Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium (1946) is something of a cautionary tale, which had its genesis in a séance attended by the composer himself. The plot of the opera runs as follows: Living in conditions of near-squalor, Baba poses as a medium with her daughter, Monica, posing as ghosts from the beyond. She takes in Toby, a mute, as a lodger but distrusts him. The business continues until, during a séance, she feels a 'cold hand' tightening about her throat. When her customers return for another session, she tells them that she is a fake and demonstrates her tricks, but her clients protest that she must be real, that it was not Monica's voice they heard. She drives them out and resolves to cast out Toby as well. When Toby returns, she shoots and inadvertently kills him. At the conclusion, she still wonders if it had been Toby". According to Barbara Eisner Bayer "The Medium is a musical theater piece, dependent upon the interactions of three principal singer/actors, one of whom's a mute whose actions and expressions are intrinsic to the plot's dramatic impact. Without Toby's 'voice', the story lacks heart". The Black Swan, from the end of Act I, is a haunting lullaby of the damned, and Menotti's magical musical lyricism is magnified by characters camaraderie and close vocal timbres. Watch a performance/collage by Madlenianum Opera Theatre Belgrade, directed by Nenad Glavan . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.
American Composer Judith Shatin is a sonic explorer whose music spans chamber, choral, dance, electroacoustic, installation, multimedia and orchestral genres. Her inspirations range from myth, poetry and her Jewish heritage to the calls of the animals around us and the sounding universe beyond. The Washington Post has called her music "highly inventive . . . hugely enjoyable and deeply involving, with a constant sense of surprise." This week we are privileged to present an exclusive Interview @ Pytheas with Judith Shatin by the Pytheas Center's director, Vinny Fuerst. Shatin talks about her life as a composer, her current compositions and activities, technology and music, and her thoughts on contemporary music . . . it's our current COMPOSER PORTRAIT.
For those of you who'll be in southern Maine during the last weekend of October, please stop in to the Pytheas Center's Yarmouth Contemporary Music Days, a series of music events taking place Thursday through Sunday, October 28-31, involving Maine composers, musicians, educators, artists, and students. All events are FREE and made possible by a grant from Yarmouth Arts . The four day Yarmouth Contemporary Music Days features contemporary music with film, visual art, and live performances. Day One, Let's Talk Music [Thursday, Oct 28th, 6:30 PM, Bay Square at Yarmouth] will be a 'listening group' (similar to the concept of a 'book group'), open to the public, and focusing on the idea of "moving from hearing to active listening". Day Two, Film and Music [Friday, Oct 29th, 7:30 PM, The Log Cabin, Yarmouth] features film excerpts and music and focuses in on how soundtracks influence our perception of the visual and dramatic experience. Day Three, Ten by Ten [Saturday, Oct 30th, 2 PM, North Yarmouth Academy, Higgins Hall] is a performance of 10 pieces by 10 contemporary composers (a good number of them Maine-based), and many of the pieces performed by the composers themselves. And lastly, Day Four, Visual Art and Music: Music as Inspiration [Sunday, Oct 31st, 2 PM, Yarmouth High School Art Room] is a musical gallery walk through art inspired by contemporary music and created by area artists and students. It is the culmination of a project in which Yarmouth High School and Elementary School art students, teachers and area visual artists listened to selections of contemporary music and then created art in reaction to it. The day of the event will also include a "live art creation" by area visual artists. You can find the Yarmouth Contemporary Music Days webpage here and a YCMD poster here . Please come and join the Pytheas Center for an exciting weekend!
According to composer Christopher Rouse Ogoun Badagris (1976) derives its inspiration from Haitian drumming patterns, particularly those of the Juba Dance. Hence, it seemed logical to tie in the work with various aspects of Voodoo ritual. Ogoun Badagris is one of the most terrible and violent of all Voodoo loas (deities) and he can be appeased only by human blood sacrifice. This work may thus be interpreted as a dance of appeasement. The four conga drums often act as the focal point in the work and can be compared with the role of the four most basic drums in the Voodoo religion — the be-be, the seconde, the maman, and the asator. The metal plates and sleighbells are to a certain extent parallels of the Haitian ogan. The work begins with a brief action de grace, a ceremonial call-to-action in which the high priest shakes the giant rattle known as the asson, here replaced by cabasa. Then the principle dance begins, a grouillère: this is a highly erotic and even brutally sexual ceremonial dance which in turn is succeeded by the Danse Vaudou at the point at which demonic possession occurs. The word reler, which the performers must shriek at the conclusion of the work, is the Voodoo equivalent of the Judaeo-Christian Amen". Watch a performance of Christopher Rouse's Ogoun Badagris by the Percussion Section Residentie Orkest/The Hague Philharmonic . . . it's our BANG, CLANG, and BEAT/NEW MUSIC for PERCUSSION this week.
