Prokofiev

Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, 1st Movement

I recently heard this piece played at an event at my school entitled the Hubbard Chamber Ensemble from the Crowley Chamber Music Series. It was absolutely amazing. Of coure, there was not an orchestral accompaniement, rather a second piano, but none the less it was superb. In fact, it received a standing ovation, Just tonight, I was listening to some Beethoven and remembered the amazing Prokofieve concerto and ran to my friend Theresa, a fellow piano finatic, to show her this performance on YouTube. She laughed and recalled that her piano teacher, Andre Ponochevny, had just played it at SMU. We both watched the YouTube in utter amazement and revelled over the amazing music. The impressive part is is that the person I saw perform this piece at the Chamber Ensemble was a 17-year old boy, among the professionals performing it elsewhere. It was truly something.

The history of the piece is something else. Prokofiev was born in the Russian Empire in 1891 and died in 1953. He dealt with some hard times and a hard government and expressed much of his feelings through his music. This specific piece, dedicated to a dear friend who committed, is very loud, violent-sounding, and was seen as a mockery of music when Prokofiev first performed it in 1913.

It opens softly with the clarinet and strings and the piano quickly takes over. As it progresses, the piece becomes more and more violent sounding, but about half way through it there is a recapitulation of the beginning piano entrance. The violent progression continues, only this time much more violent and it concludes with yet another recapitulation of the beginning.

Through the softer beginning, it is as if Prokofiev is setting the scene of the Russian Empire. The chords sound sweet, but also almost manipulative. The softer part is contorted into a violent sound, symbolizing the horrible truth of the Russian Empire government. Prokofiev had to survive the cruelty of the dictators. The common misconception that the outside world had of Russia was that of a country striving for peace, where the citizens knew it as something else.

The first recapitulation is followed by an even more gruesome crescendo. A minute before this first movement ends the orchestra joins the piano for a clammering sound of doom. The once sweet clarinets chime in with a sadistic sound. And the piece is resolved with yet another recapitulation of the soft and peaceful beginning, the image of Russia only the outsiders see...

Sometimes this is how I feel...

Confessions: 'Getting Down' in a Good Way

A few things have occured to me this past weekend. I realized rather pleasantly how soon it will be until I return to Wisconsin and see my family again. I noticed that if I don't get myself moving on my copious amounts of strenuous homework my grades will suffer severely. And, most importantly, it also dawned on me that there is, in fact, a healthy way to get down about things, and by 'get down' I mean become sad or mildly depressed, even, about something effecting us in our lives.

I went to confession Thursday night with a priest, Fr. James, who has been publically acclaimed among my fellow students as an amazing priest in the confessional. Curious of the different approaches priests use in confession, I decided to confess my sins to him.

During confession, Father talked to me about 'getting down' about something in my life in a good way. He said it was natural for us as humans to get down about alot of things. But, in doing so, it just made it easier for us to become more severe on ourselves, and, in turn, towards others, that is, unless we can get down in a good way, this being, making sure you focus on how to recover from your downward spiral. Of course, not getting down at all would be ideal, but some situations we get caught up in make life really difficult and really hard to bounce back in a completely healthy way. He told me that I should focus on trying to fix the problem. The advice was so simple and so easy that I was skeptical. I was skeptical of the credibility people gave him and I left the confessional slightly disappointed that my confession did not live up to what so many people said it would be.

It wasn't of course until a few days later that I found myself in another trying situation. I reflected on the direction from Father James and found it to be so simple to do, yet so crucial to our existence. People can't help but getting down about every tiny little trouble in their lives. Nothing is made more simple by the extrinsic factors in our life. So when those extrinsic factors hurt our personal selves we revel in that in an unhealthy way. Not good. We need to focus on the recovery. We need to understand that whatever happened happened and it's in the past. We were hurt, torn down, made a fool of, but it happened and recovery is all we can look forward to. We can't let it control our actions enough that it is outwardly expressed to others. This is most important. This direction also brings to mind the famous "Love your neighbor as yourself" saying. How can you love your neighbor as yourself when you yourself are in a trying situation? You can't. You can try and cover it, but it isn't truly sincere and the fakeness surfaces in every action you make. The recovery is the necessary focus to regain a stable mentality.

Guess Fr. James' exceeded his status with his wise words...