It does seem like a crime against the holidays that I didn’t post yesterday for Festivus, but I assure you, o gentle readers, that grievances were still aired. A perfect storm of computer woes, battling the advance of a Christmas cold, and the usual holiday chaos conspired to keep me off Facebook. But I am humble enough, in this season of miracles, to grasp that the world keeps on turning, and it’s not all about me. Peace on earth, you filthy animals.
Category: Daily Dispatch
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Winter Solstice Composers in Snowy Settings
Yesterday morning marked the hibernal solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. On this first full day of winter, here a few photos of composers in wintry settings. Subjects identified when you click through the images.
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Radio Rewind Vintage Christmas Carols on KWAX
I’ve been in radio for so long, when I began, recorded shows were being broadcast from reel-to-reel tape (edited by hand using a razor blade). Later, they were played from DAT tape (that is to say, Digital Audio Tape), and now from automation from a computer network.
So I really dug deep into the archive for this week’s broadcast of “The Lost Chord” – 21 years deep, as a matter of fact – extracting from a vein of probably about 100 shows that I found here on CD-R, which I likely transferred from DAT, before the station ditched the machines. According to the label on the jewel case, this particular episode aired in 2003 and 2007.
For all that, the technology is not quite as ancient as that employed for the actual recordings I selected for a nostalgic glimpse back at Christmases of yore. A few of of them date to the 1910s and 1920s. Among the featured artists are Enrico Caruso, Fritz Kreisler, John McCormack, Paul Robeson, Raymond Scott, and Fats Waller.
I hope you’ll join me, when I wipe away the cobwebs for “Ghosts of Christmases Past,” a special holiday edition of “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
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 – ALL NEW! – 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!
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Princeton Snow & Christmas Carols on KWAX
Snow in Princeton for the first day of winter!
I don’t know what conditions are like where you are, but I expect, if you celebrate, your adrenaline is already up, as you prepare for a last-minute dash to the stores, a little surreptitious gift-wrapping, some early baking, or perhaps already receiving family.
This week on “Sweetness and Light,” we’ll stick to the basics, with an hour of music inspired by familiar Christmas carols and traditional Christmas songs.
In the former category, we’ll hear works by Philip Lane, Benjamin Britten, and Rick Sowash. Then we’ll enjoy selections from a favorite Christmas album of mine, “Old Christmas Return’d,” from 1992, featuring early music performances by the York Waits. Some of these Christmas melodies have been around for an awfully long time!
In between, we’ll hear an original carol by John Rutter – now SIR John Rutter – unbelievably, composed all the way back in 1972. I remember when it was a fairly new piece!
None of us are getting any younger. Recollect the holidays of your misspent youth with an hour of traditional carols for Christmas, on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EST/8:00 PST, now in syndication on KWAX the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Stream it wherever you are at the link:
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Christmas Movie Music Stocking Stuffers on KWAX
This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s a yuletide treat: I hope you’ll join me for an hour of musical stocking stuffers.
We’ll begin with selections from “Miracle on 34th Street,” from 1947. Maureen O’Hara, Natalie Wood, and Edmund Gwenn star. Gwenn won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Kris Kringle. Cyril J. Mockridge’s alternately bustling and sentimental score employs “Jingle Bells” as its Santa motif.
Then, drawing from the countless adaptations of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” we’ll turn to a 1938 version, featuring Reginald Owen as Scrooge. Franz Waxman’s music draws on traditional carols and, when Scrooge undergoes his Christmas morning transformation, a sly riff on Georges Bizet’s “Jeux d’enfants.”
For those who enjoy a little carnage with their Christmas, we’ll also hear selections from “Home Alone.” The 1990 film, in which diminutive Macaulay Culkin subjects would-be burglars Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern to a battery of cartoon violence, features a candy-coated score by John Williams.
There are those who consider “Ben-Hur” to be among the greatest film scores of all-time. From Miklós Rózsa’s work on the 1959 Oscar champ, we’ll hear music from the film’s opening Nativity sequence.
Then, Cary Grant plays an angel who answers the prayers of David Niven, attempting to raise funds for a new cathedral, in “The Bishop’s Wife.” Along the way, Grant also happens to fall for Lauretta Young. Monty Woolley, Elsa Lanchester, and James Gleason add to the whimsy. This charming 1947 romantic fantasy sports a memorable score by Hugo Friedhofer.
Finally, any sentiment in “The Holly and the Ivy,” from 1952, is hard-earned. Ralph Richardson plays the clueless patriarch of a troubled family, a village parson more concerned with his parishioners than those living under his own roof. When the family reunites for Christmas, longstanding frictions continue to wear, but they are gradually resolved. Malcolm Arnold’s score gives little hint of the film’s inherent drama. However, he does provide some boisterous arrangements of some familiar carols.
Pour yourself a cup of cocoa and settle in for a cinematic Christmas. Yule be glad you did, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
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 – ALL NEW! – 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!
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