jmc's classics
Schubert (1997-1828) lived a short life. He wrote seven completed symphonies. Plus his famous Eigth Symphony called "unfinished". My personal favorites are the Ninth "Great" in C minor and the Fifth in B flat. the Ninth is called "Great" to distinguish it from the Sixth also in Cminor which is called "little" The ninth is also one in my opinion one of the greatest symphonies written.
I have spoken of "the Curse of the Ninth" Bruckner and Mahler also wrote unfinished symphonies their ninth and tenth respectively. Their deaths caused the works to be incomplete. people have tried to complete both works. However with Schubert's Eighth, he put it aside for other projects. I like Bruckner's works especially his chamber works. I am not much of a fan of Mahler. Shubert wrote a Seventh and tenth symphony which were not completed in his lifetime. They have only survived in piano transcriptions. I was watching the classical music channel on cable yesterday and I heard Schubert's tenth. both the Seventh and Tenth have been orchestrated by Brian Newbould. he is a British composer, conductor and music scholar and an expert on Schubert there is also an E minor symphony called "1825 which is attributed to Schubert. I do not know much about this piece. I have only seen one CD each fo the above works listed on Arkiv Music Before the digital age and the advent of computers people had to use paper and things could have gotten lost easy. I have not heard the other works. Schubert like Bruckner lived in Vienna. Bruckner wrote two earlier symphonies that are not numbered. As of now, I have not heard these symphonies. for the Seventh and Tenth symphonies check the article on Wikipedia and it ahs more details and technical terms which I do not want to get in to. These works are worth listening to.
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The Canadian Brass is a famous Canadian Brass Band. They are a quintet featuring two trumpets and one each trombone, tuba and French Horn. They have made Christmas albums. Some of their albums are of classical music or classical transactions. One of the first CDs that I purchased was of them playing Baroque music.in March of 1994 when I started listening to classical music. It features Handel's Water Music, Pachelbel's Canon and some of Bach's music including Sheep May Safely Graze. A year and a half later I purchased the Canadian Brass playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The Four seasons is one of the most famous pieces of Classical music. It is a series of violin concertos. Vivaldi wrote many concertos. He wrote concertos for the Violin, Cello, Oboe etc. they have also made an album of Mozart's music which I don't have or have heard.
Some of the members of the Canadian Brass are actually American. They are based on Toronto Canada for more information check out their web page canadianbrass.com. The current members are Caleb Hudson and Chris Coletti trumpet, Jeff Nelson French Horn, Achiles Liarmakopoulos trombone and Charles Daellenbach tuba. Daellenbach is the only one of the original members still a member of the quintet. They have played Christmas music and have made Christmas albums. They have made several Jazz albums and an album of Renaissance music which I have not heard. I am not much in to the Pre- Baroque or Renaissance music. They are still active today. Classical music as we can see can easily be transcribe for many other forms of instruments or genres it is mid July mid point in summer. On the seasonal music channel on cable, they have Christmas in July. then they play Octoberfest and Halloween music. Then on November First they start playing Christmas music until around January Seventh. This time of year they play the lighter Christmas Music. After November First they pay more serious Christmas Music.
There is debate on what time of year Jesus was actually born. The Gospels of Mathew and Luke are the two gospels that tell of Christ's Birth. I have seen an interesting article on Beliefnet.com about the debate on what time of year it was beliefnet.com. Check out this ling wand you can find this article. Some places and organizations in America have Christmas in July celebrations. South of the equator, it is summer in December and it is winter right now. In the Caribbean and in the Mediterranean basins it is typically warmer during December than in the northern areas. Legends about Santa clause is that he uses camels and or donkeys to get around in these areas where the climate is warmer. Although the date of Christ's birth is debated it is not as important. Some historians state that when Christ was conceived is March 25. Nine months before Christmas. The feast of the Annunciation. It is an important day in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. In Greece it coincides with Greek indipence day and is a national holiday. I like to play Christmas music sometimes around this time of year and in March. Go to the Beliefe net website or check out the above link. I follow First Things on Facebook. There was an interesting article on Classical music. It contained an interview with Andrew Balio who is a trumpet player with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. It is on the Fate of classical Music. it is interesting. It would take too long for me to recap it. firstthings.comMark Bauerliesn interviews Balio
First Things is a magazine which is to the right of center. It deals with religion, religious history, culture politics etc. It is interdenominational and has writers and editors of all Christian denominations plus some Jewish contributors. the magazine does have some interesting articles. In the age of internet sometimes it is not worth paying for a magazine subscription when you can read most of the material on line! There have been two stories on classical music in the news this weekend. Both are worth looking in to. check out more of them on the web.
