What Music are you listening to right now?--The Second Verse

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Oh don't really have any opinion about musicals. The only one I ever saw live was Mamma Mia in Hamburg. But one of my dreams is to visit a classical conert in the Elbphilharmonie! 

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Support your local theatre groups and musical theatre companies.  We need some civilization in this world.

 

How on earth did you miss going to a performance of Les Miserables?  Well, you can get it now on video.  Follows the book fairly well, but does use some artistic licence.  Saw it live three times.

 

Now hearing: Marxen: piano works Adadgio Esspressivo.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Mhh, would be interested if you ever played an instrument? What is your favourite instrument (maybe something special)? And why do you like classical music (orchestral music) so much?

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Besides some serious voice training, I do play a little piano and some keyboards but not recently.  Maybe the classical repertoire attracts me because there is so much of it.  Modern stuff comes and goes.  Very little of it survives the test of time.  I've had a life-time to become more attuned to the general literature (I'll be 77 this month).  I think age makes one more discriminating.

 

Currently: Le Duc - Symphony No. 3.  A rather baroque piece, and considering the Le Duc brothers lived in the middle 1700s, interesting.

 

Speaking of modern works, what do you think of Aaron Copeland?

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Didn't know him so far but just listened to Rodeo (which appears to be a Ballet) and I like it pretty much. 

 

What do you think of Yehudi Menuhin

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Great violinist, but I believe he passed away at the end of the 20th century.  More interested in Joshua Bell.  My late wife was an orchestra quality violinist, pianist and organist.  She also had a nice light contralto voice.

 

Currently hearing: Brahms Symphony No 3 in F major.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Great violinist, but I believe he passed away at the end of the 20th century.  More interested in Joshua Bell.  My late wife was an orchestra quality violinist, pianist and organist.  She also had a nice light contralto voice.

 

Currently hearing: Brahms Symphony No 3 in F major.

 

Oh, what do you think af film composer John Powell. He even got an Oscar for his movie score for HTTYD

 

Examples would be "See you tomorrow" and "Test Drive"

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

A good contemporary musician with considerable skill.  I enjoyed his score for How to Train Your Dragon.  He's been quite active over the last three decades or so and probably ranks with Richard Addinsell (Warsaw Concerto, A Christmas Carol, others).  But then I like most film composers such as John Williams (Star wars) and Eric Korngold (Gone with the Wind).

 

There is a great deal of attention being paid to classical composers lately in commercial advertising.  Recently a Sears ad for back-to-school used the coda from Beethoven's ninth symphony, fifty movement with great effect.  ... Damn, my satellite feed just died again, must be a storm somewhere.  Back to Bryn who is currently singing Bella Notte from Lady and the Tramp. ...  I have a selection of stored music for occasions like this.

 

Just switched to Dvorak's Symphony from the New World.  An interpretation called "Goin' Home".  In the style of a Negro Spirit Jewel, but not pentatonic.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Awesine ti hear you liked his score and his way of composing fim music. He's my facourite film composer. What do you think of Hans Zimmer (I, personally, don't like him very much and think he is horribly overrated)

[ThirtyThree 141]

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Zimmer is one of the nouveau garde who tries to work electronic music into his film scores.  I can't say that I really liked his score for the Lion King, and I haven't seen many, if any, of his recent works being somewhat of a shut in.  When it comes to electronic music I think I prefer a theramin score such as you find in Forbidden Planet.  That picture is a theramin tour de force with even some of the sound effects done on the instrument.  There was also considerable electronic music in the original (B & W) version of The Day the Earth Stood Still starring Michael Rennie which you probably haven't seen.  The contemporary version was definitely out to lunch.

 

You might find amusing the review of Brahms first symphony by the music critic of the Boston Globe when it was first performed there: "Last night the Boston Symphony played Brahms.  Brahms lost.".

 

Right now, I've got my satellite feed back and it is playing: Bach's Sonata for Harpsichord transposed for Violin, performed by Janine Jensen.  I have a choice of about 50 music channels including some FM radio, but generally stick to the classical channels to avoid the commercials on the radio stations.

 

As you might have gathered, I am no longer an avid movie or theatre goer.  I live in a small rural town that doesn't have a movie house let alone a theatre, the nearest being a Children's Theatre run by a friend in Goderich.  Because of a medical condition, I cannot sit in a theatre for a performance without interruption, so I don't any more.  TV movies can be paused.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

30 Seconds to Mars - Kings and Queens

 

Btw, have you ever been to a very well known classical festival. I. hopefully, will be to Hollywood in Vienna next year. It's a concert about the best movie scores from recent movies. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Lots of concerts but never to a "festival".  When I was younger I subscribed to the local symphony orchestra and/or opera company and often attended major events.  I have been to the Shaw Festival of Performing Arts at Niagara-on-the-Lake, but we only took in one play.  My wife had a broken leg at the time and it was the maiden voyage of my new sailing cutter "Gallina Maris", a registered Canadian vessel.

