Day 8: Wasps, Vaughan-Williams

Day 8: Wasps, Vaughan-Williams

I do have quite a lot of English music, and Vaughan Williams in particular, in my CD collection, but I haven’t got his London Symphony, which was suggested to me by a friend. So, instead, I listened to a couple of excerpts from the Wasps!

The music was originally written as incidental music, to accompany the play of the same name by the Greek Aristophanes. The overture begins with a very wasp-like buzzing, but this theme is very quickly followed by some rather typical Vaughan Williams writing. The whole suite of incidental music amounts to about an hour or so of music, but the actual overture itself is only about 10 minutes long.

The other extract on my CD – which was recorded by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, one of the best interpreters of Vaughan Williams’ music – is the March Past of the Kitchen Utensils. The story goes that Vaughan Williams composed the movement to represent a judge who blames his dog and outs him on trial for stealing some cheese! As his character witnesses the dog calls upon some of the kitchen utensils! I’ve no idea if he was found guilty or not, but it’s certainly an amusing story!

Recommendations for week 1

In my quest to listen to every CD in my collection, I’ve been blogging about what I’ve been listening to, and I’ve also asked friends for their recommendations!

So, the ones I’ve listened to so far are as follows:

1. Messiaen – Turangalila Symphony
2. Handel – The Messiah
3. Walton – Façade Suite
4. Saint-Saens – Cello Concerto no.1
5. Mozart – Symphony no.38
6. Beethoven – Symphony no.6 (Pastoral)
7. Strauss – Till Eulenspiegel

If you like the above, the suggestions from my friends of things you might also like are these:

1. Rimsky-Korsakov – Scheherazade
2. Saint-Saens – Carnival of the Animals
3. Karl Jenkins – The Armed Man
4. Andrew Lloyd Webber – Variations
5. Faure – Requiem
6. Schoenberg – Gurrelieder
7. Vaughan Williams – London Symphony
8. Resphigi – Roman Festivals

 Happy listening!

Day 7: Richard Strauss, Till Eulenspiegel

Day 7: Richard Strauss, Till Eulenspiegel

For many people the name Strauss is synonymous with waltz music, but, this is a completely different Strauss from a completely different family!

Richard Strauss was a late-Romantic German composer remembered for his songs (Lieder), his operas (like Salome) and his orchestral works. Till Eulenspiegel is one of his famous tone poems – an orchestral piece that tells a story and uses recurring themes to represent various subjects. The character of Till Eulenspiegel was a German folk hero, originating in the middle ages, but no-one’s sure if he was a real person or not. Anyway, he was a bit of a prankster, and keen on misinterpretations! Till’s is represented by two themes, one played by the French horn, the other by the Eflat clarinet.

The piece is full of jolly tunes as Till goes about his business, riding his horse, going to market, chasing the ladies, upsetting the market stalls etc.. Then, the music takes on a serious air as Till is taken to be beheaded for blasphemy. Although he doesn’t survive, the cheerful theme comes back at the end – perhaps indicating that Till will never be forgotten!

This is only a short piece, but it’s crammed full of interesting stuff – interesting instrumentation, interesting tunes, interesting ideas – and is well worth a listen!

Day 6: Beethoven Pastoral Symphony

Day 6: Beethoven Symphony no. 6, The Pastoral

What a perfect day to be listening to Beethoven’s 6^th symphony – The Pastoral! Fabulous sunshine interrupted by rain storms!

This is significant because this symphony was really the first of its type. Although Beethoven is a classical composer, he pushed the boundaries of classical music, so this symphony has 5 movements, unlike a more traditional classical symphony that would have 3 or 4. Also, this is one of the first pieces of music that isn’t just music to listen to: This symphony tells a story, the story of a day in the countryside.

Beethoven actually gave some indication of the story behind the music in the directions for each movement:

1^st movement - Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arrival in the country

2^nd movement – Scene at the brook

3^rd movement - Happy gathering of country folk

4^th movement – Thunderstorm and storm

5^th movement - Shepherds' song; cheerful and thankful feelings after the storm

This really is the first example of what we now call programme music. And, it’s so lovely! You can really hear the countryside in the melodies and you really feel you want to rush indoors when you hear the approaching storm! This stuff makes you want to listen to it carefully; definitely not background music!

