The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Amy Beach turns 150. Read about the woman and her music
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By Jacob Stockinger
Amy Beach (1867-1944, below) was a pioneering American composer who fought against sexism in her lifetime and who benefitted greatly from the rediscovery of women artists during the feminist revival of the 1970s and 1980s.
But here is a link to the most comprehensive story The Ear has yet read about Beach and her music, which is still neglected and not getting the attention it deserves, especially the larger and more ambitious works. (You can find many on YouTube and other streaming services.)
The story marked the 150th anniversary of her birth and appeared last Sunday in The New York Times.
Here is a link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/arts/music/amy-beach-women-american-composer.html
And here, introduced and played by Rachel Barton Pine in a YouTube video, is one of her last and more minor works: a lovely Romance for violin and piano. It remains one of The Ear’s favorites.
Tags: American, Amy Beach, anniversary, artist, Arts, Beethoven, birth, Brahms, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, doctor, Dvorak, Europe, feminism, feminist, Gaelic, George Whitfield Chadwick, Jacob Stockinger, John Knowles Paine, Madison, Music, neglect, New Hampshire, Orchestra, Piano, Rachel Barton Pine, revival, Romance, Saint-Saens, Sexism, Sonata, song, songs, streaming, The New York Times, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, woman, women, YouTube
Classical music: The critically acclaimed vocal group Cantus sings about four kinds of love at the Stoughton Opera House this Saturday night. The Stoughton High School Concert Choir is a special guest performer.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received word about an intriguing and appealing performance this weekend:
On this Saturday night at 7:30 p.m., Cantus (below top, in a photo by Curtis Johnson), the critically acclaimed, nine-voice men’s vocal ensemble based in the Twin Cities, will perform at the Stoughton Opera House (below middle and bottom), known for its historical restoration and its fine acoustics.
Love has been the inspiration for artistic expression since the dawn of time. It is such a complex idea that the ancient Greeks broke it down into four different kinds: romantic, familial, friendly and unconditional or spiritual love.
Weaving together repertoire and interstitial remarks, Cantus regards this unquantifiable emotion from all sides.
The program spans multiple historical eras and cultural traditions.
It features music by Francis Poulenc, Edvard Grieg, Ludwig van Beethoven and Bobby McFerrin.
Each of those works is paired with newly commissioned works exploring each of the four loves (romantic, familial, friendly and spiritual) by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lang (below top, in a photo by Peter Serling) as well as Roger Treece (second below), Joseph Gregorio (third below) and Ysaye Barnwell (below bottom).
The program brims with Cantus’s trademark programming juxtaposition, including pairing the Beach Boys’ “Their Hearts were Full of Spring” with “Wedding Qawwali” by the Grammy Award- and Academy Award-winning Indian composer A. R. Rahman (below) and Michael McGlynn’s setting of the traditional Gaelic “Ceann Dubh Dilis (Her Sweet Dark Head)” in a set about romantic love.
While seemingly disjointed on its face, the variety of repertoire throughout blends seamlessly and highlights the universality of Love – our greatest and most fragile gift.
For more information about Cantus, including biographies, photos, videos and audio samples, visit this link:
http://www.allianceartistmanagement.com/artist.php?id=cantus&aview=dpk
Here is a YouTube video about the program, with musical samples, to be performed in Stoughton:
Tags: a cappella, Academy Award, Ancient Greece, Arts, Audio, Beach Boys, Beethoven, Bobby McFerrin, Cantus, Choir, choral music, Classical music, composer, culture, David Lang, diversity, Family, friend, Gaelic, Grammy, Greece, Greek, Grieg, high school, History, India, Indian, Irish, Jacob Stockinger, Joseph Gregorio, Lang, Love, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Minneapolis, multicultural, Music, opera, Opera house, Oscar, photo, popular music, Poulenc, Pulitzer Prize, Rock, Roger Treece, Romance, Romantic, spiritual, St. Paul, Stoughton, Stoughton High School, Stoughton Opera House, surf music, Twin Cities, unconditional, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, video, vocal music, Wisconsin, YouTube, Ysaye Barnwell
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