It’s Mardi Gras season! This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll adorn ourselves in purple, gold, and green, and carve ourselves some King Cake, as we listen to music from and about New Orleans.
Henry F. Gilbert, a slightly older contemporary of Charles Ives, and a composer of the New England School, was concerned with introducing folk song and the vernacular to the concert hall. His interest in the music of African Americans, then considered controversial, is reflected in works like “The Dance in Place Congo,” from 1908, a programmatic piece on Creole themes, suggestive of Sunday afternoon festivities of off-duty New Orleans slaves gathered in Congo Square.
We’ll also hear a piece by Chicago area composer Edward Joseph Collins, actually titled “Mardi Gras,” from 1923. Collins described the work as “boisterous and bizarre by turns,” evocative of the spirit of Carnival, with its enormous masks and clowns on stilts, colored streamers, confetti, lurid lights, fantastic floats and grotesque costumes.
Three Creole Romantics will offer some insiders’ views, as we hear works by Edmond Dédé, Charles Lucièn Lambert, and Louis Moreau Gottschalk, all figures born in New Orleans.
Laissez les bons temps rouler! I hope you’ll join me for “Louisiana Purchases,” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX Classical Oregon!
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Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu
Louisiana Purchases on “The Lost Chord”
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9 responses to “Louisiana Purchases on “The Lost Chord””
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Lesley Siedt A holiday tailor-made for you. Even looking at that gif makes my head want to explode.
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Classic Ross Amico Hey now, don’t be mean…I don’t really care one way or another about Mardi Gras…by the way, I watched “Blue Moon” last night….I didn’t realize how sad Lorenz Hart actually was…
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Lesley Siedt Yeah. It is a dramatization, but Hart certainly had his share of frustrations and disappointments. Virtuoso performance by Ethan Hawke. So glad that he was nominated. All the actors are very good, but Hawke carries the movie, which could very easily be turned into a play.
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Classic Ross Amico I really enjoyed it…loved all the music and the “cameo” by Sondheim…😁 Ethan Hawke was outstanding, as was everyone else… didn’t realize E.B. White was so sad either…the first children’s book he was talking about was ‘Charlotte’s Web’, right?
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Lesley Siedt It’s been a few months since I’ve seen it. He alludes to Stuart Little, I think, and probably Charlotte’s Web. Why not? It’s on Netflix now, so I’ll probably rewatch it soon and let you know.
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Classic Ross Amico I’m pretty sure it’s Charlotte as he ” borrowed” the idea of Stuart Little from Hart. Still, a lovely little movie…the heartbreak on his face when she leaves with Rodgers was so subtle, so well done, just outstanding…
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Lesley Siedt Oh yes, that’s it! I saw the movie when it came out, remember, so it’s been a little bit. I did write up my impressions of it. Not sure if you read it. The acting was good across the board, but Hawke was incredible. A totally transformative performance. It was only in one or two profile shots that I was reminded that it was indeed Ethan Hawke. If you haven’t seen Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” which I also caught recently on Netflix, check it out. At 65, he might be one of my new favorite directors.
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Classic Ross Amico 👍
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