Author, Lecturer, Broadcaster & Cultural Arts Expert;
President of Art Collage JANG/J Music/J Art/J Books & Media.
Author of over 40 books published on Amazon, including The Crimson Horror series and The Great and Immortal Painters’ Stories series.
Dedicated to sharing insights into art, culture, literature, and creative expression through writing, lectures, media, and content creation.
"After the film ends, some stories remain as music."
Some films leave us with unforgettable scenes.
Others leave us with unforgettable emotions.
This composition was born from the latter.
Volume 11 presents “Where Silence Remembers,” an
original cinematic ballad inspired by the emotional atmosphere surrounding the
film “Atonement (2007).”
Instead of recreating what already exists, I compose entirely
original music that reflects what remains inside us after the credits roll.
Love.
Silence.
Hope.
Regret.
Memory.
These feelings belong to all of us.
I hope this music allows you to revisit them in your own way.
🎧You can also listen to
this piece on J Radio.
Experience the music inspired by unforgettable films, now streaming
on J Radio.
This
week's lecture is “Dmitri Shostakovich”, the 24th and last topic of “Classical Music”, which is a summary of the
contents of “109. Classical Music: 24. Dmitri
Shostakovich” introduced on November 4th, 2017.
Dmitri
Shostakovich was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist born on September
25, 1906 and died on August 9, 1975. He is regarded as one of the major and
most popular composers of the 20th century.
Birthplace of Shostakovich
Shostakovich
gained fame in the Soviet Union under the patronage of Mikhail Tukhachevsky,
the Soviet chief of staff, but later had a complicated relationship with the
government, from which he got state awards and privileges. He also held
bureaucratic posts during his lifetime, including activity in the Supreme
Soviet of the Soviet Union from 1962 until his death.
Mikhail Tukhachevsky
Shostakovich
combined a variety of musical techniques into his work, whose music is
characterized by sharp contrasts, elements of the grotesque and ambivalent
tonality. He was also heavily influenced by the neoclassical style pioneered by
Igor Stravinsky and, particularly in his symphonies, by Gustav Mahler'slate
Romanticism.
Igor Stravinsky
Gustav Mahler
Shostakovich's
orchestral works include 15 symphonies and 6 concerti. His chamber works
include fifteen string quartets, one piano quintet, two piano trios and two for
string octet. His piano solo works include two sonatas, an early collection of
24 preludes, and a later collection of 24 preludes and fugues. His other works
include three operas, three ballets, several song cycles, and a significant
amount of music for theatre and film.
Shostakovich (1950)
Among the film music he made, the waltz
from the 1955 film “The First Echelon” and the suite of music from the film
“The Gadfly”, are especially famous.
"The Child Prodigy" is a
2010 Canadian film directed by Luc Dionne. A biographical drama about classical
pianist André Mathieu, this film stars Guillaume Lebon as young Mathieu and
Patrick Drolet as adult Mathieu.
André Mathieu was a Canadian
pianist and composer who was born on February 18, 1929 and died on June 2,
1968. As a composer, Mathieu's style leaned towards the late Romantic school of
Sergei Rachmaninoff, and his music was influenced by Claude Debussy. He also
left behind many works for piano.
André Mathieu at eleven years of age
Its cast also includes Marc
Labrèche as his father Rodolphe Mathieu, Macha Grenon as his mother Mimi
Mathieu and Karine Vanasse as his sister Camillette.
The film was nominated for two
awards at the 13th Jutra Awards in 2011.
Movie
Review
“Great biopic on a French
Canadian piano child prodigy”
“Must buy for the desert
island”
The
Behind Stories about the Film
1. André Mathieuwas the first
French-Canadian to play more than 20 hours during an endurance piano
competition in the 1950s.
André Mathieu at 11 with his sister
2. André Mathieu's wife died a year
after the film was released.
This week's lecture is “Claude
Debussy”, the 21st topic of “Classical Music”, which is a summary of the contents of “106.
Classical Music: 21. Claude Debussy” introduced on October
12th, 2017.
Claude Debussy, born on
22 August 1862 and died on 25 March 1918, was a French composer, one of the
most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although he showed
great resistance to the term, he is regarded as the first Impressionist
composer.
Rue au Pain, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, street of Debussy's birthplace
Born into a modest family, Debussy showed outstanding musical talent,
enough to be admitted to France's leading music college, the Conservatoire de
Paris, at the age of 10. Originally studying piano, Debussy found his vocation
in innovative composition, despite the disapproval of the Conservatoire's
conservative professors. After spending many years developing his own style,
Debussy gained international fame in 1902, around the age of 40, with “Pelléas
et Mélisande”, the only opera he completed.
Poster for the prèmiere of Pelléas et Mélisande at the Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique (30 April 1902)
Debussy's orchestral
works include "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune",
"Nocturnes" and "Images". Much of his music was a reaction
against Wagner and the German musical tradition. Debussy, who regarded the
classical symphony as obsolete, sought an alternative in his symphonic
sketches, “La mer.”
Cover of 1905 edition of score, La mer, based on Hokusai's c. 1831 woodblock print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa
His piano pieces include 24 Préludes and 12 Études.
Throughout his career, Debussy wrote melodies based on a wide variety of
poetry, including his own, and was greatly influenced by the Symbolist poetic movement
of the late 19th century. A few of his works, including his early work “La
Damoiselle élue” and his later work “Le Martyre de saint Sébastien”, contain
important parts for chorus. In his final years, he concentrated on chamber
music, planning six sonatas for different instrument combinations but
completing three of them.
Illustration for the premiere, Le Martyre de saint Sébastien
With early influences,
including Russian and Far Eastern music, Debussy developed his own style of
harmony and orchestral colouring, but he was derided and resisted by many of
the musical establishments of the day. His works have strongly influenced many
composers, including Béla Bartók, Olivier Messiaen, George Benjamin, and Bill
Evans. Debussy died of cancer at his home in Paris at the age of 55, after a
composing career of a little more than 30 years.
A statue of Claude Debussy in front of the Saint Germain Church, Île-de-France, France
