IN MEMORY OF MY FATHER

...who passed away this morning, June 26, 2016, and in honor of those who remain:

Dad, your suffering is over and you are now at rest - may you remain in an eternal state of peace. 

I love you very much...

You will be missed.
xo

"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace..."

"EINE KLEINE" MOZART TO ACCOMPANY EPIC COUNTDOWN

Folks, the countdown is on to plunge NASA's solar powered spacecraft Juno deep into the orbit of gas giant Jupiter.

Strap yourselves in, this is going to be epic:



As the world waits with bated breath for the outcome of NASA's latest behemoth endeavor into further discovering the heavens and that of mankind's origins, I present to the reader "Eine Kleine Mozart" (A little Mozart) in the form of the maestro's symphonic masterpiece Jupiter^[1] - a fine compliment to this most impressive display of human ingenuity.

Enjoy below another astonishing human feat: the highly prized Molto Allegro from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony no. 41 in C major "Jupiter," performed by the English Chamber Orchestra under maestro Jeffrey Tate:


Footnotes:

^{A final portrait of
Herr Mozart to
accompany the
 composers final
symphony. Left
unfinished at his
death, this portrait,
painted by Mozart's
brother in law, was
said to be the
composers' best
likeness.}

^[1] The name “Jupiter” to Mozart’s 41st symphony – the composer’s last, and most lengthy – was a later attribution to the work, possibly coined by Mozart’s son, Franz Xaver, or, more likely, by 18th century composer and musical impresario Johann Peter Salomon.

The Symphony is widely regarded by many Mozart aficionados as Mozart’s finest, with the esteemed Sir George Grove, founding editor of the music scholars’ most referenced Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, famously praising the work and it’s composer thusly: 

"it is for the finale that Mozart has reserved all the resources of his science, and all the power, which no one seems to have possessed to the same degree with himself, of concealing that science, and making it the vehicle for music as pleasing as it is learned. Nowhere has he achieved more…It is the greatest orchestral work of the world which preceded the French Revolution.”

Nearly 230 years after Herr Mozart put his finishing touches on his monumental work, "Jupiter" continues to impress audiences and astonish even the seasoned musicians who perform it. Notoriously demanding in execution, Jupiter was ground-breaking at it's premiere for it's use of employing five individually unique melodies simultaneously - making the work a laborious feat for the orchestra and a delightful treat for audiences around the globe!

Discover more: 

• NASA's Press release for "Juno Mission Arrival at Jupiter" at (NASA)

-Rose.

BACK TO HOME PAGE

FEATURED DUET: BELLE NUIT, Ô NUIT D'AMOUR & JACQUES OFFENBACH'S ROCKY ROAD TO MUSICAL INFAMY

"Le Mozart des Champs-Elysées" 
("The Mozart of Champs-Elysées")
Jacques Offenbach turns 197 today.

Today’s featured duet comes to us from 19th century German-turned French composer Jacques Offenbach’s final unfinished grand opera Les contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann).

The gorgeous barcarolle for soprano and mezzo soprano, from the opera’s third act, “Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour" (Beautiful night, o night of love), and the entire work itself have become staple pieces in the West, with the famous barcarolle often finding itself enhancing many and varied soundtracks of mainstream and independent film, and Les Contes itself greatly assisting in the dogged quest of making for it’s creator a household name.

Les Contes d’Hoffmann’s popularity is especially notable, as both the work and it’s composer would have experienced many roadblocks along the journey to success.

Jacques Offenbach, born Jacob Offenbach 197 years ago today on June 20, 1819 at Cologne in Prussia (in what is present day Germany), was the 7th child of a family of 10 by Jewish parents. Although young Jacob showed signs of exceptional musical aptitude as early as the age of nine years, having already mastered the violin with astonishing and “terrifying” ability,  and having begun the practice of composition and had recently taken up the cello, Prussian musical society in the early 19th century would prove problematic for musicians of Jewish origin looking to advance in their practice or trade and make a name for themselves across the continent.

Jacob’s father Isaac, would send his son west, to France by the age of fourteen alongside elder brother Julius, aged 18 - also musically gifted - to study in Paris.

An esteemed Italian in Paris:
composer and Paris Conservatoire
Director Luigi Cherubini

It would be in Paris, at the prestigious Paris Conservatoire that young Jacob would shatter his way through the first of his obstacles with remarkable ease: running the exclusive Conservatory was one of the early 19th centuries’ most prominent Italian masters of Opera in France, composer Luigi Cherubini. So exalted a station held Cherubini as Director of the conservatoire, and so particular were his refinements, even the likes of (a young) Franz Liszt had applied for, and had been refused admission within it’s hallowed ranks. Jacob’s tender age was but just one factor working against the young hopeful: unlike in Prussia, where the musician’s Judaism would prove a hindrance to himself, in Paris - which was more accepting of Jewish talents - it was Offenbach’s status as a Prussian national that was viewed by Cherubini and the Conservatoire as most distasteful.

