Blog Archives: Music
Handel’s Messiah
This evening I attended a spectacular performance of Handel’s Messiah by The Queensland Orchestra here in Brisbane. I’ve seen Messiah many times and always enjoy it. Why was this performance so spectacular? Three reasons:
- It actually made me feel like Christmas was coming, which is a hard thing to do when the average high is 32ºC.
- The poor trumpet player’s music fell off her stand just as “The Trumpet Shall Sound” started, and she didn’t miss a note.
- Soprano Miriam Allan was amazing, absolutely amazing. She made singing seem as natural as breathing. It was like hearing music for the first time. I hope I get to hear her perform again.
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Dies Irae
If Hell is an abyss, then the music that will be playing as the damned fall into the abyss will be Dies Irae, from Verdi’s Requiem.
On Friday night I went to see the Queensland Orchestra and a 300-voice choir give a performance of Verdi’s Requiem. The most stunning piece in Verdi’s Requiem is by far the Dies Irae, the “Day of Wrath”, which has such uplifting lyrics as “A day of wrath; that day, it will dissolve the world into glowing ashes” and “So when the Judge is seated, whatever is hidden will be made known: nothing shall go unpunished.”
Give a listen to Verdi’s version, which can barely be appreciated by this poor quality recording on YouTube, or just wait until the apocalypse where this will surely be playing loud and clear. (Mozart’s Dies Irae is probably the more famous Dies Irae, and the one that I knew before going to the concert, but Verdi’s is by far more terrifying.)
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William Ørbit’s Pieces in a Modern Style
William Orbit cover Fortunately for my music habit, the two minute walk from my house to the local grocery store passes an independent music store. On my way to buy bananas and milk today, I stopped in and came upon William Ørbit’s Pieces in a Modern Style while browsing the used CDs on the shelves. Ørbit was originally an music editor and producer, and mixed a number of major hits in the US (including Madonna’s “Beautiful Stranger” from Austin Powers 2). His mixes appear on U2′s Best of 1990-2000, Sarah McLachlan’s Remixed, and others. Ørbit was first introduced to me by Heather, though a popular trance remix of Ørbit’s “Barber’s Adagio for Strings”.
The album I’m listening to contains electronic renditions of classical pieces. The first track, Barber’s Adagio for Strings, is almost completely traditional, with just a hint of electronica underlying it. It serves as a suitable introduction, letting the listener know that what follows is too delicate to just throw a booming 120 beat per minute bass line underneath and some cheap synth strings on top. These compositions have stood the test of time, and Ørbit intends to do them justice.
Some tracks that follow, like Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana (trust me, you’d recognize the melody) are completely electronic. I’m going to have to make an effort to hunt down the originals for some of the tracks. The second song is an eletronic version of John Cage’s In a Landscape. Cage is a 20th century modern classical composer perhaps best known for 4’33″, four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence in three movements (it received a standing ovation on its first performance). It’s equally likely that Ørbit’s mix of Cage’s work is either quite close to the original or quite distant.
The last piece on the album is based on Beethoven’s string quartet Opus 132, which was Beethoven’s last commissioned work. Ørbit’s rendition is an atmospheric expanse. Although slow moving, it never quite resolves, and one can’t help but want more upon reaching the end.
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Bowie to Glass to Techno
I’m currently listenting to a track from an album called 26 Mixes For Cash by a techno artist named Aphex Twin. The track is called “Heroes”. In a very peculiar confluence of genres and artists, it’s a techno remix by Aphex Twin of a Philip Glass symphony called “Heroes” based on a David Bowie track of the same name. And it’s awesome!
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New Sarah! Finally!
Sarah McLachlan Afterglow cover Gee, it’s only been six years since her last original album, but it appears that there will finally be a new Sarah McLachlan album! Entitled Afterglow, it will apparently be released on November 4, 2003. And if you happen to have Apple iTunes and are in the US, you can download it and other exclusive Sarah music: 
Start the countdown!
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Now Playing
In a fairly random choice from my iTunes library, I’m now listening to Claude Debussy’s La mer. What are you listening to?
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Carmina Burana
I just returned from a spectacular performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana by the San Francisco Symphony. Carmina Burana is a Latin oratorio (vocalists, chorus, and orchestra; like an opera but no acting, costumes, or sets), first performed in 1937.
The most well-known (and, in my opinion, best) song from the work is “O Fortuna”, which has been used in many movie soundtracks. It starts off the performance, and hearing it is like being hit with a wall of sound – the sheer power is astounding. You can hear a recording of it at Amazon.com. A particularly amusing track is “In taberna quando sumus”, which is effectively a Latin drinking song.
Worth a listen, even for those who don’t usually appreciate classical music.
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What to buy?
I am now the proud owner of “Whenever, Wherever”, sung by an artist named Shakira. Why, you might ask, would I want to own this song? Well, it’s because my roommate wanted to download the song. But the important part is that I now have an account at the Apple iTunes Music Store. With some 200,000 songs at my virtual fingertips, priced at a clickable 99 cents, what is a music fan to do?
So, while I have technically made one purchase, that was the purchase of my roommate. What is a worthy first song purchase?
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