Desert Island Disks

For today’s Halesworth U3A Music Appreciation Group meeting three of us did our Desert Island Disks, a choice of 3 each from 3 of us. If I have mistaken any of the pieces in any way, apologies

First Up Joan with

(1) Salvatore Accardo playing Bruck’s  Violin Concerto with Leipzig orchestra conducted by Kurt Masur.

(2) Barbara Streisand with Barry Gibb singing Stranger in a Strange Land

(3) Elisabeth Welch singing “In No Time” a comic song which I cannot find a working link to online but you can see more of her stuff on her Youtube channel and they might even have repaired the link

Next Up – Michael with a locally themed collection

(1) Halesworth Community Choir singing Red Sails by Bridget Cousins – its an amateur recording and amazingly I found it on YouTube!

(2) Shir playing Shalom Aleichem from the album From the Heart which you can listen to on Soundcloud its track 8.

(3) Gould Trio playing Brahms Piano Trio in C minor No3

Next Up Myself

(1) Adiemus: The Etrenal Knot Track No 1 Cu Chillan

 

(2) Toumani Diabete and Ballake Sissoko New Ancient Strings Track No. 1 Bi Lamban

(3) Google and You Tube commission Internet symphony by Tan Dun entitled Eroica

And finally we rounded off with a comic ditty from John

Jonathon Adam and Robin Ray singing When you are old and Grey from the stage  production Tomfoolery which is available on itunes Track 6

Desert Island Disks

I was asked to pick 3 recordings as my "Desert Island" disks for our Music Appreciation group which meets tomorrow. After much deliberation I picked the following -

(1) Ch Chullain, from Adiemus: The Eternal Knot by Karl Jenkins - because it reminds me of my Celtic heritage and is uplifting;

(2) Bi Lamban by Toumani Diabete and Ballake Sissoko, two master players from Mali of is probably my favourite sounding instrument, the kora, from west Africa;

and

(3) Tan Dun's Eroica - The Internet Symphony because I love fusion is all things - food, music - and this has it, with intertextual homages and great percussion, I love it. 

Music group playlist

Our music sharing group met again on Thursday this week. The playlist was 

1. Jean Sibelius   - Intermezzo from the Karelia Suite
2. Dag Wiren  - Marcia from Serenade Op11 
3. Carl Nielsen  -  Praeludium from Little Suite for String Orchestra
4. Richard Strauss  - 'At sunset'  from The Four Last Songs (Lisa Della Cara was the singer on the version we heard but I can’t find an online link to her version so here is Jessye Norman’s)
5. Michael Brecker  - Escher Sketch  A Tale of Two Rhythms from the  1990 album 'Now You See It... Now You Don't
6. Percy Grainger  - Country Gardens
7. George Gershwin  (arr P. Grainger)   - The Man I  Love

U3A Music Appreciation Group

I heard that Halesworth Branch of the U3A were trying to start a Music Appreciation group  so this afternoon went along to a meeting designed to test the water of interest. Sadly only 4 people turned up, and one of those let after 10 minutes or so – having thought it was Musicals appreciation and preferring to be outdoors on a lovely summer afternoon. The 3 of us left listened to 4 very different pieces of music brought along by one person. They were

• 
  
  Beethoven’  Appassionato played by John Ogdon
• 
  
  Ketil Bjornstad’s Sunrise
• 
  
  Michael Brecker’s Walkiria
• 
  
  Norma  Winstone’s Distances  - she has just voted Jazz Vocalist of the Year 2015 aged 65!

Out of this only Michael Brecker is in my own collection albeit not the particular track that was played and assuming I got the track name correct I can’t find an online link to it.

For me the “introduction” of the session has to be the Ketil Bjornstad’s music inspired by the paintings of Edward Munch. Although not normally a lover of choral music I very much took to the mix of cello, timpani and choral voices and bought the album! I found this interesting review of his work

War Music by Sheila Ash

While browsing my Facebook friends today I read the following poem written by Fadi Alansary on one of my Liked Pages

Je n’aime pas la guerre.
La guerre prive le nouveau-né de sa mère.
La guerre retire aux enfants leurs pères.
La guerre détruit la terre.
La guerre menace le savoir-faire.
La guerre emporte ls braves.
La guerre éteint ls rêves.
La guerre tue le sages.
La guerre ne connait pas d’âge.
La guerre c’est la rage.
Je n’aime pas la guerre, un mauvais message.
Je n’aime pas la guerre, elle meurtrie les cœurs et bloque les passages.
La guerre affame les innocents, elle les rend orphelins.
La guerre est un marasme.
La guerre traumatise les refugies, les rend impuissants dans l’attente d’un sauvetage.
Je n’aime pas la guerre.

Fadi Alansary

I was so moved by it I wrote the following echo response
J'ai trouvé votre poème d'inspiration et écrit son écho

I love music
Music binds people in love
Music helps children have fun playing games
Music heals the souls of the sick
Music calms the troubled brow and stirs the passionate heart
Music knows no age
Music from the sweet voices of innocent little children
Music of a bygone age brings back memories and consolidates reminiscences
Music brings disparate people together
Music overcomes absence and loss
Music feeds the human spirit
The music is still playing
Music never dies

Sheila Ash, 2013

La musique du desert

 

Just giving a blatant plug to the first album from a young Tuareg group, Dèran, which includes my friend Boubaker from Djanet. I first met him as a young lad who came to cook for us as we travelled in the Tadrart region of south east Algeria. As I discovered he played guitar and kept us entertained in the evening with Tinariwen songs and stories of wanting to make music to “welcome everyone to the desert”. He comes from a long line of Tuareg musicians including his mother who is an imzad player. Now as a young man his band have cut their first album I hope they can get it played and release through one of the internet agencies that specialises in this type of music such as Re-aktion. In the meantime here is a taster for you all to enjoy.