Beethoven vs. Rossini

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

It also kinda reappears in Pynchon's work.

"Fortunately it only skipped a generation, and both Ziggy and Otis now 
have turned into reliable opera dates for their grandparents, Ziggy 
partial to Verdi, Otis to Puccini, neither caring that much for Wagner." 
(Bleeding Edge, p. 98)

The only Italian composer I care for is Monteverdi.


On 22.02.2015 06:02, Dave Monroe wrote:
> We'll Meet Again: Musical Design in the Films of Stanley Kubrick
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=qRuRAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA166#v=onepage&q&f=false
>
> http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199767663.do
>
> “Gustav is a composer. For months he has been carrying on a raging
> debate with Säure over who is better, Beethoven or Rossini. Säure is
> for Rossini. “I’m not so much for Beethoven qua Beethoven,” Gustav
> argues, “but as he represents the German dialectic, the incorporation
> of more and more notes into the scale, culminating with dodecaphonic
> democracy, where all notes get an equal hearing. Beethoven was one of
> the architects of musical freedom—he submitted to the demands of
> history, despite his deafness. While Rossini was retiring at the age
> of 36, womanizing and getting fat, Beethoven was living a life filled
> with tragedy and grandeur.”
>
> “So?” is Säure’s customary answer to that one. “Which would you rather
> do? The point is,” cutting off Gustav’s usually indignant scream, “a
> person feels good listening to Rossini. All you feel like listening to
> Beethoven is going out and invading Poland. Ode to Joy indeed. The man
> didn’t even have a sense of humor. I tell you,” shaking his skinny old
> fist, “there is more of the Sublime in the snare-drum part to La Gazza
> Ladra than in the whole Ninth Symphony. With Rossini, the whole point
> is that lovers always get together, isolation is overcome, and like it
> or not that is the one great centripetal movement of the World.
> Through the machineries of greed, pettiness, and the abuse of power,
> love occurs. All the shit is transmuted to gold. The walls are
> breached, the balconies are scaled—listen!” It was a night in early
> May, and the final bombardment of Berlin was in progress. Säure had to
> shout his head off. “The Italian girl is in Algiers, the Barber’s in
> the crockery, the magpie’s stealing everything in sight! The World is
> rushing together. …”
>
> https://theoreticallyevil.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/beethoven-vs-rossini/
>
> Beethoven: The Man Who Freed Music
>
> http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Beethoven_%26_Rossini
>
> The Style of Connectedness: Gravity's Rainbow and Thomas Pynchon
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=U7lX0wPvhocC&pg=PA281#v=onepage&q&f=false
>
> A Gravity's Rainbow Companion: Sources and Contexts for Pynchon's Novel
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=fK73JkjMDmQC&pg=PA247#v=onepage&q&f=false
>
> Ethical Diversions: The Post-Holocaust Narratives of Pynchon, Abish,
> DeLillo, and Spiegelman
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=XQraAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA158#v=onepage&q&f=false
>
> Gravity's Rainbow, Domination, and Freedom
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=469pAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA176#v=onepage&q&f=false
>
> Pynchon and Philosophy: Wittgenstein, Foucault and Adorno
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=84GEAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA63#v=onepage&q&f=false
>
> Novel Listening: Background Sound and the Technologies of Aural Control
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=9H-_5vdwSDMC&pg=PA181#v=onepage&q&f=false
> -
> Pynchon-l /http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=nchon-l
>
>

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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l