It’s Mardi Gras season! This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll adorn ourselves in purple, gold, and green, and carve ourselves some King Cake, as we listen to music from and about New Orleans.
Henry F. Gilbert, a slightly older contemporary of Charles Ives, and a composer of the New England School, was concerned with introducing folk song and the vernacular to the concert hall. His interest in the music of African Americans, then considered controversial, is reflected in works like “The Dance in Place Congo,” from 1908, a programmatic piece on Creole themes, suggestive of Sunday afternoon festivities of off-duty New Orleans slaves gathered in Congo Square.
We’ll also hear a piece by Chicago area composer Edward Joseph Collins, actually titled “Mardi Gras,” from 1923. Collins described the work as “boisterous and bizarre by turns,” evocative of the spirit of Carnival, with its enormous masks and clowns on stilts, colored streamers, confetti, lurid lights, fantastic floats and grotesque costumes.
Three Creole Romantics will offer some insiders’ views, as we hear works by Edmond Dédé, Charles Lucièn Lambert, and Louis Moreau Gottschalk, all figures born in New Orleans.
Laissez les bons temps rouler! I hope you’ll join me for “Louisiana Purchases,” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX Classical Oregon!
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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 – 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!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu
Tag: Mardi Gras
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Fat Tuesday A Fasnacht Memory and Playlist
Fat Tuesday! I braved the snows this morning to secure a King Cake – complete with the traditional choking hazard of a tiny plastic baby boy – but I fear this year’s quest for the Holy Grail of Fasnachts has been called due to inclement weather.
If I’ve ever had a wholly satisfying fasnacht since my grandmother died, I don’t recall it. When I was a kid, I’d blow in one day after school, an oblivious whirlwind, to find the air heavy with the scent of freshly-made doughnuts. I never knew when it would happen or understood the significance. All I knew is that I’d come home one afternoon and my grandmother would be serving up heaven from an electric fryer.
A fasnacht – which you’ll also see spelled fastnacht, faschnaut, or faschnacht (and which we always pronounced “fosh-knot”) – is a fried doughnut made on Shrove Tuesday – or Fat Tuesday, if you prefer – the last day before Lent. Traditionally, the making of doughnuts was a way to clear out all the tasties a Christian is not supposed to eat again until Easter. In any case, one could use a good fast after consuming so much fried lard!
Now THOSE were doughnuts. The closest I’ve been able to find out in the real world are Italian zeppoli. Not quite the same, but they share a similar, unhealthy, fried, powdered-sugary goodness. However, zeppoli, like fasnachts, can vary. A light and puffy zeppola would bear little resemblance to my grandmother’s fasnachts, which were always cakey.
I miss those doughnuts. My grandmother was an undistinguished cook, but boy could she make fasnachts.
I would be appalled by some “authentic” Pennsylvania Dutch fasnachts, which look too soft and are served with butter and maple syrup. I need an austere fistful of claggy dough that I can enjoy with a cup of coffee.
At any rate, it’s all doughnuts, alcohol, and orgies today, as tomorrow the streets will be strewn with bottles and bodies for the start of Lent.
For now, indulge in a Classic Ross Amico Carnival/Mardis Gras playlist and laissez les bons temps rouler!
“Mardi Gras” by Edward Joseph Collins
Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Prelude and Carnival from “Violanta”
Niccolò Paganini, “Variations on ‘Carnival of Venice’”
Sviatoslav Richter plays Robert Schumann, “Faschingsschwank aus Wien” (“Carnival Jest from Vienna”)
Nelson Freire plays Heitor Villa-Lobos, “Mômoprecóce” (“Carnival of the Brazilian Children”) – hold your nose through the BBC intro
Luiz Bonfá, “Manhã de Carnaval” on a Yamaha Silent Guitar
Igor Stravinsky, “Petrouchka,” set at a Shrovetide fair
Creole composer Edmond Dédé, “Méphisto masque” (with kazoo choir)
Charles Lucièn Lambert, “Bresiliana”
Hershy Kay, “Cakewalk,” after Louis Moreau Gottschalk
“Carnevale Veneziano: The Comic Faces of Giovanni Croce”
Roman Carnival scene from Hector Berlioz’s “Benvenuto Cellini”
Not my idea of a fasnacht
https://www.webstaurantstore.com/blog/116/fastnacht-day.html
The many faces of fasnacht
PHOTOS King Cake choking hazard (top); fasnachts best resembling my grandmother’s recipe
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Fat Tuesday King Cake & Mardi Gras Music
Fat Tuesday! Just returned from my morning quest to secure a King Cake. Two bakeries sold-out, but the third time’s a charm. Also, this one actually has the little plastic baby inside, which I was warned at the register is a choking hazard. Bring it! If you’re going to observe tradition, you ought to be able to do it with authenticity!
