"She's going to play THAT??"

My friend, Melody, was asked to play the organ at the end of a Mass. Our string quartet also performed at this Mass. The Mass was for two women who became nuns that day. The organ is situated in a beautiful chapel of modern design at a convent for nuns near Dubuque, Iowa. It's a Casavant-Freres organ -- a magnificent instrument.

Melody practiced her music before the mass began. She had chosen a piece by Olivier Messiaen, a composer whose music is often quite loud and dissonant. This music is quite different from what the sisters usually hear in their chapel! One of the sisters of the convent heard Melody practicing and said, "Is she going to play THAT?" So, someone approached Melody and said, "Can you play that a little softer?" Melody answered, "I really wouldn't know how to do that."

So, she played the piece at the end of the Mass, as a Postlude. The remaining audience applauded wildly at the conclusion of the music. I was the page turner for Melody. I simply could not believe the complexity of the written music. It was a mass of tone clusters, sharps, sixteenth notes!! How could Melody play such a difficult piece? Well, she had been playing it since college, so she knew it well, she said.

The name of this music is:

L'ascension: III. Transports De Joie D'une Ame Devant La Gloire Du Christ Qui Set La Sienne

(The Transports of Joy of a Soul Who Faces the Glory of God.)

Here is a YouTube video of this same piece, performed by Olivier Latry at Royal Albert Hall during the BBC Proms 2008 season.



Here is the same piece, as played by the composer, Olivier Messiaen:

Haunted By a Song

This morning I was awakened by a very wonderful experience. It was about 4:30 a.m. As I awoke, I heard a song in my head. I wondered what the song was. Later, around 6:15 a.m., when I finally arose for the day, I thought about that song and I finally realized what it was: Tide of Trepidation by the Esbjörn Svensson Trio, sent to me by my friend in Sweden on the day that Esbjörn Svensson died because of a tragic accident while scuba diving in Stockholm's water ways. Svensson was a wonderful jazz pianist and composer. I remembered that, not only did I hear this tune, I imagined that I saw magnificent pink and purple colors in my half-slumber. I had not heard this tune for several weeks. This was one of life's unexpected delights and extreme pleasures!

Feeling the Music

Last night, my string quartet got together. We started playing at 7:45 p.m. A little later, I glanced at my watch. It was 10:00. We had completely lost track of time, having been so absobed in our playing.

There were powerful, magical moments last evening, as we practiced a Mozart quartet and read through a quartet by Brahms. There were intense moments when we played together and felt the music together. We were wafted into another world on the wings of music. These were only moments, not extended time periods, but they were precious and wonderful!

I thought about my dreams as a young woman in college. I played with a string quartet there and I thought how wonderful it would be if, when I became an adult, I could play in a string quartet, always. My dream has come true!

So Much Music!

The other day, I spent about two hours talking with some young people (early 20's) who I met at a Japanese conversation group. I could barely understand anything because my knowledge of Japanese is quite rudimentary, but I could tell that the young American guy had begun listing his favorite groups, in response to my rudimentary question in Japanese, "What's your favorite music?". Whereas I consider myself "fairly" knowledgeable about pop music, I did not recognize one of his groups! The truth is that there has been an explosion of music in recent years. Many, many new groups have sprung up. And some of these groups are in secret little niches within certain narrow genres. "Indie" music is one such category. Some of the music I enjoy (Josh Woodward, Stereomovers, etc.) are not generally well-known. Then there are the super groups, like Coldplay, Green Day, etc. that everyone knows. As for me, I have become fascinated by lots of older groups, such as Cheap Trick, Crowded House, and Nirvana.

The Amazing Power of the Internet

Recently, I was chatting on Skype with my friend in Europe. We were discussing Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2. Not only were we talking about how to play the opening chords (as written, they are impossible to play), but I was able to send him a sound file (through Skype) of our orchestra playing this piece. And then he sent me a pdf file of the score! All of this took only a few minutes. I have to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming about all of this!! Pictures and sounds are immediately accessible over long distances!!

Japanese Podcast

For two years now, I have been listening to a podcast from Japan. The host "Pot-au-feu" (a pseudonym) has been delivering podcasts at regular intervals. His main interests are music and Macs, just like me!
ポッドキャストと音楽とMacな話題を書いたり喋ったり。

I have found out about a lot of cool rock groups from his podcasts. Most recently, it's a group called "Stereomovers" from Canada. I must admit, I can barely understand Pot-au-feu, but I really enjoy trying!
Free download here.

Here is the song, Picture of You, by the Stereomovers.


I learned about "SexRex" from Pot-au-feu's podcast, as well as an Indie guy -- Josh Woodward, who lives in Ohio! Small world, isn't it?

Here's the podcast: My Cup of Tea
Also, you can subscribe to his podcast through iTunes.

Pot-au-feu is also a photograher -- his pictures are beautiful and interesting.

Die Dreigroschenoper

The other night, my husband and I watched "Die Dreigroschenoper", a very old film (1931) based on the musical by the same name. In English, it's "The Threepenny Opera". Bertolt Brecht, the German dramatist and Kurt Weill, the composer, wrote the original "opera", which is really a musical. The style can be described as "jazzy" or "cabaret" style. The mood of the music is sarcastic, biting, cynical, sophisticated and bitter. "Mack the Knife" is the famous song from this work, but all of the songs are wonderful and fun. The characters are thieves and prostitutes and the musical can be seen as social commentary.

I have been fascinated by this music for many years. We were lucky enough to be in New York in 1976 to see The Threepenny Opera performed in New York in Central Park! It was sung in English.


The rather exotic Ute Lemper, a contemporary singer, has sung a number of Weill tunes, including "Mackie Messer" ("Mack the Knife"), heard here. She captures the authentic spirit of the times, especially with the exaggerated, trilled "r"s at the ends of some of the words!



This is the second time I have mentioned the music of Kurt Weill. See my previous blog entry here, with another musical example: Click here.