Beethoven vs. Rossini

Thu Jun 18 04:26:12 CDT 2015

Re:  "All you feel like listening to Beethoven is going out and invading 
Poland."

In this regard the Third Reich seems to have put more trust in Wagner ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwaKad2tZUU

 > In the other, a shell-shoked flyer whose doctor has prescribed "a 
profound experience" recovers the will to fight when he hears 
"Siegfried's Rhine Journey" during a performance of Wagner's 
Götterdämmerung at the Bayreuth Festival. 
^<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stukas_%28film%29#cite_note-Rubble-9> 
(He has a flashback to his commander and the chief medical officer 
playing the same passage four-handed on the 
piano.^<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stukas_%28film%29#cite_note-Rickels158-12> 
) The film ends with them in flight on their way to attack England. <

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stukas_%28film%29

Do you know whether Coppola was aware of "Stukas" when he made Wagner a 
part of "Apocalypse Now?"

The evil use of music - think also of the torture in Guantanamo and 
elsewhere - asks for the questioning of all culture in terms of 
civilization.

In 1804, J.G. Seume wrote in a poem: "Bösewichter haben keine Lieder" 
(Evil guys do not have songs). This is, alas, not true ...

On 22.02.2015 11:31, Kai Frederik Lorentzen wrote:
>
> 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
>>
>>
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=nchon-l
>
>

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