"Satyrs at Play" - aediculaantinoi.wordpress.com: HADRIAN and ANTINOUS finally release their embrace, and notice DIONYSOS

Thursday, November 12, 2015

In A Nutshell

"You and I are just two nuts:
Two single nuts, same single shell..." 

From Omar Khayyam (where is the original?) 




Happy Holidays!
_____________________________________________________________________

Thursday, November 5, 2015

The Crooked Thing | The rolls of duty: The very uncollected stories about the Not So Special Agent Salmon Wild

The rolls of duty
The very uncollected stories about the Not So Special Agent Salmon Wild 

The Crooked Thing 

For five hours straight (straight!) agent Wild played with his toplap and got no luck.
He tried:
"I am a pretty pretty little girl."
"I like to travel."
"Where is my big white (or black) knight?"
"I want to explore."
"I am curious."
 "I am a pretty pretty little boy."
"I need someone to teach me what the big boys do."
And still no luck. Just some pervert came up on line, one-eyed pirate in Napoleon's hat.
"What are you, a girl, a boy or hermaphrodite?", he inquired obnoxiously.
"I am a girl", decided agent White.
"You are crooked. And nasty!" After the pirate came up with his diagnosis he disappeared forever.
"Why am I so unlucky, mused agent Wild; maybe I really am crooked..."
And he was.  That what the bureau psychiatrist told him, because his mother was pulling his leg too much. That's how he became crooked at his toplap.
"Maybe I should become a girl, he contemplated deeply. This crooked thing is too ugly anyway."
And suddenly he felt excited.
"This is my inner girl", he guessed. And suddenly the epiphany descended upon him.
"I am a transgender", he realized. "Big-trance-fat-chance-gender".
And now everything fell into place.
"They will transform me from not so special into the regular, and then into the trans-special agent. I will be a trans-made man. It is a trance-formation time now. They will trance-appoint me a director one day and I will trance-rule America!"
The not so special agent Wild started to feel a little dizzy, like really going into a trance. Now, when he found out who he really was, he did not need to play with his crooked toplap. He disassembled and transformed it into a Stingray device.
He decided to spy on his girlfriend Marsha Bilderbrandt. She was not a not so special agent like himself but she was somewhat special to his heart and his crooked thing. And much to his surprise agent Wild detected some strange noises coming from Marsha's bedroom via his Stingray device.
"Ah, Marsha screamed and panted, ah! Ah! Ah!" She was having sex.
"How strange, thought agent Wild, Marsha is having sex! And without me! But with whom?!"
Blood flushed into his big round square jawed face, his heart was pounding and pumping like the overworked motor, his arms and legs were turning in waves from cotton into wool, into steel and back into cotton. He punched the clock, slammed his supervisor over the head with his toplap-Stingray and ran out to the street.

