The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Today is the summer solstice. Here is information about the solstice plus 20 pieces of classical music to mark the coming of summer
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ALERT: Today is the fifth annual Make Music Madison. More than 300 FREE outdoor performances will be featured at some 100 venues. For information about artists, kinds of music, places and times, go to: http://www.makemusicmadison.org
By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Thursday, June 21, 2018.
The summer solstice arrives in Wisconsin early today at 5:07 a.m. Central Daylight Time.
If you want to know more about the summer solstice, here are two stories from NBC and The Washington Post with some interesting information you might not know:
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/what-summer-solstice-ncna884991
Quite a few composers and works of classical music celebrate the coming of summer.
Twenty of the best-known are featured on a blog at the famous classical radio station WQXR FM in New York City. Here is a link:
https://www.wqxr.org/story/20-summertime-classical-pieces-maximum-chill/
The blog posting features many terrific sound samples, including such well-known works as “Summer” section from “The Four Seasons” violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi.
Still, some of the titles – including the famous Overture to “A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream” by Felix Mendelssohn – are not accompanied by sound.
That includes one of The Ear’s favorites, “Knoxville, Summer 1915” by the American composer Samuel Barber with words by the journalist and documentarian James Agee.
Here it is, in a much-praised recording by soprano Dawn Upshaw, in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Here’s hoping summer is better in this part of the country than spring was, what with record cold in April and record rainfall in May that seems to be continuing with disastrous flooding in June.
Happy Summer, all.
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Classical music: What classical music best celebrates the solstice and the arrival of summer?
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REMINDER: Today is the fifth annual citywide Make Music Madison that celebrates the coming of summer with FREE, PUBLIC and LOCAL performances. For more information, go to: https://welltempered.wordpress.com
By Jacob Stockinger
Summer arrived late last night – at 11:24 p.m. — in the Midwest.
To mark and celebrate the welcome event, here are three pieces of well-known summer-related music:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” or a “A Short Night Music” (or “A Little Night Music”:
Summer from Astor Piazzolla’s “Four Seasons in Buenos Aires”:
And Samuel Barber’s “Knoxville, Summer of 1914” with soprano Dawn Upshaw.
But there is so much more to choose from.
Here is a link to five other pieces by different composers –- Antonio Vivaldi, Felix Mendelssohn, Frank Bridge, Alexander Glazunov, Frederick Delius and George Gershwin.
http://www.classical-music.com/article/six-best-pieces-classical-music-summer
Which music would you choose to mark the summer solstice and the coming of summer?
Leave word and a YouTube link, if possible, in the COMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Argentina, Arts, Baroque, Buenos Aires, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, concerto, Dawn Upshaw, Delius, Early music, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Feix Mendelssohn, Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, Frank Bridge, free, Gershwin, Glazunov, Jacob Stockinger, Knoxville Summer 1915, local, Madison, Make Music Madison, Midwest, Mozart, Music, Orchestra, Piazzolla, public, Samuel Barber, solstice, soprano, summer, Summer solstice, tango, The Four Seasons, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Vivaldi, vocal music, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: American composer Michael Djupstrom wins first Delius award in the UK.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Olympic swimmers and gymnasts aren’t the only Americans winning prizes, awards and medals across the Atlantic these days.
Recently, American composer Michael Djupstrom (below) – a new name to The Ear – was named first prize winner of the inaugural contest that was launched to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of the british composer Frederick Delius. Djupstrom won the award for his composition “Walimai” (at bottom) for piano and viola.
Perhaps the contest for composers will help to bring some attention to Delius (below), whose “English Impressionist” style can seem precious but who has been overshadowed by the 150th anniversary of the birth of the revolutionary modernist French Impressionist composer Claude Debussy, whose music has been much more influential and much more performed.
Here is a link to a story about the Delius contest:
And here is a link to the composer’s home website, where you will find a relatively local angle: The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra has commissioned a work from Djupstrom.
http://www.michaeldjupstrom.com
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