Entries
The Perfect Messiah
I went to the perfect Messiah performance the other night at the Neuroscience Institute. The organization putting on the show was the Fan Faire Foundation: where science and music intersect. I'd not heard of Fan Faire but I was impressed …
Pet Peeve
Some people love Italian opera but have no knowledge of Italian diction. Allow me to offer one rule which will immediately make anyone sound like an opera aficionado. The rule involves common operatic nouns like Don Giovanni or Giuseppe Verdi …
Bocelli is NOT an Opera Singer
I made a youtube comment on Andrea Bocelli's inability to sing Nessun Dorma and received a rebuke. The following is the conversation that ensued. The syntax is quirky because of the limited number of characters for youtube comments. Original comment: …
Four Notes
Four repeated notes. Four b flats one right after the other resolved by a descending 3rd to a g flat. Pure, musical, poetry. Go to any keyboard and play four b flats in a row--it's the black key just below …
Wachet Auf
"Wachet auf!" ruft uns die Stimme. "Wake up!" the voice calls to us. The first Sunday of advent is already behind us. Are you awake? Christmas is on the way. Do you have your tree? Have you found your fiesta …
Christmas!
Thanksgiving is over. Now Christmas. When I think Christmas, I think Puccini. Not his Messa di Gloria, which is underrated, but La Boheme. Rodolpho and Mimi meet and fall in love on Christmas Eve. Spoiler alert, she dies. The music …
Frostiana: Seven Country Songs
If you sang in high school choir, any high school choir in any city or town, then one of your favorite choral pieces is Randal Thompson's "Frostiana". In 1958, the town of Amherst commissioned Randal Thompson to compose a choral …
Guilty Pleasure
Sometimes it is necessary to take a break and indulge in something cheap and easy. Granada is just that. This Mexican song written about the Spanish city of Granada has been recorded by just about everybody from Johnny Mathis to …
Walt Whitman
On some days, Walt Whitman is my favorite poet. I'm not a literary critic so all I can truly say is that I like him. The British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams also liked Whitman. Vaughan Williams used Whitman's poetry in …
The Dishonesty of Nostalgia
Images from a simpler time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLVyRvp2Qbg The music in this video is the quintet from the end of Act I of Copland's "The Tenderland." The editors of this video went with an instrumental version of the music which I think …
From the New World
Dvorak, pronounced duh-vor-zjack, wrote his 9th Symphony on a commission from the New York Philharmonic during his visit to The United States. Dvorak took the task seriously and tried to write music that represented "The New World." This 9th symphony …
Grand Canyon
Keeping with our theme of Americana, Ferde Grofe’s Grand Canyon Suite is a nice slice for us to taste. Born Ferdinand Rudolph Von Grofe IV, Ferde was a fourth generation classical musician. However, Grofe was famous because of his jazz. …
Hardcore Americana
November is a month that requires some hardcore Americana. For some reason I associate this month with America more than any other. I suppose it is the combination of Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving. Many countries have independence days but thanksgiving …
MP3
Classical music on MP3 is a mixed blessing. Lest we forget, some classical music audiophiles haven't accepted CD's because they compresses the sonic spectrum. An MP3 compresses CD quality. You can imagine the outrage. The biggest drawback I can see …
Operatic Requiem
Mozart's Requiem may be the piece of music I value over all others but Verdi's Requiem is by far my favorite Requiem. After it's premiere, many thought it was sacrilegious and better suited for the theater and opera stage than …
Atomic Requiem
Mozart's Requiem is one thing and Berlioz's is quite another. Mozart's score calls for 7 pieces of brass and 1 set of timpani along with woodwinds, strings and chorus. Berlioz's score is for 20 pieces of brass, 16 sets of …
A Requiem for Innocence
When push comes to shove and someone demands that I name the piece of classical music I value over all others, I always go with Mozart's Requiem. The opening requiem aeternam has a solemnity that declares Mozart's innocence has died. …
Goat Love: Trick or Treat?
For Halloween, there's always Mussorgsky's Night on the Bald Mountain. The initial inspiration was a short story by Nikolai Gogol based on Russian folk myths. The story in the music is about a mountain without trees, bald, near Kiev. Legend …
Hopped up on Opium
Halloween is upon us which can only mean one thing. Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique: Episode in the Life of an Artist. The artist is a young man (Berlioz himself) who has a series of opium induced visions. Think Jim Morrison. …
The Children
At the San Diego District Metropolitan Opera Auditions this year, three out-of-town sopranos were put through to the regional round in Los Angeles. I want to make it clear that this not an audition but a competition that is open …