MUSIC MONDAYS


Dear friend
 
The second Music Mondays featuring great musicians and artists in September PRIDE month.

One of the most esteemed and performed composers of all times is Frederic Chopin.  People – listeners and performers - think of the music they love and how it enriches their lives. Androgeny or homosexuality?  Does the sexual identity of this 18th century Polish composer affect how we listen to it?

And there is Oscar Wilde. Wildly successful, an esteemed comic playwright and social commentator of the 19th century who was associated with the doctrine of Art for Art’s sake. He took the courageous step to publicly announce that he was a queer artist. The  price he paid was very heavy:  spending many years of hard labor in prison, the penalty in Britain until mid 20th century. 

Through what lens do we experience artist compositions?   Does present day, 21st-century knowledge, affect how we as individuals or how our society appreciates the Art?  Is it Art for Art’s sake?


Warmly,

Gabriele Fiorentino 
President, 
The Dranoff 2 Piano Foundation
Piano Slam




RONDO in C major for Two Pianos, Op 73






HELAS


              To drift with every passion till my soul
Is a stringed lute on which all winds can play,
Is it for this that I have given away
Mine ancient wisdom, and austere control?
Methinks my life is a twice-written scroll
Scrawled over on some boyish holiday
With idle songs for pipe and virelay,
Which do but mar the secret of the whole.
Surely there was a time I might have trod
The sunlit heights, and from life's dissonance
Struck one clear chord to reach the ears of God:
Is that time dead? lo! with a little rod
I did but touch the honey of romance — 
And must I lose a soul's inheritance?




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