It would only be after much persuasion on the part of Isaac Offenbach that the pubescent Jacob would be made allowed to audition. Moments into the young prodigy’s performance, Cherubini abruptly called for silence, allegedly remarking to Isaac’s most gifted son

“Enough, young man! You are now a pupil of this Conservatoire!"

It would be during this period that Jacob would become Jacques, and where the former singer and violinist would begin to hone his skills as a virtuoso of the cello. Although having spent only a year within it’s precincts, it would be at the Conservatoire that Jacques would find himself rubbing shoulders with classical music’s elite, and instilling within himself a very powerful sense of his own self worth as a musician. Very soon after voluntary withdrawing from the Conservatoire, Offenbach would enter into the cello tutelage of one Louis-Pierre Norblin, and join the Opéra-Comique orchestra as a cellist where he would even further refine his skills earn the distinction of one of the finest cellists on the continent. Jacques would also study composition under maestro Fromental Halévy of La Juive fame.

French composer Fromental Halévy
would prove instrumental in young
Jacques early foray into the art of
musical composition.

Around this period of self-discovery and burgeoning success, Offenbach would develop a taste for the musical theater, leasing a small property in the Champs-Élysées (which he named Bouffes-Parisiens) wherein he would test out some of his own compositions. In spite of the odds working against him as a Prussian Jew in Paris, the now 36 year old musician would find his latest venture a smashing success, with his small-scale productions earning him a reputation as a pioneer and master of the operetta, allowing him to branch out into in creating larger performances, in even grander venues. This was no small feat for the newly established composer given the Parisian government’s notorious restrictions on musical productions: such stage plays were to be limited to single acts, with a maximum of three characters, with a strict prohibition on the implementation of chorus.

Within three years of Jacques indoctrination into musical theater, the Prussian prodigy would find himself for the first time beginning to build a reputation outside of Cologne and Paris, as his satirical 1858 operetta Orphée aux enfers causes a sensation in France and eventually attracts the attention of the Second French Empire under Napoleon III, who would later grant the Prussian émigré French citizenship and the much prestiged Légion d'Honneur (a distinction shared by former tutor Luigi Cherubini). Offenbach’s reputation as a master of the operetta would extend to Vienna, which enabled the former Prussian national to introduce into musical Viennese society several of his successful works then unknown to it's high art-loving patrons.

Unfortunately for the newly minted Frenchman, nationalistic pride spurned on by the revolution combined with an ill-suited business sense would plunge the composer into bankruptcy as the European populous divided into sects following France's defeat by the Prussians in 1871. Once more, Jacques was viewed by the public as Jacob – Prussian intruder.

18th/19th century Prussian author and
polymath E.T.A. Hoffmann's short stories
would provide the base for Offenbach's
ultimate success and lifelong dream of
musical infamy. Sadly, Jacques did not
survive to revel in his posthumous notoriety.

It would only be following the death of Offenbach, 9 years later at the age of 61, that Jacques, through his second attempt at a grand opera Les Contes d’Hoffman (The Tales of Hoffmann, based on three short stories penned by author and composer E.T.A. Hoffmann) would finally achieve international fame, although, household name status would arguably not be seen until well after the composer’s passing, at the height of the twenty-first century, following a series of incomplete performances (said to have involved the much beloved barcarolle and the opera’s third act), a gas explosion and resulting fire at a separate, full-feature performance in 1881, and a further fire 6 years later in 1887 at the Opéra-Comique which had destroyed much of the orchestral parts – and the onset of the second world war, wherein composers and works created by musicians of Jewish origin found themselves frowned upon and/or had been made the subject of bans in many parts of Europe.

It would only be in a post-war Europe that Jacques Offenbach’s magnum opus would be re-introduced into high musical society and made allowed to flourish, unhindered by the many historical roadblocks that had been forced upon it’s composer.

Sadly, it was a level of infamy unknown to Offenbach during his lifetime. 

Enjoy below the beautiful “Belle Nuit…” by Jacques Offenbach featuring mezzo soprano Elīna Garanča and soprano Anna Netrebko, and
marvel at the acoustic beauty that may have never been:



-Rose.

BACK TO HOME PAGE

TRIVIA & HUMOR (Fun Opera Facts part V) Feat. DID YOU KNOW?

It’s time for another installment of Mayhem Behind the Music: TRIVIA & HUMOR!

