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Post by jk on May 11, 2023 3:19:32 GMT -5
1613: Claudia Sessa (c.1570–c.1617/19) was an Italian composer and singer/instrumentalist. Born into the (de) Sessa family, a patrician clan of the Milanese aristocracy, she became a nun at the convent of S. Maria Annunciata. Her contemporary, the writer and geographer Gerolamo Borsieri, wrote a long and glowing description of her (quoted in Women Composers: Music Through the Ages, publ. 1996), including that she sang and accompanied herself so well "that there was not a singer who could equal her" and that the nobility in Parma and Mantua liked her singing more than "Claudio Monteverdi [or] any other musician in the recitative style..." Ms Cessa left us just two sacred works, both published in 1613 and both thankfully on CD. As a rare exception to my rule of one embedded video per entrant, here are "Occhi io vissi di voi"… ...and "Vatteme pur lasciva": 2003: The American composer Ned Rorem (1923–2022) is best known for his art songs, which number over 500. Although he wrote works for piano, orchestra and chamber ensemble with solo instruments, Rorem considered all of his music vocal and song-like in nature. His interest in song centred not on the human voice, but on the setting of poetry, as he was deeply familiar with and fond of English literature. A writer himself, he kept -- and later published -- numerous diaries in which he spoke candidly of his exchanges and relationships with many cultural figures of America and France. Active well into the 21st century, Ned Rorem died last year at the grand old age of 99. This is the second movement, entitled "Another Minotaur", from his Mallet Concerto, completed in 2003:
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Post by jk on May 12, 2023 1:59:06 GMT -5
1612: Michael Praetorius (1571–1621) was a German composer, organist and music theorist. A prodigiously prolific composer, he was one of the most versatile musicians of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms based on Protestant hymns. Born Michael Schultze, Praetorius was the conventional Latinized form of this family name, Schultze meaning "village judge or magistrate" in German and Praetorius "magistrate-related or one with the rank of a magistrate" in Latin. From 1615 to 1619, Praetorius worked and consulted with Heinrich Schütz [ 1665] during Praetorius’s time as "non-resident music director" at the court of the Elector of Saxony in Dresden. His encyclopaedic treatise Syntagma Musicum, published in three volumes (with appendix) between 1614 and 1620, tells us much about composition, instruments and performance in the early 17th century. Terpsichore, a compendium of more than 300 instrumental dances, is his most widely known and recorded work today: 2004: Some years ago, I attended a concert in our local cathedral. Before it started, the concert's organizer was standing right behind my chair discussing music in general with a lady, who at one point mentioned she was working on an orchestral version of something called Dancing to an Orange Drummer. Back home, I googled this and discovered it had been the New York-born composer Vanessa Lann. The New York Times music reviewer Allan Kozinn described her composition Is a Bell ... a Bell? as a "propulsively rhythmic score" which was charming with its use of two toy pianos to bring out "different timbral qualities":
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Post by jk on May 13, 2023 4:41:00 GMT -5
1611: The Italian composer Carlo Gesualdo (1566–1613) was Count of Conza by inheritance and later Prince of Venosa on the death of his father. As a composer he is known for writing madrigals and pieces of sacred music that use a chromatic language not heard again until the late 1800s. He is also known for killing his first wife and her aristocratic lover upon finding them in flagrante delicto. Indeed, until the 20th century his reputation rested chiefly on his dramatic, unhappy and often bizarre life. His music is among the most experimental and expressive of the Renaissance, and without question the most wildly chromatic. Progressions such as those written by Gesualdo did not appear again in Western music until the 19th century, and then in a context of tonality. The most notoriously chromatic and difficult portions of it were all written during his period of self-isolation in his castle at the town of Gesualdo. "Moro, lasso al mio duolo" comes from his sixth book of madrigals for five voices, published in Gesualdo as opus 14: 2005: I originally arrived at the Soviet-born US composer and pianist Lera Auerbach (born 1973) by a circuitous route whose first two ports of call were a piece of work I was doing and one of its authors, a pianist herself. As commenter netedco points out, Ms Auerbach's evocative Dreams and Whispers of Poseidon has parts for both a musical saw and a theremin, which is probably unique. And David A adds, "As with most composers of orchestral music over the last 40 years they fill the percussion department to the brim, no exception here. But this composer uses those instruments to enhance the colours that she has already constructed within the orchestration, rather than rely on those very same instruments to create it. This is the real value of percussion instruments."
