[Note: The following post was included as a Lenten reflection for Edwards Church, UCC’s daily reflections on “Sacred Conversations” in 2015, adapted from my thoughts in my post entitled In the Face of So Much Sadness from March 2014.]
A set of three new pieces to study this week. One for each category.
This week features the holdover choral piece, in its second week, Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610, joined by Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole and Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann.
Ten years have passed this week since my last grandparent died, my mother’s mother. I never had a chance to know the other three very well. Grandma was all I had. In some ways, back in 2004 and earlier, I guess I’d always imagined she’d be around.
It’s the first week of 2015, my first outing with three pieces vying for my attention. The first selection is always a major decision, and ends up representing the year, in a way. It is first on a playlist, which although ever-growing, tends to result in a lot of airtime for the earlier pieces, throughout the year.
“Come, Ye Sons of Art, come away.
Tune all your voices, and instruments play,
To celebrate this triumphant day!”
The last three years were no-brainers for me and my classical music listening project. It just made sense to start with a year of symphonies and then concerti were the next thought. 2014’s program music, suites, and ballets, though, showed me that music can’t so easily be put in a box. And there were times this year when I wished I were listening to a particular symphony or concerto, but darn it, wrong year.
True to my intention in a post the other day, here’s another installment of my life’s experience with an aspect of Christmas that means a lot to me.
It occurred to me today that I haven’t produced anything in this series for a while. I could probably come up with a whole month’s worth of posts about what various aspects of Christmas mean to me, so rather than one rambling story about the holiday season in general, I hope to post a few articles on those aspects of Christmas that mean this most to me. The first stop on this Christmas train has got to be the music of the season.
Rachmaninov-Symphonic Dances first page (Foley, 1941)
I definitely am familiar with this piece, but haven’t ever really studied it.