Category Archives: Romanticism

Liminal Space, the Prepared Piano and Indeterminacy – a Quick Note to Myself and Anybody Reading

Posted on October 5, 2019 by AnnIsikArts

The subject of this blog was inspired in part by the Liminal States & Thresholds for Change series of artworks by Turtle Moon Impressions blogger Janis Doucette. Liminal space is that threshold space which is between one state of being and … Continue reading →

Posted in Aesthetics, Art, Creativity, Inspiration, Liede, Music, Music Composition, Music Theory, Romanticism, Singing | Tagged Casper David Friedrich, Eichendorffer, German Romanticism, Indeterminacy, John Cage, Jonas Kaufmann, Leiderkreis, Liminal State, Mondnacht, Prepared Piano, Schumann | 16 Comments

Cecil Collins: Fools and Angels

Posted on September 26, 2019 by AnnIsikArts

“Artists can do something more: they can vanquish the lie.” Alexander Solzhenitsyn Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Artist Review, Christian writing, Creativity, Inspiration, Romanticism | Tagged Cecil Collins, The Vision of the Fool, Visionary Art | 12 Comments

Singing: Now Sleeps The Crimson Petal, Now The White (from the movie Vanity Fair)

Posted on July 27, 2015 by AnnIsikArts

This is the best recording I can get of this lovely song by Mychael Danna from the 2004 film version of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, with Reese Witherspoon in the female lead (Becky Sharp).

The lyrics are from the sonnet by Alfred Lord Tennyson Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal Now the White Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Romanticism, Singing | Tagged Becky Sharp, Britten, Mealor, Mychael Danna, Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal, poem, Quilter, Reese Witherspoon, Singing, sonnet, Tennyson, Thackeray, Vanity Fair | 2 Comments

What I’ve Been Singing: Le Spectre de la Rose: Les Nuits d’Eté: Berlioz

Posted on July 12, 2015 by AnnIsikArts

I had a first-time try last Friday at singing some of the songs from Hector Berlioz’ song cycle Les Nuits d’Eté (Summer Nights) the texts for which came from six poems composed by Theophile Gautier.

I’ve had a CD for some years of the song cycle recorded by the late great Janet Baker, so I was not entirely unfamiliar with it. I never thought at the time that I’d one day be singing it.

The theme of the cycle is love, its progress from innocence to loss and renewal. The second song of the cycle, Le Spectre de la Rose, began as a work for piano – Afforderung zum Tanz (Invitation to the Dance) – written, in 1819, by Carl Maria von Weber. Continue reading →