#rhapsody 5 of the Odyssey is actually something that can be so personal

[pegasusdrawnchariots]

Odysseus' reintegration into the world bound by mortal limitations foregrounds both his age and the distance he has traveled. The shipwrecked sailor who manages to crawl ashore naked on Scheria, bereft of companions, possessions, any token of identity — of all but the bare ember of vitality (cf. 5.488-90 — a lonely spark in a pile of ashes) — meets the young Nausikaa, whose life (like that of Telemachus) is just opening to the possibilities before her. The scene in which Odysseus, awakened by sounds that evoke in him fears of hostile men, faces instead a group of teenage girls playing ball, is both comic and poignant as it measures the difference between their expectations and stages of experience. Later, as he is challenged to compete in an athletic contest, Odysseus acknowledges the toll that age and journeying inevitably take. This is not, then, the epic of the beautiful death (one way to read the Iliad (e.g., see Vernant 1991: 50-74)) but the epic of timeworn, embraceable life.

John Miles Foley, A Companion to Ancient Epic, 2005.

#The Odyssey #Odysseus #John Miles Foley #A Companion to Ancient Epic #quotations #analyses #bestie... the way this chapter changed my life #every page of the Odyssey already makes me sob. be it w joy or despair or some other ineffable poignant nostalgia #but Foley gave me the words to say how & why #tattoo is not enough. gonna get timeworn embraceable life carved into my bones #rhapsody 5 of the Odyssey is actually something that can be so personal #he's a middle-aged war hero w severe trauma! #& crashes out naked & filthy into a gaggle of teenage girls bc he thinks he hears soldiers surrounding him! fuck!!! #strategist & war hero of epic fame colliding into the world of a fairytale princess centuries before fairytales even existed #the scene is so pathetic (in the sense of moving/pitiable). so sweet. so funny. & even a bit silly #my heart grows three sizes every time I read it. & then explodes ❤️‍🔥💥🔥 such is life once u write a thesis on epics #the contrast of the rich jovial life of Nausikaa as a young princess playing ball games w her maids #& Odysseus fighting literally in the trenches just to stay alive. just to ensure the spark of his life does not go out. I'm

[dramallamadingdang]

You sound like such a cool person! It's really nice to hear about simmers' personal lives. Would you recommend some of the music you usually like to play? I have a particular liking for the dramatically miserable -- think Der Lindenbaum, from Schubert's Winterreise -- but I've been known to listen to varying degrees of melancholic; I'd say I'm quite eclectic, really

Oh, so many things…. I could be here all day! But, I have to say I’m not much for melancholy pieces. I do like dramatic stuff, but more on the passionate (both in terms of anger and romance-y kind of stuff) side than the melancholy, and I tend to be drawn to fast, upbeat “dance-able” pieces. So, what I like probably isn’t going to align too well with what you like. So…yeah. Anyway, this goes long; therefore, I cut.

When I was a performing concert pianist, I was known primarily as a Beethoven interpreter. My dad’s mother was an excellent pianist and a Beethoven fanatic, and she always had Beethoven records playing in her house when I was there. I ended up picking out chunks of the melody for the first movement of his Piano Concerto No. 5 at the age of about 3 on her piano (which is now my piano), and she started urging my parents to find me a good teacher. To this day, Beethoven’s fifth piano concerto is my favorite piece not only of Beethoven’s catalog but of pretty much all of music, classical and otherwise. I can’t really tell you why. I mean, it’s objectively not his “best” composition by any means, but…it just speaks to me. Always has. Its third movement rondo in particular fills me with joy, and it was the first piece I ever played “big time” professionally, at the age of 11, with the Indianapolis Symphony. So, I’m a pretty huge Beethoven fan and love pretty much everything he wrote….except the f***ing “Moonlight Sonata.” (OK, OK, I’m mostly kidding. It’s just that that thing’s first movement is sooooooooo overplayed, and Beethoven wrote much more interesting things!)

Beyond Beethoven…I’m also not generally a Liszt (though his Hungarian Rhapsodies are fun) or Chopin fan, which is weird for a pianist, but…there it is. And from a purely listening standpoint, I’m not a fan of baroque or classical-period music. (Nope, not a Mozart fan! *gasp*) The one exception would be Boccherini, which I guess isn’t surprising because he was sort of instrumental in elevating the cello (his own instrument, on which he was a virtuoso) from mere boring accompaniment to having its own melodic voice in a chamber group. Plus, his stuff has a strong Spanish influence that I enjoy, and on a more personal side, my husband and I and a few friends enjoy getting together and playing Boccherini’s guitar quintets. Not too many composers wrote pieces for guitar + other stringed instruments. 

I also have a deep fondness for later 19th/early 20th century Czech, Hungarian, and Romanian composers. (Other than Liszt, that is, but I kinda think of him as more French than Hungarian.) I don’t know, there’s something about the works of composers from that part of Europe that speaks to me. It could be because the 19th century ones tended to incorporate more dance/folk music into their work, which I have an appreciation for. It’s complex and dense stuff, but less pretentious and ponderous than the Germans – much as I love Beethoven – and less overwrought and angsty than, say, Mussorgsky or Tchaikovsky. :) Although if you want melancholy and/or miserable, then the Russians are certainly a go-to. *laugh*

But for me….There’s Dvorak, of course, heavily influenced by Beethoven as he was. I love his cello concerto, especially Jacqueline du Pre’s interpretation of it, but his “New World” Symphony has influences from American frontier landscapes as well as African-American music, and I love it. If its last two minutes or so don’t send chills down your spine, then you are not alive. AND its second movement will make me cry. (But then, I have a thing for the mournful sound of the cor anglais, so I guess that’s not surprising. :) ) All that said, overall, of the Czechs, I actually prefer Smetana. :) I love pretty much everything he wrote.

And then there’s Enescu. Huge fan! I love his moody second cello sonata (You might like that one, if you like cello) and his Romanian Rhapsodies are just delightful, especially the first one, with its heavy Romani influence. I mean, come on! It incorporates tunes from DRINKING SONGS! *laugh*

On the Hungarian side, I really like Kodaly and (if I’m in a more modern/avant-garde mood) Ligeti. Among other things, Kodaly composed an unaccompanied cello sonata that I love, and if you like choral/sacred music, his Missa Brevis is very interesting to listen to. Ligeti’s stuff, on the other hand, is….Well, not for everyone, to be sure, but some people are familiar with him because of 2001: A Space Odyssey. (Kubrick used his music without permission for that film’s soundtrack.) Anyway, it’s very dissonant stuff, some of which makes a human a capella ensemble sound like electronic music...which Ligeti also composed. It sometimes comes across as melancholy – or just flat-out bizarre-o! – so you might like it. Or not. Depends on your tolerance for the avant-garde, I suppose. :) Me, I have a great fondness for his unaccompanied viola sonata, written in the 90s. Violas don’t get enough love as a solo instrument, IMO. I greatly prefer their warmer, darker tone to the violin’s bright, strident screeching. But then, I do tend to prefer the alto and tenor “voices” in the orchestra -- violas, cellos, cor anglais, bassoon, French horns, trombones, etc. -- over the soprano ones. :)

So, um, yeah. There’s some things. :) And I can always recommend more. *laugh*

#Anonymous #non sims