what's it all about

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT

-1 Ever since the dawn of civilization the European man has been on a quest . It is not a quest for gold or even the Holy Grail. It is a quest to the center of his being. Who made us? Who are we? Why are we here? WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT? Tonight we are on a journey through the ages watching the human race grapple and delve into the heart of the matter. So sit back, relax, close your eyes and be immersed in the experience of enlightenment through the expression of music.

PROGRAM

Alleluia,O Virga Mediatrix Hildegard of Bingen Middle Ages 476-1450 1098-1179

Puis qu’en Oubli Guillaume de Machaut 1330-1450 1300-1377

T The words of the musical performance stand for the body, And the musical performance itself stands for the spirit.” Hildegard

Ave Maria…Virgo Serena Josquin des Prez Renaissance 1450-1600 1450-1521

“We know by experience that song has a great force and vigor to move and inflame the hearts of men to invoke and praise


God with a more vehement and ardent zeal.” John Calvin

Messiah “Hallelujah” No 44 George F.Handel Baroque 1600-1750 1685-1759 “I do not know what I may appear to the world but to myself I seem to have been only a boy playing on the seashore whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” Sir Issac Newton

Eine Klien Nachtmusik: First Movement Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Classical 1750-1825 1756-1791

“I frequently compare a symphony with a novel In which the themes are characters. After we have made their acquaintance, We follow their evolution, the unfolding of their psychology” Arthur Honegger

The Moldau: My Country Bedrich Smetana Romantic 1820-1900 1824-1884

“Music, of all liberal arts, has the greatest influence over the passions.” Napoleon Bonaparte

Also Sprach Zarathrustra Richard Strauss Impressionism 1830-1940 1864-1949

Claire de Lune Claude De Bussy Impressionism 1830-1940 1862-1918

“I love music passionately. And because I love it, I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it. It is a free art gushing forth , an open air art boundless as the elements, the wind the sky, the sea. It must never be shut in and become an academic art.” Claude De Bussy

MIDDLE AGES 476-1450In the European world music and art revolved around the church in the Middle Ages (476-1450). The merchant class was developing and trade between countries was taking shape. This was the age of monarchs, great cathedrals, monasteries, and the Holy Crusades. Art wise most everything centered around the church . Musically the Gregorian Chant ,in its monophonic texture, expressed reverence and awe of the height, breadth, and depth of a mysterious God. The adornment of Mary was often a central


theme in the chants of Hildegard of Bingen. Presented for the service of God at an early age Hildegard often experienced visions and prophecies in which she manuscripted as chants for the church. Her manuscripts reflected the early quest of man’s journey for what it is all about. The Middle Ages was God centered time…all man sought was God. In this case it was the God of the Catholic church. The church was rule and reason. To serve God was the ultimate reason for being. It was the church(royalty , politicians, and priests) that ruled the common people. The crusades brought the Europeans to the outside world. Unfamiliar cultures, music, art and strange beliefs adhered to the knights of the crusades. With their return new instruments and religions were introduced . The sounds of Machaut’s, ‘Puis qu’en oubli‘, reflects a Middle Eastern texture and sound. The ‘chanson’ displayed a new freedom for rhythm thru a gentle syncopation. The minds and soul of this generation saw that there was more to life than was being presented through the European belief system,namely the church. The reason for being began to take on a different focus. “What is out there?“ took the evolution of the human spirit another step. This is where we flow into the Renaissance Era.

THE RENAISSANCE AGE 1450-1600The blind acceptance of what was presented as real that dominated the norm in the Middle Ages was to be challenged. The Renaissance Man was a new breed. With characters and senerios such as Capernicus, Columbus, the 1st printed book, Guttenberg Bible, science and education began captivating the attention and curiosity of man. Beginning to question the tales being told to him man put religious hypothesis to the test. The very foundations of religious teachings were to be tested and tried and if need be cast aside if


untrue. This was the era of the split of European Christianity. Now that the “scriptures” were becoming available to more than just the heads of the church and the elite.The personal experience and interpretation of the common man began a revolution in the Catholic Church. Calvinist, Lutherans and the revival of mythology and legends opened a road for man to deepen his search for meaning. Musically this was demonstrated in the multilayered forms of sacred music. The polyphonic writing gave the composer a great many possibilities. Voices became a focal point and the triple meter of the middle ages was cast aside for the duple meter. Josquin’s Ave Maria…virgo serena, demonstrates the variety yet unity of sacred music. The homorhythmic style ,in which all voices move in unison rhythmically, coupled with the varied expressions of emotional highs and lows in combination of unique voices and textures reflects the nature vs. nurture conflict in man at the time. Still clinging to the belief that has been cultivated for generations but drawn to see if it is real or not. God was no longer the center, man was coming into his own. This then brings us to the infancy of the scientific age of Baroque.

THE BAROQUE AGE 1600-1750El Greco, Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, Galileo, Milton, Vivaldi, Bach were just a few main characters that shaped the search for a real take on man’s being. Among other happenings the colonies in America were born. England and France were experiencing growing pains and the church was on her last grand stand in center stage. Man was soon to have the spotlight. But not before Handel had his say. God went out of man’s


mind with a bang, the big bang that is known as Messiah. Particularly the “Hallelujah Chorus”. German born George Fredrich Handel was a middle class genius. He represents the widening of the class systems availability to religious freedom of thought. The oratorio chorus, the people were always at the center of Handel’s dramas. This was a foreshadow of God‘s removal from man‘s center and replacing God with himself., ‘Messiah ‘was seen in the eyes of Handel as divine inspiration. written in only 24 days. Upon completion of this masterpiece, with tears in his eyes, he expressed himself as such, ”I did think that I did see all heaven before me and the Great God himself.” It was as if his spirit represented mankind’s finalization with Giving ultimate glory to God. At his last performance of Messiah ,Handel collapsed on stage and died a few days later. New World, new discoveries. The European man was now emerged with a New World across the ocean. Women who were cast out of the church world in the Renaissance period progressed on the social scale under the covering of music. The beginnings of being seen as a valuable, creative being was taking root in the Baroque period. Man was looking meaning somewhere other than the church and the entity of an invisible God. It is a big world out there and how is man to continue to find what is real separate from the familiarity of hearsay? This question brings us into the Classical Age.