Last night on NBC News, they were talking about major orchestras in America were trying to increase the number of African American members. It said that only 2% of orchestra members are African American. It has increased since around 1964-65. Look it up on NBC's web page. Most orchestra musicians are in a union. I belong to a union UFCW Local 655. AKA United Food and Commercial Workers which is for grocery stores. The other story was on 60 Minutes about a British girl who is a child prodigy and has also written an opera, a violin concerto and a piano concerto and is a virtuoso at both instruments. She is compared to Mozart who was also a child prodigy. There are not very many famous female composers.. American Amy Beach is one example another is French composer Cecil Chaminade. I am somewhat familiar with Beach but not Chaminade. This Girl's music is now being berformed in concert halls. There have been many excellent African American Opera singers, such as jesse Norman, Marion Anderson and Leontine Price. I was never in to Mahler. British composer Samule Coolridge Taylor is sometimes referred to as the "Black Mahler" I can not recap either story but check them both out on their respective web site, or look them up on the web. Both stories are interesting. I am always discovering new composers. For most people The music of Finland begins and ends with Jean Sibelius. Like Norwegian music with Grieg, Czech music with Dvorak and Mexican music with Chavez. There are many other great Finish composers. One such is Uuno Klami (1900-1961) I have an internet radio which I have finally hooked up. I have been listening to Vermont Public Radio (VPR). I recently heard one of his pieces. Some people may have considered him to be the successor to Sibelius. It is debatable.
He was born in the town of Virolahit near the Finnish Russian border. At that time Finland was a simi-autonomous part of the Russian Empire. Finland became independent in 1918. The Finish language is not part of the Indo-European language family, like English, French , German, Russian Etc. It is from the Urlaic language family which includes, Estonian, Hungarian and several other languages spoken mainly in parts of the former Soviet Union. Klami was influenced by French and Spanish music. He studied in Paris and Vienna. His music is nationalistic. Many of his compositions are related to the Kalevale epic. This was a 19th century of Finnish and Karelian poetry epic. He admired Ravel. Many of Sibelius' works are nationalistic in nature. He wrote two numbered symphonies. Both symphonies I have heard Via Youtube. He also wrote an earlier Symphonie Enfantine dating from 1927. He wrote two piano concertos and a violin concerto among his other works. I have checked Arkiv Music and unfortunately there are only 15 recordings available of his music. I hope that his music does become more popular in the future. There are many other finish composers who also need to be listened to! Some people who ae fans of Tony Bennett or Perry Como may be familiar with the song "Stranger in paradise". The melody is of classical origin. It is from the 1953 musical Kismet by Robert Wright and George Forrest. They incorporated classical music in to their musicals. the song is based on the music of Alexander Borodin (1833-1887). It is from the Palovstian dances from Borodin's opera Prince Igor. I am not going to go in to detail about this opera- it would take too long.
The musical is based on the Arabian knights. It was commissioned by Edward Lester and won the 1954 Tony Award for Best Musical. It is based on the 1911 book by British playwright Edward Knockblock (1874-1945). Many other songs in the musical are based on Borodin's music. Borodin was a Russian composer. he was also a scientist which was his major occupation. He did research on aldehydes. He was friends with another Russian Composer Milley Bilakierev (1837-1909). Borodin incorporated Russian folk melodies in to his music. He is remembered today for his opera Prince Igor as well as his three symphonies. His most famous work is his Nocturn from his Second String Quartet. It was arranged for orchestra. I have a copy of this work. It is the Saint Petersburg Chamber Orchestra conducted by Saulius Sondeckes. It is on the Sony label and is still available. It also includes is symphonies and some of his other works and I like this piece of music. I am not familiar with his symphonies. I recommend this album for any body wanting to get familiar with Borodin's works. I am beginning to like this song. Both of the above men tined singers have sung it. Also Bing Crosby, Vic Damone and the Ink Spots. This song was popular in the 1950's. It was used as a theme in the 1999 movie Breakfast of Champions based on the novel by Kurt Vonnegut. Classical music is often recognizable. broadwya has borrowed form many classical composer as we can see here. |
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