This week on “Sweetness and Light,” we’ll be lounging around the water bowl with our legs out. It’s music for the dog days of summer.
When I was a kid, I remember hearing about “the dog days” and wondering what that was supposed to mean, exactly. I assumed it must have been when all the dogs were as flat or extended as possible (now known as splooting). Let sleeping dogs lie!
Later, I wondered specifically when that period was supposed to be. Before the internet, I surmised it must have been the hottest period of summer; and I suppose, more or less, I was correct.
It wasn’t until adulthood that I learned the dog days are an actual span that coincides with the heliacal rise of Sirius – the “Dog Star.” Heliacal rise is a fancy way of saying that the star becomes visible above the eastern horizon just before sunrise. In other words, it’s the morning star.
Modern sources are a little fast and loose with the astrological ties. The dates might as well come printed on the calendar, as in the English-speaking world, the dog days are now inflexibly July 3 to August 11.
Be that as it may, unsurprisingly, the dog days got me thinking about… wait for it… DOGS. More specifically, dogs and music. I hope you’ll join me today for a playlist of canine classics by Arthur Pryor, Peter Schickele, Sir Edward Elgar, George Gershwin, Walter Piston, and Daniel Dorff.
It will have you panting for more!
Better have some Milk Bones and a lint roller handy for “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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