Dead-Composers Society

[AC Benus]

Happy 256th Birthday, Cherubini!!!

 

Arturo Toscanini conducts the NBC Symphony Orchestra in a live 1953 performance (the best!). Luigi Cherubini, overture to Anacreonte, 1803.

 

Edited September 14, 2016 by AC Benus

[AC Benus]

Last month, I posted about the Spanish composer, Enrique Granados. I figured tonight, I would share about another, Isaac Albéniz. He was a contemporary of Granados, and like him, Albéniz's compositions were heavily influenced by Spanish folk music. What is interesting to think is that both Granados and Albéniz wrote many of their pieces for piano, but have since then been transcribed for guitar. And like with Granados, I prefer the guitar versions of Albéniz's works.

 

My absolute favorite from Albéniz is Córdoba, Op. 232 No. 4. Damn... just listening to it brings you to another world. It's just... beautiful.

 

 

The piece is played by world renowned classical guitarist, Julian Bream.

Thanks, Drew. I've listened to this several times, and I like the way the composer wove together various themes. That works very well to paint a 'streetscape' in my mind. 

[AC Benus]

Tristan's Lament - a sad song from a composer so dead we don't even know who they were. This song was found in an Italian manuscript and appears to have ties to one of the many versions of the Tristan and Yseult legend.

 

 

There's an interesting progress the melody takes, becoming more and more dance-like.

 

What do you think of this recording? Sounds different on natural strings...

 

[Lux Apollo]

There's an interesting progress the melody takes, becoming more and more dance-like.

 

What do you think of this recording? Sounds different on natural strings...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2uw2V3mHH0

I all for the use of period-appropriate instruments, and gut stringing in particular. There is something you lose from the sound world of the piece when things are changed... even if there are different gains as well. I prefer the sound of classical wooden flutes to modern metal, for example, because they have a richer timbre due to the nature of wood.

 

That's a nice one.

Edited September 15, 2016 by lux_apollo

[northie]

I wouldn't be worthy of my avatar, when my first contribution wouldn't be music by Johann Sebastian Bach.

 

In Bach's time all music was live and mostly to be performed just once, so it was common practice for composers to re-use their own work and even use music by other composers.

 

To show how totally different the same choral theme can sound, it is followed by a choral from the Matthäuspassion (St. Matthew Passion) where the celebration of birth in the Christmas Oratorio with interruprions of the timpani and the tromba in major key between each line is replaced by a much more modest orchestration and set in a minor key on the way to crucifixion.

 

 

Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 Final Choral:

 

 

 

St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244:

 

 

 

　

 

I'm going back to the start to see what I've missed. Anyway, this one from Peter reminded me that one section of the Christmas Oratorio was also reused in one of his secular (almost operatic) cantatas. I can't remember which one off hand but I could probably find out if anyone's that interested.

[northie]

This is part of the fun in such a forum thread as this; we get to discover one another through music. Like Ashi, my own taste is wide ranging. For today, let me share another piece that makes my heart sing...especially the third movement, which starts at 12.55.

 

 

 

Much as I liked this performance, my ears wished not to hear a piano and something like that does get in the way of listening properly.  I also liked the real sense of chamber music being played - no conductor, with Schiff giving direction as necessary.

[Valkyrie]

I saw this on Facebook and thought it was fascinating.  I thought you guys would enjoy it too.   

 

http://www.classicfm.com/music-news/videos/oldest-song-melody/#UCBDBChsGw0Dq3ic.97

[Parker Owens]

I saw this on Facebook and thought it was fascinating.  I thought you guys would enjoy it too.  

 

http://www.classicfm.com/music-news/videos/oldest-song-melody/#UCBDBChsGw0Dq3ic.97

Awesome sound, Val! Thank you for sharing this!

[AC Benus]

I saw this on Facebook and thought it was fascinating.  I thought you guys would enjoy it too.  

 

http://www.classicfm.com/music-news/videos/oldest-song-melody/#UCBDBChsGw0Dq3ic.97

Thanks, Val. Interesting to know they used 9 strings, as 8 was the Greek (and thus our) standard.

[AC Benus]

In the fond hope that someone might just listen to one of my choices ....  Is my musical taste really that weird? *sigh*  

 

I shall carry on, regardless ...

 

First up: Erik Satie Trois gymnopedies

 

Good evening! Here's more Satie, and this is a piece I adore in the Mera recording, but alas, it's not on youtube  

 

[Parker Owens]

I fervently hope this link works...this remains a favorite,...https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LlvUepMa31o

[northie]

I fervently hope this link works...this remains a favorite,...https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LlvUepMa31o

Yay! You managed not to kill my tablet. I do like both listening to and playing Debussy. I find the graphics a distraction, though.

