Summertime — from Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess”

Well, it isn’t quite summertime, but around here the water is high.

This fall will mark the 75th anniversary of George Gershwin’s folk opera Porgy and Bess. Summertime is probably the best-known aria from the entire production, having been lifted and covered by dozens of musicians across the spectrum. I didn’t like it much when I was younger, but it grew on me more and more as my musical tastes developed, and we eventually ended up singing it as a lullaby to my oldest.

The opera has an all-black cast, which means that the mainstream didn’t bother to pick it up until the 1970s.

This is from the original production. Summertime begins at the 1:20 mark.

Here’s a more current production that I liked OK:

And here’s Ella Fitzgerald singing a version that I wish these young, deep-voiced girls I hear on the radio would sit down, listen about 100 times and take notes.

Lacrimosa dies illa — from Mozart’s Requiem

One of the things I like about Mozart is that his music often translates well to piano, my instrument of origin. I know that — as instruments go — the piano is very ecumenical, but many pieces lose much of their emotion on it. The Lacrimosa dies illa from Requiem is not one of those.

This piece was originally written for performance with a choir, but here it sounds as if it was always a piano piece.

The Requiem mass was the final piece of Mozart’s career; he died before finishing it.

All of this is not to say that you shouldn’t listen to the choral version. It’s almost a different piece of music when you add all of the vocal and instrumental dimensions.

Rachmaninoff Vespers — Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace

Sergei Rachmaninoff has become one of my favorite composers of symphonic music. I’ve seen his opus “Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini” live, and I always turn the radio up when I hear his work.

In addition to being a great symphonic composer, he also composed a number of pieces of religious music.

He was Russian Orthodox, though I can’t find any evidence that he was very devout. He was apparently fond of Russian chant, however, because you can find a fair bit of it in his music; he even went so far as to set the Divine Liturgy, Vespers and the All-Night Vigil to music (all of which are too long and too complex for real liturgical use).

Here’s an example of one of those pieces, from Vespers, “Lord, Now Lettest Thou Thy Servant Depart in Peace.” It has two things I love in vocal pieces — a strong tenor and a clear basso profundo. Enjoy.

Wherein the purpose is explained

The purpose of this blog is to share music I like without cluttering up my other blog with a bunch of videos unrelated to its general theme and contents. It’s also so I can easily find pieces I have liked in the past. If you like them as well, so much the better.

As to my musical tastes, I especially like the modern Russians and the baroque continental composers, and everything in between. I have a strong affinity for church music, be it J.S. Bach’s religious cantanas or (more recently) Russian chant. My knowledge of classical music is an ocean wide and an inch deep. I’m hoping that one day it will be two inches deep, at least.

Rock and roll is the devil’s music, and has done much to de-evolve centuries of musical innovation, but I still like it — one can never completely divorce themselves from their culture, and in the USA we like to rock. More importantly, I like to rock, within or without the USA. Nonetheless, don’t expect to see a whole lot of that here; I don’t pay much attention to the rock scene any more.

Some posts will contain commentary, others will not; I’m not terribly insightful when it comes to music, but sometimes I have a moment where I’m not so dull.

Anyway, happy listening!

Prokofiev Etude Op. 2 No. 1

Revolutionary Etude — Chopin

Lord Have Mercy (40)

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons — Summer (excerpt)

Music for Holy Week