Ahhhhh this brought me back to Shades’ early days! Both your writing and Debussy sound even more lush this time around, and I dare say reading your pieces have trained my mind and ear to appreciate this music on another level. Good luck with your program essays! I’m positive they’re magnificent!
Thanks, Katie! When I decided to rerun this early essay, I actually had the thought: "Out of the 15 people who received this one the first time around, Katie will be the only one to remember it!" 🤣
Thank you for being here from the very beginning. It warms my heart that your appreciation of classical music has grown during our time together here. 💙
I watched Nureyev perform Nijinsky's choreography of "L'Après-midi d'un faun" a few weeks back and was surprised by how (comparatively) tame it seemed given the scandal! Maybe it's just millennial, corrupted sensibilities.
This is a beautiful piece, Michael, and I love your alliteration! I stumbled on the Symbolist Manifesto in December and paste the link here for anyone who's interested: https://enjoymutable.com/home/thesymbolistmanifesto
That is very rad and I love that drawing too! Symbolist paintings had a ha-uuuge foundational artistic impact on me as a kid artist growing up in LA, as I would endlessly absorb those specific pieces at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art LACMA. Thank you so much for sharing that link! :)
Thanks for reading, Sophia! Nijinsky’s choreography certainly doesn't shock our 21st-century sensibilities — I've seen more hypersexualized creations from modern choreographers — but I love how it serves as a time capsule showing how radical dance can be. And thanks for posting the complete manifesto here. 🙏💙
Hey Michael! Oh gee thank you for asking me. Off the cuff, here's a few things that came up for me related to Satie and Debussy --
I'm diggin the Erik Satie as handled with such sensitively measured and achingly slow longing to achieve a sublime melancholy, such as Serge Koussevitzk Gymnopedie No. 1 for Orchestra 1949, Gymnopedie No. 2 for Orchestra (with Harp!), Gymnopedie No. 1 for Orchestra 1930
Finally, the gorgeous score for the amazing avant garde film, Limite (1931, dir. Mário Peixoto, his only film) that features the music of Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, and others. Thankfully restored. Here's the link to the film freely available for viewing ala archive dot org. And below is a brief description for all of us Avant Garde Art Film Music Surrealism World Cinema lovers to bask in. It is a banquet of desire and longing indeed.
Limite (1931) -- An astonishing creation, Limite is the only feature by the Brazilian director and author Mário Peixoto, made when he was just twenty-two years old. Inspired by a haunting André Kertész photograph on the cover of a French magazine, this avant-garde silent masterpiece centers on a man and two women lost at sea, their pasts unfolding through flashbacks propelled by the music of Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, and others. An early work of independent Latin American filmmaking, Limite was famously difficult to see for most of the twentieth century. It is a pioneering achievement that continues to captivate with its timeless visual poetry.
Limite was restored in 2010 by the Cinemateca Brasileira and the Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, Arquivo Mario Peixoto, Saulo Pereira de Mello, and Walter Salles. Restoration funded by Armani, Cartier, Qatar Airways, and Qatar Museum Authority.
Lovely recommendations, Elliot! Those orchestrated versions of the Gymnopedies are indeed breathtaking. 💙
And thanks for the film recommendation — one of the essays I'm working on now for the Britt Festival highlights two Brazilian composers who were at work when that film came out (Oscar Lorenzo Fernández and Heitor Villa-Lobos), so this couldn't be more timely!
I like our synergy. Sounds great! Consider Toru Takamitsu for this or an upcoming Shade sometime. Here, Toru is throwin down some goth drenched waltz macabre for The Face of Another (1966, dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara) as part of 60s era Japanese New Wave Film. It's a spendid film and score! https://youtu.be/2De2EfeDU4I?si=QkpoGo8YdE1ZTuQJ
What a beautiful article. Just lovely to get the background on this enchanting piece of music, and fascinating to hear that a pop video I recorded on a VHS tape in 1984 is connected with both this and the Royal Ballet. How typical of Freddie to incorporate something like this into his work. I never realised the significance of that fabulous choreography in I Want to Break Free. Thanks very much Michael. (Oh, and Nureyev. Divine. And with Fonteyn...✨)
Thanks so much, Jules — the legacy of Debussy’s Faun is indeed long! I Freddie was truly visionary, and his channeling such reverence for Nijinsky’s ballet into Queen’s anthem of personal freedom moves and inspires me every time I watch that video. 💙
Ahhhhh this brought me back to Shades’ early days! Both your writing and Debussy sound even more lush this time around, and I dare say reading your pieces have trained my mind and ear to appreciate this music on another level. Good luck with your program essays! I’m positive they’re magnificent!
