Introduction and Welcome

Welcome to All Things Bright and Beautiful. If you are new to this site, I would recommend that you read my very first entry - which is an introduction and welcome to this blog. You can view it here

Friday, August 5, 2011

William Adolphe Beauguereau, Bach - The Well Tempered Clavier, Stevenson - At the Seaside


William Adolphe Beauguereau has done a wonderful job of capturing the expressions of this moment.  Also look at the wonderful details including the details of the fabrics and clothing.


Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a collection of solo keyboard for students.  In his words, "for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study." Each book contains twenty-four pairs of preludes and fugues. The first pair is in C major, the second in C minor, the third in C-sharp major, the fourth in C-sharp minor, and so on. The rising chromatic pattern continues until every key has been represented, finishing with a B-minor fugue.


Listen to The first pair in C major here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KQW2YnCUrE&feature=related


And the second in C minor:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVs2TTYkKF8&feature=related


C Sharp major:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6H8LN0tTrA&feature=related


This is a beautiful piece - I hope you enjoy it:  Ashkenazy plays Bach WTC Book 1 Prelude and Fugue no.8 in E-Flat minor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCCzlIv2lcA


A quote from a listener to the first of this week's you-tube video: "We spent two weeks analyzing the prelude portion in my high school theory class. I was completely enraptured by the simultaneous simplicity and complexity of the work. It sounds like a never-ending melody.
I find it so hard to believe that people say that Bach is boring. How can music so beautiful POSSIBLY bore anyone?"
 


We continue this week with a fun summer children's poem by
Robert Louis Stevenson from A Child's Garden of Verses.

At the Seaside


When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
  to dig the sandy shore.


My holes were empty like a cup.
In every hole the sea came up,
  Till it could come no more.

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