Help,WHAT SONG IS THIS?!?

[apchalk]

Hi everyone!

    I'm new to this online blogging thing only because I've been trying to figure out this piano song for about a week now. Can anyone tell me what song Lang Lang is playing at the end of the interview??
Name and/or composer? starts at 8:50...
Link below

=8m50s

Thank you!

Andrew

[cbreemer]

Liszt Sonetto 104 del Petrarca

[apchalk]

Wow, thank you so much!! I really appreciate it good sir I've been trying to find out the name for it for like a week. I always knew it was a Liszt song deep down haha

[thalbergmad]

Am I allowed to say that it isn't a song??

Thal

[musikalischer_wirbelwind_280]

I beg you to do so, Thal! Otherwise, I fear lest I should be forced to do it myself...

[pianoguy711]

well sonetto does mean "little song" 

[eusebius12]

The Petrarch sonnets were originally set by Liszt as songs...that is works for voice with piano accompaniment. So to object to them being 'songs' seems pedantic in the extreme.

[musikalischer_wirbelwind_280]

Nice try But since the vid's link that the OP uploaded shows Lang Lang playing the piano solo version of that sonetto, I don't think it's pedantic in the extreme to remark on the fact that it is thus not a song...

[cbreemer]

I was tempted to say it's not song. But as per the title, one could argue that it is. Or has been. Or would be, if only someone sang along with it - the song text precedes the score.

Anyway we're fighting a losing a battle against the younger generation who'll call everything a song, even it's a 4-hour Wagner opera or a 8-hour instrumental edifice by Sorabji 

[chrisbutch]

Anyway we're fighting a losing a battle against the younger generation who'll call everything a song, even it's a 4-hour Wagner opera..... 

I usually compliment myself on keeping up to date with neologisms or evolutions in English usage of this kind. This one, however, is new to me. Like so many, it immediately seems bizarre: but I suppose that, as with others, the oddity may fade, alas, with familiarity. Is there any explanation of its origins?

[dima_76557]

Am I allowed to say that it isn't a song??

Only if you realize that thus you are going against the stream (again). We are gradually being forced into the "culture" of cave people around the camp fire. No place there for anything as sophisticated and/or pretentious as a "piece of music", "masterwork", "art", etc. Terminology will gradually change until what was once considered cultural heritage will simply be rejected as "junk".

[cbreemer]

I usually compliment myself on keeping up to date with neologisms or evolutions in English usage of this kind. This one, however, is new to me. Like so many, it immediately seems bizarre: but I suppose that, as with others, the oddity may fade, alas, with familiarity. Is there any explanation of its origins?

I've seen (young) people using the work "song" in forums for quite some time. It's probably the mp3 player and iPod culture that spouted it. Gadgets are ranked by how many thousands of songs you can stuff onto it.

What saddens me more is the devaluation of the word "music". For so many people this now
means a couple minutes of rap, hiphop or hardrock (all of which I snobbishly persist in
calling dumb sh*t noise) and they have not the faintest clue about classical music, except
that it's boring and for old people, let alone why a sonata or symphony is not a song. I like
to think that some of them will see the light at some stage, although many never do.

[liszt1022]

Am I allowed to say that it isn't a song??

Thal

Be careful on your semantic corrections- a statement like that might lead a newcomer to classical music back out the way he came, and make him think this place is too snobbish for him.

[musikalischer_wirbelwind_280]

Couldn't agree more with you, chrisbutch! This whole 'song' thing is already annoying enough (and like cbreemer said, seems to be something of a losing battle), but the devaluation of the term 'music' is alarming.
You mentioned rap, hiphop and hardrock as examples of just how down the drain that term has been dragged, but if you could only listen to some of the bullc**p we get to hear more and more often here in Mexico, I mean, when exactly did praising the "heroic deeds" of a criminal organization's kingpin become "music"? Or "singing" stuff that seems taken out of some hardcore porn story?
And even without that, there's just WAY too much eyecandy and other rubbish in that "music" (as often happens with many other things, nowadays), half-naked "performers", dry ice, flashing lights of all colors, idiotic shticks, etc, etc ,etc...And the music???

I couldn't be more grateful for being one of those who, in your own words, saw the light, but it would appear I am among the 5% percent (if not less) of my generation who did... 

[chrisbutch]

A wee misattribution there - I didn't make those comments, I simply asked a question about the origins of a recent colloquial usage...

[musikalischer_wirbelwind_280]

I'd certainly call that a bit more than a 'wee misattribution', old chap!  but thanks for the kindness
Indeed, I meant cbreemer's comment.
Oh well, that should teach me to use 'ctrl ++' a tad more often! ^^