Surely, the most famous song about rainbows must be “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, an Academy Award winner from “The Wizard of Oz.” Last year, there was a Kansas-style dust-up over whether or not Arlen may have lifted his indelible melody from an obscure Norwegian pianist-composer he heard perform when he was a boy – 29 years earlier. You can draw your own conclusions this week, on “Sweetness and Light,” as we listen to the Concert Etude, Op. 38, by Signe Lund.
In fact, several works on the program will be associated with rainbows. We’ll also enjoy a suite from Roger Quilter’s “Where the Rainbow Ends” and an arrangement by Robert Farnon of Frédéric Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, the big central melody of which was appropriated for the song “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows.” The balance of the playlist will be devoted to showers and the promise of spring.
I don’t know what the weather is like where you are, but early spring is always a mercurial time. However, as they say, April showers bring May flowers. I’ll be waiting for you with an umbrella and smile, on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Stream it wherever you are at the link:
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