When it was released in 1959, Beh Hur became the second highest grossing film in history (behind Gone With The Wind) - saving MGM from bankruptcy. It won an astonishing 11 Academy Awards, including best musical scoring by composer Miklós Rózsa.
It's good music for Easter. I hope that you (like we) are enjoying it with family.
Holy Week calls for the Big Guns of classical music. Hector Berlioz was one of these, and his Messe Solennelle is one of the great works of religious music. Astonishingly, Berlioz was only twenty years old when he wrote this, and then destroyed the music for Messe Solennelle (except for the Resurrexit portion).
A copy of the entire work was discovered in 1991.
Top o' the morning to you, and happy St. Patrick's Day (almost). This is my traditional Paddy's Day post, mostly because I love the music here.
What is the "Classical Music" of Ireland? It's not (Italian) Opera, or (German) symphonies, or even an (English) homage to
Ralph Vaughan Williams (who studied under an Irish music professor)
"countryside music" in the concert hall. Instead, we find something ancient.
He
married very late, at 50, and had many children. But his first love
was Brigid, daughter of the Schoolmaster at a school for the blind. He
always seemed to have carried a torch for her.
So
why is this post in the normal slot reserved for Classical Music?
Listen to this composition of his, and you see the bridge from the
archaic Celts to Baroque harpsichord.
And
keep in mind how this brilliance might never have blazed, had Mrs.
MacDermot Roe not seen the talent in a blind Irish boy and set him upon a
path trod by many equally unexpected geniuses, all the way back to St.
Patrick. It is truly said that we never know what our own path will be
until we set our foot down on it.
But
his was an ancient path and he inherited much from those who trod it
before him. His "Farewell to Music" is said to be more in the
traditional mold, and might have been appreciated at a feast held by
Vercingetorix before the battle of Alesia.
This
music is a bridge between modern and the ancient that disappears into
the mists of legend. Perhaps more importantly, it is a music that is
still alive today, after a run of perhaps two and a half millennia.
And
it is a music where you still hear the yearning of a young blind man
for his muse, Brigid. That is a vitality that should not be exiled to a
single day of celebration, even if it is for as illustrious a Saint as
Patrick. On this Feast Day of St. Patrick (almost), remember just how deep the roots of our
civilization run.
(Originally posted March 16, 2014)
With a Flash Mob at Macy's, and accompanied by the Wanamaker organ - the World's largest pipe organ.
Except there was this little problem: not only was Ambrose not a priest, he wasn't even baptized as a Christian. The crowd wasn't about to let minor issues like that stand between them and their new bishop. So Governor Aurelius Ambrosius became Bishop Ambrose.
He was a force to be reckoned with, even excommunicating Emperor Theodosius the Great (I think that this was the first time this had ever happened).
He also composed the first Christmas Carol, Veni Redemptor Genitum (Come, Redeemer of the Nations). It is still performed today, 1650 years later.
Latin:
Veni, redemptor gentium;
ostende partum Virginis;
miretur omne saeculum:
talis decet partus Deum.
English translation:
Come, Redeemer of the nations;
show forth the Virgin birth;
let every age marvel:
such a birth befits God.
Now the Christmas season is upon us. It seemed right to start our annual christmas music posts with the very first Christmas carol.
* The others are St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory the Great. It was sort of a Murderer's Row lineup of the early Church batting order.
Sunday music here is usually classical. So why Greg Lake (from Emerson, Lake, and Palmer fame)? Well, Lake sampled Sergei Prokofiev's famous sleigh ride from his Lieutenant Kijé suite. You almost certainly know this music well enough to hum along (it starts about a minute into the video).
There's quite a lot of classic rock that really should be labeled "Classical Rock" ...
This week is Thanksgiving* and so calls for what is perhaps the most American of all classical music, Aaron Copeland's Appalachian Spring. Most of the composers we see here on Sunday Classical were child prodigies, going to the Paris Conservatoire before they were 12 years old or such. Not so with Copeland, who was a distinctly American self-made-man story.
