CHARLES ALKAN Continued... Part 8 As well as being extremely scholarly and erudite on a vast range of topics, Alkan also had a tremendous sense of humour (something that he was able to share with his neighbour Chopin). Alkan’s ability to convey this humour so successfully in music is almost unique. One of Alkan’s most notorious pieces is his Funeral March on the Death of a Parrot (often mistakenly referred to as Funeral March for a Dead Parrot) Alkans own parrot memorial is an incredibly witty, clever, and marvellously silly piece of music, and is actually a parody of Rossini, who had a penchant for parrots. The work is scored for mixed voices and an unusual combination of wind instruments and virtually the sole text is the French equivalent of the phrase “Who’s a pretty Polly?”! Another extremely witty work, though also with great moments of pathos, is Alkan’s Le Festin d’Esope (or Aesop’s Feast), a set of piano variations in which each variation depicts a different animal or scene from Aesop’s fables. Of course laughter and pathos are two very interlinked human emotions, and not surprisingly, pathos is a characteristic of Alkan’s music that’s always close to the surface. In his marvellous piano prelude, The Song Of The Mad Woman On The Sea Shore, the intensity of Alkan’s despair, possibly born of his own experiences, is all too vivid. :-O :-O :-O
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 11:52:52 +0000