"FBI!" announced agent Wild at Marsha's door; loudly and with the self-assured sense of righteousness that only the FBI agents have, especially during the important operations. "Open that damn door or I will blow your brains out!"
His gun was ready and pointing at the door. It was not crooked, it was a top gun.
"Oh, it's you, darling", Marsha said, opening the door. "What's the matter, what happened?"
She was wrapped in a colorful beach towel and was quite red in her face and upper body. Hiding behind her was something shady and hurly-burly and also very hairy. This something was also wrapped in a towel but white and short one.
"And what's that?!" exclaimed agent Wild pointing to the hurly-burly thing which started to swirl around, grimacing and making strange unintelligible sounds under the penetrating gaze of agent Wild.
"Oh, it's just a plumber, darling. I called him to fix my shower head", said Marsha, trying to lift her hair by blowing up at it towards her forehead and pulling up her towel.
"Just a plumber", repeated after her agent Wild, incredulously and ironically. You didn't have to call some plumber to fix your shower head, you have me for that!"
"But you are so busy, darling, with your G-things, just like all of you, G-men. I didn't want to bother you with some small and tiny shower head, you are good for big jobs. It's just some little, good for nothing plumber, he doesn't even speak English and I am not even sure if he has a license. Betsy recommended him, she said, "he's g-o-o-o-d"...
"No eeglis, no lices..." confirmed the hurly-burly thing jumping into his dirty jeans and waiving a screwdriver, just in case. "Agua, agua, mucho agua..." He tried to explain his need for a towel.
"Well, anyway, he has to go now, he needs some parts. Right, Jose?" said Marsha regretfully.
"Gazkit, gazkit", nodded "the plumber" somewhat mysteriously.
"What?! What casket?! For whom?!" Agent Wild got suspicious.
 "Gaskit", repeated the hurly-burly, giggling and making a diagram with his fingers: two in a ring and the index one inside. "Oh, Dios", he screamed, apparently sincerely disappointed with agent Wild's lack of understanding and jumped out the door, cursing and murmuring.
"Relax, darling, I am with you, your good old Marsha..." She embraced him tenderly.
"I don't know if I can trust you", said agent Wild. He still felt suspicious. It probably was a professional thing.
"I need to talk to you, Marsha. I think I want to be a girl."
"You think, you think. What is there to think about? You think too much. Look at me: I am a girl and I never think about this. I take it as it is, as it comes and as it goes..."
"You don't understand, Marsha", it is a transgender thing, it's deep... It's almost spiritual..."
"Don't worry, you'll get over it... We all go through our phases. I wanted to be a boy too at times. It's natural. It's like self-searching. And then you are under a lot of stress. It is not easy to pretend on line seven hours a day. Maybe you've got a post-traumatic stress disorder. Many people have it. Like, Betsy, after she broke up, she started to eat all the time and to mingle with all sort of garbage, like plumbers, movie men and hell knows what. What if you try some Prozac? It helped her a lot."
"No Marsha, you still don't get it. It is deeper. It is a career thing. I could become a trans-special agent one day. It's like a life calling. We have to part, Marsha. We grew apart."
"To part?! What are you talking about? It's impossible!"
"Why not?"
"Because... I've got accustomed to your face..."
"Hmm", said agent Wild and looked at himself in the mirror. It was the same fat, broad jawed and small eyed face, but it was something romantic and touchingly melancholy about it.
"I've got accustomed to your voice..."
Agent Wild could relate to this: he had a nice, pleasant melodic baritone of a voice and sang karaoke better than any one in his class.
"I've got accustomed to us going out on Fridays and having a fun."
Yeah, he liked it too.
"Let us sleep on this, darling and we will discuss it in the morning."
"No, Marsha; it is crooked and ugly, and I want to get rid of it!"
"It might be a little crooked but it's not that ugly, and the main thing is that it is mine. Mine! And I need no dirty plumbers."
Marsha was resolute and that did it. They slept on it and had wonderful sex, deep and passionate.

The next morning, when agent Wild showed up in the office, his supervisor, with his head bandaged and his fists clenched, declared in a staccato voice, constricted with a hundred years of asthmatic rage: "Fired! Outta here! Good for nothing psychopathic pervert! Put your gun on the table!"
That's how agent Wild got transferred to a counterintelligence division with the demotion in rank to a sub-special agent. His next desk buddy Pinchas Stern, after passing through a sex change transition, was promoted to a preparatory para-special agent and appointed a head of zoophilia department with sub-specialty in goats and sheep . And such is life. It's never fair. Not for a straight white man in our days.
_____________________________________

Monday, August 10, 2015

The Dark Lady, my love

The Dark Lady, my love
I see your eyes filled with rage
I hear your screams that nobody hears
You're turning gray, you're ageless, I will always love you

The glass is always full, you fool

The glass is always full, you fool
The brawn and brains are just the tool
The life is life; it's always cool
And love in potion makes you drool

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Friday, June 26, 2015

Classical Music Playlists



Prokofiev - Dance Of The Knights And Juliet's Dance

TheMultimediaDude - Published on Oct 7, 2012

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times.

Please enjoy this classical masterpiece to the fullest!It deserves nothing less...

The picture is a late 19th century engraving depicting the interior of the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan.

classical music playlists - YT

Saturday, May 30, 2015

La Noche Oscura, The Dark Night Of My Soul




La Noche Oscura Del Alma, The Dark Night Of My Soul

In the Dark Night of my Soul,
With passion burning; oh, lucky me - 
I went away in secret and unseen, 
My being joyful and at ease 

In the darkness and invisible 
I climbed the secret ladder up; oh lucky me - 
In darkness, in disguise, 
My being joyful and at ease. 

The night of joy, 
In secret, unobserved, and shouldn't be; 
Without light or guidance 
But the one inside 

The midnight sun lead me, 
Sun brighter than at noon
To where He, I knew; I knew it well, 
Awaited me, and nobody else. 

The night lead me, 
More perfect than the dawn
The night of love: 
We merged, we mixed, one in another

My yearning breast, my breath 
Was only for Him and Him alone
He slept, I touched Him,  
And the cedars with breeze us cuddled..

His breath - my healing breeze, 
His pure golden hair, 
Sweet wounding touch, both gentle and exciting - 
And, senseless, I was lost, 

And consciousness dissolved, 
His cheek by mine,
And all the world abandoned,   
I've lost my troubles there, I've tossed them into lilies... 

