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Sat, 21 Apr 2001 09:43:50 -0500 |
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Robert Peters:
>Today I listened to a radio feature on my favourite classical music
>channel. The title was "The Shadow of Laughter". Laughing in classical
>music. I heard Kundry laugh, I heard the Pagliacco laugh, I heard Aeolus
>laugh (in the Bach cantata), I heard Berlioz' Mephisto laugh, I listened to
>fine humour by Satie, to grim humour by Shostakovitch, to sarcastic humour
>by Couperin, to strange humour by C.P.E. Bach (a trio sonata displaying
>a dialogue between a sanguine and a melancholic person: very weird), to
>hidden humour by Josquin. It was an entertaining and informative feature
>but it left me wondering: is there no innocent laughing in classical
>music?
Yeah, but it's pretty rare. Possibly because most classical music isn't
spontaneously written.
>What do I mean by innocent laughter? The laughter of infants.
Very few infants, as far as I know, know enough to write classical music.
>Classical music is highly sophisticated art made by grown-ups who obviously
>can't laugh like infants anymore.
They might be able to in life, but spontaneous laughter is awfully difficult
to sustain over the (often) months it takes to write a classical piece.
>Can you imagine Beethoven or Wagner laugh? Well, I can imagine them
>Laughing about someone else (especially Wagner was very good at that)
>- but the both of them just laughing, in good humour, just because life
>is good, the weather fine and love a reality?
How about Beethoven's Seventh (the first movement)?
Steve Schwartz
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