I predict that this footnote will be read as much as the other ones in the article combined.

I suppose that the leaders of each group, Balakirev and Tigress, would have to go together.

Tomorrow I'll be teaching Russian romantic music, where I of course include a slide cautioning about the dangers of mixing the Mighty Five with the Furious Five (it works better in Norwegian). Regardless, if one were to pair members from each group, who would be analogous with whom?

There is one letter from Haydn to his publisher Artaria about a similarity between two themes in a set of piano sonatas. I don't have the source handy, but I have included a screenshot of an article I wish I hadn't written, which quotes it almost in full.

I am currently working on the new digital catalogue of Wanhal's works, and realize that I have ingrained the old Weinmann numbers so thoroughly that I am probably going to be the last person standing who works from them *rather than from the numbering system I made myself*!

I must admit that I pity a little musicologists who only work with long-established material. The work of editing, of seeing a work take shape in Sibelius and eventually be heard again for the first time in ages is perhaps light-weight academically, but it is immensely satisfying.

From Pierpaolo Polzonetti's article Haydn and the Metamorphoses of Ovid. I *must* see this.

As many of your surely know, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739-1799) was a friend of the young Joseph Haydn and one of the most important composers in the Viennese sphere during this era, one of the founders of German romantic opera and an extremely skilled and prolific symphonist.

I received the best Christmas present in a while this year: the first Norwegian translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and translated by my former lecturer and current friend Thea Selliaas Thorsen! I am giddy about starting on this!

How well do I know Wanhal, you ask? Quite well, I'd argue!

Schubart on Anton Fils (1733–60):

'Fils belongs to the older Mannheim composers, but his … works have long since made him immortal. I hold him to be the greatest composer of symphonies ever to have lived. … What a pity that this excellent mind withered … from his bizarre idea of eating spiders.'

I am currently starting up a new edition of Dittersdorf's symphonies (more about this later). Reviewing the old Dittersdorf catalogues, it appears that one of his symphonies carries the name 'Jupiter Sinfonia' in one source. Should we keep the name, or would it be unduly cruel? 🤣

This is Shere Khan. He is dashing and handsome, no doubt about it, but always angry. What could he be so furious about?

#cats #catsofbluesky #blueskycats

The interesting thing is that his birth record names Jan Ignacy Manhal. The whole thing has never been translated (I tried in a Czech genealogy group without much help) or explained, but I don't think Křtitel is written anywhere. Is there an explanation for this?

If we look at Wanhal's own autographs, he clearly put a dot, a predecessor to the háček, over the n in his last name. In this era, this is a clear acknowledgement of his Czech origins. However, his first names were always spelt in the German manner.