The music of Canadian-American composer Karim Al-Zand has been called "strong and startlingly lovely" (Boston Globe). His compositions are wide-ranging, from settings of classical Arabic poetry, to scores for dance, and pieces for young audiences. His works explore connections between music and other arts, and draw inspiration from diverse sources such as 19th century graphic art, fables of the world, folksong and jazz. The themes of many of his pieces speak to his middle-eastern heritage as well. Watch a performance of Karim Al-Zand's Capriccio (2002) for solo violin performed by violinist Matt Detrick . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Osvaldo Golijov is known for his musical hybridity in combining the traditions of classical chamber, Jewish liturgical, and klezmer music with hints of the tango of Astor Piazzolla in his compositions. He is the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship, the Vilcek Prize, and the recording of his opera "Ainadamar" was awarded two Grammy Awards in 2006: Best Opera Recording, and Best Contemporary Composition. His piece for solo cello Omaramoor (1991) is described by Richard Buell (The Boston Globe) as "a kind of quest piece - the solo cello wanders toward some tantalizingly withheld realization - the near-statement, the composer tells us, of a song made famous by the Argentine tango specialist Carlos Gandel". Watch a performance of Omaramoor by cellist Amy Sue Barston . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.
Richard Addinsell was a British composer most famous for his composition "Warsaw Concerto", which was written originally for the little-seen 1941 film "Dangerous Moonlight". Over the course of his career he composed scores for over 40 films, including "Blithe Spirit" (1945), "Under Capricorn" (1949) [with director Alfred Hitchcock], and "Scrooge" (A Christmas Carol) (1951), as well as music for Broadway musical plays and revues, orchestra and popular songs, especially in collaboration with Joyce Grenfell. Hear his moody and brooding score for director George Cukor's Gaslight (1944) . . . it's our current PYTHEAS SIGHTING.
Richard Maxfield was a composer of instrumental, electro-acoustic, and electronic music. Born in Seattle, he most likely taught the first University-level course in electronic music in America at the New School for Social Research. His electronic piece Amazing Grace (1960) mixes tape loops from two sources which are played back at various speeds, causing the fragments to overlap in complex ways, predating both Terry Riley’s and Steve Reich’s tape-loop pieces. "Amazing Grace" even uses a tape of a preacher, as Steve Reich's did in his famous "It's Gonna Rain" (1965); the results are at least equal to Reich's! Maxfield's pieces represent the state of new music just before minimalism was born. Sit back and listen to Richard Maxfield's Amazing Grace . . . it's one of our PYTHEAS EARFULS this week.
Edgard Varese's Ionisation (1931) is credited with being the first Western work written for percussion alone, having no basis in traditional concepts of melody and harmony. As such, the implications of the work (from the standpoint of when the piece was written) questioned the meaning of the word music, as it was understood in the Western world. Viewed historically, it is actually a return to a very ancient Eastern tradition of percussion music, particularly in the aspect of timbre. Eastern concepts of sound and Western formal concepts of structure and logic merge, resulting in a musical entity which is universal (from "Tater Z the Anti-G and DJ Hunsmire's Musical Studies Index"). Watch a classic performance of Varèse's Ionisation by the Ensemble InterContemporain with Pierre Boulez conducting . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
Richard Addinsell was a British composer most famous for his composition "Warsaw Concerto", which was written originally for the little-seen 1941 film "Dangerous Moonlight". Over the course of his career he composed scores for over 40 films, including "Blithe Spirit" (1945), "Under Capricorn" (1949) [with director Alfred Hitchcock], and "Scrooge" (A Christmas Carol) (1951), as well as music for Broadway musical plays and revues, orchestra and popular songs, especially in collaboration with Joyce Grenfell. Hear his moody and brooding score for director George Cukor's Gaslight (1944) . . . it's our current PYTHEAS SIGHTING.
