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Long Christmas Dinner Das Lange Weihnachtsmahl
Artist:
P. HINDEMITH
Format: CD
New: Available
Wish
Formats and Editions
1. Einleitung (Introduction), (God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen / Weihnachtslied)
2. Szene 1 (Scene 1)
3. Szenen 2 Und 3 (Scens 2 and 3)
4. Szene 4, Anfung Von Szene 5 (Scene 4, Beginning of Scene 5)
5. Szene 5: Wie War Denn Gestern Abend Der Ball? (Scene 5: Did You Enjoy Yourselves at the Ball?)
6. Szenen 6 Und 7 (Scenes 6 and 7)
7. Szene 8 (Scene 8)
8. Szene 9 (Scene 9)
9. Szene 10 (Scene 10) 1
10. Szenen 11 Und 12 (Scenes 11 and 12)
More Info:
As if in slow motion, librettist Thornton Wilder summarizes a series of Christmas dinners celebrated by the Bayard family over a period of ninety years and fuses them into a single long meal. The concentration of the characters and their standardization are all things that Hindemith's setting picks up on: he counterbalanced them musically by means of development, individualization, and variation - thus designing a kind of music that expresses contingency - significant coincidence - as an attitude toward life. The view of what Wilder calls the "mill of time" is thus always a view of the future as well - whether we perceive that as misfortune or consolation or both at once.