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Post by jk on May 14, 2023 15:41:57 GMT -5
Today's entry features two works, written nearly 400 years apart, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. 1610: Claudio Monteverdi (bapt. 1567–1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered a crucial transitional figure between the Renaissance and Baroque periods of music history. Vespro della Beata Vergine (SV 206), arguably his masterpiece, is a setting of the evening vespers performed at Marian feasts. Scored for soloists, choirs and orchestra, it is ambitious in scope and in its variety of style and scoring. The eleventh movement ,"Sonata sopra Sancta Maria", requires eight string and wind instruments plus basso continuo and a single soprano voice. It opens with an instrumental section, with the same material heard first in even metre and then in triple metre. The vocal line appears eleven times, while the instruments play uninterrupted virtuoso music reminiscent of vocal parts in the motets heard earlier in the work: 2006: The Ukrainian composer and pianist Valentyn Sylvestrov (born 1937) left his country in 2022 for reasons that need no explanation and now lives in Berlin. Using traditional tonal and modal techniques, Silvestrov creates a unique and delicate tapestry of dramatic and emotional textures, qualities which he suggests are otherwise sacrificed in much of contemporary music. From his Two Spiritual Songs, this is "Ave Maria":
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Post by jk on May 18, 2023 8:32:06 GMT -5
1609: Caterina Assandra (c.1590–after 1618) was an Italian composer and Benedictine nun. In her surviving motet book, Motetti a due e a tre voci, op. 2 (op. 1 is lost), she alludes to her birthplace being in the Province of Pavia. She became famous as an organist and published various works during her lifetime. In 1609, Ms Assandra took vows and entered the Benedictine monastery of Saint Agata in Lomello, in the Lombard region of northern Italy. She adopted "Agata" as her religious name and continued composing although she had stopped publishing by then. From Motetti a due e a tre voci, which Ms Assandra dedicated to G.B. Biglia, the Bishop of Pavia, this is "Duo Seraphim": 2007: Mika (Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr., born 1983) is a singer-songwriter born in Beirut, Lebanon, and raised in Paris and London. In addition to his phenomenally successful musical career, Mika has also worked as a visual artist and designer; his designs for major firms include sunglasses, a clothing line, pens and watches. He speaks four languages fluently (English, French, Spanish and Italian) and Arabic and Mandarin Chinese to a lesser degree. "Grace Kelly", the lead single from Mika's debut album Life in Cartoon Motion (that year's #9 top selling album in the world) was the UK number one the day my little dog was born (a mini-pin, he lived to be 14):
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Post by jk on May 19, 2023 4:09:28 GMT -5
Another milestone -- the two works featured here were published 400 years apart! 1608: Little is known about the early life of Danish composer and organist Truid Aagesen (fl.1593–1625) except that his musical mentor and spiritual adviser was the Norwegian-born Jesuit Laurentius Nicolai, with whom he studied music. In 1593, Aagesen was appointed organist of Vor Frue Kirke in Copenhagen, visiting Venice in 1599 and 1600 to study with Giovanni Gabrieli. In that latter year, he went to Prague as a royal commissioner for King Christian IV. In 1613, the Danish king published a letter stating that all men of the Catholic faith were to leave Denmark. Two years later, Aagesen's Catholic sympathies caused him to be removed from his post as church organist and replaced by the German Johan Meincke. After that he is known to have lived in Danzig (now Gdańsk) in 1625. Aageson's only known published music is a set of secular Cantiones for three voices, published in Hamburg in 1608 under his Latinized name, Theodoricus Sistinus. From it, this is "Crudel lascia (madrigal a 3)": 2008: Victoria Borisova-Ollas was born in Vladivostok in 1969 but has lived in Sweden for many years. The climaxes in her orchestral work Angelus (2008) are pretty overpowering, with the giant percussion-heavy orchestra aided and abetted by an organ. Commissioned to celebrate the 850th anniversary of the founding of Munich and inspired by the bells of that city, Angelus opens with soft mysterious sounds which, the composer tells us, are to evoke ancient times, not least through 'a hint of Celtic chant'. A little over halfway in, the bells play a melody by the German composer Friedrich Silcher (1789–1860). From this point on, slow music predominates and the piece builds to a mighty climax reminiscent of the grandeur of Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov. Once this climax is spent, we hear the quiet sounds of bells and gongs paving the way for a majestic revisitation of the mystic material with which Angelus began. The piece comes to a hushed conclusion with the bells softly tolling.
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Post by jk on May 20, 2023 3:31:00 GMT -5
