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ℓaura ℓawrie
"Do you kids like to use the World Wide Interweb?"
Occupation: "The world around you is not what it seems."
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Latest postings
2013-05-21 15:32:40 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 6 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
"The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May." -- Edwin Way Teale
http://grooveshark.com/s/Appalachian+Spring+Ballet+Suite+1945/4I8Yfv?src=5
O Appalachian Spring! I gained the ledge;
Steep, inaccessible smile that eastward bends
And northward reaches in that violet wedge
Of Adirondacks!
Aaron Copland's ballet Appalachian Spring tells the story of a 19th-century American spring celebration, complete with square dances and revival meetings. The idea for the title came from Hart Crane's poem "The Dance." Copland won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1945 for this wonderfully evocative work.
My classical music post for today is Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring.
2013-05-20 16:31:40 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 6 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
"The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May." -- Edwin Way Teale
This sweet and merry month of May,
While nature wantons in her prime,
And birds do sing, and beasts do play
For pleasure of the joyful time,
I choose the first for holiday,
And greet Eliza with a rhyme:
O beauteous Queen of second Troy,
Take well in worth a simple toy.
The music of the English Renaissance is among the most glorious ever written, and one of the greatest English Renaissance composers was William Byrd. He wrote a lot of what people call "madrigals," although actually really only two of the works of his put into this category are true madrigals. And both were composed to the same text!
Byrd composed a four-voice setting of "This Sweet and Merry Month of... more »
2013-05-19 15:34:03 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 7 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
"The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May." -- Edwin Way Teale
The Austrian composer Johann Strauss II composed his "Frühlingsstimmen" ("Voices of Spring"), Op. 410 waltz in 1882. This is a wonderful version: Kathleen Battle singing and Herbert von Karajan conducting.
The premiere of this work was not a success; it wasn't until Strauss took it on the road to Russia that audiences loved it. It was not a typical ballroom waltz, so that may be part of the reason for its initial failure, but it is a wonderful spring song.
2013-05-15 15:49:31 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 7 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
"The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May." -- Edwin Way Teale
http://grooveshark.com/s/The+Lark+Ascending/2osPps?src=5
Any excuse for some Vaughan Williams -- to me, this is a wonderful springtime/May piece of music. I can see myself lying in a field, staring up at a lark circling round and round in the sky. I can feel just the right balance of movement and pre-summer laziness.
The Lark Ascending is one of the most incredibly beautiful works ever written. I could listen to it for hours and hours. The great English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was inspired by George Meredith's poem of the same name. VW included a small part of the poem on the title page:
He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound,
Of many links without a break,... more »
2013-05-13 15:07:30 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
"The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May." -- Edwin Way Teale
http://grooveshark.com/s/Im+Fr+hling+Op+101+No+1+D+882/3ul0tC?src=5
The Austrian composer Franz Schubert composed the beautiful Lied "Im Frühling" ("In Spring") in 1826, to a poem by Ernst Schulze.
The Lied is a sort of theme and variations, and, as the poem is all about nostalgia for happy events now long gone, the idea of "the same, yet different" works incredibly well, particularly in the accompaniment. Graham Johnson has said of this Lied, "It is all an evanescent dream, fleetingly conjured and dying with the last wistful notes of the postlude. Schubert's use of modified strophic form was seldom so virtuosic, and the Lied has seldom attained such perfection."
My ... more »
2013-05-10 14:54:50 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
"The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May." -- Edwin Way Teale
http://grooveshark.com/s/La+Rous+e+Du+Joly+Mois+De+Mai/58RWTM?src=5
The 16th-century French composer Jean Planson composed the lovely "La rousée du joly mois de mai," which is yet another one of those "Hey, it's May, let's romp around and have a bit of fun, nudge-nudge, wink-wink" songs. It is actually quite long, but the recording that I am sharing today has cut the song down considerably. As Paige Grant has pointed out, "There are 14 verses and a chorus. Back then people liked songs to be a lot longer than audiences expect today." When you hear this, however, I think that you will wish that it did go on for longer, as it is a very pretty melody.
My classical music post for today is ... more »
2013-05-08 15:33:41 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
"The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May." -- Edwin Way Teale
The multitalented American composer and violinist +Mark O'Connor wrote the lovely "Butterfly's Day Out" for mandolin, cello, and bass. He posted a link to a YouTube recording with him playing the mandolin, Yo-Yo Ma on cello, and Edgar Meyer on bass, and I am sharing it today for my classical music post.
What a happy, evocative piece! I can see the butterfly flitting about, having a wonderful time! Thank you, Mark, for this beautiful springtime music!
2013-05-07 15:11:27 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
"The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May." -- Edwin Way Teale
http://grooveshark.com/s/Now+Is+The+Month+Of+Maying/4IpLVs?src=5
The great English Renaissance composer Thomas Morley composed his Ballett "Now Is the Month of Maying" in 1595, and it is one of the most famous choral works of the time.
A ballett was a vocal work based on Italian 16th-century song, and was a peculiarly English form. Lionel Pike describes a ballett as "strophic, binary with repeats, using nonsense syllables, with light-hearted texts set syllabically, and in a major tonality." The masters of this form were Thomas Weelkes, Thomas Tomkins, and Morley -- and also some other guys who were not named Thomas. Balletts, madrigals, and ayres were all different types of what we now group together... more »
2013-05-04 15:24:37 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 1 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
"The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May." -- Edwin Way Teale
http://grooveshark.com/s/O+Lusty+May/4uSP4a?src=5
The extremely prolific composer Anonymous (most active in the Renaissance) composed a lovely little song to a poem by his Scottish relative Anonymous, "Lusty May." I have heard this sung by a four-part choir, by two voices with lute, and, as here, one voice with lute and viols.
O LUSTY May, with Flora queen!
The balmy dropis from Phoebus sheen
Preluciand beams before the day:
By that Diana growis green
Through gladness of this lusty May.
Then Esperus, that is so bricht,
Til woful hairtis castis his light,
With bankis that bloomis on every brae;
And schouris are shed forth of their sicht
Throug... more »
2013-05-03 15:08:25 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
"The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May." -- Edwin Way Teale
http://grooveshark.com/s/Sonata+For+Violin+And+Piano+No+5+In+F+Major+Op+24+I+Allegro/3s8VVu?src=5
http://grooveshark.com/s/Sonata+For+Violin+And+Piano+No+5+In+F+Major+Op+24+II+Adagio+Molto+Espressivo/3s8VDK?src=5
http://grooveshark.com/s/Sonata+For+Violin+And+Piano+No+5+In+F+Major+Op+24+III+Scherzo+Allegro+Molto/3s8Vm0?src=5
http://grooveshark.com/s/Sonata+For+Violin+And+Piano+No+5+In+F+Major+Op+24+IV+Rondo+Allegro+Ma+Non+Troppo/3s8VYI?src=5
May is the best of the spring months; in many places (in the Northern Hemisphere), flowers begin to bloom, the weather finally warms up, and the days get longer. Composers throughout history have loved spring; it gives them an opportunity to write upbeat, optimistic music.... more »
2013-05-02 15:59:18 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 1 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
"The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May." -- Edwin Way Teale
http://grooveshark.com/s/Im+Wundersch+nen+Monat+Mai+Dichterliebe+Op+48/2VzcN0?src=5
Robert Schumann's song cycle Dichterliebe Op. 48 was composed to texts by Heinrich Heine. The first song, "Im wunderschönen Monat Mai," is a marvelous beginning to this song cycle, most often sung by a male singer, although the song cycle was dedicated to (and most likely written for) the great soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient.
James Liu describes "Im wunderschönen Monat Mai" really well: "Schumann's songs feel more like an extension of his earlier piano music than music conceived for the voice. The piano typically carries most of the melody, with extended preludes and postludes that comment on the po... more »
2013-05-01 13:47:45 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 6 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
"The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May." -- Edwin Way Teale
http://classical-music-online.net/en/listen/17567
Happy May! To get the month off to a great start, let's listen to a little Clément Janequin! His chanson "Ce moys de may" (This month of May) is very short but very much to the point -- Renaissance folks knew what spring was all about, that's for sure.
Ce moys de may,
ma verte cotte je vestiray.
De bon matin me l veray,
ce joly moys de may.
Un sault, deux saults, trois saults,
en rue je feray,
Pour voir si mon amy verray.
Je luy diray qu'il me descotte;
Me descottant le baiseray.
This month of May
my green skirt I'll wear
early in the morning, I'll rise
in this lovely month of ... more »
2013-04-30 13:40:07 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
April is Jazz Appreciation Month in the United States; my classical music posts this April will have a jazz feel!
http://grooveshark.com/s/Jazz+Suite+No+1+I+Waltz/3CLmma?src=5
http://grooveshark.com/s/Jazz+Suite+No+1+II+Polka/3CLmre?src=5
http://grooveshark.com/s/Jazz+Suite+No+1+III+Foxtrot/3CLmzR?src=5
The great Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich was commissioned to write a work for a Leningrad dance band in 1934. The result was his Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 1, a very tuneful and upbeat little work that reminds me more of folk and gypsy music than jazz. That's probably because "real" American jazz was pretty much banned in Russia at the time, so Shostakovich would have had limited exposure to it. The Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 1 was the winner of a competition to "raise the level of Soviet jazz from... more »
2013-04-29 13:40:20 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
April is Jazz Appreciation Month in the United States; my classical music posts this April will have a jazz feel!
http://grooveshark.com/s/America/4whdas?src=5
My Daily Classical Music Post is back! And what a piece I have chosen for today, International Jazz Day!
The great American jazz pianist Chick Corea had what he termed “musical dream,” a new composition “in the spirit of Mozart” – in which jazz, Latin, and classical "converge into a globally inspired concerto for jazz quintet and chamber orchestra." The result, The Continents, is a marvelous fusion of the three.
By the way, the extraordinary annual Music from Angel Fire festival (in New Mexico at the end of August), one of the top chamber music festivals in the world, announced last year that Corea would be the composer-in-residence for the 2013... more »
2013-04-28 16:19:07 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 8 +1s)
“[Music] is part of our lives in a way that we cannot wake up in the morning and go through life without music and without having this essential aspect of it, that music means just as much as eating and drinking or living.” -- János Starker (1924-2013)
2013-04-22 21:18:40 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
I'm still having some "technical problems" with my classical music posts; I will return to daily posting as soon as possible!
In the meantime, check my profile for previous posts that you may have missed or want to hear again!
2013-04-18 02:31:37 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 6 +1s)
This is a little experiment with a viola and Glass. I created a song by layering short video loops, improvising melodies, then I pieced it all together into a small orchestra. #throughglass
2013-04-17 13:27:13 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
April is Jazz Appreciation Month in the United States; my classical music posts this April will have a jazz feel!
http://grooveshark.com/s/Rhapsody+In+Blue+Original+Version+Using+1925+Piano+Roll/1VTMBI?src=5
Okay, while I redo all the posts that were meant to have appeared in the past few days, let's enjoy one of the most famous jazz/classical works of all time, George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
The American band leader Paul Whiteman asked Gershwin to write a concerto piece for a jazz concert he was planning in February 1924. As Gershwin really wanted to be taken seriously as a classical composer, he jumped at the chance. And Rhapsody in Blue, which had a mixed reception, has become one of the most well-loved works in the mainstream repertoire.
Leonard Bernstein once said of this one-movement work that it... more »
2013-04-15 15:20:17 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)
Once again, my Daily Classical Music Post has not been posting automatically. I will figure out what's going on and will get the posts back on track as soon as possible!
2013-04-12 14:06:38 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 5 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
April is Jazz Appreciation Month in the United States; my classical music posts this April will have a jazz feel!
http://grooveshark.com/s/Prelude+Siegmeister/3ZyEPF?src=5
http://grooveshark.com/s/Blues+Siegmeister/3ZyEZK?src=5
http://grooveshark.com/s/Finale+Siegmeister/3ZyF85?src=5
The American composer Elie Siegmeister (born 1909; died 1991) often included jazz, blues, and folk in his large output. One of my favourites is his Prelude, Blues, and Finale for two clarinets and piano. There is a very definite bluesy feeling in all three movements, along with some advanced classical technique for both clarinets as well as the piano.
One of Siegmeister's students was the clarinetist Naomi Drucker, and the recording that I am sharing with you today features Naomi as well as her husband Stanley Drucker. When I listen to... more »
2013-04-11 17:46:12 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)
Spotify is now in the Chrome web store!