Richard Maxfield was a composer of instrumental, electro-acoustic, and electronic music. Born in Seattle, he most likely taught the first University-level course in electronic music in America at the New School for Social Research. His electronic piece Amazing Grace (1960) mixes tape loops from two sources which are played back at various speeds, causing the fragments to overlap in complex ways, predating both Terry Riley’s and Steve Reich’s tape-loop pieces. "Amazing Grace" even uses a tape of a preacher, as Steve Reich's did in his famous "It's Gonna Rain" (1965); the results are at least equal to Reich's! Maxfield's pieces represent the state of new music just before minimalism was born. Sit back and listen to Richard Maxfield's Amazing Grace . . . it's one of our PYTHEAS EARFULS this week.
Edgard Varese's Ionisation (1931) is credited with being the first Western work written for percussion alone, having no basis in traditional concepts of melody and harmony. As such, the implications of the work (from the standpoint of when the piece was written) questioned the meaning of the word music, as it was understood in the Western world. Viewed historically, it is actually a return to a very ancient Eastern tradition of percussion music, particularly in the aspect of timbre. Eastern concepts of sound and Western formal concepts of structure and logic merge, resulting in a musical entity which is universal (from "Tater Z the Anti-G and DJ Hunsmire's Musical Studies Index"). Watch a classic performance of Varèse's Ionisation by the Ensemble InterContemporain with Pierre Boulez conducting . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
Monday, September 20, 2010
According to David Weininger (Boston Globe), composer "David Rakowski is a laid-back, slightly geeky, funny guy who writes some very difficult music. Or, as Rakowski puts it on his home page, music that has "lots and lotsa notes." Rakowski never planned to add so many works to such an artistically suspect genre. He wrote the first étude, E-Machines, in 1988, more or less on a challenge from his then-roommate. "That turned out to be a fun piece and people actually liked it even though I thought it was worthless at the time. Well, I don’t know about worthless but certainly useless." Soon other pianists began asking for more; so did the publisher C.F. Peters. "And I would just write them as technique builders in between pieces or when I was stuck on a big piece I would write a little étude and then come back to the big piece refreshed. It usually kind of worked." Each étude must be written from start to finish without revision, and must take a maximum of six days to finish. And he plans to quit when he reaches 100. "I like the idea of putting closure on a project so that I can say that’s done. And seriously, it seems silly to be playing an Étude No. 101. Sounds more like a highway than an étude." His growing catalog of Études for piano has inspired performances and recordings by leading pianists on both sides of the Atlantic. Watch a performance of Rakowski's Étude No. 76, " Clave" (2007) by pianist Geoffrey Burleson . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.
Sound is central in Mirjam Tally’s creations. Her music brims with playful contrasts – humorous, dramatic and poetic mixes of sound. She has written chamber and electronic music in which acoustic and electronic sounds often interweave, sometimes using Nordic or exotic instruments (Estonian kannel, didgeridoo, tanpura, accordion and others), treating sound material with a modernist open mind. According to Tally, "Work with electronics has considerably widened my imagination of sound. To me, color is really important in music. Lately I have discovered the recording of environmental sounds. This is a bit similar to photography – you just need to be at the right place at the right time to get a fascinating sound on tape, be it, for example, yacht masts swaying in the wind, clinks of ice floes on the coast or wind generators, not to mention the sounds of birds and nature in general. The further result (i.e. the composition) depends on if you have good ingredients; you don’t need to process and "bend" it in the studio at all. The main thing is to collect valuable sound material from the living environment." Watch Tally's collaboration with filmmaker Ülo Pikkov, their short film Tablemat of Baltic Sea (2006) . . . it's our current PYTHEAS SIGHTING.
Zoltán Kodály’s contributions to the musical life of Hungary in the 20th century were immense, and indeed, have gone far beyond mere nationalism. His orchestral compositions enjoy a place in the standard repertory. His researches into his country’s folk music have been models for ethno-musicologists. The program for folk music research drafted by him and Bela Bartok in 1913 resulted in the collection, classification and editing of over 100,000 folk songs. He also made significant contributions in the fields of music history, music criticism, history of literature, linguistics and language education. His teaching methods also went far beyond the borders of his native land with the worldwide use of the Kodály Method for teaching music in schools, the idea being general music literacy. Kodály was a vocal oriented composer; melody and lyricism were of prime importance to him. And at the core of his work is folk music. Hear Kodály talk about his ideas on music education in a rare video from Hungarian Television . . . our COMPOSER PORTRAIT this week.
Musique concrète ("concrete music" or "real music") is a form of electroacoustic music that utilizes acousmatic sound — sound one hears without seeing or knowing an originating cause — as a compositional resource. French composer Pierre Schaeffer is singularly responsible for launching the Musique concrète movement in the late 1940s and with it, the course of much of the experimental music of the 20th Century. From Wikipedia: "The importance of Schaeffer's musique concrète is threefold. He developed the concept of including any and all sounds into the vocabulary of music. At first he concentrated on working with sounds other than those produced by traditional musical instruments. Later on, he found it was possible to remove the familiarity of musical instrument sounds and abstract them further by techniques such as removing the attack of the recorded sound. He was among the first musicians to manipulate recorded sound for the purpose of using it in conjunction with other sounds in order to compose a musical piece. Techniques such as tape looping and tape splicing were used in his research, often comparing to sound collage. The advent of Schaeffer's manipulation of recorded sound became possible only with technologies that were developed after World War II had ended in Europe. His work is recognized today as an essential precursor to contemporary sampling practices. Schaeffer was among the first to use recording technology in a creative and specifically musical way, harnessing the power of electronic and experimental instruments in a manner similar to Luigi Russolo, whom he admired and from whose work he drew inspiration." Etude Noire/Black Study (1948) is an early piece of musique concrete by Schaffer . . . and this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
Sound is central in Mirjam Tally’s creations. Her music brims with playful contrasts – humorous, dramatic and poetic mixes of sound. She has written chamber and electronic music in which acoustic and electronic sounds often interweave, sometimes using Nordic or exotic instruments (Estonian kannel, didgeridoo, tanpura, accordion and others), treating sound material with a modernist open mind. According to Tally, "Work with electronics has considerably widened my imagination of sound. To me, color is really important in music. Lately I have discovered the recording of environmental sounds. This is a bit similar to photography – you just need to be at the right place at the right time to get a fascinating sound on tape, be it, for example, yacht masts swaying in the wind, clinks of ice floes on the coast or wind generators, not to mention the sounds of birds and nature in general. The further result (i.e. the composition) depends on if you have good ingredients; you don’t need to process and "bend" it in the studio at all. The main thing is to collect valuable sound material from the living environment." Watch Tally's collaboration with filmmaker Ülo Pikkov, their short film Tablemat of Baltic Sea (2006) . . . it's our current PYTHEAS SIGHTING.
Zoltán Kodály’s contributions to the musical life of Hungary in the 20th century were immense, and indeed, have gone far beyond mere nationalism. His orchestral compositions enjoy a place in the standard repertory. His researches into his country’s folk music have been models for ethno-musicologists. The program for folk music research drafted by him and Bela Bartok in 1913 resulted in the collection, classification and editing of over 100,000 folk songs. He also made significant contributions in the fields of music history, music criticism, history of literature, linguistics and language education. His teaching methods also went far beyond the borders of his native land with the worldwide use of the Kodály Method for teaching music in schools, the idea being general music literacy. Kodály was a vocal oriented composer; melody and lyricism were of prime importance to him. And at the core of his work is folk music. Hear Kodály talk about his ideas on music education in a rare video from Hungarian Television . . . our COMPOSER PORTRAIT this week.
