[lit-ideas] Re: The Demonic Waltz
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:58:34 -0500 (EST)
A tempo di valzer.
Great links by Andy and great quote by L. Helm.
Oddly, I've been just recently considering the waltz (or 'valzer' as the
Italians call it) in operetta. I would think my favourite is from Strauss,
indeed,
"Die fledermaus" (Literally, as Geary remarks, "The flying mouse"). The
lyrics go:
"Ha, welch ein Fest!", which have been described elsewhere as the epitome
of the joie de vivre indeed. It was translated into Italian as "Il
pipistrello" and opened early enough in Naples in 1875.
My second must be a later thing, also Viennese though, "Tace il labbro",
the waltz by F. Lehar, from "La vedova allegra".
----- The authors of "Wittgenstein's Vienna" know how to search for the
right quote.
Other waltzes in opera include Puccini in "Boheme" (Musetta).
----- And so on.
Cheers,
Speranza
In a message dated 11/11/2011 10:17:28 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
“The Waltz has always been the symbol of Viennese joie de vivre; yet, it
too, had its other face. One visitor from Germany described Strauss and his
waltzes as providing an escape into the demonic:
“’African and hot-blooded, crazy with life . . . restless, unbeautiful,
passionate . . . he exorcises the wicked devils from our bodies and he does
it with waltzes, which are the modern exorcism . . . capturing our sense in
a sweet trance. Typically African is the way he conducts his dances; his
own limbs no longer belong to him when the thunderstorm of his waltz is let
loose; his fiddle-bow dances with his arms . . . the tempo animates his
feet; the melody waves champagne-glasses in his face and the devil is abroad .
. . A dangerous power has been given into the hands of this dark man; he
may regard it as his good fortune that to music one may think all kinds of
thoughts, that no censorship can have anything to do with waltzes, that
music stimulates our emotions directly, and not through the channel of thought
. . . Bacchantically the couples waltz . . . lust let loose. No God
inhibits them.’”
The person who wrote that wasn’t alone. “This is but one of many reports
in which contemporary observers spoke of the Viennese passion for the
dance as pathological and as reflecting their need to escape the harsh
realities of daily life in the City of Dreams.”
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