Schickele
Schickele does not appear to have a Sibeliusianalizational vision for large masses of music held together by a subtle organic relationships. He ain't got it, and maybe he don't want it. Anyway, he is content to present his ideas one after the other without transitional material. Indeed, sometimes he names his movements simply by counting up their sections (e.g., "Opening Diptych" or "Four Studies").
I am temperamentally uninterested in such episodic stuff but in the last few years my aptitude for concentrated listening has improved, and I can now say I get what Schickele is doing here. Beyond that, he gives us Coplandiologicanian Americana taken in a direction not quite like what you will find elsewhere. You should really give him a listen.
I was going to end this post with some kind of cute/smart reference to, uh, you know, but in the end even my not very well developed sense of decorum stopped me. Those of you who feel you need the reference should silently insert one for yourself now. The following space is provided just for that purpose:
[ ]There, now we all feel better.
Umie the Umlaut says, "ask your doctor about the Fredösphere!"
2 Comments:
I haven't heard that much of Schickele's music, but I did like what I heard. He also wrote some movie-music ("Silent Running"), and has (or had) a syndicated radio show ("Schickele Mix"), which I heard for a while here in Southern CA, until they took it off.
I note from his bio that he was born Johann Peter Schickele, and was at one time an eminent musicolologist.
I've been listening to Strauss' "Alpine Symphony", which is about as episodic as you can get (next, perhaps, to "Scheherezade" (R-K's).
(Mike, www.rigoletto.com/blogger.html)
I got it, PDQ. He once had a half hour show on PBS where he would play and discuss music with great dry humor, but for some reason the show was discontinued. Too bad, he was excellent. I got to speak with him briefly, many years ago, after he did a show at the old Playnakers Auditorium in Chapel Hill. He was as funny in person as he was on disc.
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