M.N.
_________________________________________

Dark Night of The Soul - Interpretation

My (sudden) understanding was that this little, very simple and very complex at the same time, poem is the concept, symbol and the celebration of the organic unity of the Love earthly, human, sexual (in this particular case, and this is explicitly and deliberately clear from the text, the physical love of one, relatively young, with his intensity and abandon, man for another) and the Love spiritual, religious, heavenly, eternal, pure and just as intense: the love for and of God, in Christianity, for Christ
This poem affirms the notion of the deification of the Beloved by the Lover (in old, traditional and somewhat misleading terms) and the attempt at transformation in closeness and merger with the Beloved - the God
The love of ancient Hebrews for their God was just as intense, overwhelming and almost physical, single minded and exclusive in their devotion to their "one and only" Beloved-God, probably a defense and a substitute for the earthly and real Beloved(s). 
The love of deeply religious and spiritual Christians for their Beloved, Christ, has the same intense and mixed physical-heavenly quality. 
The physical, earthly, sexual component is the emotional font and engine which feeds and embodies the pure, spiritual, religious love. 
This poem discovers that there is no contradiction between them, that it is rather natural and organic continuum than artificial and cruel dichotomy. 
What is the better case, notion and the example for the wise acceptance of gay sexuality and lifestyles on the part of the Christian Churches, than this little poem, which breathes with life and truth still, half a millennium after it was created? 
Judaism, this practical and living sociology, so to speak, did accept them, quietly and without much hullabaloo. 
Furthermore, for anyone, trying to understand the origins of Christianity, it should be undeniable, that historically, spiritually, conceptually, philosophically, aesthetically, it is rooted in a preceding homoerotic (and much more than simply "homoerotic") cult of Antinous based on the undoubtedly real historical figure. This proto-Christian religion was appropriated, (perverted?), broadened and transformed by fusion with Judaism and aesthetically-spiritually framed by the Hellenistic mythologists ("myth-maker, myth-maker, make me a myth!"). For Alexandrian Jews, the compilers of Septuagint, and by extension, Early Christians, the idea of "gay God" was blasphemous and absolutely unacceptable, just like the idea of living Emperor-God. This idea is still treated in the same terms by many contemporary religious thinkers and figures. 
Christianity, in a way, was and remains the Judaeo-Hellenistic religion of "common sense" (inspired by "Common Aphrodite", as Socrates would have put it) and intense, "gut-reaction" protest against the homoerotic cults and "gay Gods" and by the nature of this relation is rooted in them. 
Mithraic cults is another example of the rejected early pre-Christian religious movements.
The Greek mythologists, who had no problems with these issues in their Olympic Pantheon, readily obliged and produced their magnum opus, a new religious paradigm, better suited for their historical time and place, under the restrictive (Early Rabbinical Judaism) and fanatical influence of their Hebrew literary-religious brethren.
The true Beloved is God, and the true God is The Beloved. Now it remains to determine what makes them "true", how to separate it from "untrue" and how to find this "truth". I think all of us, of all orientations and religious and non-religious persuasions are engaged in this life-long, mysterious and not always meaningful search. 
Keep searching, and do not talk about it with your psychiatrist: it will destroy everything. 
Place a smiley here. 

M.N.
_________________________________________



dark night of the soul poem | dark night of the soul poem text | analysis of noche oscura



















Dark Night Of The Soul


The Dark Night of the Soul

St John Of the Cross

On a dark night,
Kindled in love with yearnings–oh, happy chance!–
I went forth without being observed,
My house being now at rest.
In darkness and secure,
By the secret ladder, disguised–oh, happy chance!–
In darkness and in concealment,
My house being now at rest.
In the happy night,
In secret, when none saw me,
Nor I beheld aught,
Without light or guide, save that which burned in my
heart.
This light guided me
More surely than the light of noonday
To the place where he (well I knew who!) was awaiting me–
A place where none appeared.
Oh, night that guided me,
Oh, night more lovely than the dawn,
Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover,
Lover transformed in the Beloved!
Upon my flowery breast,
Kept wholly for himself alone,
There he stayed sleeping, and I caressed him,
And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.
The breeze blew from the turret
As I parted his locks;
With his gentle hand he wounded my neck
And caused all my senses to be suspended.
I remained, lost in oblivion;
My face I reclined on the Beloved.
All ceased and I abandoned myself,
Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.
Links

