The Promise of Classical Music

“Classical music prides itself on the most beautiful and perfect harmony that’s produced when it is played according to plan. That is when the meticulously calculated, perfect notes promised on the score are delivered. […] However, is music worth anything when it cannot communicate to the masses? Traditional classical music may eschew freestyle expression, but wasn’t it a product of the trends of the time?”

Those were the questions on Cantabile Tomorrow‘s lead character’s mind as he stood lost in thought with red autumnal foliage and verdant vegetation side by side in the backdrop, pondering which of his college’s orchestras was the better one: the elite A Orchestra that matched his outstanding caliber and formal musical style or the sloppy but idiosyncratic S Orchestra that captured its audience’s hearts. This tension between orthodox and maverick was certainly not new in artistic narratives. Yet the merits of classical art forms were not always acknowledged with such elegant words. To give this dignifying presentation of classical music full consideration, it is worth posing another question: what makes a rendition of classical music faithful to its origins?

Gymnopédie No. 1

19th century French author J.P. Contamine de Latour once penned a poem entitled “Les Antiques” (i.e. “The Ancients”), which included the following lines:

Oblique et coupant l’ombre un torrent éclatant
Ruisselait en flots d’or sur la dalle polie
Où les atomes d’ambre au feu se miroitant
Mêlaient leur sarabande à la gymnopédie

Translation:

Cutting sidelong through the shadows, a brilliant torrent,
Flowing in waves of gold over the polished flagstone,
Where the atoms of amber shimmering in the fire
Mixed their sarabande with the gymnopaedia.

Liszt’s Liebesträume No. 3

How fitting it was that Nae-il, the ebullient heroine of Cantabile Tomorrow, was introduced to the melody of Hungarian composer Franz Liszt’s Liebesträume No. 3! The piece starts with the soft and soothing A-flat major, a cool evening breeze gently blowing across a lake. The tune then takes on a more serious tone, the evening scene imbued with colors of the finest hues. The climax builds up, the key unexpectedly switches to a glorious B major, octave jumps come forth. A couple of times, the melody is interrupted by cadenzas that give glimpses of stars twinkling in the night sky and on the lake surface, so mesmerizing yet so far away, before gales stir up the water. Finally, the atmosphere relaxes, the winds calm down, and the work ends in sweet harmony. Set to the music is German writer Ferdinand Freiligrath’s poem “O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst! (O love, so long as you can!),” which, as its title suggests, extols the virtue of carpe diem (Latin for “seize the day”) in love.

Yet a subtle thread of melancholy runs through the piano solo. This sentiment is more apparent in the full poem, which reads:

 

Original Text: "O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst!" O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst! O lieb, so lang du lieben magst! Die Stunde kommt, die Stunde kommt, Wo du an Gräbern stehst und klagst! Und sorge, daß dein Herze glüht Und Liebe hegt und Liebe trägt, So lang ihm noch ein ander Herz In Liebe warm entgegen schlägt. Und wer dir seine Brust erschließt, O tu ihm, was du kannst, zulieb! Und mach ihm jede Stunde froh, Und mach ihm keine Stunde trüb. Und hüte deine Zunge wohl, Bald ist ein böses Wort gesagt! O Gott, es war nicht bös gemeint, - Der Andre aber geht und klagt. O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst! O lieb, so lang du lieben magst! Die Stunde kommt, die Stunde kommt, Wo du an Gräbern stehst und klagst! Dann kniest du nieder an der Gruft, Und birgst die Augen, trüb und naß - sie sehn den Andern nimmermehr - In's lange, feuchte Kirchhofsgras. Und sprichst: O schau auf mich herab Der hier an deinem Grabe weint! Vergib, daß ich gekränkt dich hab! O Gott, es war nicht bös gemeint! Er aber sieht und hört dich nicht, Kommt nicht, daß du ihn froh umfängst; Der Mund, der oft dich küßte, spricht Nie wieder: ich vergab dir längst! Er that's, vergab dir lange schon, Doch manche heiße Träne fiel Um dich und um dein herbes Wort - Doch still - er ruht, er ist am Ziel! O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst! O lieb, so lang du lieben magst! Die Stunde kommt, die Stunde kommt, wo du an Gräbern stehst und klagst!

English Translation:   "O love, so long as you can!"   O love, so long as you can! O love, so long as you may! The hour comes, the hour comes, When you will stand by the grave and weep! Be sure that your heart with ardour glows, Is full of love and cherishes love, As long as one other heart Beats with yours in tender love! If anyone opens his heart to you, Show him kindness whenever you can! And make his every hour happy, And never give him one hour of sadness. And guard well your tongue! A cruel word is quickly said. Oh God, it was not meant to hurt, - But the other one departs in grief. O love, so long as you can! O love, so long as you may! The hour comes, the hour comes, When you will stand by the grave and weep! Then you will kneel beside the grave And your eyes will be moist with sorrow, - never will you see the beloved again - In the graveyard's long, wet grass. You will say: O look at me from below, I who cry here beside your grave! Forgive me that I slighted you! O God, it was not meant to hurt! Yet he neither sees nor hears you, The dear one lies beyond your comfort; The lips that kissed you so often can no longer say: I forgave you long ago! And forgive you he did, But tears he would profusely shed, Over you and on your scathing word - Hush now! - he rests, he is part of the past. O love, so long as you can! O love, so long as you may! The hour comes, the hour comes, When you will stand by the grave and weep!

(Credit for the first stanza belongs to an unidentified translator, while the second to fourth stanzas have been reproduced from The Ivory Classics Foundation‘s booklet with the very kind permission of its director, Mr. Michael Davis. More classical piano works can be browsed and collected here.)