I am listening to …
Thomas Adès’ Alchymia - this piece is mainly based on works from Elizabethan England and builds on transformative musical momenta, piling transformation upon transformation.
A Sea-Change 1611 (...those are pearls...) references Ariel’s song ‘Full Fathom Five’ from The Tempest, recalling the drowned king whose eyes are transformed by the sea into pearls.
The Woods So Wild 1612 – this popular Tudor song was already transformed by William Byrd into keyboard divisions (variations) before Adès turned it into a scherzo.
Lachrymae 1600 – takes its title from a lute song by Dowland, reworked for viol consort.
Divisions on a Lute-song: Here, Adès invokes Alban Berg’s take on playwright Frank Wedekind’s Lautenlied (lute-song) for his opera Lulu. It is played by clarinet, imitating a barrel organ from the streets of London. Evoking the instrument of Dowland and Purcell, the essence remains Elizabethan.
I am reading …
August Blue, by Deborah Levy. Elsa, a pianist, walks off stage and across Europe to escape her talent and her history. However, her struggles are as much about transformation as they are about acceptance of her past, as an orphan, foster child, wunderkind, and adoptee. It’s a fragile tale, told in fleeting moments, exploring a long overdue rebellion, and the discovery and acceptance of a subjective reality over imagination and self-deceit.
It is a short and intense book, with a surreal touch and a beautiful finale that reconciled me with some of the slower passages.
I am thinking about …
how AI is shaking up and transforming our musical landscape in profound ways, from generating compositions and supporting music productions to personalising what we listen to. These developments have really been pushing our ideas about creativity in the widest sense and making us question what’s truly authentic. I am still far too ignorant to comprehensively weigh up the pros and cons (especially as everything is changing at immense speed), but until the music industry - well, all of us, really - get a grip on it, live events will still be by far the best way to experience genuine creative energy and real artistic connections - the essence of all the arts and something that AI just can’t replicate. So, let’s go out more!
I am looking at …
a sketch by the British painter Henry S Tuke called also August Blue. I came across it when searching for a book cover to add to this post. Neither the final painting nor the sketch have any links to Levy’s book (apart from the title, as far as I know) but there are a couple of scenes in the novella where it could fit in quite nicely. And as I really like it, I thought I share it with you.
Enjoy the summer and till next time,
Kirsten