Wandering Capriccio

Sharing the love of Classical Music

[hannibalsmusic]

[opus3no1]

Who’s down for a marathon

[you-had-me-at-e-flat-major]

what about mahler

[senfonikankara]

Famous last words of classical composers

[abcclassic2-deactivated20191017]

If your music emanates from your very heart, it will have a reciprocal effect on others.

R Schumann’s Literary Works, Vol. IV. (via abcclassic2)

[zoekeating]

The bomb & some concerts

Hello Listeners,

You probably know this already but the last few months I’ve been composing another TV score with Jeff Russo (he and I also collaborated on the score for The Returned). The show is called Manhattan and it’s a drama about the making of the atomic bomb.

Episode 1 of Season 2 premiered last week on WGN (the music for the first season was composed by Jonsi & Alex) and I can tell you now that the episode opened with my piece Legions (War) as soundtrack. The creators of the show chose this piece on their own, without realizing that I had composed Legions (War) for the 60th anniversary of the Trinity nuclear test. Pretty amazing coincidence I think and it really reinforced for me how this project and I were a good fit. Episode 2 airs tonight, Oct 20th, on WGN.

Anyway, this TV thing has been a good gig for me. First, it’s something new and I like the challenge. Second, I NEED to make music but the trauma of Jeff’s death is still too present for me to lose myself in the intensity of my solo work. Third, I’ve got to make a living but haven’t yet figured out how to integrate touring and solo-parenting. One thing at a time.

Speaking of touring, I do have a few concerts coming up.

November 13 I’m playing at a benefit dinner for The Garrison Institute in NYC to fund their mission for the next decade. They will be honoring Sharon Salzberg and Rabbi Rachel Cowan at the event and there will be performances by me, Shawn Colvin and Phillip Glass.

November 22 Old Town School of Music in Chicago The evening show is sold out so we’ve added a late afternoon matinee.

Ticket links can be found at http://www.zoekeating.com

Thanks so much for supporting me through all this.

celloly yours, Zoë

[abcclassic2-deactivated20191017]

Turns out our genius pal Mozart was a bit of a character, and somewhat less refined than the intricate melodies of his finest music may have led us to believe. As we celebrate what would have been his 259th geburtstag. Here are a few things you might not have known about him.

Mozart...

[abcclassic2-deactivated20191017]

THE WELL-MEANING IDIOT’S GUIDE TO THE PERIODS OF WESTERN MUSIC

Disclaimer: historical periods are hard to define. These dates have some consensus among musics historians – with notable dissent.

Baroque (1600 – 1760)

The word “baroque” comes from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning misshapen pearl, referring to the heavily ornate and asymmetrical musical shapes.

Diatonic (major and minor) keys took their current form, as did the well-established rules of harmony that continue to be taught and ignored today.

Opera went nuts. Also related forms like cantata and oratorio. The sonata also happened, though didn’t reach the familiar solo form we know today until the classical era.

Pachelbel wrote a canon to launch a thousand weddings. Handel made us “better”. Vivaldi was a terrible priest (but an alright composer). Bach did his thing, and, you know, changed the world.

Polyphony – ‘many voices’ – dominated, in which each voice or instrument is treated as an equal melodic partner within a coherent whole.

Continuo or “figured bass” was all the rage – this is a shorthand accompaniment to be improvised by the keyboardist: the 17th-century equivalent of the Real Book.

To see some period instruments in action, the video above is Dieterich Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri.

[abcclassic2-deactivated20191017]

Aaron Cohen’s International Encyclopedia of Women Composers (1987) manages to gather some 6,000 entries — but how many of them would you recognise? Here are a few more of the many awe-inspiring women devoted to classical music.

Hildegard von Bingen - 12th century nun

A crusader for...

[abcclassic2-deactivated20191017]

ABC Classic 2 is celebrating Oz Music Month in November.

At midday, Sydney time, every Wednesday to Sunday we’ll feature an hour’s worth of beautiful music from a different Australian composer. This Wednesday 26 November we’ll be broadcasting the music of poet and composer, Miriam Hyde.

