Okay, we survived Thanksgiving. Although, of course, in the 21st century, the celebration has been compounded in a way that would have horrified any 17th century Pilgrim. With the neologistic appendices of Fakesgiving and Friendsgiving, will the “giving” never end?
This week on “Sweetness and Light,” the bounty endures. I’ll be piling the turkey sandwiches high with cranberry sauce for breakfast, as we savor musical delights reflective of the long, long Thanksgiving weekend.
Some of the works will be evocative of what’s in the ‘fridge. All will be American in origin. Some will be specifically connected to New England.
The playlist, etched in mashed potatoes, will include music by John Williams, Edward MacDowell, Craig Russell, Leonard Bernstein, Morton Gould, and pianist/rodeo champion David Guion.
I’ll be wringing out the last of the cornucopia with an hour of Thanksgiving leftovers, on “Sweetness and Light.” Join me in shoveling in the pumpkin pie and whipped cream, this Saturday morning at 11:00 EST/8:00 PST, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Stream it wherever you are at the link:
https://kwax.uoregon.edu/
Category: Sweetness and Light
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On “Sweetness and Light”: The Thanks That Keeps on Giving
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Classical Cornucopia for Thanksgiving on “Sweetness and Light”
This week on “Sweetness and Light,” I’ll do my level best to fill our heads with visions of pumpkin pie and cranberry bread and, yes, even Thanksgiving turkey.
We’ll hear works by Rick Sowash, Thomas Canning, Edvard Grieg, Howard Hanson, and Aaron Copland, and a concerto by Antonio Vivaldi that bears the nickname “The Turkey” – not because it’s a dud, mind you, but rather because of the cascading broken third passages in the solo lines of the work’s third movement, which apparently reminded someone of the ungainly bird. Gobble gobble!
Join me for an hour of hymn tunes and harvest dances and most of all music of gratitude. It’s a program of hope and thanksgiving. We’ll be reaching deep into the cornucopia on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EST/8:00 PST, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Stream it where you are at the link:
https://kwax.uoregon.edu/ -
The Days Grow Short on “Sweetness and Light”
You don’t have to strong-arm anyone into liking Armstrong Gibbs. It’s impossible not to fall in love with the easy charm and seductive melody of his light music classic “Dusk.” Sure, he also wrote works on a grander scale, such as the “Odysseus Symphony,” for soloists, chorus and orchestra, clearly cut from the same cloth as that of “A Sea Symphony” by his teacher, Ralph Vaughan Williams. But it’s this atmospheric slow waltz, composed in 1935 and requested by Princess Elizabeth – later Queen Elizabeth II – for performance on her eighteenth birthday, that is his best-known music.
Enjoy this crepuscular classic this morning on “Sweetness and Light,” as part of a playlist organized around the observation that the days grow precipitously shorter.
Soon, it will be as if morning runs into evening. So it’s not by accident that we’ll also hear Alexander Alyabyev’s “Morning and Evening Overture.” I’ll even toss noon into the mix with Franz von Suppé’s “Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna.”
But twilight will be here before you know it. In addition to the Gibbs miniature, we’ll also delight in “At Dusk” by Second New England School luminary Arthur Foote.
Finally, seemingly out of left field, and because I say so, we’ll listen to Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 6. Sibelius was once asked by a journalist to provide a motto for his new symphony. The composer responded, “When shadows lengthen.” It could be argued it’s not a “light” piece, exactly, but it is ravishingly beautiful, and it’s not played all that often. So there!
The days grow short, but hopefully the music will be long on enjoyment, on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EST/8:00 PST, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Stream it wherever you are at the link:
https://kwax.uoregon.edu/ -
Unbowed Strings on “Sweetness and Light”
This week on “Sweetness and Light,” it’s an hour of “unbowed strings.” All of these string instruments will be plucked, struck, or strummed, with not a bow in sight. We’ll hear works for zither, guitar, cimbalom, harp, and mandolin, by composers Anton Karas, Ferdinando Carulli, Zoltán Kodály, Reinhold Gliere, and Samuel Siegel. We forgo the bow, but strings are the thing on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EST/8:00 PST, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Stream it, wherever you are, at the link kwax.uoregon.edu and soon here at rossamico.com/radio!
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