Dance of Life (1899-1900) is generally regarded as one of Munch’s major paintings, and most of the literature refer to it and briefly analyse it, not always accurately. There has been only one thorough examination (Müller-Westermann, Munch by Himself, Chapter 3). This essay will carefully examine the 1899-1900 painting as well as the preliminary 1898 sketch and Munch’s 1925 copy. It will find that Dance of Life is a personal statement on marriage—an interpretation that hasn’t been made before.
Rich, suspenseful, funny, scatological, farcical, profound, adolescent, dramatic……. I’m using one of Scottish playwright David Greig’s techniques in his impressive first novel. Here’s one of his lists—names of some of the Viking raiders who land on the Scottish island of Iona in 825 AD at the beginning of the 183-page novel: Buttercock, Bloodnose, Eyeballs, Gore Dog, Puffin Face, One Ear, Chin Slitter, Fuck-a-Whale, Lead Fist, Shorty, Fat Dog, Denmark, Horse Boy, Madhead and Ghost Axe.
It is a powerful film and shows a break from accepted film practices. Ingmar Bergman
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook, Volumes 1 and 2 (MGV 4008-2 and 4009-2),1957 In 1957 Norman Granz went to great lengths to set up a recording session for Ella Fitzgerald with Duke Ellington and his orchestra. It was to be the third in a series of Songbooks for Ella. The series had started extremely successfully with the Cole Porter Songbook and continued with the Rodgers and Hart Songbook. Ella had never recorded with Ellington before, so this must have been an exciting prospect for her.
1. Enchantment Delius’s sudden conversion from “callow dilettante” to “young enthusiast who applied himself so ruthlessly to the mastery of musical science” (Christopher Palmer, Delius: Portrait of a Cosmopolitan, 2) This happened soon after he arrived at Solano Grove in Florida (1884, age 22), having been sent there from England by his exasperated father. Palmer asks: “What had happened…to create so profound a change in him?” He says the answer is “the key to Delius’s musical personality.”
Dmitri Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony, written more than 50 years ago, has been attracting a lot of attention in recent years. Two leading younger maestros have tackled this difficult string symphony: Teodor Currentzis (2009) and Klaus Mäkelä (2020). In the later years of his life, Shostakovich could look back to many occasions when he felt his music had been misunderstood. Now nearing 70 and having to visit hospitality frequently, he wanted more than ever to communicate his political and personal feelings. To this end he was using words more often to complement his music: Symphony #13 (1962); Execution of Stepan Razin (1964); Seven Songs on poems by Alexander Blok (1967). And for his 14th Symphony he decided to use words again—the words of three modern poets from France, Spain and Germany. The importance to Shostakovich of the words in his Symphony #14 is evident in a letter he wrote just after the premiere: “The printed program included the text of the poems that I had used, so the audience was able to understand the words since the diction was occasionally not very good.” (to Isaak Glickman, 7 October, 1969)
It took most of his writing career before Roy Jacobsen decided to make use of his early experience of growing up on a small remote Norwegian Island. Maybe this was fortunate because his experience of writing 12 novels has enabled him to write a brilliant novel. Unseen (2013) recounts the struggle to survive on a tiny fictional island situated somewhere south of Lofoten off the northern coast of Norway. In 53 chapters it follows the life of the Barroy family—“God’s silent children on a small island in the sea,” as the local mainland pastor calls them—over the early years of the twentieth century. This life necessarily focuses on survival through fishing, basic agricultural, trading and occasional employment away from home.
It took most of his writing career before Roy Jacobsen decided to make use of his early experience of growing up on a small remote Norwegian Island. Maybe this was fortunate because his experience of writing 12 novels has enabled him to write a brilliant novel. Unseen (2013) recounts the struggle to survive on a tiny fictional island situated somewhere south of Lofoten off the northern coast of Norway. In 53 chapters it follows the life of the Barroy family—“God’s silent children on a small island in the sea,” as the local mainland pastor calls them—over the early years of the twentieth century. This life necessarily focuses on survival through fishing, basic agricultural, trading and occasional employment away from home.
Nocturne I drive through a village at night, houses step forwardinto the headlight glare – they are awake, they want a drink.Houses, barns, signboards, abandoned vehicles – nowthey come to Life. – People are sleeping: some can sleep peacefully, others have strained facesas if in hard training for eternity.They don’t dare to let go, even in deep sleep.They rest like lowered barriers when mystery passes by. From the village the road continues a long time through forest trees.And trees trees are silent in unison with each other.
Our concept is still more or less the original idea of producing music that I love and that I would like to introduce to people. That's all it is, and it has not changed and will not change because it's the only thing I can do. Manfred Eicher My contact with ECM is beyond categorization: it is a natural supplement to my composing. Arvo Pärt The founder and presiding spirit of ECM Records is not a typical music industry executive, which is perhaps why Eicher has managed to survive the virtual disintegration
It’s over 30 years since this autobiography was published, but Michael Meyer’s “literary and theatrical memoirs” are still of great interest, especially to those interested in mid-twentieth-century drama. He found little success as a creative writer (plays, novel, poems), but as a biographer and translator of both Ibsen and Strindberg he achieved worldwide success. His Ibsen biography was especially praised (George Steiner: “A major achievement”) while his translations at the time of this book’s publication were “on average…staged or broadcast somewhere in the world every four or five days.”