Commentary on Dark Night of the Soul
by St. John of the Cross

“He soars on the wings of Divine love . . .”
“It is perhaps not an exaggeration to say that the verse and prose works combined of St. John of the Cross form at once the most grandiose and the most melodious spiritual canticle to which any one man has ever given utterance.
The most sublime of all the Spanish mystics, he soars aloft on the wings of Divine love to heights known to hardly any of them. . . . True to the character of his thought, his style is always forceful and energetic, even to a fault.
When we study his treatises–principally that great composite work known as the Ascent of Mount Carmel and the Dark Night–we have the impression of a mastermind that has scaled the heights of mystical science; and from their summit looks down upon and dominates the plain below and the paths leading upward. . . . Nowhere else, again, is he quite so appealingly human; for, though he is human even in his loftiest and sublimest passages, his intermingling of philosophy with mystical theology; makes him seem particularly so. These treatises are a wonderful illustration of the theological truth that graced far from destroying nature, ennobles and dignifies it, and of the agreement always found between the natural and the supernatural–between the principles of sound reason and the sublimest manifestations of Divine grace.”
Translated and edited,
by E. ALLISON PEERS
from the critical edition of
P. SILVERIO DE SANTA TERESA, C.D.
___________________________________________________


La noche oscura, por San Juan de la Cruz

POSTED ON MARCH 13, 2012

This is a classic poem, originally written in Spanish by Saint John of the Cross (the English translation is below but it is not as pretty).  The dark night of the soul refers to a period of spiritual crisis, where the believer finds it difficult to believe.  In the poem, the narrator resolves the crisis and finds himself at peace once more in the garden of his beliefs.


La noche oscura

En una noche oscura,
con ansias en amores inflamada,
(¡oh dichosa ventura!)
salí sin ser notada,
estando ya mi casa sosegada.
A oscuras y segura,
por la secreta escala disfrazada,
(¡oh dichosa ventura!)
a oscuras y en celada,
estando ya mi casa sosegada.
En la noche dichosa,
en secreto, que nadie me veía,
ni yo miraba cosa,
sin otra luz ni guía
sino la que en el corazón ardía.
Aquésta me guïaba
más cierta que la luz del mediodía,
adonde me esperaba
quien yo bien me sabía,
en parte donde nadie parecía.
¡Oh noche que me guiaste!,
¡oh noche amable más que el alborada!,
¡oh noche que juntaste
amado con amada,
amada en el amado transformada!
En mi pecho florido,
que entero para él solo se guardaba,
allí quedó dormido,
y yo le regalaba,
y el ventalle de cedros aire daba.
El aire de la almena,
cuando yo sus cabellos esparcía,
con su mano serena
en mi cuello hería,
y todos mis sentidos suspendía.
Quedéme y olvidéme,
el rostro recliné sobre el amado,
cesó todo, y dejéme,
dejando mi cuidado
entre las azucenas olvidado.

___________________________________________


Dark Night of the Soul

Upon a darkened night
The flame of love was burning in my breast
And by a lantern bright
I fled my house while all in quiet rest
Shrouded by the night
And by the secret stair I quickly fled
The veil concealed my eyes
While all within lay quiet as the dead.
O, night thou was my guide!
O, night more loving than the rising sun!
O, night that joined the Lover to the beloved one!
Transforming each of them into the other.
Upon that misty night
In secrecy beyond such mortal sight
Without a guide or light
Than that which burned as deeply in my heart.
That fire ’twas led me on
And shone more bright than of the midday sun
To where He waited still
It was a place where no one else could come.
Within my pounding heart
Which kept itself entirely for Him
He fell into His sleep
beneath the cedars all my love I gave.
From o’er the fortress walls
The wind would brush His hair against His brow
And with its smoother hand
caressed my every sense it would allow.
I lost my self to Him
And laid my face upon my Lover’s breast
And care and grief grew dim
As in the morning’s mist became the light.
There they dimmed amongst the lilies fair.



Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Greetings and many, many heart-felt thanks to our veterans!


Greetings and many, many heart-felt thanks to our veterans!

Veterans Day - From Wikipedia | Veterans day 2014 - Google Search

Veterans Day

Vets Can Make Out With several freebies - WFAA

1 Share

WFAA

Vets Can Make Out With several freebies 
WFAA
Let's say you're a veteran With lots of free time - and big ambitions to rake in plenty of payback for your service to your country. Well, some of. Loading ... Post to Facebook. Vets Can Make Out With several freebies on Veterans Day Let's say you're a veteran ...

and more »

Saturday, August 23, 2014

GUSTAV MAHLER SYMPHONY NR 9 Bernstein - YouTube | Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 10 - YouTube

