OF THE BEGINNING

MR writes: I mentioned "Day In the Life" in the same breath as "Rite of Spring," and the "Eroica" in class today. Free chicken wings if you can guess the context for all these...

TR: Uh, context here is simple: false endings.

MR: Neat idea. I've never thought of the Eroica's ending as false. There are about a zillion fat tonic chords leading up to the final one. Does that ring false to you? Stravinsky's nubile maiden gets metaphorically screwed (gets dead, too), so I can see how that's a radical departure from bourgeois truth--besides which the final rhythms are just wacko. Oh, no, you're making me think. Academics have to see a dermatologist after they think.

Miko oh no

TR:You're SO EASY. The Eroica ending is a PARODY of FINALITY.

RITE OF SPRING is one long BEGINNING. We haven't even figured out where's it's still leading us.

"Day in the Life" is another PARODY of FINALITY, REPLETE with FALSE ENDING into the INNER GROOVE. (Get it?)

Oyaz, Oyaz....

MR: Something can be a parody and also true.   Eroica IV is both the finale ne plus ultra and also a send-up of finality.  That's not what I would call "false.

TR: you feel the need to say this... to a BEATLE scholar? How far exactly to you expect me to defend my flippant remarks? Beethoven is OBVIOUSLY both a parody and a transcendence, I'm bowled over that you need me to get explicit about that. (Can you imagine such a thing as a Beethoven "fade-out"? I'll bet any such would have been superlatively imaginative and mind-blowing, and we can't get CLOSE to imagining it...)

Do you mean all Prokofiev or "merely" the "classical" symphony, which I think is doubly brilliant as both parody and ultimate tribute album to an era, a style, a way of organizing sound, even as he half looks down on it. Which itself isn't really typical of him: he's the MOST classically-structured of modern-era composers. Do you know the extent to which I WORSHIP the notation paper Sergei wrote upon?

When do we stop using the term "modern"?

And PEPPER itself was a "false ending" to the Beatles' era of "live" performance (the "live" reprise of the title "closing" the concept part of the album, giving way to the penultimate studio production up to that point, except for "Tomorrow NEver KNows" off their REAL moosterpiece), especially since Jimi Hendrix debuted "Sgt. Pepper" the song the week after the album was released, and they did play on the rooftop 18 months later in completely different form, so the "live" ethos was still hovering over their ambitions...

Stop me before I kill more...

Alotta Vagina

MR: I'm bowled over that you need me to get explicit about the fact that everything I said ("something can be a parody and also true") was a way of praising YOUR criticism.

Naturellement, all of Prokofiev. You're right about him being altogether classical (only Ravel and Bartok may be more so). What's so amazing about Sergei is that he could also outwit Stravinsky at his own primitivist game. When was the last time you listened to "Ala and Lolly"? An absolute knock-out, as far removed as possible from the classical/Apollonian side.

OK, let's stop using "modern." How about "Alfranken"?

Never could be (see?) any other way.

Sweet Scythian