Who invented the song cycle? Must be the Dutch
mainThe composer John Borstlap spotted this sign on a cycle lane in Amsterdam.
It says (in Dutch) that cyclists are permitted to sing along this route.
In Holland, you need permission.
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You gotta love the Dutch. Near the opera house in Amsterdam there is a square called Bianca Castafioreplein. It is named after a character in the Tintin books that almost every European child knows, the corpulent, triple-chinned operatic soprano whose piercing soprano voice shatters crystal glasses….in any other city, the square would be named after Rossini or Verdi or maybe even Wagner….but not in Amsterdam, where even the politicians have a sense of humour…
It’s true:
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bianca_Castafioreplein
1. the name is unofficial
2. Hergé who knew “his opera” and its singers of the Monnaie/Munt opera in Brussels based the character on a real opera singer i.e. Clara Clairbert, a soprano immensely popular before WWII at the house
In England, a cyclist needs permission to sing also — in hospital after getting mown down by a motorist.
The “inventor”: https://youtu.be/FkDa7Rsihgw
Borstlap
Too small! I need either new glasses or a bigger picture
https://gramho.com/media/2158317669677632666
Why are collections of pieces– Beethoven’s quartets, his nine symphonies, Winterreise, etc– called ‘cycles’? I never understood that. Cycles, by definition, recur, and when the end is reached it reverts to the beginning. While Beethoven gets plenty of exposure, his works don’t recur, in that an ensemble or artist starts playing them all over again and again and again (though sometimes it may feel that way).
Performances or recordings of ‘cycles’ are meant to provide the illusion that the listener has not missed-out of something. Underneath the need to have a ‘complete’ collection, or to attend complete cycles of symphonies, sonatas, etc. etc., simmers the anxiety that one could be asked, at parties, après-ski’s and family gatherings, to know this or that piece and to have to admit to a grave gap in one’s musical erudition.
A cycle can also be a group of creative works dealing the with the same subject. Eg. The Arthurian Cycle.
Wow. The Song Cycle Lane has been there from November 2013:
https://www.parool.nl/nieuws/zangfietspad-geopend-in-westerpark~bf7970f6/