Music I love

[tfcrew]

Violin trio...

[SANDRO43]

Being a chorister myself, I still prefer this version :

[SANDRO43]

MORRICONE'S WHISTLER

Many of you will remember Ennio Morricone's soundtracks for a number of Italian spaghetti Westerns, e.g. "For A Few Dollars More":

One typical feature was his recourse to a whistle as 'lead instrument'. Tonight I learned who the whistler always was, a still sprightly 88-y.o. Roman musician named Alessandro Alessandroni, a Morricone's childhood friend:

[SANDRO43]

CLASSICAL MUSIC AND INSTRUMENT TECHNOLOGY

Tonight I was watching a concert on our TV, and looking at the instruments of the symphony orchestra playing I realised how many technical improvements have occurred in the past 200 years or so, and how they determined the richer music that composers could then produce.

PIANO
Major changes from the Renaissance/Baroque virginals, harpsichords, clavichords, etc. (all plucked instruments) to the hammer action of the fortepiano used by Haydn and Mozart, the modern pianos used by Beethoven (Broadwood) and Chopin (Pleyel) and finally the grand pianos used by Liszt (Boisselot, Erard).

BRASS INSTRUMENTS
A major change for horns, trumpets, tubas, etc. came with the application of valves to modify the airflow in the late 1700s. Previously brass musicians had to carry whole sets of instruments or crooks (tubes) to accommodate pitch changes in a piece, or composers like Händel had to write very high-pitched brass parts where harmonics were close enough to produce a given tonality without awkward on-the-fly changes to the instrument configurations.

WOODWINDS
A major change when wood was replaced by metal (e.g. flutes superseding recorders) in some instruments and Theobald Boehm introduced its new fingering system (set of keys) to the flute between 1831 and 1847, later applied to other wind instruments.

PERCUSSIONS
No major changes here, only synthetic materials replacing the vellum (animal skin) on drums.

NO NEW TECHNOLOGY, NO CHANGES: STRINGS
Strings instruments saw practically no change, except in their strings where perishable gut was replaced by reliable metal wire. The instruments produced in Cremona by the Amati, Guarneri, and Stradivari families from the mid 1500s to the mid 1700s are still considered the best, and sell for enormous sums.

NEW TECHNOLOGY, ALMOST NO TAKERS
An entirely new instrument does not necessarily become popular with composers and musicians . Such was the case of the glass harmonica, credited to Benjamin Franklin:

[Kokopelli]

Mozart: Adagio & Rondo for Glass Harmonica & Quartet - Rondo

[Kokopelli]

Music I love  might causally admire.

The Belarus Blues....
She uses a light bulb for her slide guitar.

How about a spoon?

[JohnDearGreen]

she's my Dixie Hummingbird

[Muzh]

Early in our relationship I kareokied (is this a word?) this song to my wife. Just wanted to let her know how I felt about her.
 

[Kokopelli]

More instrumentals
Gary Glitter -- Rock & Roll part 2 - 1972


The Jeff Beck Group - Beck's bolero


Average White Band - Pick Up The Pieces


Ramrods - Ghost Riders in the Sky


Grazing in the Grass by Hugh Masekela


PIPELINE - The Chantays


Don Ross - Michael, Michael, Michael


Michael Hedges - The Naked Stalk

[PaulK]

I just discovered "Klaus Waldeck" a little over a week ago and can't stop listening 

[Kokopelli]

William Ackerman - Anne's Song


Night Train - Jimmy Forrest


Dick Dale - Misirlou


TSOP (The Sound Of Philadelphia) - MFSB


Booker T. & The MG's - Time Is Tight


The Shadows ~ Apache


King Curtis - Soul Twist


The Mar-Keys - Last Night


The Tornados - Telstar

[ghost of moon goddess]

Viewer discretion advised --- there are some scenes where you can see everything 

[SANDRO43]

100th ANNIVERSARY
The Rite of Spring - Le Sacre du printemps- Весна священная

I was reminded today that 100 years ago this epoch-making ballet, composed by Igor Stravinsky, had its debut on the stage of the newly opened Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, with Pierre Monteux directing and Sergei Diaghilev's company of the Ballets Russes choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky.

[SANDRO43]

MAURICE RAVEL
Piano Concerto for the Left Hand

Tonight I saw/heard the above concerto, another remarkable piece of music - commissioned to Ravel in 1929 by Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm during World War I. Pianists become practically ambidextrous by the end of their 10 years of piano study at a conservatory, but it certainly helps the performer if he was naturally left-handed to begin with .