If you’ve learned an instrument in Australia, you’ve probably played Miriam Hyde’s (1913-2005) charming, evocative music. The pianist and composer was also a tireless educator and wrote hundreds of pieces for young musicians. At just 21, her Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat minor was performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Hyde’s life in music was unsurprisingly supplemented by her poetry. She wrote close to 500 poems, some of which she set to music. Miriam Hyde died in 2005, just a few days before her 92nd birthday.

Have a listen to some of her music on Spotify.

And click here to enter our Oz Music Month competition to win an iPad mini and an Australian classical CD pack!

[zoekeating]

This is what I’m doing right now, at all hours of the day and night.

;-)

Jeff Russo and Zoe Keating are composing the music for the upcoming A&E original series The Returned starring Mark Pellegrino, Tandi Wright, India Ennenga, Sophie Lowe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jeremy Sisto, Kevin Alejandro, Agnes Bruckner and Sandrine Holt. The show is based on the International Emmy Award-winning French series Les Revenants and focuses on a small town that is turned upside down when several local people, who have been long presumed dead suddenly reappear, bringing with them both positive and detrimental consequences. Carlton Cuse (Lost, Bates Motel) has written the pilot episode and is writing and executive producing the series with Raelle Tucker (True Blood). Thom Beers, Craig Cegielski and Stefanie Berk are also executive producing the A+E Studios and FremantleMedia North America production. The Returned is set to premiere in 2015 on A&E.

[instrumental-artistry]

Lyre guitar, ca. 1810 Joseph Pons (French, born in 1776)

- Materials: Back/sides: Satinwood • Top: Spruce, ebony • Neck/Bridge: Ebonised wood • Fluted Columns: Mahogany • Fingerboard/bridge pins/tuning pegs/buttons: ebony, pearl - Length: 87.5 cm - Strings: 6 - Other Notes: There are also imitation gemstones at the center of the rosettes, yoke spirals, bridge pins, and tuning pegs.

Source: Boston-MFA

[ancientart]

Anthropomorphic tubular duct flutes.

Both from ancient Mexico, the first is either Maya or Veracruz, and the second is from Colima. The first dates to the Late Classic (AD 600-900), and the second is earlier at about 300 BC- AD 200.

Tubular duct flutes in the collection illustrate the variety of aerophones that typify the musical instrument repertoire of different societies during Late Classic times in Mesoamerica. They share the modeling of the human figure as their primary decorative program, but these range from the dramatic naturalism of near portraiture seen on this Veracruz or Maya flute [first image], to the schematized portrayal on the fluted instrument, and ending with the extreme minimalism of the figural rendering on the double-chambered flute from Colima [second image].

Each instrument holds its unique potential for creating a variety of tones and sounds of different timbres, depending on the force of wind entering the mouthpiece and sound chamber(s) as well as the positioning of the player’s fingers (when applicable). Although the casual musician can produce acceptable sounds from these instruments, practiced skill is required to achieve their full effect. (Walters)

Artefacts courtesy of & currently located at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, USA. Via their online collections: 2009.20.135 & 2009.20.138.

[instrumental-artistry]

[beatusmusicus]

Viola d’amore, ca. 1700’s Johannes Florenus Guidantus Source: NY-MetMA

[composersdoingnormalshit]

Sergei Rachmaninoff having a miserable time with some lady friends.

[atomulrich]

Music is a means capable of expressing dark dramatism and pure rapture, suffering and ecstasy, fiery and cold fury, melancholy and wild merriment – and the subtlest nuances and interplay of these feelings which words are powerless to express and which are unattainable in painting and sculpture.

Dmitri Shostakovich “The Power of Music” (1964), translated in Music Journal, September 1965.  (via atomulrich)

[laughingsquid]

Elephants Dance to a Bach Concerto Played by Violinist Eleanor Bartsch

[sillywhatwell-blog]

My favourite composer quotes, all in one neat post.

[wanderingcapriccio-blog]