Category Archives: Haydn at 50

Day 42: A Herd of Turtles

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HaydnCD42Back at Denny’s this morning. I’m seeing the sames faces here. Just like at Mr. Burger, my usual breakfast hangout.

Well, usual when I eat breakfast with my wife. Not my usual when I write my blogs.

That spot is reserved for Panera Bread.

Seeing the same faces is comforting, no matter where those faces may be.

I guess the theme song to Cheers was right.

I really do want to go where everybody knows my name.

Another benefit to hanging out in places like this: I get to hear old timers say stuff my dad used to say. For example, the guy leaving just now said his good byes and, over his shoulder on his way out the door, said, “I’m off like a herd of turtles.” Continue reading →

Day 23: Ennui

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HaydnCD23It was bound to happen sooner or later.

I just feel blah today.

Out of sorts.

Maybe it’s the weather. It’s getting colder here, feeling more like late November than late October.

Our trees are almost at peak for color and, in fact, are already starting to lose their leaves. That, plus a temperature only in the upper 30s tells me winter is on its way.

RiversideParkIf that’s not enough to bring on a case of ennui, I don’t know what is.

Symphony No. 76 in E Flat, composed in 1782. Haydn was 50. According to its entry on Wiki:

In 1782, almost a decade before Haydn composed the first of his famous London symphonies, he composed a trio of symphonies – 76, 77, 78 – for a trip to London which fell through. Haydn wrote the following to his Paris music publisher Boyer on 15 July 1783:

Last year I composed 3 beautiful, magnificent and by no means over-lengthy Symphonies, scored for 2 violins, viola, basso, 2 horns, 2 oboes, 1 flute and 1 bassoon – but they are all very easy, and without too much concertante – for the English gentlemen, and I intended to bring them over myself and produce them there: but a certain circumstance hindered that plan, and so I am willing to hand over these 3 Symphonies.

Symphony No. 77 in B Flat was also composed in 1782.

Symphony No. 78 in C Minor was also composed in 1782.

All three of these symphonies — which I listened to for over two hours — sound about the same to me. None stood out. None was spectacular.

And none was able to drag me from my ennui.

Day 22: Wabi-Sabi

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HaydnCD22I dropped the Haydn box on the floor this morning.

It fell from the narrow ledge on which I’d perched it as I rifled through to select the next 5-6 CDs to rip into iTunes.

The CDs and CD sleeves are fine. But the box itself now has two tears in it — one structural (to the lower left corner) that renders it far less stable as a container, and another cosmetic (on the top left) that affects its appearance.

At first, I was really depressed. After all, this was not an inexpensive purchase. If I recall correctly, it was around $150 on Amazon.

Now, I bemoaned, its value has been reduced to just the music.

When the ridiculousness of that thought set in, I laughed.

“Just the music.”

Like Haydn’s music is secondary to the box in which it came.

Facepalm.

What about Wabi-sabi? I asked myself — albeit an hour or two later, as I sat down to listen to today’s CD.

According to its entry on Wikipedia, Wabi-sabi,

represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”. It is a concept derived from the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence, specifically impermanence, the other two being suffering and emptiness or absence of self-nature.

After all, wasn’t this morning’s butter-fingered escapade a reminder of impermanence? And the beauty therein, I might add. I mean, seriously, a Continue reading →