Greatest Hits of 1568--Still Topping the Charts
Thomas Tallis's Spem in Allium --still brilliant after all these years via Books Inq.
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A Couple of Seasonal Hallelujahs
While I recognize and acknowledge that a great deal of planning went into this "spontaneity," what wouldn't I have given to be one of those surprised by such an event? Noted as a "flash mob" even, I would say more like a choral "ringer." But, again, what a pleasure it would have been to be caught up in the same. Forever and Ever in a shopping mall And Silently:
Books Inq. repeated
You may wonder why I repeat so many links from others here: the main reason is that while I often have time to scan the article or the object, too often I find that I must visit only cursorily. Placing them here is my reminder to revisit. So, no disrespect intended to the original posters, only deep gratitude for providing so much wonderful fare. Analysis of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony --Certainly one that in my mind could do with it, largely because it gets lost in the welter of greatness. I think many of think of 3, 5, 7, (perhaps 8), and 9 but 6 gets kind of lost. The incomparable Joan Miro and a poem to accompany The Lies of Science Writing --the inevitable misdirection of metaphor
More Bach Than You Can Shake a Stick Out
The Complete Organ Works of J. S. Bach available for free download
"Daintie Fine Bird. . ."
Some information about Orlando Gibbons's "Daintie Fine Bird" a Madrigal for 5 voices. I mention this because I was listening to Pandora when this came on and it just stood out from the other brilliant and refined pieces of the age. Glorious, silvery, and sounding entirely like the religious music of the age. Music to be taken seriously and to be savored, sipped, and taken in small amounts, a cordial. A cordial of melancholy, to be sure, and yet, so very lovely. I hate to ask the trite question--but is there similar music today? Is there the same silvery, lingering sound that will resound long after its makers have passed? Obviously, I don't expect madrigals, but I do wonder about the substance sometimes of music--how well it will endure--Lady Gaga can excite the crowds at her concerts, but I'm not certain that I expect "Poker Face" to be placed alongside Orlando Gibbons, or even, to be honest among the more rustic tunes that come down to us from ...
For Those Who Know only Dukas's Apprentice
First movement of the Piano Sonata in E flat minor--it's a shame Dukas has so few pieces: Prélude Élégiaque And the delightful, beautiful, moving, and rare: Villanelle in this arrangement for French Horn and Piano:
La Pasión Según San Marcos--Osvaldo Golijov
I don't often review music here, largely because I lack the full critical apparatus to say why something is good or not so good. But this album so fine and so unusual a treatment of its subject matter that it seemed worthy of bringing to your attention. As many are aware, the trend in modern classical music recently has been away from the very austere and mathematically driven compositions of serialism and other "avant garde" schools of producing sound back to a kind of tonalism--polytonalism (Philip Glass, Symphony No. 2 is bitonal), microtonalism (heard in Raga, Gamelan music, and Ligeti claimed to compose in a kind of microtonalism). This exposition of the Passion according to Saint Mark is fully tonal and includes all sorts of musical gneres. For those used to the vaulted cathedrals of the Bach Passions or even the Penderecki Passion According to Saint Luke, this work may not be welcome. It is unapologetically the music of the streets--guitar, percussion, voi...