Hello Recaredo! I see we posted at exactly the same time! I'd say that's a perfect storm for a great day to happen! Thanks for introducing me to Popov's music. I've only listened to the first movement, and I loved it. I also agree that it should be listened to very carefully. That's why I'm planning to listen to it in it's entirety this evening when I won't have interruptions.

Recaredo, do you have other things by Popov that you might want to post anytime soon?

Hi Griffin.

I also feel fascinated by his third symphony “Heroic”. It’s a long symphony for string orchestra. Its expressiveness is enormous and its musical developments are so brilliant.

Popov was a genius in my opinion. It was a real pity that he got so many problems with the regimen and with the alcoholism.

Thanks for the Lucinda, Griffin.. those are awesome! She has such an incredible voice.

Of course, I love Elton too. Whenever I think of Elton, I think of that documentary where he was telling a story about his drug fueled demands. Apparently he called the front desk at one hotel and demanded that they make the wind stop blowing.

Hello all, I've not offered any musical postings of late, so I am going to rectify this right now, with another Elton John number......

.......I know if you strip away the beat, music and vocals, your left with 7mins 44sec of nothingness, so just don't do it!

Question:
Has anyone got their own personal MIG strike aircraft?

may I be so presumtious as to answer that question for you?

I will anyways, my guess is that you haven't.

Fearing a real twisted nightmare, (rather than a poorly thought out and confused perceived one) The "mutoid waste company" gave this some thought, and decided that as they hadn't got there own MIG strike aircraft either, the only way to rectify that particular situation, was to go and get one...


Realising the difficulties involved and understanding that the general public at large will usually never get to see and touch one close up....

The realisation occured to these wonderfull and approachable guys, that the best thing to do with a MIG strike aircraft once aquired would be to have a party in and around it........

Seems obvious......

Check this out.... and marvel at the Mutoids as the german cops check them out.....

Sorry about the film quality, it is what it is...

I'm back. Work, the purchase of a painting [of a dead hare], piano class, and a vile stomach bug kept me away. And also a magnificent concert by Steven Devine, playing the Goldbergs on the harpsichord, at Wax Chandler's Hall (very plush super-old City of London livery company).

I can't find Devine - one of the leaders of the Orchestra of the Enlightenment - doing much Bach online, so instead here's some chill Nicolas Jaar [records this year selling like hot cakes at the uber-cool Rough Trade store]:



I'll check out the Lucinda vids...

You know of the Space Hijackers, Rossy?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7976444.stm


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Hijackers

Eglantine, no I didn't but am very gratefull I do now!!! ( I have been a little out of the loop for a couple of years in that respect) You may well enjoy this next post...
I am glad to hear you are better, and I think I speak for all when I ask "show us a picture of the painting you just bought" I love things like that!! ( I have three stoles from the 1920's one is mink, one is ermine and one is unidentified, they are called "Barney, Marnie, and Arnie, and live in various locations around the house!!)

check this...

Interesting Rostosky, I had never heard of this Dr. Heinrich before, he seems like quite a prolific author, not mention a rather good runner. I might give that book a read once my workload quiets down a bit.

On other matters, I am preparing for time travel everybody, and needed to commemorate this event with some music. I wasn't sure if I should go with the acappella Back to the Future or with the Doctor WHO symphony. Decisions, decisions, decisions.




I wonder if the Cybermen were written into the composition.

I'm just waiting for the painter/artist to send me the certificate, which should have a little image file on it.

Otherwise I'll need to unwrap and hang before taking a pic (not due to happen for a few weeks, as room is being re-furb'ed).

Good Sunday everyone! It's been quiet around here today. No worries, I'm ready to do my weekly Classical Sunday postings. As usual, there will be some variety.

My first post will be "Lezginka" from the Gayane Ballet Suites by Russian-Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian. I am currently exploring some of Khachaturian's music because my piano teacher thinks I'm ready for a very challenging piano selection. (gulp!).

I often get started with these kinds of challenges by learning as much as I can. I heard "Lezginka" and thought I'd share it with you. Have a listen!

I found one more composition by Khachaturian which I found enjoyable to listen to. Valse da "Masquerade."

According to my YouTube notes, it is performed by Lugano's mandolin orchestra (Ticino, Switzerland) conducted by Mauro Pacchin. Performed during the Gala concert 2007. Arr. By R. Borsani.

Enjoy!

I never feel quite complete with my Sunday Classical without some Baroque music. I also love Baroque trumpets and choirs. Thanks to Henry Purcell, we'll get a great combination in "Te Deum and Jubilate Deo in D major, Z. 232"

This performance is by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge
under the direction of Timothy Brown.

Here is one of those lovely unexpected discoveries I often find in my research while focusing on a different subject. I had never heard of contemporary Canadian Jeff Enns until recently when I was looking up wome unrelated information.

According to my notes Mr. Enns currently is the Organist and Choir Director at St. James Lutheran Church, in Elmira, Ontario.

Here is "O Magnum Mysterium" performed by the Halifax Camerata Singers.

My final post for today is an African American spiritual. It was arranged by Robert Nathaniel Dett, a Canadian born composer of African descent.

I intend to explore the works of Dett at another time. Today, I leave you with his beautiful arrangement of "Listen to the Lambs," performed by the The London Adventist Chorale.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Beautiful selection, Griffin. I especially liked that "O Magnum Mysterium" by Jeff Enns. I neither knew this composer and it's interesting to know living composers. Thanks Griffin!

