Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day is an English carol usually attributed as 'traditional'; it first appeared in print in William B. Sandys' Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern (1833). The verses of the hymn progress through the story of Jesus told in his own voice, with an innovative feature of the telling being that Jesus' life is repeatedly characterized as a dance. This device was later used in the modern hymn Lord of the Dance. Most well known in John Gardner's choral adaptation, many other composers have set or arranged the tune, including Gustav Holst, David Willcocks, John Rutter and Andrew Carter. . Watch a performance of Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day in John Gardner's 1965 version performed by King's College Choir, Cambridge . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

James Travers (Films de France) writes about René Clair's 1924 film Entr'acte: "This extraordinary early film from director René Clair was originally made to fill an interval between two acts of Francis Picabia’s new ballet, Relâche, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris in 1924. Picabia famously wrote a synopsis for the film on one sheet of note paper headed Maxim’s (the famous Parisian restaurant), which he sent to René Clair. This formed the basis for what ultimately appeared on screen, with some additional improvisations. Music for the film was composed by the famous avant-garde composer Erik Satie, who appears in the film, along side its originator, Francis Picabia. The surrealist photographer Man Ray also puts in an appearance, in a film which curiously resembles his own experimental films of this era. Entr'acte is a surrealistic concoction of unrelated images, reflecting Clair’s interest in Dada, a fashionable radical approach to visual art which relied on experimentation and surreal expressionism. Clair’s imagery is both captivating and disturbing, giving life to inanimate objects (most notably the rifle range dummies), whilst attacking conventions, even the sobriety of a funeral march. When the first performance of Relâche was cancelled because of the ill-health of one of is stars, the public were outraged. There was a belief that Picabia had staged the ultimate Dada stunt – as Relâche is the French word used on posters to indicate that a show is canceled, or the theater is closed. The controversy was laid to rest when the show opened, a few days later than planned. For its part, Clair’s Entr'acte won widespread praise, although the response from the paying public was divided. As to what the film actually means, well that’s anyone’s guess. Like all good surrealist art there are an infinite number of possible interpretations, and one’s appreciation and understanding of this film is very much a subjective experience. Themes which appear to dominate the work are death, mortality and the hastening pace of technology. Hence, one possible interpretation is that the film is mocking mankind’s attempts to cope with the brevity of his existence. As progress is made, man has to run faster and faster to cram more and more into a fixed duration, his limited lifespan. Could the Entr'acte of the film’s title represent that short period of what we call 'life', that too brief an interval between two acts of an eternal duration?" Watch René Clair's Entr'acte with music by Erik Satie . . . it's our PYTHEAS SIGHTING for the week.

In the Fall of 1910, Sergei Diaghilev and Igor Stravinsky convinced Alexandre Benois to write a scenario (in collaboration with Stravinsky) and to design costumes and sets for an original ballet to be entitled Petrushka. The ballet premiered in Paris in 1911, and was perhaps the most successful and influential of Diaghilev's "Ballets Russes" productions. The All Music Guide writes, "Stravinsky's score for Petrushka is brilliant, charming and absorbing, one of the most magical scores in all the classical literature. Stravinsky borrowed folk tunes to illustrate the crowd scenes, used bitonal chords to signify Petrushka's dual existence as puppet and living being, wrote his own seductive melodies, and stitched it all together seamlessly with a genius for dramatization and flair for orchestration that could only come from Stravinsky." Watch a performance of Stravinsky's Petrushka, one of the most brilliant and magical ballets in the modern repertoire in a performance by the Bolshoi Ballet . . . our DANSES PYTHEUSES this week.

Pawel Lukaszewski is one of the younger generation of Polish composers specialising in sacred and choral music. He studied composition with Marian Borkowski and cello with Andrzej Wrobel at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and in 2000 and 2007 he received a Ph.D and Ph.D Hab. respectively in composition. His works have been performed throughout Europe, as well as in Argentine, Chile, China, Israel, Cuba, Canada, South Korea, Peru, Uruguay and the United States. In addition, his works have been recorded on more than fifty CDs. Hear a performance of Pawel Lukaszewski's choral work Hommage a Edith Stein (2002) . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.

Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music

Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times writes of American composer Richard Danielpour's opera Margaret Garner (2005), "Mr. Danielpour’s undeniable craft comes through in almost every passage. He can write lyrically ruminative vocal lines and knows how to energize choristers, as in an animated ensemble of slaves awaiting auction, where the words “No, no more!” become a theme for a syncopated, patter-filled, fuguelike chorus. The orchestral writing is flecked with color and richly sonorous". Hear Gregg Baker and Denyce Graves of the Opera Company of Philadelphia sing an excerpt from Margaret Garner . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

One of the 20th-century's great symphonists, Witold Lutoslawski created an impressive, always progressing body of music in the most difficult of circumstances. As the commander of a military radio station, he was captured by the invading Germans at the beginning of World War II. He escaped, and survived the occupation by playing piano duos in Warsaw cafes, including his Variations on a Theme of Paganini. In 1949 his Symphony No. 1 was the first Polish work to be denounced as formalist by Stalinist cultural politicians. In reaction, Lutoslawski wrote public works based on folk material, while continuing to develop a more personal language privately. In the cultural thaw following Stalin's death, Lutoslawski became a major international figure, renowned for innovations in form and performing techniques and a consistently eloquent personal voice - (from the Los Angeles Philharmonic). Hear Lutoslawski speak of his life and his music in an interview with Charles Amirkhanian . . . this week's COMPOSER PORTRAIT.

Composer Karen Amrhein has now completed her project of creating an animated film based on her 2007 work "Princess Paliné, who learned the seven words that stay a dragon's hunger and cool its fires". According to the composer, "The 28-minute animated film (with musical score and narration) ... engaged much of my time over the past year and a half. Having almost no experience with film-making – and none with animation – before beginning this, I’ve learned a great deal. I created the animation by employing time-tested stop-motion techniques to altered images from old fruit and vegetable crate labels, medieval illuminations, and bits from scans of paintings by the masters. Preview audiences have been left in stunned silence by the results". Watch an excerpt from this beautiful and timeless film . . . the second of our FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS for the week.

Erik Satie's Nocturnes are some of the last compositions he wrote for piano. Their harmonies rely on fourths and fifths and each shows a characteristic simplicity of texture. By this stage of his life, Satie's compositional technique had altered somewhat and the Nocturnes, like most of his works from the 1890s onwards, are made up of juxtaposed fragments of themes. Listen to and watch a unique performance of the Nocturne No. 2 (1919) . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.

Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music

Composer Michel van der Aa employs the atonal idiom with absolute freedom, while the computer is a natural tool for him, not so much for composition but for the production of soundtracks, which constitute yet another instrument, as it were, and which enrich his musical language. See violinist Maaike Aarts perform his Memo (2003) for violin and portable cassette tape recorder ... this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEO.

According to composer Dennis Báthory-Kitsz, "The 365-day composition project We Are All Mozart (WAAM) was an idea I had had for years. I believed that productivity and excellence are not mutually exclusive, nor do they belong to the past alone. I believe that our ability to "be Mozart" (meaning a prolific composer) today is inhibited by lack of demand on our inherent productivity. In other words, the more we do, the better we get at it and the more new ideas we have. Humans are problem solvers, and for composers, it is the blank page that is to be solved. But just as important to me was to do something intense to keep nonpop-music visible and to inspire ensembles, listeners and other composers." Read more about We Are All Mozart and listen to some of the music composed during the 365-day project - it's this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC WEBSITE.

A composer who dabbled in the Dada movement, a Bohemian “gymnopédiste” of fin-de-siècle Montmartre, and a legendary dresser known as “The Velvet Gentleman,” Erik Satie cut a unique figure among early twentieth-century European composers. His spare, haunting melodies have inspired a wide range of musicians, from his contemporary Claude Debussy to The Velvet Underground's John Cale. According to guitarist Jonathan Stone, "His music is still relevant, because it was unique in its time and it was a departure at its time. In a way, to me, Satie creates a timelessness in much of his music. It's just as fresh now as it was a hundred years ago." Watch Chris Bannerman's dance piece inspired by Satie's Gnossienne No. 3 (1890) - our current DANSES PYTHEUSES.

In Principio (2003) is a weighty, yet spacious orchestral and choral setting of verses from the Gospel of John. Hear Arvo Pärt's spiritual - and timeless - musical setting ... this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.

Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music