|
Post by jk on Mar 4, 2020 11:15:33 GMT
We saw the astonishing Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson on Dutch TV last weekend. He is about to release an album of music by Jean-Philippe Rameau and Claude Debussy, who in his view enjoy a musical kinship. This is Rameau's "Les tendres plaintes", which opens his Suite in D major, RCT 3 ( Premier Livre de Pièces de Clavecin, 1706): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%ADkingur_Ólafsson
|
|
|
Post by jk on Mar 12, 2020 9:51:12 GMT
How about this? Here's Joshilyn playing a favourite vocal work of hers, William Byrd's six-part Tu es Petrus, in an arrangement for electric mandolin and archtop guitar with some great visuals to boot. Over to you, JH:
The great William Byrd composed this magnificent motet to the text:
Tu es Petrus, et super hanc Petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church
It is a marvel of polyphonic writing and also creating the sensation of the text within the music. For example, when a voice part sings of the "Rock" it dives low, particularly in the basses, where the rock line is low and drawn out for many bars--quite literally the rock on which the structure of the motet rests.
I've sadly lost the marriage of music and text by producing this instrumental version, 2 electric mandolins playing the top two parts and acoustic guitar playing the bottom four. It is otherwise a straightforward note-for-note translation from the score (with one small exception.)
I hope you enjoy it--I do things other than Beach Boys videos! But they have vocal harmony in common!
|
|
|
Post by jk on Mar 15, 2020 23:17:17 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Mar 16, 2020 22:38:50 GMT
I've had some instrumental music playing in the hopes it wouldn't distract me from reading, but Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3 ("Scottish") keeps doing just that. Lovely work.
|
|
|
Post by jk on Mar 17, 2020 10:28:13 GMT
I've had some instrumental music playing in the hopes it wouldn't distract me from reading, but Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3 ("Scottish") keeps doing just that. Lovely work.
I love Mendelssohn's symphonies and overtures--I have nos. 4 and 5 and six overtures, all by Abbado and the LSO. Wonderful stuff. Thank you for #3, Cap'n. I've got it playing as I work.
|
|
|
Post by jk on Mar 21, 2020 13:11:08 GMT
I was talking only recently with a friend about Princess Diana and this morning Dutch classical radio played John Tavener's sumptuous Song for Athene, one of the pieces played at Diana's funeral: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_for_Athene
|
|
|
Post by jk on Mar 27, 2020 22:15:30 GMT
There's a discussion right now at EH about what the percussion instrument at the onset of "Sloop John B" might be. aeijtzsche and I seem to agree that it's castanets played in a un-castanetty kind of a way. (We reached that conclusion independently--it's all in her "DYWD" isolation thread.) The percussive passage that pushed me in that direction comes at the end of the second movement of Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony--here at 33:33, although I'd recommend listening to it in its entirety: In The New Shostakovich, Ian MacDonald makes a compellingly case for what he thinks Shostakovich meant by this extraordinary work (pp. 109-117 in the link). ernstchan.xyz/int/src/1571513831-320.pdf
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Mar 29, 2020 14:27:56 GMT
Been listening to some Chopin nocturnes this morning, including what I think is one of the prettiest pieces of music ever written:
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Mar 29, 2020 14:50:42 GMT
According to the obituary linked above, "Penderecki's international career began at age 25, when he won all three top prizes in a young composers' competition in Warsaw in 1959 — writing one score with his right hand, one with his left and asking a friend to copy out the third score so that the handwriting wouldn't reveal they were all by the same person."
|
|
|
Post by jk on Mar 31, 2020 8:54:51 GMT
According to the obituary linked above, "Penderecki's international career began at age 25, when he won all three top prizes in a young composers' competition in Warsaw in 1959 — writing one score with his right hand, one with his left and asking a friend to copy out the third score so that the handwriting wouldn't reveal they were all by the same person."
Fantastic! I first heard of Krzysztof P. at a tender age when his Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima was seriously messing with people's heads, including my own. May he rest in peace. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threnody_to_the_Victims_of_Hiroshima
|
|
|
Post by jk on Apr 11, 2020 11:51:41 GMT
I was alerted to this serene work by Buxtehude after mentioning to JH that I would be performing (on my balcony) a Bach chorale that uses the same melody. Herzlich tut mich verlangen (BuxWV 42) takes Hassler's 1611 melody and weaves a wonderful texture of soprano, two violins and continuo: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herzlich_tut_mich_verlangen
|
|
|
Post by jk on Apr 23, 2020 22:51:20 GMT
This is aeijtzsche's wonderful Eastertide offering--enjoy!
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Apr 23, 2020 23:04:07 GMT
Very nice. Reminds me of Zach W. from the previous boards with her versatile talents.
|
|
|
Post by jk on Apr 24, 2020 10:01:27 GMT
Very nice. Reminds me of Zach W. from the previous boards with her versatile talents.
I pointed her at a Zach video a while back and she was impressed. But see the YouTube blurb, which I reproduce for those who look no further than the embedded video: In honour of Easter, and inspired by some of the great music ensembles of the world coming together for virtual community performances during this bizarre time, I offer my one-woman performance of the final Chorale from Bach's Cantata BWV 18. Ich bitt, o Herr, aus Herzens Grund, Du wollst nicht von mir nehmen Dein heil’ges Wort aus meinem Mund; So wird mich nicht beschämen Mein Sünd und Schuld, denn in dein Huld Setz ich all mein Vertrauen: Wer sich nur fest darauf verläßt, Der wird den Tod nicht schauen. I sang each voice part thrice, quadrupling the soprano line. The vocal bass lines were all sung an octave up from what's written and shifted down one octave because they are not always available to my range. The score calls for 4 violas and 2 recorders. Having little in the way of proper continuo instruments, I made do with my guitar serving as an ersatz lute, and adding a 16-foot virtual organ stop to shore up the low end. Bach always brings me satisfaction - I pray that my offering can be worshipful or peace-giving to you. I (jk) should add that the guitar/ersatz lute plays the bassoon part in the original. And yes, it is peace-giving to me.
|
|
|
Post by jk on Apr 29, 2020 9:35:54 GMT
I had no idea Brahms had written for the harp. It's a magical combination--harp, two horns and a female choir:
Taken from the YouTube blurb (which see):
"These four choral songs [Vier Gesänge, op. 17] have the paradoxical distinction of both beginning the excellent line of secular part songs by Brahms and being completely unique within that output. Written for three-part women’s chorus throughout (except for a brief four-part a cappella passage in the middle section of No. 4), the choral style does anticipate somewhat that of the later a cappella part songs for mixed chorus (Opp. 42, 62, 93a, and 104). Op. 17, however, is set apart not only by being accompanied, but by the nature of that accompaniment: the exceedingly romantic combination of two horns and harp. The latter was an instrument to which Brahms would rarely again turn (only in the German Requiem, Op. 45 and in the Nänie, Op. 82, and in none of the symphonies). He remarked that he was not particularly fond of the instrument when it had to go and 'make an effect'. In contrast, he always wrote effectively for horns, despite refusing to compose for the new valve instrument. The highly diverse texts lend themselves well to this combination. The harp’s characteristic arpeggios are prominent in Nos. 1 and 3. Both of these songs use the horns sparingly. No 1 restricts itself to one horn in a very specific role. Nos. 2 and 4 exploit the characteristic natural horn harmonies, known as 'horn fifths', to great effect. In these two songs, the harp is mostly restricted to block chords. The choral writing is relatively simple. Multi-voice counterpoint is kept at a minimum, the three parts singing mostly in block harmonies."
|
|