I've joined this music club which is located in the village. It's actually in the space once occupied by the Village Gate. Last night I heard a concert of Gyorgy Ligeti's music, previously unknown to me. Kubrick used his music in 2001 A Space Odyssey, the Shining and Eyes Wide Shut. This is one area of the Arts that I could use a good education. I know very little about "classical" music. They did 5 pieces. Not a lot of harmony, very modern, lots of dissonance. I did enjoy: 'Trio for Violin, Horn, and Piano, Hommage a Brahms' [1982], and the cello playing in some other pieces.
Saw Merchant of Venice over the weekend. It is done in modern dress and the merchants are Wall Street brokers. So there are cell phones, video ticker tapes, high fives, belly bumps, and apple computers as part of the "scenery". It worked very well for me because it brought humor and wit to a very "heavy" play. Judith Dench in her new memoir says it is her least liked play of Shakespeare's because no one behaves well.
F. Murray Abraham plays it natural not in the classic, declamatory style. His final exit was wonderful.
I still want to write about Arcadia and I will soon.
I'm reading Thomas Merton's 'The Sign Of Jonas'. A diary of his life in a Trappist monastery.
At one point he asks the reverend Father what made a particular brother so saintly. Is it meditation, prayer, fasting, obedience? Reverend Father said he didn't know, but the Brother was always working. If you sent him to feed the cattle he did and then he would pick berries on his way back. He didn't know how to be idle. "Busy hands are happy hands" and saintly, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment