Dead-Composers Society

[Zombie]

Unless I’ve missed it there doesn’t seem to be anything by Henry Purcell

Here’s a song he wrote around 1680 

 

 

I’ve started a blog on Mr Purcell for anyone interested

 

 

 

 

 

[AC Benus]

52 minutes ago, Zombie said:

Unless I’ve missed it there doesn’t seem to be anything by Henry Purcell

Here’s a song he wrote around 1680 

 

 

I’ve started a blog on Mr Purcell for anyone interested

 

 

 

 

 

Yay! Thanks for posting this, although I guess this song is not be confused with the Gershwin’s “She loves” 😇

Edited November 9, 2019 by AC Benus

[AC Benus]

And I’m sure I’ve posted the brilliant witches’ scene by Master P (his rap name, of course) 

[Zombie]

2 hours ago, AC Benus said:

Yay! Thanks for posting this, although I guess this song is not be confused with the Gershwin’s “She loves” 😇

Hahaha, Mr Gershwin’s lyrics are as innocent as apple pie - Master P’s are definitely not apple pie innocent  (the lyric is Abraham Cowley’s 1656 poem The Mistress)

2 hours ago, AC Benus said:

And I’m sure I’ve posted the brilliant witches’ scene by Master P (his rap name, of course) 

Ah, Dido and Aeneas. Master P’s song has witches too

 

 

 

Edited November 9, 2019 by Zombie

[AC Benus]

I am not sure why, but the last few days I have been thinking about George Gershwin's tragically short life. I guess it started when I bumped into a (born-died) parenthetical after another composer's name. Born the same year as Gershwin, but died in 1990. My mind boggles to consider what directions Gershwin would have taken music from 1937 to 1990. 

Anyway, here is about the last orchestral piece he completed before receiving his brain tumor diagnosis. "Walk the Dog" is sure to make you smile and put a spring in your step. More informed folks will marvel at how perfect the composition is, and how brilliantly arranged too

 

 

[Thorn Wilde]

23 minutes ago, AC Benus said:

I am not sure why, but the last few days I have been thinking about George Gershwin's tragically short life. I guess it started when I bumped into a (born-died) parenthetical after another composer's name. Born the same year as Gershwin, but died in 1990. My mind boggles to consider what directions Gershwin would have taken music from 1937 to 1990. 

Anyway, here is about the last orchestral piece he completed before receiving his brain tumor diagnosis. "Walk the Dog" is sure to make you smile and put a spring in your step. More informed folks will marvel at how perfect the composition is, and how brilliantly arranged too

 

 

Aww, such a cute pup! ❤️ And a great piece.  

I'm a simple soul, though. My favourite Gershwin piece, which was also my first, will always remain Rhapsody in Blue.

 

[Parker Owens]

Thanks to both @AC Benus and @Thorn Wilde for letting me go to sleep with a smile on my lips. 

[Lyssa]

4 hours ago, AC Benus said:

I am not sure why, but the last few days I have been thinking about George Gershwin's tragically short life. I guess it started when I bumped into a (born-died) parenthetical after another composer's name. Born the same year as Gershwin, but died in 1990. My mind boggles to consider what directions Gershwin would have taken music from 1937 to 1990. 

Anyway, here is about the last orchestral piece he completed before receiving his brain tumor diagnosis. "Walk the Dog" is sure to make you smile and put a spring in your step. More informed folks will marvel at how perfect the composition is, and how brilliantly arranged too

 

 

Thats awesome. It will make me walk to work with a lighter step. And I decided to listen to this with my students and make some Math-dancing today. ;-) Thanks for sharing.

[AC Benus]

58 minutes ago, Lyssa said:

Thats awesome. It will make me walk to work with a lighter step. And I decided to listen to this with my students and make some Math-dancing today. 😉 Thanks for sharing.

Math-dancing! I love the idea!!

[AC Benus]

More music to put a smile on your day

A Ditter's concerto in recital format. The bass-playing really comes through this way 

 

[Zombie]

Some Christmas music for this festive period  
 

In dulci jubilo (“In sweet rejoicing") is one of my favourite carols

This version is by Bach - but maybe one you’ve never heard of...  
 

 

 

[Zombie]

Franz Schubert Impromptu No. 3 in G flat Major D899 Op 90 

More info here if you’re interested

 

[Zombie]

More Schubert

Franz Schubert, Ave Maria - piano transcription by Franz Liszt

 

More info here if you’re interested 

 

[Lux Apollo]

Been working on this one myself lately, so it's on my mind.

[Zombie]

I’m a fan of Merchant Ivory movies, especially Howards End and the beginning where Vanessa Redgrave wanders through the twilit gardens looking in through the open windows at her family talking, laughing and enjoying family life while a serene and hauntingly beautiful piano piece is played.

I assumed it was composed for the film but it wasn't, it’s by the somewhat neglected but brilliant Australian composer, Percy Grainger. It was composed by Grainger for Karen Holten, a Danish music student whom Grainger had met in 1905. Their love-affair lasted several years - mostly by letter - but Grainger's mother disapproved so much the relationship was eventually broken off. This short piece - just 17 bars - was written as a wedding gift for Karen when she fell in love with someone else a few years later and became Karen Kellerman. There is a real sense of sadness and regret at what had been lost but Grainger was clearly glad she had found happiness.

Here is that ravishing piece performed, as in the film, by the English pianist Martin Jones:

Percy Grainger (1882 - 1961)

Bridal Lullaby (1916)

 

Edited January 23, 2020 by Zombie

[AC Benus]

This is a wonderful performance. Someone might do well to write a movie script about Mahler, Rott and Brahms *spoiler: one of them dies tragically young* 

 

 

[AC Benus]

Juan Diego Flórez sings Lalo's Vainement ma bien-aimée

 

 

[Lux Apollo]

Feeling a little nostalgic this afternoon. Played this one when I was in high school, around when I first started appreciating Baroque music and Bach.

[Thorn Wilde]

My choir's rehearsing new(ish) material again (we actually sang these years ago, but we're picking them up again), so I thought I'd share some of it. These composers are, as far as I know, not dead, though.

 

Lauda Sion by György Orban

 

Sancta Maria by Knut Nystedt (omg, these are kids and they're at least as good as we are if not better! I'm shamed, lol)

 

[Lux Apollo]

 

[Thorn Wilde]

I'm terrible at the whole 'dead' aspect of this thread... Here's Even When He Is Silent by Kim André Arnesen. The words were scribbled on the wall of a cell in a Nazi concentration camp by an unknown poet.

I believe in the sun, even when it's not shining
I believe in love, even when I feel it not
I believe in God, even when He is silent

Edited January 31, 2020 by Thorn Wilde

[Parker Owens]

@Thorn Wilde

Thank you, thank you for posting this magnificent piece. 

[Thorn Wilde]

31 minutes ago, Parker Owens said:

@Thorn Wilde

Thank you, thank you for posting this magnificent piece. 

You’re welcome. It’s one of my favourites. My choir did it too at one point.  

[Parker Owens]

14 minutes ago, Thorn Wilde said:

You’re welcome. It’s one of my favourites. My choir did it too at one point.  

It must have been exalting, exhilarating and introspective all at once. 

[Thorn Wilde]

1 hour ago, Parker Owens said:

It must have been exalting, exhilarating and introspective all at once. 

It was. We sang it for a competition back in 2015. Hardest part was not making ourselves cry. lol! We came in third.