historic Musical Bits: Liszt: Années de pèlerinage, S.163 – 4. Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este – Claudio Arrau

Liszt: Années de pèlerinage, S.163 – 4. Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este – Claudio Arrau

dreamhksi

Published on Jan 12, 2013

Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este (The Fountains of the Villa d’Este) – Over the music, Liszt placed the inscription, “”Sed aqua quam ego dabo ei, fiet in eo fons aquae salientis in vitam aeternam” (“But the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up into eternal life,” from the Gospel of John).

 

Obama’s New Order Urges Companies to Share Cyber-Threat Info With the Government

Obama’s New Order Urges Companies to Share Cyber-Threat Info With the Government (gently click to access wired story)

read more               HERE

this pressed: How Backpacking Can Put You in Touch With Your Inner Saint|National Geographic

Picture of signs along the Appalachian Trail

Frequent mileposts break down the roughly 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail, which runs from Georgia to Maine.

Photograph by Michael Melford, National Geographic Creative

via How Backpacking Can Put You in Touch With Your Inner Saint. |National Geographic

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Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Piano Trio No 1 D Minor Op. 49: make music part of your life series

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Piano Trio No 1 D Minor Op. 49

  Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik, L.

Published on Dec 27, 2013

Anne-Sophie Mutter – Violin
Andre Previn – Piano
Lynn Harrell – Cello
at Brahms Hall – Musikverein Vienna

*******************************************************

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Felix Mendelssohn‘s Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 was completed on 23 September 1839 and published the following year. The work is scored for a standard piano trio consisting of violin, cello and piano. The trio is one of Mendelssohn’s most popular chamber works and is recognized as one of his greatest along with his Octet, Op. 20.

During the initial composition of the work, Mendelssohn took the advice of a fellow composer, Ferdinand Hiller, and revised the piano part. The revised version was in a more romantic, Schumannesque style with the piano given a more important role in the trio. Indeed, the revised piece was reviewed by Schumann who declared Mendelssohn to be “the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the most illuminating of musicians.”

Movements

The trio has four movements:

1. Molto allegro ed agitato (D minor)
2. Andante con moto tranquillo (B-flat major)
3. Scherzo: Leggiero e vivace (D major)
4. Finale: Allegro assai appassionato (D minor, ending in D major)

A typical performance lasts just under 30 minutes.

Molto allegro ed agitato

The first movement is in sonata form and begins without an introduction with a cantabile main theme played by the cello, with the piano providing a syncopated accompaniment. The violin then joins the cello with a distorted version of the theme. Further variations of the main theme fill the transition to the second theme, also introduced by the cello, which is in A major. Mendelssohn combines both themes in the development, which is predominately in D minor, the key in which the movement also ends. In the recapitulation, Mendelssohn adds a violin counter-melody to support the return of the original theme.

Andante con moto tranquillo

The piano introduces the second movement, with the eight bar melody in the right hand and the accompaniment divided between the hands, as in a number of Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words. Below this, the bass line in the piano moves methodically, carefully balancing with the accompaniment and the melody. After the piano plays the main theme, the violin repeats it with a counterpoint played on the cello.

Scherzo

The short and light scherzo is essentially in sonata form. As in the second movement, the main theme is first played on the piano, which then reduces itself to fragmentary accompaniment almost immediately. A rhythmical motif of the main theme is present throughout the movement, except in the more lyrical central section, whose theme resembles material from the first movement.

Finale

After Hiller gave Mendelssohn his advice, the finale was the most revised movement and unsurprisingly has a busy piano part. Various keyboard techniques are called upon in the movement, from close chords to sweeping arpeggios and chromatic octaves. The cantabile moments provide a refreshing contrast. The trio finishes with the shift to D major shortly before the end.

Overdue Library Book Returned after 65 Years

A copy of Gone with the Wind has been returned to John R. Rogers High School in Spokane, Washington, after a very long absence. A slip inside the book shows that it was checked out of the school library by Betty Mandershied, one of the school’s students, on January 4, 1949. The book resurfaced this past October in Maine when Wayne Hachey discovered it in his father’s basement. Once Hachey saw that it belonged to the library, he offered to ship it back. In return, the school promised to waive the book’s nearly $500 in late fees. More… Discuss

