Elgar, Jarre and Oldfield
There are three composers who make me laugh and cry at the same time when I’m listening to their music. The first one ever is Edward Elgar with his sometimes heart touching symphonies, at other times heroic pieces, there is the Crown of India f.e. or the 2nd Symphony, but best known he surely is for his Pomp and Circumstances. When it comes to classical music, I simetimes have the problem that I can’t hear a motive or a structure, but with Elgar there are always both a motive and a structure, and I’m able to hear it the very first time I hear one of his works.
The third one is Mike Oldfield with his one and only Tubular Bells theme. It appears more or less in every piece of music he published yet, also these that obviously titled with other words. His so far last published music CD called Music Of the Spheres is such an example. On the first time I’ve listened to it, I thought to myself: ”Oh, boy, you’ve had just called it Tubular Bells IV”, but then heard it for the second and third time and discovered not just that certain motive but also interesting new lines. So, with Oldfield and his music it’s the same as with Thomas Bernhard, the great Austrian author, and his books: both have just one theme or motive, it appears in every work they created, but every one is special at all.
The second one is Maurice Jarre. Together with the great director David Lean he was part of one of the greatest couples of the motion picture industry ever. Without Jarre’s music for Lawrence of Arabia the movie wouldn’t be the timeless masterpiece that it is. The movie runs 217 minutes but always I’m watching (and I have done it surely over 20 times with knowing every line and every picture) it’s never long enough. I totally forget where and when I am when I’m watching Lawrence of Arabia or just hear the theme by Jarre via my iPod. It’s that timeless and I’m grateful Maurice Jarre wrote that music and David Lean did the movie; all together you may watch in the following clip from youtube, but better you watch and enjoy the movie, and the best: reading T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
The third one is Mike Oldfield with his one and only Tubular Bells theme. It appears more or less in every piece of music he published yet, also these that obviously titled with other words. His so far last published music CD called Music Of the Spheres is such an example. On the first time I’ve listened to it, I thought to myself: ”Oh, boy, you’ve had just called it Tubular Bells IV”, but then heard it for the second and third time and discovered not just that certain motive but also interesting new lines. So, with Oldfield and his music it’s the same as with Thomas Bernhard, the great Austrian author, and his books: both have just one theme or motive, it appears in every work they created, but every one is special at all.
The second one is Maurice Jarre. Together with the great director David Lean he was part of one of the greatest couples of the motion picture industry ever. Without Jarre’s music for Lawrence of Arabia the movie wouldn’t be the timeless masterpiece that it is. The movie runs 217 minutes but always I’m watching (and I have done it surely over 20 times with knowing every line and every picture) it’s never long enough. I totally forget where and when I am when I’m watching Lawrence of Arabia or just hear the theme by Jarre via my iPod. It’s that timeless and I’m grateful Maurice Jarre wrote that music and David Lean did the movie; all together you may watch in the following clip from youtube, but better you watch and enjoy the movie, and the best: reading T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
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