The Unanswered Question – Six Talks at Harvard by Leonard Bernstein Streaming
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The Unanswered Question – Six Talks at Harvard by Leonard Bernstein Streaming.
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All technical and musical matters have been discussed by other reviewers, so I’m impartial going to say that this collection of lectures is a delight to perceive and listen. Some of them bustle nearly 3 hours, but I never become bored of them. Bernstein, with his contageous energy, enthusiasm and well-behaved communication skills, shares his views and thoughts with such edifying ways; it is honest irresistible. Honest to note my point, my husband, who has no musical background and had no concept what the maestro was talking about when he watched the first lecture with me, gave a delectable scream of amazement each time Bernstein demonstrated on the piano. Needless to say, he was glued to the veil and watched it till the slay without a hint of boredom.
The lectures are highly intelligent, and to understand what he’s talking about, you need musical background, but even if you don’t understand at all, it is aloof very delicious.
Humphrey Burton writes in his Bernstein’s biography that Bernstein was having such obedient time being with young people at Harvard, he kept on delaying and delaying to complete these lectures. You can examine that the maestro enjoys so great sharing what he knows with not only Harvard students but with all the world. His theme is universality of music and brotherhood of human kind through music. Some of his thoughts and ideas are so very new and different; they amuse me at the same time build me believe.
Even though the questions are not all answered (the more he talks, the more questions arise, I have to admit), his spirit is well delivered, and that alone makes this DVD a like worth having.
Its quite bewitching that in the slack 20th century, there was a progresive tendency to behold for a number of colossal schemes, many of which would be familiar to you guys, perhaps some of which would not be. One determined example is that sizable pains to gather an underlying theory of physics which would combine relativity and quantum mechanics – another are more obscure attempts to reconcile space theory with definite models within category theory which had been giving pains to a clear position of number theoretians – etc, etc.
But the human dimension to this appeared, almost as one man in the compose of Chomsky. His book, “Aspects of the theory of Syntax” was the tip of the iceberg of a colossal number of papers published on the deep structure of language while he was working at MIT. This appeared to offer clues as to aspects of the structure of ANY human language, an utterly extraordinary claim. Some of his later works give clues to the possible existence of a universal paradigm for language which has massive implications for people in so many disciplines, I couldn’t initiate to enumerate.
This all started, by the draw, on the route to attempting the final cataloguing of the North American indian languages, some of which had only one remaining speaker. The task was gigantic and unapproachable until Chomsky evolved a system for abbreviating definite grammatic structures, which, to his surprise, evolved into a considerable predictive theory.
Anyone exposed to this at the time would have been impressed, but what was to follow was even more extraordinary. Chomsky’s ideas lickety-split melded with other theories of semantics and syntax transformations in different fields, and became de-rigeour for many PhDs in computer science and anthropology, uniting what was up until that time two very, very different disciplines. Citations to his work began to appear everywhere, and in the most astonishing places.
An illustration of what was to follow THAT is basically contained here. no less, a unified theory of language and music!
[You ought to find this - it is undoubtedly a bright scholarly work in any case, even if you don't concur with Bernstein on all points - and few would exactly agree with him on all, nor, importantly, would you need to, to abet from this.]
The argument presented is quite intuitive, but is nontheless compelling. Music is shown as being a byproduct of our humanity, extended from need in whatever do, as an infant, or an adult, from utility into sophisticaion, and finally inspiration. Bernstein makes distinct the listener is in no doubt that there is something arrangement, scheme beyond necessity in our provision for the experience of music. His explanation of the physics of music is flawless, and … dismay titillating. And, watching the man traverse this astronomical gap between logic, physics, liguistics, and the unnameable majesty of Beethoven and Debussy (both of which he performs as a conductor, and is moved greatly and visibly) is utterly breathtaking. I would doubt that anyone watching his exposition of the 6th would be any less moved in this plot.
Apart from any of this, Bernstein entertains enormously. There are parts of his explantions that truly defy you not to laugh. He has an honesty and self effacement that is quite fresh, this comes out particularly in his efforts to protest, which he pokes quite a bit of fun at. It’s positive how passionately his audience is enthusiastic. (He describes at length a discussion with a student after one lecture in the next one – and its positive that both student and teacher really have learned quite a bit but have obviously been a miniature combatative, at least, at first)
From there on, you might care to differ a bit. The history of the 20th Century is described rather neatly as the showdown between Schoenburg and Stravinsky, two schools of understanding, two very different philosophies. He enters this very complex consideration fairly gently. I agree with his advance – and concept of the environment of the early 20th century is valuable if one is to understand its music – and so he described Debussy, who is … sort of.. at the kill of the Waagnerian era, stretching ambiguity and tonal resources to the uttermost. Can one go further? Yes indeed, and here we have the entry of the Viennese school of 12 tone technique, illustrated with Schoenburgs six miniature piano pieces. But oddly enough, Bernstein shows very clearly that the appearance of 12 tone technique is not unequivically Schoenburgs’ alone, but appears in the guise of mists and mirages in Chopin, Wagner, even Beethoven, but grasped once and for all by Schoenburg.
Given another five or so lectures, one might imagine that one could contemplate the spend of bitonality, not unbiased in the context of the Rite of Spring (which is most EXCELLENTLY explained), but the mid century English composers, who spend this technique. Such people as Holst, Grainger, Williams, Strauss, and of course, Britten. But there isn’t time. The waste point of these complications is the resolution into a robust defence of neo-classicism, such as the ebony concerto, and of course, Oedipux Rex. But I mediate that this is a shadowy plan to extinguish – Rex is a sombre, hard work, and doesn’t quite illustrate the destroy that either Schoenburg or Stravinsky seem to have unknowingly appointed for that piece of the 20th century. In this, Bernstein may have overlooked that really fresh developoments in Europe, that of an emerging unique impressionism (even, perhaps, Romanticism), exemplified by Xenakis, Maderna, Berio, and others, who in some sense piece some parts of both ends of the bipolar world which was the basis for all this in the middle allotment of that century.
All this is debatable. For instance, not a mention is given to either those very radical spirits like Varese, who seemed to eschew both ends equaly – or those, like Sibelius, Delius or Neilson, who didn’t seem to mind either design, and continued to write what is now known as the mid century symphonic repertoire.
That is a long, long myth, and could do the basis of a lot of commentary. Where, for instance, is Shostakovich in all this? Or Bartok, for that matter? I judge this is all dealt with elsewhere, but I would have given a ample deal to have seen these composers discussed at length.
But this position of lectures is so necessary as a signpost, I would never do anything other than highly, highly recommend it.It’s absolutely elegant.
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