Today’s entry features a sizeable entrée of paranoia with a side of superstition for starters:


Good luck charms and trinkets, rituals, and an occasional dabbling in the occult has long been associated with the great operas and masters of classical music: from famed tenor Luciano Pavarotti’s famous handkerchief, which the dynamic singer employed as a good-luck charm; to Tchaikovsky’s fear over losing his head and his compulsive ritual of conducting with one hand clasped about his baton, and the other relegated to supporting his chin – to the desperate and depraved measures of Scriabin and 16th–17th century murderer-prince Carlo Gesualdo’s involvement with witchcraft, the history of Western Classical Music carries with it a motley brew of magumbo and sorcery.

Gustav Mahler

Superstition was the name of the game at the dawn of the twentieth century for famed Austrian composer Gustav Mahler. It was the year 1909, and Mahler had just put the finishing touches on his final ^[1] symphony Das Lied von der Erde.

The composer, ecstatic at completing his monumental work, sat for a tête-à-tête with his beloved spouse, Alma. His opus was complete, he informed his wife, and, in a manner most unusual for the stalwart composer, would be recorded in his books as a composition without a numerical assignation. The reason for Mahler’s reluctance to number his symphony (which was structured as such, with the integration of song) as No. 9 lay in the composer’s superstition and very real fear of the number as it related to music: 19th century composers Ludwig van Beethoven and Anton Bruckner, after all, had both perished upon penning their ninth symphonies,^[2]  with the latter composer failing to complete the work’s final movement before passing. Mahler, fearful of succumbing to the fates of his predecessors, subtitled his work as simply “Eine Symphonie für eine Tenor- und eine Alt- (oder Bariton-) Stimme und Orchester" ("A Symphony for Tenor, Alto and Large Orchestra”).

Fellow 20th century composer and triskaidekaphobic Arnold Schoenberg described for the public Mahler’s fear of the so-called “curse of the ninth” folklore in an essay on the superstitious composer:

“It seems that the Ninth is a limit. He who wants to go beyond it must pass away. It seems as if something might be imparted to us in the Tenth which we ought not yet to know, for which we are not ready. Those who have written a Ninth stood too close to the hereafter.”

Listen below to Das Lied von der Erde with mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig & tenor René Kollo and the
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under maestro Bernstein:


Footnotes:

^[1] Completed.
^[2] The so-called "Curse of the Ninth" was heavily based in folklore and highly problematic. Discover more at the following link: Curse of the Ninth (at Wikipedia)

Giuseppe Verdi

Speaking of curses popular in the world of western classical music, 19th century composer Giuseppe Verdi, himself a suspected target of malocchio, and the focal point for overzealous protection by an obsessed mob following a disastrous premiere of the composer’s early opera, Alzira, would find not only his own person and works assailed by a sinister invisible culprit during the composer’s lifetime, but would also fall victim to such subterfuge even in the many years following his death by stroke in late January of 1901. La Forza del Destino, Verdi’s famous 1862 Italian opera, would fall victim to superstition by chanteurs following an unfortunate incident at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House involving American baritone Leonard Warren in March of 1960, wherein the singer, upon readying himself to perform the cabaletta “Morir, tremenda cosa” (“To die, a momentous thing”) in the opera’s third act, abruptly broke out into a fit of coughing and gasping for air, before allegedly uttering a cry for help before collapsing dead to the floor.

Warren’s early death (he was 48 at the time of demise) by cerebral hemorrhage, prompted many a opera singer to conclude Verdi’s Forza to have been cursed, with tenor Luciano Pavarotti refusing the role of Don Alvaro altogether, and with others resorting to ritualistic 'means of protection:' famed Italian tenor Franco Corelli was said to have seized his genitals on an occasional performance (why that particular part of his anatomy was especially designated for protection remains unknown) as a means of warding off any bad magumbo.

Listen below to the aria that formed the basis of the Forza Curse, Morir, Tremenda Cosa, as performed by
baritone Renato Bruson:

Did you know?

Galileo Galilei

...that the celebrated 16th century Italian composer, lutenist and music theorist Vincenzo Galilei, master of the late Renaissance and revered as a revolutionary pioneer of the Baroque period had an even more famous, more venerated offspring? Galilei’s first-born son, sired in February in the year 1564, would grow up to become none other than world-renowned astronomer, physicist and household name Galileo Galilei – better known in the present era as simply “Galileo!”

Enjoy below Vincenzo Galilei's Contrappunto 24, Qual Miracolo Amore:

Orlando di Lasso

...that in spite of becoming the oracle of the mature polyphonic style of the so-named Franco-Flemish school and revered master musician of the late 16th century musical Europe, Netherlandish composer Orlando di Lasso (Roland/e de Lassus) endured very tempestuous first beginnings in the composer’s foray into the world of classical music?