GUSTAV MAHLER SYMPHONY NR 9 Bernstein - YouTube

1 Share
Published on Apr 2, 2013
No description available.

Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 10 - YouTube

1 Share
Uploaded on Aug 12, 2011
Mahler started his work on his Tenth Symphony in July 1910 in Toblach, and ended his efforts in September the same year. He never managed to complete the orchestral draft before his premature death at the age of fifty from a streptococcal infection of the blood.
Mahler's drafts and sketches for the Tenth Symphony comprise 72 pages of full score, 50 pages of continuous short score draft (2 pages of which are missing), and a further 44 pages of preliminary drafts, sketches, and inserts. In the form in which Mahler left it, the symphony consists of five movements:
1. Andante -- Adagio: 275 bars drafted in orchestral and short score.
2. Scherzo: 522 bars drafted in orchestral and short score.
3. Purgatorio. Allegro moderato: 170 bars drafted in short score, the first 30 bars of which were also drafted in orchestral score.
4. Scherzo. Nicht zu schnell]: about 579 bars drafted in short score.
5. Finale. Langsam, schwer: 400 bars drafted in short score.
The parts in short score were usually in four staves. The designations of some movements were altered as work progressed: for example the second movement was initially envisaged as a finale. The fourth movement was also relocated in multiple instances. Mahler then started on an orchestral draft of the symphony, which begins to bear some signs of haste after the halfway point of the first movement. He had gotten as far as orchestrating the first two movements and the opening 30 bars of the third movement when he had to put aside work on the Tenth to make final revisions to the Ninth Symphony.
The circumstances surrounding the composition of the Tenth were highly unusual. Mahler was at the height of his compositional powers, but his personal life was in complete disarray, most recently compounded by the revelation that his young wife Alma had had an affair with the architect Walter Gropius. Mahler sought counselling from Sigmund Freud, and on the verge of its successful première in Munich, dedicated the Eighth Symphony to Alma in a desperate attempt to repair the breach. The unsettled frame of Mahler's mind found expression in the despairing comments (many addressed to Alma) written on the manuscript of the Tenth, and must have influenced its composition: on the final page of the short score in the final movement, Mahler wrote, "für dich leben! für dich sterben!" (To live for you! To die for you!) and the exclamation "Almschi!" underneath the last soaring phrase.

Conductor: Leonard Bernstein & Wiener Philharmoniker.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Gustav Mahler - Symphony Nº 5 | Herbert von Karajan - YouTube | Mahler: Symphony No.5 in C sharp minor - Bernstein / Wiener Philharmoniker - YouTube

Published on Jul 25, 2013
Slide-show of Venice with contemporary photographs and antique oil paintings.
Symphony No5 /Mahler/ Adagietto/ Berlin Philharmoniker/Herbert von Karajan
The 1974 recording - Deutsche Grammophon


Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 5 in C Sharp Minor, 1901-02. 

Gustav Mahler - Symphony Nº 5 | Herbert von Karajan - YouTube

1 Share
Published on May 3, 2014 

Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 5 in C Sharp Minor, 1901-02. 

Herbert von Karajan, BPO, 1973. 


00:00 I. Trauermarsch. In gemessenem Schritt. Streng. Wie ein Kondukt
13:06 II. Stürmisch bewegt. Mit größter Vehemenz
28:17 III. Scherzo. Kräftig, nicht zu schnell
46:28 IV. Adagietto. Sehr langsam http://youtu.be/zNpMMW9FVko
58:20 V. Rondo-Finale. Allegro

Adagietto Live Recording http://youtu.be/mnkVUqvjIxQ

"Mahler is very difficult for an orchestra. First, you must, as a painter would say, make your palette. But the difficulty is great, and the greatest danger is that if it is not well performed the music can seem banal" Herbert von Karajan

Karajan waited so long to approach the symphonies of their fellow countryman Gustav Mahler. After the war he had been offered the chance to do all the Mahler symphonies but declined as the rehearsal time was not sufficient. Assigning a specific national identity to Mahler is, of course a somewhat tricky proposition. Preceded by a two-year phase of rehearsals, the interpretations that gradually emerged during the 1970's and 1980's. In fact, by stressing the romantic elements, Karajan's performances often looked backwards thus seeing Mahler's music as a great conclusion to 19th-century Romanticism. His first recording of one of Mahler's works - the monumental symphony written in 1901-02. The genesis and scope of Mahler's monumental achievment can only be appreciated by knowing his origins and by understading his Viennese cosmopolitanism as well as his scepticism, depression and profound loneliness, which were as thoroughly Austrian as the Alpine vistas he loved. Every aspect of the interpretation, including Karajan's underlying aesthetic conception, was subjected to intense scrutiny. The aesthete Karajan and his orchestra have made a stiking contribution to the history of Mahler interpretation. For Karajan it was a protracted quest, for the listener it is a belated discovery.

