Creating, collecting, and sharing thoughts and ideas. And learning along the way.
News on music and the people who make it, and the stories about them. “Are we not formed, as notes of music are, For one another, though dissimilar?” ~Percy Bysshe Shelley
A celebration of the legacy of Motown at the White House. Click on the pbs.org link below the picture to go directly to the video.
Click on the link above to go to the Salon article.
Ever wonder what every single No. 1 pop song — from the beginning of recording time through the ’90s — would sound like mashed together? Look no further.
What might be most fascinating about this agglomeration of audio tracks is the swift and remarkable evolution from the twee sounds of pre-Elvis American music to the present; there’s rockabilly, the British invasion, Sinatra’s svelte croon, Motown. Remember Bobby Darin? Me neither, but there he is. Then the ’70s and Funky Town, punk rock, disco, stadium anthems. Listening through the whole 75 minutes could leave you nostalgic, amazed, perhaps shocked or, dare we say, gaga. It’s decades of both great jams and questionable taste. (See: Jefferson Starship.) There’s plenty of potential to sift through the track with a fine-tooth comb and make your own discoveries.
The Symphony No. 88 in G major (Hoboken 1/88) was written by Joseph Haydn. It is occasionally referred to as The Letter V referring to an older method of cataloguing Haydn’s symphonic output.
The symphony was completed in 1787. It is one of Haydn’s best-known works, even though it is not one of the Paris or London Symphonies and does not have a descriptive nickname.
The work is in standard four movement form and scored for flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, continuo (harpsichord) and strings.
1.Adagio – Allegro
2.Largo
3.Menuetto: Allegretto
4.Finale. Allegro con spirito
The first movement begins with a brief introduction which quickly settles to the dominant chord to prepare for the main body of the movement. The strings open the Allegro stating the main theme and the rest of the movement develops from there, with almost every statement deriving from a previous idea.The exposition is monothematic and the development continues to make use of that single melodic idea. In the recapitualation, the initial statement of the theme is embellished by a solo flute.
The slow movement in D major consists mainly of embellishments of the legato oboe theme which opens it, though every so often is punctuated by chords played by the whole orchestra. After hearing this slow movement, Johannes Brahms is said to have remarked, ‘I want my Ninth Symphony to sound like this’. It is the first of Haydn’s symphonies to use trumpets and timpani in the slow movement. Mozart had previously used trumpets and timpani in the slow movement of his Linz Symphony.
The minuet is in G major. The trio has an unusual feature to it: after stating a rather simple theme, the fifths held in the bassoons and violas shift down a fourth in parallel, an effect typically avoided by the classical composers.
The finale is a sonata-rondo, with the rondo theme first presented in binary form. The first section of this is noteworthy for ending on unusual cadence on the mediant. A “perpetual-motion finale,” it is considered one of the most cheerful Haydn ever wrote.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Piano Quartet in C major, Op. woo36, No. 3
(for violin, viola, cello and piano)
I. Allegro vivace
II. Adagio con espressione
III. Rondo. Allegro
Composed in 1785, when Beethoven was around 15 years old
Published in 1828, posthumously
Quite a comprehensive wrap-up from Salon.com of the performances that made you look up from your embroidery.
I loved Bob Dylan and the Avett Bros., btw. And Ceelo and Gwyneth rocked!