PPP, I vote for Dr Who - meaning Delia Derbyshire - every time. The BBC Radiophonic Workshop may be dead, but long may it live.

Griffin, the waltz from Masquerade on mandolins is FANTASTIC!

The most incredable thing indeed Eglantine about Deliah derbyshire was the way the original doctor who theme was constructed....
folk tend to think she was sat in a studio with an early synthesiser and just overdubbed..
This is so far from the truth, the reality was so much different....

This was a stunning accomplishment...:::::

The original 1963 recording of the Doctor Who theme music is widely regarded as a significant and innovative piece of electronic music, recorded well before the availability of commercial synthesisers. Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop used musique concrète techniques to realise a score written by composer Ron Grainer. Each and every note was individually created by cutting, splicing, speeding up and slowing down segments of analogue tape containing recordings of a single plucked string, white noise, and the simple harmonic waveforms of test-tone oscillators which were used for calibrating equipment and rooms, not creating music. The swooping melody and pulsating bass rhythm was created by manually adjusting the pitch of oscillator banks to a carefully timed pattern. The rhythmic hissing sounds, "bubbles" and "clouds", were created by cutting tape recordings of filtered white noise.[1]

Once each sound had been created, it was modified. Some sounds were created at all the required pitches direct from the oscillators, others had to be repitched later by adjusting the tape playback speed and re-recording the sound onto another tape player. This process continued until every sound was available at all the required pitches. To create dynamics, the notes were re-recorded at slightly different levels.

Each individual note was then trimmed to length by cutting the tape, and stuck together in the right order. This was done for each "line" in the music – the main plucked bass, the bass slides (an organ-like tone emphasising the grace notes), the hisses, the swoops, the melody, a second melody line (a high organ-like tone used for emphasis), and the bubbles and clouds. Most of these individual bits of tape making up lines of music, complete with edits every inch, still survive.

This done, the music had to be "mixed". There were no multitrack tape machines, so rudimentary multitrack techniques were invented: each length of tape was placed on a separate tape machine and all the machines were started simultaneously and the outputs mixed together. If the machines didn't stay in sync, they started again, maybe cutting tapes slightly here and there to help. In fact, a number of "submixes" were made to ease the process – a combined bass track, combined melody track, bubble track, and hisses.

Grainer was amazed at the resulting piece of music and when he heard it, famously asked, "Did I write that?". Derbyshire modestly replied "Most of it". Unfortunately, the BBC—who wanted to keep members of the Workshop anonymous—prevented Grainer from getting Derbyshire a co-composer credit and a share of the royalties.

The theme can be divided into several distinctive parts. A rhythmic bassline opens and underlies the theme throughout, followed by a rising and falling set of notes that forms the main melody which is repeated several times. The bridge, also known as the "middle eight", is an uplifting interlude in a major key that usually features in the closing credits or the full version of the theme. During the early years of the series the middle eight was also often heard during the opening credits (most notably in the first episode, An Unearthly Child).

The theme is written in the mode of E Phrygian, although on the original score the key signature of the piece is E minor and the mode changes are written as accidentals. On a piano this means the bass-line is played entirely using only white notes.

The theme has been often called both memorable and frightening, priming the viewer for what was to follow. During the 1970s, the Radio Times, the BBC's own listings magazine, announced that a child's mother said the theme music terrified her son. The Radio Times was apologetic, but the theme music remained.

Derbyshire created two arrangements in 1963: the first was rejected by the producers, but was released as a single. The second arrangement was used on the first episode of the programme. The two 1963 arrangements served, with only minor edits and additions requested by the producers, as the theme tune up to 1980 and the end of Season 17. The most notable of these edits were addition of 'electronic spangles', and tape echo to the bassline, from the Patrick Troughton serial The Faceless Ones onwards, and the addition of a "sting" at the start of the closing credits during Jon Pertwee's first season.

In 2002, Mark Ayres used Derbyshire's original masters to mix full stereo and surround sound versions of the theme.

Hi Eglantine! I'm so glad you liked tle waltz. I fell in love with it the minute I started listening. I just love the sounds from those guitar-type instruments (I don't know how best to categorize them?!?)

Thanks!

Hi Recaredo! I am glad you liked the Sunday selections. I also like finding lesser known composers as well. I'll continue to post them when I find things of interest.

Good Monday everyone! I'm still up for hearing some more Elton John. I loved what I heard in the weekend posts.

"Can You Feel the Love Tonight"

Here's "Benny and the Jets"

I'm working on some home projects today. I'll check in later. Have a great day!

Evening all, just popping in to say Hello,

..........and I don't mind a bit of Bjork

This is one of those youtube videos that I go back to time and time again.

Wow! that's what you call "playing the piano" Awfully quiet round here tonight. Just gonna finish supper, back in a bit

This is funny, because when I was a kid the only time Doctor WHO would ever run was on PBS (which is a public television station supported by donations in the US.) at around midnight. Being fond of staying up late, this was about the only thing ever on television at that hour worth watching. And something about that theme always sent chills down my spine (not anymore though).

I have this one vivid memory of an episode, Tom Baker of course, where there was this green sludge that would latch itself onto its victim and consume them slowly (at least I think that's what it did, I can't quite recall - not so vivid I guess). This green sludge gave me nightmares for ages, it was great!

Excellent!! Thanks for posting it. I'll be checking in again soon. Just dropped by while I'm in between some household chores! I see Wayne is around too. Perhaps we can get a few posts up.

and Rossy, rossy is here too!! Lurking....