#vanessa mae

[figureskatingcostumes]

Tomoki Hiwatashi skating to Emerald Tiger for his short program at the 2018 World Junior Championships.

(Photos by David W. Carmichael)

[eurovision-revisited]

Birmingham 1998 - The interval act and other performances

For the interval, the BBC decided to go for something representative of modern Britain. At the time of the contest, the main spoken word radio station in the UK, BBC Radio 4 opened every day with a medley made up of UK folk tunes and pieces with associations with particular regions inside the UK.

This seems to be similar in thinking to the interval act. Several groups of musicians and dancers representing various cultures that make up the UK circa 1998 all performing an arrangement of Holst's 'Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity' Starting of with the inevitable group of Scottish pipers.

There's a Welsh male voice choir, the Grimethorpe colliery brass band, an Irish harp and whistle. Hang on. Ireland? Yes Northern Ireland, but Ireland? This isn't 1921. But I suppose there's a significant and large Irish community within the UK, and the Good Friday Agreement has been voted on and signed, so we'll let it pass...

..Bhangra dancers? Now it's feeling even more awkward. Yes, it's good to see not only Indian but representation at Eurovision and to acknowledge that Indian communities make up a significant and welcome part of a diverse UK population. Bhangra is especially big in Birmingham too, but aren't there some overtones of...

...Zulu dancing? OK, it's time to say it. Colonialism. It's not intended. It's supposed to be a celebration of multiculturalism and inclusion, but looking at it from 2023, the sight of various cultures singing and dancing to a piece of music to which the words of Sir Cecil Spring Rice, "I Vow to Thee My Country", have been set, it feels like a final nationwide spasm of Empire.

Vanessa Mae (from Singapore) and Lesley Garrett finish things off with the patriotic triumphant conclusion to the production.

It's a misfire - the arrangement is all over the place, trying to force different musical styles onto a 20th century classical piece in rapid-fire succession. The best thing about it is the magnificent blocking and control of camera angles that hide almost completely the movements of the large groups of musicians and dancers as they come and go from the stage.

They aimed for multiculturalism and inclusion and somehow missed. A rare bum note in what is overall a great production.

[wistfulpoltergeist]

Something happened here...

Music’s playing: 

[forcedfemme-me]

Vanessa Mae - Jitrois

[o-berenice-o]

[kadisbook999]

My favorite

[mvaljean525]

XXII

Musing my way through a sombre and favourite fugue By Bach who disburdens my soul but perplexes my fingers, I heard, as it were in the past of my being that listened, Echoes of antiphones chanted remotely: I visioned Martyrs in Glory who stood upon clouds while the singers Lifted their hearts into heaven, by music unprisoned. It this in itself were enough, I am crowned with the best. But the vision in silence has vanished: I know but my need To be clearing my lofts of their lumber, to build with my breath The litany leading me onward, the intimate creed That must hold me enhumbled, barred out from abodes of the blest: For my prayer must be laden with life and the patience that saith, " In our bodies we bide, and the end of the body is death."

Praying I know not to whom in this musicless room Where my soul like the flame of a candle in ecstasy stood, I gaze at my life in a mirror, desirous of good. And my solitude girds me with ghosts, with invisible words: In the mirror I see but the face that is me, that is mine; And the notes of the fugue that were voices from vastness divine.

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From a Fugue by Bach

Siegfried Sassoon  1886-1967

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Graphic - Carl Wilhelm Grießmann  1765-After 1805

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Video:

Vanessa Mae - Toccata and Fugue to 432 Hz.

[summerviolin]

So, here we are and we continue our adventure through the Arcana. And today we finally met this tall red-haired doctor. Music that associates with Dr. Julian is “Contradanza” by Vanessa Mae. I think that it really suitable for him)

20 likes and I continue this series)