7/1/23 Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou was a Ethiopian composer pianist and nun who passed away this year. You might recognize her music in an annoying YouTube ad for Vrbo . (Spotify)
7/2 Mando Dao--This Swedish group came out with their first album in 2002. (Spotify) I love NYCFC and one of their radio announcers was wearing a t-shirt on the pregame show that I saw, so I explored their music.
7/3 Souad Massi--Reading about Algeria because the new NYCFC striker is Algerian. She came out an album in 2002 called Raoui. (Spotify) She has 8 solo albums.
7/4 Nabuco by Verdi OperaVision. King Nebuchadnezzar says he's God. Verdi (1813–1901) is the most popular opera composer.
7/5 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Britten – Royal Swedish Opera (YouTube)
7/6 Paul Simon has a new album: Seven Psalms.
7/7 To prepare for Today's premier of the Dutch Opera's Rusalka, Kristine Opolais sing Song to the Moon, from Rusalka, which premiers on this day at 1pm. Here is my Opera Novice post about it.
7/8 Cavalleria rusticana 1989.
7/9. Phoenix. I watched On The Rocks, I like Bill Murray, and I was reading about Sophia Coppola, and she's married to Thomas Mars, French lead singer for Phoenix. Here's their top song on Spotify.
7/10 Rigoletto Verona 199: Silvano Carroli, José Sempere, Alida Ferrarini, Mario Luperi, Serena Lazzarini, Carlo Striuli, Laura Zannini.
7/11 Listening to many versions of Song To The Moon by Dvorak, I read a lot Frederica Von Stade including: In the nineteenth episode of the third season of the CBS cult comedy-drama-fantasy Alaska-set television series Northern Exposure, Wake-Up Call, a beat in which Mary Margaret "Maggie" O'Connell slow-danced with a were-bear in his cave was accompanied by an excerpt from von Stade's Columbia recording of the Baïlèro from Canteloube's Chants d'Auvergne (Spotify).
7/12. String Quartet 12 in F minor (Wikipedia) was written in Spillville, Iowa when Dvorak took some time off during the 1893 crash, remember that one?! He went to NYC where he got a 1500% raise until the crash, when money dried up. Spillville Iowa had a lot of Czech immigrants in 1982. Nicknamed the American Quartet, this is one of the most popular in the chamber music repertoire. (spotify)(Cleveland Quartet YouTube, no video) (Video The New York Philharmonic String Quartet) (Dover Quartet video--wow!)
"Dvořák's appreciation of African-American music is documented: Harry T. Burleigh, a baritone and later a composer, who knew Dvořák while a student at the National Conservatory, said, "I sang our Negro songs for him very often, and before he wrote his own themes, he filled himself with the spirit of the old Spirituals." Dvořák said: "In the Negro melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music." For its presumed association with African-American music, the quartet was referred to with nicknames such as Negro and Nigger, before being called the American Quartet. The older nicknames, without negative connotations for the composition, were abandoned after the 1950s." (Wikipedia)
"A characteristic, unifying element throughout the quartet is the use of the pentatonic scale. This scale gives the whole quartet its open, simple character, a character that is frequently identified with American folk music. However, the pentatonic scale is common in many ethnic musics worldwide, and Dvořák had composed pentatonic music, being familiar with such Slavonic folk music examples, before coming to America."
In the era of fascist politicians like DeSantis, and the rise of ChristoFascism, they try to eliminate America's history because of white fragility, I find it important to point out that the Nigger Quartet would be acceptable up to 1950, for this work. Culture changes slowly and you really have to work to get these things rooted out. Pretend it didn't happen.
The more sexism there is in society, the more denial there is to live in it, denial is proportionate to oppression, because it's just too much to entertain head on. In Macbeth, they talk about not knowing things to do them. Luckily the freedom of the internet hasn't been shut down yet.
7/13 Dover Quartet (spotify)
7/14 Shea Butter Baby by Ari Lennox with J. Cole. "Lost in an alley/Make love by a trash can," is a great line. (They joke about how people confuse her with Annie Lennox in Platonic s1e5)
7/15 Don Giovanni with Silvano Carroli in 1984.
7/16 Alison Brown banjo.
7/17 Blues and the Abstract Truth by Oliver Nelson.
7/18 Joao Donato passed away today. Here's his most popular song on Spotify. His first album came out in 1953. He played with Tito Puente who I saw in Montreal once. I supervised a substance abuse counselor who said he did coke with Tito Puente, before he got sober, of course. 3 degrees of separation. Or that 2?
7/19 Women Cover Bob Dylan article with a playlist in NY Times.
7/20 My favorite song from Hydrogen Jukebox by Philip Glass, with Allen Ginsberg. I saw it live at Carnegie Hall.
7/21 Birth of Cool Read Miles' memoir for a writing class at Queens college. This is my favorite.
7/22 Pres and Sweets (Lester Young and Harry Edison) My favorite background music album, and I've listened to it a million times.
7/23 Back in Black AC/DC. Heavy metal.
7/24 Rumors Fleetwood Mac. Just a good album somehow.
7/25 Live At The Village Vanguard by Bill Evans. Great pianist.
7/26 Always loved Steeleye Span, found this 1975 concert on YouTube. Heavy metal folk music.
7/27 Sarah Shook and the Disclaimers "Fuck up"
7/28 Chet Baker Sings (1956)
7/29. Dido and Aeneas Short early Baroque opera. Links to different versions.
The hit song from that opera is When I am Laid, or Dido's lament:
Annie Lennox sings a version of Dido's Lament. Compare it to one from the opera, like Joyce Didonato (Wikipedia bio). This version of When I am Laid by Helen Charlston. Or this version.
7/30 Alice Sara Ott is on Tiny Desk Concerts.
7/31 DOMi and JD Beck NOT TiGHT. But they are in the pocket, piano and drummer jazz.
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