Imaginary

Film and Stage

• Rain Man: a conniving, self-centered man develops fellow-feeling for his half-brother, an idiot savant who has been left their father’s entire fortune; the film points out that the “normal” brother also suffers from a disability
• Blow-Up, a film that “has something real to say about the matter of personal involvement and emotional commitment in a jazzed-up, media-hooked-in world so cluttered with synthetic stimulations that natural feelings are overwhelmed”

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Dmitri Shostakovich, Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major, Op. 102 (1957) (approx. 17-22’), is uncharacteristically gentle and straightforward for Shostakovich, in the first two movements. “It . . . takes us on a brief, jubilant romp filled with youthful vitality, cheerful and quirky voices, and unabashed humor. It sparkles with a witty Haydnesque classicism. The lushly beautiful second movement moves into a space of dreamy intimacy and warmth.” “The work is cast in a typical three-movement concerto form and orchestrated for a relatively small orchestra. The orchestra’s composition lends clarity and lightness of touch to the work, which is by turns playful, light-hearted, graceful, and undeniably charming.” Shostakovich composed it for his son Maxim, for his graduation from conservatory. Excellent recordings are by Shostakovich & Cluytens, Bronfman & Salonen in 1999, Volkov & Tchistiakov in 1999, Igoshina & Larsen in 2012, Rubackytė & Pitrėnas in 2012, Masleev & Sladkovsky in 2020, Trpčeski & Măcelaru in 2021.

A sweet and tender gestalt sense, shared among the players, characterizes Mozart’s string quartets.

• String Quartet 1 in G major, K. 80/73f, “Lodi”
• String Quartet 2 in D major, K. 155/134a
• String Quartet 3 in G major, K. 156/134b
• String Quartet 4 in C major, K. 157
• String Quartet 5 in F major, K. 158
• String Quartet 6 in B flat major, K. 159
• String Quartet 7 in E flat major, K. 160/159a
• String Quartet 8 in F major, K. 168
• String Quartet 9 in F major, K. 169
• String Quartet 10 in C major, K. 170
• String Quartet 11 in E flat major, K. 171
• String Quartet 12 in B flat major, K. 172
• String Quartet 13 in D minor, K. 173
• String Quartet 14 in G major, K. 387, “Spring”
• String Quartet 15 in D minor, K. 421/417b
• String Quartet 16 in E flat major, K. 428/421b
• String Quartet 17 in B flat major, K. 458, “Hunt”
• String Quartet 18 in A major, K. 464
• String Quartet 19 in C major, K. 465, “Dissonance”
• String Quartet 20 in D major, K. 499, “Hoffmeister”
• String Quartet 21 in D major, K. 575, “Prussian No. 1”
• String Quartet 22 in B flat major, K. 589, “Prussian No. 2”
• String Quartet 23 in F major, K. 590, “Prussian No. 3”

These works by Jon Appleton evoke concern:

• Sonata for Cello & Piano (2004)
• Violin Sonata No. 2 (2007)

Other works:

• Foulds, Vocal Concerto, "Lyra Celtica", Op. 50
• Boris Tchaikovsky, Cello Concerto (1964): I; II; III (concern)
• Bliss, Music for Strings, Op. 54, F123 (1935)
• Weinberg, Chamber Symphony No. 3 for string orchestra, Op. 151 (1990)
• Robert Fuchs, 6 Phantasiestücke (Fantasy Pieces) for viola and piano, Op. 117
• Robert Fuchs, Sonata in D minor for viola and piano, Op. 86
• Vranický, Symphony in D Major, Op. 36
• Enescu, Piano Trio in A Minor (1916)
• Carl Reinecke, Piano Trio No. 1 in D Major, Op. 38 (1853)
• Ferdinand Hiller, Piano Quintet in G Major, Op. 156 (1873)

Albums:

• Julie Campiche Quartet, "You Matter" (2022) (57’). Campiche observes: “Things related to community and how we live our lives inform my vision of the world. . . . your dreams matter. Because our dreams are the key to tomorrow.”

Fictional Narratives

As birds make nests out of everything, so children make a doll out of anything which comes to hand. While Éponine and Azelma were bundling up the cat, Cosette, on her side, had dressed up her sword. That done, she laid it in her arms, and sang to it softly, to lull it to sleep. The doll is one of the most imperious needs and, at the same time, one of the most charming instincts of feminine childhood. To care for, to clothe, to deck, to dress, to undress, to redress, to teach, scold a little, to rock, to dandle, to lull to sleep, to imagine that something is some one,--therein lies the whole woman's future. While dreaming and chattering, making tiny outfits, and baby clothes, while sewing little gowns, and corsages and bodices, the child grows into a young girl, the young girl into a big girl, the big girl into a woman. The first child is the continuation of the last doll. A little girl without a doll is almost as unhappy, and quite as impossible, as a woman without children. So Cosette had made herself a doll out of the sword. [Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (1862), Volume II – Cosette; Book Third – Accomplishment of a Promise Made To a Dead Woman, Chapter VIII, The Unpleasantness of Receiving Into One’s House a Poor Man Who May Be a Rich Man.] 

From the dark side:

The trader was not shocked nor amazed; because, as we said before, he was used to a great many things that you are not used to. Even the awful presence of Death struck no solemn chill upon him. He had seen Death many times, — met him in the way of trade, and got acquainted with him,—and he only thought of him as a hard customer, that embarrassed his property operations very unfairly; and so he only swore that the gal was a baggage, and that he was devilish unlucky, and that, if things went on in this way, he should not make a cent on the trip. In short, he seemed to consider himself an ill-used man, decidedly; but there was no help for it, as the woman had escaped into a state which never will give up a fugitive,—not even at the demand of the whole glorious Union. The trader, therefore, sat discontentedly down, with his little account-book, and put down the missing body and soul under the head of losses! [Harriett Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin or Life Among the Lowly (1852), Volume 1, Chapter XII, “Select Incident of Lawful Trade”.]

Novels:

• Piero Chiara, The Bishop’s Bedroom: A Novel (New Vessel Press, 2019): “. . . Chiara explores the disaffected, essentially corrupt world that allows her murder to happen, a world in which complacent, middle-class men and women are returning to their prosperous lives after the (to them) superficial interruption of Mussolini.”
• Ashleigh Bell Pedersen, The Crocodile Bride: A Novel (Hub City, 2022): “Pedersen does well to temper the accumulative dread with the care and camaraderie of Sunshine’s nearby relatives.”

Poetry

From the dark side:

• Edgar Lee Masters, “Hiram Scates”
• Edgar Lee Masters, “Mabel Osborne”