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| The Bells | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 18 2009, 07:35 PM (131 Views) | |
| pianojerome | Feb 18 2009, 07:35 PM Post #1 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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We just performed Rachmaninov's choral symphony, "The Bells", which is based on the poem by Edgar Allan Poe. It's a spectacular piece... the last two movements are so incredibly intense. Rachmaninov himself thought it was his best work, written three decades before he died. Supposedly, each section represents a different time of life: birth, marriage, crisis, death. Here's the original poem by Poe: ---- I Hear the sledges with the bells - Silver bells! What a world of merriment their melody foretells! How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, In the icy air of night! While the stars that oversprinkle All the heavens seem to twinkle With a crystalline delight; Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells From the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells - From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. II Hear the mellow wedding bells - Golden bells! What a world of happiness their harmony foretells! Through the balmy air of night How they ring out their delight! From the molten-golden notes, And all in tune, What a liquid ditty floats To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats On the moon! Oh, from out the sounding cells What a gush of euphony voluminously wells! How it swells! How it dwells On the Future! -how it tells Of the rapture that impels To the swinging and the ringing Of the bells, bells, bells, Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells - To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells! III Hear the loud alarum bells - Brazen bells! What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells! In the startled ear of night How they scream out their affright! Too much horrified to speak, They can only shriek, shriek, Out of tune, In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire, In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire, Leaping higher, higher, higher, With a desperate desire, And a resolute endeavor Now -now to sit or never, By the side of the pale-faced moon. Oh, the bells, bells, bells! What a tale their terror tells Of despair! How they clang, and clash, and roar! What a horror they outpour On the bosom of the palpitating air! Yet the ear it fully knows, By the twanging And the clanging, How the danger ebbs and flows; Yet the ear distinctly tells, In the jangling And the wrangling, How the danger sinks and swells, By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells - Of the bells, Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells - In the clamor and the clangor of the bells! IV Hear the tolling of the bells - Iron bells! What a world of solemn thought their monody compels! In the silence of the night, How we shiver with affright At the melancholy menace of their tone! For every sound that floats From the rust within their throats Is a groan. And the people -ah, the people - They that dwell up in the steeple, All alone, And who tolling, tolling, tolling, In that muffled monotone, Feel a glory in so rolling On the human heart a stone - They are neither man nor woman - They are neither brute nor human - They are Ghouls: And their king it is who tolls; And he rolls, rolls, rolls, Rolls A paean from the bells! And his merry bosom swells With the paean of the bells! And he dances, and he yells; Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the paean of the bells, Of the bells - Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the throbbing of the bells, Of the bells, bells, bells - To the sobbing of the bells; Keeping time, time, time, As he knells, knells, knells, In a happy Runic rhyme, To the rolling of the bells, Of the bells, bells, bells - To the tolling of the bells, Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells - To the moaning and the groaning of the bells. |
| Sam | |
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| DivaDeb | Feb 18 2009, 08:45 PM Post #2 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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it's grand, PJ...I think Rachmaninov's writing for the voice is special. I didn't see this thread before I made my post to George with several of his songs in it. Must be some sort of Rachmaninov mojo in the air http://s10.zetaboards.com/The_New_Coffee_Room/single/?p=8176070&t=7093633 |
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| pianojerome | Feb 18 2009, 08:55 PM Post #3 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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I've got that baritone solo stuck in my head, the one that begins with an octave leap.... the one that the English Horn plays in the beginning of the fourth movement... it's so haunting. |
| Sam | |
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| DivaDeb | Feb 19 2009, 06:03 AM Post #4 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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I wish I could have heard your performance. It's wonderful that they chose to do the work...not a usual choice at all. |
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| kathyk | Feb 19 2009, 09:01 AM Post #5 |
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Pisa-Carp
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I have it on CD, but can't say I'm really familiar with it. It's been awhile since I listened to it and since then I've plunged headlong into Rach's piano music, so I'll have to give it a listen. |
| Blogging in Palestine: http://kksjournal.com/ | |
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4:35 PM Jul 10