1607: William Byrd (c.1540–1623) was an English composer of late Renaissance music. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, and one of the greatest of all English composers, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native England and on the continent. He is often coupled with John Dunstaple and Henry Purcell [ 1692] as England's most important early music composers. His "O quam suavis" is a eucharistic motet from the second (1607) book of Gradualia for four voices. Scored for alto, bass and two tenor parts, its text is curious, beginning as it does with mystical contemplation of the Sacrament, moving on to echo a verse from the Magnificat (to which it serves as an antiphon) and ending somewhat vindictively. Byrd encompasses the changes of subject and mood in a seamlessly unified setting remarkable for the chromatic harmonies with which it opens. The full text translates as "O how sweet, Lord, is thy Holy Spirit: thou who, to show thy loving kindness unto thy children, sent sweetest bread from heaven, filling the hungry with good things but sending the rich empty away." 2009: Rachel Laurin (born 1961) is a Canadian organist, composer and music educator living in Quebec. After her studies at the Montreal Conservatory, including organ classes as well as private lessons with Raymond Daveluy, she became Associate Organist at Saint Joseph's Oratory, Montreal (1986–2002) and, from 2002 to 2006, Titular Organist at Notre Dame Cathedral, Ottawa. She now devotes herself to composition, recitals, master classes and lectures. Her Fantasia for Organ and Harp, Op. 52 is in three movements: "Misterioso – Allegro giocoso", "Recitativo – Andante pastorale" and "Presto con spirito":
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Post by jk on May 21, 2023 3:58:44 GMT -5
1606: Agostino Agazzari (1578–1640) was an Italian composer and music theorist. After working as a teacher at the Roman College, he returned permanently to his birthplace Siena in 1607, becoming first organist and later choirmaster of the cathedral there. He is best known for Del sonare sopra il basso (1607), one of the earliest and most important treatises on basso continuo. It was immensely important in the diffusion of the technique throughout Europe: Michael Praetorius [ 1612] used large portions of it in his Syntagma musicum in Germany in 1618–1619. As with many late Renaissance and early Baroque theoretical treatises, it describes a practice that was already occurring. It was based in large part on a study of his friend Viadana's Cento concerti ecclesiastici (Venice, 1602), the first collection of sacred music to use the basso continuo. Agazzari wrote several books of sacred music, madrigals and a pastoral drama, Eumelio. In the preface to this work, Agazzari mentions that he was asked to set the text to music only one month before the performance; he composed the music in two weeks, and copied the parts and rehearsed it in the remaining two weeks, a feat which would be impressive even in the modern age: 2010: James MacMillan (born 1959) is arguably Scotland's greatest composer of all time and, I would think, of the entire UK today. We were lucky enough to catch the first Dutch performance of his Stabat Mater some years ago. MacMillan came to the attention of the classical establishment with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's premiere of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, a stunning piece indeed, at the BBC Proms in 1990. Isobel Gowdie was one of many women executed for witchcraft in 17th-century Scotland. According to the composer, "On behalf of the Scottish people the work craves absolution and offers Isobel Gowdie the mercy and humanity that was denied her in the last days of her life". (If, indeed, she was executed -- opinions differ.) Seraph for trumpet and string orchestra was written in 2010 and premiered the following February. This is the third and final movement, "Marcato e ritmico":
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Post by jk on May 22, 2023 2:20:28 GMT -5
1605: Orazio Benevoli (sometimes Benevolo; 1605–1672) was a Franco-Italian composer of sacred choral works. Many of Benevoli's compositions are in the Colossal Baroque style; they frequently make use of four or more choirs. Regrettably, much of his fame rested until recently on his supposed composition of the fifty-three part Missa Salisburgensis, now known to be the work of Heinrich Biber [ 1673]. Sixteen masses for 8 to 16 voices survive. From Missa Si Deus pro nobis for four choirs, here are the opening "Kyrie" and "Gloria": 2011: OceanLab is a vocal trance group formed in London in 2000, consisting of vocalist Justine Suissa and the three members of the electronic music group Above & Beyond: Jono Grant, Paavo Siljamäki and Tony McGuinness. Their fourth single, "Satellite", is generally regarded as their breakthrough track. Released in 2004, it reached #19 in the UK chart in May of that year. Seven years later, it was remixed to great effect by the American DJ Seven Lions (Jeff Montalvo):
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Post by jk on May 23, 2023 4:38:10 GMT -5
1604: Carolus Luython (c.1557–1620) was a late Renaissance composer of the "fifth generation" (1560–1615/20) of the Franco-Flemish School. Born in Antwerp, he was recruited as a child to serve in the choir of Maximilian II in Vienna. After Maximillian's death in 1576, Luython became a court organist and in 1603 the court composer of his successor, Rudolf II, first in Vienna and then in Prague. After Rudolf II died in 1612, Luython was among many court officials dismissed without pension by Rudolf's successor Matthias. Luython was forced to sell his possessions, including his harpsichord, and died in poverty in Prague. His set of Lamentationes Ieremiae Prophetae for 4-6 voices was published in Prague during Rudolf's reign: 2012: Max Richter (born 1966) is a German-born British composer and pianist who works within post-minimalist and contemporary classical styles. After finishing his studies in the UK and Florence, Richter co-founded the contemporary classical ensemble Piano Circus. He stayed with the group for ten years, commissioning and performing works by minimalist musicians such as Steve Reich [ 1971], Brian Eno [ 1981] and Arvo Pärt [ 1990]. His most famous work is undoubtedly Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons. Although Richter has said that he discarded 75% of Vivaldi's original material, the parts he does use are phased and looped, emphasizing his grounding in postmodern and minimalist music. Ivan Hewett of The Telegraph described it as "a subtle and often moving piece of work, which suggests that after years of tedious disco and trance versions of Mozart, the field of the classical remix has finally become interesting". I've linked it in its entirety, as that's how it really needs to be heard:
