Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Rusalka Week Water Spirits on “The Lost Chord”

What precautions have you taken against Rusalka Week? None, you say? (Crosses self)

There are innumerable pieces of music written about water spirits – sirens, naiads, lorelei, undines, mermaids, and melusinas. This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll sample just a couple of these for Rusalka Week. Rusalka Week begins on Pentecost, 50 days after Easter (i.e. today).

In Slavic mythology, a rusalka is a spirit that dwells at the bottom of a river or a lake. She lures unsuspecting men with her song, invariably resulting in a watery doom. Rusalki are never more dangerous than in early June, when the spirits roam free. Those who die in the week leading up to Pentecost are especially prone to becoming rusalki.

Rusalka Week plays a role in Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera, “May Night,” drawn from Nikolai Gogol’s collection, “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka.” Alexander Dargomizhsky’s opera, “Rusalka,” is based on a dramatic poem by Pushkin. And the best known of the bunch, Dvorak’s “Rusalka,” was inspired by Czech fairy tales of Karel Jaromir Erben and Bozena Nemcova.

But we won’t be listening to any of these. (We’ve treated Rimsky and Dargomizhsky in the past.) Instead, we’ll have a flute sonata from 1882 by Carl Reinecke that bears the subtitle “Undine,” an allusion to a novella by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, very popular among the Romantics. Fouqué’s “Undine” tells the tale of a water spirit who marries a knight in order to gain a soul.

Then we’ll hear the complete ballet, “Les Sirènes,” from 1946, by Lord Berners. Berners, notorious for his sense of the absurd (a horse was a regular guest at his indoor tea parties) was a talented composer, writer, and painter. “Les Sirènes,” after a scenario by Frederick Ashton, features mermaids combing their hair and singing on rocks at a seaside resort, while on shore, sirens of another sort behave coquettishly.

I hope you’ll join me – you shouldn’t be out wandering during Rusalka Week anyway – for “Come on in, the Water’s Fine,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

IMAGE: “Rusalka” by Anna Vinogradova

June 5, 2022
Lost Worlds Fantasy Film Scores on WWFM

This week on “Picture Perfect,” prepare to get “lost.” We’ll have an hour of music from fantasy films set in lost worlds.

In “King Kong” (1933), filmmaker and entrepreneur Carl Denham hires a ship to an uncharted island, known only from a secret map in his possession. There the crew discovers the titular gorilla and other outsized and should-be-extinct creatures. Kong is abducted from his natural habitat – and you know the rest. The composer, Max Steiner, pulls out all the stops. “Kong” was one of the first films to demonstrate how truly powerful an orchestral soundtrack could be.

Then we travel to the earth’s core, courtesy of Jules Verne, and “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (1959). James Mason is the professor who leads the expedition. The film sports one of Bernard Herrmann’s most outlandish soundscapes, the orchestra consisting of winds, brass and percussion, but also cathedral organ, four electric organs, and an obsolete Renaissance instrument called the serpent. Watch out for that giant chameleon!

“One Million Years B.C.” (1966) is a guilty pleasure if ever there was one. Produced by Hammer, the studio that gave us all those repugnant yet somehow delicious Peter Cushing-Christopher Lee horror team-ups, the film features special effects by the legendary Ray Harryhausen and an equally legendary fur bikini, worn by Raquel Welch. The music is by Mario Nascimbene, who wrote one of my favorite scores for Kirk Douglas, for “The Vikings.” We’ll be listening to the film’s climactic volcano sequence.

As he did with the Indiana Jones films, director Steven Spielberg turned to B-movie source material for his visual inspiration for “Jurassic Park” (1993), based on the novel by Michael Crichton. The herky-jerky dinosaur effects of yore are replaced by state of the art computer-generated effects, in the story of a safari park on a remote island gone wrong.

Sure, we’ve come a long way from Raquel Welch getting carried off by a pteranodon, but admit it, we all still want to see people fight dinosaurs. Instead of fudging history, now we can feel superior by fudging science. “Jurassic Park” plays on the most recent scientific thinking, with DNA extracted from mosquitoes trapped in amber, cloning, and the theory that dinosaurs were not lizards, after all, but rather birds. The music is by long-time Spielberg-collaborator, John Williams.

