Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel)

Week 2

THE PITCH

This is my absolute favourite piece of classical music. The first time I heard it was as a teenager. The prog rock band Emmerson, Lake and Palmer made a recording of it. I loved that, but then a few years later someone gave me a copy of a proper orchestration and I much prefer that. This is the album I used to play to my toerag boys when they came home from school for lunch. They loved the grandeur of The Great Gates of Kiev and that's my favourite piece from it too. I think it's popular because each piece describes a painting but there is also the recurring motif of the promenade.

A couple of years ago I went to The Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow to see Nicola Benedetti. It was a new piece but in the second half they played Picture. I had no idea it was coming and I honestly felt my chest swell with joy. What a treat, my favourite classical musician playing my favourite classical piece of music.

Moira McPartlin

MY RESPONSE

I was certain you’d suggest something that would make me think, Moira, but this came as a complete surprise. I have very little experience with classical music and I don’t know how I feel about music without words.

On the first day I looked it up on Wikipedia in an attempt to get to grips with it but most of the information went over my head. I listened right through to the end of the album this first time not realising the two pieces at the end weren’t from Pictures. I thought I recognised Night on Bald Mountain discovered it was used in The Wizard of Oz! The second bit was Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and of course I knew that. So apparently I do know some classical music…

Twice this week I’ve listened in the car, half on the way to school and half on the way back. This isn’t ideal because I feel you need to hear the whole piece at once. I wonder if classical music might be better as background for me. I listened while writing one day which seemed to work but perhaps that was because it’s easier to ignore wordless music. I’m not sure it enhanced my working environment particularly.

Twice more I listened with no distractions while looking at the Wikipedia page. I definitely find it a more satisfying listening experience when I have the information to lean on. I started to see the pauses when the pieces changed and I saw the promenade from one picture to another, and what some of the pieces were intended to convey, especially the chicks, the children in the Tuileries and the bullock cart.

The thing that’s tricky about orchestral music is getting a handle on the melody, because, unlike a three- to four-minute song, it goes on and on, with the themes coming round and round. It occurs to me that this music would not be great to run to. Is this because it lacks the strong regular rhythm of a piece of rock/pop music? Here the rhythm changes all the time – that seems to be the point – and often it’s much too fast or slow for running. It might work for cycling though, especially swooping down a hill freewheel.

At the end of the week out of curiosity I listened to a bit of the Emerson, Lake and Palmer version. I have to admit this mostly made me think I’m glad you didn’t give me that, Moira! I did think what they’d done with Baba Yaga worked (I think that’s my favourite bit anyway) but it was way too shreiky for me.

How do I feel about this now? I thought it was interesting that I needed to hook it on to images and information to make sense of it. That’s a lot of work though. I didn’t play it more than the seven times I’d committed to though (unlike Sgt Pepper!). I don’t know that I’m going to be adding it to a playlist… But I’m curious to know if I’d feel differently about any other pieces of classical music. Or non-classical wordless music.

What else I’ve listened to this week

The Jam Sound Affects

Beatles Sgt Pepper

Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend

Van Morrison Astral Weeks

Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker

The Beatles White Album