Although much music and the unblemished reputation as an innovator survive into the present era, details of the early life of di Lasso remain somewhat obscure.

What is known to scholars of this period is that the late Renaissance composer suffered much indignity in his everyday life both on account of his many gifts and in spite of them. Entering into the realm of music at an early age,  Orlando di Lasso was encouraged by elders to join the choir of a local church. So polished was the young Orlando’s voice, it is said that the juvenile singer was twice kidnapped on account of it – perhaps to serenade those in whom he was held hostage, or to provide the criminals with an outlet to make a lucrative living as a performing act!

Things seemed to take a turn for the better when, by the age of 18, a teenage Orlando took up a post as maestro of music at Naples, which provided for the now young man a bridge to a more lucrative teaching position in Rome. His joy was however, short lived: shortly after arrival in the Italian capital Lasso was made aware of the poorly state his parents, who were both said to have been in ill health back in the Netherlands. Lasso set off for home immediately upon hearing the concerning news, but it was, alas, too late to bid his parents a fare thee well: both mother and father were discovered deceased on arrival.

Enjoy below the gorgeous Pslami Poenitentialis by late Renaissance master Orlando di Lasso:


Suggested Reading (External link): 

• Superstitions in the realms of Classical Music and Theater (at the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU)
  

 

Discover even more Trivia and Humor from the Mayhem Behind the Music: Trivia & Humor archives!

• TRIVIA & HUMOR: Did you know? (Fun Opera Facts)
• TRIVIA & HUMOR: Did You Know? (Fun Opera Facts part II) 
• TRIVIA & HUMOR: Did You Know? RIOTOUS BEGINNINGS (Fun Opera Facts part III) 
• TRIVIA & HUMOR Feat. DID YOU KNOW? (Fun Opera Facts part IV)  

-Rose.

BACK TO HOME PAGE

QUOTE OF THE DAY: MAY 31, 2016: TCHAIKOVSKY AND THE POWER OF MUSIC

Today's Quote of the Day comes from the preserved collection of private correspondence between 19th century Russian composer Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky and his patron and intimate confidante, the wealthy benefactress Nadezhda von Meck.

The following quote is just one of many exquisitely rendered exchanges between composer and patron, and is paraphrased from a modern translation of a biography on Tchaikovsky originally published at the dawn of the twentieth century, as penned by the musician's brother Modeste.*

"Your [music] is so wonderful, Peter Ilich, that it throws me as I hoped into a state of blissful madness; a condition in which one loses consciousness of all that is bitter and offensive in life.... Listening to such music, I seem to soar above all earthly thoughts, my temples throb, my heart beats wildly, a mist swims before my eyes and my ears drink in the enchantment of the music. I feel that all is well with me, and I do not want to be reawakened..."

The title "The Life and Letters of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" will be coming soon to unravelingmusicalmyths Book Reviews, alongside several other highly erudite and immensely enjoyable reads.

*Note: quote does not refer to the hymn below, but rather to a march by Tchaikovsky. I am featuring below the
composers' setting of Hymn of the Cherubim as today's feature sacred piece as it - at least to my taste - best
suits the sentiment von Meck so eloquently conveyed in her correspondence with the composer. Performed
by the USSR Ministry Of Culture Chamber Choir:

"Ah, God, how great is the man who has power to give others such moments of bliss!"
- Nadezhda von Meck.

-Rose.

BACK TO HOME PAGE

PATRON PROFILE: QUEEN VICTORIA - ROYAL PATRON, FAN & MUSICIAN

Queen Victoria in her Coronation Robes

Today citizens of Canada proudly celebrate the official birthday (note: not the actual birthday) of the nation's 19th century Constitutional Monarch, Queen Victoria, who reigned over the Great White North for the staggering length of nearly 64 years, making the former Queen the countries' third longest reigning monarch, just behind current Sovereign Queen Elizabeth II – who recently surpassed Victoria on the occasion of her 90th birthday last month, and whose reign now clocks in at over 64 years and counting; and that of 17th-to-early 18th century French King Louis XIV who reigned for over 72 years.

Today, unravelingmusicalmyths takes a look back at the generous patronage of Victoria to the world of Western Classical Music.

It is perhaps thanks in part to Hollywood’s occasional foray into the lives and times of the great (and not so great) Monarchs Britain that even laymen of history will be familiar with the whirlwind romance of the Princess and later Queen Victoria and her consort (and first cousin) Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, to whom she wed in 1840 at the Chapel Royal of St James's Palace in London. Victoria and Albert’s courtship and marriage was most unusual for a royal marriage – much like the Scottish Queen, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (also a former Canadian Sovereign as Queen Consort to the sickly 16th century French King Francis II), it was the Queen herself who proposed marriage to her future husband, filled to the brim with girlish brooding – although in Victoria’s case, the feelings of passion were more than mutual, and had a far happier ending, in spite of both Queens’ reluctance to share with their spouse The Crown Matrimonial.

