As you can tell, my process has been interrupted and I am once again behind the curve on posting times. I seem to have so many irons in the fire that juggling them is becoming quite difficult. My sleep schedule has already abandoned ship so I find myself sleeping at odd moments and awake when I should not be. Right when I think I am about to get caught up with myself, something else pops up to disrupt the process, take up time unnecessarily or generally fuck things up. So anyway, I am here now and have Music and Men if Naught Else.
I was listening to the local Classical Station , WRR at work the other night when the host of the syndicated program "Exploring Music" played a piece by Mozart that I had never heard. That is going some as I thought I had heard everything Mozart had ever written, but I was wrong. During Mozart's time in Salzburg, he wrote a series of compositions called 'serenades'. In music, a serenade (or sometimes serenata, from the Italian word) is a musical composition, and/or performance, in someone's honor. Serenades are typically calm, light music. The word serenade is the translation of the Italian word serenata, derived from the word sereno, which means "calm".
Among the most famous examples of the serenade from the 18th century are those by Mozart,
whose serenades contain a multiplicity of movements ranging from four
to ten. His serenades were often purely instrumental pieces, written for
special occasions such as those commissioned for wedding ceremonies.
The most typical ensemble for a serenade was a wind ensemble augmented
with basses and violas: instrumentalists who could stand,
since the works were often performed outdoors. Frequently the serenades
began and ended with movements of a march-like character—since the
instrumentalists often had to march to and from the place of
performance. Famous serenades by Mozart include the Haffner Serenade, the Serenata notturna, and one of his most famous works, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, the last two of which would have been atypical for only using string instruments, had they been written earlier in the century
The piece of music that was play on the radio was Mozart's Serenade Number 9 in D major, K. 320 "Posthorn" (1779). From the video description:
"The seven-movement 'Posthorn' Serenade, completed 3 August 1779 as the
last of the serenades which Mozart wrote for Salzburg, and which was
commissioned as 'Finalmusik' by the university, sets off solo flutes and
oboes in its third and fourth movements. Mozart even had these two
movements performed separately as a 'sinfonia concertante' at a concert
he gave in the Vienna Burgtheater in March 1783.
The brilliant trumpet-and-drums panoply of the 'Posthorn' Serenade's opening Allegro is prepared by a stately slow introduction, which returns to introduce the recapitulation; the Mannheim crescendos of the Allegro reflect a recent visit by Mozart to that important musical center. This movement is offset by a courtly minuet with a 'real' Trio for solo flute, solo bassoon, and strings. The third and fourth movements comprise the 'Concertante' section discussed earlier; charm is the principal ingredient here, yet Mozart's music exhibits a grace a lesser composer would envy. Following the G major Concertante, the D minor Andantino--the emotional center of the Serenade--is altogether graver, with an almost operatic pathos to remind us that even in his 'entertainment music,' Mozart cannot repress his depth of musical feeling. Trumpet and drums, silent since the third movement, are restored for the second minuet. The first of the two Trios calls, unusually, for solo piccolo, the second for the posthorn--a valveless, high-pitched horn used by mail coach guards to announce arrivals and departures--which gives this serenade its name. The inventively energetic finale makes use in its development section of fugal textures--a bow, perhaps, to the academic occasion for which this 'Finalmusik' was written?" - Marc Mandel
The brilliant trumpet-and-drums panoply of the 'Posthorn' Serenade's opening Allegro is prepared by a stately slow introduction, which returns to introduce the recapitulation; the Mannheim crescendos of the Allegro reflect a recent visit by Mozart to that important musical center. This movement is offset by a courtly minuet with a 'real' Trio for solo flute, solo bassoon, and strings. The third and fourth movements comprise the 'Concertante' section discussed earlier; charm is the principal ingredient here, yet Mozart's music exhibits a grace a lesser composer would envy. Following the G major Concertante, the D minor Andantino--the emotional center of the Serenade--is altogether graver, with an almost operatic pathos to remind us that even in his 'entertainment music,' Mozart cannot repress his depth of musical feeling. Trumpet and drums, silent since the third movement, are restored for the second minuet. The first of the two Trios calls, unusually, for solo piccolo, the second for the posthorn--a valveless, high-pitched horn used by mail coach guards to announce arrivals and departures--which gives this serenade its name. The inventively energetic finale makes use in its development section of fugal textures--a bow, perhaps, to the academic occasion for which this 'Finalmusik' was written?" - Marc Mandel
Today's performance of the "Post Horn Serenade" is by Sir Charles Mackerras and the Prague Chamber Orchestra with Zdeněk Tylšar as the Post Horn Soloist. Staying with the 'serenade theme' we have going today, over on my tumblr you may join the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Ton Koopman, for their performance of the Serenade Number 7 in D Major, 'Haffner'.
Then as always on Mondays, underwear fetishes rejoice with glee at the posting of naughty boys with their nasty bits wrapped in smaller and smaller snippets of cloth as in this edition of Monday's Undies posted down below. While over on my tumblr, your Hottie of the Day!, Rick Wolfmeir is waiting to drive you wild with desire. Thanks for the visit, see you again soon. Until next time as always. Enjoy!
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