After the mesmerizing photos of the brave Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir I feel like indulging a bit more in this country of sagas, this last speck of Dreamland, the far north....
And what could be better than the voice of Eivør Pálsdóttir? There was a time in which music was magic, conjuring the elementals, and the voice was the wand which commanded the unknown..
The Libre Vermell found in the monastery of Monserrat is a magnificent example of sacred music with an underlying profane texture.
It is precisely this mix of religious and secular, holy and earthly, that fascinates me to the extreme.
Here is one of the 10 surviving songs, Cuncti sumus conanentes, in the magisterial direction of Jordi Savall.
Earth and Heaven are not that far, if our hearts are open..
I owe to a great friend the lucky discovery of the austere delights of music for viola da gamba. Amongst the greatest practitioners one must number the Sieur de Sainte Colombe, whose aloofness in life is magnificently reflected in his impeccable music.
Someone once said: Energy is the Eternal Delight.
He most certainly knew what he was talking about. There are moments where you just need this one: sheer, unmitigated, unbridled energy.
When I do need it, I have a single stop to make: Sonny Rollins. Here the old powerful man is playing Tenor Madness. And madness it is, just a bit, but of the most healthy type.
Feel the vibes and be happy
In Musical Rambling V, I have paid my tribute to a marvellous female voice in contemporary italian pop music, Alice.
But my star is a double one: Alice and Patty Pravo. There is a celestial undertone in Alice, a scent of oriental enlightenments, but I am a man who aspires to be total, to reach out to the completeness of knowledge & experience available to mankind.
Therefore, could I forget the siren chant of Patty Pravo's velvety voice?
Listen to her in the now classic Pensiero Stupendo.
PS If you read italian, you''ll find the lyrics here.
Franck' s Violin Sonata is an unforgettable piece of music: so sweet, languid, evanescent..
(somehow it captures perfectly my current mood)
Here is performed by the skillful hand of Christian Ferras, whose untimely death adds a sad touch to this phenomenal interpretation.
Candles are recommended.
She has been for so long my absolute standard of style. It was nice spotting her on YouTube, after many nomadic years along the tracks of the world.
Who? Carla Bissi, aka Alice Visconti, at the very height of her career.
I shall find the inscrutable dimension at the end of the road, wondrous Alice, and before passing over to the other side, a last fleeting thought will be for you.
Yours
PolyMathicus
Nomadi
Nomadi che cercano gli angoli della tranquillità
nelle nebbie del nord e nei tumulti delle civiltà,
tra i chiariscuri e la monotonia dei giorni che passano.
Camminatore che vai cercando la pace al crepuscolo,
la troverai la troverai alla fine della strada.
Lungo il transito dell´apparente dualità,
la pioggia di settembre risveglia i vuoti della mia stanza
ed i lamenti della solitudine si prolungano.
Come uno straniero non sento legami di sentimento
e me ne andrò dalle città nell´attesa del risveglio.
I viandanti vanno in cerca di ospitalità
nei villaggi assolati e nei bassifondi dell´immensità
e si addormentano sopra i guanciali della terra.
Forestiero che cerchi la dimensione insondabile,
la troverai, fuori città,alla fine della strada.
Giuseppe Torelli is, with his contemporary Arcangelo Corelli, one of the creators (*) and chief exponents of the Concerto Grosso.
The Concerto Grosso is a form of baroque music where two groups, a smaller one known as the concertino, and a larger one, colorfully named ripieno (i.e. filled), play together a musical ping-pong of sorts that fuses into a stately harmonious whole.
I love the Concerto Grosso: it is full of great pathos that never decays into sentimentalism. You can clearly feel that each story in the Seicento was still a destiny...
Please enjoy Torelli's Christmas Concert Opus 8 Number 6, skillfully played by the Solistes de Versailles.
Merry Christmas everybody!
(*) actually, some attribute the paternity of this form to Stradella, but the first printed Concerto Grosso is, as far as I know, one by Corelli.
A friend and true opera's lover has brought to my attention this outstanding interpretation of the immortal Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen ("Hell's vengeance boils in my heart") by coloratura soprano Diana Damrau.
Magic Flute is my all-time favorite operatic masterpiece. It is at once:
I can hardly imagine anything more appealing to my taste.
As for the Queen of the Night, she says it all in the final somber pentameters:
Hört, Rachegötter,
hört der Mutter Schwur!
Hear, Gods of Revenge,
hear the mother's curse!
All nights are magic. Die Welt ist tief, und tiefer als der Tag gedacht, the world is deep, and deeper than the day thought, as one reads in the unforgettable chapter of the Zarathustra (Das Nachtwandler-Lied, 12).
There is an unfathomable depth that unveils only to the happy ones who vigil when everyone else sleeps. That depth, that mystery, that lush, is conjured up at every turn of Thelonius Monks' magisterial work.
Enjoy.
Widerstehe doch der Sünde, aka Stand steadfast against sin (you can read it here in the original german, and here in english translation), is a magnificent cantata by J. S. Bach (BWV 54, to be exact). A good start for my musical ramblings is this spectacular interpretation by Glenn Gould from 1962 on YouTube. The singer is countertenor Russell Oberlin.
Bach and Gould, what could be more sublime and more sobering? From time to time it is wise to pause, shut the endless noise of this world out, and listen with full attention for a few minutes to a different Voice....
