Joy in music

[ardcarp]

Schubert: 5
Mozart: 39
Mozart: P&W Quintet
Mozart: Haffner Serenade
Mozart: Kegestatt Trio
Mahler: Blumine
Elgar: Chanson de Matin
Bach-Bantock: Wachet auf
Delius:Florida Suite
Rachmaninov:Vocalise
Faure:Requiem (Particularly if in the chorus)


That'll do for now

So you do work for Essential Classics.

(Just a joke, Cloughie. Nice choice.)

[doversoul1]

Telemann: Concerto for Recorder and Flute, TWV 52:e1

Towards the end of this very Telemann-ish concerto in good taste, there are a few seconds of ‘ready, steady...’ mood change and then it explodes into a ‘rustic’, ‘foot-stamping’ finale. Joyous is the word: no matter how many times I listen to it, it never fails to give me an infinite pleasure (though not much in quantity). Mind you, it has to be the ‘right’ kind of performance to work the magic for me. There was an excellent performance on Early Music Late awhile ago.

[french frank]

Mozart, Oboe Quartet, K 370:

[ardcarp]

Anyone know the limerick about the above?

[vinteuil]

Anyone know the limerick about the above?

.

... I think even Joseph Pujol wd struggle with

The entire oboe part
Of Mozart's quartet in F-major.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_P%C3%A9tomane

.

[french frank]

Anyone know the limerick about the above?

No, thank you very much

[Serial_Apologist]

Is it joyous, or a classical rondo full of optimistic festal flourishes, S_A?

Good Question! I suppose I can only offer the evasive answer, namely that it is joyous for me. Having read up a fair bit about Bartok, however, my perception of the man is that he was in all probability bi-polar, and that moments such as that particular finale, and the final bars of the Music for Strings, Harp & Percussion, as well as the whale of a time he was obviously indulging in the last movement of the Sonata for Two Pianos & Percussion, come across as a release, following in the wake of some pretty knotty entanglements. And there's another subject worth pondering another time, perhaps - composers who were (probably) bi-polar. Mahler, anyone? Bartok's music seems either to be bursting with joy or down in the emotional depths, expressed in idiomatic complexity that is almost obsessive - rarely in the emotional middle range of quotidian familiarity - those grating lines that justle around a central tone in the Fourth Quartet; then all opens out eventually, in the conversion of the chromatic motto theme into its Lydian brother in the finale of "Music for Strings...".

[ardcarp]

The entire oboe part
Of Mozart's quartet in F-major.

That's the one.

[MickyD]

Telemann: Concerto for Recorder and Flute, TWV 52:e1

Towards the end of this very Telemann-ish concerto in good taste, there are a few seconds of ‘ready, steady...’ mood change and then it explodes into a ‘rustic’, ‘foot-stamping’ finale. Joyous is the word: no matter how many times I listen to it, it never fails to give me an infinite pleasure (though not much in quantity). Mind you, it has to be the ‘right’ kind of performance to work the magic for me. There was an excellent performance on Early Music Late awhile ago.

This one is my favourite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIaPVKQymqQ

[Darkbloom]

The final movement of Ives 2nd Symphony comes to mind. Also, the end of Act 3 of Les Troyens, if it's done right. Nielsen has been mentioned already but he bears mentioning again, particularly the last movement of The Four Temperaments.

[cloughie]

So you do work for Essential Classics.

(Just a joke, Cloughie. Nice choice.)

Wash your mouth out with soap! I meant the full works!

If you want bleeding chunks I’ll add the second movement of Tchaikovsky PC2

[teamsaint]

Schumann Spring Symphony. Lots of music is joyful, or has joyful aspects. But this, to me, is just pure joy.

[jayne lee wilson]

No love for the last movement of Beethoven 9 for some reason

Actually it is usually Beethoven I look to for joy although more often the 7th symphony, the "Hammerklavier", the Op. 135 string quartet, the Grosse Fuge as well as its subsequent replacement finale (in somewhat different ways). Joy isn't necessarily the most positive of emotions though, it has an undercurrent of wildness, trampling over everything in its path without regard for what came before. Beethoven I think was quite good at problematising it in this way while still allowing it to win out. Something like Mahler 3 (or 2 or 8) meanwhile tries to end with a grand spiritual apotheosis that's wholly convincing while you're listening to it but afterwards raises questions in your mind (such as, e.g., "whatever happened to that O Mensch")

The Midnight Song isn't subsumed by the Mahler 3rd finale surely? The images and evocations of the natural, human and spiritual world continue to exist side-by-side in the musical tapestry - indeed the O Mensch goes on to say "All joy seeks eternity" which is part of the final adagio's vision. I feel that part of the 3rd's "modernity" is that it doesn't really seek a final resolution: images or visions are juxtaposed; left to speak for themselves and to each other.

The Beethoven 7th finale to me goes way beyond joy into - yes, something wild, a Dionysian ecstasy (we've already had the joy in the scherzo).
One reason I made the distinction between Nielsen 1-3 and 4-5 (6 is somewhat off topic here!) is due to the earlier works' sheer good humour and geniality. 4 and 5 overcome fiercer battles, elemental forces which almost destroy their momentum. Their respective triumphs are as much about sheer release and relief at leaving the demons behind (timpani in 4, the side-drum & wild stamping fugue in 5).

(The actual Ode to Joy of the LvB 9th is more complex of course: it includes many moods in its grand sweep; anger, mystery and fear among them.)

Language is a fascinating living organism, evolving as we use it: the many shades of joy. But I tend to associate joy with an uncomplicatedly happy mood, all too rarely experienced IRL...("rarely, rarely comest thou, spirit of delight...")
So I recourse to other nuances such as ecstasy, euphoria, rapture, intoxication, to evoke the wilder, more desperate extremes within musical and artistic expression.

[Petrushka]

I would count on Haydn to provide joy in most of his symphonies. Beethoven's Pastoral and the Schubert 5 also.

For sheer joy in music, though, try the more exuberant Strauss waltzes, most especially 'Frühlingsstimmen', 'Freut euch des Lebens' (by Johann) and 'Mein Lebenslauf ist Lieb' und Lust' (by Josef).

George Bernard Shaw said: 'Such a wonder, and treasure of everything lovely and happy in music'. The work? Wagner's Die Meistersinger, and that's the most joyful piece I know.

[doversoul1]

This one is my favourite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIaPVKQymqQ

Oh yes. We can’t go wrong with Musica Antiqua Köln. Thank you!!