Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

Poetry

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

These Schubert piano sonatas demand careful attention from the performer and the listener.

• Piano Sonata No. 7 in E-flat Major, Op. posth. 122, D. 568 (1817) (approx. 29-31’)
• Piano Sonata No. 13 in A Major, Op. 120, D. 664 (1819 or 1825) (approx. 21-26’)
• Piano Sonata No. 14 in A minor, Op. 143, D. 784 (“Grande Sonata”) (1823) (approx. 18-25’)
• Piano Sonata No. 15 in C Major, D. 840, “Relique” (1825) (approx. 23-27’)
• Piano Sonata No. 16 in A minor, Op. 42, D. 845 (1825) (approx. 29-38’)
• Piano Sonata No. 17 in D Major, Op. 53, D. 850, “Gasteiner” (1825) (approx. 38-42’), “was the product of what might have been the last untroubled time in Schubert’s life before the darknesses of his final years.”
• Piano Sonata No. 18 in G Major, Op. 78, D. 894 (1826) (approx. 37-46’): “Robert Schumann called this ‘the most perfect in form and substance’ of all of Schubert’s sonatas.” 

Compositions by Richard Dubugnon:

• Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op 63 (2013) (approx. 16’)
• Chamber Symphony No. 2, Op. 77 (2016) (approx. 22’)
• Klavieriana, Op. 70 (2015) (approx. 27’)

Organ music sounds so very serious:

• Jean Langlais, organ works, performed by Ann Lebounsky (Volume I; Volume II; Volume III; Volume IV; Volume V; Volume VI; Volume VII; Volume VIII), François-Henri Houbart, Luca Massaglia and Michelle Leclerc.
• Louis Vierne, 6 organ symphonies, performed by Pierre Labric and Hayo Boerema (approx. 225-229’)
• Maurice Duruflé, organ works, performed by Thomas Trotter, Stéphane Mottoul, Henry Fairs and Francesca Massey (approx. 73-77’) 

Other compositions:

• Roland Szentpáli, Tuba Concerto (2002) (approx. 20’): “The music imagines a group of people gathered around the táltos to pray to the gods. The táltos plays his drum to induce a trance, in which those around him rise and dance ‘an unsophisticated dance, rhythmically and metrically unbalanced’. Szentpáli writes that he ‘wanted to create melodic lines that sound as if they were “out of tune” and imitate the sounds of untuned, ancient instruments’.”
• Geraldine Mucha, String Quartet No. 1 (1941) (approx. 16’)
• Mucha, String Quartet No. 2 (1988) (approx. 14’)
• Valentin Silvestrov, String Quartet No. 1 (1974) (approx. 25’): “An amalgam of Death and the Maiden and Verklarte Nacht figurations near the beginning is confronted with irreconcilable dissonances which quietly but inexorably bring the piece to a standstill. The figurations then recur in a coda of sorrowful, spectral regression.”
• Raga Shahana Kanada (Shahana Kannada – Shahana Kanara – Shahana Kannara) is a Hindustani raag performed after midnight. “The North Indian (Hindustani) Shahana is not to be confused with the Carnatic Ragam Sahana (28th Melakarta, Harikamboji) as the treatment of the two is completely different  Shahana literally means ‘of royal demeanour’ (Shahi) and while it shares the notes with Bageshri, it has a measured gait and approach.” Performances are by Shujaat Khan & Ananda Gopal Bandopadhyay, and Venkatesh Kumar. 
• Mieczysław Weinberg, Cello Concerto in C Minor, Op. 43 (1948) (approx. 29-31’): “This concerto demonstrates great musical variety. The diversity of the work, its rhythmic simplicity, and folk thematic content make it accessible to a wide range of audiences.”
• Ernest Chausson, Concert pour piano, violin et quatuor à cordes en Ré Majeur (Concert for piano, violin and string quartet in D Major), Op. 21 (1892) (approx. 39-44’) (top recorded performances): “Completed in 1892, Chausson’s Concert is a unique attempt at creating a score of symphonic proportions for just six musicians, with its rich harmonic language pointing towards the peak of the Romantic era.” “. . . the harmonic texture is heavily chromatic, the lyrical expressiveness rhapsodic and expansive, and the dramatics naively bombastic. The piece is also most unusual, in that, as its title readily suggests, it is frankly showy in a way that chamber music rarely is.”
• Benjamin Britten, Violin Concerto, Op. 15 (1939, rev. 1950, 1954, 1965) (approx. 33-34’): “The sheer variety of invention is astounding, including an extended orchestral (so, sans soloist) Passacaglia . . .”
• Mieczysław Weinberg, Sonatas for Solo Cello (4) (approx. 87’): Op. 72 (1960) (approx. 16’); Op. 121 (1965, rev. 1977) (approx. 32-33’); Op. 106 (1971) (approx. 22’); Op. 140bis (1986) (approx. 17’): “The four sonatas for unaccompanied cello contain music of nobility, drama, and great beauty.”
• Marcel Poot, Symphony No. 3 (1952) (approx. 25’): “A lifetime of world experience rests heavily on the shoulders of the Third Symphony. This takes the form of a certain sobriety of mood to counterbalance a controlled serenade element. This is coupled with downbeat brittle reflections and a ruthlessness of jerky rhythmic activity. The finale embraces Poot’s delight in lofty writing for the French horns.”

Albums:

• Ballaké Sissoko, “A Touma” (2021) (40’): “During these strange and paradoxical ‘solitary dialogues’, he makes his kora speak and reacts to the emotions it arouses in him, letting his imagination and his fingers fly off to landscapes that are both magnificent and unknown.”
• The Rheingans Sisters, “Start Close In” (2024) (55’): “With experimental arrangements, feminist retellings, and explorations of European traditions, the album blends intensity and contemplation. It's a bold, magical work that redefines modern folk music, showcasing their fearless creativity.”

Not so serious:

• John Frederick Lampe, The Dragon of Wentley (1737) (approx. 108’), a comic opera in which “the ‘hero’ is the inebriate, preposterously attired but ‘valiant’ Squire Moore, who saves a village from a rampaging, child-eating dragon by despatching the marauding beast with a well-aimed ‘Kick on the Back-side’.”

Music: songs and other short pieces

• Ben Harper, “Excuse Me, Mr.” (lyrics)
• Pink Floyd, “Time” (lyrics)
• Bruce Springsteen, “Thunder Road” (lyrics)

Visual Arts

• Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Two Girls at the Piano (1892)

Film and Stage