cooltunes

A small, secluded monastery comes close to topping the UK pop charts. Can one really be isolated if there is internet access? The story of the monks is here, and a video is here.

Are they able to handle the fame and subsequent fortune? Well, the abbot has an MBA, and a CD deal with Universal Music has been signed. Their PR person is on the cell constantly, when he is not dealing with the day-to-day of monastery life. There is perspective.

Formerly with The Scorpions, he became influenced by Jimi Hendrix. The Wikipedia entry calls his music ‘neo classical metal’, and discusses his custom instruments. Here is Roth playing Concerto D’Aranjuez:

‘Tis the season, even if you aren’t a religious person. I’ll be sharing from my collection of Christmas music, which has more than a few Hallelejahs, Exultates and Glorias. Even if I’m not a particularly religious person. This version of For Unto Us a Child is Given is not my favorite, but is the only one I can find that you can hear instantly.

Feel free to jump in at any time. There’s a reason Sing-Along Messiahs are so popular.

Perhaps it will make your Monday more pleasant.

He wore heavy coats and gloves in mid-summer. Recording engineers tried to eliminate his constant humming throughout his studio sessions. For most of his life, he played while seated in a chair modified by his father. He seemed to be able to practice mentally.

I’ve just begun listening to the earlier version of his Bach’s Goldberg Variations.

Sometimes a person needs to hear music that can raise the hackles on the back of the neck (as a few of these do), but in a good way.

Going Home - Libera
She Moved Through the Fair - Meav
Rio de Maio - Jane Monheit and Ivan Lins
Villa-Lobos: Aria - Kathleen Battle
Opening Title, House of Flying Daggers soundtrack - Kathleen Battle and Shigeru Umebayashi
Always With You - Libera

Where else would you find Metallica, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Kronos Quartet in the same lineup?

Sometimes I glance through the stacks of CDs in a son’s room when I tire of my stuff. This morning I listened to the Gorecki twice. It’s an intriguing and somber way to start the week.

Now I’m on Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra to liven up the afternoon. At the end of my copy of the concerto is a series of pieces from an unknown anime show. It incorporates ethereal voices, creepy instrumentation and wind chimes. I play this portion every Halloween, cranked up at full volume for all who come to the door.

Music writer Marc Geelhoed takes a look at what folks are buying, and is appalled at the popularity of a certain blind tenor.

Do you know the term ‘wet burping’? Perhaps you know what it is, but call it by another name.

Italian researchers found in a recent study that opera singers not only belt out songs but their stomach contents as well. Much more so than the rest of us.

When one of the kids took up clarinet more than 10 years ago, I taped classical pieces from the radio for him. I dug out one of these, Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581, and am listening to it now. He’s currently in Seattle, where he promises to help make this site into something much more than it is now. That is, when he and the other kid and I can find the time.

For the kid that studied saxophone, I did the same, and will probably go through the cassettes I recorded for him too.

So what happens years later, after I spent all that time driving them to and from lessons, and sat through countless concerts?

Well, for one thing, the sax guy cheerfully cleaned up the mess I made spilling balsamic vinegar in the junky end of the utensil drawer. He actually dumped all the miscellaneous spreaders, beaters, mismatched spoons, plastic stuff, chopsticks, etc. in the sink and washed it all.

But they’ll never be able to make up for my having to sit through all the beginning violin recitals that always preceded their piano performances.

All you can eat to the music of Mozart, Beethoven and Shubert.

It is, after all, the Year of the Boar.

I can usually manage two major projects at once, but today there’s another, with a rapidly approaching deadline. Hyper music won’t do, nor will soothing.

‘The Copland Collection’ features Copland’s orchestral and ballet works from ‘36 - ‘48. Should take me to lunch. It includes ‘Appalachian Spring’, ‘Rodeo’, ‘Billy the Kid’ and ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’, the latter being a piece my kids played in their high school wind ensemble.

Are you done? Hallelujah, I am.

The Wexford Carol - Loreena McKennitt
Gloria - Jewel
For Unto Us a Child is Born - London Philharmonic
O Come, O Come Emmanuel - Linda Ronstadt
Air for G String - The Modern Jazz Quartet
Ave Maria - Jewel

There’s more, but there are presents to wrap. More later.

I’m still on All the Roadrunning from yesterday, but at some point I wanted to hear Arvo Part’s Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten. Now I’m listening to Put it in the Crockpot by Sista Monica.

Like I said, it’s that kind of a day, and the Sista is going on about red beans and rice, neckbones and things you usually don’t hear about in a song. I see that she has a song called Cookin’ With Grease over at iTunes. Hmmm.

The Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra by Nigel Hess from the Ladies in Lavender soundtrack.

Actually, I’ve been trying to stay awake all day, having lots of fatigue due to a wrenched knee. The Lipton green tea I’ve been guzzling must not have much caffeine.

Patients in the cardiac care unit of Morristown (NJ) Memorial Hospital are showing positive responses to the daily visits of Alix Weisz and her harp. She is part of a month-long study of the effects of music in hospitals, and she sticks to a calming repertoire of lullabies, chants and Celtic songs.

Helicopter crews hum Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries as a journalist remembers the soundtracks to stints in Sierra Leone, Tikrit, Baghdad, Falluja and Kandahar.

For some 300 years, music composed by Bolivian indigenous people and Jesuit priests from Europe has been lying forgotten in old churches. Performance of this music has sparked an emotional response in local audiences.

Florilegium, a UK baroque ensemble, recorded a CD last year using native singers.

Was the great pianist’s instrument enhanced? A music critic who is also a baseball fan wonders if the unique sound of Horowitz could be attributed to some special tinkering with his Steinway, the one he took wherever he performed.

Then the opportunity arises when he can actually try out the Horowitz Steinway.

With an explanation from the Beeb’s Radio 3 Discovering Music archive.

The operating room has a wide-ranging soundtrack, and in some cases, you can bring your own.

Dancing is generally frowned upon.

What do you listen to as you eat? Does your favorite restaurant play decent background music? Is there such a thing as unobtrusive yet mildly stimulating music that doesn’t put you off your food?

Greg Sandow offered his opinion and suggestions in the Wall Street Journal.

At a dog shelter in Somerset, England, the animals find that music relieves the trauma of the surroundings. Not pop tunes, but Bach or Mozart.