Dueling Banjos
An evening pause: Bob Anthonioz (as Hardy) on the guitar and Philippe Bourgeois (as Laurel) on the banjo.
Tag: music
My Music Cube
Virgil Thomson – Finale, The River
Chopin’s Etude in Gb Major
Tony Banks – The waters of Lethe
Richard Rogers – Edelweiss
An evening pause: From The Sound of Music (1965). The context: The Nazis have taken over Austria, and plan to arrest Captain Georg Ludwig von Trapp and his family at the end of this concert. This lovely song, Edelweiss, is initially sung by von Trapp as a farewell to his nation. As the song unfolds, however, it becomes instead a song of defiance against the Nazis, by the von Trapps and the audience.
Always, always, we must stand for freedom.
Antonin Dvorak – From the New World, Symphony #9, 2nd movement
An evening pause: The most beautiful melody from the second movement of Antonin Dvorak’s 9th Symphony, “From the New World,” performed here by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andris Nelsons.
Shanthi the elephant plays the harmonica.
An evening pause: An elephant playing an harmonica? As Shakespeare said, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,/Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Starland Vocal Band – Afternoon Delight
Andrea Glass – North Wind
An evening pause: Nice song, from Andrea Glass.
The Monkees reunion – Daydream Believer
An evening pause: R.I.P. Davy Jones. This reunion performance, which included Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz, and Peter Tork of the Monkees, occurred on June 16, 2011 at the Beacon Theater, New York City. Less than a year later, Davy Jones had passed away.
Though the audio isn’t great, the joy of the song and those singing it comes through loud and clear. Go here to hear the song as performed in 1967.
Liam Clancy – A Place in the Choir
Celtic Thunder – Atmos, Druids, Deus Meus & Dulaman from Voyage
The Piano Guys – Cello Wars
An evening pause: In honor of the 35th anniversary today of the premiere of Star Wars in 1977, a beautiful and silly rendition by the Piano Guys.
For those who were not alive in the 1960s and 1970s, it is hard to explain the impact of Star Wars. For more than twenty years, science fiction fans had dreamed of seeing a really good space opera science fiction film on the big screen. Sadly, we saw disappointment after disappointment instead. Except for Forbidden Planet (1956) and television’s Star Trek in the 1960s, practically every science fiction film about space exploration told childish stories that made no sense.
And then came Star Wars.
Harp music of Paraguay, played by the Japanese
Strange Charm: A Song about Quarks
Rod McKuen – Jean
An evening pause: This Rod McKuen song, “Jean,” performed here live by him on the Johnny Cash Show on February 4, 1970, was originally the title song for the wonderful movie The Prime of the Miss Jean Brodie (1969), starring Maggie Smith.
Russian flash mob – Putting on the Ritz
An evening pause: From frigid Russia, some Russians put on the Ritz.
The Little Mermaid – Part of That World
Bonnie Tyler – Total Eclipse of the Heart
Issy Emeney – Appalachian Flatfooting
Boney M – Rivers of Babylon
Henry Dagg – Somewhere over the rainbow
Candide: Make Our Garden Grow: Bernstein at 70
An evening pause: The finale of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide. Just before the song begins, Candide says this:
We will not think noble, because we are not noble. We will not live in perfect harmony because there is no such thing in this world, nor should there be. We can only promise to do our best, and to live out our lives. Dear God, that is all we can promise in truth. Marry me, Cunegonde.
Edwin McCain – I’ll Be
The Muppets – Bohemian Rhapsody
An evening pause: A very talented actor once told me that a great deal of all comedy is based on contrast, on juxtaposing extreme opposites in unexpected ways.
The Black Stallion
An evening pause: The central sequence from the 1979 movie, The Black Stallion, when the shipwrecked boy Alec succeeds in taming the shipwrecked Arabian horse. The combination of Carmine Coppola’s music and Caleb Deschanel’s photography in this sequence is unmatched.