Minimalist music

I listened to Arvo Part's composition of Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen) on new year's day. It countered beautifully the nonsensical Bollywood music played out in celebration for the day. This is the second time this blog features Salve Regina; the first time was for a composition by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. Pergolesi lived between 1710-1736, while Arvo Part is an important member of contemporary classical music.

I went on to his symphony no. 4. And the first piece (movement) of this minimalist work will introduce to you the simplicity of modern orchestral music - minimalism is an important

Sudden embrace

Those old-time composers, without their smartphones, computers, cars wrote glorrrious music. They had dance and melody, and were we not so numbed by modern day repetitive sounds, we would find them fun and energetic.

They lovingly attacked you with emotion. Imagine meeting a man/woman who is very happy to see you and embraces you with joy immediately, or sometimes tells you a story of his/her heart straightaway, without the formality of modern day life.

Why shouldn't we speak from our soul?

No strange friend

Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry lived between 1848 and 1918. He was English.
We will listen to the orchestral arrangement of his anthem 'I was glad'.
Anthems come under the label of patriotic music but this is an orchestral arrangement of the same. This work is very popular and was played during the wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William.

The anthem has been sung at the entrance of the monarch at every British coronation since that of King Charles I. Sir Parry's version was composed for the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, and revised in 1911 for that of King George V. [Wikipedia]

Sir Parry was a teacher, historian and composer. And he was considered 'elitist' by his critics. We are going to listen to his symphony number 3 he composed in 1889.
Here are my views on the work - His English-ness is seen in the first movement.
And here I recommend that you play the video below:

The sign of the four

What do you see in the image above? That's four bassoons together. Tarakari makes efforts to 'save the bassoon', as you may like to read here.

Today we observe how instruments of the same family sound in conflict and harmony. So if four bassoons go on a date and converse, they sound like how Antonio Vivaldi tells us in his concerto featuring four bassoons. Flit your eyes from one player to the other and take in the sound and mood.



But why the number four? We will eventually get introduced to duos and trios and other such terms. Let's just start with the four.

Classical inspires the soul

The special thing about this piece is that there's no chord progression: there's only one chord. Like the touch of a cold winter gale gently rocking wind chimes in the still of winter, this piece displays a sense of eternity and timelessness as it expounds upon the profound depths of a single moment, frozen in time, yet lasting forever. - James Becker 

I was up ridiculously early this morning and I stood at my sliding glass doors with them open. The sun was just coming up and everyone was still asleep and this came on shuffle and it blew my mind. I watched birds fly over the orange and blue sky with total silence around my other than this song. One of the most beautiful moments in my life. - Chiara Keating

These inspired lines by James and Chiara are for the video below

Harp and the Harpsichord

Bach: Johann Sebastian Bach. German Composer. Among the bosses of Western Classical Music.

Harpsichord: A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed. The harpsichord had fallen out of popularity during the mid 18th century in favour of the fortepiano and keyboard. This is what it looks like:

Harp: The harp is a hand-plucked string instrument, usually triangular in shape, in which the plane of the strings is perpendicular to the soundboard. This is how it appears:

There are several compositions by Bach that I feel would do better without the use of the Harpsichord. Let us see

Sweet violin 'noyse'

The King's Noyse is a violin ensemble from North America founded by David Douglass [website]. I came across their music on YouTube and enjoyed the sounds.

They play 'renaissance-style'. If you don't know about renaissance, imagine a cool cultural period between the 14th and 17th century with magnificent advances in science and art. So what is this style?

"the King's Noyse plays in a manner almost certainly followed by Renaissance fiddlers, playing from memory or improvising on standardized bass lines such as those