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Post by jk on May 24, 2023 15:47:32 GMT -5
1603: Tomás Luis de Victoria (c.1548–1611) is Spain's most famous Renaissance composer. In Late Renaissance terms, he is equalled only by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso. Victoria's masterpiece, Officium Defunctorum, was composed for the funeral of the Holy Roman Empress Maria of Austria, whom he served as chaplain at a convent in Madrid, and was in fact Victoria's last composition. Scored for six-part SSATTB chorus, it was possibly intended to be sung with two singers to each part. From the second of its four sections, Missa Pro Defunctis (Mass for the Dead), this is the "Sanctus": 2013: I can't remember how I encountered the music of British composer Cecilia McDowall (born 1951). It was most likely through a piece for choir. Still, I've chosen to highlight another facet of her work. To quote BBC Music Magazine of March 2021, "[Ms] McDowall may be best known for her choral compositions, but this British composer obviously knows her way round the organ console as well." And according to Naxos, the George Herbert Trilogy for organ "encompasses rhapsody and brilliance". From this trilogy, which draws from the poetry of the Englishman George Herbert (1593–1633), this is the first part, "Sounding Heaven and Earth":
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Post by jk on May 25, 2023 4:17:57 GMT -5
1602: Lodovico Viadana (c.1560–1627) was an Italian composer, teacher and Franciscan friar of the Order of Friars Minor Observants. He was the first significant figure to make use of the newly developed technique of figured bass, one of the musical devices which was to define the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque eras in music. In this respect, his pioneering Cento concerti ecclesiastici con il basso continuo, a collection of sacred music published in Venice in 1602, influenced the likes of his friend Agostino Agazzari [ 1606]. From 1614 to 1617, after holding a succession of posts at various cathedrals in Italy, Viadana occupied a position in his religious order whose authority extended throughout the entire province of Bologna (including Ferrara, Mantua and Piacenza). He died in Gualtieri. 2014: Clean Bandit (Grace Chatto, Jack Patterson, Luke Patterson and, until October 2016, Neil Amin-Smith) are an English electronic music group, formed in Cambridge in 2008. Their fourth single "Rather Be", a collaboration with Jess Glynne, was released in early 2014 and gave them their first UK chart-topper. It also reached number one in Austria, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, while charting at number ten on the US Billboard Hot 100. It won Ms Glynne the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. Band member Jack Patterson had approached her to feature on the song after observing "a real subtlety of emotion in her voice". I recall friends of mine enthusing about this record at the time:
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Post by jk on May 26, 2023 3:33:28 GMT -5
1601: Claude Le Jeune (1528 to 1530–1600) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the late Renaissance. He was the primary representative of the musical movement known as musique mesurée, and a significant composer of the chanson, the predominant secular form in France in the latter half of the 16th century. His fame was widespread in Europe, and he ranks as one of the most influential composers of the time. Olivier Messiaen [ 1948] in his conversations with Claude Samuel, describes Le Jeune's Le Printemps as "one of the most beautiful monuments to rhythm in all musical history … the choruses of Le Printemps use Greek rhythms almost exclusively, mainly the minor Ionic, that is to say, a rhythm in six (two shorts and two longs)." Messiaen ruefully observes that this return to Greek metres saw Le Jeune criticized by his contemporaries and even more so by his successors. What follows is certainly by Le Jeune but might not be the "Le Printemps" to which Messiaen is referring: 2015: A year ago, I went through YouTube armed with assorted monthly editions of this post-punk/darkwave/dark synth blog looking for dark stuff from Ukraine -- and finding a lot of it, including the likes of Raventale, purveyors of atmospheric black metal. To quote uploader Transcending Obscurity: "Following [in] the footsteps of Drudkh, Khors and early Nokturnal Mortum, Raventale delivers its own brand of scintillating atmospheric black metal that's at once emotive and intriguing. On its seventh full length album, the band has delved into Indian and Tibetian [sic] philosophies, particularly the phenomenon of the dark goddess Kali. With songs revolving around the principles of Hinduism, the added mysterious quality coupled with the inherent underlying malice makes this a supremely potent affair." From Raventale's 2015 album Dark Substance of Dharma, this is "Destroying The Seeds Of Karma":
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Post by jk on May 27, 2023 2:27:54 GMT -5
