Classic Ross Amico

Tag: The Lost Chord

Homebodies The Lost Chord American Composers

With the lingering evidence of Thanksgiving both in our refrigerators and around our waistlines, it’s hardly surprising that our thoughts and memories would be full of home. Perhaps you still are “home,” with family and a full day of travel ahead of you, or you can’t wait to get home (your own).

Whatever the case may be, this Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll have music by American composers inspired by the idea of home.

We’ll have a work by the “Dean of American composers,” Aaron Copland – his “Letter from Home,” from 1943-44; then a recent piece by John Fitz Rogers, “Magna Mysteria,” from 2010.

Rogers, who studied with Steven Stucky, Roberto Sierra, Martin Bresnick, and Jacob Druckman, is an associate professor at the University of South Carolina School of Music and the founder of the Southern Exposure New Music Series, which received the 2005-2006 Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.

“Magna Mysteria” was commissioned in 2009 to celebrate the restoration of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (Columbia, South Carolina). From its very title, which translates as “Great Mysteries,” it is clear that this is a work about questions. Its intent is nicely encapsulated in the promotional material accompanying this brand new release from Innova Recordings:

“Weaving together Latin biblical texts and poetic verse from the sixth-century philosopher Boethius, the composition explores ideas of home and the seeking of home, the elevation of home to a metaphorical or spiritual realm, and the nature of time.”

What is clear is that the work is gorgeous. If you have a fondness for the choral music of Morten Lauridsen or Stephen Paulus, you will enjoy this, though Rogers is very much his own man. His music is tonal, melodic, and quite lovely. Thank you, Marvin Rosen, for introducing me to this beautiful piece, which I first heard on your radio show, Classical Discoveries.

We’re home for the holidays this week, on “The Lost Chord.” I hope you’ll join me for “Homebodies,” tonight at 10 ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6; or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

November 29, 2015
Sir David Willcocks Remembered RIP

I’m sorry to share the news that Sir David Willcocks has died. He may have been the senior lion of English music. With Sir Colin Davis, Vernon Handley, and even Richard Hickox gone, I can’t think of anyone else. Of course, the big choral works were a specialty. I will honor him soon on “The Lost Chord.” R.I.P.

His obituary in The Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/17/david-willcocks

An appreciation in The Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/classical-music/sir-david-willcocks-appreciation/

September 17, 2015
Honegger’s Summer Pastoral Alps Serenity

Here’s a late summer treat courtesy of Arthur Honegger – his “Pastorale d’été” (“Summer Pastoral”), a musical souvenir of a morning in the Swiss Alps. The work is one of Honegger’s most attractive pieces, alternately languorous and lively in its serene, eight minute span, with plenty of sunshine, gentle breezes, and bird song. Note the allusions to Beethoven’s “Pastoral Symphony.”

I hope you’ll join me tonight for more Honegger on “The Lost Chord,” when we listen to a very different work – his ballet “Sémiramis” – as part of a salute to the dancer Ida Rubinstein. (You can read more about it in yesterday’s post.) That’s “Ida Danced All Night.” Enjoy it at 10 ET, with a rebroadcast Wednesday evening at 6; or listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Idyllic Alps

August 30, 2015
British Composers Abroad on The Lost Chord

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we holiday on the Continent with the British. We’ll have works by English composers inspired by their travels abroad.

Elisabeth Lutyens must have been a prickly personality. She wrote principally in a modified twelve tone idiom. While she despised the modal melodies of the English pastoralists (in reference to whose works, she coined the term “cow-pat music”), she was equally dismissive of strict serialism.

It’s interesting that someone who made so many enemies could turn around and write a piece like “En Voyage,” a delightful suite of British light music. But I suppose it served to keep Lutyens in cucumber sandwiches.

Lennox Berkeley met Benjamin Britten at a contemporary music festival in Barcelona in 1936. While there, they witnessed some Catalan folk dancing in a park. Britten jotted down some of the melodies onto an envelope, and the two composers worked closely to create an orchestral suite called “Mont Juic.”

Finally, it was the remembrance of a trip to Upper Bavaria that inspired the Elgars to collaborate on a set of part-songs, which would be called “Scenes from the Bavarian Highlands.” Edward Elgar (not yet knighted), set texts of his wife, C. Alice Elgar. Three of the movements would later be published separately, in a purely orchestral version, much better known, as “Three Bavarian Dances.”

I hope you’ll join me for “Channel Hopping” – the English abroad – this Sunday night at 10 ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6; or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

July 18, 2015
Father’s Day Sports Music Tribute on The Lost Chord

Happy Father’s Day! This week on “The Lost Chord,” we pay tribute to Dad, with an hour of music about sports.

I realize it’s a possibility that not all dads necessarily like sports, but it’s been my experience that Sunday afternoons and Monday nights have always been off-limits, as far as the family television is concerned. For me personally, that meant that after Abbott and Costello or the Bowery Boys, it was football, golf or “Wide World of Sports,” and that I never saw “MAS*H” during its first run.

Be that as it may, it’s Dad’s day, so we’re going to give him what he wants – an hour of rough-and-tumble, the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat.

We’ll begin with “Rugby” by Arthur Honegger; after that, we’ll have “Half-Time” by Bohuslav Martinu;” then “Yale-Princeton Football Game” by Charles Ives; and finally, highlights from the baseball opera “The Mighty Casey” by William Schuman.

Combine with a La-Z-Boy and a cold beer, and it’s a recipe for dad contentment. I hope you’ll join me for “Good Sports,” tonight at 10 ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6; or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.

June 21, 2015

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