Christmas Music Time – Get Ready!

December is too far away you’ll say? Ah noo, of course not! Time will fly so fast that you will realize that Christmas is in fact right around the corner! And therefore, it’s about time to start choosing our Christmas music!

Perhaps every composer has at least once dedicated a music piece to this kind holiday. And every year brings more and more Christmas music by contemporary composers who pay it a special attention. However, taking a glance at the history we see that it was not always like that. On the contrary, it used to be in quite the opposite way back in the Middle Ages, say. To begin with, ‘Christmas music’ was a mix of manifold genres like hymns, litanies, carols, chants and it was something purely religious. And above that, it used to be considered sinful and was thus strictly prohibited by Puritans and the Parliament to be sung ‘popularly’ up till the 17th century.

Luckily the situation is different today – the more music, the better. The fun thing is that ‘Christmas time’ is in fact a few weeks before the holiday itself and one or two weeks after it. But it tends to be significantly stretched today, for a couple of reasons. First of all, in most countries (and especially in the US) Christmas is an economy-buster, time for lots of shopping and general expenses. As for music, the radio stations for example are competing for being the first to announce the Christmas time start – it is believed that the first radio station to do it will win more listeners as they prefer to stick with the season-changing leader. That’s why in some places Christmas creep begins right after the Halloween is over!

So many favorite melodies widely recognized today, from ancient carols like O Holy Night to the lively Jingle Bells, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas or All I Want for Christmas Is You and so on. For those who celebrate Christmas ‘musically’ too – here are some lovely carols to sing along to. Get ready!

"Who You Gonna Call? Ghostbusters!"

Less than two weeks left till one of the most mysterious holidays so loved by not just teenagers but also grown-ups and kids – Halloween. The time when witches and all the dark forces get out to this world and celebrate the ball. Fancy dresses everywhere, a lot of ketchup blood, drawn scars and of course scary music all around.

But Halloween music isn’t always about some creepy sounds and zombie groans. There have been a lot of scores dedicated to this holiday that are not somber at all. Having a certain amount of joking to it, Halloween is the time of fun, humor and mimicry. Some works written and filmed for it became huge hits just on their own, let’s remember Michael Jackson’s Thriller video at least – masterpiece!

As little kids, most of were a bit scared of and charmed by the other worlds, ghosts and external forces. And that is why movies dedicated to those phenomena were especially popular. One of such movies is Ghostbusters with its unforgettable theme song that we remember even after many years. The film score to Ghostbusters was composed by Elmer Bernstein, and the catchy song written by Ray Parker, Jr. It is believed that the famous song added about $20 million to the movie’s box office success. And the video to the song made it to #1 at MTV.

Young and Beautiful (Lana Del Rey)

Will you still love me when I'm no longer young and beautiful

Will you still love me when I got nothing but my aching soul…

They say youth is the most carefree time of our life, full of passion, enthusiasm and, of course, love. The time when it seems that none of that will ever end. But will it not? The apprehension of the inevitable aging and the changes it will bring is a strong emotional message conveyed through the recent song by the young and sensual American singer Elizabeth Woolridge Grant – or Lana Del Rey.

This alternative rock ballad performed by the dreamy Lana Del Rey was a long-awaited and quite an expected song for the charming singer’s fans. The song was recorded as the soundtrack to one of the most stunning recent movies “The Great Gatsby” – a TV-version of the same-named novel by Francis Scott Fitzgerald. Like movie like soundtrack – both well-received by the critics. Even though in most music journals “Young and Beautiful” was called a very somber song, a haunting one, it was acknowledged to perfectly fit the idea. Moreover, Lana’s unique vocals polished with еру early 20’s music style worked a good picture, helping to express the whole nostalgia, despair and tragedy in the movie.  The song was Lana Del Rey’s first single to get into the major US music chart, to the Top 10 best tracks. 

The popularity of Del Rey’s original style was thus preserved and passed on from her previous hit song “Video Games”.  

A Little Treasure for Piano Students

Some composers managed to get famous right from the first masterpieces, others got recognition only after death, and some great minds never got a chance to be revealed to the world despite their talent. It’s always a wonderful discovery when another genius gets ‘dug out’ of the history’s treasures. Ernst Levy was no doubt one of such precious findings.