This fills a huge gap in my web experience I've felt since Apple acquired and shut down Lala. :)
2013-04-11 03:24:59 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)
You will never Eat a Sandwich the same away again
2013-04-10 15:53:15 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
April is Jazz Appreciation Month in the United States; my classical music posts this April will have a jazz feel!
http://grooveshark.com/s/All+Set/56IxaW?src=5
The American composer Milton Babbitt (born 1916; died 2011) did not really see his All Set as a jazz piece, although he did write it for jazz ensemble. Composed in 1957, this work is actually a 12-tone piece, with some elements of a kind of improvisation. Babbitt said of this piece: "Whether All Set is really jazz I leave to the judgment of those who are concerned to determine what things really are, and if such probably superficial aspects of the works as its very instrumentation, its use of the 'rhythm section,' the instrumentally delineated sections which may appear analogous to successive instrumental 'choruses,' and even specific thematic or motivic... more »
2013-04-09 15:22:40 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
April is Jazz Appreciation Month in the United States; my classical music posts this April will have a jazz feel!
http://grooveshark.com/s/I+Three+Pieces+For+Blues+Band+and+Symphony+Allegro/4mlaGz?src=5
http://grooveshark.com/s/II+Three+Pieces+For+Blues+Band+and+Symphony+Andante/4mlbkq?src=5
http://grooveshark.com/s/III+Three+Pieces+For+Blues+Band+and+Symphony+Allegro+Con+Spiritu/4mlbPC?src=5
The great American jazz musician William Russo (born 1928; died 2003) also composed works for classical musicians. He firmly believed that jazz and classical music and musicians could work together very closely.
Russo's Three Pieces for Blues Band and Symphony Orchestra, written in 1968, is an absolutely astonishing piece of music. I love it. I am not even going to describe it for you, as it has to be heard and experienced... more »
2013-04-09 02:28:22 (20 comments, 2 reshares, 3 +1s)
How on earth did I miss this?
Her recordings of her brother Jehan's organ works were the first things I ever heard her play; no one has ever played them better. RIP, Marie-Claire.
2013-04-08 15:06:27 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 3 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
April is Jazz Appreciation Month in the United States; my classical music posts this April will have a jazz feel!
Nothing says "jazz" like a tap dancer; at least, it says it to me! The American composer Morton Gould (born 1913; died 1996) wrote his Tap Dance Concerto in 1952. The music isn't jazz per se, but there is a real "Americana" feeling, and there are some jazzy moments, both in feel and in the orchestration.
Gould's Tap Dance Concerto was initially going to be written for Paul Draper, but Draper suggested that the choreographer and dancer Danny Daniels work with the composer. Daniels said, "Morton would write sections, with the rhythms noted as part of the musical score, and then play it on the piano for me to see if the rhythms were tap-able. I would then take the manuscript score and a tape r... more »
2013-04-06 17:28:37 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
April is Jazz Appreciation Month in the United States; my classical music posts this April will have a jazz feel!
http://grooveshark.com/s/Like+Love/56uC7U?src=5
Today just happens to be the birthday of the composer and conductor André Previn (born 6 April 1929). Previn is an extraordinary musician; he has been a jazz pianist; a conductor of many top orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and a composer of classical as well as film music. His classical music includes works for voice, chamber music, orchestral music, and opera.
My post for today is not really classical; it is Previn playing piano in a recording of his jazz composition "Like Love." His backing musicians are a symphony orchestra, however, so it kind of counts!
2013-04-05 15:24:45 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
The American composer Kyle Athayde wrote "Reed Reflections" in 2012 for the extremely talented twin woodwind players Peter and Will Anderson. "Reed Reflections" is a "three-movement quasi-concerto that artfully combines classical resources with jazz elements and harmonies, including opportunities for the soloists to improvise": clarinets in the first movement, flutes in the second, and saxophones in the last (and as we all know, the flute is not a reed instrument, but the other two are, so I guess the title is okay).
