You're Gonna Love This!

[Flintlock76]

I just found this remarkable short film on YouTube, a wonderful blend of music and N&W's "Mighty 611."  

It's called "Be Glad Then, America."  Glad indeed, check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ-yyuIGtJc  

[Overmod]

I knew there would be a reason to have a 27" monitor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpKHYe2gSU4

[Flintlock76]

"The Continental Harmony" by William Billings!  I know that name, he's the composer of "Chester," the "Battle Hymn Of The Republic" of the Revolutionary War.

"Let tyrants shake their iron rods, and slav'ry clank her galling chains."

"We fear them not, we trust in God.  New England's God forever reigns!"

What the hell, these folks sing it better than I do...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7S_07E-9CA  

Thanks Mod-man!

[daveklepper]

My own response to your powerful musical contribution to the spirit of the season.

You do know the melody:

 

'TIS THE GIFT TO BE SIMPLE        HAMATTANAH LIHIYOT PASHUUT            ILHADIYYA TSIIR BASITTE

   'TIS THE GIFT TO BE FREE    HAMATTANAH LIHIYOT HOFSHII              ILHADIYYA TSIIR FADIYYE

'TIS THE GIIFT TO COME DOWN           HAMATTANAH LESHEVET                       ILHADDIYA TUQgUD

   WHERE YOU OUGHT TO BE                BAMAKOM HAHETOV SHELII                   FI LMAHAL MABSUTILI

AND WHEN YOU FIND YOURSELF       KISHETIMTSAA HAMAKOM                      WLAAMEN BITLAAQIIK

  IN THE PLACE JUST RIGHT             HAHETOV SHELHA                       FI MAHALAK IDDURRI

IT WILL BE IN THE VALLEY                   TIHIYYEH BAMAKOM                               BITSSIIR FI LWADI

  OF LOVE AND DELIGHT                       BI'AHAVAH VIHATZLIHAH                        ILHUBBI WISSURUURI

WHEN TRUE SIMPLICITY'S             KISHEHAPASHUT HANIHONAH        LAMMA LBASAATA SSAHIIHE

  ATTAINED                                            TIMTSAA                                                 BITLAAQI

TO BOW AND TO BEND                        HAHISHTAHAVUUT                   TISARREF ITTAANI

  YOU SHAN'T BE ASHAMED                  LO TIHIYYEH LIHA DOHAH                       MISH ILAK gAATELI

TO TURN AND TO TURN                        LISAVOV, LISAVOV                                 TIDUUR WTIDUUR

  WILL BE THY DELIGHT                         YIHIYYEH LIHA ASHASHAH                     YSSIIR ILAK KAgKE

'TILL BY TURNING RIGHT AROUND             AD SHETISSAVOV BIMAAGUL      LAHAD BITDUUR FI LHAWWAL

  YOU'LL COME OUT RIGHT.                   VITAITZAI YASHAAR                                WBITLAAg SSAHIIH

 

H = soft kh, like Hanukah and Haifa        H = hard kh, like "barukh atah..."     g =  Arabic Ayin, a very soft almost silent gh.   R =  the French r, almost an rgh.      Q = very soft, almost silent.   SH used together are one consonant

 

 

 

Thanks to the Shakers for the English Language song, and the Hebrew and Arabic interpretations and transliterations are in honor and memory of William Warfield and Aaron Copeland.  I thank the teachers who corrected my homework.

 

המתנה להיות פשוט תהייה מתנה להיות חופשי

המתנה לשבת במקום ההטוב שלי

כשתמצא המקום ההטוב שלך

תהייה במקום באהבה והצלחה

כשהמקום ההטות תמצא

ההשתחוות לא תהייה לך דוחה

לסבוב לסבוב תהייה אששה

עד שתסבוב במגול ותצא ישר                                              

[Flintlock76]

"Simple Gifts,"  the Shaker classic.

Thanks David!

And this is for you, I'm not Jewish but I love this old song, "Rock of Ages," or, "Ma'oz Tzur."  Very appropriate for this time of year!

Lovely arrangement, everyone else should hear it too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDnqRkJmP9k  

 

[Penny Trains]

Flintlock76

I just found this remarkable short film on YouTube, a wonderful blend of music and N&W's "Mighty 611."

What can I say?  Bombastic music and streamliners go together like apple pie and vanilla ice cream! 

