Classics in Film and Commercials

The State of Nebraska has a new commercial to promote tourism. The ad is called "Flyover Country" and the music is from the second movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony:

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/I57Q/nebraska-tourism-commission-flyover-country

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

Roma is a fantastic movie that I almost didn't watch. I heard a piece on NPR about how Alfonso Cuaron had a deal with Netflix to make it. But in order for a film to earn a nomination for an Academy Award, it must play in theaters too. Here's that story.

https://www.npr.org/2018/12/07/673661569/with-an-eye-on-oscars-netflix-sent-roma-to-theaters-first

Anyway, my wife and I watched it on Netflix. I knew it was in Spanish with English subtitles, and was filmed in black and white. About twenty minutes into the film, I was not into it. I looked at my watch. I looked at my wife, who gave me that look asking me "do you like it?" (she is not a foreign language film aficionado by any means). I looked back at her with my eyes saying "no". I didn't think I was going to make it through the entire film. But I slowly got sucked in. I crossed over some invisible threshold and became completely immersed and emotionally invested. By the end of the film, I realized that I had just watched something very special. This may be one of the greatest pieces of film making in my lifetime....a Citizen Kane of our time. It just took me awhile to get there. I highly recommend it. And one of the great scenes of the movie uses the music of Hector Berlioz to great effect:

https://variety.com/2018/film/news/roma-scene-alfonso-cuaron-1203094312/

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

Tchaikovsky started writing his first symphony in 1866 shortly after he moved to Moscow. It was completed and premiered in 1868. He wrote six symphonies, and 4-6 are generally his best known and most performed...no surprise, because they are incredible. But his First Symphony, known as the "Winter Symphony" is a great start. Here is an interesting take on it:

Throughout his life, Tchaikovsky retained a fondness for the First Symphony. Despite regarding it as an immature first foray into the art of the Symphony, he also felt that it was "in some ways richer than many of his later works."

Bohrer, Isabel A., "A Comparative Analysis of Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky’s First and Sixth Symphonies" (2018). Honors College. 320. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors/320

I want to call your attention to a very unusual passage in the First Movement. It starts at about the 6:10 mark of the video clip. The cellos/basses are alone with a quiet phrase by themselves. Then the French horns enter...

The first horn voices what sounds like an G on my piano....then the second horn comes in and plays a note a half step up from that...an A-flat. It's not just a passing tone, quickly moving by. Tchaikovsky sits on this semitone for a full measure, which is the most dissonant interval known to man! For me, it is pure genius because it stretches the fabric of sound, and reveals a resolution that satisfies one's curiosity and longing. Tchaikovsky is certainly a master of melody, but against a backdrop of dissonance such as this, his melodic beauty is even greater.