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Hello everyone. Today I'm going to present a sure piece for piano from the romantic classical period of music that.

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Can be at once appreciated as a master work of his genre or

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As a very small but very condensed musical artefact filled with symbols

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The title of the podcast “Be like Water” is a quote

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From Bruce Lee's not really related to the musical world, but you'll see later how this is very much related to what we're going to talk about today.

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Thanks to the beautiful composition by the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, the composition I'm referring to is called “Au Bord d’une Source”, which is translates as, “Beside a spring”.

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Is a piano piece by Liszt.

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It is the fourth piece of our collection suite called Annee de Pelerinage. Years of pilgrimage Liszt in his.

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20S and if I recall the 30s, it took some years to travel.

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And even while travelling, he was very much productive, created a lot of music. The the first book of this anee de Pelerinage contains the piece of today.

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The source beside a spring, the first version of the piece appears in Liszts, set album Doom, Voyager album of an adventurer of a travel.

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Which dates 1834-1838 is a few years in which he was travelling and the second version appears, as I said in the PELERINAGE, which is a larger collection and it was completed in 1855.

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We have talked in the past of how often music composers think symbolically.

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What example could be best then a piece of music that symbolises one of the most archetypical relationships we have in life, the one with water composers have been inspired by water as a source of creativity before and after last, particularly.

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We remember.

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Debussy Reflet dans l’eau, reflexes, reflections in the water also composer the same composer of La Mer, The sea composition for orchestra, and also the same composer, wrote Jardins Sou La Pluie

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This was roughly 40-50 years after Liszt. We can have a little listen to Jardins sou la pluie and see how Debussy thought musically of water.

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You can tell how Debussy’s interest and inspiration comes from the force at once. The colour of the rain, the the flowing aspect of of water, but also it to me, makes me feel.

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About the fact that the rain, the drops of rain have on my.

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Or my body or my skin. So as I listen to this music, I cannot avoid picturing a light storm wind that builds up.

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Also I want to mention Le Jeux d’Eau by Ravel, another piece for piano literally translates as the water games.

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Before Liszts, we know about Water music by Handel, but also.

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Vivaldi’s Summer, which is more interested in water as a storm, but also think about Beethoven's pastoral Symphony, also interested in water that comes in a storm.

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Something also came to mind. I'm thinking about the composer Smetana slightly less known composer who wrote Ma Vlast, which is about a river so water has a river in his case.

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Liszt himself wrote another, probably slightly more well known piece about water Le Jeux d’eau a Villa D’Este the water games at Villa D’este, which is a beautiful

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Site in Italy, which he visited, which have some artificial water games and that were later depicted in music by Liszt.

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As we shall see, the composition that we're talking, we're going to talk about today can be associated with a variety of symbolic meanings, among which I'm thinking already as water, as some sort of regeneration.

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Energetic, positive, somehow dancing youthful.

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Full of sparkle. So these are these are words that came to mind when I listened to it, and we're going to listen to it, no doubt. But I also notice that these similar associations.

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Are found in a variety of other musical examples, and I found one I think that.

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Is particularly related to this. This is Scarlatti Sonata K146 that somehow already puts us in the write mode for the musical journey that we're about to do.

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So I find this Sonata particularly related to water exactly because I found in this some similar some piano figuration that are very similar to the ones that we are going to find in Liszt. I'm referring particularly to this one.

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So you can probably understand what I am referring to. The piano is somehow represent in this energy of water moving up and down and some sort of very playful but somehow chaotic trajectory.

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Going just up and down using this chromaticism.

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Over and over, as if someone that is just pulsating with vibrant energy of life coming back to our conversation. So water is frequently seen as a symbol of life and birth, and this is probably.

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Something we are hitting already in the Scarlatti Sonata representing fertility and growth.

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So just as water is essential for sustaining life, it symbolises renewal new beginning. But of course, in art these themes are found not just in music, are found pretty much everywhere in T.S. Eliot famous poem the Wasteland.

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Water is an emblem of hope and rejuvenation amidst despair. It is associated with emotional and spiritual purification, representing a cleansing of the soul, but also you can find an example of.

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Calm and serene waters, which may symbolise tranquilly and peace while violent and turbulent waters can represent cows and inner turmoil like.

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In the summer by Vivaldi or in passages of the pastoral Symphony by Beethoven.