Ernst Levy at work

Levy is first of all a prodigy Swiss pianist, and performing was what he was primarily admired for in his lifetime. But he was an amazing composer too, as well as a teacher in demand. After Levy left for the USA, a couple of universities offered him a teaching position, and he had to agree only for the necessity to earn money for living. How surprising it was when it turned out that during those years Ernst Levy composed Fifty Pieces for Piano Students. And not just a simple set of educational pieces but a work that is no less amazing than Bartok’s Miscrocosm. The manuscripts were long-lost in the dust of Basel Library until they were found and digitalized. How this wonderful edition is available online.

Piano teachers and students – for your attention!

Hometown Glory

So many words of appraisal and admiration have been said about one of the most successful young singers recently – Adele. Now observing her commercial and non-commercial success it’s hard to think that there are singles that were not ‘great’ from the very beginning – everything seems gorgeous. The author of well-known hits like “Someone Like You”, “Skyfall”, “Rolling In The Deep” and others, was usually torn apart by the public in applause. But some of Adele’s songs had their own long-ish struggle for fame and acknowledgement.

Adele

“Hometown Glory” is no doubt one of such compositions.  It was written for Adele’s first album “19” when the singer was being convinced by her mum to leave her native town and go to study in a university in London. So strong was the girl’s love for her hometown and so ardent the unwillingness to leave it that she composed a song about it in just 10 minutes.  The music work was hardly noticed then – only 500 copies were created and only due to the overall success of the “19” did the song manage to get into some UK charts.

However, after the re-release of the song in 2008 (as a debut single for the US market) the glory found the “Hometown Glory”: it immediately got into the UK Top 40, was used in numerous popular TV series, got a Grammy in 2010 and became one of Adele’s biggest hits, joining the list of other masterpieces.

Bossa Nova, the Music of Brazil

Brazil, the country of carnivals, beautiful people and eternal youth – can its music be different?

"Bossa Nova" is a popular music style that was born in Brazil around 1950-ies and is probably the best way to characterize it. These two words in the literal translation from Portuguese mean a ‘new trend’. ‘Bossa’ can also mean everything that is charming, natural and original. This term was first coined as a public reference to a music style in 1958 at the concert of the “University Hebrew Group of Brazil”. This curious style soon was first spread to the entire Latin American, then taken by the American Jazz players to the North America, and in a little while experienced a real worldwide boom due to João Gilberto and other artists like Gets, Jobim, etc.

Bossa nova music takes a lot from samba and jazz, though it doesn’t teem with percussion. The main instrument is usually the classical guitar accompanied by the vocals. However, piano is another popular instrument to be heard in such compositions – it serves as a certain bridge between jazz and bossa. The strings, though rarely used, can also add to bossa nova making it a more lounge style, so popular in America.

So widespread in the 60-ies, Bossa Nova is still attracting musicians from all over the world. Such famous artists as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, The Doors, George Michael, Shakira, The Black Eyed Peas and others used the elements of bossa nova in their music albums.

The Show Must Go On

The combination of these words has turned into a sort of a slogan that embraces a powerful message in it. We live freely and never know when the real tragedy might strike and take away the most precious we’ve got – our life. But that’s not as bad as the necessity to live with the knowing of the exact time and way of how you are going to leave this world. What would you do knowing that? How would you live the rest of your life in that knowledge?

Most people struck by the sorrow, panic and self-pity would most likely let their hands down and surrender to the misery and depression. But not people like Freddy Mercury. He know he would die from AIDS soon nut nonetheless he let the show go on. "The Show Must Go On" song is a strong symbolic tribute to the fight for life despite the inevitable. Too weak to perform the song with lyrics by Brian May, Freddy didn’t dodge – he hit a glass of vodka and with the words "I'll fuckin do it, darling!" proceeded to recording the song, handling the complicated vocal pattern skillfully.  The resulting track hit the charts equally well both when Freddy was alive and after his death too. This, is the hymn of the generation, an example of willpower and decisiveness.

Lady Ella Fitzgerald

The Jazz Queen would have had a birthday today which no doubt would have been widely celebrated not only in her motherland – the USA – but around the whole world, because this woman deserved a lot of praise and honors even after her death. “Lady Ella” was born today in 1917 to become the first lady of song and a remarkable personality in the world of music, particularly jazz. Let’s mark this event!

