Category: music & dance

Lin-Manuel Miranda wants you to be aware of Puerto Rico.

The other day I learned of the Great 78 Project, a collaboration between the Internet Archive (which EONI and I have been relying on for some time for dredging up what we thought might have been lost in the internet past) and the Archive of Contemporary Music.

I understand that some 50,000 recordings have been digitized from over 200,000 candidates accumulated so far. A daunting task, indeed, to try to pick out some gems from this lot. But I find that some people have taken it upon themselves to create special curated collections that make it a bit easier to approach. One such collection I have been listening to is that designated as “78rpm Records Digitized by George Blood, L.P.”. Among the jewels in this bunch are “A Jam Session at Victor” (a 1947 recording by the legendary Jack Teagarden and other jazz musicians …

… the 1939 “Echoes of Harlem” (Charlie Barnet and his orchestra) …

and a 1958 Ralph Stanley bluegrass/country take of “If That’s The Way You Feel”:

Almost left out another example, this one is a 1943 performance by Gino Bechi of an aria from the famous Catalani opera, “La Wally”:

It appears that most of these recordings are also downloadable in various formats from MP3 to 24-bit (!) FLAC.

Yep, I guess I’m hooked.  I just started following the Great 78 Project’s Twitter feed.  Try it!

 

This is so much fun that it has to be shared.  Go here and hit the play button on the pulsating vinyl record album icon (looks like the non-working version to your left) to get started.  Or just enter “Google” (you heard me) into your browser’s address bar to find that play graphic.  Then follow along and explore.

Using geocoded YouTube data, the New York Times has created maps that show the popularity of music throughout the country, right down to the zip code.  Here’s the top YouTube play for our own zip:

To find the preferences for your zip code, go to the interactive search box in this article, enter a city or a zip code, and see what comes up.

A lesser-known piece (1972) from Carole King …

UPDATE 8/1/17, 2:39pm: Whoops, this was intended for the music blog.  Wrong blog, but, heck, let it stay …

 

Getting sick and tired here of the level of political antics, seeming to become more appalling by the day.

Today I decided to seek out something that represents some of the best of how people can get along together — what better example than an operatic duet?

So I went to my music server, then to YouTube to listen to two of the most well-known classical duets ever: The Flower Duet (sopranos) and the Pearl Fishers Duet (tenor/baritone). (I started this for my music blog but decided that everybody, regardless of their musical tastes, ought to take a listen …)

Flower Duet

Early in our relationship, I played this for Kim, who declared that it should be sung at her funeral (hopefully, far distant into the future).

The “Flower Duet” (French: Duo des fleurs / Sous le dôme épais) is a famous duet for sopranos from Léo Delibes’ opera Lakmé, first performed in Paris in 1883. The duet takes place in act 1 of the three-act opera, between characters Lakmé, the daughter of a Brahmin priest, and her servant Mallika, as they go to gather flowers by a river. [Source: Wikipedia]

Lyrics (translated from French to “singable” English):

‘Neath the dome, the jasmine
‘Neath the leafy dome, where the jasmine white

To the roses comes greeting,
To the roses comes greeting,

By flower banks, fresh and bright,
On the flow’rd bank, gay in morning light,

Come, and join we their meeting.
Come, and join we their meeting.

Ah! we’ll glide with the tide,
Slowly on we’ll glide floating with the tide,

On we’ll ride away;
On the stream we’ll ride away;

Through wavelets shimm’ring brightly,
Through wavelets shimm’ring brightly,

Carelessly rowing lightly,
Carelessly rowing lightly,

Reach we the steeps
We’ll reach soon the steeps

Where the birds warble,
Where the fountain sleeps.

warble, the birds sprightly.
Where warble the birds sprightly.

‘Neath the dome rowers unite,
‘Neath the leafy dome, where the jasmine white,

Come and join we their meeting!
Come and join we their meeting!

But, why my heart’s swift terror invested,
Doth not yet appear,
When my father ‘lone goes to your city detested,
I tremble, I tremble with fear.

May the god, Ganesa, keep him from dangers,
Till he arrives at the pool just in view,
Where wild swans, those snowy wing’d strangers,
Come to devour the lotus blue.

Yes, where the wild swans, those snowy wing’d strangers,
Come to feed on lotus blue.