[Flintlock76]

Penny Trains

 

 

Flintlock76

I just found this remarkable short film on YouTube, a wonderful blend of music and N&W's "Mighty 611."

 

 

What can I say?  Bombastic music and streamliners go together like apple pie and vanilla ice cream! 

 

I prefer chocolate but I get where you're comin' from!  

[Jones1945]

Flintlock76

"The Continental Harmony" by William Billings!  I know that name, he's the composer of "Chester," the "Battle Hymn Of The Republic" of the Revolutionary War.

"Let tyrants shake their iron rods, and slav'ry clank her galling chains."

"We fear them not, we trust in God.  New England's God forever reigns!"

What the hell, these folks sing it better than I do...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7S_07E-9CA  

Thanks Mod-man!

 

I love you guys sharing, especially this piece! This is the best timing to sharing it since we are already fighting against another tyrant who is threating millions of follower of the way. 

I am not familiar with American's early hymns, even though I probably have sung a lot of them in the church.

I am a Baroque music lover since I was a kid, I sang this piece in a small singing competition before my voice changed (was it? ):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00Q-JzQDQBU

[daveklepper]

Beutiful aria from the Bach Cantata "Wachit Auf,"  Sleepers Awake.

Also a Bach fan.  Most often wake up with organ Trio Sonatas.

[Overmod]

To be honest I much prefer Hana's version:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ve-64Qt8VNo

Something I could never stand is those screeching bel canto art songs.  I think it may be one of those things, like how I hate country but love bluegrass, abhor most rap but love funk, and have a terrible psychophysical problem with how at least half the world's famous violinists seem to perceive tempered pitch of the chanterelle.

If they'd just sing the songs like hymns, in plain honest normal intonation instead of weird Italianate vowels and excessive 'expression'.  The same goes double for typical ham Shakespearean overacting...

[daveklepper]

Well, I for one am glad there is a version you like.  It's Bach's music that is important to me, not a particular version.

Like you with romanticized Bach singing to make it more like Italian opera arias, I prefer Bach's keyboard music on instrumenets he knew and played, organ, harpsichord (cembalo) and clavichord.  Not the modern piano.

But 2-1/2 weeks ago at Brigham Young University's Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies (known locally as "The Mormon U.") glass-walled concert hall, I heard a 16-year old pianist give his debut major recital, with starting with Bach's Sinphonia from his C-minor Partita, and I was boaled over.  I had to admit to enjoying his performance.

So do keep an open mind!

 

[daveklepper]

[daveklepper]

And Hana's version is worth keeping and hearing over and over again.

[Overmod]

daveklepper

So do keep an open mind!

I thought 'If God is for us' was Handel, from the Messiah.

On the subject of Bach, my very first exposure to him was via Switched-on Bach in the days it was still by Walter.  And my introduction to that greatest of Debussy piano pieces the Cathedrale Engloutie was via Tomita (I think on Snowflakes are Dancing).  (Here is the piece itself, played by a somewhat unexpected pianist, thanks to one of the ten best machines ever built in Europe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=levGISzDmjs

Look up the legends of Ys, and then see if you don't agree with me how wonderful this is...

In a somewhat more relaxed (shall we say) interpretation of 'Bach' I have loved the peculiar institution that is Peter Schickele (or perhaps the place he should be confined) since before I understood half the musical jokes.  

I just don't like shrieking and intentionally distorted language, I suppose, especially when it is pretentious.  I have a particular dislike for the intentional (mis)use of Autotune in many contemporary songs for what are probably similar reasons.  You won't hear me claim there is anything wrong with liking the bel canto schtick - it's just really, really not for me.

Funny that the one time I met Arthur C. Clarke (at a book signing) what we talked about was a mutual love of Bach, not science fiction.

[Flintlock76]

You know, Hana's version is  better, and probably much closer to the actual 18th Century interpretation.  Which is the way we're supposed to hear it.

[Deggesty]

Overmod, you do mean J. S. Bach, not his only forgotten son, P.D.Q., do you not?

[Penny Trains]

I'm a Mozart fan. 

[Overmod]

Deggesty

Overmod, you do mean J. S. Bach, not his only forgotten son, P.D.Q., do you not?

Well, if I said Schickele, you could answer that on your own... without having to score a stint on Opera Whiz.  

