[Leica] First signing on in years..... Piano Sonatas and rant.....

[dfeingold at hotmail.com (david feingold)]

It has been years since I have posted here but I am signing on. For the past 
few years I have "lurked" through the archives. I must admit my blood 
pressure soared when I read that Marc Small detests all piano Sonatas. I 
read the rant on California with amusement, but that's another topic.

So without alienating myself too quickly I feel compelled to chime in here. 
I would never suggest that music is any more universal  than California is. 
People from a given culture may have difficulty truly experiencing and 
understanding or feeling the art of another culture, or for that matter the 
culture of another foreign place. That is dimminishing in today's "flat" 
world.....drat! tougher to be opinionated. Nonetheless, the sonata-allegro 
form is a building block that parallels development of character in western 
literature. What the ternary structure itself facilitates for the composer 
in terms of invention, is compatible with what happened in with the 
novel....and so on. Only in America do we continually re-invent the 
wheel.....blues notwithstanding, that's good s...stuff

I've been to Roanoke and even have family in Pulaski. My sense is most 
people there would feel very uncomfortable in California. However to the 
extent that the sonata-allegro form evolved in western civilization, I would 
think that one so well versed in Zeiss lenses would also enjoy taking the 
time to learn about "our" own musical evolution and culture especially those 
contributions from Germany. True many red-blooded Americans proudly turn-off 
to things European but in this gorup? I don't think so.

Marc, I respectfully urge to you get a hold of the Samuel Barber Sonata for 
starters and crank it. If that music doesn't hit you right in the 
chest.....I won't sign off this list but I'm not sure I can help either. I 
also recommend that you read about sonata-allegro form. It really is bigger 
than the music, and a grasp of it may even eventually inform your 
photography. If  the Barber works for you perhaps go back and give Mozart 
another try, say the c minor Fantasy (forget the K listing but the big one, 
he worte a couple in c minor) and work through to Beethoven and Schubert. 
The folk there in Roanoke will respect you more when they hear strains of 
the Hammerklavier emanating from your stereo.

d