The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Today is Memorial Day – a good time to remember the civilian dead as well as the military dead. The Ear likes Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin.” What music would you listen to to mark the holiday?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Memorial Day, 2019, when the nation honors the men and women who died in military service. The Ear would like to see much more attention and remembrance paid to the huge number of civilians — much higher than military personnel and soldiers — who have died in wars and military service, whose lives weren’t given but taken.
In fact, why not establish and celebrate a separate holiday to honor civilian deaths in war? Perhaps it would help to know the detailed history and background of the holiday, since it is not as straightforward or modern as you might expect:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day
What piece of classical music would you listen to in order to mark the holiday?
There is a lot to choose from.
The Ear especially likes “Le Tombeau de Couperin” by the early 20th-century French composer Maurice Ravel. It is a “tombeau” – a metaphorical “tomb” or “grave” used by the French to mean paying homage to the dead – in two senses.
Its neo-Classical or neo-Baroque style recalls the 18th-century world of French composers and harpsichordists including Jean-Philippe Rameau and Francois Couperin. But in a second sense, Ravel (below, in 1910) dedicated each of the six movements to a friend – in one case, two brothers — who had died during World War I. So part of its appeal is that it is a very personal statement of grief.
Here is more detailed background about the piece:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_tombeau_de_Couperin
The work was orchestrated later, which added sonic color but cut out two movements. The Ear prefers the original piano version, which seems a little more percussive, austere and straightforward — less pretty but more beautiful, and more in keeping with the holiday by evoking sentiment without sentimentality.
In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear it in a live performance by Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt.
But there are lots of other works to choose from by many composers: John Adams (“The Wound Dresser” after poetry of Walt Whitman); Samuel Barber (Adagio for Strings); Ludwig van Beethoven (slow movements of Symphonies 3 and 7, and of the Piano Sonata Op. 26); Johannes Brahms (“A German Requiem”); Benjamin Britten (War Requiem); Frederic Chopin (Funeral March from Sonata No. 2, polonaises, preludes and the “Revolutionary” Etude); Aaron Copland (“Fanfare for the Common Man” and “Letter From Home”); Edward Elgar (“Nimrod” from “Enigma Variations”); Gabriel Faure (Requiem and Elegy for cello); Franz Joseph Haydn (“Mass in Time of War”); Paul Hindemith (“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d – A Requiem for Those We Love”); Charles Ives (Variations on “America” and “Decoration Day”); Henry Purcell (“When I Am Laid in Earth”); John Philip Sousa (“Honored Dead” March); Ralph Vaughan Williams (Symphony No. 3 “Pastoral”); and many others, including Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Here is a list from the British radio station Classical FM:
Here is a list of patriotic music from Nashville Public Radio:
Here is another list from an American source:
http://midamerica-music.com/blog/five-classical-works-memorial-day/
Here are more sound samples from NPR:
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104341851
And here is another one from Northwest Public Radio:
https://www.nwpb.org/2015/05/22/memorial-day-music-commemorate-celebrate/
What do you think of a holiday commemorating civilian deaths in war?
What favorite piece of classical music would you play and listen to as you mark Memorial Day?
Let us know, with a YouTube link if possible, in the COMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical Music: Today is Memorial Day 2018. What music would you play to honor those who died in service to their country?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Memorial Day 2018, when those soldiers who died in war and military service to their country — in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard or whatever other branch — are honored. (Below is an Associated Press photo of Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.)
Many blogs, newspapers and radio stations list classical music that is appropriate for the occasion.
But one of the very best overviews and compilations that The Ear has seen comes this year from Capital Public Radio in Sacramento, California.
Here is a link:
http://www.capradio.org/music/classical/2018/05/25/classical-selections-in-honor-of-memorial-day/
Another very good selection dates from last year and comes from Nashville Public Radio.
Perhaps that makes sense because Nashville is such a musical city.
Perhaps it has to do with other reasons.
Whatever the cause, this playlist gives you modern and contemporary composers and music (John Adams, Joseph Bertolozzi and Jeffrey Ames) as well as tried-and-true classics (Henry Purcell and Edward Elgar— the famous and moving “Nimrod” Variation that you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom — Franz Joseph Haydn and Frederic Chopin).
It even features some music that The Ear is sure you don’t know.
Take a look and many listens:
Finally, you can also hear some appropriate music for today on Wisconsin Public Radio.
Do you agree with the choices?
Do you like them or at least some of them? Which ones?
Which music would you choose or add to mark today’s holiday?
Leave a title and, if possible, a link to a YouTube performance in the COMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear.
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: Today is the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Here is a sonic and visual “D-Day Symphony” to mark the event – as well as two moving pieces to honor the day and the dead. What music would you choose?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is the 75th anniversary of D-Day, that deadly day – June 6, 1944 — when massive Allied forces (below, seen gathering on Omaha Beach) invaded the Normandy coast of France in Nazi-occupied Europe, beginning the liberation from Hitler’ Germany and the end of World War II.
In searching for music to mark the occasion, The Ear returned to two of the best pieces of memorial music he knows of and which are below: the “Nimrod” Variation from Edward Elgar’s “Enigma” Variations, a piece that was used in Ken Burn’s celebrated TV documentary about World War II; and Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings.”
It seems only fitting to the occasion to have works by an American composer and a British composer.
But in searching for music, The Ear also stumbled by chance across a little-known piece that uses a work by a French composer, which also seems fitting for the occasion and the day. It is a sonic and visual symphony of remembrance – a “D-Day Symphony,” if you will — that uses the second movement from the Symphony No. 3 by Arthur Honegger. It is in the YouTube video at the bottom.
The Ear hopes you also find the work moving and a welcome, if largely unknown, addition to musical remembrances for this historic event. Tell us what you think.
And if there is another work you would listen to while marking the anniversary of D-Day, please leave your comment along with the composer and title and, if possible, a YouTube link in the COMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear.
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