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Bach: Not So Well-Tempered
by Prof. Johann Sebastian Bach had a heck-of-a-temper, though I must be allowed to qualify that statement. Unlike the second of the so-called “three “B’s” (a. However, Bach was a perfectionist: a high-maintenance, stubborn, unyielding, easily irritated man who liked his food, drink (beer and brandy), and tobacco; a control freak who suffered fools and lesser talents poorly. For example, at the age of 20 he was playing the organ and conducting the student orchestra at the New Church in Arnstadt, Germany. Zippel Fagottist: a “greenhorn” bassoonist; a “beginner bassoonist. “Geyersbach had fallen into his arms, and the two of them tumbled about until they were separated. Now, admittedly, this isn’t quite as bad as being charged with assault for throwing a telephone at a hotel concierge; or threatening to kill a movie producer during a late night phone call, or repeatedly getting into drunken bar brawls (all actions attributable to the cantankerous Russell Crowe). Bach’s seemingly endless run-ins with authority are the stuff of legend. “The organist of the Thomas-Church [where Bach was the Music Director], who was in general a worthy artist, once so enraged him by a mistake on the organ during a rehearsal of a cantata that he [Bach] tore the wig from his head, and with the thundering exclamation ‘You ought to have been a cobbler! Running the risk of (admittedly) oversimplifying things, I would suggest that two conflicting and ultimately irresolvable issues powered Bach’s temper and, by extension, his relationship with the outside world. Issue number one. **Photo courtesy of Getty Images (Johann Sebastian Bach, oil-on-canvas by Haussman, 1764)
Carlo Gesualdo: Getting Away With Murder
by Prof. Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza (1560-1613), was one of the richest men in Italy and among the most original composers of his time. American Psycho. For now, let us turn to Gesualdo’s very public murders of his wife and her lover. And Gesualdo? Petticoat Junction as punishment, but I cannot. Sickening. Really? Late in the evening on June 12, 1994 O. On May 4, 2001 the actor Robert Blake – best known for his TV portrayal of an undercover cop named Tony Baretta (“Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time”) – put a bullet through the head of his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, while she sat waiting for him in his car. Like Carlo Gesualdo, both Orenthal James Simpson and Michael James Vincenzo Gubitosi (a. Like Carlo Gesualdo, Simpson and Blake were subsequently immune from criminal prosecution, but they were not immune from revenge. No such financial punishment was meted out to Carlo Gesualdo for the murders he committed.
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Beethoven: The Fine Line Between Depression And Genius
Where have we heard this before? A beloved, supremely gifted performing artist appears to be at the top of his game and on top of the world. However, unbeknownst to all but a few friends and relatives, he harbors a great darkness within him, a despair that motivates and inspires his art.
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