CLASSICAL OPUS no.42

Isaac Albeniz: “Asturias”

イサク・アルベニス：「アストゥリアス」

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 6 minutes

The hasty, insolent, unnerving attacks are richly interspersed with pastoral vistas.  Feared as a challenging piece to play, this sonically nationalistic symbol ushered a century of European fascination with peninsular traditions.  Others would follow.

 

MUSIC

 

INFO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asturias_(Leyenda)

 

A REFLECTION

White cloud stained by the blood

of the sun piercing the earth to be born again

in another world of its kingdom. 

White as the cloud, the spray of heavens,

celestial cumulus which waters the earth.

 

Published in: on November 19, 2018 at 2:04 pm  Leave a Comment  

CLASSICAL OPUS no.69

Joaquin Rodrigo: “Concierto de Aranjuez”

ホアキン・ロドリゴ： 「アランフェスのコンサート」

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 27 minutes

Everything in this composer’s art is visual.  He indulges in additive, ochre patterns, overlaid with multiple lattices of light, watercolor strokes.  The title acknowledges gossamer praises to the Royal abode’s yesteryear glory.  Familiar as the theme rings, this instant classic was penned full 30 years after Albeniz had brought back Iberian music to Europe’s heartland.

 

MUSIC

 

INFO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concierto_de_Aranjuez

 

A REFLECTION

Has my heart gone to sleep?

Have the beehives of my dreams

stopped working, the waterwheel

of the mind run dry,

scoops turning empty,

only shadow inside?

 

Antonio Machado: “Has My Heart Gone to Sleep?”

 

Published in: on October 22, 2018 at 4:53 pm  Leave a Comment  

CLASSICAL OPUS no.74

Manuel de Falla: “Serenata Andaluza”

マヌエル・デ・ファーガ：「セレナタ・アンダルツァ」

 

TIME COMMITMENT: 5 minutes

De Falla, fêted for bringing the guitaristic idiom into classical music, went far beyond tempting, cheap folklore residues.  His work captures the southwestern light, charming and hallucinatory in its power to evoke hitherto unheralded thematics.

 

MUSIC

 

INFO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_de_Falla

 

A REFLECTION

The moon is dead dead

— it will come back to life in the spring

 

when a south wind

ruffles the brow of the poplars

 

when our hearts yield their harvest of sighs

 

when the roofs wear their grass hats

 

The moon is dead dead

— it will come back to life in the spring

 

Federico Garcìa Lorca “Two Evening Moons”

 

 

Published in: on October 17, 2018 at 7:21 pm  Leave a Comment