Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

  • Riisager’s Fool’s Paradise on WWFM This Sunday

    Riisager’s Fool’s Paradise on WWFM This Sunday

    This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we conclude the long, gluttonous holiday weekend with Knudage Riisager’s ballet “Slaraffenland” (usually translated as “Fool’s Paradise”).

    Inspired by Bruegel’s painting “The Land of Cockaigne,” the scenario imagines a Promised Land “where roasted pigeons fly around in the air with knives and forks in their backs, and the streets are paved with marzipan and chocolate.” The plot concerns a silly boy who wanders into the country of King Sauce and becomes ill from overindulgence. Along the way, he encounters Robin Hood, the Three Musketeers, Captain Fear, Fountains of Liqueur, Cigarettes, and the Candy Princess.

    Riisager was born in 1897 to Danish parents living in Estonia. He studied music at Copenhagen University and then in Paris with Albert Roussel. Though he was a prolific composer, with some 400 works to his name, including symphonies, concertos, chamber music and songs, he is probably best known, if at all, for his ballet works.

    Rouse yourself for a dose of musical tryptophan. Join me for “Fool’s Paradise” – Knudage Riisager’s “Slaraffenland” – this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

    IMAGE: A very Bruegel Thanksgiving

  • Thanksgiving Crossword Home Music and Holidays

    Thanksgiving Crossword Home Music and Holidays

    With Thanksgiving now behind us, and today the beginning of Advent, this week’s Classic Ross Amico crossword is all about domesticity and music.

    To fill out the puzzle, follow the link and select “solve online” at the bottom of the page. You’ll then be able to type directly into the squares. Once you feel you’ve exhausted the puzzle, you’ll find the solutions by clicking on “Answer Key PDF.”

    There’s no place like “home” for the holidays – a phrase that might have been coined for COVID.

    https://www.armoredpenguin.com/crossword/Data/2020.11/2909/29090323.937.html

    “Bowling, anyone?”

  • Steampunk Movie Music on Picture Perfect

    Steampunk Movie Music on Picture Perfect

    Prepare to be ‘punked!

    This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s music from movies with one foot set in the science fiction subgenre known as “steampunk.”

    Generally speaking, steampunk employs forward-looking technologies and gadgetry – in many cases literally powered by steam – in incongruous, quasi-Victorian settings.

    We’ll hear selections from Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” (2011), with its abundant gears, steam, and free-writing automaton, with music by Howard Shore; “The Golden Compass” (2007), with its carriages, old-fashioned air ships, and vintage arctic gear, with music by Alexandre Desplat; “Wild Wild West” (1999), with its cowboys, proto-James Bond gadgetry, and Gustave Eiffel-style iron spider, with music by Elmer Bernstein; and “Time After Time” (1979), with Jack the Ripper, H.G. Wells, and a time machine of his invention, with music by Miklós Rózsa.

    That’s powered by steampunk on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

  • Star Wars Holiday Special Cocaine Confessions

    One of my favorite evaluations of the “Star Wars Holiday Special” is this one, from The A.V. Club: “I’m not convinced the special wasn’t ultimately written and directed by a sentient bag of cocaine.”

    Of course, the best humor contains at least a grain of truth. One of the show’s five writers – FIVE! – Bruce Vilanch has admitted that he was using cocaine heavily at the time he was at work on the project. Therefore we can also assume some of the worst writing contains at least a grain of cocaine.

    How much cocaine was consumed in the making of the “Star Wars Holiday Special?” I’m not really qualified to say. Watch Roy and my stone-sober assessments by clicking on the video below.

    Then tune in on Sunday, as Roy will be joined by special guests Dominic Stefano, son of Joseph – creator of the classic television series “The Outer Limits” – and David Rash, whose book, “From the Inner Mind to the Outer Limits… The Outer Limits Scripts of Joseph Stefano Volume One,” will be released in March, with preorders beginning in January.

    “There is nothing wrong with your television set! Do not attempt to adjust the picture…” The next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner will be live-streamed on Facebook this Sunday at 7 pm EST.

    https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner/

  • Steampunk Movie Scores on Picture Perfect

    Steampunk Movie Scores on Picture Perfect

    This week on “Picture Perfect,” things will get pretty steamy, though not in the way you might think. We’ll have an hour of scores from films that exemplify the science fiction subgenre known as “steampunk.”

    Generally speaking, steampunk employs forward-looking technologies and gadgetry – in many cases literally powered by steam – in incongruous, quasi-Victorian settings.

    We’ll hear selections from Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” (2011), with its abundant gears, steam, and free-writing automaton, with music by Howard Shore; “The Golden Compass” (2007), with its carriages, old-fashioned air ships, and vintage arctic gear, with music by Alexandre Desplat; “Wild Wild West” (1999), with its cowboys, proto-James Bond gadgetry, and Gustave Eiffel-style iron spider, with music by Elmer Bernstein; and “Time After Time” (1979), with Jack the Ripper, H.G. Wells, and a time machine of his invention, with music by Miklós Rózsa.

    We’re powered by steampunk this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

    PHOTO: Battling a giant iron spider from a flying bicycle? This must be steampunk!

Tag Cloud

Aaron Copland (94) Beethoven (95) Composer (114) Film Music (152) Film Score (143) Film Scores (255) Halloween (106) John Williams (198) KWAX (233) Leonard Bernstein (105) Marlboro Music Festival (125) Movie Music (167) Mozart (91) Opera (220) Philadelphia Orchestra (91) Picture Perfect (174) Princeton Symphony Orchestra (110) Radio (90) Ross Amico (244) Roy's Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner (290) The Classical Network (101) The Lost Chord (269) Vaughan Williams (107) WPRB (397) WWFM (881)

DON’T MISS A BEAT

Receive a weekly digest every Sunday at noon by signing up here

RECENT POSTS