"In the Fourth movement, the famous Adagietto, very slowly, harp and strings alone play. The opening melody recalls two of Mahler's songs, "Nun seh' ich wohl" (from Kindertotenlieder) and the separate Ruckert setting "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen". The long upbeats and expressive appoggiaturas of the melodic lines give the music a yearning, almost heart-breaking quality. The intensity that builds up inthis movement finaly assuages the darkness and doubts of the earlier movements, making the lighter mood and extrovert energy of the Rondo-Finale acceptable. Together, these two movements form the third part of the symphony. The formal function of the Adagietto is ambiguous. It acts as an introduction to the last movement, which follows without a break, and is thematically bound to it, for twice in the Finale we hear the Adagietto's main theme, now at a fast tempo.

Even without a text or programme, the music's emotional and referential content implies an existential dimension. Without an explicit programme or titles, we have few clues to the "meaning" of the Fifth Symphony other than the music itself. Mahler offers some guidance by grouping the five movements, which share some thematic Material, as well as an obsession with death, from the first part; the central scherzo stands alone as the second part; and the lat two movements, which are also linked thematically, form the third.

An essential aspect of Mahler's symphonies is the idea of emotional and spiritual progression, through various alternatives to a (provisional) conclusion. One important means he uses to articulate this spiritual journey is the technique of progressive tonality. In other symphonies he begins and ends movements in diferent keys, but in the Fifth each movement begins and ends in the same key; however as a whole, it moves from C sharp minor opening movement to the D major of the third and fifth movements.

One reason for Mahler's significance and influence as a composer is that he viewed his music as a means of seeking and expressing solutions to the problems of his personal, spiritual life.

The Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler is arguably the best known Mahler symphony. The musical canvas and emotional scope of the work are huge. Herbert von Karajan said once that when you hear Mahler's Fifth, "you forget that time has passed. A great performance of the Fifth is a transforming experience."


COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

Sound recording administered by UMG:
Read the whole story

· · · · ·

Mahler: Symphony No.5 in C sharp minor - Bernstein / Wiener Philharmoniker - YouTube

1 Share

Published on Feb 23, 2014
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.5 in C sharp minor

Erster Teil
I. Trauermarsch. In gemessenem Schritt. Streng. Wie ein Kondukt (00:00)
II. Strürmisch bewegt. Mit größter Vehemenz (14:14)
Zweiter Teil
III. Scherzo. Kräftig, nicht zu schnell (29:44)
Driter Teil
IV. Adagietto. Sehr langsam (49:06)
V. Rondo-Finale. Allegro - Allegro giocoso. Frisch (1:00:21)

Wiener Philharmoniker
Leonard Bernstein, conductor

September 10, 1987
Royal Albert Hall, London

Symphony No.5 (Mahler, Gustav) - IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library: Free Public Domain Sheet Music

1 Share
Instrumentation Orchestra
4 flutes (3rd, 4th also piccolo), 3 oboes (3rd also English horn),
3 clarinets (A, C, B) (3rd also bass clarinet (B), piccolo clarinet (D)),
3 bassoons (3rd also contrabassoon)
Obligato horn (F), 6 horns (F), 4 trumpets (B, F), 3 trombones, tuba
timpani, snare drums, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tam-tam, whip, glockenspiel, harp, strings

Gustav Mahler - Symphony Nº 5. IV Adagietto | Vienna Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein (4/5) - YouTube

1 Share

Published on Mar 8, 2012
Gustav Mahler - Symphony Nº 5 in C sharp minor, 1901-02.
Wiener Philharmoniker, Vienna Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein.
[HD] Adagietto http://youtu.be/15WQNKhaCHY

Movements:
I Trauermarsch. In gemessenem Schritt. Streng. Wie ein Kondukt. http://youtu.be/tPpm323M_Ik
II Stürmisch bewegt, mit größter Vehemenz http://youtu.be/JwxrTsSQf0Y
III Scherzo. Kräftig, nicht zu schnell http://youtu.be/SKPlH6L5zeE
IV Adagietto. Sehr langsam. http://youtu.be/yjz2TvC2TT4
V Rondo-Finale. Allegro - Allegro giocoso. Frisch http://youtu.be/U5573xP6JkU

Complete Playlist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPpm32...

