"TO THE MEMORY OF A FALLEN ANGEL"

the time: 1935. the dood: Alban Berg. a violin player needed some music to play with an orchestra, so he asked Berg to write the music. the result is the subject of this post: the 'violin concerto' by Berg. 'concerto' means music where one instrument gets the spotlight and the rest of the orchestra backs them up. there are two 'movements' in this concerto, a movement being the musical equivalent of a chapter in a book.

music changed a lot in the early parts of the 1900s, and Berg hung out with some pretty progressive music-writing doods who were all about pushing the boundaries of music, to the point where many people found the sounds now encompassed by these expanded bounds kind of unpleasant to listen to. Berg learned from this boundary pushing but kept his music human and enjoyable to the common person. new, weird, cool sounds.

Berg dedicated this music 'to the memory of a fallen angel', an 18 year old boy he knew who had recently died. you can hear the struggles of grief and anger and frustration in here, but you also hear intimations of heaven, ethereal and distant. if you listen closely halfway through the 2nd 'movement', you can hear something that sounds like church music sneaking in.

this is what one might call 'classical' music. all that is meant by 'classical' is that it was written and performed using notes on paper - written and performed in a specific European tradition of sacred and secular music stretching back hundreds of years. it is what some might call a 'piece' of music.

as the Peacefork head office was discussing last night, one has to choose one's battles with classical music, like new mcdonalds sandwiches. by this I mean that you should seek out pieces that are interesting, like this one. And that you have to come to music like this with an open mind and a conscious desire to like it - you probably won't like it right away, but after a few listenings you will be reaping the deeply vibing rewards concealed abundantly in its note laden jelly folds.

download it

// pjap