I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for a Beethoven symphony as when I was a child we had a black boxed set of the complete symphonies on vinyl - The Klemperer ones (with Otto, I think he was conducting the Berlin Phil) which were regularly on the turntable. The version I listened to today was the von Karajan (Herbert, conductor of the Berlin Phil!) interpretation, which is also rather good!

Just out of interest, Klemperer also did a fantastic recording of Mozart 38.

Look out for the final recording of this week and recommendations for listening based on this week's pieces!

Day 5: Symphony 38, Mozart

Day 5: 24 April 2012, Mozart Symphony no.38 in D, The Prague


How refreshing it is to listen to Mozart! My plan of
listening to Radio 4 on the way into work and a CD on the way home is actually having benefits: I still know a bit about what’s going on in the world, and my stress levels are not soaring whilst I’m driving amongst maniacs!!

I find Mozart just so easy to listen to. It does all the right things. If you don’t know the tune, you can hum it anyway. It’s kinda predictable but never boring. The cadences almost always resolve as you’d expect them to. The music often follows a standard format. There is always a distinct beginning, middle and end, and the end is usually heralded and obvious!

The Prague symphony was not the first of Mozart’s symphonies that I became familiar with. Like a lot of people I was first introduced to 40, but my liking for that was quoshed when I went to a performance of the Prague in a little church somewhere in Newport, with my piano teacher and a group of her piano students. The BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra were playing, but I’ve no idea what else they played as I was so transfixed by the Mozart!

I was particularly struck by the way the tune moved from one section of the orchestra to another, and generally by how it all fitted together so well. It’s a fairly typical example of a classical symphony, having 3 movements – fast-slow-fast – each being in sonata form. Some of the themes are just sublime.

The particular CD I listened to today was a recording of the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, and also included symphonies no.40 and 32. It was bought in WHSmith in the days when they used to have fantastic sales of CDs and you could pick up a real bargain – like this one, for £1.99!

Day 4: Saint-Saens Cello Concerto No.1

Day 4: 23 April 2012. Saint-Saens Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor, Op.33

What you probably don’t know is that Saint-Saens is my favouritist composer in the world – ever!

I don’t actually have a vast collection of his music, but absolutely everything I have is just utterly magnificent!

I recently bought a copy of the cello concerto from a music shop in Leamington Spa, where they had a marvellous collection of CDs to rifle through! That particular CD had two Saint-Saens cello concertos (yes, In know it should be concerti, but it just doesn’t roll off the tongue!) on it, which was why I bought it. Despite this, the one I listened to today was my original copy of the first concerto, a recording of Paul Tortelier being conducted by his son, Yan Pascal. I actually heard them performing this together way back in the 80s in London, so this rendition is a particular favourite.

My only regret with this piece is that it is so short! At just over 18 minutes, I sometimes feel a bit short-changed! I wanna hear more!! Compare this to Haydn’s concerto in C, at just over 25 minutes, the Bliss at just over 26 minutes and the Elgar at just over 30 minutes. Mind you, Saint-Saens’ second cello concerto is even shorter at 17 minutes!!

I guess the tempo markings of Allegro-Allegretto-Allegro should be a clue that this is not going to be a slow and gushing piece! More like fast and frenetic! That doesn’t mean it’s a concerto a la classical tradition; this is a romantic piece, whose tunes draw you in and tug at your heart strings! The perfect combination: Saint-Saens and the cello!

Day 3: Facade

Day 3: 22 April 2012, Facade Suite

The Facade Suite by William Walton, a musical accompaniment to poems by Edith Sitwell, is quite simply a masterpiece! I think I first heard extracts from it when it was played as the title music to a television programme aired in the early-70s called "Face the music". This has to have been the best quiz show on earth! The inimitable Joseph Cooper playing his dummy keyboards, Robin Ray sitting there looking, well, quite frankly, gorgeous, Joyce Grenfell being sooo Joyce Grenfell, and various other guests including the newsreader Richard Baker and David Attenborough!

Anyway, back to the music. I didn't realise at the time that the theme tune was taken from Facade, but I think it was another one of those pieces I studied for A level music. The piece is made up of musical accompaniments - the ensemble being a flute/piccolo, a clarinet/bass clarinet, a trumpet, a cello and alto-sax - to poems written by Edith Sitwell. At the time it was premiered, as you can imagine, there were a variety of reactions!