"In the Fourth movement, the famous Adagietto, harp and strings alone play. The opening melody recalls two of Mahler's songs, "Nun seh' ich wohl" (from Kindertotenlieder) and the separate Ruckert setting "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen". The long upbeats and expressive appoggiaturas of the melodic lines give the music a yearning, almost heart-breaking quality. The intensity that builds up inthis movement finaly assuages the darkness and doubts of the earlier movements, making the lighter mood and extrovert energy of the Rondo-Finale acceptable. Together, these two movements form the third part of the symphony. The formal function of the Adagietto is ambiguous. It acts as an introduction to the last movement, which follows without a break, and is thematically bound to it, for twice in the Finale we hear the Adagietto's main theme, now at a fast tempo. The Adagietto also functions as a slow interlude in F major, between two faster movements in D major; but is also has an expressive weight sufficient for it to stand on its own - indeed, it is often performed by itself.

Even without a text or programme, the music's emotional and referential content implies an existential dimension. Without an explicit programme or titles, we have few clues to the "meaning" of the Fifth Symphony other than the music itself. Mahler offers some guidance by grouping the five movements, which share some thematic Material, as well as an obsession with death, from the first part; the central scherzo stands alone as the second part; and the lat two movements, which are also linked thematically, form the third.

An essential aspect of Mahler's symphonies is the idea of emotional and spiritual progression, through various alternatives to a (provisional) conclusion. One important means he uses to articulate this spiritual journey is the technique of progressive tonality. In other symphonies he begins and ends movements in diferent keys, but in the Fifth each movement begins and ends in the same key; however as a whole, it moves from C sharp minor opening movement to the D major of the third and fifth movements.

One reason for Mahler's significance and influence as a composer is that he viewed his music as a means of seeking and expressing solutions to the problems of his personal, spiritual life. The Depth and seriousness of these problems naturally drew him to the largescale form of the symphony, wich he expanded in length and number of movements to unprecedented proportions.


Mahler kept revising the orchestration of this work until his death. He conducted the first performance with the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne on October 18, 1904. He'd begun the Fifth Symphony at Maiernegg in 1901 - writing the third, first and second movements in that order, after a death-obsessed song, "Der Tamboursg'sell," and the Kindertotenlieder cycle ("on the death of children"). After nearly bleeding to death the previous winter (from an intestinal hemorrhage), Mahler's symphonic orientation underwent a profound change. Mahler cast his Fifth Symphony in five movements that fall naturally into three parts.

The First begins in C sharp minor with a Funeral March, of measured tread and austere (Movement I). A sonata-form movement follows, marked "Stormily, with greatest vehemence" (Movement II), which shares themes as well as mood with the opening.

The Second Part (which Mahler composed first) is a Scherzo: "Vigorously, not too fast" (Movement III) -- the symphony's shortest large section, but its longest single movement. This emphatically joyous, albeit manic movement puts forward D major as the work's focal key. Although its form has remained a topic of debate since 1904, rondo and sonata-form elements are both present.

Part Three begins with a seraphic Adagietto: "Very slowly" (Movement IV). This is indubitably related to the Rückert song Mahler composed in August 1901, "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" (I have become lost to the world...I live alone in my heaven, in my loving, in my song). A Rondo-Finale: "Allegro giocoso, lively" (Movement V) concludes the symphony, although Mahler devised a form far removed from classic models. While sectional, in truth episodic, this too has elements of sonata form.

Symphony No. 5 (Mahler) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1 Share
The Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler was composed in 1901 and 1902, mostly during the summer months at Mahler's cottage at Maiernigg. Among its most distinctive features are the trumpet solo that opens the work and the frequently performed Adagietto.
The musical canvas and emotional scope of the work, which lasts over an hour, are huge. The symphony is sometimes described as being in the key of C minor since the first movement is in this key (the finale, however, is in D).[1] Mahler objected to the label: "From the order of the movements (where the usual first movement now comes second) it is difficult to speak of a key for the 'whole Symphony', and to avoid misunderstandings the key should best be omitted."[2]

Instrumentation[edit]

The piece is scored for a large orchestra made up of:
1The part is written for a clarinet in D in the score, but as this instrument is now virtually obsolete, almost all clarinetists play this part on an E flat clarinet. In the Critical Edition of the score published in 2001 (see below), the editors have the second player taking the E flat clarinet part with the third doubling on bass clarinet only.
2Mahler uses a solo obligato horn in the Scherzo. This is not counted as a seventh horn because only four other horns play in that movement.

Revisions of the score[edit]

The score appeared first in print in 1904 at PetersLeipzig. A second "New edition", incorporating revisions that Mahler made in 1904, appeared in 1905. Final revisions made by Mahler in 1911 did not appear until 1964 (ed. Ratz), when the score was re-published in the Complete Edition of Mahler's works. In 2001, Edition Peters published a further revised edition (ed. Kubik) as part of the New Complete Critical Edition Series. This edition is the most accurate edition available so far. Previous editions have now gone out of print.

