16:10
22. Debussy - Images, Deuxième série, L. 111: No. 3, Poissons d'or 1:21:48
23. Debussy - Préludes, Premier livre, L. 117: No. 8, La fille aux cheveux de lin. Molto calmo e dolcemente espressivo 1:25:53 24. Debussy - Suite bergamasque, L. 75: No. 3, Clair de lune 1:28:43

All tracks performed by Giovanni Umberto Battel except tracks 2, 3 & 14 performed by Carlo Balzaretti