‘Neath the dome, jasmines white
‘Neath the leafy dome, where the jasmine white

To the roses comes greeting,
To the roses comes greeting,

By flower banks, fresh and bright,
On the flow’rd bank, gay in morning light,

Come, and join we their meeting.
Come, and join we their meeting.

Ah! we’ll glide with the tide,
Slowly on we’ll glide floating with the tide,

On we’ll ride away;
On the stream we’ll ride away;

Through wavelets shimm’ring brightly,
Through wavelets shimm’ring brightly,

Carelessly rowing lightly,
Carelessly rowing lightly,

Reach we the steeps
We’ll reach soon the steeps

Where the birds warble,
Where the fountain sleeps.

warble, the birds sprightly.
Where warble the birds sprightly.

‘Neath the dome rowers unite,
‘Neath the leafy dome, where the jasmine white,

Come and join we their meeting!
Ah! come join we their meeting!

Now let’s hear a version similar to one in my collection, with Anna Netrebko and Elina Garanca:

 

And one that goes back quite a long ways (but I don’t know the year), with Dame Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne:

 

And an incredible version, new to me, sung by Sumi Jo and Ah-Kyung Lee:

 

Pearl Fishers Duet

This piece first sunk deeply into my consciousness when I saw film “Gallipoli” with an Australian friend in about 1980 or 1981, where it was included on the soundtrack (along with a killer set of other classical sounds; the music was far more memorable to me than the movie itself). Taking inspiration from Kim, I think this would also make an excellent funeral choice (and is a great “bro’s” thing).

Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers) is an opera in three acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It was premiered on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performances in its initial run. Set in ancient times on the island of Ceylon, the opera tells the story of how two men’s vow of eternal friendship is threatened by their love for the same woman, whose own dilemma is the conflict between secular love and her sacred oath as a priestess. The friendship duet “Au fond du temple saint”, generally known as “The Pearl Fishers Duet”, is one of the best-known in Western opera. [Source: Wikipedia]

Lyrics (translated from French):

At the bottom of the holy temple
Decorated with flowers and gold
A woman appears!
I think I see it again!
A woman appears!
I think I see it again!
The prostrate crowd
Looks at her, astonished
And murmurs all low
See, it’s the goddess!
Who in the shadows rises
And toward us holds out our arms!
His veil is lifted!
O vision! O dream!
The crowd is on their knees!
Yes it’s her!
She is the goddess
More charming and more beautiful!
Yes it’s her!
It is the goddess
Who descends among us!
His veil is lifted and the crowd is on his knees!
But through the crowd
It opens a passage!
His long veil already
hides His face!
My eyes, alas!
Search in vain!
She flees!
She flees!
Yes it’s her! She’s the goddess!
On this coming day we unite
And faithful to my promise
As a brother I want to cherish you!
It is she, the goddess
Who comes in this day to unite us!
Yes, share the same fate

Here’s the first rendition I found on YouTube today, a relatively contemporary thing by Roberto Alagna and Bryn Terfel:

 

Next, one of the all-time classic performances, by Jussi Björling and Robert Merrill, year unknown.

Heck, let’s go all the way back to 1907 with Mario Ancona and Enrico Caruso!

I feel better already …

Many, more versions of these duets can be found on YouTube, if you are so inclined.

(Okay, since this is the only one of my websites that halfway works right now, everything has to go here. )

Alabama Shakes’ lead woman, Brittany Howard, collaborates with Jack White and the rest of her crew on a 1940s blues classic as part of the new PBS “American Epic” series.

If you love Brittany and the Alabama Shakes as much as I do, you will want to seek out everything and anything they have done.  Start with, say, YouTube.

We attend a short program by the EOU music faculty to introduce new compositions by one of their own, John McKinnon — compositions inspired by and dedicated to his individual colleagues and based on poems and paintings.

Last night we attended a 150-musician, four-county, four-choir, seven-movement performance at EOU of Johannes Brahms’ German Requiem (Ein deutsches Requiem). Conductor was Zeke Fetrow, music director of the Grande Ronde Symphony. Soloists were Peter Wordelman, EOU Choral Director, and Rebecca Replogle, Treasure Valley CC Director of Choirs.  (Of course, Kim’s hiking buddy, Denise — also mother of Marina — was there in her position as first viola.)

If you’re not familiar with the Brahms’ Requiem, you can get a sense of it from this full-length performance several years ago at UC Davis: