Great Things made by Humans
In this post, I want to share my enthusiasm for some pieces of art. My goal is that after reading this, you will love them as much as I do, and we can be enthusiastic together!
Imagine a massive, life-like, climbable metal tree measuring over 3 stories tall, creating an interactive light play against the night sky. The Dutch design collective Studio Drift build it at Burning Man, the over-the-top anarchistic art/alternative living festival that takes place every summer in the Nevada desert.
Usually, I don’t like contemporary art, but their work I really like! This is a compilation of their work. It must be awesome to see it in real life.
And now for something completely different
This is sooooo beautiful.
Schubert wrote this piece a year before he died in 1828 at the tender age of 31. It is a masterpiece of 1 minute and 36 seconds! I have listened to it many times, discovering new things every time. It is called “Ständchen”, meaning Serenade in German.
When you listen to music in a style you are not familiar with, it sometimes helps to get some pointers. I hope these will help you.
Listen to the subtle dynamics: the difference between loud and soft and the crescendo-decrescendo. These Italian terms mean that the music gets gradually louder and gradually softer. For example, on the very last note, the choir starts relatively soft, then gets gradually louder (crescendo), and then gradually softer (decrescendo).
The word you hear most is Leise, the first syllable sounding like the first syllable in “like.” It means softly in German.
The choir answers the solo singer like an echo almost all the time. In the middle, they sing 3 words together and also the last phrase.
If you listen carefully, you can hear the contrast between the long, tender notes of the singers and the fast, driving, short, staccato notes played by the orchestra.
Incredibly, the singers are all amateurs! I was fortunate enough to see them a few times in concert. This video was recorded in Vredenburg, a concert hall only 5 minutes from my apartment by bike. If I had only known…