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It also have, obviously, a transformative power, which is often highlighted in literature, symbolising change, renewal and rebirth, as we said, whether it is the metamorphosis of a character or a profound change in circumstances.

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And I'm here referring obviously to perhaps literature and or poetry. Water symbolises the transformative power that shapes individuals and their lives. It signifies the cycle of life. The passage from one existence to another. Water symbolism plays a vital role in various forms of art.

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Of course, such as paintings, sculptures, photography as well.

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Think about Van Gogh, starry night or Monet’s Water lilies.

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Waters reflective nature allows artists to explore themes such as self reflection duality, introspection, water symbolises the journey within oneself and the mirroring of the outer world.

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Water transient and ever changing nature makes it an ideal symbol of impermanence and the fleeting moment of existence.

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Water, immense power and force make it an apt symbol of strength and resilience. So you see really, how how many symbols, how many meaning we can find in the archetype of water, like in Hemingway’s

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The “Old man and the sea”, strength and resilience and at the same time impermanence are clearly depicted and portrayed in the novel.

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Artists often depict tumultuous oceans or powerful waterfalls to represent the.

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Indomitable spirit of nature and humanity.

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Water is association with tranquilly and calmness is commonly reflected in art, creating a sense of serenity and peace. Paintings of gentle streams of serene lakes can evoke feelings of relaxation and emotional well-being.

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This was Smetana my last second movement of the symphonic poem, inspired by his country. My last means my fatherland. Second movement refers to the rivers of his fatherland.

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So you just heard the strong male, the strong theme, but more importantly you heard what in music we will call a long introduction. The truth is that that introduction is probably more, much more reflected in depicting the.

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The powers and the the flowing of rivers, then the actual melody. But the melody somehow emerges from it. It's not introduced, it just comes out of it.

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This idea of a melody that emerges from the texture is something that we will find as well here in Liszt. So let's let's look at it. We haven't heard any of it yet. Au bord d’une source has actually a quote by Schiller that

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Liszt uses to introduce it it's. I can read the translation in the whispering coolness.

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Begins young natures play the piece. The musical piece explores water as a symbol of life, youth, fertility, and growth. It's a short but very dense journey like 3, three and a half, 4 minutes long.

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Liszt in this time allows us to hear, see and feel what he here sees and feels beside the spring. Let's look at a couple of examples. So this is how the very first few lines go.

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It's very delicate, but also very fast.

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It's a quick flowing out water springing out of earth, but that's in detail. What we what we find we have this melody.

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And we have other parts that are present that are somehow creating the whole watery texture. We have this.

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Let's put these two together.

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Interesting, huh? Then we have the actual flow, which is characterised by.

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This part right here. So the hole together goes.

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And a fourth part is the little note in the base.

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This complex texture is at first listening, I believe quite impossible to detect, but the overall effect is this multi layered element made of.

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Transparency, running water lights and that goes in many directions at once. Very sparkly and very energetic. I will say Liszt well done, these four parts.

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Are organised with great coherence, but however there is an element of of chaos that I find appealing that Liszt seem to be interested in bringing out.

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This doesn't seem doesn't want to impose any order into the chaos. It seems like he rather allows the the orderliness of the music to emerge from the chaos. This is what what I was meaning earlier. What I referred to earlier, when I when we listened to smetana the melody.

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Comes out of the texture, not the other way around. We are not listening to an accompanied melody. We are listening to an accompaniment out of which the melody is born.

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This, let's say, slipping of perspective, this switch of perspective suggests that we are not listening to our representation of water literally. Perhaps we're listening to representation of what water symbolises in the creative mind.

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Of Franz Liszt.

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With the emergence of some principles, some soul represented by the melody emergence from the texture makes us think that when Liszt is watching the water comes out of Earth he probably.

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We realise that there is some greater principle that greater, you know, phenomenon that he is attending to rather than just a natural natural event.

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There are some special passages that throughout the piece I would like to share with you in details.

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The general writing aims at conveying, as we said, the sense of youth, gentle, light, energy with some sparks of stronger power, and so.

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And I would say it will be harder to describe the pieces of tight musical form with themes and sections and variations with a solid harmonic structure with some sort of consistency that is maintained throughout.

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It's harder to do that than it is to see it as a dynamic curve, something a little bit more flexible.

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Starts gently and softly as we heard and slowly builds momentum and power and releasing it all at a certain point, building up again and then exploding the climax, but then ending again in a soft nuance, poetic and gentle manner, as if water that sprang out of Earth is now.