1600: The Dutch composer and organist Cornelis Schuyt (1557–1616) was introduced to Renaissance music on a study trip to Italy. Although he succeeded his father as organist at two churches in Leiden and wrote much for his instrument, only his madrigals have survived. From the first book for five voices, this is "Voi bramate, ben mio", a setting of a text by Schuyt's near contemporary, the Italian poet Torquato Tasso: 2016: Ēriks Ešenvalds (born 1977) is Latvia's most celebrated composer. Most of his music is for choir, with or without accompaniment. Ešenvalds has won multiple awards for his work, including the Latvian Grand Music Award three times (in 2005, 2007 and 2015). In 2018 he was appointed Officer in the Order of the Three Stars, the highest state decoration of his home country Latvia, for merits in the field of culture. Translation is scored for mixed choir and water-tuned glasses:
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Post by jk on May 28, 2023 3:20:16 GMT -5
1599: Philipp Nicolai (1556–1608) was a German Lutheran pastor, poet and composer. He is most widely recognized as a hymnodist and was the author of two famous examples, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern and this one, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme. Both have inspired many composers, including J.S. Bach [ 1722], who based two chorale cantatas on them, BWV 1 and BWV 140 respectively. Bach's organ transcription of Wachet auf, as published in the Schübler Chorales, has become world famous. Nicolai is said to be the last representative of the Meistersinger tradition, in which words and music, text and melody, stem from one and the same person. 2017: Last year my go-to YouTube radio was "Datawave FM -- glitchy synthwave radio for retro computing". Its uploader, Nightride FM, originally explained it thus: "Com Truise calls it 'Mid-Fi Synthwave Slow-Motion Funk', we simply call it 'Datawave'. This radio is dedicated to the kind of sound he pioneered, with stylistic elements of 80s synth funk, synthwave and pitch-drifting nostalgia. Invoking imagery of a retro-futurist information age." One of its most arresting tracks was "Creeping Love Barrage" by MoTER from their 2017 Bandcamp release Wave Transmission. It has a multitude of felicitous touches, not least the ecstatic moment just after 3:10 with its suggestion of dubstep, a fabulous genre in the right hands (think Seven Lions [ 2011]):
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Post by jk on May 29, 2023 2:53:22 GMT -5
1598: The late Renaissance composer Alonso Lobo (1555–1617) may not be as famous as fellow Spaniard Tomás Luis de Victoria [ 1603] but he was highly regarded at the time (Victoria himself regarded Lobo as his equal). Indeed, for a century or so, Lobo's fame and reputation extended as far as Mexico. His music combines the smooth contrapuntal technique of Palestrina with the sombre intensity of Victoria. Lobo's most famous work is the six-voice motet Versa est in luctum, which he composed on the death of Phillip II of Spain in 1598: 2018: Jēkabs Jančevskis (born 1992) is one of the most prominent figures among Latvia's young composers; his oeuvre includes choral music, symphonic works and music for theatre and film, along with some chamber music. The deciding impulse for him to become a composer arose through the encouragement of Ēriks Ešenvalds [ 2016], who taught him composition at the Riga Cathedral Choir School, where he himself now teaches. Jančevskis is demanding of the poetry he selects for his compositions, and appreciates laconic poetry, which, in his opinion, offers scope for larger and more elaborate musical ideas. Perhaps Jančevskis's most cinematic and striking vocal composition is Atsalums, a work based on Latvian folk songs. Atsalums (which can be translated as "coldness") begins with a quiet vocalize that builds to a crescendo with the addition of a note from each voice group. The text is about a young girl who wishes to give herself to a foreign man, only to become disillusioned and realize that her heart belongs to Latvia. The song makes a number of dramatic shifts, from the whispered exhortation to the girl not to give herself to foreigners, to the despondent song of the girl herself to the mournful harmonies of the men's choir. The work concludes with a thunderous and full-throated affirmation of the beauty of her countrymen's song (in translation, "the song that my brothers sang resounded") and a rejection of influences from abroad ("what the foreigners sang, I trampled"). [ Source]
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Post by jk on May 30, 2023 3:02:40 GMT -5
1597: The Italian composer and organist Giovanni Gabrieli (c.1554/1557–1612) was one of the most influential musicians of his age. He represents the culmination of the Venetian School at the time of the shift from Renaissance to Baroque idioms. Like composers before and after him, he would use the unusual layout of the San Marco church (where he was principal organist from 1585), with its two choir lofts facing each other, to create striking spatial effects. His influential volume Sacrae Symphoniae is a collection mainly of motets along with a dozen or so canzonas and two sonatas. Of these two, "Sonata pian' e forte" (Ch. 175) is one of the earliest known pieces of music to specify loud and quiet passages in print. It was written for eight instruments divided into two spatially separated groups of four players: 2019: Of all the tracks on the all-instrumental Sovietwave YouTube radio I used to listen to last year when grappling with recalcitrant jigsaw puzzles, one stood out head and shoulders above the rest. So one day I screen-captured the name of the artist and the