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".

Let’s Rock Apocalypse, Shall We?

The whole world, in various languages, discussed, (dis-)believed in, expected, looked forward to or laughed at – in other words, was NOT indifferent to the potential World Apocalypse. No matter whether you felt cynical or inspired about ‘the end of this world’ but were all are somewhat in the middle of that happening. Well, here’s then a short post dedicated to Armageddon, in a music way, of course.

Despite beliefs everyone has his/her own vision of how all this should end and the best way to express that is art, music as one of its best forms. I would like to highlight three compositions that to me show the various sides of the world ending. The first would be the ‘voice’ of the famous American movie we all probably watched at least once – Armageddon. The track was composed by Trevor Rabin and managed to add up to the entire doomsday atmosphere of the film that was created at the times when disasters became easier to be portrayed through the CGI effects.

My second choice would be the “Armageddon It” performed by the Def Leppard hard rock band. The song itself and the epic ‘live’ video to it managed to reach Top 3 in the United States. These guys were actually the ones who started gathering such huge stadium for live performances. But what can be better than a cool rock band performing apocalypse on the stage? A whole orchestra doing the same! I’m referring to my third pick which is the “Apocalypse” by Bear McCreary. Those lovely vocals by Raya Yarbrough accompanied by the emotional BSG Orchestra! Check out the live version below.

The Carpenters: Merry Christmas, Darling

Can’t help but proceed sticking to the topic of Holiday and the music that adds up to its atmosphere. I've realized that such a genre as Christmas songs is the type of music I personally feel like listening to only in December. Not that it would hurt listening to them any other time of the year, no, but in December you feel like you actually LIVE this music letting it through yourself.

There are songs that are composed on the eve of Christmas but can live one season only. And there are hits that once composed immediately turn into timeless classics. “Merry Christmas, Darling” no doubt belongs to them – the first and successful attempt of The Carpenters in Christmas music. The lyrics had actually been written long beforehand, by Karen and Richard’s choir director Frank Pooler. But Richard composed the music and Karen decorated it with her angel voice. The song was released in 1970 as part of the album “Christmas Portrait” and is still one of the strongest associations with this holiday. It was covered multiple times and also appeared in TV series like the popular Glee.

All I Want for Christmas is … !

There, there! The festivity of the Christmas month is already in the air! I so love the last weeks of preparations for the holiday. That little Christmas chaos about everything – from the hassle of buying presents for the loved ones and thinking about ‘table issues’ to arranging business stuff. While kids are sincerely believing in Santa Claus (according to stats, 80% do), grown-ups get prepared in their own way. If earlier, when we were kids, dreaming of gifts like a toy, a puppy or a huge candy could be the top of it, now, as adults, we may have wishes of a different nature. A more ‘humanly’ nature… during the most festive moments we long for love, tenderness, safety and happiness of the people we love tenderly.

That is basically the main idea conveyed through one of the most recognizable Christmas songs – written, recorded and performed by a no-less recognizable singer Mariah Carey. “All I Want for Christmas is You” was released in 1994 and is still merrily sung around. The composition received numerous honorable titles by biggest magazines – “one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon” (The New Yorker), “a holiday standard” (Rolling Stone), “most played Christmas song of the decade in the UK” (The Daily Telegraph). One of the reasons for such commercial and popular success is the personal background to the song. It was a dedication to Mariah’s husband which is delivered not only through the intimate romantic lyrics, but also through a literally personal clip that was made from Carey’s personal video archive:

Satie the Gymnopaedist

When presenting himself to the director of a well-known cabaret in Paris, Erik Satie, a man not lacking a sense of humor, declared himself as a “gymnopaedist”, not quite being sure of what it meant exactly but leading the cabaret owner into a bit of a stupor. This small event happened much earlier than the three genius piano compositions titled “Gymnopedies” got written and saw world in 1888. The word itself did not quite exist this way, but versions are that it may signify either dance or antiquity or warfare or even nudity – still no accurate explanation. This way or another, but as unique as the title was, was the nature of these compositions. They are considered to be the predecessors of the modern ambient genre, though not to be confused with Satie’s ‘furniture music’ that was quite similar in essence.

Like mentioned above, there were three gymnopedies but the first and the third one really ‘caught up’. The second one was published many years later and was omitted by Debussy who made orchestration for the first two. And between those ones, number one is a definite leader. Gymnopedie No. 1 was featured by Gary Numan, Vladimir Cosma, Charles Fox, Lana Del Rey, also in numerous films and video games. Due to its soft ‘ambient’ nature, Gymnopedie No. 1 is often associated with autumn. For me, although composed for piano, this piece sounds wonderfully when arranged for cello. Here’s a lovely arrangement for cello quartet by Sheryl Smith.