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We start with music as it is considered one of the most complex, abstract, and ephemeral art forms. Likewise, Music provides a powerful landscape on which to express meaning through other art forms like theater and visual art.
Also, to provide you with a multi-dimensional literary, visual, and aural experience, in each of our review posts, you’ll hear music related to the article. In addition, we post visual art and embed links to music associated with the article’s content. Markedly, two Degas works were selected for this page because, in addition to their visual sentience or meaning, they project movement and sound.
The music you hear on this page is Wolfgang A. Mozart’s sublime Clarinet Quintet K581 in A major (1789) performed by the Armida Quartet – Martin Funda (violin), Johanna Staemmler (violin), Teresa Schwamm (viola), Peter-Philipp Staemmler (violoncello), with clarinetist Sabine Meyer.
Mozart Performing at Schönbrunn Palace for Emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa by Eduard Ender 1869. Public Domain
The Quintet was written for the renowned Anton Stadler, a clarinetist of the Royal-Imperial Court Orchestra in Vienna. Stadler subsequently it at its December 22, 1789 premiere at a concert for the benefit of musicians’ widows and orphans at the Tonkünstler Society. Moreover, it is thought that Mozart played the viola part at this performance.
Mozart composed this work during a time of great financial stress and physical challenges for him and his wife Constanze. Consequently, its sublime beauty amidst a serene melancholy reflects an effervescent sunlit glow from the composer’s soul. Tragicly, Mozart died just two years later at age 35. This superb performance by the Armida Quartet has received more than million views on YouTube.
As 19th Century composer Robert Schumann elegantly expressed, the arts fulfill a noble, vital human need. Thus, we attend, analyze, and experience art, challenge the integrity of the artist creator and strive to authentically explore a work’s meaning, design, and beauty, and share our discoveries with you.
The Dance Class by Edgar Degas (1874). Note the poster for Rossini’s Guillaume Tell that pays tribute to the singer Jean-Baptiste Faure, who commissioned the picture and lent it to the 1876 Impressionist exhibition. Expanding beyond its two-dimensional form, this painting depicts movement and music. Ballet master Jules Perrot conducts the class of ballerinas set in a rehearsal room in the old Paris Opéra, which had recently burned to the ground. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.
A world without music, dance, drama, film, literature, exploration, epicurean delights, or visual art is unimaginable. Clearly, the creative soul discovers means to channel, create, express, touch, and enrich our world. Thereby, artists create masterpieces to share their artistic imagination in uniquely intimate settings and means.
Edgar Degas (1867). Ballerinas in Pink. Public Domain
When asked to review the Myths and Hymns series by MasterVoices in New York during Covid, I was impressed by the artistic team members developing the project. Certainly, these artists are luminaries in their respective disciplines. Then, when viewing and experiencing the first installment entitled “Flight,” my suspicions and weariness of online video communications were cast aside.
Consequently, I was immediately drawn into what aesthetic theorist and philosopher Susanne Langer describes as a “purely and completely experienced reality, a piece of virtual life.” Certainly, my disbelief suspended itself proportional to the work’s quality, integrity, and sincerity. During this time, I existed in the virtual world of the music while watching, listening, experiencing, and enjoying their artistic ethos of craft and dedication.
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Wolfgang A. Mozart | Clarinet Quintet K581 in A major (1789) performed by the Armida Quartet – Martin Funda (violin), Johanna Staemmler (violin), Teresa Schwamm (viola), Peter-Philipp Staemmler (violoncello), with clarinetist Sabine Meyer.
Schumann: Klavierkonzert ∙ hr Sinfonieorchester ∙ Khatia Buniatishvili ∙ Paavo Järvi