track's title (both in Cyrillic letters). Then I tried typing it out on an online Cyrillic typewriter, which was a barrel of laughs. I then took the result to Google Translate but just as I feared it turned out to be gibberish. In desperation I sought out lists of Sovietwave stuff, on Spotify to start with, and after a couple of false starts (right title, wrong artist) miraculously hit the jackpot. The name of the artist (from Kiev, Ukraine) is Протон-4 (Proton-4); and the track title ("Путь на амальтею") translates as "The Path To Amalthea". The reason this track grabbed my attention in the first place was the mournful sequence of four gorgeous sustained chords repeated throughout -- a bit like Floyd pinking away a tear. (Now I think of it, it's not a million miles away in mood from Dave Gilmour's sad four-note motif just before the beat kicks in on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".)
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Post by jk on May 31, 2023 3:35:38 GMT -5
1596: Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687) was a Dutch Golden Age poet and composer. He was also secretary to two Princes of Orange, Frederick Henry and his successor William II, and the father of the scientist Christiaan Huygens. He became proficient on the lute at an early age, adding the more modern guitar later in life. In 1622, when Constantijn spent a year in England as a diplomat, he was knighted by King James I. Ten years later, he received a second knighthood from the French king Louis XIII. By then his friends and acquaintances included the French philosopher and scientist René Descartes, the Dutch painter Rembrandt and the English poet John Donne, whose work he translated into Dutch. In 1647 he published in Paris his multilingual Pathodia sacra et profana with its French airs de cour, Italian madrigals and Latin Psalms, such as this suitably dark-hued "De profundis clamavi": 2020: Hildur Guðnadóttir (born 1982) is an Icelandic musician and composer. A classically trained cellist, she additionally plays and writes for the halldorophone, an electroacoustic instrument which makes use of positive feedback as a key element in generating its sound (you can hear it here). The recipient of numerous accolades, Ms Guðnadóttir has recorded with the industrial likes of Throbbing Gristle and has toured with Animal Collective and Sunn O))). Her music for the 2019 film Joker won her an Oscar (the first ever for an Icelander) for Best Original Score at the 92nd Academy Awards. This version for voices and cello of Fólk fær andlit, released in 2020, was written in response to the mistreatment and deportations of refugees in Iceland in 2015. The only words heard in the piece are "miskun" (mercy) and, in different iterations and embellishments, "fyrirgefið okkur fyrir" (forgive us for):
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Post by jk on Jun 1, 2023 3:23:36 GMT -5
1595: Like Gabrieli two posts ago, Giovanni Croce (1557–1609) was a late Renaissance Italian composer of the Venetian School. Croce was particularly important in the development of the canzonetta (a popular Italian secular vocal composition that originated around 1560) and the madrigal comedy, and wrote a large quantity of easily singable, popular and often hilarious music. Some of his collections are satirical, for example setting to music ridiculous scenes at Venetian carnivals ( Mascarate piacevoli et ridicolose per il carnevale, 1590), some of which are in dialect. Like Mascarate piacevoli, the collection called Triaca musicale ("a musical cure-all") was intended to be sung in costumes and masks at Venetian carnivals. One number from it, "Ecco", includes eleven lines whose last one or two syllables are echoed to add a twist to the tale (the full text with translation is here on pp. 25 and 26): 2021: The [uncertain] Four Seasons is a global project that recomposes Vivaldi's The Four Seasons (see [ 1725] and [ 2012]) using local climate data for every orchestra in the world. A joint production by AKQA, Jung von Matt, composer Hugh Crosthwaite and Monash University's Climate Change Communication Research Hub, it portrays a future (in 2050) where the world has failed to deliver on combatting global warming. The new compositions (I counted 14 local variations on YouTube last year) were a call for global leaders to commit to the Leaders Pledge for Nature ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP26 in November 2021. The project is the output of a musical design system that combines music theory with computer modelling to algorithmically generate countless local variations of Vivaldi's original 1725 composition. The algorithm alters the musical score to account for predicted changes in rainfall, biodiversity, sea-level rise and extreme weather events as laid out in the IPCC's reports. Here, members of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Youth Orchestra perform "Autumn" in what they call the "Malé Variation" (80% of the Maldives sits barely above sea level, making it extremely vulnerable to rising seas):
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Post by jk on Jun 2, 2023 3:31:17 GMT -5
