That is what doing a word-search of my blog for "Korngold" will get you*. I don't recall ever making a comment about Erich Korngold or his music. Steve Simels regularly makes up stuff to claim I said which I've never said because he is a. an habitual liar, b. a bigot, c. stupid.
Update: Only because it's raining and I can't be out weeding, I fact checked the schmuck's claim in the only way the dolt might do so, if he went to even that much bother which he obviously didn't, Wikipedia. First, as an example of what I said above, what Stupy claims:
Jascha Heifetz. The Korngold violin concerto. Gorgeous, but since the music was originally written for a movie, totally "vulgar," if you're a fucking snob. So That Idiot From Maine© has no idea whether he thinks this is good or not.
Korngold had vowed to give up composing anything other than film music, with which he supported himself and his family, until Hitler had been defeated. With the end of World War II, he retired from films to concentrate on music for the concert hall. The Violin Concerto was the first such work that Korngold penned, following some initial persuasion from the violinist and fellow émigré Bronisław Huberman. Korngold had been hurt by the assumption that a successful film composer was one that had sold his integrity to Hollywood, just as earlier he had been hurt by many critics' assumptions that his works were performed only because he was the son of music critic Julius Korngold. He was thus determined to prove himself with a work that combined vitality and superb craftsmanship.
The concerto was dedicated to Alma Mahler, the widow of Korngold's childhood mentor Gustav Mahler. It was premiered on 15 February 1947 by Jascha Heifetz and the St. Louis Symphony under conductor Vladimir Golschmann. It received the most enthusiastic ovation in St. Louis concert history.[2] On 30 March 1947, Heifetz played the concerto in Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Efrem Kurtz; the broadcast performance was recorded on transcription discs.
I wonder if finding out it wasn't written for a movie will make the ass lower his esteem for it.
* Before I wrote this post.
I hate to break it to you, earless, but the second theme of the last movement of the concerto is lifted from Korngold's 1937 score for the Errol Flynn version of THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER.
ReplyDeleteLet me break this to you, you abysmal ass, a theme does not a concerto make and a composer is quite within their rights to reuse thematic material for another piece. Your claim was that he wrote the concerto for a movie, which he obviously not only didn't but he'd quit the movies in order to write concert music.
DeleteKeep digging, Quasimodo.
ReplyDeleteIf you'd ever read the book a. you would know Quasimodo LIVED IN THE FRIGGIN' TOWER, YOU IDIOT. and b. he was the noblest character, the bravest and about most admirable male character in the book.
DeleteHe was deaf, you putz. Like you.
DeleteTo a. he lived in the friggin' tower, b. he was the noblest character, the bravest and most admirable male character in the book, the Steve Simels answer is "he was deaf".
DeleteIt's only after seeing your answer that I realize it's not surprising, coming from someone whose ersatz values were formed by the most superficial aspects of the American media. Let me guess, you didn't read the book, you watched the movie, instead.
I'm blind you idiot, not deaf. It's my eyes that are going, the ol'ears are as sharp as a 20 year olds, that's what the audiologist said. I don't think he meant one who had listened to head-banger rock.
I hope any deaf people and people who have deaf loved-ones got the chance to see what a bigoted prick you are.
Anybody who reads your opinions on music knows full well that you’re deaf too.
DeleteAnyone who reads anything you say knows you're a liar and an idiot. Not to mention a pathetically inadequate NYC area chauvinist and bigot.
DeleteI said, and I quote, "the music was originally written for a movie" which it quite clearly was.
ReplyDeleteSucks to be you when you're so obviously wrong, doesn't it.
You said "the music" not "themes he used to write the concerto". If you don't know the difference between thematic material and a complete concerto I'm not surprised, your attention span being limited to about three minutes. Aaron Copland hadn't written his Third Symphony before he composed it because he used his Fanfare For The Common Man in it. Neither had Korngold written his Violin Concerto because he reused thematic material he wrote for the movies. He had quit the movies with the intention of writing concert music.
DeleteI'd say that the distinction requires some sophistication to understand but it's so little sophistication that even to refute you I wouldn't say it required sophistication to discern the difference.
And only a dishonest idiot like you would claim Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man wasn't really recyled into his Third Symphony.
ReplyDeleteYou got caught in a whopper of an error and you're not man enough to admit it. A blind person could see it with a cane.
Now I really do think you're in a stage of dementia because I just noted that Aaron Copland used this Fanfare for the Common Man in his Third Symphony to make the point that he hadn't written his symphony even though he had written the Fanfare before he used it. I did it to point out how incoherent your claim about Korngold's Violin Concerto which, as the article I cited pointed out WAS A WORK FROM THE PERIOD AFTER HE WROTE FOR THE MOVIES. I will say that nothing Korngold wrote for the movies was as good as Copland's music for the movies and his Concerto, which I heard long ago during the mini-revival of Korngold's music, is a lesser work than Copland's Third Symphony which is probably his greatest work.
DeleteWhat Copland did wasn't "recycling" it was more sophisticated than that. It was a development of it. I'd suggest you work through Schoenberg's Fundamentals of Musical Composition but I'm not mean enough to assign things beyond someone's capacity.
So everyone with a functioning cerebellum knows you not only got caught in a whopper of an error, and are not only not man enough to admit it, but are now doubling down.
ReplyDeleteQuel surprise.