[Lux Apollo]

I fervently hope this link works...this remains a favorite,...https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LlvUepMa31o

 

I did this as one of my rep pieces in high school. I've always loved Debussy, and musical impressionism, both 19th/early 20th century and more modern iterations, has been a big influence on me. Pieces like Linda Catlin-Smith's Versailles, Krzystof Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, and Toru Takemitsu's A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden... I even got into an argument with an ex-girlfriend's best friend over the value of Debussy's music when they came over and I was playing around with the Children's Corner suite. Debussy's music isn't just remarkable, it is also very fun to play!

[Lux Apollo]

三木 稔 Miki Minoru (1930-2011) was a Japanese composer. He was very active in promoting the study of traditional Japanese (and to a lesser extent other East Asian) traditional instruments. He wrote works with a wide range of styles with an interesting variety of instrumental combinations, with or without Western instruments. Hanayagi ('The Greening') is a piece for modern 20-string koto, and one of my favourites of his works. I first heard it played by Han Mei, a Chinese-Canadian who is an unparalleled performer on the guzheng (sort of the Chinese equivalent of the koto) and a scholar of East Asian ethnomusicology. She absolutely mesmerized me, and I was lucky enough to have a few discussions with her about intersections between traditional and classical music, both in the Eastern and Western world. She's a friend of my old composition and harpsichord teachers back in university, and I'd love to hear her play this live again some day. I'd share her recording, but I cannot find it on the web anywhere, so this version on koto will have to do:

 

 

[AC Benus]

At least hang on till min. 4:15

 

Boccherini – La musica notturna delle strade di Madrid, No. 6, Op.30

(Master and Commander of the Far Side of the World)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p94DFyBBwc

Edited September 21, 2016 by AC Benus

[AC Benus]

If I've whet your appetite, here's a sensational performance of Maestro Boccherini's music. It's probably nothing like you expect   Boccherini Fandango – Quintet for strings, guitar & castanets n. 4 in D major (G. 448)

[northie]

At least hang on till min. 4:15

 

Boccherini – La musica notturna delle strade di Madrid, No. 6, Op.30

(Master and Commander of the Far Side of the World)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p94DFyBBwc

I like both the film and the music. My memory is faulty perhaps but I think both actors learnt their instruments for the film ...?

[Lux Apollo]

Claude Vivier (1948-1983) was a Quebecois composer. His aesthetics are hard to describe but are incredibly shaped by the many travels he took around the world and how that interacted with the teachings of some of his major instructors, such as Gilles Tremblay and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He was openly gay in a time when it was difficult to be so. He met an untimely demise at the hands of a young prostitute he met at a bar in Paris, leaving a hole in the midst the voices of a generation of Canadian composers.

 

[Bill W]

I'm a huge fan of Rachmaninoff's piano concertos, so here's the second for your enjoyment.  I love the heavy Russian overtones at the beginning, if if you listen carefully later, you'll hear a theme that was made into a pop song in the 70s. 

 

[Lux Apollo]

The Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal, from the 12th century BCE city of Ugarit (in modern day Syria) is the oldest piece of annotated music currently known, well over 3200 years old! They think it dates from some time between 1400 and 1200 BCE, and was discovered during the excavations of the city libraries - documents of this period were written on clay tablets. Although it was written in Ugariti cuneiform, it is actually in the Hurrian language rather than a western Semitic dialect (e.g. Akkadian, Canaanite, Amorite, Aramaec, etc). The hymn was composed by a sacred scribe named Hammurapi, and is devoted to the Great Goddess Nikkal, wife of the Moon, and one who had some duties to do with orchards. Although there is some debate over exactly how to interpret the music, there are some interesting interpretations out there such as this one by Michael Levy:

 

[northie]

There's an interesting progress the melody takes, becoming more and more dance-like.

 

What do you think of this recording? Sounds different on natural strings...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2uw2V3mHH0

It's one of the things I love about mediaeval music is how different one tune can sound - different instruments, different moods, different embellishments.

[northie]

Happy 256th Birthday, Cherubini!!!

 

Arturo Toscanini conducts the NBC Symphony Orchestra in a live 1953 performance (the best!). Luigi Cherubini, overture to Anacreonte, 1803.

 

I can't remember the last time I knowingly heard any Cherubini - very rarely performed over here. Once it got going, it was tuneful, quite dramatic but not especially memorable. Still, worth a listen.

[northie]

I've been watching a series on the BBC iPlayer following the fortunes of 5 amateur orchestras (including the London Gay Symphony Orchestra). A couple of works appeared in the 'concerto' round which I thought I'd share as they were newish to me.

 

Richard Strauss Oboe concerto

 

 

https://youtu.be/YS3mD2Mb_bo

 

and the second is Peter Maxwell Davies Orkney wedding with sunrise

 

https://youtu.be/kCeh6amXyYE

 

If you find this too modern, try from 12 mins onwards when the solo instrument finally appears.

[Parker Owens]

Charles Ives can be an acquired taste, but these struck me as lovely today...

 

[northie]

I particularly enjoyed the first one and I always have a soft spot for Thomas Allen.