ClassicalRap is a forum for discussion and information on classical music genres from the Baroque through the 20th Century eras in particular. Information will be provided on the various genres of classical music in these eras, and discussions will involve the lives of composers, their works, and standard and new recording releases. This is not a blog about Rap music.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

If it ain't Baroque... (Part One)

Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751)
I can't help it.  Baroque is a fun play on words, so bear with me....don't fix it!

Here's Tomaso Albinoni's (1671-1751) famous Adagio in G minor for Violin, Organ and strings.  It was featured in the 1981 Peter Weir film Gallipoli, starring among others, a young Mel Gibson.

Here's the version with Organ.  The above version is with Strings and Continuo.

...or is it by Albinoni?  Well...no.  Here's an example of a composer (musicologist) creating works in style's outside his era.  This was long attributed to Albinoni, but was actually composed in the 20th Century by Remo Giazotto, who studied the works of Albinoni.

So actually, it ain't Baroque.

Which brings up another issue.  If it was written by musicologist Giazotto sometime in 1949 or 1958, then it is not public domain until the year 2068, which would be 70 years after his death, in 1998.

See here.

Also, it's use in Gallipoli is inappropriate (although quite moving), since in the movie the piece is played on record (Victrola) by an Australian general in his tent prior to the Australians reaching shore at Gallipoli (In Turkey) during World War 1.  The scene shifts from his tent to boats full of young men approaching the shores of Gallipoli at night, as the music continues - giving the music a haunting resonance as the hell of warfare is seen in lights and heard in canon fire on the distant shore.  But the piece was written long after the war was over, so it is impossible that the general would have had a recording.  Too bad, because it worked so well.

Continued here.

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