Friday, September 24, 2010

*~!Baroque!~*

Attend an event on campus or in town—summarize the event you attended and explain its relevance to HUMN2002 content. In what ways does this event represent interdisciplinarity? What fields might also be connected with this event that were not represented?



           The music of the Baroque Era was a concert set specifically to the Baroque period and embodied the instruments of that time as well as the style and form. There were eight total performances highlighting a range of composers including Bach, Handel, and Monteverdi. This concert was relevant to humanities 2002 because we actually highlighted Handel and Bach in class. Bach liked dressing up his composition, using certain chords to produce powerful sounds or using sharps and flats. He also introduced the continuum where two parts of a composition are played together in sonatas. For example, in the Purcell selection, “Music for a While (From Oedipus)”, the cello played the same tune continuously throughout the performance. The ornamentation of the music overall encompasses the characteristics of the Baroque era.
          The first selection, “Ohimè dov’è il mio ben” by Monterverdi, seems to represent Milton’s Paradise Lost. Part three of the song says “Thus my ambitious and too trifling aspirations had more power than my love”. This reminds me of how Eve wanted to eat the forbidden fruit selfishly because he wanted the power over Adam, and even though she loved him, she still wanted that superiority at first. The fourth part of this selection says “Ah, stupid world, and blind; ah, cruel fate! You make me the executioner of my own death” and it symbolizes the consequence of eating the fruit. She knows it was wrong and that death was an end result, yet, she still ate it.
          There was also a selection entitled “Triosonate” by Telemann which was a trio sonata. It was full embellishments and improvisations which relates back to the ornateness of this Era. The contrasts and dynamics of the composition reminded me of the Palace of Versailles, specifically the Hall of Mirrors. The Hall of Mirrors is this huge space full of mirrors and chandeliers. Although each piece of the hall is ornate and has its own style, the whole space together screams grandiosity.
          So, the Baroque Era concert wasvry represntative of the Baroque characteristics and the period as  whole. It also called forth connections to other forms of work in this period such as Paradise Lost and the Palace of Versailles.

*~! Romanticism !~*

Journal option #2
Choose a piece of literature, art, or music that we have not talked about in class—perhaps something referenced in one of your readings. How does this piece seem to fit the period traits? In what ways might this piece connect to the other works we’ve talked about in class? Why?


I chose artwork by Moritz von Schwind entitled ‘The Legend of the Erlking’ because it intrigued me as I was looking through the music textbook. It represents the romantic period in many aspects. Starting with the overall presentation, there is a use of pastels for the Erlking and the women of the forest. Also, there are dark tones because the setting is in the forest so the background is very gloomy. However the pastels seem to illuminate the painting; your focus is set straight to the Erlking and the women. The Erlking is reaching out for the infant in order to kill him and this life and death situation brings forth the gothic theme which is another component of the romantic era. The Erlking’s clothing is draped such that softness is introduced to give a feeling of mysticism and of a dream. The way the women are arranged calls upon dreariness and also appears very supernatural in the sense that they are not only beautiful but dangerous as well.
          The matching piece to Schwind’s painting is, of course, Schubert’s Erlking. According to the music textbook, the beginning of the selection displays an urgency which is of course directly related to the steed in the painting. There are contrasts of loud and soft sounds in order to imitate certain emotions and also tells the story of the Erlking accompanying the vocalist. In the artwork, it displays the same contrast using the dark and pastels and this particular scene painted, illustrates most of the plot; the Erlking is after the child in the forest and has his beautiful women with him to further entice the child, which can be connected to the Sirens in “The Odyssey”. The Sirens were extremely sublime because they had such beautiful voices when they sing that they would cause the sailors to shipwreck and die. In the artwork you can see how the women could easily lead the child to the Erlking but it would only lead to his death. Also, in Keats’s poem, the faery woman whom seduces him sings a lullaby which could be compared to the Sirens as well.
          Keats’s “La Belle Dame sans Merci” references death such as in the Erlking artwork and music selection. Grant Webster stated that “The fifth parallel is the implicit gloss of the ‘Pale Kings, and Princes too/ Pale warriors, death pale were they all’; Keats’s fallen nobility are realistically presented in the fallen magistrates … punished for the same kinds of earthly sin that beset Keats’s knight at arms.” I definitely agree with this comparison to Dante’s Inferno. The main character appears to be stuck in this state where everything is pale or has died. The artwork displays this same type of idea where this is the moment where the child is so very close to death himself and finally, in the end, is touched by the Erlking. The child is in between life and death.
          These three works together do a very good job at representing the major characteristics of the Romantic period.

Works Cited:
Webster, Grant T.; (1965). Keats's 'La Belle Dame': A New Source. MLA International Bibliography, 3, 42-47.