Dead-Composers Society

[Zombie]

On 3/1/2022 at 3:34 PM, Lux Apollo said:

I was in the music store yesterday to purchase some scores at a discount for a couple of my students, and I decided to add a performer's edition of Muzio Clementi's Op. 36, a set of sonatinas… for whatever reason I'd never taught any of my students Op. 36 No. 4 in F major, and I couldn't remember what it sounded like

glad it’s not just me that can’t read notation and hear the music in my mind (unless I know it well). I’ve always envied those who can sit down with a full orchestral score and “hear” it as they read it, even something they’re not familiar with (so they say ). Although I once read somewhere that “Music does not exist until it is performed, whatever our armchair score-readers may say to the contrary” - which kinda makes me feel a tad less badly about my deficiency

Edited March 7, 2022 by Zombie

[Lux Apollo]

Some Rameau to get over the midweek blues.

[AC Benus]

As dark as the days get, we need to be reminded of light at the end of the tunnel, and the absoluteness of human forgiveness. From the Met's famous 1990 production, Kurt Moll In deisen heil'gen hallen (and has there ever been a finer actor bass on stage...? I doubt it) 

"In these holy halls        
Revenge is not known.        
And if a man has fallen        
Love leads him to duty.        
Then he walks by his friend's hand    
Happy and joyous to the better land.    

Within these sacred walls,        
Where man loves man,        
No traitor can lurk,        
For the enemy is forgiven.        
Whom such teachings do not please,    
Deserves not to be a man."

 

[translation by DeepL]

 

[Lux Apollo]

Ukrainian-Soviet jazz pianist and composer Nikolai Kapustin wrote some wonderful music:

 

[Zombie]

On 3/15/2022 at 3:16 PM, Lux Apollo said:

Ukrainian-Soviet jazz pianist and composer Nikolai Kapustin wrote some wonderful music

He has a distinctive style  
Interesting he said he was never interested in being a jazz pianist because it required improvisation which he firmly eschewed, choosing to write completely notated scores, when of course improvisation was integral to many pieces of earlier classical music (cadenzas etc) and actually required in much (all?) early music

Finale sounds like a supercharged variation on the opening to Herbie Hancock’s Cantaloupe Island - I wonder which one might have influenced the other?
 

Edited March 16, 2022 by Zombie

[AC Benus]

A stunning performance; a touching rendering of a voice from an age of war, to our own sad reality as one now.

Stefan Sanderling leads the Orchestre de Bretagne in the overture of Étienne-Nicolas Méhul's Ariodant

 

@Parker OwensMakes a good selection for the movie version of Carême in Brighton, no...?

[Parker Owens]

3 hours ago, AC Benus said:

A stunning performance; a touching rendering of a voice from an age of war, to our own sad reality as one now.

Stefan Sanderling leads the Orchestre de Bretagne in the overture of Étienne-Nicolas Méhul's Ariodant

 

@Parker OwensMakes a good selection for the movie version of Carême in Brighton, no...?

It does, oui.  

[Lux Apollo]

Emmanuel Bach's delightful solo flute sonata is a wonderful little treasure. For whatever reason, it isn't in the standard repertoire for flautists, which I consider a high crime. Personally, I prefer it on period instruments - wooden flutes have a much softer, caressing tone than their modern metal counterparts.

[BigBen]

 

[Lux Apollo]

Let's have a 1500's Dance Party! Susato in the house!

 

[AC Benus]

Gorgeous! We have so much to learn concerning what 1760 actually sounded like 

31:44: Quid sum miser

[Lux Apollo]

31 minutes ago, AC Benus said:

Gorgeous! We have so much to learn concerning what 1760 actually sounded like 

31:44: Quid sum miser

It mystifies me that Mozart disliked what he heard in Paris when he visited as a youngster. Between Rameau, Gossec, Leclair, Boismortier, Armand-Louis Couperin, Balbastre and some of the other characters, there was a lot of interesting music happening there... But the Italianate style his father instructed him in and his travels to Italy left the greatest mark, I guess. His favoured Gluck didn't come to Paris until the 1770s, either.

[Lux Apollo]

Jacques Duphly (1715-1789) is a very underrated harpsichordist and composer from the late Baroque and early Classical periods. He published four volumes of harpsichord pieces, and his music evolved with the times, graduating from remarkable expressions of the Baroque French harpsichord school to works incorporating innovations like the Alberti bass and other devices of the Classical period. He went from being one of the most famous and appreciated harpsichord performers and teachers to a complete mystery in his later years after his last publication, missing from public life for twenty years. He died alone surrounded by his library and without even a harpsichord in his possession, the day after the storming of the Bastille. I hope you will enjoy this excellent recording by my friend Pieter-Jan Belder.

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by Lux Apollo

[AC Benus]

James Weldon Johnson's "Lift Every Voice and Sing," performed by the The Southern Sons in 1942

"Lift every voice and sing

Till earth and heaven ring

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty

Let our rejoicing rise High as the listening skies

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

 

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us

 

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun

Let us march on till victory is won

 

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us

 

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun

Let us march on till victory is won."

 

[AC Benus]

April 15th! The sap should be rising; spring should be pushing from inside of us too. Who better to capture this restless urge than a force of Nature himself? Performing a work premiered on this day, Sylvia McNair and the Academy of Saint-Martins-in-the-Fields led by Nelville Marriner present Alla selva, al prato, al fonte from Mozart's Il re pastore. Crank UP the volume and let all your neighboring trees and flowers hear it as well

Alla selva, al prato, al fonte

Io n'andrò col gregge amato;

E alla selva, al fonte, al prato

L'idol mio con me verrà.

In quel rozzo angusto tetto,

Che ricetto a noi darà,

Con la gioia e col diletto

L'innocenza albergherà.

