Today's Birthday Composer

Today's birthday wishes go out to Béla Bartók who would be 127 years old today!

Mr. Bartók's music is considered modern and does sound different from music written in earlier periods.

Whenever I play my only CD of Bartók's music I think of the UAE in particular Khor Fakkan and the surrounding area. When I had picked up Bartók's concerto for orchestra shortly before leaving for the UAE so that piece closely associates with the UAE.

Here is the Wiki entry on his most famous work.

Anyway, here is the last movement from Béla Bartók's concerto for orchestra. You may recognize the piece from a movie or a television show:

Happy Birthday Happy Birthday!

Today is the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685). It is important to spell out the full name as a number of JS Bach's sons went on to achieve musical fame.

JS Bach was a prodigious composer composing over 1100 pieces, an amazing number. WA Mozart who comes shortly after JS Bach composed over 600 works, and Beethoven appears to have composed about half of that, and it seems to me as time goes on composers publish less work.


Anyway, here is one of my favorite Bach pieces:


Happy birtday JS Bach – you would be 323 years old today!

Shame on the New York Philharmonic!

I am somewhat disgusted by the New York Philharmonic's performance in North Korea.

They lent credence and credibility to a despotic government, not only a despotic government, but one that can not create an environment conducive enough to economic activity so the people there can eat. Yeah, I saw the reporting of the New York Philharmonic members being feted by the North Korean government, it did not look like they were eating grass.

I am all for cultural exchange and trying to come to mutual understandings, but until North Korea is able to put first things first we should not be helping the North Korean tyranny paper over the horrible life of the average North Korean.

The irony is one of the performers is the granddaughter of North Korean escapees. Pray tell Ms. Kim, why did your grandparents flee?

I wrote this post sometime ago, but it was suspended in edit mode. I publish now.

il Prette Rosso - A Birthday Wish!

Antonio Vivaldi aka the Red Priest turns 329 years old today!

We start you off with the first movement from his mandolin concerto in C Major:


Of course, Vivaldi's most known works are his set of four concertos known as The Four Seasons. Each concerto focuses on one of the four seasons and the music is written to evoke images of the season. Whether the joy of the return of the sun in springtime, the hot muggies in summer (followed by the wickedly violent storm), the celebration of the fall harvest, or the quiet contentment of sitting in front of the fire in the winter time:

To rest contentedly beside the hearth, while those outside are drenched by pouring rain.

Source: WikiPedia – The Four Seasons (Vivaldi) Winter Antonio Vivaldi's music was among the earliest works in my classical music collection and good thing. His works are typified by often times very fast, light and bouncy, almost always catchy.

Here is the third movement from the Summer Concerto: The second movement evokes the lazy dog days of summer where it is hot and muggy and most people prefer to laze under a shade tree with a cold drink, and then the storm hits! The storm movement is the third (the second movement foreshadows the storm with sounds evoking approaching thunder),

One complaint I have heard people lodge against il Prette Rosso is many of his works seem to resemble each other closely, to be honest, the charge is not ill founded. Vivaldi's unfamiliar works are often easy to pick out, but this does not lessen his career. Vivaldi was an accomplished musician, teacher, and composer of music.

Happy Birthday John Williams!

Today's birthday composer is still alive and I am guessing you all know a number of his works. Today's birthday composer is John Williams and he has composed the scores to a number of mildly successful films.

The music of John Williams was my first serious introduction to classical music. Back in the mid '70s there was this obscure filme named Star Wars and the theme caught my fancy. So one Christmas a tape of the soundtrack was given to me and my brother received an album of the popularized version of the theme song and others. In addtion, at about the same time I received a tape of the soundtrack to Rocky.

However, pop music quickly overcame the budding interest in classical music and I started getting a hold of Kiss albums.

John Williams also composed scores for Indiana Jones, Jaws, Superman, and other successful movies. Anyway today's presentation is a rendition of the theme from Star Wars. I was looking for a version of John conducting the performance but all such You Tube recordings were shoddy and contained too much crowd noise, instead I select the below version from Japan, just wait for the Japanese announcers to finish up there chit-chat and the performance beings.


The Theme from Star Wars by John Williams:


Happy birthday John Williams you are 76 years old today!

Happy Birthday Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart

Today we celebrate the birthday of Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart more commonly known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. One of his pieces that is sure to turn bad moods into good one and to get me tapping fingers and feet is the ending of his opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail and here is that work:

If you want to listen to more Mozart just click on over to WCPE and listen! They are playing a lot of Mozart in celebration.

Happy Birthday Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart you would be 252 years old today!

Happy Birthday Ludwig!

Today or tomorrow is the birthday of Ludwig von Beethoven. Most of us know who Ludwig von Beethoven is and know perhaps bits & pieces of one or two of his compositions. Read the Wikipedia entry an then listen to the the second movement the adagio cantabile of his eighth piano sonata in C minor – The Pathetique Sonata.
Happy birthday Ludwig, you would have been 237 years old today or tomorrow!