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Indistinguishable from the river it.

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Joint it's a dynamic here that conveys the story, not the themes or harmony. Let's say for example.

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The first transition goes like this.

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So what did we hear? We hear that.

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Water. Just the energy of water just raises and raises and build momentum and build momentum. And when we are at the top of it again, the melody comes back. We have similar similar moments, which actually as we go along in the piece, these transitions seems to expand.

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In in in time.

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Let's listen to this other transition.

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And then again, you hear the the main dance like dancing thing coming back. You heard this transition and you probably couldn't tell where the dance was gone. And this is nowhere to be found.

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Is just an effect water coming down.

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Isn't that crazy? But beautiful Musical effect. The time is stopped for a moment. It's suspended and it's just colour transformation that happens similarly here.

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It seems like just a spark of light. There is no rhythm, no tempo is just colour. A brush of colour that that goes through the music. Somewhere on 3/4 of the piece we have this.

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This crescendo.

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Etcetera. So I don't want to spoil the effect of the of this passage incorporated in the entire piece, but as you can hear from this few examples, phrases are often difficult to demarcate. They overlap.

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Once again, the sense that the melody literally emerges from these waves of sound rather than being accompanied by it. Let's take, for example, this other passage.

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So there's so much going on in here, certainly demanding on the part of the interpreter, but the melody now has somehow simplified into just an upward motion.

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Read them rhythmical upward motion.

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Etcetera and everything else is just waves.

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There's there's so much energy, so, so much youthful and positive energy coming coming out of this passage.

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OK. The last passage I wanted to point out to share is the ending. I found the ending. Probably one of my.

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Favourite cause? The ending, as we mentioned earlier is comes back to a softer, softer tone. Here I'm going to just play a few bars. I'm going to not exactly page the entire page.

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I really like this last final effect.

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What is this? This is a. This is a major scale.

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Paired with a dissonance.

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Right.

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You have this trickling down of drops of water.

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And on top of that, we have a scale.

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This is a beautiful effect which actually I found in Schubert lead. Have them sing and is a famous Schubert leader from Op. 72. Literally translated as “To sing on the water” and.

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It starts exactly in the same way.

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You can hear the same exact figuration.

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This configuration that aims at representing the trickling down of water was clearly convincing and appealing for more than one composers of the romantic period.

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But as the water trickles down, you have.

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Sublimation effect this one.

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Of course, goes in exactly the opposite direction. It goes up. So here's the complete effect.

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This opposite motion thing is something that Liszt uses quite a lot. For example toolbars. Earlier you have this other effect.

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So and in the left hand we have.

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It's going up and down like a soft wave, so the result is.

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I don't want to go farther. I just wanted to say a couple of things to a final comment to this piece of music. As an interpreter, I feel that.

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Pointing my finger on this many aspects of the piece, and I mean the the symbolism behind it, the possible representations, whether it's a musical phrase or a symbol that I associate with it, it helps the creative process to me, as an interpreter, facilitates.

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The embodiment of music.

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With soft passage, I act soft with powerful ones. I have to bring power out, and if water encapsulates symbolically all these dimensions, then by acting like water I'm effectively incorporating these dimensions in me.

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At least for the time of the performance.

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The most fascinating aspect of all of this to me is that considering all the things we said today about water being a symbol for youth, energy, resilience, lightness, strength and so on, we don't have to definitely be.

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Any of these things at once, but we have to allow them.

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Run through us instead. Let softness grow into loudness. Let gentleness grow into power and strength, and then back up again into purified softness, and so on. In other words, exactly like Bruce Lee says.

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Be like water.

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The whole quote is be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object and you should find a way around or through it. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless. Like water.

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If you put water into a cup, it becomes a cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes a teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash.

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Be water, my friend.

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That is why I wanted to connect Bruce Lee to friends Liszt, which is a very odd segue.

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Now I'm going to perform this beautiful piece of music. You can hear it right here. Or if you like, if you prefer, you can watch my hands plate. I posted a video of me performing it. You can see exactly.

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In detail, what's happening at the keyboard, and you can you can follow the score.

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You enjoy how rich and complex and at the same time beautiful and light. This is. I look forward to our next episode and now I give you our warden source from the first book of the Inedible Reinach by Franz Liszt. I hope you enjoy.