The other stuff does refer to J.S., "the original and best".

[Overmod]

Penny Trains

I'm a Mozart fan.

Isn't everyone??  <cue laugh from many scenes in 'Amadeus'>

Then you must like K231; for 'convenience' I provide its MIDI here.  (Pity the embed feature isn't working thanks to Kalmbach IT.)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Leck_mich_im_Arsch.mid

Pity K233 (K382b as revised) turns out to be by somebody else*.  It had an even better text, as well as a somewhat more comprehensive title.

Quickly, now, quickly!

 

*I say this for two reasons, first because the music (what is what Mozart is renowned for) turns out to be by someone with a name like an electrical short, and second because while the words appear to be undeniably Mozart, I doubt Penny or other devotees of Wolfgang Amadeus will find them as much the product of genius as his music...

[Deggesty]

Overmod

 

 

Deggesty

Overmod, you do mean J. S. Bach, not his only forgotten son, P.D.Q., do you not?

 

 

Well, if I said Schickele, you could answer that on your own... without having to score a stint on Opera Whiz.  

The other stuff does refer to J.S., "the original and best".

 

Yes, listen to the bargain counter tenor.

[Overmod]

You know, it is with a pang of nostalgia (and perhaps like Proust, or De Duve, with a remembered pang of colic or the agenbite of inwitlessness as well) that I remember Horn & Hardart is closed.

And that Iphigenia may still be in Brooklyn, like a kind of cartoon tree trying to stand tall for a million yearning canines, after all these years.

[daveklepper]

One can certainly love Bach and also adore Mozart and certainly the other B's,

Beethoven, Brahms,  Buxtehud, Bruckner,  Berlioz, Bloch, Bernstein, Britain, Biber, Brubeck; the other M's, Mahler. Mussorgski, Montiverdi, well, you get the idea.

[Jones1945]

Overmod

To be honest I much prefer Hana's version: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ve-64Qt8VNo

I can see/hear why Hana's version is one of the best; never forget the dos and don'ts when singing an Aria in an English oratorio... listening to you guys sharing reminds me the days when people need to actually buy a record to compare different versions instead of using a shortcut like YouTube or iTune to find the best one (it is not a bad thing to promote Classical Music/Train :P), it worth the time and resource invested though, but if someone don't have friends who love classical music, he would have bought a lot of records he/she/hesheit doesn't like. Music is a subjective thing like train and railroad hobby, love it or hate it (well people could also ignore it), some people prefer O gauge to HO scale; some prefer geared locomotives to much larger size engines, let alone the "battle" between diesel and steam... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vafm_PdWsrI

Overmod

Something I could never stand is those screeching bel canto art songs.  I think it may be one of those things, like how I hate country but love bluegrass, abhor most rap but love funk, and have a terrible psychophysical problem with how at least half the world's famous violinists seem to perceive tempered pitch of the chanterelle.

Professional training of Bel canto was very harsh and painful for me, even though I exclusively love Baroque Arias, but only interested in serval voice types and composers... Mozart: Yes, why not, J.F. Handel: of course, J.S. Bach: sure thing, Antonio Salieri: absolutely understated, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: my poor boy... Vivaldi: nope! Gluck: absolutely not (The reason is obvious in my case)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh_kvU_LX6c

Penny Trains

I'm a Mozart fan.  

Sie kommt! Sie kommt!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1ODbDKmSEc

[daveklepper]

Comparison with the railfan hobby makes sense.  There are those among us who only like steam, or only like streetcars and interurbans, or only narrow-gauge, or only passenger-service trains, etc.  But many of us do like them all, and have photographed them all.   I enjoy jazz, Beetles, Shostakovich, Gregorian Chant, and even occasional well-done chants from the hard-to-escape Muslim Minerets.   And:

[daveklepper]

And the Debussy Engulfed Cathedral is great, and his performance is great, and so is Arthr Rubenstein's (very close in interpretation) and so is the equipment that does a wonderful job of recreating old performances into modern hifi stereo.

Debusy's Sonata for Violin and Piano was beautifully performed at the Hwb. U. faculty recital this past Monday afternoon.  Another really fine piece of music.

[Deggesty]

Dave mentioned Debussy--and I thought of his "La Fille aux cheveux lin," which he wrote for piano, but I prefer hearing it played on a violin.