Thanks, Katie! When I decided to rerun this early essay, I actually had the thought: "Out of the 15 people who received this one the first time around, Katie will be the only one to remember it!" 🤣
Thank you for being here from the very beginning. It warms my heart that your appreciation of classical music has grown during our time together here. 💙
😂😂 Well I'm ALL for Substack writers allowing themselves to publish reruns – if television can do it, we should be able to am I right!?
I watched Nureyev perform Nijinsky's choreography of "L'Après-midi d'un faun" a few weeks back and was surprised by how (comparatively) tame it seemed given the scandal! Maybe it's just millennial, corrupted sensibilities.
This is a beautiful piece, Michael, and I love your alliteration! I stumbled on the Symbolist Manifesto in December and paste the link here for anyone who's interested: https://enjoymutable.com/home/thesymbolistmanifesto
Take care,
Sophia
That is very rad and I love that drawing too! Symbolist paintings had a ha-uuuge foundational artistic impact on me as a kid artist growing up in LA, as I would endlessly absorb those specific pieces at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art LACMA. Thank you so much for sharing that link! :)
The first time I saw a Moreau painting in real life, I didn't think I'd ever be able to walk away from it. Talk about arresting!
Thanks for reading, Sophia! Nijinsky’s choreography certainly doesn't shock our 21st-century sensibilities — I've seen more hypersexualized creations from modern choreographers — but I love how it serves as a time capsule showing how radical dance can be. And thanks for posting the complete manifesto here. 🙏💙
Oh my. Debussy. Plus add Satie to the mix and I am in Heeeeaveeennn.
Couldn’t agree more, Elliot. What’s your favorite melancholy moment of Satie?
Hey Michael! Oh gee thank you for asking me. Off the cuff, here's a few things that came up for me related to Satie and Debussy --
I'm diggin the Erik Satie as handled with such sensitively measured and achingly slow longing to achieve a sublime melancholy, such as Serge Koussevitzk Gymnopedie No. 1 for Orchestra 1949, Gymnopedie No. 2 for Orchestra (with Harp!), Gymnopedie No. 1 for Orchestra 1930
Yuji Takahashi | Debussy Images I/II | Estampes | L'île Joyeuse (1975) via youtube
Finally, the gorgeous score for the amazing avant garde film, Limite (1931, dir. Mário Peixoto, his only film) that features the music of Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, and others. Thankfully restored. Here's the link to the film freely available for viewing ala archive dot org. And below is a brief description for all of us Avant Garde Art Film Music Surrealism World Cinema lovers to bask in. It is a banquet of desire and longing indeed.
Limite (1931) -- An astonishing creation, Limite is the only feature by the Brazilian director and author Mário Peixoto, made when he was just twenty-two years old. Inspired by a haunting André Kertész photograph on the cover of a French magazine, this avant-garde silent masterpiece centers on a man and two women lost at sea, their pasts unfolding through flashbacks propelled by the music of Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, and others. An early work of independent Latin American filmmaking, Limite was famously difficult to see for most of the twentieth century. It is a pioneering achievement that continues to captivate with its timeless visual poetry.
Limite was restored in 2010 by the Cinemateca Brasileira and the Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, Arquivo Mario Peixoto, Saulo Pereira de Mello, and Walter Salles. Restoration funded by Armani, Cartier, Qatar Airways, and Qatar Museum Authority.
https://archive.org/details/limitemariopeixoto1931
Lovely recommendations, Elliot! Those orchestrated versions of the Gymnopedies are indeed breathtaking. 💙
And thanks for the film recommendation — one of the essays I'm working on now for the Britt Festival highlights two Brazilian composers who were at work when that film came out (Oscar Lorenzo Fernández and Heitor Villa-Lobos), so this couldn't be more timely!
I like our synergy. Sounds great! Consider Toru Takamitsu for this or an upcoming Shade sometime. Here, Toru is throwin down some goth drenched waltz macabre for The Face of Another (1966, dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara) as part of 60s era Japanese New Wave Film. It's a spendid film and score! https://youtu.be/2De2EfeDU4I?si=QkpoGo8YdE1ZTuQJ
What a beautiful article. Just lovely to get the background on this enchanting piece of music, and fascinating to hear that a pop video I recorded on a VHS tape in 1984 is connected with both this and the Royal Ballet. How typical of Freddie to incorporate something like this into his work. I never realised the significance of that fabulous choreography in I Want to Break Free. Thanks very much Michael. (Oh, and Nureyev. Divine. And with Fonteyn...✨)
Thanks so much, Jules — the legacy of Debussy’s Faun is indeed long! I Freddie was truly visionary, and his channeling such reverence for Nijinsky’s ballet into Queen’s anthem of personal freedom moves and inspires me every time I watch that video. 💙