--Metastasio

 

"To the forest, to the meadow, to the spring

I will go with my beloved flock;

And to the wilderness, the meadow, and the fountain

My idol will come with me.

In that crude, narrow roof

Which will give us shelter,

With joy and with delight

Innocence will dwell."

--Metastasio

 

_

Edited April 15, 2022 by AC Benus

[Parker Owens]

@AC Benus Perfect for the onrush of green and growth! Indeed, what a delight it would be to retreat to a pastoral cabin with one's swain.

Edited April 15, 2022 by Parker Owens

[BigBen]

In honor of the day:

 

[Lux Apollo]

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) was one of the most important musical figures of the transition from the Renaissance into the Baroque in Italy. Across his lifetime, he wrote much sacred and secular music, and is perhaps most famous for his successes as a composer of the newly developing genre of opera. His madrigals were published in eight volumes during his lifetime and a ninth was published posthumously. The madrigals show growth and change in style across this transition, from the old-fashioned musica reservata style he learned from his tutor Ingegneri to much more modern Baroque expressions in later volumes. Please enjoy this wonderful live performance of "Hor che'l ciel e la terra" from the 8th volume:

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by Lux Apollo

[Lux Apollo]

Welp... I'm not sure why it's displaying that last video as blocked... but regardless, you can just click through to watch on YouTube.

[AC Benus]

59 minutes ago, Lux Apollo said:

Welp... I'm not sure why it's displaying that last video as blocked... but regardless, you can just click through to watch on YouTube.

Watched, but don't you like Cavalli? To me, the prospects of having to listen to emotionally-vacant Monteverdi rills rattle through his vocalists' throats is like being sat before a bowl of Weetabix -- with no sugar, and little to no milk. 

By contrast, every nuance of Cavalli's vocal music is alive with honest, connected human emotion. Most of the time, because of the penetrating depths the composer reaches, his characters expose feelings of an openly erotic nature.

Here is a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats soaking up whole-milk in tempting, luscious humanness. This is our first sight of Maria Bayo's portrayal of Calisto. The young woman sings of her rewarding love relationship with the goddess Diana. (Queers Rule!)

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by AC Benus

[Lux Apollo]

50 minutes ago, AC Benus said:

Watched, but don't you like Cavalli? To me, the prospects of having to listen to emotionally-vacant Monteverdi rills rattle through his vocalists' throats is like being sat before a bowl of Weetabix -- with no sugar, and little to no milk. 

By contrast, every nuance of Cavalli's vocal music is alive with honest, connected human emotion. Most of the time, because of the penetrating depths the composer reaches, his characters expose feelings of an openly erotic nature.

Here is a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats soaking up whole-milk in tempting, luscious humanness. This is our first sight of Maria Bayo's portrayal of Calisto. The young woman sings of her rewarding love relationship with the goddess Diana. (Queers Rule!)

 

Oh, believe me I love me some Cavalli. He took what Monteverdi taught him and ran with it, and arguably did so much more for opera than his teacher. 

We put on a performance of Egisto with the opera program at Laurier when I was in the Baroque Ensemble back in my first year of undergrad; it was a big challenge to learn figured bass and continuo practice in the short timeframe we had, but it was so much fun!

[Zombie]

Henry V 1943/4 - William Walton

Today is Shakespeare’s birthday and to celebrate here are two brief pieces from the music William Walton composed for this movie version of Shakespeare’s famous play. Amazingly, given the economic state of the nation, it was made in glorious Technicolor (it used the only colour camera and film stock Britain had)

Opening scene at the Globe Theatre as the eager crowd gather for the performance

Passacaglia: Death of Falstaff

 

Edited April 23, 2022 by Zombie

[AC Benus]

2 hours ago, Zombie said:

Henry V 1943/4 - William Walton

Today is Shakespeare’s birthday and to celebrate here are two brief pieces from the music William Walton composed for this movie version of Shakespeare’s famous play. Amazingly, given the economic state of the nation, it was made in glorious Technicolor (it used the only colour camera and film stock Britain had)

Opening scene at the Globe Theatre as the eager crowd gather for the performance

 

Nice, but I'd posit Erich Wolfgang Korngold set the gold standard for Shakespeare on film in 1935 with his score for Midsummer Night's Dream, blending stage snippets from Mendelssohn. This score's influence has been felt in all subsequent movie music for the Bard of Avon.

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by AC Benus

[AC Benus]

On 4/11/2022 at 7:17 AM, Lux Apollo said:

Jacques Duphly (1715-1789) is a very underrated harpsichordist and composer from the late Baroque and early Classical periods. He published four volumes of harpsichord pieces, and his music evolved with the times, graduating from remarkable expressions of the Baroque French harpsichord school to works incorporating innovations like the Alberti bass and other devices of the Classical period. He went from being one of the most famous and appreciated harpsichord performers and teachers to a complete mystery in his later years after his last publication, missing from public life for twenty years. He died alone surrounded by his library and without even a harpsichord in his possession, the day after the storming of the Bastille. I hope you will enjoy this excellent recording by my friend Pieter-Jan Belder.

 

I've listened to this several times, but don't find much soul in it, nor do I see how the music was progressive considering the composer's time setting and the state of the art furthered by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. By comparison, the piano works of Galuppi (who was born a few years earlier) are forward-looking and incredible with musical emotion and invention, as exemplified in this sonata in g-minor:

Piano Sonata No. 7 in G Minor: 00:26:47 I. Largo 00:30:49 II. Presto 00:32:42 III. Allegretto

Up with Galuppi!

 

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by AC Benus

[AC Benus]

Ilse de Ziah performs the 14th century elegy Egidius, waer bestu bleven on solo cello.

 

 

For the lyrics and translation, please see this Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love entry