Musique concrète ("concrete music" or "real music") is a form of electroacoustic music that utilizes acousmatic sound — sound one hears without seeing or knowing an originating cause — as a compositional resource. French composer Pierre Schaeffer is singularly responsible for launching the Musique concrète movement in the late 1940s and with it, the course of much of the experimental music of the 20th Century. From Wikipedia: "The importance of Schaeffer's musique concrète is threefold. He developed the concept of including any and all sounds into the vocabulary of music. At first he concentrated on working with sounds other than those produced by traditional musical instruments. Later on, he found it was possible to remove the familiarity of musical instrument sounds and abstract them further by techniques such as removing the attack of the recorded sound. He was among the first musicians to manipulate recorded sound for the purpose of using it in conjunction with other sounds in order to compose a musical piece. Techniques such as tape looping and tape splicing were used in his research, often comparing to sound collage. The advent of Schaeffer's manipulation of recorded sound became possible only with technologies that were developed after World War II had ended in Europe. His work is recognized today as an essential precursor to contemporary sampling practices. Schaeffer was among the first to use recording technology in a creative and specifically musical way, harnessing the power of electronic and experimental instruments in a manner similar to Luigi Russolo, whom he admired and from whose work he drew inspiration." Etude Noire/Black Study (1948) is an early piece of musique concrete by Schaffer . . . and this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Laurie Spiegel Appalachian Grove (1974) . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.
Tan Dun Elegy: Snow In June (1991) . . . it's our current DANSES PYTHEUSES here at Pytheas.
One World Symphony (Brooklyn, NY, USA) . . . our FEATURED ENSEMBLE for the week.
Michael Colgrass Déjà Vu (1977) . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Tan Dun Elegy: Snow In June (1991) . . . it's our current DANSES PYTHEUSES here at Pytheas.
One World Symphony (Brooklyn, NY, USA) . . . our FEATURED ENSEMBLE for the week.
Michael Colgrass Déjà Vu (1977) . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Dominick Argento Letters from Composers - Schumann (1968) . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.
Sofia Gubaidulina The Deceitful Face of Hope and of Despair; Sieben Worte (Seven Words) (BIS 1449) . . . it's our FEATURED RECORDING here at Pytheas.
Bright Sheng Uncommon Sense - An Interview with Junia Doan . . . our current COMPOSER PORTRAIT.
Oyvind Torvund Krull Quest (2004) . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Sofia Gubaidulina The Deceitful Face of Hope and of Despair; Sieben Worte (Seven Words) (BIS 1449) . . . it's our FEATURED RECORDING here at Pytheas.
Bright Sheng Uncommon Sense - An Interview with Junia Doan . . . our current COMPOSER PORTRAIT.
Oyvind Torvund Krull Quest (2004) . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Friday, September 3, 2010
John Cage In a Landscape (1948) . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.
Francis Poulenc Les Chemins de l’Amour (1940) . . . it's one of our FEATURED EARFULS here at Pytheas.
Taras Bulba (1962) - Music by Franz Waxman - Film by J. Lee Thompson . . . our current PYTHEAS SIGHTING.
Philip Glass Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists & Orchestra, mvt 3 (2000) . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Francis Poulenc Les Chemins de l’Amour (1940) . . . it's one of our FEATURED EARFULS here at Pytheas.
Taras Bulba (1962) - Music by Franz Waxman - Film by J. Lee Thompson . . . our current PYTHEAS SIGHTING.
Philip Glass Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists & Orchestra, mvt 3 (2000) . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Giacinto Scelsi's mature music is marked by a supreme concentration on single notes, combined with a masterly sense of form. Scelsi revolutionized the role of sound in western music, and his best known work is the Quattro Pezzi per Orchestra/Four Pieces for Orchestra (1959), each on a single note. These single notes are elaborated through microtonal shadings, harmonic allusions, and variations in timbre and dynamics. It is impossible to express the immense power of this apparently simple music in words - (Todd McComb/ClassicalNet). Hear what Todd McComb is writing about in a performance of Scelsi's Quattro Pezzi by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra with Peter Rundel conducting . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.
Hubert Culot (MusicWeb International) writes that, "Isang Yun is undoubtedly the most important composer to have emerged from Korea during the second half of the 20th century. He studied with Boris Blacher who made him aware of modern techniques, such as twelve-tone and serial writing; these Yun adopted without ever strictly adhering to them. His music is rooted in classical Korean music, of which we know very little, whereas its formal framework is often found in 20th century music. Although some of his earlier pieces are more experimental or more overtly "modern", Yun steered clear of strict serial practice, and allowed his deeply rooted lyricism to flower freely". Read more of this CD review and hear excerpts from Capriccio Record's CD of "Chamber Music by Isang Yun" . . . it's our FEATURED RECORDING here at Pytheas.