Michael Sherwin says of "Reed Reflections": "The first movement of “Reed Reflections” is a nostalgic tribute to the big-band sound and musical style of 1940s dance bands such as the Glenn Miller Orchestra. One could practically see Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers gliding across a Hollywood soun... more »
2013-04-04 18:53:05 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
April is Jazz Appreciation Month in the United States; my classical music posts this April will have a jazz feel!
http://grooveshark.com/s/Concerto+For+Jazz+Band+And+Symphony+Orchestra/56eFW3?src=5
The Swiss composer Rolf Liebermann (born 1910; died 1999) wrote his Concerto for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra as a kind of concerto grosso; the jazz band acts as the concertino group. The work is in eight sections, alternating the symphony orchestra with the big band, and then both join in the finale. It seems to me that it's almost more like the orchestra is just playing, minding its own business, and then this crazy jazz band jumps in and messes everything up. Then it all calms down again, but . . . well, you'll see what I mean when you listen to it.
The Concerto for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra was very well received... more »
2013-04-03 14:27:15 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 4 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
April is Jazz Appreciation Month in the United States; my classical music posts this April will have a jazz feel!
http://grooveshark.com/s/Jazz+Symphony/4HbxgM?src=5
The American avant-garde composer George Antheil composed A Jazz Symphony in 1925. The work was meant to be performed as part of Paul Whiteman's "Experiments in Modern Music" concerts (the same series in which Rhapsody in Blue premiered), but the dissonances were thought too be "too radical," and the parts "too difficult to play," so Whiteman passed on it. Antheil planned to include it in his own concert at Carnegie Hall in 1927.
A Jazz Symphony is scored for an enormous orchestra: two oboes, two clarinets, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, various percussion, two banjos, three... more »
2013-04-02 15:29:54 (11 comments, 2 reshares, 4 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
April is Jazz Appreciation Month in the United States; my classical music posts this April will have a jazz feel!
http://grooveshark.com/s/Ebony+Concerto+For+Clarinet+and+Jazz+Band+I+Allegro+Moderato/2JiHvY?src=5
Igor Stravinsky wrote his Ebony Concerto in 1945 for the Woody Herman jazz band. The piece features a solo clarinet (dedicated to Herman), and is written in many different time signatures. Stravinsky thought that jazz musicians might have a bit of a tough time with that; I can imagine that there would be plenty of classical musicians who would, too!
Stravinsky described Ebony Concerto as "a jazz concerto grosso with a blues slow movement." He also said, "Ebony Concerto is my contribution to the blues, and the flute, harp and clarinet music of the slow movement of my Symphony in Three Movements is my gift to... more »
2013-04-01 17:24:48 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
April is Jazz Appreciation Month in the United States; my classical music posts this April will have a jazz feel!
http://grooveshark.com/s/La+Cr+ation+Du+Monde+Op+81/2pTKcK?src=5
I am going to start the month off with one of my favourite pieces, Darius Milhaud's La création du monde, and I am sharing a very interesting recording. This work features the alto sax, and the recording I've posted is of the jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Given that the main part is played by a (primarily) jazz musician, this is not as "raucous" a rendition of La création du monde as some that I have heard!
But the beauty, and the interesting jazz riffs, are still as exciting as they were when the piece first premiered. Milhaud wrote the music for a ballet about the beginning of the world as s... more »
2013-03-29 14:15:41 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
The name of the month of March comes from ancient Rome; it is named for Mars, the god of war. My posts this month will have a battle or war theme.
http://classic-online.ru/uploads/8200/8101.mp3
Jan Ladislaw Dussek (born 1760; died 1812) was an interesting character. He was one of the first musicians to travel around Europe widely. He was a particular favourite of the royal family in France, and most particularly of Marie Antoinette. He managed to escape any kind of punishment via association during the French Revolution, however, and in fact later came back to France as a guest of Tallyrand.
Dussek's style is quite flamboyant, and he was an early proponent of programmatic music; that is, music interspersed with text. In 1793, he composed The Sufferings of the Queen of France, an account of the final days in the life of M... more »
2013-03-29 06:21:57 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)
So many reasons to love +William Shatner, and here's just one more:
2013-03-28 17:31:08 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)
I'm going to be creating a series of cover photos based around this idea. Opinions very welcome. This is a segment of one of my pieces "Remembrance".
2013-03-28 17:27:10 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
The name of the month of March comes from ancient Rome; it is named for Mars, the god of war. My posts this month will have a battle or war theme.