Lady Ella

When going through Ella’s bio one can’t but be astonished by the many hardships she had to live through but despite which she still managed to turn into American Jazz-Queen with impeccable diction and singing technique. Ella went through various phases, not to be the one who gets everything easy. She used to be married to a drug-dealer, was homeless, lost her mother when a child, was abused by her step father, had legs amputated and suffered from diabetes. But it didn’t stop her from becoming a strong woman. Music community can be thankful to destiny for discovering such a ‘rough diamond’ as Ms. Fitzgerald. A unique voice covering three octaves span got her a diverse repertoire: songs "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", "How High the Moon", "Sugar Blues" and many other are still up in the memory. During her almost 60-years career Ella’s albums were sold in 40 mln copies, brought her 13 Grammies and Medals handed by Reagan and Bush personally.

Happy Birthday, dear Lady Ella!

Moon River for flute, oboe and clarinet

The ever charming Audrey Hepburn is not only known for the angel look and remarkable acting skills but for her soft voice that, once heard, can’t be forgotten for its melodic sounding and innocent sincerity. She was and is the icon in many senses - appearance, figure, play, fashion, style, lifestyle in general. Let’s remember some of her brightest moments as a singer today – particularly Audrey’s role of Holly in 1961 movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and the theme song “Moon River”.

Audrey Hepburn

This phrase must be immediately evoking a mental picture of Audrey’s sitting at the fire escape exit casually playing her little guitar. So iconic the image and the sound was that this song was chosen as a sample of pop culture used in various tests for studies of people’s memory. The song was composed by Henry Mancini specially for Audrey’s vocal range and the lyrics are due to Johnny Mercer. During the film production it was first decided to skip the song leaving it out of the scenario at all. But the fragile Audrey Hepburn reacted unexpectedly sharply even using some strong words to express her most ardent desire to leave the song as it is. Who could resist the charming girl? The song remained.

“Moon River” became a hit, and not only did it beat the Billboards on both sides of the Atlantic, received an Academy Award and two Grammies, it even became the name of a street (in Johnny Mercer’s home town). No need to mention the endless list of names of artists who covered and arranged the song. Such a short piece of music with such a powerful influence.

When I Was Your Man

“What if?” is the major question of regret. We keep imagining what would have changed if we had behaved differently in this or that situation. But for the moment we have what we have and the only thing remaining is to face the reality the way it is. That refers to everything, but the brightest example is no doubt romantic relationships between a man and a woman. Once we lose someone we start looking at things differently and too often our eyes open for things we refused to see while the thing lasted.

Familiar situation, familiar thoughts and reflection for most of us, huh? Bruno Mars admits, too, that when righting this song he didn’t even need to concentrate much because the whole thing came from the gut so naturally that the piece was composed at once. That was another piano soul ballad as a result, a single from Bruno’s second studio album, even though the singer had said he was not going to compose any of the kind anymore.

The work was positively received both by the fans and by the music critics. “When I Was Your Man” is said to have elements from different styles and even epochs. Critics saw something from Frank Sinatra, Alicia Keys, Elton John, Michael Jackson and Billy Joel. Mars’ vocals colored the song with additional vulnerability and emotional load.

Ode to Joy – Beethoven’s pride

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is indeed one of the most significant music works in the Western-classical repertoire. Some critics even named it the greatest music piece that has ever been written. And there are definitely reasons why this could be a deserved title.

Beethoven conducting

By the time the symphony was premiered in Vienna in 1824 Ludwig Beethoven was almost deaf. However, he was almost ‘directing’ the piece himself, notching the time and actively gesticulating to musicians, rising and shrinking as long as the music sounded according to his calculations. The orchestra, though, was told to mildly ignore the great composer because of his deafness. They say that the Symphony was badly rehearsed (only two dress rehearsals before premiere), but it didn’t bother it to be received with grand applause. After the orchestra ceased playing and calmed down at the last sound, Beethoven was a bit off the track and kept conducting. They say that one of the singers (contralto) came up to him and turn the master face to the audience – so that he could SEE the ovations if not hear them.

