Month: January 2025

Categories
Composers as Works of Art

Holst’s The Planets and Rubens’ The Consequences of War

Peter Paul Rubens, "The Consequences of War"

Mars: Holst wrote Mars on the eve of WWI. Venus grabs Mars’ arm in Rubens’ painting, but she cannot hold him back. The muscular legs of Mars move forward as relentlessly as the 5/4 ostinato pattern in Holst’s Mars. All the strings in the orchestra march as one, striking their string with the wooden side […]

Categories
Composers as Works of Art

Beethoven’s Funeral March, Third Symphony, and Goya’s Third of May

Francisco Goya, "Third of May, 1808"

Beethoven’s funeral march plays as we stare into the eyes of Goya’s Third of May. A slow march in a minor key. A dotted rhythm to push as along as we grieve. The oboe and its sighs seem a solitary individual in the gathered crowd. Contrasts of light and dark, the church a shadow in […]