[Fwd: Re: GG: David Blackwood: Fminor]

[Gregory Barton <barton@mozart.inet.co.th>]

Gregory Barton wrote:
> 
> Brookemail wrote:
> >
> >     Quite late last night I found the book containing the description of
> > the Prelude and Fugue in F minor which I had previously referenced.
> > The book is titled "The Forty-Eight Preludes and Fugues of J.S. Bach,"
> > and is authored by a chap named Cecil Gray. It looks to be published in
> > 1938. In any case, here are the goods:
> >
> > (Begin excerpt, Page 45)
> >
> >                                 I. 12
> >
> >        PRELUDE AND FUGUE (FOUR PARTS)
> >                             IN F MINOR
> >
> > THE mood of this prelude is one of a deep but unobtrusive
> > melancholy, of sorrow uncomplainingly borne by a heroic
> > heart, of bitterness that is free from any resentment, of grief
> > without self-pitying eloquence. It has the mellowness, too,
> > of a wisdom that never spells disillusion, of a spirit so strong
> > that it need never be hard, so sensitive that it can never
> > become cynical--a philosopher-poet's melancholy that is
> > never brooding, but contemplates without flinching the
> > great riddles, the eternal problems, of life and death. There
> > is probably nothing else in music to which one could
> > compare the peculiar flavour of this particular piece. To
> > find its like one must turn to another art, to the mighty
> > humanism of that other German master, the sixteenth
> > -century wizard Albrecht Dürer, with his engraved
> > triptych of  St. Gerome, the Knight, Death and Demon,
> > and the Melancolia.
> >
> 
> ... good with venison steak with dill butter sauce, and a salad of alfalfa sprouts and radishes with a light
> oil and vinegar dressing...
> 
> 
> > In his introduction, Mr Gray also delineates the nature
> > of each of the preludes and fugues in relation to their
> > key signature: "Not only is one conscious of a definite
> > logic in the sequence of the numbers, and a spiritual
> > relation between them, but one also feels that the
> > particular key in which each number is written is the
> > inevitable, the absolutely right key."
> 
> Ol' J.S. had a direct line to Plato's cave.
> 
> They sound good to listen to also.
> 
> Nice to see some comment on the P's and F's, even if it waxes.
> 
> gb