It's an atypical piece also because it is only in one movement. The piano part is by necessity not as majestic as in other conventional piano concertos, but Ravel's orchestration has some beautiful moments, as could be expected.

.

[SANDRO43]

Robert Schumann (1810–1856) is believed to have used a contraption of strings and pulleys to strengthen his delinquent weak fingers, thereby injuring his right hand permanently and forcing him to renounce a concert career, which may have been an ancillary cause of his subsequent madness.

[Muzh]

[SANDRO43]

GIUSEPPE VERDI
(10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901)

Today marks the bicentennial anniversary of the birth of who probably is the best known and most popular operatic composer of all times, who created some 30 operas during his prolific lifetime:

Oberto, 1839
Un giorno di regno, 1840
Nabucco, 1842
I Lombardi alla prima crociata, 1843
Ernani, 1844
I due Foscari, 1844
Giovanna d'Arco, 1845
Alzira, 1845
Attila, 1846
Macbeth, 1847
I masnadieri, 1847
Jérusalem, 1847
Il corsaro, 1848
La battaglia di Legnano, 1849
Luisa Miller, 1849   
Stiffelio, 1850
Rigoletto, 1851
Il trovatore, 1853
La traviata, 1853
Les vêpres siciliennes, 1855
Simon Boccanegra, 1857
Aroldo, 1857
Un ballo in maschera, 1859
La forza del destino, 1862
Don Carlos, 1867
Aida, 1871
Otello, 1887
Falstaff, 1893

Born at Le Roncole, a village near Busseto (Emilia), Milan was his adoptive city since most of his operas had their premiére at our La Scala theatre. He usually resided at the nearby Grand Hotel et de Milan, where he suffered a stroke in January, 1901 and died nearly a week later. When the news spread, the Milanese strew hay on the street below his hotel windows so that their beloved, ailing Maestro would not be disturbed by the noise made by the wheels of passing carriages.

The first half of his life was spent in a still divided Italy, and his music was often a source of inspiration during our Risorgimento, particularly the Nabucco choir aria Va, pensiero (the lament of the Jews deported to Babylon), who many think should have become our national anthem:

The walls of many cities in Northern Italy were painted with slogans in his honour, which the occupying Austrians considered subversive because his name could be interpreted - and was meant - as an acronym standing for Vittorio Emanuele Re d'Italia :

He died childless, and left most of his considerable fortune - and the proceeds from his copyrights - for the construction and maintenance of the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, a retirement house for indigent musicians where he rests with his wife in a crypt:

Casa Verdi at left and his statue at right, Milan

[SANDRO43]

I already mentioned how a beautiful piece of music like Astor Piazzolla's haunting Oblivion can be satisfactorily performed by a different ensemble (http://www.russianwomendiscussion.com/index.php?topic=9589.msg286351#msg286351).

This time the lead part is played on a violin rather than an oboe:

[GQBlues]

It's that time of the year when the fresh crisp, pine / peppermint scent is in the frigid Los Angeles air once again...I offer Rascal Flatts to set the spirit right...






...and this one is dedicated to all of Los Angelenos freezing their butts out there.





Merry Christmas!!!

[Faux Pas]

I saw Rascal Flats in Little Rock last year. Great show

[GQBlues]

I saw Rascal Flats in Little Rock last year. Great show

Yeah, these guys are awesome! Great harmony. I'm nuts about acapella sounds for Christmas tunes...'Rockapella' and 'Straight No Chaser' have some great numbers, too.

But the one I love listening to to get in the spirit of things, is the jazzy contemporary sound of Crystal Theory..they released 2 Christmas albums both titled: *Chillout* - So smooth, man!

[Faux Pas]

Yeah, these guys are awesome! Great harmony. I'm nuts about acapella sounds for Christmas tunes...'Rockapella' and 'Straight No Chaser' have some great numbers, too.

But the one I love listening to to get in the spirit of things, is the jazzy contemporary sound of Crystal Theory..they released 2 Christmas albums both titled: *Chillout* - So smooth, man!

LOL....ironically enough, the wife and I saw Rockapella's Christmas tunes show live here in our town just last week

[GQBlues]

Man, you guys get all the good shows! Are they as good 'live' as they are recorded?

[Daveman]

Two versions of my all time fav Christmas music:  Carol of the Bells


Trans Siberian Orchestra:







And Mannheim Steamroller:
 





Both of these were ab-fabulous in concert. 




And then, Carol of the Handbells..    Love these handbell choirs...

[Muzh]

Four guys and a piano.
 
Happy Holidays