The film How Green Was My Valley (1941) is one of John Ford's masterpieces of sentimental human drama. It is the melodramatic and nostalgic story, adapted by screenwriter Philip Dunne from Richard Llewellyn's best-selling novel, of a close-knit, hard-working Welsh coal-mining family at the turn of the 20th century as a socio-economic way of life passes and the home-family unit disintegrates. Episodic incidents in everyday life convey the changes, trials, setbacks, and joys of the hard-bitten community as it faces growing unemployment, distressing work conditions, unrest, unionization and labor-capital disputes, and personal tragedy. Domestic life, romance, harsh treatment at school, the departure of two boys to find their fortune in America, unrequited love between the local preacher (Walter Pidgeon) and the only Morgan daughter (beautiful 19 year old Irish actress Maureen O'Hara), and other events are portrayed within this warm, human story. The original musical score by the great Alfred Newman was nominated for an Academy Award. Watch an excerpt from this classic film . . . our current PYTHEAS SIGHTING.
Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, written between 1938 and 1946 (and completed two years AFTER the Violin Sonata No. 2), is one of the darkest and most brooding of the composer's works. Prokofiev described the slithering violin scales at the end of the 1st and 4th movements as "wind passing through a graveyard". The work was premiered by violinist David Oistrakh and pianist Lev Oborin, under the personal coaching of the composer. During rehearsals, Oborin played a certain passage, marked forte (loud), too gently for Prokofiev's liking, who insisted it should be more aggressive. Oborin replied that he was afraid of drowning out the violin, but Prokofiev said "It should sound in such a way that people should jump in their seat, and say 'Is he out of his mind?'". Watch a performance of the 4th movement of Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 1 by violinist Xenia Akeynikov . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
Hubert Culot (MusicWeb International) writes that, "Isang Yun is undoubtedly the most important composer to have emerged from Korea during the second half of the 20th century. He studied with Boris Blacher who made him aware of modern techniques, such as twelve-tone and serial writing; these Yun adopted without ever strictly adhering to them. His music is rooted in classical Korean music, of which we know very little, whereas its formal framework is often found in 20th century music. Although some of his earlier pieces are more experimental or more overtly "modern", Yun steered clear of strict serial practice, and allowed his deeply rooted lyricism to flower freely". Read more of this CD review and hear excerpts from Capriccio Record's CD of "Chamber Music by Isang Yun" . . . it's our FEATURED RECORDING here at Pytheas.
The film How Green Was My Valley (1941) is one of John Ford's masterpieces of sentimental human drama. It is the melodramatic and nostalgic story, adapted by screenwriter Philip Dunne from Richard Llewellyn's best-selling novel, of a close-knit, hard-working Welsh coal-mining family at the turn of the 20th century as a socio-economic way of life passes and the home-family unit disintegrates. Episodic incidents in everyday life convey the changes, trials, setbacks, and joys of the hard-bitten community as it faces growing unemployment, distressing work conditions, unrest, unionization and labor-capital disputes, and personal tragedy. Domestic life, romance, harsh treatment at school, the departure of two boys to find their fortune in America, unrequited love between the local preacher (Walter Pidgeon) and the only Morgan daughter (beautiful 19 year old Irish actress Maureen O'Hara), and other events are portrayed within this warm, human story. The original musical score by the great Alfred Newman was nominated for an Academy Award. Watch an excerpt from this classic film . . . our current PYTHEAS SIGHTING.
Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, written between 1938 and 1946 (and completed two years AFTER the Violin Sonata No. 2), is one of the darkest and most brooding of the composer's works. Prokofiev described the slithering violin scales at the end of the 1st and 4th movements as "wind passing through a graveyard". The work was premiered by violinist David Oistrakh and pianist Lev Oborin, under the personal coaching of the composer. During rehearsals, Oborin played a certain passage, marked forte (loud), too gently for Prokofiev's liking, who insisted it should be more aggressive. Oborin replied that he was afraid of drowning out the violin, but Prokofiev said "It should sound in such a way that people should jump in their seat, and say 'Is he out of his mind?'". Watch a performance of the 4th movement of Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 1 by violinist Xenia Akeynikov . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.
Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
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