It’s all doughnuts, alcohol, and orgies today, as tomorrow the streets will be strewn with bottles and bodies for the start of Lent.
In the meantime, indulge in a Classic Ross Amico Carnival/Mardis Gras playlist (which I’ll likely add to throughout the day).
Laissez les bons temps rouler!
“Mardi Gras” by Edward Joseph Collins
Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Prelude and Carnival from “Violanta”
Niccolò Paganini, “Variations on ‘Carnival of Venice’”
Sviatoslav Richter plays Robert Schumann, “Faschingsschwank aus Wien” (“Carnival Jest from Vienna”)
Nelson Freire plays Heitor Villa-Lobos, “Mômoprecóce” (“Carnival of the Brazilian Children”). Hold your nose through the BBC intro.
Luiz Bonfá, “Manhã de Carnaval” on a Yamaha Silent Guitar
Igor Stravinsky, “Petrouchka,” set during at a Shrovetide fair
Creole composer Edmond Dédé, “Méphisto masque” (with kazoo choir)
Charles Lucièn Lambert, “Bresiliana”
Hershy Kay, “Cakewalk,” after Louis Moreau Gottschalk
“Carnevale Veneziano: The Comic Faces of Giovanni Croce”
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Carnival Music Feast on The Classical Network
Shrove Tuesday. Mardi Gras. Fastnacht Day.
The last day to stuff down as many doughnuts as you can before the start of Lent.
To mark the occasion, this afternoon on The Classical Network, we’ll glut ourselves with music related to Carnival.
Among the featured highlights will be Heitor Villa-Lobos’ fantasy for piano and orchestra, “Momôprecóce” (“Carnival of the Brazilian Children”); Robert Schumann’s cryptogrammatic “Faschingsschwank aus Wien” (“Carnival Jest from Vienna”); and Igor Stravinsky’s Shrovetide ballet “Petrouchka,” in a recording conducted by Princeton Symphony Orchestra music director Rossen Milanov.
We’ll also enjoy a touch of Mardi Gras, with some pieces on Creole themes; a set of variations on “Carnival of Venice;” musical depictions of stock characters of the commedia dell’arte; and “Manhã de Carnaval,” from the film “Black Orpheus.”
First, on today’s Noontime Concert, it’s a Telemann blow-out. Tempesta di Mare – Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra will present “Fire and Invention,” part of its Telemann 360° project.
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) left behind an enormous catalogue of monumental compositions in every style and genre (with 3000 works to his credit, the Guinness Book lists him as the most prolific composer of all time), yet so much of it remains unrecognized, or even unperformed.
The sheer volume of his output has made it difficult for posterity to wrap its collective head around the full scope of his accomplishments. Tempesta is doing its best to change all that. Today’s concert will include a Concerto for Orchestra, a collection of Entr’actes, and a Violin Concerto, featuring Tempesta principal violinist Emlyn Ngai.
Tell your friends to tune in for Telemann. Then stick around for plenty of fried, buttery goodness. Abandon yourself to the debauchery of Carnival, from 12 to 4 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
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Kirk Douglas & Mardi Gras on WWFM
It’s a whale of a tail!
This weekend’s Kirk Douglas “Picture Perfect” and Mardi Gras “Lost Chord” are now posted as webcasts at wwfm.org.
Let the good times roll!
https://www.wwfm.org/post/picture-perfect-february-21-remembering-kirk-douglas
https://www.wwfm.org/post/lost-chord-february-23-louisiana-purchases
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