Saturday, December 19, A.D. 2009

Borodino

Happy feast of Saint Nicholas (on the old calendar, today is the sixth of December)!

The Saint Nicholas Center mentions that, among many other things, Nicholas is one of the patron saints of soldiers. He is also one of the patrons of Moscow. So, allow me quite tangentially to celebrate his feast day by presenting you Lermontov’s “Бородино,” sung at Duke University by the alumni of the Yale Russian Chorus.

I do not know where Russian soldiers found the tune to which they sang Lermontov’s poem, but it works well. The Russians can sing. I wonder if such was true before they converted. Were they musical pagans, as I imagine the Irish to have been?

Indulging in my Russophilia, I also present the blessing of the soldiers from Bondarchuk’s War and Peace (Война и мир). My brother Adam should appreciate the small indirect homage to his favorite writer.

Bondarchuk’s film is evidently the most expensive film ever to be made, at seven hundred million of today’s dollars. That makes Avatar look reasonably priced.

Enjoy Saint Nicholas’ Day!

Posted by Joseph on Saturday, December 19, A.D. 2009
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Friday, September 4, A.D. 2009

Rondo alla Turca

Here is a popular treat from Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 11, the Alla Turca: Allegretto, played by Italian pianist Massimiliano Ferrati.

I have loved this piece since I first encountered it in cartoons and video games as a child. It is very catchy. Was mehter music really that good?

Posted by Joseph on Friday, September 4, A.D. 2009
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Thursday, August 20, A.D. 2009

Mercury, the Winged Messenger

I have already mentioned my admiration for Gustav Holst’s Planets Suite in “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity.” Below is “Mercury, the Winged Messenger” by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Richard Hickox.

Here is a video of a live performance by the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin.

I am not sure whether “Mercury” is my second favorite movement from The Planets, but it is a contender.

Posted by Joseph on Thursday, August 20, A.D. 2009
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Tuesday, July 21, A.D. 2009

Moon Songs

I tried to think of a fitting lunar song as a followup to yesterday’s post about Apollo 11. I never liked Moondance or Blue Moon, and Bad Moon Rising seemed too ill fitting. So, I have settled for one high brow piece and one low brow song: Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and Mecano’s “Hijo de la Luna” from their Entre el cielo y el suelo album.

You may listen to Beethoven’s hauntingly beautiful Piano Sonata No. 14 below. The fellow who uploaded the videos mistakenly marked each of them as the second movement, but I think that I posted them in the correct order.

First Movement:

Second Movement:

Third Movement:

I first heard Mecano’s “Hijo de la Luna” when I was studying in Paris. The video is very 80’s with oddly androgynous people and weird, sullen styles. The song, however, is about a gypsy woman who prays for a child. The moon grants her a child, but the woman’s husband rejects the boy because he is pale (like the moon). The man kills his wife, as he thinks that she has committed adultery. Yet, the boy escapes to the moon.

The video depiction of the moon boy is fittingly creepy.

If only 80’s fashion had not gotten in the way of elemental pagan imagery, it could have been an excellent video.

Posted by Joseph on Tuesday, July 21, A.D. 2009
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Saturday, July 4, A.D. 2009

Stars and Stripes Forever

Washington’s own John Philip Sousa gave America so many of its patriotic tunes. It is meet and right to honor him on the American civic holiday. Here is his “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

Perhaps, it national chauvinism, but American military marches seem so much cheerful than other countries’ tunes. If so, we can thank Sousa.

Posted by Joseph on Saturday, July 4, A.D. 2009
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Saturday, June 20, A.D. 2009

Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity

I have read several articles that listed Gustav Holst as the grandfather of all movie soundtracks. This is certainly true of “space opera” films; before there was John Williams, there was Holst. The English composer’s Planets Suite is the definitive composition for our neighbors in the solar system.

Here, you can listen to “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity” from The Planets.

Though I prefer the previous recording, it is always fun to watch an orchestra. Here it is by the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin.

“Jupiter” is my favorite part of The Planets; the father of the gods deserves the best.

Posted by Joseph on Saturday, June 20, A.D. 2009
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Friday, May 22, A.D. 2009

Slavonic Dances

You may know that Antonín Dvořák is a god in my musical pantheon. When I visited the motherland, I knew that I had to pay my respects to his tomb in Vyšehrad. Memory eternal!

I love both sets of Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances, opera 46 and 72. Online videos do not do justice to them, of course, but below you may get a foretaste of their enchantment.

Here is perhaps my favorite one, Opus 46-7, performed by the Nino Rota Orchestra in Bari.

My second favorite is probably Opus 46-1, performed here by the Vienna Philharmonic.

For an optimistic jolt, try Opus 46-5, which is so cheerful.

I find Opus 46-6 very absorbing—almost erotically Dionysian.

Opus 46-4 reminds me of Mussorgsky for some reason.

Opus 46-8 reminds me of Holst’s Planets for some other reason.

Fantastic, eh? Well, Opus 72 will have to wait until another post in the future.

Posted by Joseph on Friday, May 22, A.D. 2009
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Friday, April 24, A.D. 2009

Russian Easter Overture

I have found it impossible to convey the peculiar experience of Orthodox Pascha to the Gentiles. Music begins where words fail, and the composition below offers a hint of the celebration.

Moreover, among the Orthodox, I am strongly biased in favor of the Russian liturgical tradition. The New Testament may have been written in Greek by Jews, but doxological perfection awaited one thousand years. Greeks, Arabs, and all the others surely will disagree, but they are likely quite wrong.