This was a choral symphony (Beethoven’s first one of this kind) and the choral part of it deserves special attention. “Ode to Joy” is one of the most played things up to now. The lyrics was taken from Schiller’s poem and revised, reworked and redone many times by composer before it reached the present form. Interesting but like many later-to-become-masterpieces works are initially underestimated by their authors. Schiller, too, thought that his poem was a complete failure. But it wasn’t. And Beethoven’s usage of it in his Symphony 9 engraved the greatness of for another few centuries minimum.

Swan Lake, Pyotr Tchaikovsky

What can be better that a magic fairy-tale – a fairy-tale with a beautiful romantic story in its essence, a story that would embed the good and the evil, the love and the hatred, the tears, the caress, the happiness and the death. All that is what’s to be found in the legendary ballet based on Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s music “The Lake of the Swans”. For over years it’s been gathering full theaters being admired by vast audiences.

Even up to now it’s hard to say that there is an ‘original’ version of the ballet. The ballet was staged many times since the 1877 premiere and every time something was changed about it, whether in the music score, or costumes, or decor, or dance movements.  Tchaikovsky himself was not happy at all about the debut performance of his work at the stage, he liked almost nothing about it calling the whole thing poor. But the ballet enjoys great success now, how come? The version staged at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow was revived in 1895 for the Imperial Ballet and the score was thoroughly revised Riccardo Drigo. The choreography was improved along with costumes. That version, both musically and artistically, is now considered a basic starting point for everyone who would consider staging his/her own interpretation of the famous ballet – like this arrangement for oboe trio, for instance. A memorable dance of the fragile devoted creatures with a deep innocent purport.

Toreador Singing to Oboe

One of the most characteristic cultural features of mostly Spain and Latin America (though not only), bullfighting still remains a major attraction luring tourists on visit from all over the world. And that is a pretty rewarding experience, a powerful tradition lasting no less than three thousand years since the times of bull worshiping and sacrificing.

Arenas where traditional corridas are held accumulate a great amount of energy as they become a place of joint emotions transmitted through the interaction of the masterful toreador, the indestructible bull and the stirred audience. The people of art never missed a chance to reflect the strongest emotions through creative work, especially music. And as for the beautiful opposition of the torero and the mighty bull, probably one of the most successful music pictures of that was painted by Georges Bizet in his famous aria from the opera Carmen. Perhaps the ‘peak-est’ moment of the opera picturing all that happens in the bullring, the fight, the cheering, the resistance. Oboists have a chance to sing the bull-fighters song in a new manner now – an interesting arrangement for oboe quintet and an optional cor anglais is up there for corrida music fans.

And the Sky Falls

It was all kept under the seal of mystery since September of 2011 when Adele dropped a by-the-way “I’m working on a special project”. 2012 saw the anniversary of the so called Bondiana – the 50 year old story of the unbeatable and unsurpassed Mister Bond, James Bond; particularly the celebration of the release of the very first movie “Dr. No” in 1962 with Sean Connery in the role of the first Agent 007.

When Adele was spotted at Abbey Road Studios in London, mass media caught up and carefully spread the rumour that she and no one else would be representing the new soundtrack to the promising movie and overall holiday of the "Global James Bond Day". As it was revealed in October 2012, the orchestration was done by J. A. C. Redford and among composers/so-authors were named Adele herself and her producer Paul Epworth.

And what do we have as a result? An epic movie and one of the best or probably THE best Bond theme ever recorded. That’s the first song in the row to win the Academy Award for best original song. The SkyFall also holds the Golden Globe Award and the Brit Award. Adele did make it the pride of the English nation and the record-setting song with the highest number of digital sales within a week – just after 10 hours after its official publishing the hit burst the iTunes beating all the previous records men.

Multitraditional “Oh Susanna” by Stephen Foster

Oh Stephen, who was that Susanna a dedication to whom made you the first fully professional songwriter in America? It is common to think that the name actually referred to Stephen’s sister Charlotte – “Susannah” being her middle name. But there is no accurate version. Who cares anyway – for what we have as a result is a unique song that embodies a few cultures at once and is one of the most popular American songs EVER written, since 1848 when it was first published.

