Years ago, when somehow I had the energy to cut time into slices small enough to divide between many interests, I was studying classical music, particularly chamber music. One composer of the modern group of atonal composers seemed to be at the vanguard of dissonance, Schoenberg. His 12 tone composing restriction resulted in some of harshest and most challenging music. However, as I listened to the entire catalogue of Schoenberg, I was awestruck by one piece of hugely melodic music that spoke of family and fireplace, Verklarte Nacht. Now the mystery and beauty of this passionately haunting composition is being explicated by a young man, Rob Kapilow and you can watch it happen on PBS this Thursday night. I know that everyone is crazy busy, I think I will be dancing at 730 on Thursday, but record or find an alternative showing time or maybe just go to iTunes and download some of Kapilow's "What makes it great" podcasts. I suspect that you won't be disappointed and maybe you will find one more bit of the wonder of life to explore in your spare time.
Music is simply time sliced and modulated. Sometimes moments are 1/4 notes, sometimes staccato 1/16th. Put your time together into a beautiful song.
From the Wall Street Journal
"For a decade, Rob Kapilow, a composer and conductor, has been unraveling the mysteries of music for listeners at concert halls across the U.S. On "Live From Lincoln Center: I Can't Believe It's Schoenberg," Mr. Kapilow will take a national TV audience through Arnold Schoenberg's "Verklärte Nacht," an 1899 chamber-music piece. To help explain it, Mr. Kapilow has musicians play themes over, or slowly, to illustrate how they are developed. Mr. Kapilow got the idea for showing listeners how music works when he attended art-history classes in college. "I learned to see art," Mr. Kapilow says. "I can teach people how to hear it." The program airs Thursday at 7:30 p.m. EST on PBS stations around the country.
http://www.pbs.org/livefromlincolncenter/"