What is perhaps less known is the Royal couple’s impassioned and generous patronage of music – a shared affinity that would be tantamount into bringing the young relatives together before betrothal.
In fact, the Queen Victoria would famously declare of her soon-to-be husband his prowess in the arena, when she penned the words “he sang to me some of his own compositions, which are beautiful, and he has a very fine voice. I also sang for him…” in the day following her proposal to her royal fiancée.

Victoria & Albert's gorgeous gilded piano, now
part of the Royal Collection Trust. Click here
to learn more about this exquisite instrument.

So cherished was the performance of music, and the creation of music that the princely duo would make it a frequent occurrence to perform for each other the works of famous contemporary composers – and, most impressively – pieces of music the Consort Albert himself had composed, which he would serenade Victoria with as she sat at the court’s gilded golden piano (in addition to having well established singers and pianists perform selections from Albert’s repertoire. The consort-king would also famously take a seat at the piano himself).

So well admired were the works of Albert it is said that were it not for the role in which the Royal consort was stationed at birth, and the expectations expected of a figure representing such a role, the Prince would have pursued a career in composition. Few of Albert’s compositions survive, most of which had been composed prior to the couple’s Royal marriage, but those of which are presently made available convey a level of talent comparable to that of Schubert or Schumann – this, in spite of Albert humbly considering himself an “amateur musician.”

Among the frequent guest performers at the couple’s residence at Buckingham Palace was the famous 19th century German composer Felix Mendelssohn, who, as historical evidence charmingly dictates, made the Royal couple weak in the knees.

So stalwart an admirer was Albert of Mendelssohn and his oeuvre, he arranged for the Queen to meet the famous romantic era composer by orchestrating a private concert for the pair at Buckingham Palace following a most pleasing visit with the composer the prior evening, in which Mendelssohn had traveled to London to hand deliver to Albert a correspondence from the consorts’ cousin, Frederick William IV, King of Prussia. Mendelssohn happily obliged, and, as the saying goes – the rest was history. It was later recorded, following the composer’s first visit to the royal palace, that the giddy couple was more than excited (and quite nervous) at meeting their musical hero, with one Mendelssohn biographer describing the overindulgent pair as “quite fluttery” for “all their exalted station.” Victoria would as much as confirm this when she took to her diary to recall the couples first meeting with the composer: "After dinner came Mendelssohn, whose acquaintance I was so anxious to make…”

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

Felix would become a staple member of the musical royal household and of the private repertoire performed by the couple at Buckingham Palace, having performed for the Queen his famous Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without Words), and performing impressive musical feats such as improvising on the themes of the Austrian national anthem and the British patriotic, “Rule Britannia,” to which the Sovereign was much impressed, recording in her trusty diary: “He began immediately and really I have never heard anything so beautiful, the way in which he blended them both together and changed over from one to the other, was quite wonderful as well as the exquisite harmony and feeling he puts into the variations, and the powerful rich chords, and modulations, which reminded me of all his beautiful compositions.”

Strauss I

This homage-of sorts to the Queen and to Britain had been preceded 4 years earlier in 1838 by another famous composer of whom Victoria patronized: grandfather of the waltz, Johann Strauß the Elder (-Strauss I), who, following a disastrous debut at London, would climb his way to success through mingling in high circles (of the British nobility), and through the patronage of the then-Princess Victoria in whom Strauß was commissioned to provide for the state ball honoring Victoria’s accession to the throne a sequence of waltzes, which Strauß complied, penning his famous Huldigung der Konigin Victoria von Grossbritannien (An Homage to Queen Victoria of Great Britain):

Edward Elgar

Yet another member of the musical arts in whom Victoria and Albert supported was a formative Edward Elgar – whose astronomical rise to success would later see the English composer gainfully employed as Master of the King’s Musik under King George V (grandson to Victoria and Albert).

In addition to assisting in the makings of musical icons and rubbing shoulders with Classical music’s elite, Victoria herself would famously patronize many an opera and theater, attending some fifty performances annually!

Further reading:

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CANADA & THE MONARCHY:

Canada as we know it today is known as a Sovereign State. It is also one of the 16 Commonwealth countries that comprise the Commonwealth of Nations. This makes the present reigning Queen, Elizabeth II the nation's current Head of State.