I hope you’ll join me for music for these “Lands That Time Forgot,” this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwm.org.

June 4, 2022
1982 Summer of Fun Star Trek E.T. Anniversary

“Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn” opened on this date 40 years ago, as did Steven Spielberg’s “Poltergeist.” Even so, it was really “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,” released the following week, I was most looking forward to. 1982 was, truly, the Summer of Fun.

On Thursday, Roy and I got to reminisce a little bit about our theatrical “Trek” and treks that summer, which bloomed gloriously during a brief, halcyon span between our sophomore and junior years of high school, when summers were still very much summer, full of possibility, laughter, and adventure.

Enjoy the full Khan-versation here. And be sure to stick around for the end, when we acknowledge my second anniversary on the show and join in a group “KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!”

When next we convene, the subject will indeed be “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.” That should give your tear ducts time to replenish after a poignant farewell to Spock. Turn on your heartlights in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook. Our celebration of the Summer of Fun continues IN TWO WEEKS, FRIDAY, JUNE 17, at 7 PM EDT, on Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

June 4, 2022
Ukraine Benefit Concert Trenton NJ

The LOTUS Project will team with the New Jersey Capital Philharmonic Orchestra to present a benefit concert for Ukraine, next Saturday, June 11, at 6 pm, at St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church Trenton NJ, on the corner of Grand and Malone.

The program will feature Ukrainian music and a new work, “Requiem for the Homeless,” by Frank La Rocca. La Rocca is the grandson of Ukrainian immigrants who settled locally.

For tickets and information, follow the link.

https://www.thelotusprojectnj.org/ukraine

Learn more about The LOTUS Project here:

https://www.thelotusprojectnj.org/

June 3, 2022
Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee A Musical Celebration

The Queen’s gone platinum! Elizabeth was crowned Queen of England on this date in 1953. In 2015, she became England’s longest-reigning monarch. Celebrations of her 70th year on the throne are underway.

Regardless of what one personally thinks of monarchy, the royals have been responsible for commissioning a rich diadem of music, from some of England’s most respected composers.

Here’s an Elizabeth miscellany. In the coronation marches, especially, you will hear a lot of John Williams. Vivat Regina Elizabetha!

Sir Edward Elgar, “Nursery Suite” (1930), dedicated to Princesses Margaret (newly born) and Elizabeth, and also to their mother, the Duchess of York. (Incidentally, today is also Elgar’s birthday!)

Eric Coates, “The Three Elizabeths” (1944): “Halcyon Days” (Elizabeth I), “Springtime in Angus” (The Queen Mother), and “Youth of Britain – The Princess Elizabeth”

Sir Arnold Bax, “Morning Song: Maytime in Sussex” (1946), for Princess Elizabeth’s 21st birthday

Sir Arthur Bliss, “Processional” (1953), performed before the Coronation Service

Sir William Walton, “Orb and Sceptre” (1953), also before the Coronation Service

Ralph Vaughan Williams, “O Taste and See” (1953), for the Coronation Service

Herbert Howells, “Behold O God Our Defender” (composed on Christmas Day, 1952), for the Coronation Service

Sir William Walton, “Coronation Anthem” (1953)

Sir Arnold Bax, “Coronation March” (1953), after the Coronation Service

Cedric Thorpe Davie, “Royal Mile, Coronation March” (1952)

Benjamin Britten, Courtly Dances from “Gloriana” (1953), opera first performed at the Royal Opera House during celebrations of the coronation

Sir Arthur Bliss, “Welcome the Queen” (1953), from a short film about the first year of Elizabeth’s reign

Malcolm Williamson, “Mass of the Feast of Christ the King” (1975-78), notoriously completed late for the 1977 Silver Jubilee

John Rutter, “Psalm 150” (2002), for the Golden Jubilee

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, “Naxos” Quartet No. 8 (2005), based on John Dowland’s “Queen Elizabeth’s Galliard,” for the Queen’s 80th birthday

Dame Judith Weir, first female Master of the Queen’s music, “I Love All Beauteous Things” (2016), for the Queen’s 90th birthday

Thomas Hewitt Jones, ”In Our Service” (2022), for the Platinum Jubilee

June 2, 2022

Tag Cloud

RECENT POSTS