- Mild und leise
Mild und Leise, which means "fair and gentle" in German, is the opening line of the "Liebestod", the final aria from Richard Wagner's opera "
Tristan und Isolde ". It is one of the great moments in operatic literature, ending the opera as Isolde sings over the body of her beloved Tristan:Mild und leise wie er lächelt, wie das Auge hold eröffnet --seht ihr's, Freunde?
"Mild und leise" is also the name of an 18-minute synthesized composition by
Paul Lansky , made in 1973 on theIBM 360 mainframe. It is one of the earlier pieces of music made with a computer. The piece was eventually published on a record titled "Electronic Music Winners" after it won a contest held by the International Society for Contemporary Music. Lansky based the piece on harmonic ideas from the Wagner opera. Years laterJonny Greenwood , guitarist ofRadiohead , found "Electronic Music Winners" in a record store, and used a sample of the track as the foundation for Radiohead's song "Idioteque ".External links
* [http://www.music.princeton.edu/paul/radiohead.ml.html "My Radiohead Adventure", an essay written by Lansky describing the piece's relationship with Radiohead]
* [http://www.lottelehmann.org/lehmann/llf/soundInfo/sndInfo_177b.shtml Recording] with sopranoLotte Lehmann
* [http://silvertone.princeton.edu/%7Epaul/mild_und_leise.mp3 MP3 of Mild und Leise]
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