When Sean Connery died on Saturday at the age of 90, we were both shaken and stirred. At once, Roy and I decided tribute must me paid.
To this end, something a little different for this week’s show, as for the first time, we focus not on a specific film, but on the career and impact of a screen legend. Since we don’t have time to rewatch everything, this means we’ll be drawing on our fond memories and offering personal insights into our favorite, oft-viewed Connery films.
We’ll be looking for some of yours in the comments section, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. We’ll be riding with Raisuli, the man who would be king, and reminding you how to beat Capone, livestreamed on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:00 EST.
Lou Harrison called it “the finest piece of American chamber music yet… Music of this kind happens only every fifty years or a century, so rich in faith and so full of a sense of completion.”
Charles Ives’ String Quartet No. 2 (composed between 1907 and 1913) is a programmatic work. The composer envisions his musicians as four people who “converse, discuss, argue (in re ‘Politick’), fight, shake hands, shut up – then walk up the mountain side to view the firmament.” What could be more American than that?
On this Election Day, it is my hope that the majority of Americans will be big enough to emulate those enshrined in this quartet. We’re all different, we all have our own opinions, and our own philosophies, but we are all peers under the heavens.
We’re also flawed, but we do have the capability to reach down inside to get in touch with our best selves. It’s not about getting over on those you don’t agree with. State your piece, in peace, cast your vote, but coexist and respect your neighbors and family. It’s time for us to be better than our leaders.
That’s all I’ve got to say. Though I am thinking of my grandfather, who once remarked, on an Election Day morning of my childhood, “Well… I’m on my way to vote the bastards out!”
Screwing the plywood over my computer screen now. Good luck, and God bless.
Apparently it’s a thing that some people wake on the first day of every month and, before they have even had a cup of coffee, exclaim, “Rabbit rabbit!” This, I am told, is for luck. It is a practice I somehow have never encountered, which is surprising, since surely it is the sort of quaint tradition a lover of twee, old-fashioned books would have run across well before midlife.
Be that as it may, every November 2, it is my practice to wake and the first thing I cry is “Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf!” Not for luck, mind you, but simply because it’s a name that makes me happy. Then, I’ve always had a little bit of Schroeder in me.
Dittersdorf (1739-1799) was one of the closest friends of Franz Joseph Haydn. He played first violin in a superstar string quartet, with Haydn (second violin), Mozart (viola) and Dittersdorf pupil Jan Křtitel Vaňhal – a.k.a. Johann Baptist Wanhal – (cello). Imagine being a fly on a wall at those performances, or even rehearsals! Though wet blanket Michael Kelly, the Irish tenor who created Don Basilio and Don Curzio for Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” claimed the ensemble played well enough, but was not really anything exceptional. Mee-yow!
Among Dittersdorf’s enormous output, which includes some 120 numbered symphonies (it’s possible he may have composed 90 more) are twelve programmatic works inspired by Ovid’s “Metamorphoses.”
Personally, I find more enjoyment in his chamber music. Here is his String Quartet No. 3 in G major.
But perhaps you’d prefer his Harp Concerto, once his most-frequently encountered work (which admittedly isn’t saying much).
Happy birthday, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf! Try it. His very name gives me a sense of the kind of cheer his music embodies.
A world in which scientists are discounted, yet turn out to be the salvation of humankind… in which fear is no substitute for reason… in which the threat of aggression by any group will not be tolerated… in which the only freedom lost by the enforcement of responsible behavior is the freedom to act irresponsibly… this has got to be science fiction, right?
On the eve of Election Day, enjoy last night’s discussion about “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”
Roy and I will be back with a salute to Sean Connery (if there’s still an infrastructure), on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, live-streamed on Facebook, this Friday night at 7:00 EST.
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