Requiem: Mozart's Tryst with Death

There is deathly beauty in Mozart’s requiem especially as this masterpiece was his last work. I have to confess that Mozart’s music doesn't stir me much but his requiem is an exception.

The story goes that Mozart was commissioned by a stranger to write the requiem. He had never written a requiem earlier, and so he absorbed himself in finding the true funeral music.While writing the music, he came to realise that he was writing the requiem for himself. Legend goes that death dictated the music for him, and in exchange took his life. This might seem far-fetched but the amazing part was his original manuscript of the requiem didn’t have any corrections, as if the music was already completed in his head. 

There are many powerful funeral musics composed in the Western Classical repertoire such as the hypnotic Mahler's 5th Symphony, the beautiful Funeral March of Chopin (Sonata 2), Beethoven's Funeral March , the melodramatic Verdi's Requiem and the austere Brahm's German requiem. But I have to say that Mozart's requiem is most unsettling to hear. Being a big Mahler admirer, I enjoy listening his fifth. But listening that music doesn't unsettle you as much as Mozart's requiem. The real power of music can be felt in these requiems.

Appassionata : Emotional Outburst of Beethoven

Great works of art are mostly produced when emotions stab the limits of the minds. My favourite and considered by many as the greatest piano sonata 'Appassionata' also emerged in such an emotional heightened state. Hurt in love, completely shattered and converging towards deafness impelled Beethoven to produce one of the finest music of emotional expressionism. The music starts in with chords which are melancholic and portray despair but then out this despair emerges a music of an indomitable spirit. The music sort of explodes portraying the invincibility of his character  There is a mark of introspection that also reverberates in the music with constant questioning which seems to reaffirm the invincibility of his spirit to never give up. But the sonata has a tragic ending. It is the sonata where his life's tragic glimpse is shown with his spirit trying to overcome it.  There are variations of tragedy coupled with hope in the whole sonata. It is a piece of music with shades of different emotions posed in an aggressive manner. The only other piano sonata with such an explosive character is another of Beethoven's sonata 'Hammerklavier'. Hammerklavier is considered one of the most technically demanding sonatas to perform.

Above You Tube video (1st movement)  is not one of the best recordings. The best recordings according to me are of Maurizio Pollini and Richter. Just to get a short intense glimpse of Pollini performing click here -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXaWutqQSa0

Dance Me To The End Of Love: Leonard Cohen

"So, that music, "Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin," meaning the beauty there of being the consummation of life, the end of this existence and of the passionate element in that consummation. But, it is the same language that we use for surrender to the beloved, so that the song -- it's not important that anybody knows the genesis of it, because if the language comes from that passionate resource, it will be able to embrace all passionate activity."
Leonard Cohen (Poet, Zen Monk and Singer)


"Dance Me To The End Of Love"

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Sound of Silence :Simon & Garfunkel

Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence


In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence


And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence


"Fools", said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of silence


And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered in the sounds of silence


by Simon & Garfunkel

Dewarist :'Maaya' Indian Ocean and Mohit Chauhan

Dewarist : Brilliant Musical Series

Music transcends boundaries and makes itself intelligible and accessible with just a pull of the string. I just came to know today about this brilliant musical initiative where these talented two musicians /groups collaborate to produce an original musical score. Film and independent musician Vishal (Vishal -Shekhar) quite succinctly captures the idea of the series 'that sometimes idea needs some sort of sound and sometimes sound becomes an idea' (Watch his wonderful collaboration with British musician Imogen Heap where they render a beautiful composition to one of the most powerful poems by Tagore 'Mind without Fear').
Watching the production of such earthly sound and music was a riveting experience for a music lover like me. In the clip above, we see that music clearly transcends boundaries and illustrates a great case about its universality. The collaboration in the above series is between the Indian musicians Shantanu Moitra and Swanand Kirkire and Pakistani musicians Zeb and Haniya. 

Sexual Revolution - Pregnant Widow by Martin Amis

Martin Amis , one of my favourite novelists, has written this interesting new novel on the 'sexual revolution' titled Pregnant Widow of 1970's England. It is written in the usual Martin Amis style being satirical, prose driven coupled with unconventional jargons. The novel is about the 'sexual egalitarianism' that started in the 70's in the backdrop of the hippie movement along with other movements which lead to sort of overthrowing the conventional sexual mores in which  female 'freedom' was restrained. The revolution started in a sense with the basic tenet of loosing 'virginity' before marriage to show sort of 50/50 equality between both the sexes. The story which revolves around Keith Nearing and his adventures with a group of females in the early 1970's at an Italian Mansion, depicts sort of 'female evolution'  and the 'sexual freedom' that female protagonist were into.
I was thinking whether there has been a sort of 'sexual revolution' in India, where sort of 50/50 exists.Frankly, I don't think so, apart from 'hush hush' college mating in certain parts of urban India (mainly the metros), things have definitely not reached 50/50. I realize movies such as 'monsoon wedding' sort of still define most of  the urban educated landscape and feminism is nowhere much to be seen apart from academic rhetoric. Amis in Pregnant Widow showed that Brit females pushed the boundaries to attain egalitarianism but I realize Indian females due to complex social structures that still prevail in India (due to parental control) but also due to lack of 'experimentation' on their part  have a long was to go to  even come out of the 'conventional ' mores to even come close to 50/50 which Amis argues about and even thinks that Europeans have also still not attained that equality.