You know what? I like this song and don’t care who knows it!
Something for Thursday
Here’s something I don’t think I’ve done yet in the course of doing these posts: I’m using a piece of music of whose existence I was completely unaware just twenty minutes ago. But I heard this on the drive in to work today, and I thought, “Ayup, I’m using that for today’s post.” It’s a piece of film music from a movie that I’ve never heard of, by a composer with whom I am totally unfamiliar. It’s not a complex piece, by any means, but sometimes you just want a nice, lush melody that sings from the heart. With Joshua Bell on the solo violin, here is a selection from Ladies in Lavender, composed by Nigel Hess.
(Since I’ve stopped listening to sports talk radio in favor of returning to WNED, I’ve noticed that film music takes up a lot more of their programming. I find this interesting.)
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Something for Thursday
I’ve been posting a lot of classical music lately and will likely keep doing so, but why not change the pace once in a while? Here is one of the most beautiful country songs ever written, performed by the ever-amazing Willie Nelson and the always-missed Ray Charles: “Seven Spanish Angels”.
They just don’t write country songs like that anymore.
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Something for Thursday
I played this piece via a band arrangement in college…and I hated it. At first. I thought it was cheesy, goofy, insipid, and idiotic. But the thing grew on me, and kept right on growing, until it became one of my favorite pieces. There’s a kind of maniacal glee behind it that makes me happy, and I’m all about the glee these days! Here is the Polka and Fugue from Schwanda the Bagpiper.
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Something for Thursday
I had a piece chosen already, but yesterday’s passing of pianist Van Cliburn gave me cause to push that one back a week. This particular work is so associated with Cliburn that it’s almost cliche to use it, but there’s a reason cliches become so in the first place.
Back when I was in school and taking piano lessons, my teacher — a wonderful lady named Margaret Hooker — used to rave about Van Cliburn. She thought the world of him, and I never think of him without thinking of her almost at the same time. I was never that good at the piano, choosing instead to focus my energies on my beloved trumpet, which I imagine had to frustrate Mrs. Hooker somewhat, as I could have done better had I worked harder at it. I’d say ‘Story of my life’, but then, that’s the story of everyone‘s life, isn’t it?
Anyway, I hope that Mrs. Hooker is finally getting to meet Mr. Cliburn in whatever musical realm they now inhabit. There’s no question in my mind that if there is such a realm, she’s already tracked him down.
Here’s Van Cliburn playing the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto #1.
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Something for Thursday
Over on Instagram I’m doing a ’30 Day Disney Challenge’, basically because a friend of mine who is an absolute nut for all things Disney is doing it and I just can’t leave an Internet meme-thing undone. It’ll task me until I do it! So anyway, in honor of my favorite Disney character, here is the final song from Mary Poppins, a movie that I think would be considered one of the great movie musicals if the Disney label didn’t get it filed in with the kids’ stuff.
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Something for Thursday (and for Valentine’s Day!)
Something for Thursday
The opera overtures of Franz von Suppe have been a staple of ‘light classical music’ concerts for over a century, and I see no reason for that to stop any time soon. Von Suppe’s overtures are wonderfully melodic, packed with drama, and wonderfully orchestrated. Most of all, they’re just fun to listen to. I return to these time and again, for what I hope is obvious reason. Here are a few of them.
Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna:
Light Cavalry:
Jolly Robbers
We played that one in high school, actually, and that opening fanfare for the trumpets was terrifying. It starts with a high F, which is one of the hardest notes to nail on that instrument (because of the physics involved in how the instrument works). The level of exposure, right at the beginning, was well and truly scary.
And finally, my favorite, Poet and Peasant:
Enjoy!
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Something for Thursday
Oops…a tad late to the party, but hey, it’s still Thursday! So here’s some swashbuckling movie music. I’ve waxed poetic about Erich Wolfgang Korngold in this space before, and specifically about my favorite Errol Flynn movie of all time (and my favorite pirate movie of all time, too), The Sea Hawk. For years, the only version of the music that I was able to find was this fifteen-minute suite, presented on a compilation disc of Korngold music conducted by Charles Gerhardt. During the 1970s and 80s, when movie music tended to be pretty hard to find — especially recordings of older, classic scores — Gerhardt’s re-recordings were often the only thing available, and what a good thing, too, as Gerhardt tended to do wonderful things with these scores. This suite from The Sea Hawk is no exception. It’s in two parts due to length, but the break is in a very logical spot, coming after a triumphant spot where the suite goes silent before playing the film’s magnificent love theme. Keep an ear out for the thrilling “Strike for the Shores of Dover”, which comes during the movie’s most exciting segment, after Captain Geoffrey Thorpe (Flynn) and friends have freed themselves from the chains and oars of a Spanish galleon. Enjoy!
Annotations:
0:00: Main theme, intro at the court of King Philip of Spain
2:06: First sighting of the Albatross, Captain Thorpe’s ship
3:11: Entry of the Sea Hawks (captains of privateer ships) into the court of Queen Elizabeth I of England
4:15: Captain Thorpe bids farewell to Dona Maria before setting sail again
4:49: Captain Thorpe’s enemies plan a trap
5:18: The march of the gold caravan through the jungle of Panama
7:35: Duel with the Spanish captain / Duel with Lord Wolfingham
9:15: The freed English sailors take the Spanish ship
9:52: “Strike for the Shores of Dover!” and conclusion
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Something for Thursday
Sticking with a recent flare-up of a longtime obsession of mine, the music of the Russian Romantic and post-Romantic composers, here is the Capriccio Espagnol by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. This piece is in five short movements, and constitutes something of a musical ‘travelogue’, intended by Rimsky-Korsakov to convey what he thought to be the musical flavors of Spain.
In the days of CDs, this work almost always showed up as the pairing on discs containing Rimsky-Korsakov’s longer, and possibly most famous, work Scheherazade. R-K was one of the great genius orchestrators, with an astonishing ability to use the instruments of the orchestra to create tableaus of enormous color and range. Enjoy!