The influences in the music seem to come from all over the musical sphere, but there's a fairly recognisable jazz-type element to it. All in all it's a really fun piece to listen to. My only word of advice if you are going to listen to this piece is, if possible to make sure you will like the narrators! I loved my original vinyl copy, but was less happy with the version I picked up in Abergavenny Music - absolutely not their fault, they are a fab little music shop - but despite uhming and ahing about buying it, as I had a feeling I wouldn't be keen on the narrators, I still did!

Day 2: The Messiah

Day 2: 21 April 2012, The Messiah.

In preparation for singing The Messiah in Lichfield Cathedral, I did, of course listen to it to remind myself of the quality - and quantity - of this choral masterpiece by Handel.

I've sung it a number of times before, but never in a cathedral, with an impressive organ and organist! Yet again, I discovered another enthusiastic and committed choir master, in Cathy Lamb, standing in for her husband who was off on a trip to Africa to find a venue and tour route for the Cathedral Chorus to sing at.

Listening to my CD at home, I was reminded of just how much I love not only the alto solos, but also the bass "The people that walked in darkness", and how, even though I think I can't possibly know the whole 257 pages of music, a lot of it is, in fact, quite familiar.

It is rather long though, but I was moved enough to listen to it all. I don't think I've ever sung the whole lot with a choir though; different choir masters have different views, choosing to retain different pieces, but rarely doing the whole thing.

Listening to The Messiah has reminded me of just how much I love choral music and how much I love singing.

Wondering what tomorrow's choice of music will be, given that The Messiah is such a hard act to follow!

Welcome to Record Music!

Just lately, OH and I have been to a number of independent record stores and have had such pleasure rifling through racks and racks of secondhand CDs! Inevitably, this has led to the exchanging of money, and we have come home the proud owners of a varying collection of "new" music!

Trouble came, however, when we tried to fit our new purchases into our custom-made-to-fit-in-the-alcove CD shelves, for they were already full to bursting point! That set me off thinking: "I really should re-arrange this messy-looking collection, and re-shelve those mis-shelved ones, then perhaps I might find the ones that I've been missing for years!" which, as you can imagine, rather turned into a Chandler moment, not to mention, a classifier's nightmare!

Then, of course, I began to look more closely at individual CDs in the collection and think: "Gosh, it's a long time since I've listened to that!" Of course, there are one-hundred-and-one reasons why I haven't listened to much music over the last few years, not least because of lack of time. And so, this project was born!

Call me sad, but I have noticed some friends doing the blipfoto thing where they take a picture each day and upload it to an online diary, and thought maybe I could do a similar thing and record my daily life through music! Of course, blipfoto is a big site and has loads of members: My online diary is going to be just me, unless I can find friends to join in and somehow link all the blogs together ...

I would hope to include a little bit about the music, but this will vary according to how busy I am! I had thought I might embed a youtube rendition if I could find one, but am too cautious and, being sure that there are many things on youtube that really shouldn't be there, I am reluctant to do this. I'm also not sure if it's ok to add photos of CDs; hopefully I'm not breaching any copyright laws, as I've decided I will add piccies of what I'm listening to. Also, in case you feel the urge to catalogue your CD collection, have a look at musicbrainz; it's a bit like librarything, but specifically for recorded music.

So, coming up is the first post in my online music diary! Apologies for the layout of the entry; I've never uploaded a photo to my blog before, and having got it in the wrong place, I then couldn't work out how to move it, so, I'm afraid it stays in the wrong place, but I'll try and get it right in future diary entries!

If you want to join me, let me know and we can follow each other's blogs! I think it might be quite interesting to hear about the music that people enjoy listening to, in the style of "If you've heard that, you might enjoy listening to this!"

On the other hand, I could be totally wrong!!

Enjoy!

Day 1: Turangalila

Day 1: Friday 20 April 2012

Today's choice of music was governed by a recent purchase in Blackcat Records in Taunton. Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony was something I studied at school for 'A' level music, but I don't think I've listened to it since then, so it was a real treat to find this in the shop.

The symphony was written between 1946 and 1948 for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and was first performed on 2 December 1949. Being a "modern" symphony, rather than the traditional 4 movements, it is in 10 movements, and has a substantial part for piano.

There are many recurring themes in the piece, some of which sound like birdsong, and include the statue theme, the flower theme, the love theme etc.. As with many pieces of the era, much use is made of what were then unusual percussion instruments, in particular the ondes martenot.

This is a stunning piece of music which can really lift the spirits!