Monteverdi - L'Orfeo, favola in musica (1607)

L'Orfeo, favola in musica, is a late Renaissance/early Baroque opera by Claudio Monteverdi, with a libretto by Alessandro Striggio. It is based on the Greek legend of Orpheus, and tells the story of his descent to Hades and his fruitless attempt to bring his dead bride Eurydice back to the living world. Written in 1607 for a court performance during the annual Carnival at Mantua, L'Orfeo is one of the earliest music dramas still regularly performed.

Monteverdi Wiki 

L'Orfeo Wiki 

L'Orfeo Score 

L' ORFEO: Favola in Musica (1607) - Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643). (Representación de Jordi Savall y La Capella Reial de Catalunya en el Gran Teatro del Liceo de Barcelona, 2002)

Florence Foster Jenkins, Soprano Singer

Florence Foster Jenkins- Der Holle Rache

From her recordings it is apparent that Jenkins had little sense of pitch and rhythm, and was barely capable of sustaining a note. Her accompanist can be heard making adjustments to compensate for her tempo variations and rhythmic mistakes. Her dubious diction, especially in foreign language songs, is also noteworthy. Nonetheless, she became popular for the amusement she provided. Critics often described her work in a backhanded way that may have served to pique public curiosity.

Despite her patent lack of ability, Jenkins apparently was firmly convinced of her greatness. She compared herself favorably to the renowned sopranos Frieda Hempel and Luisa Tetrazzini, and dismissed the abundant audience laughter during her performances as "professional jealousy." She was aware of her critics, but never let them stand in her way: "People may say I can't sing," she said, "but no one can ever say I didn't sing."

English 

Spanish

"Citizen Kane" (1941) Singing Lesson

Stravinsky - Rite Of Spring 100 years

Stravinsky Documentary Stokowski in 'Accidental Stereo' (1929) - Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring'. Philadelphia Orchestra

Bach - Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, Manuscript

Julian Shuckburgh’s new biography of J.S. Bach includes images by Caroline Wilkinson, a ‘forensic facial-reconstructor’. Wilkinson used laser scans of the Haussmann portrait and a bronze cast of Bach’s skull to build computer models of the composer’s head.

Upon Bach's death in 1750, the original manuscript passed into the possession, possibly through his second wife Anna Magdalena, of Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach. It was inherited by the last male descendant of J.C.F. Bach, Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach, who passed it on to his sister Louisa of Bückeburg.

Two other early manuscripts also exist. One, originally identified as an authentic Bach autograph from his Leipzig period, is now identified as being a 1726 copy by Bach's second wife Anna Magdalena Bach, and is the companion to the earliest surviving handwritten copy of the six suites Bach wrote for solo cello. The other, a copy made by one of Bach's students Johann Peter Kellner, is well preserved, despite the fact that the B minor Partita was missing from the set and that there are numerous errors and omissions. All three manuscripts are in the Berlin State Museum and have been in the possession of the Bach-Gesellschaft since 1879, through the efforts of Alfred Dörffel.

About the work

Wiki

Manuscript

Color scan 71 Mb

Scan 14 Mb

Gavin Bryars - Madrigals

On Madrigals
Like many Englishmen I had sung madrigals for pleasure - usually late at night with friends, after several glasses of wine. While these madrigals have their charm, and many are extremely beautiful, I found through embarking on an extended exploration of the madrigal as a creative venture that the richest source lies in the Italian Renaissance. Follow...

5 madrigals from the first book

00:00 - no 7: she'd buy things

01:52 - no 8: all the homely arts and crafts

03:31 - no 9: in april

05:45 - no 10: who's the more to blame

07:45 - no 12: my pomegranate

Gavin Bryars: 'Marconi's madrigal' for 6 voices, on text by Francesco Petrarca for six voices (2002). Commissioned by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for the centenary of Marconi's

John Zorn: Patton, Uri Caine And A Film

John Zorn: "All the various styles are organically connected to one another. I'm an additive person - the entire storehouse of my knowledge informs everything I do. People are so obsessed with the surface that they can't see the connections, but they are there."

Mikel Patton sings Litany IV, from Six Litanies for Heliogabalus

John Zorn - Iao - Lucifer Risin'

Uri Caine plays Book of Angels

Documentary: A Bookshelf On Top of the Sky: 12 Stories About John Zorn

Medieval Spain 4 - Cantigas de Alfonso X el Sabio

The Cantigas de Santa Maria ("Canticles of Holy Mary") are 420 poems with musical notation, written in Galician-Portuguese during the reign of Alfonso X El Sabio (1221–1284) and often attributed to him. It is one of the largest collections of monophonic (solo) songs from the Middle Ages and is characterized by the mention of the Virgin Mary in every song, while every tenth song is a hymn.
The manuscripts have survived in four codices: two at El Escorial, one at Madrid's National Library, and one in Florence, Italy. Some have colored miniatures showing pairs of musicians playing a wide variety of instruments.
The music is written in notation which is similar to that used for chant, but also contains some information about the length of the notes. Several transcriptions exist. The Cantigas are frequently recorded and performed by Early Music groups, and quite a few CDs featuring music from the Cantigas are available.

