First off, I must give sincere thanks to producer, Ezra Wall for providing me with a delicious afternoon treat today in the form of a chocolate malt. Thanks, Ez!
Earlier this afternoon, I played the only symphony written by Italian-born composer Luigi Cherubini--perhaps a self-indulgent choice. This is because Cherubini is one of my favorites, though just a few short years ago, his name only rung a faint bell in my head. As a graduate student, I was assigned a research project on Cherubini's Requiem. Everyone else in my class was assigned a concept, genre or musical school and I was assigned a piece. One piece. Needless to say, I examined that piece and the composer rather closely. I even got to go to Hill Memorial Library (which looks a lot like I thought Grigott's would look) on LSU campus. Hill Memorial is where all of the rare books are kept. It's an austere building where you have to cram all of your belongings into a locker as soon as you walk in and are only allowed one pencil and a sheet of paper. You also only have three hours to look at your rare book, which, in my case, was a music theory text book written by Cherubini for his students at the Paris Conservatory. It was during this research that I discovered I really like Cherubini...the person, not just his music. It was the first time I felt a sort of connection to a composer outside of a musical experience.
Since then, I've enjoyed wondering about composers' personalities. Would Tchaikovsky and I have gotten along? What sort of mannerisms did Haydn have when telling stories? I imagine Messiaen might doodle on his napkin over lunch. So now I pose the question to you: Which composers do you think you would have gotten along with?
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4 comments:
No probs. The trouble was wrestling it away from JKlein and JWhite!
Karen,
I would hope to get along with J. S. Bach, simply because I play so much of his music. I imagine that Bach must have been a pretty fun guy to hang around because of his complexity and seriousness of his music, he must have had a good sense of humor!!!!
Darnell St. Romain
I like to think that Robert Schumann and I would have been good friends. I know he was a little kooky but that's what made him special. He was so incredibly smart and also a sensitive person. He must have been pretty great, to have the likes of Clara and J. Brahms in his life.
I'd get along swimmingly with Orff. I adore Carmina Burana and can only imagine the humor brought forth in the opera would come from Orff's vivid imagination.
Fantastic piece, the Carmina Burana.
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