“Oh! Susanna” is a minstrel song that incorporates American, European and African cultures all at once. The lyrics and music itself were influenced by such cultural elements as African banjo, European polka and US ‘Afro-Americans’ culture' – that’s one of the few song where the author openly uses the word ‘nigger’. Although the lyrics are somewhat ‘nonsense’ as some say, the wordplay actually makes a truly vivid picture. The popularity of Susanna is reflected in the numerous recordings, for example those by The Singing Dogs, James Taylor, Neil Young. Here is one more lovely arrangement of the song for a mixed-level cello quartet (all the score explanations in the description attached). The fun fact about the song itself is that all in all it was copyrighted and published 21 times! Everyone longed the fame of the author of this unique work. And it would be totally worth it – even most popular songs sold no more than 5000 copies while “Oh! Susanna” sold more than 100.000! Though Stephen himself earned a relatively small sum for his creation at the very beginning.

2 Classical Favorites in One Bottle

We all have our favorite artists and composers no matter if it’s pop, rock, blues or classical music genre. But as to me, classical music preferences are somewhat more refined and special, when the choice of a certain favorite becomes particularly well-thought and weighted. The music style of each composer differs a lot and we may just like a separate part of it, not the entire creativity line. And what if you had to pick two your most loved composers and combine their styles in one piece?

Here’s one quite interesting selection in this sense. The two virtuosos have been chosen to get along together in two fun arrangements by David Burndrett – “2 Classical Favourites”. The ‘volume one’ features pieces by Antonio Vivaldi and Edvard Grieg. The first one is the “Autumn” part of the noted Four Seasons concert series of program music, where the wind quartet is aiming to reproduce the colorful charm of Vivaldi’s autumn allegro.  The second one is where the wind quartet – flute, clarinet, bassoon and oboe – are rendering the orchestral piece “In the Hall of Mountain King” from the Peer Gynt play, the very moment when Peer Gynt enters the royal roaring hall full of magic creatures like gnomes, trolls and goblins:

Read All About It, Emeli Sande

Let’s fix our attention today on one of those girls whose popularity in music shoot off quite fast bringing her songs to billboards’ tops. It’s all about Adele Emeli Sande, or simply known as Emeli Sande. The girl had to opt for her middle name for performing because of the simultaneous growth of Adele’s career at that time. A talented Scottish songwriter, she was brought up by her dad who was a teacher and became spotted at various music competitions from early childhood. Subsequently Emeli signed contracts with EMI, Virgin and Capitol and started writing song texts for such well-known performers as Cher Lloyd, Rihanna, Cheryl Cole, Leona Lewis. Her music style was strongly influenced by Nina Simone (Emeli’s idol), Joni Mitchell and Lauryn Hill. Simon Cowell named her as his favorite songwriter.

Emeli Sande

Emeli wrote a lot for other performers but at the same time she is a splendid performer herself. One of her most recognized songs today is the “Read All About It” that was originally written for the British rapper Professor Green. Emeli herself appears in the “Part III” version of the song that was included in the album “Our Version of Events”. The song hit the records in the UK becoming the 1st number-one hit both for Emeli and Professor Green. The two also appeared live in “The X Factor” show performing the freshly popular song. According to Emeli, the key to creating a good song is the honesty and raw emotion, most of her songs touch politics and world peace issues.

New Year’s Day, U2

Once again – congratulations on the beginning of the New Year! I do hope you’ve had a terrific celebration and are still being in the festive atmosphere of holidays. So so, let’s proceed into the new year with a fresh post about some curious song, shall we?

Not to step too far from the topic of holidays, today’s post will be dedicated to a song titled “New Year’s Day” by the rock band U2. For those who never heard it, it will seem that the contents of the song are all about this joyous time of the year with all the usual NY symbols. But it’s much more than that. Though originally composed by Bono as a gift for his wife, the song was later reshaped and received a completely new form and sense, too. It acquired an inspirational touch of the Polish Solidarity movement having become not just a one-week-pop-hit but a long-living single. It was the obligatory part of band’s tour program and one of its most performed live singles. The video has quite an interesting story too. It was shot in Sweden in the coldest peak of its winter. The members of the band were so frozen that by the end of the clip could hardly articulate the lyrics and had to hire double to take part in some shots instead of them.

It all was not in vain and as a result the single got its fine reviews by the Rolling Stone magazine, hit the Billboard 100 and got in the list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".