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Showing posts with label break from politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label break from politics. Show all posts

Saturday, February 25, 2023

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

My best friend of some 53 years died on February 9; circumstances were such that I didn't find out until February 22. There was no better friend in the world than Carolyn! I have a terrible void in my life now. 

The selection below accurately reflects my frame of mind right now....

Arvo Pärt's elegiac meditation Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten:


Saturday, February 18, 2023

Musical Interlude

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According to science (A music psychologist has said the perfect 'happy' song should be 137BPM, in a major key, with a short intro and bright tones, and four beats in every bar), this is the happiest song in the world:


For me, the above song conjures up wonderful memories of cruising in my 2000 Mustang GT convertible, especially at the beach.

The list of the ten happiest songs in the world, according to Dr. Bonshor's metric, below the fold.

Saturday, February 11, 2023

Musical Interlude & Happy Valentine's Day

(For politics, please scroll down.  A new political post will be available on February 15)

We are approaching Valentine's Day. So, for this "Musical Interlude," here is a song for lovers. 

Dedicated to my beloved Warren.

 
 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Saturday, February 4, 2023

Musical Interlude

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Virtuoso pianist Jeffrey Siegel has performed with the world's great orchestras as a solo artist.  He also tours as a music appreciation teacher; these programs are called Keyboard Conversations.

A sample of one of the past offerings of pianist Jeffrey Siegel's Keyboard Conversations, on tour now and always appropriate for both new listeners and seasoned music lovers:

 
I have attended more than one of the Keyboard Conversations.  Wonderful!  Each time, I came home and found, and started practicing) the music for at least one of the pieces he presented.

Bonus video (excerpts from Leonard Bernstein's musical West Side Story):


What magnificent tone control!

Saturday, January 28, 2023

Weekend Musical Interlude

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I've always loved the sound of the lute!  For me, it conjures up images from Shakespeare and the royal court of England around the time of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.  

From Google Search:
In the Renaissance era, the lute was the most popular instrument in the Western world. It became the symbol of the magic and power of music. The lute was the instrument of kings and queens, playing the sublime music of great composers. The lute was heard in the theatre in the incidental music of Shakespeare's plays. 
 
Please enjoy J. S. Bach's Lute Suite in E Major BWV 1006a, performed by Evangelina Mascardi, playing the Baroque Lute:


Index for the above suite:

0:00 I. Prelude 4:38 II. Loure 8:53 III. Gavotte en Rondeau 12:25 IV. Menuet I/II 16:39 V. Bouree 18:38 VI. Gigue

[about Evangelina Mascardi, one of the most famous lutenists in the world today]

[about the lute, from The Lute Society of America] 

Saturday, January 14, 2023

Musical Interlude

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This weekend, I have chosen two serene selections so that we can rest our hearts and minds.

Lang Lang's masterful rendition of Impressionist composer Claude Debussy's The Girl with the Flaxen Hair:

 


Husband and wife duo, Lang Lang and piano virtuoso Gina Alice Redlinger, playing Frédéric Chopin's Nocturne Op.9 No.1 In B Flat Minor (December 29, 2020):

Saturday, January 7, 2023

Musical Interlude

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This weekend, let's take a stroll down memory lane to a better time, over a half century ago with Henry Mancini's incomparable Baby Elephant Walk (1961):

Saturday, December 31, 2022

Music For New Year's Eve 2022 And The New Year 2023

Instead of "Auld Lang Syne" (the typical musical fare for this time of year), a round-up of events in 2022, or a list of New Year's resolutions, enjoy this selection:
 

Happy New Year! May 2023 be kind to us all.

Sunday, September 18, 2022

Musical Interlude

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From the days of unforgettable television-show themes, enjoy "Park Avenue Beat," the Theme to Perry Mason (1957-1966), composed by the prolific radio, television, and film composer Fred Steiner (1923-2011): 
The [Perry Mason] theme music is one of the most recognizable in television. Composer Fred Steiner set out to write a theme that would project the two primary aspects of Mason's character—sophistication and toughness. "The piece he came up with, titled "Park Avenue Beat," pulsed with the power of the big city and the swagger of a beefy hero played to perfection by actor Raymond Burr," wrote the Los Angeles Times. Described by Steiner as "a piece of symphonic rhythm and blues," the Perry Mason theme heard at the opening and end credits became the composer's best-known work.

