Fin de siècle - a steampunk inspired fanmix
This fanmix was made last February (yeah, so long ago) as a birthday present for two marvellous and divine ladies, b_a_n_s_h_e_e and chantfleuri. I was making the covers in a hurry then, and didn't appreciate the result (I'm not a photoshop person, and it takes a lot of effort for me) - so now I remade the album covers and like them more, so am not shy to post that:)
I should also say that I'm awfully grateful to chantfleuri's posting loads of atmospheric 19th century paintings, where I chose these - Georges Stein's "Evening on a Parisian Boulevard" for front cover and Balestrieri Lionello's "A Woman on a Paris Street at Evening" for back cover
So, this is "Fin de siècle" - an OST to an imaginary dark victorian/steampunk movie. I don't know much about the plot of the movie, or about its characters myself (I even can't tell you the country and town it is set in - it is a mixture of London, Paris, Vienna - and probably Munich in alternate 1890s). But I can say that there are ballrooms and drawing rooms of respectable ladies, not without a pianoforte and a young miss playing Chopin; there are comparatively decent music-halls and drawing rooms of demimonde courtesans; there are music-halls not decent at all. There are breathtaking views of the monumental architecture of this dark victorian (or dark edwardian) city. I think I might confess, that I've been inspired by the latest "Dorian Gray" movie - actually I haven't had the opportunity to watch it so, that was only the trailer for me - though in this story there are a lot of tangled plotlines and characters from almost all the layers of society.
I'd love to label this fanmix as "steampunk" - but I am too afraid of being blamed by Orthodox Steampunks, of their "ah, where's the steam? Where's the punk here?" I, for myself, enjoy using the notion "steampunk" for anything "victorian-edwardian, slightly anachronistical or alternative history". The tracks are mostly instrumental piano pieces, some not-very-popular-yet-so-beautiful waltzes - and some cabaret or operetta songs.
1. Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2 - Moderato. Performed by Sviatoslav Richter.
That's one of my favourite Rachmaninov's works, along with the second prelude, also featured here:) I've compared a great number of recordings and now can tell for sure that Sviatoslav Richter is the best pianist!
I imagine this piece played on opening titles. Panoramas of gigantic factories with thousands of workers; cobbled streets, full of various coaches, barouches, etc; ladies and gentlemen, who get ready for the soirée while there's still dim city daylight.
2. In der Nacht ist der Mensch nicht gern alleine - Marika Rökk
The song is from the movie "The Woman of My Dreams" ("Die Frau meiner Träume"). The title is translated as "One doesn't like to be alone at night", and the text is worthy such a title: (my clumsy translation, line by line)
Every evening I am standing at the bridge
Selling flowers to loving couples
I see glitter and flame in their glances
And so I feel something special in my heart.
I'd like to present my flowers to myself,
to decorate myself as the most beautiful bride.
I'd like so much to think only for a short moment
that every man speaks of me and looks at me.
That's a strange, nice feeling,
even when all this is a dream, only a game.
At night one doesn't like to be alone,
for love in bright moonlight
is the most beautiful thing - you know, what I mean -
from one side, and from the other side, and apart from that.
For one needs a little bit of love
for just that is
rather the most beautiful urge of the heart
from one side, and from the other side, and apart from that.
As far as it concerns me,
I have a principle
and a very particular, constant ideal.
But if someone comes now
and tells me "I love you!"
That doesn't matter for me...
I don't know whether this is a song of one of my heroines - or just a tune hummed by a mediocre flower girl, an episodic character who will appear only to sell some violets for the ladies' furs and sing. Anyway, I like the song:)
3. Waltz from the movie "Madame Bovary" - composed by Miklos Rozsa, performed by Roby Lakatos and his ensemble
A strikingly captivating waltz. Beautiful and majestic enough for any ball in polite society - and yet so emotional and passionate, just balancing on the verge of decency and morality, even crossing that line.
4. Nocturne Op.9 #2 by Frédéric Chopin - unfortunately I don't know the performer on this recording
Out of my two favourite Chopin nocturnes (probably I prefer them because I play them myself). Compared with the second one, Cis-moll (you may have heard it,for instance, in that movie "The Pianist"); this nocturne is full of light and high hopes. As well as the young miss, who performs it in a fashionable drawing room at the beginning of the movie.