His family wasn't musical, and when he was young you would have thought that his older brother was the only musical talent in the family. He got his first piano lessons from his older sister, who he was very close to - but that only took him so far. And so he signed up for a Music Correspondence Course and got lucky. His teacher was a no-nonsense German who schooled him in Romantic era composers. As he said later in life, "This was a stroke of luck for me. I was spared the floundering that so many musicians have suffered through incompetent teaching."
What stuck ended up making him hugely popular with general audiences in the USA. His Fanfare For The Common Man is perhaps his most recognizable work. Artistically, you can compare this with Norman Rockwell's famous Freedom Of Speech painting:
*Offer void in Canada.
Via a wikiwander, I ran across this fabulously strange classical music tip o' the hat to the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. No joke.
Bohuslav Martinů was a Czech composer who like many others fled to the United States to escape the Nazis. While there, he wrote this in tribute to what was America's finest fighter-bomber and the role it played to free his people.
It's summer in Florida, which means that it's the rainy season. This year it's been really rainy: every day for the last couple of weeks and forecast for the next 10 or so. At least the weather has been cooler.
I haven't posted much Chopin here which is a little surprising. So here's his Raindrop Prelude.
Porgy & Bess was first performed in 1935 and sadly has peaked. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was popular in the Soviet Union during the Cold War as a display of American repression - the 1980s film White Nights showcased this.. It seems that the Usual Suspects who control popular culture are not subtle enough to line this into their repertoire of anti-American art, but whatever.
This is without doubt the most famous song from that opera, and has been recorded by pretty much everybody - Janis Joplin & The Holding Company may have been the most unexpected of these. Here's Ella Fitzgerald with what approaches the Platonic Ideal performance of the song.
The Sound of Music was an enormous commercial success, not only winning hte best picture Oscar but becoming the highest grossing film of all time for a number of years.
The film has an interesting pedigree. Maria von Trapp (the person played by Julie Andrews in the film) wrote the story which was originally turned into a pair of films in West Germany (The Trapp Family and The Trapp Family in America) which were the most successful films in West German history. The story became a very successful stage musical before being filmed.
This song was added almost as an afterthought to the musical. It was written to sound like an old Austrian folk song but was entirely new. It was the last song that Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote together before Hammerstein died from stomach cancer. It fooled people all over the world: one Austrian gentleman once told Rodgers that he loved the song in the film but of course had learned the lyrics in the original German.
This scene reminds me of the "battle of the anthems" scene in Casablanca, although much more understated. The audience singing along was a great big middle finger to the Nazis.
One final bit of trivia about this song: The Queen Of The World plays this on her ukulele. She's really good.
When Ives composed this in the 1890s (at age 17!), there was no official national anthem. "My Country Tis Of Thee" was generally recognized as the de facto anthem, and Ives used it as a basis for this when he wrote it for an Independence Day celebration.
He was organist at his church, and his father didn't let him play it often since it made some of the kids there laugh. It's a fun piece for a long Independence Day weekend.
Dwight (your go-to guy for obituaries) posts on the passing of Lalo Schifrin. Dwight lists the astonishing themes that he composed (spoiler alert: you have heard many of these). Most famous was Mission: Impossible theme; this song was one of the five Grammys he won:
He also composed the score for The Four Musketeers, which was great fun.
I encourage you to click through to Dwight's post for the list of his compositions which is simply astounding.
Yes, we usually hear this at Christmas. Remember, though, that
Handel wrote this for an Easter performance. I can think of no greater -
more emotionally stirring - music for the Lord's rising than this. The
kettle drum at the end of the Amen never fails to thrill. As a matter
of fact, the opening bars of Worthy Is The Lamb never fail to thrill,
either. If you can read music, you have my permission to do a bit of a
singalong to the score shown here.
The Lord is risen, alleluia, alleluia.
