does anyone know anything about lourié? here is “two poems op 8 composed by Arthur Lourié 1908”. more later
“Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer full of feelings.”
From a rather wonderful book called “My First Book of Classical Music”, apparently designed to introduce small children to music that isn’t autotuned. I might have to go back and buy it.
(via amusiclibrary)
ragtime - stravinsky
Messiaen: Vingt Regards - X. Regard de l’Esprit de joie performed by Aimard
this is a piece that truly made me weep! here’s the description i read before giving it a listen:
Messiaen describes this as a “vehement dance” evoking the “joy of God blessed in the soul of Jesus Christ.” The composer notes that this movement is based on “oriental dance and plainchant,” but listeners may more readily be struck by its resemblances to jazz, particularly in its boundless energy and bouncy rhythms. This great rush of motion is interrupted by hunting-horn calls, and Messiaen asks that its final pages be played as if “in a great transport of joy.”
i admit, at first play, i was thinking, what is this clutter of noise? and i skipped ahead to where the “jazz” feel was most prominent. it gets you pumping! wow! i imagine charging ahead, bounding around, through any environment.. mostly through the pure wilderness. and that’s the feeling this piece has — wild. but wild with pure ecstasy. imagine the ecstasy growing and growing, this incredible, undescribable happy feeling… until it reaches an apex.. pure love, pure joy, absolute heart
i’m reading messaien’s treatise on time, rhythm, and ornithology (vol 1) and i have started reading it, not having listened to more than a handful of pieces by him. not all of it appeals to my ear. but the pieces that do echo inside me much more powerfully than most other music
listening may be a challenge, but if you can get into this… just feel it.. there’s one part, the “fanfare” that messaien writes is “a great transport of joy”… and you hear that incredible, ever ascending melody and these dissonances high above it, it sounds like the happiest childhood feelings!!
don’t listen to me… listen to the piece! wow! i also recommend reading the source i got that little passage from, as it describes the entire piece in a way that makes listening more comprehensive. also, here is a link to download the book by messaien i mentioned reading. it has inspired me incredibly as a living person and as a musician and i highly recommend it!
Text from Enchanting muse: a documented biography of Francis Poulenc by Carl B. Schmidt.
(via amusiclibrary)
for i will consider my cat jeoffrey
O Sacrum Convivium (3:38), composed by Olivier Messiaen
performed by John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers
nothing i can possibly say will do this piece any justice… i’ve been sitting here, incapable of focusing on anything but music for the past few hours! this piece is incredible. it’s signature messiaen, of course, and most people interested in real choir repertoire already know this, but if you haven’t heard this… wow…
this is on another level.
Sonata for Clarinet & Piano: I. Allegro tristamente - Francis Poulenc
Clarinet: Martin Fröst
Piano: Röland PontinenThis sonata as a whole is one of my favourite Clarinet sonatas written. The first movement particularly (maybe cos I can actually play it LOL) because it is incredibly haunting and eerie. The contrast between the loud, almost sparce, motifs at the beginning, against the ‘subtone’ tremelo that follows them adds to the whole feeling of not knowing what’s going to happen next. Great piece of music!
Savannah River Holiday (1953/73), composed by Ron Nelson
“Savannah River Holiday consists of two contrasting moods that take turns alternating throughout the composition, representing the power and serenity of the Savannah River. The Allegro Vivace theme begins and ends the work with a flourish, while the Adagio provides a lovely, somber, reflective melody. The Savannah River forms most of the border between the states of South Carolina and Georgia, and is 350 miles long.” — Nikk Pilato
this is a good tune for new years i think! it’s energetic and melodic and special. ron nelson is a 20th century composer i, of course, discovered through a few chorale pieces. but these are pieces i hold in very high regards emotionally and thus, whenever he is mentioned, i’m inclined to listen. i heard this on the radio too (thank you chicago’s 98.7), and it’s for wind ensemble, and apparently used in patriotic compilations often. weird. i think ron nelson was from a city not too far from chicago (represent). regardless, commit that name to memory if you don’t know him already
(Source: windrep.org)