If any post makes clear just how great the chasm has become between the two directions -- looking forward and looking back -- it's this one. Maybe it's not a bad thing that the follow-up entry will have to wait another seven months! 1594: Orlando di Lasso (c.1532?–1594) was the chief representative of the mature polyphonic style in the Franco-Flemish school. He was one of the three leading composers of the later Renaissance. the other two being Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (still to come) and Tomás Luis de Victoria [ 1603]. Lasso's music varies considerably in style and genres, which gave him unprecedented popularity throughout Europe. Immensely prolific, he wrote over 2000 works in all Latin, French, Italian and German vocal genres known in his time, including 530 motets, 175 Italian madrigals and villanellas, 150 French chansons and 90 German lieder. Note: not a strictly instrumental piece in sight -- chances are he never wrote any. It's said Lasso created nothing finer than the Lagrime di San Pietro, a collection of 20 spiritual madrigals and one motet for seven voices. A cycle of intense reflections on the sorrows of St Peter following his denial of Christ, it was assembled shortly before the composer's death in 1594 and dedicated to Pope Clement VIII. Into this collection Lasso pours every dramatic nuance and piece of harmonic invention he could possibly muster, hurling the listener through the stages of Peter's rage, remorse and resignation, and concluding with a motet which presents Christ's response to the world ( source): 2022: I'd been aware of the UK electronic duo Orbital since the 1990s. It was my son (once again) who introduced me to their gorgeous 1996 album In Sides with its stunning opening track, "The Girl With The Sun In Her Head". I became aware of Sleaford Mods years later when an online friend enthused about their live gigs. Frontman Jason Williamson is responsible for the words, Andrew Fearn for the music. The swear count is high, but not contrived, they insist in an interview somewhere. "We did try once to not have any swearing, but then Jason put 'fuck' in the chorus," says Fearn. "It’s how I speak," says Williamson. "People criticize the swearing. It's not just fucking swearing…" "Dirty Rat" sees the two duos joining forces. Brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll of Orbital are the two other blokes seen (in that order) in the first minute of the promo:
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Post by jk on Jun 2, 2023 4:04:26 GMT -5
Well, this is the two-way list so far. Most composers are represented by their last name only (a few have been given initials or a first name to avoid confusion). Originally I planned to add first names for women composers as a gesture of politeness (rightly or wrongly, I've used Ms in the relevant posts) but I was convinced not to do so by this statement made in 1990 by the Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya when turning down an invitation to attend a concert held by the Women's Composer Institute of Heidelberg that included her Symphony No. 4: "With regard to the 'Women's Composer Music Festival', I would like to say the following: Can a distinction between music written by men and music written by women really be made? If we now have 'Music Festivals of women composers', would not it be right to have 'Music Festivals of male composers'? I am of the opinion that such a division should not be allowed to persist. We should only play music that is genuine and strong. If we are honest in that, an interpretation in a concert of women composers is a humiliation for music. I sincerely hope that my comments do not offend anyone, what I say comes from my innermost being." Although I decided early on not to mention the performers in the videos of "classical" compositions, YouTube being the fickle animal it is, it's a different matter when the artist in question is the "star". These are generally listed here under their full name. See the opening post for the reasons for this crazy undertaking, which I'm quick to admit has been most educational! 1808 Beethoven 1807 Cramer *Weber 1809 1806 Mehul *Hummel 1810 1805 Krommer *Meyerbeer 1811 1804 Salieri *Dussek 1812 1803 Ingalls *Rossini 1813 1802 Pleyel *Danzi 1814 1801 Wolfl *Cherubini 1815 1800 Boieldieu *Schubert 1816 1799 Carr *Donizetti 1817 1798 Eybler *Neukomm 1818 1797 Cimarosa *Romberg 1819 1796 Riba *Schneider 1820 1795 Albrechtsberger *Vorisek 1821 1794 Mayr *Reicha 1822 1793 Barth *M. Haydn 1823 1792 Balbastre *Mendelssohn Hensel 1824 1791 Gretry *Pacini 1825 1790 Schall *Ries 1826 1789 Dittersdorf *Czerny 1827 1788 Krumpholz *Herold 1828 1787 C.P.E. Bach *Kalivoda 1829 1786 Barthelemon *Mendelssohn 1830 1785 Clementi *Bellini 1831 1784 Viotti *Hesse 1832 1783 Piccinni *C.Schumann 1833 1782 Boccherini *Lachner 1834 1781 Billings *Halevy 1835 1780 Myslivecek *Vieuxtemps 18361779 Mozart *Chopin 1837 1778 J.A.P. Schulz *Glinka 1838 1777 Gluck *Lizst 1839 1776 Gossec *Bottesini 1840 1775 Giordani *Adam 1841 1774 Jommelli *Berwald 1842 1773 Paisiello *Balfe 1843 1772 Cannabich *Litolff 1844 1771 Eichner *Wesley 1845 1770 Martines *Ernst 1846 1769 Carvalho *Offenbach 1847 1768 Hasse *J. Strauss I 1848 1767 Leone *Berlioz 1849 1766 Bond *Schumann 1850 1765 Traetta *Bargiel 1851 1764 Haydn *Gade 1852 1763 Tartini *Raff 1853 1762 Herschel *Foster 1854 1761 Galuppi *Bizet 1855 1760 Abel *Balakirev 1856 1759 Boyce *Reubke 1857 1758 Beck *J. Strauss II 1858 1757 Bon *Alkan 1859 1756 J.C. Smith *Larionov 1860 1755 Telemann *Sullivan 1861 1754 Stanley *C. Franck 1862 1753 Tessarini *A.M. Smith 1863 1752 Rousseau * Rheinberger 1864 1751 Dauvergne *Andrée 1865 1750 Chedéville *Saint-Säens 1866 1749 Graun *Goetz 1867 1748 Corrette *Gounod 1868 1747 Forqueray *Brahms 1869 1746 Geminiani *Duparc 1870 1745 Manna *Hays 1871 1744 Arne *Svendsen 1872 1743 Krebs *Tchaikovsky 1873 1742 Barsanti *Wagner 1874 1741 Rameau *Smetana 1875 1740 Wassenaar *Delibes 1876 1739 Pescetti *Lachner 1877 1738 Zelenka *Sarasate 1878 1737 Leclair *Hamerik 1879 1736 Pergolesi *Borodin 1880 1735 Barrière *Pratt 1881 1734 Araja *Le Beau 1882 1733 Locatelli *Holmès 1883 1732 Porpora *Grieg 1884 1731 Dornel *Glazunov 1885 1730 Roseingrave *d'Indy 1886 1729 Baston *Rimsky-Korsakov 