 

Currently hearing: silence.

[Lindsay Tobias 0]

last song:Cats in the cradle by henry Chaplin (original version of song from 1974), now playing: donots-the years gone (live-unplugged)

[timmie 988]

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Weber: Sonata Opus 20 No. 4 for violin and piano.

[Odainsaker 2,137]

Émile Waldteufel - "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zirn3M3ewQc," aka "The Skater's Waltz"

Interestingly, today the new "Tobin Center for the Performing Arts" has its grand opening in San Antonio, after almost four years and $205 million of redevelopment of the historic landmark Municipal Auditorium. Originally, this was a World War I memorial arena in 1920s Spanish Revival style, however, it's vast size and ellipsoid dome were acoustically unwieldy and unusable for most performances, limiting its versatility. At the time, vast, fan-shaped spaces with artificially amplified sound were in vogue as a means of offering broad sightlines to the masses, however, today the preference is for smaller, rectangular spaces acoustically similar to 18th- and 19th-century opera and symphony halls contemporary with much of the performed repertoire, with Vienna's Musikverein usually considered the best. Many productions bypassed San Antonio simply because the city did not have enough available performance spaces of the right size and configuration. In the 1980s, the Municipal Auditorium's grand, domed interior was gutted in a fire and rebuilt in an unremarkable modern style, and the asbestos-filled civic auditorium was used primarily for high school ceremonies.

While largely preserving the exterior, Seattle-based LMN Architects and San Antonio-based Marmon Mok Architecture have now completely redesigned the interior into three smaller performance halls and theaters, while further adding a River Walk garden plaza, boat landing, and vast lighted sky wall. While not yet the Musikverein, it is believed that the new hall will now offer among the best acoustics of venues in the U.S. LMN has also dared to bring the most cutting-edge architecture this rather provincial and conservative city has tasted in along time, and there was some rumbled controversy regarding gutting the familiar old building and even changing its name.

This was all part of long plans to form a performing arts district out of downtown's scattered theaters, extend the River Walk to tie together the city's northern museums, parks, and universities, and broadly revitalize downtown's neglected and underdeveloped northern sectors. I may try to go to the public open house next week, and will watch for a performance of interest from their already booked season.

[Blanche 1]

Demons- Imagine Dragons followed by Maps- Maroon 5

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Just recently heard Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 (pure excellence)

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Just recently heard Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 (pure excellence)

If it was your first hearing, let me set a scenario for you:

 

Beethoven's deafness was complete when he conducted the first performance of this work.  When it finished, he just stood there until the concertmaster turned him around to see the reaction of the audience, which had gone wild in a standing ovation.  Beethoven could conduct the work because he could feel the vibrations of the orchestra through his feet.

 

If you like Schiller's Ode to Joy then you completely understand with a German speaking audience.

 

Currently: Mozart -- Violin Concerto No. 5.  This is one of my favourite pieces from that period.

 

If you can find a copy, I recommend a hearing of the children's program named "Mr. Beethoven Lives Upstairs".

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Well, what I did know about Beethoven is that after he got deaf he cut his pianos legs to feel the vibrations while he was writing (at least that's what I've read). He simply was a genius. 

 

I'm currently hearing: Tracy Ate A Bug - Generation Fallout (the whole album)

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Something else to know about Beethoven:  He originally dedicated his third symphony to Napoleon, but when Nappy invaded Austria, he changed it to Eroica and dropped the dedication.  You can admire a bee until it stings.

 

Currently hearing: Rachmaninoff's Morceaux de Salon.

[jacqulina 162]

sorry but its melody of heaven again i really love that tune.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

30 Seconds To Mars - The Kill

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Monn: Sinfonia in B-flat major

 

Gone for Baroque this morning.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Jonsí - Where No One Goes

 

Btw, just recently saw a documentary about experimental music. What do you think about that?

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Experimental music has been around for a long time.  When I was doing music courses at the University of Toronto we had a group there that was doing some neat stuff with modified bit pads in place of keyboards.  This must have been in the middle 1970s, but music has always had an avaunt garde faction.  I am all for it.  You can't progress without some free tinkering about.  I've always supported new music, provided it was music and not just miscellaneous noise.

 

I know at least one percussionist who uses graphic scores.  They don't look a bit like staff paper.  Once you learn to interpret these and create them it becomes quite fascinating.  I think that's why in the past I was quite taken with the Theramin.  Very difficult to play, and pretty much superseded now, but still playable by some artists.  With this instrument, posture really counts.

 

My satellite feed is running: Joseph M. Kraus: Symphony in E minor.

[timmetje 75]

Anybody over here listening to hiphop? I'm listening to Doin dirt from luniz right now

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Hiphop?  A little to brash for me.

 

Listening to: Glazunov -- Symphony No. 2.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Oh no, hip hop. Not really my style 

 

Currently hearing: Mozart - Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K 331, Alla Turca - Allegretto