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Posted on 06/15/2012 5:58:34 PM PDT by AZamericonnie
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Here!
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Our Flag Flying Proudly One Nation Under God
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Lord, Please Bless Our Troops, They're fighting for our Freedom.
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God Bless Our Republic
Prayers going up
Howdy!
IU4b>Aloha Connie!</b>
How things down south? Got humidity?:)
It was humid until today. It’s dry and in the low 80’s. Quite comfy.
Happy Trails to You
Don’t Fence Me in
FATHER’S DAY ONLY 2 DAYS AWAY
With Father’s Day coming up this Sunday, it’s more important than ever to support our troops before one of the most important holidays of the year for men in the military, who are usually family men.
Below is a heartwarming story about some fortunate troops who actually get to be home for Father’s Day this year.
According to the calendar, Father’s Day is Sunday. But for four men who recently returned from overseas tours of duty with our armed forces, the holiday came early this year thanks to their favorite Major League Baseball teams.
The reunions took place at Mariners, Braves, Twins and Diamondbacks games this season. EspnW talked to the teams, the servicemen and the family members to bring you an inside look at how these special homecomings happened.
In each case, the teams came up with a plan, but executing the surprise with so many moving parts wasn’t easy. It took planning, some luck and, of course, some deliberate misdirection, requiring the assistance of friends, family members, team mascots and, in some cases, the umpires working the games.
This is an amazing achievement on the part of these sports teams. They have made this Father’s Day an uplifting and unforgettable holiday for these families. But there are thousands of troops, many of them also fathers, who are still serving bravely in Afghanistan, and they WON’T be home this Sunday to see their families for the
holiday.
Think about the troops that didn’t get the heartwarming homecoming events, the troops that won’t get to come home for another 3, 6 or even 9 months.
Hand over heart & prayers up! *Hugs*
Aloha Bigs! *Hugs*
How are those sweet little Wahines doing? A good week for you?
Oh that IS perfect weather. Whatcha got on tap this evening?
Brahms, Part #2 of 4: The Chamber Music Years
~ Tunes For Our Troops ~
FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT
Showing support and boosting the morale of
our military and our allies’ military
and the family members of the above.
Honoring those who have served before.
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The FR Canteen is Free Republic's longest running daily thread
specifically designed to provide entertainment and moral support for the military.
The doors have been open since Oct 7 2001,
the day of the start of the war in Afghanistan.
We are indebted to you for your sacrifices for our Freedom.
{{{G-Pa}}}
Are those requests or code for current events? LOL
So Jo decided to tackle chamber music. The definition of chamber music is that it’s played by one musician per musical part. By contrast, in an orchestra many musicians play the same musical part. Brahms had already written several piano sonatas, a violin sonata that ended up in the fireplace, and the Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello in B Major, Op. 8. The original 1854 version was the barely disciplined work of a wild young man, and it never caught on. But Clara loved it. Near the end of his life, Brahms gutted and rewrote it, and that’s the version that is performed today. I’ll cover that version when we get to it.
If you’re going to write chamber music, the first thing you think of is a string quartet. But if you take that path, you run up against the definitive quartets of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Thanks to the work of Robert Schumann when he became the musical executor of Franz Schubert’s estate, the quartets of Schubert, who had died in 1828, entered the repertory, and the final four were impressive, placing him next to Beethoven. Brahms shied away from this genre, fearing “the tramp of giants” behind him. Eventually he did publish a pair of string quartets, but not until he had sent 20 of them to the fireplace.
What Brahms decided to try was an archaic form, the string sextet, which consists of two violins, two violas and two cellos. This makes the ensemble bottom heavy and creates the possibility of a muddy sound. To get around this, Brahms keeps the two violins at the upper end of their range so they can be heard. This is necessary if all six instruments are playing all the time, as they do in this piece. Later, Jo would find a different solution to the formal problem of a sextet.
This is sometimes known as the “Spring” Sextet, and that moniker speaks for itself. By this time Jo and Clara had spent countless hours playing the recently published four-handed piano duets of Schubert, and some of Schubert’s techniques leached into this work. For those who reflexively say, “Chamber music is boring,” you’re in for a treat.
Chamber music audiences tend to be top-heavy with musicians and people who are really into music, so this was a good move by Brahms. The sextet was premiered in October 1860. Brahms’ friend Joseph Joachim recruited a pick-up ensemble of five other players for the first performance, which was very well received. Jo Brahms was back! Now, in addition to the hand-rolled Caporel cigarettes he chain-smoked – rolling machines hadn’t been invented yet – Jo now took up a quality brand of cigar. He was on his way.
He starts with a rolling first subject in B-flat stated on the cellos and then by the whole ensemble. At 1:49 he introduces a transitional section in the remote key of A Major before settling into the second subject at 2:28 in the correct key of F. This is where he learned something from Schubert. This recording skips the exposition repeat and goes into the development section at 3:58. At the end of the development, the cellos hint gingerly at the first subject, and at 6:18 everybody joins in the recapitulation with the first violin playing a counter-melody. Brahms abbreviates the first subject and leads into a heartbreakingly beautiful passage at 6:47 with the first violin going into the stratosphere. At 7:47 the transitional passage appears in D Major, and at 8:26 the second subject returns in the correct key of B-flat. But Brahms saves the best for last. At 9:47 he builds his coda from the first subject and carefully winds it down, until at 10:25 he resorts to pizzicato, building to the finish. (Pizzicato refers to plucking the strings, not bowing them. It doesn’t mean “a little pizza”.)
This video displays the score. For those who have played instruments that use the treble (G) and bass (F) clefs, the viola, and occasionally the cello, use the C clef. That notch in the C clef marks the line that is Middle C.
Brahms: Sextet in B-flat Major, Op. 18, first movement
The second movement is set in theme-and-variations format, and the theme is based on an ancient device, a bass line known as la folia, which was used by many composers to include Beethoven. Brahms writes for the cellos as though they are the Renaissance viola da gamba, a six-stringed cello-like instrument. There is the distinct flavor of Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) in the theme. In theme-and-variation movements, the rule is that the harmony underlying the melody must remain constant in each variation, but everything else is permitted to vary.
The theme is in D minor, and at 1:33 the first variation begins, with the cello taking the theme, followed by the violins, with the other instruments accompanying with chords. At 2:56 the second variation begins with the violins taking the lead while the cellos play chords. At 4:12 in the third variation, the violins break the theme into short fragments while the violas and cellos play arpeggios. One of the conventions is that at least one variation must be in the opposite mode (major versus minor), so Brahms sets his fourth variation at 6:33 in D Major. The fourth variation’s theme has a distinct flavor of “Auld Lang Syne”. At 7:00 the fifth variation, also in D Major, has the violins and violas playing in their upper registers, and they sound like a small hand-pumped church organ, another trick picked up from Schubert. The theme returns at 8:32, and the cello is accompanied by pizzicato strings. It wraps up quietly in D Major.
The picture of Brahms in this video shows how he looked in his Twenties: a blond-haired, blue-eyed young man who was devilishly handsome – and knew it! This recording features a cast of all-stars and was recorded in the Forties.
The very short scherzo in F Major has a country dance flavor to it while the middle section is a wilder dance.
The finale is a beguiling rondo in B-flat. In a rondo, the first theme comes back again and again, with forays into other themes before the return.
Thank you for the tunes. I know that the troops appreciate the music. :-)
Thank you for this great story, Sandy! I love happy endings...especially for our troops! :)
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