While unable to convey the joy, meaning, and transcendance of Pascha, the Russian Easter Overture of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov does suggest, analogically, the mood felt on Pascha. If you are familar with the Russian Paschal celebration, you will enjoy the echoes of the Feast of Feasts in the work. If you are not so aware, then you should plan to spend Orthodox Pascha next year at the all night celebration.

You can listen below to the overture performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Leopold Stokowski.

Part I:

Part II:

Here is a video of a performance by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa. It is somewhat more fulfilling to see an orchestra is action. It makes me proud to be human.

Part I:

Part II:

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death . . .

Posted by Joseph on Friday, April 24, A.D. 2009
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Tuesday, March 10, A.D. 2009

Vltava

Bohemia has given the world so much. Saint Václav—or Wenceslas—the good king who was really a duke, Franz Kafka, Gregor Mendel, and countless other intellectual, cultural, and spiritual giants have come from this little country. Astronomer Tycho Brahe may have been a Dane, but he worked, died, and was buried in Prague. You may know his assistant in Prague, German Johannes Kepler, who developed the laws of planetary motion that inspired Newtonian physics. Even in degenerate contemporary times, the Czechs continue to surprise the world. What other modern democracy has elected a head of state as worthy to lead as Václav Havel? Having some Czech ancestry myself, I may be somewhat biased, but Antonín Dvořák is perhaps my favorite composer, Prague is one of my favorite cities, and Plzeňský Prazdroj (Pilsner Urquell) is my favorite beer. Moreover, the Czechs are, in my opinion, one of the most attractive peoples in the world.

Of the notable men who have come from the land of the Moldau, we must not forget the composer Bedřich Smetana. I believe that his Má Vlast (My Country) ranks among the greatest works in Western music. You may listen below to the most famous piece from Má Vlast, Vltava or Die Moldau, named after the principal river in the Czech land. The concert was performed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in A.D. 1990—soon after the Czechs and their fellow Slovaks regained their liberty from the Soviet monsters.

Part I:

Part II:

As I traveled through the Bohemian countryside, I played this song in my mind. I hope that I caught just a glimpse of the beauty that Smetana saw.

Posted by Joseph on Tuesday, March 10, A.D. 2009
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Thursday, February 12, A.D. 2009

Instant Maple Love

It seems that I slowly absorbed most of the music that I prefer; I learnt to like it from familiarity. I cannot, for example, tell you when I began to like Fleetwood Mac, Sam Cooke, the Rolling Stones, the Drifters, or the Four Tops. I grew up listening to my mother’s playing their records. Yet, familiarity cannot account for everything. To this day, I cannot stand hearing Randy Travis and similar country music acts, though my mom played such songs all the time at home.

However, there are some musical encounters that I clearly remember when I instantly fell in love with a song the very first time that I heard it. It might be that such songs simply speak the same language as other music to which I have been accustomed, or it might be that they just trigger some psychological pleasure point. Perhaps, they are just beautiful or they proficiently speak the language of the soul. From majestic movements to simple, catchy jingles, certain tunes just take you as soon as they reach your ears.

I remember the first times that I heard Beethoven’s Fifth and Ninth Symphonies in their entirety. Of course, I recognized portions of them from popular culture. Who can grow up watching Looney Tunes without a fair amount of exposure to the music of high culture? Anyway, if you would pardon the cliché, I was transfixed by the symphonies. From the very first sitting, I knew without any doubt that Beethoven had been inspired by God. As Socrates might say, Beethoven beheld the beautiful itself; for his work testifies of an intimacy with the divine.

I had the same experience with Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Smetana’s Má vlast, Rachmaninov’s settings for Vespers, The Planets of Holst, and mostly everything from J.S. Bach, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Dvořák, and Rimsky-Korsakov. To hear them is to love them. Of course, we might expect that such great artists would create works to be immediately appreciated.

Yet, I have had similar though lesser experiences with some pop, as well. I liked the Chieftains, Clannad, and Enya the first time that I heard them, I became a fan of Belle & Sebastian upon hearing “The Boy with the Arab Strap” on my brother’s music list, and I also instantly liked Coldplay. Clearly, I tend to like bands that sound like other bands that I like. So, that could explain some ready acceptance, though it does not account for everything. I remember finding The Cranberries very distasteful the first time that I heard O’Riordan’s peculiar Celtic wail, though I developed quite a taste for them after a few weeks of hearing them in my friend’s car.

Please allow me to showcase one last song. In elementary school, I remember attending a school assembly that featured a musician. I always liked assemblies, as they broke up the monotony of class time’s everlasting tedium. So, I was kindly disposed to the guests out of gratitude. Regardless, when the man began to play the piano, I fell for his song. To hear it is to love Scott Joplin’s famous ragtime classic, the “Maple Leaf Rag.” It is simple joy. Well, here is what I believe to be one of Joplin’s piano rolls (perhaps processed through MIDI, though I am not sure):

If you want a better rendition of the piano roll, consider Milan Record’s’ Scott Joplin: Ragtime Piano Roll. The quality of these recordings, as well as Joplin’s genius, make the album well worth your money. In my opinion, they excel the other recordings of Joplin’s works. If you wish to listen to full versions of these tracks, request them on Rhapsody, where you get to listen to twenty-five songs for free.

The album site’s short biography on Joplin quotes the following from Allmusic: “Born in Texas in either 1867 or 1868, Joplin was raised in Texarkana, the son of a laborer and former slave. As a child, Joplin taught himself piano on an instrument belonging to a white family that granted him access to it, and ultimately studied with a local, German-born teacher who introduced Joplin to classical music.” How remarkable! Enjoy Joplin’s great gift to America.

Posted by Joseph on Thursday, February 12, A.D. 2009
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