Structure[edit]

The work is in five movements:
  1. Trauermarsch (Funeral March). In gemessenem Schritt. Streng. Wie ein Kondukt (C-sharp minor)
  2. Stürmisch bewegt, mit größter Vehemenz (Moving stormily, with the greatest vehemence) (A minor)
  3. Scherzo. Kräftig, nicht zu schnell (Not too fast, strong) (D major)
  4. Adagietto. Sehr langsam (Very slow) (F major)
  5. Rondo-Finale. Allegro - Allegro giocoso. Frisch (Fresh) (D major)
The first two movements constitute Part I of the symphony (as designated by Mahler in the score), the long Scherzo constitutes Part II, and the last two movements constitute Part III.
The piece is generally regarded as Mahler's most conventional symphony up to that point, but from such an unconventional composer it still had many peculiarities. It almost has a four movement structure, as the first two can easily be viewed as essentially a whole. The symphony also ends with aRondo, in the classical style. Some peculiarities are the funeral march that opens the piece and theAdagietto for harp and strings that contrasts with the complex orchestration of the other movements.
A performance of the work lasts around 70 minutes.

Adagietto[edit]

The fourth movement may be Mahler's most famous composition and is the most frequently performed of his works. The British premiere of the Fifth Symphony came thirty-six years after that of the Adagietto, conducted by Henry Wood at a Proms concert in 1909. Leonard Bernstein conducted it during the funeral Mass for Robert Kennedy at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, on 8 June 1968.[3]It was used in the 1971 Luchino Visconti film Death in Venice.
It is said to represent Mahler's love song to Alma. According to a letter she wrote to Willem Mengelberg, the composer left a small poem: "Wie ich dich liebe, Du meine Sonne, ich kann mit Worten Dir's nicht sagen. Nur meine Sehnsucht kann ich Dir klagen und meine Liebe. (How much I love you, you my sun, I cannot tell you that with words. I can only lament to you my longing and love.)"[4]
It lasts for approximately 10 minutes, and Mahler's instruction is sehr langsam (very slowly). Mahler and Mengelberg played it in about 7 minutes.[4] Some conductors have taken tempos that extend it to nearly 12 minutes (viz. recordings by Eliahu InbalHerbert von Karajan, and Claudio Abbado), whileSimon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra performed it in 9½ minutes. Bernstein also briefly discusses this section along with the opening bars of the 2nd movement in his Charles Eliot Norton lectures from 1973.
The Adagietto has been used by figure skaters. Ekaterina Gordeeva commemorated her deceased husband, Sergei Grinkov, at the 1996 "Celebration of a Life". Ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, from Canada, performed their free dance at both the 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2010 World Championships, winning the gold medal at both events.

Composition[edit]

Mahler wrote his fifth symphony during the summers of 1901 and 1902. In February 1901 Mahler had suffered a sudden major hemorrhaging and his doctor later told him that he had come within an hour of bleeding to death. The composer spent quite a while recuperating. He moved into his own lakeside villa in the southern Austrian province of Carinthia in June 1901. Mahler was delighted with his new-found status as the owner of a grand villa. According to friends, he could hardly believe how far he had come from his humble beginnings. He was Director of the Vienna Court Opera and the principal conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic. His own music was also starting to be successful. Later in 1901 when he met Alma Schindler and by the time he returned to his summer villa in summer 1902, they were married and she was expecting their first child.
Symphonies five, six and seven, which all belong to this period, have much in common and are markedly different from the first four, which all have strong links to vocal music. The middle symphonies, by contrast, are pure orchestral works and are, by Mahler’s standards, taut and lean.
Counterpoint also becomes a more important element in Mahler’s music from the fifth symphony onwards. The ability to write good counterpoint was highly cherished by Baroque composers andJohann Sebastian Bach is regarded as the greatest composer of contrapuntal music. Bach played an important part in Mahler's musical life at this time. He subscribed to the edition of Bach's collected works that was being published at the turn of the century, and later conducted and arranged works by Bach for performance. Mahler's renewed interest in counterpoint can best be heard in the third and the final movements of the fifth symphony.

Premieres[edit]

Reaction[edit]

  • After its premiere, Mahler is reported to have said, 'Nobody understood it. I wish I could conduct the first performance fifty years after my death.'
  • Herbert von Karajan once said that when you hear Mahler's Fifth, 'you forget that time has passed. A great performance of the Fifth is a transforming experience. The fantastic finale almost forces you to hold your breath.'

External links[edit]