The Last Bit

Is going to be appropriate for a late night blog. Two things, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and a YouTube video and some music education.

Ever hear a tune and you find yourself improvising filler in between the notes or perhaps changing one musical attribute or another? That is perhaps in your head you take the tune and move each note up or down in pitch? Ever hear a song that makes you think you have heard that melody before, but can not quite realize where you heard it before? Music contains a style called variations on a theme (VOT). VOT is a simple concept, take a tune and change it in someway retaining enough of the tune or theme to recognize the original theme.

One theme I often hear in church music is Brubek's Take Five theme. There are at least two hymns our church choir sings regularly that seem to be VOTs off of Take Five. Invariably when I pull out the hymnal the timing is 4/5 timing which is unusual and the same as Take Five's timing.

VOTs can vary in any number of ways many easily discernible to the music lover's ear and some not. First some variations easily discernible (not high-school orchestra don't expect a top-notch performance): and then some not so easily discernible (the famous Variations on a Theme by Haydn - by J Brahms):

Happy Birthday Hector Berlioz!

I present to you the second movement ("Un Bal" in allegro non troppo) from Hector's most famous work Symphonie Fantastique.
Or just click on here to be whisked to You Tube to view the performance.

Hector was a composer during the romantic period. This piece is from a 1970 performance conducted by Herbert von Karajan.

Holy smokes Hector, you would be 204 years old today!

Oh my! Mozart's K466 is playing right now!

This is Winter!

But it Brings Joy!

In honor of Winter's first storm I present: L'inverno (Winter) Movement I


Search out the last two movements of Vivaldi's winter concerto, in fact search out and listen to all four of his famous Four Seasons Concertos. Vivaldi did a wonderful job of capturing the seasons in the music. The poem at the beginning is great, the translation I am familiar with ends This is Winter, but it brings joy.

Happy Birthday John Philip Sousa!

Today is the 153rd birthday of John Philip Sousa. You may not know the name but you know at least one of his works and this is that work:


Another well known work of Mr. Sousa's is the Liberty Bell March which is the theme used by Monty Python's Flying Circus:


Happy birthday John Philip Sousa!

Choral Music

WCPE is playing some absolutely stunning music. It sounds like Middle Age worship music. Unfortunately their website does not release the playlist until a couple of weeks after, actually it was just announced and the work was The Vespers of our Lady by Juan Garcia Salazar.

I can not describe it.

I recall a number of years ago in July I had my wisdom teeth pulled. All four I chose a general. They told me I can bring a CD along and I got in the chair they did what they had to do, popped the CD in and hit play. I chose the UST Singer's Celebrate CD. Something happened and they skipped the first track, but that was okay. I went to sleep with Lay a Garland playing.

Interesting piece to under anesthesia!

The Day The Music Died

I heard criticism Luciano Pavarotti did not strive to get the most out of his God given talent. No surprise, it seems as if he was too busy enjoying life. He was so blessed his cup flowed over and he was able to share his blessing with us.

Every generation has a famous tenor one who is remembered for generations Luciano is ours.

Luciano Pavarotti, may God grant you eternal rest and let his perpetual light shine upon you.

Happy Birthday Edvard!

Edvard Grieg that is!

You all recognize his In the Hall of the Mountain King:

Yumping Yimminy Edvard! Happy Birthday, you would be 164 years old today!

Joshua Bell in the Subway

Joshua Bell a world renowned concert violinist was approached by writers for the Washington Post. They asked if would pose as a regular street performer in the Washington D.C. subway and they would spy on the reactions to the performance, gauge the audience, and count the coins.

I will not quote the article, you can visit it yourself. In the end the author is disappointed because only one person recognized (or gave visible sign of that recognition) Joshua Bell. Mr. Bell's performance earned him about $40.00 for one hour of work (not counting the $20 thrown in by the woman that recognized him).

You can tell the author is disappointed more did not recognize they were listening to greatness either in terms of the performer or the pieces. I have never heard the pieces they mention, but it does sound as if they were not sleepy pieces.

Not all in the article express disappointment. Some are understanding of what the daily commuter is up to. They are going to work & appointments. The majority of the commuters probably don't listen to classical music period, a fact the article does recognize.

As I have blogged here regularly, I listen to classical music. However, if I had been among the DC commuters I probably would have turned my head listened while I was in earshot, but otherwise would have kept going. While I recognize the name Joshua Bell I would not recognize his appearance. In any event it is still celebrity worship. Furthermore, the pieces he played did not register with me (don't get me wrong they are works I am now eager to hear).

Were I on vacation or otherwise at leisure than there is a fair chance I would have stopped to listen. Live music of that sort is a rare treat I appreciate.

After mass, if the organist goes off & plays an organ solo I will sit in the pew and listen until the organist quits (especially real pipe organs played by accomplished organists, my parish has both). So, I am not adverse to stopping and – listening to the roses.

However, if I have a deadline or an appointment to make, sorry, even great music gets turned down.