Our great nation’s (I am a proud Canuck) ties to the Royal family extends back centuries, and includes rulers of both Britain and France, covering Canada’s pre-confederate standing as Colonies of both Britain and France, and, later as a British Dominion upon the nation’s Confederation in 1867. Through many years of constitutional action, the Dominion would not achieve full autonomy until 1931, under the so-called Statute of Westminster Act.

This meant that Canada would be re-born as an Independent Nation whilst sharing as Head of State the Sovereign of the United Kingdom alongside other members of the Commonwealth of Nations.

To many Canadians, the passing of this Statute would seemingly render the ‘powers’ of the Monarch inconsequential. This is not altogether true, in that our current Head of State remains the Queen, who, aside from performing what are essentially ceremonial duties, continues to retain the power over the assignation of the Nations governors general (the chief representative of the Crown in a given commonwealth nation), and provides assent for the passing of bills into law.

The Sovereign’s role in the Canadian Government can be quite confusing for many a citizen. Currently “the executive government and authority of and over Canada” is vested in the Queen through the Nation’s constitution. However, the actual role of the Sovereign is quite minimal: this is because, as an autonomous nation, the Queen agrees to delegate the vast majority of her powers to the current and the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government – currently Justin Trudeau, the countries Prime Minister, who governs on the “Queen's Behalf,” passing laws in her name ‘using her authority.’ Other duties of the Sovereign are performed by the aforementioned Governor General, with each province representing the Queen via a lieutenant governor.

The Queen is also the nation’s commander-in-chief of the Canadian armed forces.

The Queen Victoria, however, is unique in the aspect that the Monarch was the first Queen to have been occupying the British Throne upon Canada’s Confederation (when Canada became a nation: the Dominion of Canada, on July 1, 1867), and is known colloquially as the “Mother of the Confederation.” Although there exists no evidence of Victoria acknowledging the landmark occasion in the many letters of the Queen that survive, the Queen’s influence can still be felt today across the nation in it’s many preserved architectural wonders of the so-called Victorian era, and in the names of both cities and capitals themselves, which the former Sovereign both named and approved (it was Victoria’s selection of Ottawa as the capital of the United Province of Canada that would allow the Ontario city to remain the nation’s Capital) and in the many institutions named after her.

Join in the singing of Our great Nations' Royal Anthem "God Save the Queen" with Prince William
and Duchess Kate (filmed during an earlier performance for the separate Canada Day holiday):


Discover more:

• A brief retrospective of the National anthem “God save the King/Queen” - Composition history and the hunt for the originator of the tune at Cmuse
• A timeline of Canadian Monarchs at Wikipedia

Happy Victoria Day!

-Rose.

BACK TO HOME PAGE

AUTHOR'S CHOICE: 13 DECIDEDLY - AND UNEXPECTEDLY - FRIGHTFUL WORKS FROM THE REALM OF WESTERN CLASSICAL MUSIC (PART II OF II)

Part II of my 13 Most Frightening Works is now complete! * RECAP: I present to the reader part II of my new article “13 Decidedly - and Unexpectedly - Frightful Works from the Realm of Western Classical Music,” based on works that I personally deem as either overtly horrific, or as naughty devils in the disguise of beautifully melodic music (who appear as wolves in sheep's clothing).*

There is much to cover, so let’s dive right in!

* View Part I of this entry here.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: MAY 22, 2016 - C.S. LEWIS' FIRST IMPRESSIONS ON WAGNER; GERMAN MAESTRO TURNS 203

Today’s Quote of the Day comes to us from the diary of famed British novelist Clive Staples Lewis, better known as C.S. Lewis, author of the extremely popular The Chronicles of Narnia, and is in reflection of the Irish-born writer’s first experience with the music of 19th century Romantic composer Richard Wagner.

Writer C.S. Lewis

“…the Ride^[1] came like a thunderbolt. From that moment Wagnerian records ... became the chief drain on my pocket money and the presents I invariably asked for… 'Music' was one thing, 'Wagnerian music' quite another, and there was no common measure between them; it was not a new pleasure but a new kind of pleasure, if indeed 'pleasure' is the right word, rather than trouble, ecstasy, astonishment,'a conflict of sensations without name.' "

The 22nd of May, 2016, marks the 203rd observance of the birth of the megalomanic German composer, who was born this very day in 1813 at Leipzig.

Herr Wagner is an unravelingmusicalmyths composer favorite, and as such, has been much featured on this blog. Subjects range from contemporary to pop culture perspective, the composer’s inadvertent ‘relation’ to the Third Reich (and his anti-Semitism); Wagner’s involvement with the King of Bavaria (including the funding and construction of his much coveted Festspielhaus at Bayreuth), his relationships with his second wife Cosima and her father (Wagner's father-in-law) Franz Liszt, and his various debts and time spent in exile, and, of course, the maestro’s majestic oeuvre. These articles (and more) can be found by perusing the posts found in the Wagner Archives or by clicking on the pertinent link below.

Listen below to the famous Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walkure’s third act:


Footnotes:

^[1] The event of which Lewis refers is to his first listening of a record of Wagner’s 1870 opera, Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) – in specific, the now famous 3rd act battle cry Ride of the Valkyries. Die Walküre is the second of four operas that together comprise Wagner’s famous Ring Cycle tetralogy.

Discover more:

• Internal link: Richard Wagner: Life, Works, Misconceptions & Truths, Influence - (unravelingmusicalmyths Wagner Archives (Posts) + 1 Article)
   
• External link: More about the Ride of the Valkyries: (at Wikipedia)

• External link: C.S. Lewis Life & Works: (at Wikipedia)

• External link: Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia heptalogy: (at Wikipedia)

-Rose.

BACK TO HOME PAGE

AUTHOR'S CHOICE: 13 DECIDEDLY - AND UNEXPECTEDLY - FRIGHTFUL WORKS FROM THE REALM OF WESTERN CLASSICAL MUSIC (PART I OF II)

Scroll down to view my selections!

A note on this article: As mentioned in my posting on May 14, I will be posting for a brief period at a slower than usual rate due to external obligations outside of this blog.

The following entry was meant to be published last Friday (the 13th of May), but was not yet complete by the date desired (and remains a work in progress – hence the splitting of this entry into two postings - the second of which will be up as soon as I can dedicate the time to finish editing the piece). It is, however, my goal to not leave my audience without fresh material for extended periods, and so, in that vein, I present to the reader part I of my new article “13 Decidedly - and Unexpectedly - Frightful Works from the Realm of Western Classical Music,” based on works that I personally deem as either overtly horrific, or as naugthy devils in the disguise of beautifully melodic music (who appear as wolves in sheep's clothing).

Keep checking back often for updates, as I will continue to post as my schedule permits. Part II of this entry will be up soon!*

*(after a brief period as top posts, both entries will become backdated under the date of the 13th of May).

The post-in-progress (I-VI):

To celebrate this month’s superstitious Friday the 13th, unravelingmusicalmyths has gathered together thirteen of the most spooky and spine-tingling sounds to come out of the world of western classical music.

I have made every attempt to steer clear of the stereotypical/clichéd “Hallowe’en” favorites (such as Camille Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre, Giuseppe Verdi’s Dies Irae chorus from his famous Requiem Mass or Modest Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain) in favor of arias and lieder that are atypical of the common ‘horror genre’ of western classical music. Hidden amongst some intentionally frightful scores are works I personally deem to be horrifying in their own right: gooseflesh-inducing music which relies more on subtle and muted tones than in sudden startles and jumps bursting out from the orchestral fray.

Among the horrifying gems I have selected for inclusion on this list of most frightful works include pieces of music that appear both pleasant and melodic on face value - but which have rather macabre undertones laying just beneath the surface, cleverly disguised within sinister lyrics.

Now, without further discourse, I present to the reader a motley brew of sorcery, spirits and plain ole' spook to set your spine a-shiver: 

QUOTE OF THE DAY: MAY 18, 2016 | KATHLEEN BATTLE'S "SPIRITUAL JOURNEY"

Today’s Quote of the Day comes to us from the Greek ‘electronic’ /crossover composer and musician known as “Vangelis,” and is in tribute to this week’s grand celestial tour de force and the planet Mars, which is set to dance amongst the heavens, in a slow tango with the planets Jupiter and Saturn, providing a spectacular feast for the eyes for professional and amateur astronomers around the globe:

"I made up the name Mythodea from the words myth and ode. And I felt in it a kind of shared or common path with NASA's current exploration of the planet [Mars]. Whatever we use as a key — music, mythology, science, mathematics, astronomy — we are all working to decode the mystery of creation, searching for our deepest roots."

-Vangelis

Listen below to the 5th movement of Vangelis’ 11-movement choral symphony piece “Mythodea,”  a crossover project for the electronic composer into Classical, and which was the official music of the 2001 Mars Odyssey – NASA’s mission to send into the orbit of Mars a robotic spacecraft designed to detect evidence of historical water, present geology and the current “radiation environment” of the red planet. The album’s laserdisc had likewise been corresponded to release on the date of the spacecraft’s official entry into orbit on the 23rd of October, 2001, and was recorded from the acoustical haven of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, (constructed c. 6th century BC) at Athens, in Greece. The movement featured below is sung by American soprano Kathleen Battle.



Notice to fans of Kathleen Battle residing in Canada:

As the world waits with bated breath for the triumphant return of Ms. Battle to the MET for what will be a ‘farewell’ concert in November of 2016, residents of Southern Ontario will be treated to a preview of this silvery hued vocal nightingale at the close of this month: May 29th, 2016 at Toronto’s Roy Thompson Hall, where the American soprano will be performing a recital of spirituals (typical of her recital repertoire) based on the historical abolitionists of slavery and which will feature “traditional slave spirituals,” in what the concert hall describes as “…a journey through the spirituals and hymns that express suffering, salvation and freedom.”
The concert program, which will be repeated in New York at the close of the year is entitled “Kathleen Battle Underground Railroad: A Spiritual Journey”

Discover more:

2001 Mars Odyssey Launch History and Retrospective:

• PDF: 2001 Mars Odyssey contemporary press release - Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA

• 15th Year in Orbit: a Look Back at the spacecraft’s most important discoveries at NASA 

Present and Upcoming Celestial Events:

• This week's celestial events (May 16-22) - visible from earth at Sky News

• This week in space (images) - May 16-22: at National Geographic 

Kathleen Battle:

• Kathleen Battle - Toronto concert and ticket information at Masseyhall.com 

• Kathleen Battle's history and much awaited return at New York's Metropolitan Opera House

(internal link): at unravelingmusicalmyths
(external link): at NPR (*transcript*)

-Rose.

BACK TO HOME PAGE

BLOG UPDATE: MAY 14, 2016

Dear reader,

Welcome back to unravelingmusicalmyths.blogspot.ca! Just a quick note to inform the reader that I will be - for a brief period - posting at a slower than usual rate due to external obligations that exist outside of this blog.

One needn't fear that I will disappear - I will still try to post when time permits.

In the interim, feel free to peruse the many articles on unravelingmusicalmyths and enjoy the wide variety of orchestral, operatic, sacred and secular music - all of which I have selected for inclusion on this blog due to my personal affinity for each piece (and all of which also exist within my private collection of favorite works). There is much to listen to and enjoy, and much to learn and discover!

As always, keep checking back often and enjoy your stay at unravelingmusicalmyths.blogspot.ca!

Listen below to Greek-American soprano Maria Callas sing "Pace, Pace Mio Dio" from Italian composer
Giuseppe Verdi's 1862 opera Forza del Destino:


-Rose.

BACK TO HOME PAGE

QUOTE OF THE DAY: MAY 11, 2016: CARL MARIA VON WEBER & THE MAGIC THAT IS CARLOS KLEIBER

Today’s Quote of the Day comes to us from composer, musician and critic Carl Maria von Weber, one of late 18th – early 19th century Germany’s most influential and important composers of the Romantic era:

“What love is to man, music is to the arts and to mankind.
Music is love itself - it is the purest, most ethereal language of passion,
showing in a thousand ways all possible changes of color and feeling;
and though true in only a single instance, it yet can be understood by thousands of men - who all feel differently.”

-Carl Maria von Weber

Enjoy below one of the greatest Overtures in opera (according to the author of this blog!) from under the baton of the greatest conductor to have ever performed it: the famous Overture from Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz (The Marksman) as performed by the Südfunk-Sinfonieorchester in this rare 1970 recording.*


Footnotes:

*Rare in the sense of the maestro’s ever-illusive mystique surrounding rehearsal footage - which was included alongside this concert footage, and whose distaste for such ventures included audio recordings in addition to video (see: Did You Know? Tristan und Isolde from my post on Schopenhauer). Kleiber, an infamous perfectionist and recluse “astonished” contemporary conductors across Germany (and indeed, across the continent), when he agreed, nearly 50 years ago - at what would be the very Zenith of his career as a much esteemed master of the baton and orchestra - to be recorded in rehearsal with the Südfunk-Sinfonieorchester, rehearsing the overtures of Weber and waltz king Johann Strauß II (Der Freischütz and Die Fledermaus, respectively – that latter of which would become a staple piece of his repertoire, along with Strauß' full opera). It is said the audience was so bowled over by the lush interpretation and personal aesthetics of Kleiber, that those attending the concert for the overtures became rhapsodized by the German maestro, and would begin what would become a trend in the later performances in which he would conduct – with all eyes on Kleiber.

I am of the opinion that when it comes to Carlos, the undoubted veracity of Weber's quote is put to the test with triumphant results - just look at that passion! The late maestro Kleiber was second to none in the esteemed realm of enrapturing an audience - how could one possibly witness a 'performance' like this - and not "feel" what Carlos is feeling? In Carlos, truly, the spirit of all men are united.

Ah, to have been there at such a moment!

-Rose.

BACK TO HOME PAGE