Face(book) the Music

Apropos of absolutely nothing, my thoughts over the past few days seem to have strayed towards the intersection of Art and Nature. It seems to be a busy intersection, and by the time I finished dodging speeding metaphors I found myself with the following completely unrelated bits of information, all of which turned up as Facebook profile status messages.

The difference between Mahler and Bruckner, I was told as a youth, was this: if you go to an Alpine meadow and look up at the majestic mountain, that is Mahler. If you look down at the lovely flowers, that is Bruckner.

For some time before his death, Alexander Scriabin supposedly worked on a "Universe Symphony". It would be a multi-media experience which would be performed in the Himalayas and would bring about his version of Armageddon: "a grandiose religious synthesis of all arts which would herald the birth of a new world." All ...we have are sketches of the first part, titled "Mysterium". Which might be just as well.

In his diary, Sibelius noted the inspiration for the grand theme in his Fifth Symphony: "Today I saw 16 swans. God, what beauty! They circled over me for a long time. Disappeared into the solar haze like a silver ribbon." Listening to the 5th now, it's impossible not to hear those birds in the majestic swing and sway of the final movement.

Why I should be pondering what I'm pondering, Pinky, is anybody's guess. Maybe it's a reaction to the fact that I'm otherwise consumed with thoughts about the upcoming edition of Cabaret at the Café on September 10th. Or maybe it's all that classical Internet radio I've been listening to.

Or maybe it's just that today is my 62nd birthday.