A few days ago, I witnessed a lovely view while driving home late in the evening. The moonlight illuminated the bay and gave a nice reflection on the surface of the sea. That scene immediately brought some tunes to my mind, as who would not think about Moonlight Sonata when seeing the full moon? Well, maybe other people would think about some different songs, or music would not be associated with this moon thingy at all. (Btw, what is your first musical association to the moon, before you see my selection?)
However, my ears heard music. First, before any other tune, Clair de lune by Claude Debussy was there to accompany the scene. Of course, in my imagination, because I didn't have Lang Lang in the front passenger seat to play us the piano. There was my son, the reason I had to drive to pick him up as it was late and dark. A gorgeous piano composition, known to many music lovers, not just pianists. At one point, the majority of the piano players want to learn and perform this work. Wouldn't you wish the same, to touch in this gentle way the piano keys and create some magic?
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Proceed with reading after listening to the whole piece...
But as I can not really know if you have listened to Moonlight related piece composed by Debussy until the end or not, I will continue writing and bringing the next masterpiece that can not be missed here. Yes, that other moonlight composition, the Moonlight Sonata, composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. I think everyone can recognize the first movement of this Sonata. But if you want some more action, to see the spider fingers of Valentina, and complete domination over the black and white keys, you will like to listen to the part of the video starting at 7:44 (it is just a suggestion... it would be actually nicer to listen to the whole sonata, but who has nowadays 14 and half minutes extra in the daily schedule? Maybe an evening schedule, with some real moonlight can help to have that time.)
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Oh, Valentina Lisitsa neither was in my car then, just my mind imagined all these piano sounds. However, the moon was still there, maybe laughing at me? Called me a lunatic?
Moonstruck! Me??
Well, I know who was moonstruck. Pierrot!
Or just the composer Arnold Schönberg thought that about the poor guy Pierrot and wrote a whole set of 21 pieces upon the poems by Albert Giraud. The music is pretty... unstable. It is atonal, which means there is no established key it is written in. The set of instruments required for the performance is also weird: voice (can be male or female) flute, piccolo, clarinet, bass clarinet, violin, cello and piano. The voice doesn't really have to sing. It is more speech-singing. Whispering. Shouting.
So, who dares to press the play button on the next video???
I bet, it will give you an experience you have not expected. Hope to see you back after the listening experience...
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Well, you will let me know (maybe, if you want) if this composition scared you, made you feel disturbed, or you just wanted it to finish as soon as possible. Maybe you enjoyed this completely different sound?
I can not finish my post with this piece, no. There are more classical pieces related to the moon and moonlight, also songs from the pop genre, soundtracks etc. But we could also go on an excursion to the moon as Mr Brouček did.
The opera The Excursions of Mr Brouček to the Moon and to the 15th Century was composed by a Czech composer, Leoš Janáček. Of course, we are all back from the Luna journey and living firmly on the planet Earth, but we can do this imaginary trip to the moon, as the protagonist of the opera did. Maybe we can even dance some waltz on there, so for that we need music:
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Dancing and driving, going on a crazy moon trip, getting a bit moonstruck or just relaxing with Debussy? Maybe swinging as the girl is doing in the cover photo made in canva using a template? We can all do that when the moonlight inspires us. You know where. In our imagination.
