The Well-Tempered Ear
Brrr! It’s time to hear the ‘Polar Vortex’ aria
10 Comments
PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
We in the Upper Midwest — like much of the rest of the United States down to the Gulf of Mexico — have been treated to an Arctic gift from Canada for the next week or so.
It is called the Polar Vortex (below).
As you can see if you look closely or enlarge the diagram, the vortex has dropped way south from the North Pole, bringing with it way-below average temperatures, many of them going into the double digits below zero. And that doesn’t even include wind chill. (China has also been experiencing recording-breaking extreme cold.)
So it seemed only reasonable to see how a composer has expressed such extreme cold in a piece of vocal music — especially as the cold weather might seriously affect the Republican presidential caucuses that get started tomorrow in Iowa.
So here — complete with lyrics by the famous English writer John Dryden — is “The Cold Song” from 1691 opera “King Arthur” by the British baroque composer Henry Purcell (below), who did a terrific job of word painting and sound painting.
The Ear calls it the “Polar Vortex” aria. Officially its title is “What Power Art Thou Who From Below” and is sung by a character called The Cold Genius.
In the YouTube video below it is interpreted by the world-renowned countertenor Andreas Scholl (below) who is accompanied by the highly praised period-instrument early musical ensemble Accademia Byzantina under director Stefan Montenari.
The quivering repetitive rhythm you see in the notes duplicates shivering as a kind of extreme vibrato.
It is a literally chilling performance.
If you follow the words, the lyrics add to the sense of being stuck in a deep freeze.
How well do you think the imaginative song captures the extreme cold of The Polar Vortex?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CountertenorSinger, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #World-Renowned, #YouTubevideo, Accademia Bizantina, acclaim, affect, Andreas Scholl, Android, Apple, Arctic, Arts, Asia, asian, Baroque, below-average, blog, British, Brrr!, Canada, Canadian, caucus, Chamber music, chilling, China, Chinese, choral music, Classical music, cold, composer, Concert, countertenor, diagram, duplicate, Early music, English, express, extreme, Facebook, freeze, frostbite, genius, gift, Great Britain, Great Plains, Gulf, Gulf of Mexico, Henry Purcell, Iowa, Italian, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, John Dryden, link, listen, literally, lyrics, Madison, Mexico, Michigan, Midwest, Minnesota, Montana, Music, Nebraska, North Pole, notes, official, opera, Orchestra, OS, OS systen, performance, piece, Polar Vortex, pole, power, praise, President, presidential, quivering, reasonable, renowned, repetitive, Republican, rest, rhythm, share, shiver, shivering, singer, song, Sound, sound painting, subzero, tag, temperature, The Ear, time, title, tomorrow, treat, U.S., UK, United States, upper Midwest, vibrato, vocal music, weather, week, winter, Wisconsin, word, word painting, world, YouTube, zero
Classical music: Conservative Republican presidential candidate and Evangelical Christian Ted Cruz wants to ban the tritone – or Devil’s chord – from classical music. NOT. Then again, maybe he does
1 Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
Today is the first day when you can vote early via absentee ballot for the presidential primary election in Wisconsin on Tuesday, April 5, when you can also vote to fill a seat on the state Supreme Court.
And tomorrow, Tuesday, brings more presidential primaries for both Republicans and Democrats in the Western states of Arizona and Utah. Plus, there will also be Democratic caucuses in Idaho.
So the following political piece — a pseudo-news report — seems timely and appropriate, especially given the drive by establishment Republicans to rally and choose the ultra-conservative U.S. Senator Ted Cruz from Texas (below) as a way to stop New York City businessman Donald Trump.
Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks at the Defending the American Dream summit hosted by Americans for Prosperity at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, Saturday, Aug. 22, 2015. (AP Photo/Paul Vernon)
Sure, it’s a satire.
But it is a very well done satire — about something that was indeed banned in the Renaissance and Baroque eras by the Roman Catholic Church.
But like so much satire, it is fun that also cuts close to the bone and contains more than a grain of truth about Cruz and about his many “first day on the job” promises if he gets elected president.
Cruz, the son of an evangelical minister, is such a devout and intolerant Christian fundamentalist, it is almost as if he is waging his own jihad, much like the Islamic terrorist state ISIS, on any culture he considers unChristian and heretical to his personal faith and what he considers to be the inerrant and literal truth of the Bible.
Hmm. Does that qualify him as an extremist or radical?
To The Ear, what is really and truly scary is Cruz — not the music.
And it is hard to say who is more threatening as a potential president: Donald Trump or Ted Cruz?
Well, make up your own mind, fellow music-lovers.
Here is the satire from submediant.com. It’s a good read with lots of details, specific composers and food for thought.
http://www.submediant.com/2016/03/15/citing-evangelical-faith-ted-cruz-calls-to-ban-satanic-tritone/
And here is a YouTube lesson in music theory that offers an explanation with examples of the Satanic tritone:
Tags: absentee, AP, Arizona, Arnold Schoenberg, Arts, Associated Press, Bach, ballot, ban, Baroque, Bible, Business, caucus, Christian, Christianity, church, Classical music, conservative, culture, Democratic Party, Democrats, Devil, Donald Trump, Election, evangelical, extremist, fundamentalist, heresy, Idaho, ISIS, Islam, Jacob Stockinger, Jeremy Denk, jihad, Johann Joseph Fux, Leonard Bernstein, Liszt, Madison, Maria, minister, Music, music theory, New York City, news, Orchestra, Piano, President, presidential, primary, radical, Renaissance, report, Republican Party United States, Roman Catholic, Satanic, satire, senator, Supreme Court, Ted Cruz, terror, terrorist, Texas, tonal, tritone, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Utah, West Side Story, Western, Wisconsin, YouTube
Recent Comments
 | Brian Jefferies on Classical music: A major reass… |
 | welltemperedear on What made Beethoven sick and… |
 | rlhess5d5b7e5dff on What made Beethoven sick and… |
| welltemperedear on Beethoven’s Ninth turns 200… |
 | Robert Graebner on Beethoven’s Ninth turns 200… |
The Well-Tempered Ear 