“If there is nothing new to be found in Melody then we must seek novelty In harmony.” Georg Tellmann

CLASSICAL AGE 1750-1825At this point one can see as with music life flowed with continuity. Every development intertwined with another. There is a pattern of music’s connection with life and it’s evolving scenarios. Building blocks and


man’s quest is expression in a deeper more layered fashion to reflect the complexities in man’s ego. Art and musics in this era demonstrated how the old perceptions were changing. What once was accepted “facts” were being challenged in this scientific, yet mystical awakening. Classification and order, calling things by their proper name became the cornerstone of man’s scientific and metaphysical way of putting things in order.. Voltaire, Rousseau, were European apostles of the inner search for truth through their wittings and observations. Enlightenment became a quest for man to find meaning within himself. Mozart, Beethoven, Friedrich von Schiller were only a few of the great creators of music and artistic expression of mans look inside himself.Washington, Napoleon, De Ponte, the American and French Revolutions show the increase of change with the discovery of electricity. Light and momentum were shed upon the earth. The classical man was the first to experience “lightening speed“. The feeding of energy to the human brain. by means of energy created by harnessed electricity. Lightening in a bottle so to speak was European mans form of enlightenment using science and mysticism. Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Natchtmusik”, is characterized in richness of orchestration showing the grandiose creation of a full complete sound. All parts have a place all notes are in order and every part of the symphony has a purpose. None lacking and being part something bigger than itself. Once again the state of man and his search is reflected in the depth of emotion and order of his composition. Contrasts in his orchestration are graceful. Man and music were crossing their I’s and dotting their T’s to ensure nothing was out of order. Greatness was blossoming in man and the uniqueness of each human spirit was turned on like a flood light in a cave. Mathematically and structurally correct man was in dominion over all he surveyed. This was the time for man to figure out what is real and call it what it is. Man was becoming aware of himself and the world around him systematically. Thus enters the age of Romanticism.

Walking Ego-on the road to becoming enlightened…. Tell the ego to hit the road, where will I go? it ask’s. Don’t answer it or it will stay in conversation with your brain all the day Let it go and say good bye parting in this case will make you cry Now you will ask “Without my ego who am I?Nobody but everybody will be the reply.

ROMANTIC AGE 1820-1900With the New World taking shape and revolutionized ideals taking place SHE walks into the joint and leaves a lasting impression. She being two fold…progress and WOMAN. The industrial revolution increased the output of energy and materials to everyone. A new materialistic approach was taking shape in mans quest. Putting value on goods, services, and even art became road most traveled by the social order.


Women progressed as well. You could say that the age of Romanticism was the blossoming of the flower of compatibility between man and woman. Musicians lead the way of evolution. During the Romantic age many musicians considered their mate their equal. The uniqueness of the individual broke up the old established gender walls. Schumann and Schumann, Mendelssohn and Mendelssohn are a couple of examples of the ideal of Utopia and man and woman’s destiny to be in perfect unity. Romantic passions of country, nature, dreams and human destiny all contributed to this selection from Bedrich Smetana. The Moldau: My Country is a flowing painting of music. The vision of a flowing river and countryside of such beauty coupled with legends of Smentana’s Bohemian homeland create a delight for the senses. He uses the instruments, texture and timbre to create a moving portrait of his perfect love of Bohemia and her heritage. Love is the driving force of this age. Man’s search inside takes him to a place of dreams, love, and pride within himself. To possess the freedom to express himself regardless of class takes precedent. Defining what is the most important the search or himself . This is where his journey has taken him so far. After Enlightenment choices on what is closest to the heart and what is worth sacrificing for arise within the heart of man in the Romantic age. The right to be free and the right to be valued all led to the Age of Impressionism.

IMPRESSIONISM 1840-1949Last in our series is the Impressionist age. As societies ventured further than ever before into the depths of reality and spirituality. The old lines that defined man and his beliefs were no longer constraints. Not


being sure or knowing what the unknown is to be called man was faced with experiencing life without definite knowledge. He was in a territory he had never been in before. This is referred to the age of Impressionism. For the first time in a long time man had to become in

tune with his surroundings in a non judgmental way. Art and music of this time centered on those things that had been overlooked and counted as unimportant or of little value before. Images of common everyday happening soon came into the front. No longer were things explained instead they were gazed upon and appreciated for just being. People found out reality for themselves. Emotion and big leaps in the highs and lows of musical composition took precedent. Accepting oneself as you are and celebrating that fact is portrayed in Strauss’s composition,” Also Sprach Zarathustra.” A story of Enlightenment and going through the phases of acceptance. Taking ownership of one’s choices and decisions with no regrets or acclamation. The bursting forth in light can be heard in the first part of the orchestration and from there on the journey continues until bliss is omnipresent. From strong brass to light flutes the extremes and contrasts showcase all facets of human emotion of self discovery. Last but not least is a calming beautiful selection from Claude De Bussy, ”Claire De Lune”. The peaceful, wispy movement of a breeze sweeping the clouds across a moonlight night is a cause of reflection. Creating this picture from music in the minds eye can make one say.. ”What’s it all about? Who cares I am relishing in the beauty of the moment of a moonlit night. Thank-you for attending

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what's it all about