Il était une bergère (Version playback instrumental) – Mister Toony

  Mister Toony

today’s holiday: Chester Greenwood Day

Chester Greenwood Day

Chester Greenwood (1858-1937) made his first pair of “ear protectors” when he was 15 years old. He was granted a patent in 1877 and established an entirely new industry in his hometown of Farmington, Maine, where he continued to refine the design and manufacture of what we now know as earmuffs. Farmington residents celebrate Chester Greenwood Day on the first Saturday in December (Greenwood was born on December 4) with a parade, flag-raising ceremony, and a foot race. Everyone is encouraged to wear earmuffs for the festivities, including pets. More… Discuss

people and places: The Moana Hotel

The Moana Hotel

The Moana Hotel, also known as the “First Lady of Waikiki,” is a famous historic hotel on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Built at the urging of a wealthy Honolulu landowner, the Moana was the first hotel in Waikiki and its opening in 1901 marked the beginning of tourism there. Over the years, it has hosted numerous luminaries on its beachfront grounds. Today, the hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. What unsolved murder mystery is associated with the Moana? More… Discuss

this pressed for your right to know: I’m a Hazmat-Trained Hospital Worker: Here’s What No One Is Telling You About Ebola | Alternet

I’m a Hazmat-Trained Hospital Worker: Here’s What No One Is Telling You About Ebola | Alternet.

 

October 18, 2014  |  

 “Ebola is brilliant.”

It is a superior virus that has evolved and fine-tuned its mechanism of transmission to be near-perfect. That’s why we’re all so terrified. We know we can’t destroy it. All we can do is try to divert it, outrun it. 

I’ve worked in health care for a few years now. One of the first

Cover of The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story

things I took advantage of was training to become FEMA-certified for hazmat ops in a hospital setting. My rationale for this was that, in my home state of Maine, natural disasters are almost a given. We’re also, though you may not know it, a state that has many major ports that receive hazardous liquids from ships and transport them inland. In the back of my mind, of course, I was aware that any hospital in the world could potentially find itself at

the epicenter of a scene from The Hot Zone. That was several years ago. Today I’m thinking, by God, I might actually have to use this training. Mostly, though, I’m aware of just that — that I did receive training. Lots of it.

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today’s holiday: Moxie Festival

Moxie Festival

Moxie, originally a nerve tonic, was invented in 1876 by Dr. Augustin Thompson of Union, Maine. In 1884 it became a carbonated beverage whose main ingredient was gentian root. The Moxie Festival in Lisbon, Maine, began as an autograph session for Frank Potter, the author of The Moxie Mystique, in 1982. Within a few years the event had grown to include a pancake breakfast, parade, car show, craft fair, and firemen’s muster. Although Moxie is no longer widely available, the drink can still be found in Maine, where it is quite popular. About 10,000 people attend the festival each year. More… Discuss

WORD: traipse

traipse 

Definition:	(verb) Walk or tramp about.
Synonyms:	shlep
Usage:	I spent the holiday exploring the countryside, traipsing from town to town with just a knapsack of supplies on my back. Discuss.

Today’s Birthday: Winslow Homer (1836)

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Today’s birthday:  Winslow Homer (1836)

A preeminent figure in American art, Homer was a largely self-taught landscape painter and printmaker. He trained as a lithographer, then became a freelance illustrator. As a correspondent for Harper’s Weekly, he won international acclaim for his depictions of the Civil War battlefront. In 1876, he abandoned illustration to devote himself to painting, later settling in coastal Maine, where the local people and seascapes became the focus of his art. What are some of his most famous works?

NYC – Metropolitan Museum of Art: Winslow Homer ‘s Prisoners from the Front

Prisoners from the Front
1866
Winslow Homer (1836-1910)
Oil on canvas; 24 x 38 in. (61 x 96.5 cm)

The material that Homer collected as an artist-correspondent during the Civil War provided the subjects for his first oil paintings. Homer had been an artist-correspondent for Harper’s weekly, contributing illustrations based on his observations of camp life.

In 1866, one year after the war ended and four years after he reputedly began to paint in oil, Homer completed this picture, a work that established his reputation. Exhibited in 1867 in Paris, it represents an actual scene from the war in which a Union officer, Brigadier General Francis Channing Barlow (18341896) captured several Confederate officers on June 21, 1864 The fine, lithe figure of the general was modeled from another officer, lower in rank but more notable than Barlow in bearing and appearance, and to this figure the portrait head of the general was subsequently affixed. The differentiations in types and attitudes are consciously depicted with Homer’s unfailing sharpness of vision and passionate veracity.. The background depicts the battlefield at Petersburg, Virginia. Infrared photography and numerous studies indicate that the painting underwent many changes in the course of completion. (From New York Museum Of Art)

I also like, among other paintings “Snap The Whip (1872) and “Girl and Laurel” (1879). I enjoy the force of the action,   the naturalism in  details, and the general composition, that give Homer’s paintings life.