We must be soldiers for Art!

Tag: classical-music

  • Monteverdi Invents New Genre of Music!

    My chorus director told us that with the 1610 Vespers, Monteverdi ushered in a whole new era in music. What he had invented was the baroque style of music.

    He kind of snuck up on his audience with it. The first movement “Deus in Adjutorium” starts with very conservative chords of an almost Gregorian chant type of timbre, but that is pretty much the end of any late-renaissance period music. From there he created twisting and twining lines of music that lay out almost everything the baroque was going to be. He has polyphonic and homophonic sections. He has flashes of ornamentation. He writes out gorgeous fugues. He has murderously difficult syncopation. He even has a walking bass. Yet all of it is light and facile and it is absolutely beautiful.

    The Washington Bach Consort did a particularly fine rendition of this piece back in April 2026. Maestro Dana Marsh had a refined and elegant interpretation of the work with an emphasis on that which is not obvious in the music and a de-emphasis on that which is. Many modern performers are tempted to blast out those obvious bits, but the maestro treated them with a delicate subtlety.

    An extra bonus is being able to see all kinds of fun instruments. The stringed instrument here is a theorbo. The photo is not great but I was very far away. Theorbos comes in many different sizes; this was one of the largest I have seen. You can see where the elongated neck houses a second peg box, which is one of the characteristics of this instrument.

    Yet another bonus is to experience this shimmering, gorgeous music at the National Presbyterian Church in Washington DC. The church has stunning modern architecture. The marvelous stained glass windows give me moments to contemplate the idea of love – especially the love that is between us – which is the most fundamental basis for the Christian faith.

    Keep looking for beauty in both ordinary and extraordinary spaces!

  • Saint-Saens and Tchaikovsky at the Kennedy Center

    Saturday night I heard a beautiful concert at The Kennedy Center that was performed by the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO). I’ve said here before how much the NSO has changed with the arrival of Maestro Noseda, becoming one of the best orchestras in the country. I was rapt with the beauty of their playing on Saturday night.

    Saint-Saens is probably best known for The Carnival of the Animals and Danse Macabre, but on Saturday we heard his cello concerto played by Edgar Moreau. As the program notes stated, the main theme on the cello spirals down two octaves, introducing melodic and rhythmic seeds that the composer then works out in the development sections. The searingly beautiful slow passages in a lyrical minor key really haunted my heart.

    The Tchaikovsky piece was his “Manfred” symphony, which was based on the poem by Byron. The opening movement is painted in despairing colors using minor keys and yet contains elements of hope. The second and third movements have elfin sylphlike melodies that make the listener wistful. The powerful fourth movement is the dramatic heart of the piece. What I loved most of all was the fugue played in the string section. Starting in the violas, then second violins, followed by first violins it had gasping beauty when the lower strings (cellos and double basses) came in as the fourth voice. In a bit of fun, the organ comes in near the end with really dramatic chords, first as a solo then with the rest of the orchestra.

    I wasn’t familiar with either piece before going to the concert; now I’m looking for some recordings so I can hear those pieces again in my pursuit of what is beautiful. I want to celebrate that mankind developed fugues, major and minor keys, exquisite compositions, and gifted performing artists.