Notes on Listening to the Sirens, Chapter II

"The Germanic-- or, at any rate, post-Beethoven-- understanding of the symphony involved a quasi-narrative progression from initial strife to final victory and redemption, , celebrated in a high-energy triumphal ending. Ending with a lament flew in the face of this understanding" (Peraino 85).

"So if we want to pursue the question of confession encoded in this movement, we should ask what does Tchaikovsky do in this finale that might signify a practice? And what might that practice be that was so very personal and perhaps unspeakable for Tchaikovsky?" (Peraino 86)

"If there is a moment of confession in the Adagio lamentoso, it is a confession to the performer and music reader (not necessarily the listener), and it is not with the initial "eye music" but rather with this ironed-out return" (Peraino 86).

"And why reconsititute a rent musical subject near the end of the lament? Is this a disentangling of the lovers as they are thekn down off their enmeshed crosses? Such literal explanations actually work against the psychological lore that surrounds this movement, suggesting not disclosure but rather dissociation and further sublimation into elaborate but silent madrigalisms" (Peraino 88).

"Rather than invoking the interpretive paradigms of individual narrative for Tchaikovsky's symphonies, Taruskin proposes that we should adapt the ideas of metonymy and topos from Wye Jamison Allanbrook's studies of Mozart's rhythmic gestures and their basis in class-encoded social dances" (Peraino 89)

"It is an attempt, as Allanbrook put it of the Mozartean method, 'to move an audience through representations of its own humanity.' In Tchaikovsky's time such a method was known as realism." - Taruskin, in a quote on Peraino 89

"The lament has a long history in musical traditions both folk and elite, and in both the lament is fundamentally vocal and specifically gendered: women sing laments as a particularly intense emotional display" (Peraino 89)

"Returing to Tchaikovsky's Adagio lamentoso, the music presents two different version of its lament theme-- one "queer" and the other "straight"-- which nonetheless sound identical. The motion is from needless complexity to simplification-- from fracture to coherence-- but most importantly from private to public identification" (Peraino 91).

"Without the dramaturgy of opera, however, such a knot must be manifested in instrumental performance. The two versions of the lament theme provide just such a performative manifestation, each producing a subtly different experience for both the audience and the performers." (Peraino 91)

"Like the traditional laments of women, his can also be understood as mediating between the dead past and the living present, and between subjective and social reality. The queer and straight orchestrations of the wails illustrate two sides of lamenting: one is a physically wrenching private act, the other a sentimental public ritual. Taken together, the two orchestrations suggest the disclosure of something unspeakable about the practice of a man lamenting as if he were a woman about about the practice of a symphony finale singing a lament as if it were a triumph" (Peraino 92).

The confession of the music is revealed by placing the music up against cultural symbols and meanings. Look more into the Mozartean method-- what does Wye Allanbrook do? When is this method not appropriate to use? How much does intent, or implied intent, come into play? I suppose it comes to play just as much in poetry-- yes!

I need to read some Julia Kristeva right now. I have a lot of thinking and TONS of reading to do on this to make connections in my head before I blog them out..