Sunday, September 4, 2022

Musical Interlude

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This Labor Day Weekend, enjoy String Quartet No. 12 'American' by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904), also known for his Symphony No. 9 in E minor, "From the New World": 
 

[about the above piece, which is, in effect an homage to American music, particularly Negro spirituals and folk songs]

Sunday, August 28, 2022

Musical Interlude: One Year Ago Today

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I was in the midst of the final days of packing up the last family homestead in preparation for an early-September move when Warren and I decided to  get married.

 Warren and I had been planning to go to the justice of the peace. 

 But no! 

 At my cousins' insistence, the farewell party for me became a perfect garden wedding for Warren and me. 

 All I had to do that day was show up with my hair washed and my nice shoes, and step into the wedding dress. Somehow, in the midst of all the packing, Warren and I found time to go shopping for a suit and shirt for him. Everything else for our wedding was taken care of by my cousins, two of whom walked me down the path and gave me away.

Not a dry eye anywhere in the assembly or at the altar when Warren and I took our vows!

PS: One of the aforementioned cousins was in my first wedding as a flower girl—way back in 1972. The second time around, her eight-year-old granddaughter was our flower girl.
.
The very first song that Warren and I ever danced to:

Sunday, August 21, 2022

Musical Interlude

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Elvis Presley (1935-1977) has now been dead longer than he was alive. Hard to believe!

The selection below originates from the 1700's French love song "Plaisir d'amour" and was updated by George Weiss and others for the 20th Century.  Elvis first performed "Can't Help Falling in Love" in the 1961 movie Blue Hawaii, and his version went on to soar to the top of the Billboard charts and remain there for 20 straight weeks, a record which stood until Fleetwood Mac's Rumours (1976).

Even today, over a half century later, Elvis's "Can't Help Falling in Love" is the most popular piece used by wedding couples for their first dance. 


Note: the above song was the last song [Elvis] performed live, at his [last live] concert in Indianapolis at Market Square Arena on 26 June 1977.

Sunday, August 14, 2022

Musical Interlude

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Hard to believe that this film debuted over 47 years ago (June 20, 1975), and I still don't like to swim in the ocean:


The genius of film composer John Williams! 

As one commenter opined at YouTube:
Miss Agent E 
1 year ago
John Williams took just two notes and made generations of people terrified of the ocean.

Sunday, August 7, 2022

Sunday, July 31, 2022

Musical Interlude

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One of my favorite movie themes, albeit a lesser-known one, by film composer Michael Gore and from the poignant, award-winning 1983 film Terms of Endearment: 


Sunday, July 24, 2022

Musical Interlude

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Music to fit my mood lately (the 2021 political and social scenarios — and a major flare up of my ongoing-since-2016 neuropathic pain, aka "the suicide disease"): 


[about Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt]

Sunday, July 10, 2022

Musical Interlude

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Like the June 26th Musical Interlude, below is another a perfect summertime tune, this one with a dollop of retro, a dollop of nostalgia, and a dollop of American regionalism and local color.  

Found at The Western Journal, in an article titled Everyone Knows the 'Andy Griffith' Theme ... But Can You Sing the Words to This Classic Song?, sung by Andy Griffith, and released in 1961.  Enjoy!

Sunday, June 26, 2022

Musical Interlude

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Celebrate Summer 2022! And what better than the sound of ragtime piano to celebrate summer?

"Maple Leaf Rag," played by Scott Joplin himself and recorded on Pianola Roll:

Sunday, June 12, 2022

Musical Interlude

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Time for a happy sound, courtesy of the Glenn Miller Orchestra Scandinavia (hat tip to The Misinformation Spreaders Gazette):


As one YouTube commenter observed: 
patricio amenabar 3 years ago (edited) We need more of this type of music, people would be happier.
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