This is one of the most clever and enjoyable pieces of classical music that I know. Ernest Tomlinson's story is quite an impressive one, but the quick story here is that he weaved bits of 152 other songs in this composition. It's a challenge to recognize them all which is why I have a (partial) cheat sheet below. What a fun song.
You don't get more traditional Christmas music than this.
He plays like an angel, she sings like one. That's why this video has 6 million views.
This is the oldest Christmas Carol that we know of.
Except there was this little problem: not only was Ambrose not a priest, he wasn't even baptized as a Christian. The crowd wasn't about to let minor issues like that stand between them and their new bishop. So Governor Aurelius Ambrosius became Bishop Ambrose.
He was a force to be reckoned with, even excommunicating Emperor Theodosius the Great (I think that this was the first time this had ever happened).
He also composed the first Christmas Carol, Veni Redemptor Genitum (Come, Redeemer of the Nations). It is still performed today, 1650 years later.
Latin:
Veni, redemptor gentium;
ostende partum Virginis;
miretur omne saeculum:
talis decet partus Deum.
English translation:
Come, Redeemer of the nations;
show forth the Virgin birth;
let every age marvel:
such a birth befits God.
Now the Christmas season is upon us. It seemed right to start our annual christmas music posts with the very first Christmas carol.
* The others are St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory the Great. It was sort of a Murderer's Row lineup of the early Church batting order.
St. Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai is said to be the oldest continually inhabited monastery, founded by Emperor Justinian the Great around 550AD. It has a library that has survived the ages, perhaps because they have a document said to be signed by Mohammad himself saying that the Monastery was under his protection. Even if it was a forgery, it seems to have been an effective forgery.
It has perhaps the most impressive collection of icons in the world. For example, the oldest known icon of Kristos Pantokrator, dating from the 6th century:
St. Catherine's has just offered full size (or reduced size) museum quality reproductions of many of its icons:
You can view (and purchase, if you'd like) the reproductions here. They look to be very high quality (to me, at least). As the original linked article says:For the first time in its 1,500-year history, Saint Catherine’s Monastery is offering certified replicas of its most famous Byzantine icons. These replicas, available in actual size and true-to-life color, allow people worldwide to own a piece of this sacred art.
This groundbreaking project is the result of a three-year collaboration between the Monastery, the Friends of Mount Sinai Monastery, and Legacy Icons. Dr. Peter Chang, President of the Friends of Mount Sinai Monastery, called the partnership a “significant milestone in our ongoing mission to support Saint Catherine’s Monastery and its invaluable contributions to Christian spirituality and global civilization.”
The first set of replicas includes some of the Monastery’s most treasured works:
- Christ Pantocrator (6th century)
- Moses and the Burning Bush (c. 13th century)
- Saint Catherine with Scenes of her Life (18th century)
These replicas are created using high-resolution scans, capturing even the tiniest details. “To be able to look into the depths of the cracks and original paint strokes with this clarity is breathtaking and we look forward to shipping these for all to appreciate,” said David DeJonge, founder of Legacy Icons. The replicas are printed on high-quality Hahnemühle Photo Rag paper and mounted on solid hardwoods, ensuring they are as authentic as possible.
A portion of the purchase goes to support the Monastery's preservation activities. Remember, this Monastery has been working and collecting manuscripts continually for 1500 years.
Here is a recording of traditional music from the Monastery.
As you'd
expect, there's terrific classical music for this occasion; as a matter
of fact, you've probably heard it.
Antonio Vivaldi was one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his Four Seasons
suite of four violin concertos is without doubt his most famous work.
Sadly for him, it didn't help him very much - the Holy Roman Emperor
Charles VI died before appointing him court composer, and Vivaldi (like
Mozart after him) died in poverty.
But there aren't many who leave behind a legacy such as this. Vivaldi's
life story in a way matches the mood of autumn, with a glorious youth
behind it and a cold, poor finish ahead of it.
But don't let me harsh your mellow! The music is sublime, and the temperature (in Florida at least) will barely drop below 70 ...
