In memoriam
May 27, 2013
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Posted by Bob
Happy birthday, Richard
May 24, 2013Although I usually pay attention to these things, I somehow managed to miss Richard Wagner’s 200th birthday on Wednesday. (On the other hand, when someone is 200 years old, what’s another day or two one way or the other?) If you’ve never had the experience of watching or listening to Wagner’s magnum opus, Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), which requires approximately sixteen hours to perform, here is Anna Russell’s executive summary of it, which will save you about fifteen and a half hours:
(Thanks to my pal Bob Belvedere at The Camp of the Saints for this.)
4 Comments | circus of life, musical offerings, simple pleasures | Permalink
Posted by Bob
Journaliste Américaine
April 29, 2013From House of Sunny, a video commentary decidedly lacking in sunshine.
1 Comment | media follies, musical offerings, political snark | Permalink
Posted by Bob
The Lord is risen indeed!
March 31, 2013An Easter Day flash mob performance in Beirut, Lebanon.
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Posted by Bob
Music for Good Friday
March 29, 2013A stunning performance by The Sixteen of Gregorio Allegri’s “Miserere Mei, Deus.” One of the loveliest and most haunting choral works ever composed. The words are from Psalm 51.
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Posted by Bob
He had a lover’s quarrel with the world
March 26, 2013Robert Frost, who was born on this day in 1874, was a college dropout, an unsuccessful farmer, and the finest poet this country ever produced. He won four Pulitzer Prizes for his poetry back when the Pulitzer still meant something, and he’s one of the most-quoted and most-anthologized poets that ever lived. One reason for his enduring popularity is the fact that he continued to employ traditional poetic forms when many of his contemporaries were abandoning them for more experimental forms. Frost once said that he would as soon play tennis with the net down as write in free verse.
In honor of his birthday, here is a choral setting by Randall Thompson of one of Frost’s best-known poems, “The Road Not Taken.”
(If you’d like to hear the complete work “Frostiana,” of which the above is an excerpt, an excellent performance of it can be found here.)
3 Comments | musical offerings, poetic license | Permalink
Posted by Bob
Bach around the clock
March 21, 2013In celebration of J. S. Bach’s 328th birthday, here is an innovative performance of one of his greatest hits, “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”:
Here is Bach’s D minor Toccata and Fugue, played on a collection of crystal wine glasses (and I thought it was hard to play on the piano):
And here are The King’s Singers, to tell us how it really happened:
2 Comments | comfort & joy, musical offerings, simple pleasures | Permalink
Posted by Bob
Nearer, My God, to Thee
February 3, 2013This is an arrangement for nine cellos, but thanks to modern recording technology, one cellist is able to handle the entire piece on his own. A lovely performance, both musically and visually.
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Posted by Bob
Happy birthday, Wolfgang
January 27, 2013Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart was born in Salzburg, in what is now Austria, on this day in 1756. Although he lived only thirty-five years, he composed more music in those thirty-five years than one would think possible for a man who had been blessed with a full three score and ten. One of the most famous arias from one of his most popular operas is “Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen” (“Hell’s vengeance boils in my heart”) from The Magic Flute. Very few people are able to sing it, and I would hazard a guess that very few would be able to whistle it, either, but there is at least one — professional whistler* Geert Chatrou. Here is his jaw-dropping performance of this diabolically difficult aria. If Mozart were still with us, I think he would approve.
*Yes, there really is such a thing.
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Posted by Bob
Happy birthday, Gloria
March 25, 2013Today is the 79th birthday of archfeminist Gloria Steinem, fearless advocate for women’s liberation, tireless crusader for unrestricted abortion, and staunch defender of Democrat presidents who like to carry on extramarital affairs with interns. Gloria has spent most of her life working to obliterate the differences between men and women, both in law and in everyday life, and to emancipate persons of all genders and orientations from oppressive and outdated notions like traditional marriage, the sanctity of human life, the free enterprise system, religious faith, and fidelity to the United States Constitution. Take a look around you at the wasteland that is modern American society, and you’ll see how well all of this has worked out.
Here’s a little song-and-dance number for Gloria’s birthday, from the 1961 movie “Flower Drum Song”: