Healing music
While out running a couple errands today, my car radio was tuned to Minnesota Public Radio (classical) (as usual) and Rimsky-Korsakov's "Russian Easter Overture" came on ...
It's one of those pieces that I simply must finish hearing until the last full measure ... I NEVER tire of hearing that one ...
Some others -- Ralph Vaughan Williams, "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis," and Alan Hovhannes, "Mysterious Mountain" ... and of course anything by Palestrina ...
It's one of those pieces that I simply must finish hearing until the last full measure ... I NEVER tire of hearing that one ...
Some others -- Ralph Vaughan Williams, "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis," and Alan Hovhannes, "Mysterious Mountain" ... and of course anything by Palestrina ...
Comments
... that too ..
Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Quiet City and music for Our Town, Randall Thompson’s Alleluia and “Ye Shall Have a Song“ from The Peaceable Kingdom, Alan Hovhannes’ Prayer of St. Gregory, and Pavel Chesnokov’s Spaséniye sodélai/ Salvation is Created come
to mind, too.
I imagine I’ll continue to think of others, or be able to respond “yes, that too!,” to what other shipmates say.
We were out driving the other day, and listened to an account of that by the Australian Chamber Orchestra with Richard Tognetti both directing and playing the solo violin. By far the best we've heard for decades, exceptionally moving at the deepest levels.
If ever we're allowed to travel again, we'd like to visit the sort of country RVW had in mind when writing it. Norfolk??
My CD copy of "Copland conducting Copland" arrived in the mail earlier this week. It has the original small orchestra version of the whole Appalachian Spring as well as some other works. I think my memory of this disc was jogged by your mentioning the piece a few months ago.
Kansas, "Dust in the Wind" ... live, unplugged ...
Alanis Morissette, "Uninvited," and "Thank You" ... live, unplugged ...
Little River Band, "Help Is On Its Way" ...
Raffi, "Thanks A Lot" ...
Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills and Nash, "Get Together" ...
And of course (like all New Zealanders of A Ceratin Age) Sibelius' Karelia Suite
Of course.
The first LP I bought when in high school, and still possess, was a selection of Sibelius works including the Karelia Suite. I still love the alla marcia movement which demonstrates his complete mastery of writing for brass.
The slow movement of RVW's Pastoral Symphony with its haunting trumpet call - beauty out of tragedy. Where Corals Lie from Elgar's Sea Pictures. In Australian classical music, Peter Sculthorpe's Small Town and the didgeridoo music of William Barton.
This week, I've been listening as I worked to selections from the complete EMI recordings by Paul Robeson. One of my late mother's favourite voices, and a legacy I treasure.
So many more, depending upon mood.
My favourite choral peace in Allegri’s Miserere (Kings College Choir, directed by Cleobury), so beautiful.
I didn't know much about the piece, and I looked it up. The poem which apparently inspired it contains the lines
If I were looking for a valley in England, Norfolk isn't the first place that springs to mind
Ooooh another Kalinnikov fan! I thought I was the only person who had ever heard of him.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=SNqTeQa7MDQ
B62 Purg Host
I realise this is lowering the tone...
So up it goes.
DT
Admin
Barnabas_Aus, can't disagree with anything you say. Robeson's voice was unique, perfect for his repertoire and much else as well. Barton's playing often moves us to tears, but sometimes to extreme joy.
Reverting to Appalachian Spring - we've never been to the Appalachians. Many years ago, we did a train journey from NY to Chicago via Albany. Would that have taken us through the Appalachians? I was particularly thinking of the mountains either side of the Hudson.
It was David's favourite piece of music; he used to say if he was feeling down, it always made him feel better. He made an absolutely magic organ transcription of it, which made my spine tingle.
@Marsupial, enjoy the Copland CD! I can think of little by him I don't love.
@Gee D, yes, I assume you went through the Appalachians to get from NYC to Albany to Chicago by train. The Hudson Valley is, as I understand it, part of the Appalachian region, with Appalachian highlands to the west. The Appalachians are quite extensive (extending from Alabama and Georgia to Canada) and extremely varied. As I understand it, the ballet for which Appalachian Spring was written in set in Pennsylvania.
My go to is Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks. The whole album.
My parents had (and still have) an enormous CD collection and I used to just pick things at random, which is how I found Kalinnikov. The almost-as-minor Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar was another gem I found by this method. From memory, he had quite a successful career as a conductor but as a composer he was handicapped by a completely unjustified inferiority complex; he thought he was mediocre because he wasn't Wagner or Nielsen. Which is a lesson in why one shouldn't obsessively compare oneself to others ...
Someone played the first part at my wife's funeral. She'd been learning to play it on the cello.
'Angels waft her through the skies' from Handel's 'Jephthah' was particularly helpful at that time.
Allegri's 'Misere'.
Almost anything by Byrd and Tallis. 'Spem in Alium'.
Victoria's Masses.
Palestrina.
Rachmaninoff's 'Vespers'.
Gorecki's 'Symphony of Sorrowful Songs'.
Changing mood, 'Take Five' by Dave Brubeck.
Some Gospel.
Yes, to the Vaughan Williams pieces mentioned.
Some folk - early Kate Rusby and Martin Simpson.
Purcell - lots of Purcell. Almost anything by Purcell.
Faure's 'Requiem'. Some Saint Saens. Some Tchaikovsky. Ravel's 'Pavane pour une infante defunte.'
So much ... and much of it introduced to me by my wife. She brought the classical and baroque, I brought the jazz, blues, folk and rock and roll ...
RVW’s Mass in G Minor is a glimpse into heaven for me.
And Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E Minor makes me long to play cello.
Gamma Gamaliel - Agree about the Bach cello suites. They are absolute masterpieces, go-to pieces of music no matter what your own mood. Will pick you up if you're down, calm you if you're anxious but dance with you in times of joy.
We still have the du Pré/Barbirolli LP of the Elgar I bought over 50 years ago with some grand-paternal birthday money, and it gets frequent outings. LP takes you back, doesn't it!
I was fortunate enough to see Barenboim conduct du Pre in the Elgar at the Sydney Town Hall when they toured Australia - indeed over 50 years ago. The LP has Sea Pictures on the other side, and Janet Baker performed that in the same venue around about the same time. They may have been Youth Concerts - not sure, as my father worked at Sydney City Council, and I often used his entitlement to a staff seat for other concerts.
Agreed on the Bach cello suites as suiting any mood, Gee Dee.
I'm a Welshman and rather sentimental, so tend to go for things in the Minor Key. You get a lot of that in Welsh hymn tunes and in the repertoire of Welsh Male Voice Choirs.
I wouldn't be the first to note parallels between Welsh and Russian hymnody.
My late wife enjoyed Handel oratorios and opera - Acis and Galatea etc - as do I, as well as Mozart operas, but I also retain a softer spot than she did for 19th century Italian arias.
Some French opera 'gets' me - Jussi Boerling (sp?) and John Merrill dueting on Bizet's 'Au fond du temple saint' from the otherwise unexceptional 'Pearl Fishers' sends me everytime but my wife could never understand the appeal.
For those who may not know it, Cohen singing it can be heard here. But I find this version particularly beautiful and prayerful.
From a completely different angle, I've been thinking of music from the rock, pop and soul end of things that I find carry some kind of healing balm ...
Someone mentioned Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. Yes, indeed and others of his albums too.
Randomly, here are a few more thoughts ...
Anything by Aretha Franklin.
'Love will tear us apart' Joy Division
'Heroes' David Bowie
Oddly perhaps, both early Johnny Cash and some of his later covers - 'Hurt' particularly.
Less viscerally but good for long drives, the whole 'Rumours' album by Fleetwood Mac.
There are more.
Aretha Franklin’s ‘Mary, don’t you weep‘ is a long term favourite of mine.
Is that the one with the fabulous Creed?
I love Fleetwood Mac ... and The Eagles ...
The Orthodox Liturgies have EVERYTHING ... which is why they're not exactly short and quick
Theme tune to the series 'Robinson Crusoe' always reminds me of Memories of Summer hols!
And the theme from Belle and Sebastian.
I'm even getting to the stage of getting weepy over themes from Thunderbirds and The Banana Splits!
It certainly is 'healing'. When I was made redundant some years ago I found the incidental music where Crusoe starts to build his hut, make fishing spears and the like and begins to get to grips with life on the island very inspirational.
My brother and I have a thing that if we are busy or working on something we start to sing it. Worky music.
On the Fleetwood Mac thing ... I'm not a big fan of West Coast stuff like The Eagles etc but 'Rumours' is a classic album. Hardly a dud track.
I was a member of the subscribers' committee for a couple of years, and remember meeting the harpist Marisa Robles after her recital one mid-winter night, when she'd had to plunge her hands into a basin full of warm water during the interval.
Divestment of the broadcaster's orchestras and subsequent reduction in touring programs means that we now rely upon recordings and radio broadcast for almost all of our music listening.
Incidentally, I am not a pure classical listener - Sweet Honey in the Rock, Ella Fitzgerald, Norah Jones and lots of others in the jazz and folk genres make the playlist.