Louis Spohr THE FALL OF BABYLON Belshazzar's vision
Louis Spohr wrote his now-pretty-much-forgotten oratorio The Fall of Babylon to commemorate the end of the Babylonian Empire. Nathan Haskell Dole says, "In 1843 Spohr was invited to England to conduct his new oratorio 'The Fall of Babylon,' at the Norwich festival. The Prince refused his consent in spite of the application of Lord Aberdeen and the Duke of Cambridge, who asked it as a personal favor, while the inhabitants of Norwich sent an immense petition. During his vacation, however, he went to London, and conducted it there with great success. The whole audience rose spontaneously from their seats to salute him. The Que... more »
2013-03-27 14:40:34 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
The name of the month of March comes from ancient Rome; it is named for Mars, the god of war. My posts this month will have a battle or war theme.
http://grooveshark.com/s/Europe+During+The+War/36QiPa?src=5
One of my favourite composers is the American minimalist Steve Reich (born 1936). There is something so incredible about the way his music draws me in; I could listen to his compositions for hours (and I often have done!).
In 1988, recalling train journeys that he took during World War II between New York and Los Angeles to visit his separated parents, he composed Different Trains. Reich considered the idea that had he been living in Europe at that time, he might have been traveling on Holocaust trains.
Different Trains is written for string quartet and recorded tape and is in three movements: America—Before the W... more »
2013-03-26 13:56:35 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
The name of the month of March comes from ancient Rome; it is named for Mars, the god of war. My posts this month will have a battle or war theme.
http://classical-music-online.net/en/listen/54335
The Russian composer Ю́рий Алекса́ндрович Шапо́рин (Yuri Alexandrovich Shaporin; born 1887; died 1996) composed his oratorio The Story of the Battle for the Russian Soil to remember the German invasion of the USSR during World War II.
The gentle opening, orchestra leading into the choir and soloist, is abruptly disturbed by brass and drums heralding the invasion. And then the whole tone of the work changes. The moments of quietness that follow are ominous rather than peaceful. There is an undeniable "Russian-ness" to the orchestration, and I am sure that this was a piece that went over well with Soviet audiences.
My... more »
2013-03-25 21:55:38 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)
I've just discovered euge.ca:
http://euge.ca/2012/11/25/its-complicated/
#classicalmusicjokes
2013-03-25 14:30:35 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
The name of the month of March comes from ancient Rome; it is named for Mars, the god of war. My posts this month will have a battle or war theme.
http://classical-music-online.net/en/listen/70456
The American composer Marc Blitzstein was a member of the film division of the U.S. Eighth Army Air Force in World War II. He was commissioned in 1943 to write a score to a film on the history of aviation, but for various reasons he never completed it. He was stationed in England during the war and several of his other works were premiered while he was there.
When he returned home to the US, he discovered that the score for this film had been lost. Not one to be stopped by something as trivial as that, he contacted Leonard Bernstein and played some sections of the score for him. Bernstein loved what he heard, so Blitzstein wrote out the... more »
2013-03-25 03:23:35 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
The name of the month of March comes from ancient Rome; it is named for Mars, the god of war. My posts this month will have a battle or war theme.
http://grooveshark.com/s/Sebastopol+Symphony+1980+For+Large+Symphonic+Orchestra/3Ut1Rx?src=5
Okay, hands up, all of you who have heard of the 20th-century Soviet composer Борис Александрович Чайковский (Boris Tchaikovsky; born 1925; died 1996). He was not related in any way, shape, or form to Pyotr. He was a student of Shostakovich, and he wrote several symphonies as well as other orchestral and chamber works.
Boris Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 3 is called "Sevastopol" (Севастопольская симфония), named for one of the most classic sieges of all time, the Siege of Sevastopol (September 1954 to September 1855). This was the final battle of the Crimean War. BritishBattles.com d... more »
2013-03-23 14:35:05 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)
Daily Classical Music Post
The name of the month of March comes from ancient Rome; it is named for Mars, the god of war. My posts this month will have a battle or war theme.
http://classical-music-online.net/en/listen/86477
The Canadian composer Barbara Pentland (born 1912; died 2000), according to her biographer, was "horrified by war." In the course of her long career she composed several works expressing this; her 1970 composition News expresses her notion that war was so awful that it could not be talked about using normal speech or music.
One of the first pieces that Pentland wrote on this theme, her Rhapsody 1939 (The World on the March to War Again), is a short but very intense and emotional work for piano. It does have a sort of "international" feel to it: there are several moments when it feels German, then French, then Po... more »
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