5. "Oh, the Women!" - from the operetta "The Merry Widow" by Franz Lehar, performed by New Sadler's Wells Opera Ensemble
Well, as I was so lucky to find a decent English version of this marvellous operetta, I have nothing to explain - not only the music speaks for itself, but the meaning of the words is clear to anyone:)
6. Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries in piano transcription, performed by Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Why in piano transcription? Firstly - that's interestingly untypical for this orchestra piece; secondly, I find piano music very "steampunkish".
7. Zigeunermädchen (Gypsy Girl) by Revelling Crooks
The song (telling us how the lyrical hero met a pretty gypsy girl) is picked up merely for the way it sounds. And what steampunk Empire's capital can be without gypsies?
8. "Storybook" from Frank Wildhorn's musical "The Scarlet Pimpernel", performed by Christine Andreas
Here music and words are both important - I'd even say, that the latter matter more (which is rare for me)
I'm also pretty sure now that this song is sung by one of the main heroines. At a demimonde drawing room.
9. Soirée de Vienne - concert paraphrase on Johann Strauss II themes by Alfred Grünfeld, performed by Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Just because fin de siècle can't be without Strauss themes. As for my choice of piano versions, I've already explained that:)
10. "Vissi d'arte" from Giacomo Puccini's "Tosca", performed by Claudia Muzio
An operatic diva of the early 20th century sings this beautiful aria about her living, dedicated to art and love - and about the cruelty of world.
Anyone of the heroines could sing that popular operatic piece (I mean, as popular in this steampunk universe, as in ours during la Belle Époque) - the lyrics matching their state of mind and maybe even circumstances. (Here, at Wikipedia there are Italian lyrics with English translation)
11. "Bring on the Men" from Frank Wildhorn's musical "Jekyll and Hyde", performed by Linda Eder
Remember me telling you this "OST" would take you to "music halls not decent at all"? So here you have it:)
12. Rachmaninov's Prelude #2 cis-moll
This music is so beautiful and so haunting that I have nothing to add to it.
13. Shalott - Emilie Autumn
This is the song I'd love to be playing during the movie's closing credits.
The Lady of Shalott is quite an important character in victorian culture. Tennyson's ballad, Pre-Raphaelite paintings... And the symbolism of the lady's fate in Victorian world... Making it just perfect for some dark victorian movie:)
14. Waltz from the movie "An Ideal Husband" - composed by Arthur Benjamin
This waltz is definitely played and danced to one of the balls of the movie, along with the Miklos Rozsa waltz. However, it doesn't match somehow this album, so it's added as a bonus track.
.rar archive at sendspace, 81.76MB
I should also say that I'm awfully grateful to chantfleuri's posting loads of atmospheric 19th century paintings, where I chose these - Georges Stein's "Evening on a Parisian Boulevard" for front cover and Balestrieri Lionello's "A Woman on a Paris Street at Evening" for back cover
So, this is "Fin de siècle" - an OST to an imaginary dark victorian/steampunk movie. I don't know much about the plot of the movie, or about its characters myself (I even can't tell you the country and town it is set in - it is a mixture of London, Paris, Vienna - and probably Munich in alternate 1890s). But I can say that there are ballrooms and drawing rooms of respectable ladies, not without a pianoforte and a young miss playing Chopin; there are comparatively decent music-halls and drawing rooms of demimonde courtesans; there are music-halls not decent at all. There are breathtaking views of the monumental architecture of this dark victorian (or dark edwardian) city. I think I might confess, that I've been inspired by the latest "Dorian Gray" movie - actually I haven't had the opportunity to watch it so, that was only the trailer for me - though in this story there are a lot of tangled plotlines and characters from almost all the layers of society.
I'd love to label this fanmix as "steampunk" - but I am too afraid of being blamed by Orthodox Steampunks, of their "ah, where's the steam? Where's the punk here?" I, for myself, enjoy using the notion "steampunk" for anything "victorian-edwardian, slightly anachronistical or alternative history". The tracks are mostly instrumental piano pieces, some not-very-popular-yet-so-beautiful waltzes - and some cabaret or operetta songs.
1. Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2 - Moderato. Performed by Sviatoslav Richter.
That's one of my favourite Rachmaninov's works, along with the second prelude, also featured here:) I've compared a great number of recordings and now can tell for sure that Sviatoslav Richter is the best pianist!
I imagine this piece played on opening titles. Panoramas of gigantic factories with thousands of workers; cobbled streets, full of various coaches, barouches, etc; ladies and gentlemen, who get ready for the soirée while there's still dim city daylight.