Cantiga 122, miragres muitos pelos reis faz, de Alfonso X por el grupo SEMA, dirigido por Pepe Rey

About...

English and Wiki

Spanish and Wiki

Book

Facsimile pdf

Text

Excerpts

Morocco - Paul Bowles and Mohamed Choukri

PAUL BOWLES

Paul Bowles lived for 52 of his 88 years in Tangier. Not surprisingly, he became identified with the city: during his life visitors would seek him out, and on his death obituary-writers without fail linked his life to his residency: he became a symbolic American expatriate, and the city became the symbol of his expatriate status.
At the time of his first visit with Aaron Copland in 1931 Tangier had an anomalous status, a Moroccan city which was not Moroccan, with a population at once Berber, Arab, Spanish, and European, speaking Spanish, French, Berber and Arabic, under the control of a consortium of foreign powers, one of them the United States. Paul Bowles was entranced. On his return in 1947 the city had already changed, but not enough to rob it of its aura of strangeness and wonder. In 1955 there were anti-European riots, and in 1956 the city was returned to full Moroccan control.

Paul Bowles' reputation as a composer was ultimately overshadowed by his writing. He studied with Aaron Copland. He wrote chamber music and incidental music for the stage. The score of his 1955 opera Yerma is especially memorable and gets much radio-play. He collected Moroccan folk music. His compositions are being re-released.

About...
Bowles
the Sheltering Sky

Book (The Sheltering Sky)

English and Here

Spanish

MOHAMED CHOUKRI

Choukri was born in 1935, in a small village in the Rif mountains, in the Nador province. He was raised in a very poor family. He ran away from his tyrannical father and became a homeless child living in the poor neighborhoods of Tangier, surrounded by misery, prostitution, violence and drug abuse. At the age of 20, he decided to learn how to read and write and became later a schoolteacher. In the 1960s, in the cosmopolitan Tangier, he met Paul Bowles, Jean Genet and Tennessee Williams.
For Bread Alone became an international success when was published in English translation of Al-khoubz Al-Hafi (For Bread Alone, Telegram Books) by Paul Bowles in 1973, but the book also caused a furor in the Arab world. When the Arabic edition emerged, it was prohibited in Morocco, on the authority of the Interior Minister, following the advice of the religious authorities. It was said to have offended by its references to teenage sexual experiences and drug abuse. This censorship ended in 2000, and For Bread Alone was finally published in Morocco. In 2005, For Bread Alone was removed from the syllabus of a modern Arabic Literature course at the American University in Cairo in 2005, due to some sexually explicit passages, prompting some observers to criticize the "ban" and blame government censorship.

About "For Bread Alone"...
English and Here
Spanish and Here

Enjoying Life

Jesus Rueda - Enjoying Life (from Copenhagen Sketches)
Jesus Rueda, piano

Tibet - Monks Playing Long Horns at Tikse Monastery

Music of Eternity on the Roof of the World

Dungchen Tibetan Long Horn

About Tibetan Music

Musical Instruments

Vesterbro Bar

Vesterbro Bar (from Copenhagen Sketches)

Jesus Rueda, piano

Glosa

Rueda/Garrido-Glosa sobre el Dies Irae

Tomás Garrido, cello

Beyond The Horizon

Horizon

Tomás Garrido, cello

Those Two Lovers

copyright by Mette Perregaard

Those Two Lovers (from Copenhagen Sketches)

Jesus Rueda, piano

Pygmies - Baka Women Yodellers

More information

Amagertorv Sunday Morning

Amagertorv Sunday Morning (from Copenhagen Sketches)

Jesus Rueda, piano

Extreme Voice (Fragments)

Jesus Rueda - Extreme Voice (fragments, 2008)

Fragment 1 
Fragment 2 
Fragment 3 

Maelstrom

Jesus Rueda-Deslizamientos (from 24 Interludios)

Ananda Sukarlan, piano

Réquiem

2º Ciclo Crasmúsicas: Réquiem (extracto del directo) from Crasmúsicas on Vimeo.

JESÚS RUEDA - VASCO ISPIRIÁN - JULIÁN ELVIRA Estrenado el 26 de abril 2012 en la Nave de Música de Matadero Madrid. 2º Ciclo Crasmúsicas. Participan: Blowing (Julián Elvira –dirección–, Eduardo Costa, Cristina Marín, Ignacio Rincón y Guillermo Thomson). Percusión: Javier Belinchón. Visual Art, Kreomancer.

A Story

Jesus Rueda-That's All Folks! (Invención #28)

Ananda Sukarlan, piano