Classic Ross Amico

Tag: New Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve Music for the Melancholy Soul

For anyone sober enough to actually ponder the text, “Auld Lang Syne” must be the most melancholy song on the planet. And for everyone else to be singing it on New Year’s Eve – good Lord, which way is the nearest bridge?

If New Year’s is not a difficult time for you, take a moment today to count your blessings. For the rest of us, it is my hope that the playlist this afternoon will operate on two levels: not only as a festive celebration of the turn of the year, but also a reminder of the consolation and hope that music can provide.

I’ll be keeping it light with a potpourri of nimble dances, euphonious British Light Music, and rib-tickling selections from music-oriented comedy albums, with perhaps just a few highlights from the world of operetta, provided that sentiment won’t weigh too heavily on the heart.

I can’t promise that the New Year holiday will be a happy one, but I will do my best to serve up some great musical hors d’oeuvres. We’ll be laughing on the outside, crying on the inside, this Monday from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Remember: Your year-end contribution will still count toward 2018 through 11:59 tonight! If you appreciate all that we do at The Classical Network, and the music is an indispensable part of your life, please consider visiting our website now and clicking on “donate.” Thank you for your continued support of The Classical Network! And for what it’s worth, Happy New Year.

December 31, 2018
WWFM’s Classical New Year’s Eve Celebration

Whether you are on the road this evening or plan to host an intimate gathering at home, if you’re looking for uplifting musical accompaniment to underscore your New Year’s Eve festivities, look no further than The Classical Network. WWFM hosts will prime you for a happy passage into 2018 with a lighthearted playlist engineered to put a smile on your face and a boost to your spirits.

The fun will commence at 8 p.m. with Carl Hemmingsen, who will get things underway with a sparkling overture by Gioachino Rossini. David Osenberg will follow at 9 with assorted dances and festive favorites, including the drinking song from “La traviata.”

My moment to shine will come at 10:00, the usual time slot for “The Lost Chord.” While not officially part of that series, unofficially I will be serving up some unusual musical hors d’oeuvres, with uproarious selections from the Hoffnung Music Festival concerts, some delectable duets from English operetta that I imagine survives only on the periphery of those with very long memories, and a dizzyingly inventive fantasia on “Auld Lang Syne” by British Light Music master Ernest Tomlinson. It is Tomlinson’s tongue-in-cheek assertion that “Auld Lang Syne” is at the root of most of the world’s enduring masterpieces – and he goes on to support his thesis with no less than 152 examples, in just under 20 minutes!

Alice Weiss will cap the evening, starting at 11, with a beloved American rhapsody, a selection of waltzes and marches, some fireworks music, and even a sip of champagne. Then I know you’ll want to stick around for the WWFM midnight countdown.

Raise a glass with The Classical Network. Thanks to all of you who have supported us for our 35th year! If you haven’t yet had a chance to make your gift, consider a year-end contribution in honor of the music that has so enhanced the quality of your life all throughout 2017. If you HAVE supported us, we will still gratefully accept any additional, end-of-the-year, tax-deductible contributions. Either way, do it soon, because at midnight 2017 will turn into a pumpkin! Visit wwfm.org and click on “Donate.”

Again, thank you for being there for WWFM – The Classical Network. We extend all best wishes for a happy and fruitful 2018!

December 31, 2017
Welcome 2017 Happy New Year

The image says it all. Welcome, 2017!

January 1, 2017
Elgar’s Enigma Decoding New Year’s Blues

THE SEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

New Year’s Eve, my nemesis. The most depressing day of the year.

Fortunately, I’ll be working tonight, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to ignore all the hollow attempts at merriment. But it hasn’t happened so far, that I can remember. Once, I even flew through the night to Europe, hoping to confound the natural passage of time. But it’s always midnight somewhere, and the flight attendants vexed me with a champagne toast.

At any rate, I hope whatever you are doing, you have a better attitude, and that you are all safe and genuinely happy with your New Year’s lot.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty happy with my life. It’s just New Year’s I hate!

To coat the bitter pill, I’d like to talk for a minute about Sir Edward Elgar. For over a hundred years, musicologists have puzzled over the hidden theme Elgar claims to have left off of his “Enigma Variations” – which, come to think of it, is a great New Year’s Eve piece, since it celebrates friendship as an antidote to what the composer claimed was his sense of loneliness as an artist.

“Through and over the whole set, another and larger theme ‘goes,’ but is not played,” Elgar wrote.

Since then, theories as to the theme’s identity have ranged from “Rule, Britannia” to the “Dies Irae” to “Pop Goes the Weasel.” Here’s an interesting article from 1991 that posits the elusive theme may have been taken from Mozart’s “Prague” Symphony.

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/07/arts/new-answer-to-a-riddle-wrapped-in-elgar-s-enigma-variations.html

In this clip, someone actually uses the opening of the “Enigma” to harmonize “Auld Lang Syne.”

What do you think?

Ernest Tomlinson takes this theory about as far as it can go, suggesting that “Auld Lang Syne” underlies not only Elgar’s magnum opus, but also most of the world’s great masterpieces. He puts his money where his mouth is, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, by sending up no less than 152 familiar melodies in his “’Auld Lang Syne’ Variations.’”

Happy New Year, everyone.

PHOTO: Sir Edward takes a pipe for Auld Lang Syne

December 31, 2014

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