Something for Thursday

A very young Judy Garland--even before she would travel over that rainbow--sings to a photograph of Clark Gable.

Tone Poem Tuesday

Max Reger was a late-Romantic era composer who isn't heard a lot these days, owing to his reputation of having written mostly very dense works that aren't the easiest listens in the world. I'm all for difficult listening, but I'm not sold on Reger, whose work strikes me (based on what little I've heard) as very heavy and ponderous. But I'll let you all be the judge: here is Reger's Symphonic prologue for a tragedy.

Running Hound

I've always found it hard to get really nice pictures of Cane as he's running. From certain angles a greyhound running is a magical thing, but from others they look like a randomized collection of overlong limbs flailing in every direction.

I finally got lucky a couple of weeks ago.






In other news, it appears that springtime may actually be in the offing. I try to not be overly optimistic on this point, but...well, I can hope, too.


And yes, Carla is still here, and yes, she still loves her brother.


Dogs, man. What a life development this has been!

Something for Thursday

It's been a busy week...but not so busy that we can't take some time for Itzhak Perlman playing Bizet by way of Pablo de Sarasate.

Something for Friday

Sorry I didn't get around to posting yesterday, but here is a bit of film music from a movie that is one of the better ones out there at depicting the sense of wonder and grandeur in the universe that science can illuminate. The film is Contact, and I offer this in memory of Stephen Hawking, who died the day before yesterday (on Pi Day, and Albert Einstein's birthday, for a couple of odd synchronicities). Hawking was a complicated person, as most are, but his contributions to science cannot be diminished. He is now one of the "Giants" upon whose shoulders future generations will stand.

Three One Four

It's Pi Day, everyone!

It is also Albert Einstein's birthday and, sadly, this year's edition marks the passing of Stephen Hawking, about which I'll have more to say later. But for now, let's celebrate Pi!

Calculate Pi yourself!

NASA's Pi in the Sky Challenge

A few videos:





(That one's titled "Pi Day" but the video has nothing to do with Pi so far as I can see, but it's a cool video anyway, so there it is.)



And finally:


Happy Pi Day, everyone!

Tone Poem Tuesday

Film music is often rearranged by the composers into suites that make for better performance in concert settings, and this is one of the better ones. I had this performance on a cassette tape many moons ago, but I never was able to track it down on CD...and then I happened to find it on Google Play the other day. Lo and behold, here it is on YouTube: a suite of John Williams's music to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conducted by Zubin Mehta. This was recorded way back in 1978, before Mehta made his name in a big way as music director of the New York Philharmonic.

Enjoy!

Something for Thursday

In honor of Roger's birthday, in which he turned 65, here is Camille Saint-Saens's Septet for piano, trumpet, and strings. Why this piece? Because it's Saint-Saens's Opus 65!


Happy birthday, Roger!

(It was actually yesterday, but I couldn't do Something for Thursday on Wednesday. That's just not done.)

Tone Poem Tuesday

There's always something fascinating about obscure Beethoven. You can't help listening to it, trying to find hints of the staggering genius that would craft some of the greatest works of art in human history, and not just musical art. You can hear Beethoven's style in this piece, and even though it is fairly obscure (coming from a longer work with choral movements, where only the overture is much heard today), you can still hear the great master within it.

Here is the Overture to King Stephen by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Bad Joke Friday

Stolen from Tumblr....

Artist credit

Something for Thursday

Play enough marches in band in high school and college and they get into your blood. I heard this one on the radio yesterday, and while I've known it for years via recordings, I never played it that I can recall. It's The Florentiner March by Julius Fucik, a Czech composer who is best known for his marches, and in the United States for one march in particular, Entry of the Gladiators, which was appropriated by circuses throughout the country. Florentiner is the one I prefer, though. Fucik's output of waltzes, marches, galops, and polkas makes him something of a Czech answer to Vienna's Strauss family, and his concentration on the brass and wind bands in his compositions makes him something of a Czech answer to John Philip Sousa.

Florentiner is interesting in its structure: it starts out full military brass pomp, complete with opening fanfare and then two strains of pleasing martial tunes. But when we get to the trio, the march takes a deeply lyrical turn, and by the end it's pretty much singing its heart out.

Here is the Florentiner March by Julius Fucik.