I would absolutely wear overalls to a Christmas party, were I to be invited to one…but I’d also likely not get invited to the kind of Christmas party where wearing overalls was a serious faux pas. Anyway, I always like this one. Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….
(This is a repost from a number of years ago. I recently saw the movie Cousins for free on YouTube, so watched it over several breaks and lunches at work, as I hadn’t seen it in quite a few years. It actually holds up pretty well, and when I looked up my earlier post, I realized that I honestly wouldn’t change much of it at all, except to maybe accentuate more the point that the movie really is a fantasy of sorts, and if a situation like this movie’s came to pass in real life the participants would all need extensiveDown the rabbit hole….
My alma mater, Wartburg College, puts on a big music concert every year for Christmas. Called Christmas With Wartburg, it’s a big production that involves several, if not all, of the school’s largest music ensembles in a night of Christmas music (mostly sacred). This production was always a really big deal with a lot of work involved. When I was there, we did four performances: one at the college auditorium on Thursday night, usually the first or second Thursday after Thanksgiving, right before finals). Then a performance at a really big Lutheran church in Cedar Falls (a bigger town half anDown the rabbit hole….
I do not remember a time in my life when I was unaware of the existence of one Richard Wayne Van Dyke. The man has just always existed, you know? Likewise, I couldn’t begin to tell you what the first thing is that I ever saw him in. It may well have been this: But it also might have been this: The most recent thing I’ve seen him in is this: I can’t say that I’ve been a huge fan of Dick Van Dyke, but neither have I ever been a detractor in any way, and maybe I haven’t been aDown the rabbit hole….
I’ve noticed that I listen to chamber music more in the colder months than I do during the warmer. I’m not sure why that is, but maybe being inside more results in me responding more to the intimacy of good chamber music. Arcangelo Corelli wrote a concerto grosso upon the commission by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, and he noted in the score that it was “made for the night of Christmas”. The work has no specific date, as it was eventually published in a posthumous collection of Corelli’s works. Nevertheless, if you’ve ever wondered what an Italian Cardinal might have been hearingDown the rabbit hole….
I went to YouTube and searched under “The Night Before Christmas read by”, and obviously my hope was to find a good, solid reading of the classic poem. But then I saw this. Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….
I know I said the other day that I’ve always had difficulty with the music of Claude Debussy, but that doesn’t apply to everything he wrote. There’s a piano miniature of his that I have always loved, called “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair”. Here it is, played by a cello quintet, because hey, why not. Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….
Two weeks out! I hope your shopping is done. And if it isn’t, well, you have time. Anyway, here’s something just outstanding. I usually feature the full soundtrack album of A Charlie Brown Christmas at some point during this series, and this year is no different…but it’s not the original. Apparently there’s a jazz trio called The Commercialists, based in Milwaukee, who get together in December to go around performing…the entire soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas. This is just wonderful. Enjoy! Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….
So, what is a “carol”, anyway? In our time, the only “carols” we think about in the musical sense are Christmas carols, which seem to be a subset of “Christmas songs” in general: the carols are the traditional ones that we might have heard in Victorian England. We picture small groups of people in tall hats and heavy clothing standing outside gaslit buildings and singing old Christmas tunes: “Good King Wenceslas”, “Silent Night”, and so on. We wouldn’t envision carolers singing, say, “All I Want For Christmas”. But the fact that we have Christmas carols seems to offer two possibilities:Down the rabbit hole….
Continuing our exploration of classical music that is inspired by water, in one context or another, we have a monumental masterpiece by Claude Debussy. I’ve never had the easiest relationship with Debussy’s music. His approach to music from a place of tonal color-painting, with less emphasis on melody and on form, has generally kept him at arm’s length for me. I’ve generally found it difficult to engage with Debussy’s tendency to create musical mood through orchestral effect and color alone. But…as I’ve engaged more and more with the visual arts in the last bunch of years, and engaged more andDown the rabbit hole….