Thursday, September 10th
what’s new
George Lewis (1952-), String Quartet No. 1.5, “Experiments in Living” (2016); Spektral Quartet, 8/27/20
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Chicago
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: classical
2020
Monday, September 7th
serendipity
This morning I stumbled upon this after encountering the phrase “the crowded air” in an Emily Dickinson poem (229 [Franklin], “Musicians wrestle everywhere –”) and googling it. The moment it ended, I wanted to hear it again.
Milton Babbitt (1916-2011), The Crowded Air (1988); Boston Modern Orchestra Project, 2013
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
2020
Thursday, September 3rd
never enough
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), Nocturne in B major (Op. 62, No. 1); Daniil Trifonov (1991-, piano), live, Warsaw, 2010
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2020
Saturday, August 29th
alone
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), Les sauvages; Grigory Sokolov (1950-, piano), live, Berlin, 2013
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Fly, butterfly!
I feel the dust of this world
weighting my body!—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
2020
Saturday, August 22nd
never enough
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor (K. 466), excerpt (Third Mvt.); Hélène Grimaud (1969-, piano) with Camerata Salzburg, University of Salzburg (Austria), published 8/21/20
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
reading table
A world of trials,
and if the cherry blossoms,
it simply blossoms—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
2020
Thursday, August 20th
two takes
Oliver Messiaen (1908-1992), O sacrum convivium (1937)
Susan Alcorn (1953-, pedal steel guitar), live, 2011
*****
Ensemble Aedes, live, France (Compiègne), 2013
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
reading table
So you must not be frightened . . . if a sadness rises up before you larger than any you have ever seen; if a restiveness, like light and cloud-shadows, passes over your hands and over all you do. You must think that something is happening with you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; it will not let you fall. Why do you want to shut out of your life any agitation, any pain, any melancholy, since you really do not know what these states are working upon you?
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Letters to a Young Poet (1929, translated from German by M.D. Herter Norton)
2020
Wednesday, August 19th
what’s new
Why not immerse yourself in something beautiful?
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904), String Quartet No. 12 in F major (“American,” 1893); Lincoln String Quartet (featuring members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra: Qing Hou and Lei Hou, violins; Lawrence Neuman, viola; Kenneth Olsen, cello), live, Chicago, 8/16/20
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
2020
Tuesday, August 18th
Want to go somewhere you’ve never been before?
Linda Catlin Smith (1957-), String Quartet No. 6 (2013); Mivos Quartet (Olivia De Prato, violin; Maya Bennardo, violin; Victor Lowrie Tafoya, viola; Tyler J. Borden, cello), live, New York, 2019
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, outside Chicago
2020
Saturday, August 15th
sounds in the dark
Morton Feldman (1926-1987, MCOTD Hall of Fame), Clarinet and String Quartet (1983); KOAN Quartet and Katie Porter (clarinet), live, Los Angeles, 2/15/20
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
*****
reading table
In the beggar’s tin
a few thin copper coins
and this evening rain—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
2020
Saturday, August 1st
alone
Morton Feldman (1926-1987, MCOTD Hall of Fame), Palais de Mari (1986); Sarah Rothenberg, live (performance begins at 3:23), 3/30/20
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
music clip of the day 