shakespeares, hindemith and sexton



I have recently added the Shakespeare Sonnets to my morning poetry ready. I found an excellent site and am reading them there since I have misplaced my two or three hard copies. The online notes illuminate subtleties of word meaning change and very helpful. I realize I have always misread the sonnets basic meaning. I knew they were addressed to a noble. But I didn’t understand the consistency of the argument in the first few sonnets (I’m on number 12). Always fun to open up a text in a new and better way.

Just for the heck of it, I clicked on the What’s New Music tab on Spotify for suggestions yesterday. It recommended the Swiss Woodwind Quartet’s CD which has Ligeti, Hindemith and Janaceck pieces on it. I played it and quite liked it. Go figure.

spotifyswisswoodwind

It put me in the mood for Hindemith, so I played through his second piano sonata yesterday and remembered why I like him so much.

Glen Gould does a good job with the first movement.

While I usually find Gould’s playing fun to listen to, often I think he distorts the music. In this case, he seems to preserve what I think of as Hindemith’s meaning.

I think Hindemith might be out of fashion these days. I’ve liked him for most of my adult life. Play his organ works.

**********************************************************************

Sunday Poem – I read this poem yesterday and quite liked it. Anne Sexton has captured something about how I understand my own weak faith.

Small Wire

My faith
is a great weight
hung on a small wire,
as doth the spider
hang her baby on a thin web,
as doth the vine,
twiggy and wooden,
hold up grapes
like eyeballs,
as many angels
dance on the head of a pin.

God does not need
too much wire to keep Him there,
just a thin vein,
with blood pushing back and forth in it,
and some love.
As it has been said:
Love and a cough
cannot be concealed.
Even a small cough.
Even a small love.
So if you have only a thin wire,
God does not mind.
He will enter your hands
as easily as ten cents used to
bring forth a Coke.

by Anne Sexton

**********************************************************************

Kansas – Law Bans the Use of Foreign Legal Codes – NYTimes.com

It is so disheartening to witness such typical displays of American chauvinism and disdain of the “other.” Such is our time, I guess.

*********************************************************************

Plantations, Prisons and Profits – NYTimes.com

Charles Blow writes a moving description of Louisiana’s terrible prison for profit. Time and time again, I see us “privatizing” our public lives and am sad about it.

*********************************************************************

About admin

This information box about the author only appears if the author has biographical information. Otherwise there is not author box shown. Follow YOOtheme on Twitter or read the blog.

1 thought on “shakespeares, hindemith and sexton

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.