1887 1728 Handel *Paine 1888 1727 Boismortier *Verdi 1889 1726 Babell *Fauré 1890 1725 Vivaldi *Dvorák 1891 1724 Sarro *Leoncavallo 1892 1723 Ariosti *Satie 1893 1722 J.S. Bach *Bruckner 1894 1721 Bononcini *Wolf 1895 1720 Tudway *Beach 1896 1719 J.M. Hotteterre *Delius 1897 1718 Manfredini *Sousa 1898 1717 Couperin *Debussy 1899 1716 Mossi *Elgar 1900 1715 Caldara *Enescu 1901 1714 Corelli *Zemlinsky 1902 1713 Grimani *Schoenberg 1903 1712 Bustijn *Schmidt 1904 1711 De La Guerre *Mahler 1905 1710 Rossi *Smyth 1906 1709 Steffani *Busoni 1907 1708 Graupner *Ives 1908 1707 A. Scarlatti *Vaughan Williams 1909 1706 Mascitti *Scriabin 1910 1705 Le Roux *Dukas 1911 1704 Clérambault *Berg 1912 1703 D. Scarlatti *Sibelius 1913 1702 Campra *Reger 1914 1701 D. Purcell *R. Strauss 1915 1700 Kusser *Koechlin 1916 1699 Pachelbel *L. Boulanger 1917 1698 Bassani *Janáček 1918 1697 De Koninck *Howells 1919 1696 Blow *Honegger 1920 1695 Chaumont *Isham Jones 1921 1694 Albinoni *Nielsen 1922 1693 Leonarda *Kreek 1923 1692 H. Purcell *Respighi 1924 1691 Conradi *Louis Armstrong 1925 1690 Charpentier *Garuta 1926 1689 D'Angelbert *Holst 1927 1688 Raison *Barbecue Bob 1928 1687 Gianettini *Texas Bill Day 1929 1686 Schenck *Sleepy John Estes 1930 1685 Machy *Hindemith 1931 1684 Badalla *Gershwin 1932 1683 Petersen *Ravel 1933 1682 Bittner *de Hartmann 1934 1681 Dumont *Chavez 1935 1680 Buxtehude *Shostakovich 1936 1679 Pallavicino *Revueltas 1937 1678 Hacquart *Poulenc 1938 1677 Gletle *Prokofiev 1939 1676 Walther *Gipps 1940 1675 Locke *Khachaturian 1941 1674 Caresana *Cage 1942 1673 Biber *Webern 1943 1672 Sartorio *Copland 1944 1671 Hammerschmidt *Stravinsky 1945 1670 Lully *Britten 1946 1669 Kerll *Barber 1947 1668 Melani *Messiaen 1948 1667 Capricornus *Bacewicz 1949 1666 Cavalli *Muddy Waters 1950 1665 Schütz *Frankie Laine 1951 1664 Schmelzer *John Lee Hooker 1952 1663 Reincken *Maconchy 1953 1662 Legrenzi *Weismann 1954 1661 Desmarets *Chuck Berry 1955 1660 Uccellini *The Willows 1956 1659 Arnold *Bill Justis 1957 1658 Torelli *Varèse 1958 1657 Cesti *Duane Eddy 1959 1656 Marais *Miles Davis 1960 1655 Strozzi *Penderecki 1961 1654 Lübeck *Jarre 1962 1653 Michna *The Trashmen 1963 1652 D. Gaultier *The Ronettes 1964 1651 Playford *Kim Weston 1965 1650 Mazák *Brian Wilson 1966 1649 Froberger *Oliveros 1967 1648 Carissimi *The Velvet Underground 1968 1647 Humfrey *Piccioni 1969 1646 Padbrué *Feldman 1970 1645 Werckmeister *Reich 1971 1644 S.T. Staden *Rautavaara 1972 1643 Tarsia *The Band 1973 1642 Cozzolani *Nico 1974 1641 Fontana *Bryars 1975 1640 Kapsberger *The Tubes 1976 1639 Rovetta *Barry Biggs 1977 1638 Formé *Nina Hagen 1978 1637 Merula *Chic 1979 1636 M. Franck *John Lennon 1980 1635 A. Gregori *Eno and Byrne 1981 1634 Freschi *Falcinelli 1982 1633 Abbatini *Zapp 1983 1632 Porter *Saariaho 1984 1631 Scherer *La Card 1985 1630 Rusca *Frank Zappa 1986 1629 Campana *Bioconstructor 1987 1628 Frescobaldi *The Stone Roses 1988 1627 Steigleder *Laurie Anderson 1989 1626 Buonamente *Pärt 1990 1625 Ahle*Primal Scream 1991 1624 Corradini *Zwilich 1992 1623 Vizzana *Tavener 1993 1622 Jelić *Lauridsen 1994 1621 Castello *The Shamen 1995 1620 Riccio *Gomelskaya 1996 1619 Sweelinck *Stereolab 1997 1618 Caccini *Steve Conte 1998 1617 M. Altenburg *Musgrave 1999 1616 Belli *Radigue 2000 1615 Calvisius*R. Rich 2001 1614 R. Ballard II *Skempton 2002 1613 Sessa *Rorem 2003 1612 Praetorius *Lann 2004 1611 Gesualdo *Auerbach 2005 1610 Monteverdi *Silvestrov 2006 1609 Assandra *Mika 2007 1608 Aagesen *Borisova-Ollas 2008 1607 Byrd *Laurin 2009 1606 Agazzari *MacMillan 2010 1605 Benevoli *OceanLab/Seven Lions 2011 1604 Luython *M. Richter 2012 1603 Victoria *McDowall 2013 1602 Viadana *Clean Bandit/Jess Glynne 2014 1601 Le Jeune *Raventale 2015 1600 Schuyt *Ešenvalds 2016 1599 Nicolai *MoTER 2017 1598 Lobo *Jančevskis 2018 1597 G. Gabrieli *Proton-4 2019 1596 Constantijn Huygens *Guðnadóttir 2020 1595 Croce *Crosthwaite et al. 2021 1594 Lasso *Orbital/Sleaford Mods 2022 1593 R. Aleotti *Lapwood 2023Onward and upward to next year...
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Post by jk on Jan 1, 2024 6:51:22 GMT -5
1593: There's some confusion as to whether or not Vittoria Aleotti and Raffaella Aleotti are the same person! Raffaella seems to have been a bit of a multi-instrumentalist. From her Sacrae cantiones, this is "Ego flos campi": 2023: Anna Lapwood (b. 1995): "I used to compose almost every day when I was a teenager but find it very hard to carve out the time for it now! Every now and then I get an idea that I can't resist trying out, though, and this is what happened with 'Drop Down ye Heavens'. I was in the middle of finalising [the Pembroke College Choir] Advent service repertoire with just a couple of weeks to go, and I couldn't decide on a setting of the Advent Prose to open the service. I left my desk to go and conduct our choir practice and a service of Compline, and came out a couple of hours later fizzing with ideas. I went and sat in my office, played around on the piano, and 3 hours later, had written this piece. I was really excited to hear what the choir thought as I had written it with their voices in mind, and so I typed it up and we sang it through at our next rehearsal. We ended up singing it at our Advent service the following week and recording it a couple of months later. In our 2nd rehearsal of the piece, we all felt that the organ part at the beginning reminded us of something -- it wasn't until someone set the chapel alarm off mid-rehearsal that we realised it was exactly the same notes, rhythm and tempo, so now whenever we set off the alarm we sing this piece until it is deactivated!"
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