Maestro - Interior Monologue Essay

To begin, music exhibits serenity to the most timid of people in times of distraught. In The

This speech is Karl Paulnack’s welcoming address for incoming freshman students. He addresses that music isn’t apart of arts and entertainment rather music is an invisible force that helps us piece ourselves together. Paulnack believes that music is an essential part of life and goes to prove it by telling his experiences with it. He describes the first moment he truly understood music and the impact it has on people. Paulnack portrays the day after 9/11 after he struggles to find any meaning in being a pianist. After a long time of questioning himself he observes the city and notices something. He sees that in this time of grief and sadness people are singing. From this he learned that music is a form of expression, it allows people to express their feelings when they have no other words to describe them. Paulnack goes on to describe what he says was the most important concert of his life. He and a friend were playing a concert at a nursing home. During their performance, one man began to cry, it was at that time Paulnack knew the man was a veteran. After Paulnack and his friend finished the piece, they announced that the piece they were playing was Aaron Copland's Sonata, which was a work

Of the many great composers during this era, Wagner stood out to me because of the intensity of his composition from 1851 in “The Ride.” The song pulls at my emotions in a theatrical telling of a battle scene from which warrior maidens emerge. These women are attendants to Odin, who sought out the souls of those heroes lost in battle. The Norse myths story is told through the feelings I experience when I hear this composition. The tempo is fast and amped. It pulls me into the sounds and I want to hear what happens next. I feel the announcement of these heroic soldiers and the challenges they fought through. It starts fast, lightens up, and then comes back with stronger build up. I feel the drama in the battle as if it’s happening in front of me. There are moments while listening where I caught myself holding my breath. This draws out feelings of enthusiastic anticipation which reminds me of the music written for a screenplay. The song finishes with a final, proud, horn blast and then leave me with some tension in the fast-paced ending of thrills. I’m drawn in and

When Paul leaves the setting of Darwin to attend school, he takes an arrogance that let him believe Keller ‘had taught all that was in his power to teach.’ In comparison to ‘lush’ Darwin, Melbourne and Adelaide are mundane and suburban and perhaps symbolise the direction Paul’s future will take, as he rejected Keller and the incomplete lessons he strove to teach. Paul realises he can’t bridge the tragic gulf between talent and genius in his travels of Europe as he ignored Keller’s advice of ‘a little hurt now, to save a wasted life’. Vienna is a city of culture and music to Paul and the setting is important in understanding how he differs from his mentor, the Maestro.

From the creation of harmonies to singing to instruments, music has been an abstract form of human expression. Although an auditory collection of pitches and volumes, musicians can manipulate the same notes and bring them alive for their audiences. The true emotion and energy that’s felt in music really comes from the player as feelings are transferred to and through the listener. This interaction between performer and the house is catharsis, the complete release of strong repressed emotions. Thanks to the musician, music has the ability to grasp people and cause them to sense emotions and feelings without lyrics or images even being necessary. Although it’s believed we can only hear with our ears, something about music makes it emotionally if not physically tangible. In James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues,” a narrator certainly unaware of the impact of music invites himself to experience jazz for the first time. Baldwin uses the final scene of his story to argue that music has an effect on those who are able to experience it. Baldwin does this in one single moment by letting the fixed, practical minded, “well-intentioned” narrator experience catharsis from jazz as his growing, free-spirited brother communicates with him through jazz.

Black stage two stop light one two figures dressed in black. On the floor in fetal postions

What do you think is the significance of the images of Cyclone Tracy in Paul’s father’s letter?

Paul worked at Carnegie Hall as an usher. It is here that Paul's real love lies. Paul lost himself in the music of the symphonies, the characters of the plays, and in the artful scenery. Paul also

It is Paul’s worsening mental condition, that is a result of his removal from Carnegie Hall, that leads to the decision for Paul to end his life by jumping in front of a train. The emotional consequences of this traumatic event, such as impulsive behaviour, confusion, emotional helplessness and this emotional void, are the driving force behind Paul’s action. If not for this event Paul’s tragic descent into this state of depression

Then, it comes out of nowhere. The biggest climax, suddenly brought on like a wave crashing against a cliff’s edge. The oboe melody recurs again, this time less sorrowful than inviting. Come back, it sings. And the flute comes skipping over the sound, the sun rising from behind black clouds. But the melody it plays sounds out of place, lower than and not as bright as what it could be. My fingers twitch, following the flute countermelody as if I were up there playing with them—as I should be.

Yesterday, at approximately 9am, the streets of Verona faced its third civil brawl from two feuding families: the Capulets and Montagues.

Paul’s perception of belonging is influenced by his connections with others. After moving to Darwin, he develops friendships and relationships with peers, but the most important connection is between himself and Keller. When weekly piano lessons began, Paul was too egotistical to recognise the knowledge and advice Keller is able to provide. Keller did not appreciate Paul’s attitude, “the self satisfied go no further”. As the lessons continue, Paul matures and their relationship shifts from teacher and student, to a father and son bond. Keller was impacting Paul’s values and attitudes, in some ways more than Paul’s own parents. The bond they share is vital to the others development. Keller’s lessons and philosophies on life encouraged Paul to be the best pianist possible, but also taught him his limits, “We must know when to move on. To search too long for perfection can also paralyse.” Keller learns the beauty of the relationship between himself and Paul as he attempts to transform his best student into the next internationally recognised maestro; he was “one in a thousand. But a concert pianist is one in a million.” In addition to Keller’s life lessons, Paul was loaned a textbook filled with newspaper clippings, containing knowledge and learning experiences, revealing the ugliness and horror of the world. By showing Paul the true form of the world he is surrounded by Keller aims to protect him. Once Paul realised how valuable the advice Keller delivered was, he reiterated the lessons to educate his fellow peers, and later in the novella, to his students, which continued Keller’s

It was at the theatre and at Carnegie Hall that Paul really lived; the rest was but a sleep and forgetting. The moment he inhaled the gassy, painty, dusty odour behind the scenes, he breathed like a prisoner set free, and felt within him the possibility of doing or saying splendid, brilliant, poetic things. The moment the

Organising a concrete form for a style such as Wagner’s is difficult given that the music lies on the edge of what was common practice in the 19th century. The music does not easily organise itself into the neat forms that we recognise from the classical and baroque time periods, but instead goes beyond the confines of form and tonality that today’s listeners are not familiar with. This gives the music some unique qualities such as being unpredictable, unending, and for some, brings less attention to the music and more attention to the drama that is being presented. Given this ambiguity, there will certainly be different analyses and interpretations that will result in different organisations and conclusions. Despite this however, I will attempt make a few overarching statements about the excerpt’s form, tonal organization, sequential processes, motivic use, and drama as a whole on this multifaceted analysis of this excerpt in the hope to better understand how Wagner fits into our history of western classical music.

Music is so influential in our world today, but it also was during the late fifth century and the early 6th century. One of the famous writers of this time was Boethius and he is best known for one of his works from which we read an excerpt. Despite the time difference, there are many of Boethius’s ideas that correlate with what basic ideas that many people debate today. Some of his topics are how music is a part of us, the kinds of music, and the properties of a true musician.