2. In der Nacht ist der Mensch nicht gern alleine - Marika Rökk
The song is from the movie "The Woman of My Dreams" ("Die Frau meiner Träume"). The title is translated as "One doesn't like to be alone at night", and the text is worthy such a title: (my clumsy translation, line by line)
Every evening I am standing at the bridge
Selling flowers to loving couples
I see glitter and flame in their glances
And so I feel something special in my heart.
I'd like to present my flowers to myself,
to decorate myself as the most beautiful bride.
I'd like so much to think only for a short moment
that every man speaks of me and looks at me.
That's a strange, nice feeling,
even when all this is a dream, only a game.
At night one doesn't like to be alone,
for love in bright moonlight
is the most beautiful thing - you know, what I mean -
from one side, and from the other side, and apart from that.
For one needs a little bit of love
for just that is
rather the most beautiful urge of the heart
from one side, and from the other side, and apart from that.
As far as it concerns me,
I have a principle
and a very particular, constant ideal.
But if someone comes now
and tells me "I love you!"
That doesn't matter for me...
I don't know whether this is a song of one of my heroines - or just a tune hummed by a mediocre flower girl, an episodic character who will appear only to sell some violets for the ladies' furs and sing. Anyway, I like the song:)
3. Waltz from the movie "Madame Bovary" - composed by Miklos Rozsa, performed by Roby Lakatos and his ensemble
A strikingly captivating waltz. Beautiful and majestic enough for any ball in polite society - and yet so emotional and passionate, just balancing on the verge of decency and morality, even crossing that line.
4. Nocturne Op.9 #2 by Frédéric Chopin - unfortunately I don't know the performer on this recording
Out of my two favourite Chopin nocturnes (probably I prefer them because I play them myself). Compared with the second one, Cis-moll (you may have heard it,for instance, in that movie "The Pianist"); this nocturne is full of light and high hopes. As well as the young miss, who performs it in a fashionable drawing room at the beginning of the movie.
5. "Oh, the Women!" - from the operetta "The Merry Widow" by Franz Lehar, performed by New Sadler's Wells Opera Ensemble
Well, as I was so lucky to find a decent English version of this marvellous operetta, I have nothing to explain - not only the music speaks for itself, but the meaning of the words is clear to anyone:)
6. Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries in piano transcription, performed by Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Why in piano transcription? Firstly - that's interestingly untypical for this orchestra piece; secondly, I find piano music very "steampunkish".
7. Zigeunermädchen (Gypsy Girl) by Revelling Crooks
The song (telling us how the lyrical hero met a pretty gypsy girl) is picked up merely for the way it sounds. And what steampunk Empire's capital can be without gypsies?
8. "Storybook" from Frank Wildhorn's musical "The Scarlet Pimpernel", performed by Christine Andreas
Here music and words are both important - I'd even say, that the latter matter more (which is rare for me)
I'm also pretty sure now that this song is sung by one of the main heroines. At a demimonde drawing room.
9. Soirée de Vienne - concert paraphrase on Johann Strauss II themes by Alfred Grünfeld, performed by Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Just because fin de siècle can't be without Strauss themes. As for my choice of piano versions, I've already explained that:)
10. "Vissi d'arte" from Giacomo Puccini's "Tosca", performed by Claudia Muzio
An operatic diva of the early 20th century sings this beautiful aria about her living, dedicated to art and love - and about the cruelty of world.
Anyone of the heroines could sing that popular operatic piece (I mean, as popular in this steampunk universe, as in ours during la Belle Époque) - the lyrics matching their state of mind and maybe even circumstances. (Here, at Wikipedia there are Italian lyrics with English translation)
11. "Bring on the Men" from Frank Wildhorn's musical "Jekyll and Hyde", performed by Linda Eder
Remember me telling you this "OST" would take you to "music halls not decent at all"? So here you have it:)
12. Rachmaninov's Prelude #2 cis-moll
This music is so beautiful and so haunting that I have nothing to add to it.
13. Shalott - Emilie Autumn
This is the song I'd love to be playing during the movie's closing credits.
The Lady of Shalott is quite an important character in victorian culture. Tennyson's ballad, Pre-Raphaelite paintings... And the symbolism of the lady's fate in Victorian world... Making it just perfect for some dark victorian movie:)
14. Waltz from the movie "An Ideal Husband" - composed by Arthur Benjamin
This waltz is definitely played and danced to one of the balls of the movie, along with the Miklos Rozsa waltz. However, it doesn't match somehow this album, so it's added as a bonus track.
.rar archive at sendspace, 81.76MB