Whoever is going to have to take over the function of guardian for you should be warned that time is fast approaching if it isn't already here. I hope you gave someone power of attorney and medical power of attorney because it can be a real bitch of a job to get those authorities assigned once the capacity is at your stage.
Delete"everyone with a functioning cerebellum"
I think the word you wanted is "cerebrum," though that would assume you ever knew the difference. I'd explain but there's no point in making the effort.
Did I say doubling down? More like tripling.
ReplyDeleteOoh, why not say duodecupling and feel like you've got your big boy pants on.
DeleteYou are mentally incapacitated, though I doubt you were ever all that capable to start with.
Hey Sparkles -- was Korngold's violin concerto based on one of his movie scores or not?
ReplyDeleteIf you're still answering no, you're lying through your teeth.
Sleep tight.
Stupy, I said as much above WHEN I NOTED THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A THEME AND A CONCERTO. You're the one who was too stupid to understand the difference in your snarky comment that started this.
DeleteKorngold's Concerto is a major work of a minor composer and I'm sure he would have assigned it a far higher status than the scores he wrote that stupid Errol Flynn trash. Why do you think he retired from writing film scores SO HE COULD DEVOTE HIS LAST YEARS TO TRYING TO SALVAGE WHAT STARTED OUT AS A PROMISING CAREER. He's hardly the only composer to have regretted taking a detour to make a bundle of cash on the movies or some other high paid tripe.
Nothing I'm aware of that he wrote for the movies comes up to Copland's music for Our Town or Something Wild. Though I will grant you the music he wrote for The North Star is pretty second rate, it's second rate Copland. Korngold was a minor composer. Period.
So...yes. Lying through your teeth. I'll give you credit for chutzpah, ironically enough.
ReplyDeleteI'd ask you to explain what you mean but you don't even engage the substance of the argument. You remind me of when people wondered if Reagan were becoming senile and I'd ask them how they'd know since he didn't have what you'd need to lose to become senile. I'd say you were eating your seed crop but I don't think you'd know what that meant.
Delete"Nothing I'm aware of that he wrote for the movies comes up to Copland's music for Our Town or Something Wild."
ReplyDeleteThe things you're not aware of is a whole other subject, obviously.
:-)
Name which of his film scores is better than the music to Our Town. Captain Blood? The Sea Hawk? King's Row? Ooh, I know, Robin Hood. You can repurpose your Poldark breeches as tights. If you make BG dress up as Maid Marion I'm surprised she puts up with it. Though she puts up with the rest of it so that shouldn't surprise me.
DeleteGet back to me when you can write well enough to make a plausible claim that you even have a substantive argument.
ReplyDeleteYou idiot, you're the one who trolls me. If you never came here and never lied about me elsewhere I'd totally ignore your ignominious idiocy.
DeleteWhat possible relevance do Copland's film scores have to with whether Korngold based his violin concerto on PRINCE AND THE PAUPER?
ReplyDeleteAnswer: None whatsoever. Except that you're not man enough to admit you were caught in a huge whopper of a factual error.
As I said, when I WAS THE ONE WHO INTRODUCED THE ARGUMENT, Copland's composition of his Third Symphony in which he used his pre-existing theme of Fanfare For the Common Man was relevant to me pointing out that Erich Korngold using his preexisting thematic material to write his later Violin Concerto didn't mean that the movie music themes he used were the same as the concerto. The music he wrote for the movies was not the concerto anymore than Copland's original composition of Fanfare For The Common man was the same as his Third Concerto.
DeleteYou're the one who wants to mix up two different arguments because you can't win either one. I merely pointed out that Korngold was a minor composer, Copland was a great composer. Apparently the world at large agrees with me because other than that minor revival of his music after RCA recycled some of his stuff from their vaults, the revival of his music is a rather minor part of the repertoire. Though I'm not sure it really achieves the status of repertoire if it's not played that often. That is other than that one Concerto. I looked at the recordings available and that's about the only one of his pieces that have a substantial number of recordings available. I wonder how many times his music is scheduled every year. I doubt it's very often. Copland's music has an uneven schedule of performances but it's certainly played more often. I have never known anyone who felt that playing any of Korngold's music was a major event in their musical life, I know a number who would say that about pieces by Copland, me, for example.
You haven't been able to point out any factual errors I made, though you have made up things which you claimed I said when I never did.
Looking at this comment this morning, that should of course have been "his Third SYMPHONY. I was tired last night when I said it.
DeleteSo Copland is a more important composer than Korngold because he's more popular? I had no idea you were such a fame-fucker philistine, Sparkles.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I'm outta here. You can continue to spew and embarrass yourself in my absence, of course.
I didn't say anything about either of their "importance" though I have never known someone who said their life was changed by playing a piece by Korngold. I strongly suspect Leonard Bernstein felt his life was changed by playing Copland's Variations. I can't recall who it was who said that at one point in his youth he could barely pass by a piano without sitting down and playing it. I know mine was changed by playing the piano part for his Violin Sonata.
DeleteI was impressed to read that Arthur Schnabel had Korngold's Second Piano Sonata in his repertoire at one period, then I wondered how long it had remained in it. I don't know, but I doubt it was a milestone in Schnabel's career.
I'd also say playing his Four Piano Blues was rather life changing, especially the third one, though, perhaps, not as life changing as playing Ruggles' Four Evocations.
DeleteI think I'll learn the Variations, I should have done it when I was in my 20s if not earlier. Some things get put off too long.