AboutPedia

Blessed Community

Kristi Martel performs in the Homophonic Studio

Author: homophonical
Keywords: lgbt out music
Added: July 5, 2008

Charles Marie Widor (Organ) Symphony No.6 in G minor-Allegro

================================Charles Marie Widor (1845-1937) Allegro (Symphony No.6 in G minor)Allan Wicks at the Organ in Canterbury Cathedral.================================Related information:Widor had several students in Paris who were to become famous composers and organists in their own right, most notably Louis Vierne, Charles Tournemire, Darius Milhaud (who was to later strongly influence jazz pianist Dave Brubeck), Marcel Dupré, Alexander Schreiner, and Edgard Varèse. Albert Schweitzer studied with him, especially from 1899, and master and pupil collaborated on an annotated edition of J. S. Bach's organ works published in 1912-14: Widor, whose own master Lemmens was an important Bach exponent, encouraged Schweitzer's theological exploration of Bach's religious music. He wrote music himself for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles (some of his songs for voice and piano are especially notable) and composed four operas and a ballet, but only his works for organ are played with any regularity today. Widor showed no interest in breaking new ground by stretching tonality to its limits, as many of his colleagues did. However, his music is not unoriginal or dull. Much of it is tremendously effective in the most idiomatic way for the organ, but it offers few startling surprises.Over his career Widor returned again and again to edit his earlier music, even after publication. His biographer John Near reports "Ultimately, it was discovered that over a period of about sixty years, as many as eight different editions were issued for some of the symphonies." (ref. Near)Widor's organ works include: ten Symphonies, Suite Latine, Trois Nouvelles Pièces, and six arrangements of works by Bach under the title Bach's Memento (1925). The symphonies are his most significant contribution to the organ repertoire.It seems unusual to assign the term "symphony" to a work written for one instrument. However, Widor was at the forefront of a revival in French organ music, which had sunk to its nadir during the nineteenth century. A prime mover in this revival was Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, who pioneered a new organ that was "symphonic" in style. The organ of the Baroque and Classical periods was designed to project a clear and crisp sound capable of handling contrapuntal writing. Cavaillé-Coll's organs had a much warmer sound, ideal for the homophonic style of writing that now predominated, and a vast array of stops that extended the timbre of the instrument. This new style of organ with a truly orchestral range of voicing encouraged composers to write music that was truly symphonic in scope. This trend was not limited to France, and was reflected in Germany by the organs built by Eberhard Friedrich Walcker and the works of Franz Liszt, Julius Reubke, and Max Reger.Widor's symphonies can be divided into three groups. The first four symphonies comprise Op. 13 (1872) and are more properly termed "suites" (Widor himself called them "collections".) They represent Widor's early style. Widor made later revisions to the earlier symphonies. Some of these revisions were quite extensive. The early symphonies show great variety in writing, but neither the individual movements nor the symphonies themselves compare to his later works.With the Opus 42 symphonies, Widor shows his mastery and refinement of his contrapuntal technique, while exploring to the fullest the capabilities of the Cavaille-Coll organs for which these works were written. The Fifth Symphony has five movements, the last of which is the famous Toccata. The Sixth Symphony is also famous for its opening movement. The Seventh and Eighth Symphonies are the longest and most obscure of Widor's Symphonies. Each one contains six movements. The fourth movement of the Eighth Symphony is a monumental passacaglia, though described in the published score as 'variations', and the longest single movement in all of Widor's oeuvre.The ninth and tenth symphonies, respectively termed "Gothique" (Op. 70, of 1895) and "Romane" (Op. 73, of 1900), are much more introspective. They both derive thematic material from plainchant. In the Symphonie Gothique, the plainchant theme is only introduced in the third movement, but is not fully exploited until the fourth and last movement. In the Symphonie Romane, however, plainchant themes are present in all of the verses. The second movement of the Symphonie Gothique, entitled "Andante sostenuto", is one of Widor's most-beloved pieces. In general, however, although these symphonies are considered to represent the pinnacle of Widor's development as a composer, they are not as well-known as the fifth and sixth symphonies.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles-Marie_Widor================================*Note:Support the artist, their families and their legacy by purchasing their music.

Author: tHEnOOSEsWINGS
Keywords: Charles Marie Widor Organ Symphony Allegro Allan Wicks
Added: July 4, 2008

César Franck/Pierre Cochereau Choral No.2 B minor Part1-2

================================César Franck Choral No.2 H-MOLL (B minor)Pierre CochereauOn the Organ Notre-Dame Paris. ================================Related information:César FranckStyle:....His music is often contrapuntally complex, using a harmonic language that is prototypically late Romantic, showing a great deal of influence from Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. In his compositions, Franck showed a talent and a penchant for frequent, graceful modulations of key. Often these modulatory sequences, achieved through a pivot chord or through inflection of a melodic phrase, arrive at harmonically remote keys.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9sar_FranckIn music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm, and interdependent in harmony. It has been most commonly identified in Western music, developing strongly in the Renaissance, and also dominant in much of the common practice period, especially in Baroque music. The term comes from the Latin punctus contra punctum ("note against note"). The adjectival form contrapuntal shows this Latin source more transparently.General principlesIn its most general aspect, counterpoint involves the writing of musical lines which sound very different from each other, but sound harmonious when played together. In each era, writing of music organized contrapuntally has been subject to rules, sometimes strict. By definition, chords occur when multiple notes sound simultaneously; however, chordal, harmonic, "vertical" features are considered secondary and almost incidental when counterpoint is the predominant textural element. Counterpoint focuses on melodic interaction, and only secondarily on the harmonies produced by that interaction. In the words of John Rahn:It is hard to write a beautiful song. It is harder to write several individually beautiful songs that, when sung simultaneously, sound as a more beautiful polyphonic whole. The internal structures that create each of the voices separately must contribute to the emergent structure of the polyphony, which in turn must reinforce and comment on the structures of the individual voices. The way that is accomplished in detail is...'counterpoint'.—[1]The separation of harmony and counterpoint is not absolute. It is impossible to write simultaneous lines without producing harmony, and impossible to write harmony without linear activity. The composer who chooses to ignore one aspect in favour of the other still must face the fact that the listener cannot simply turn off harmonic or linear hearing at will; thus the composer risks creating annoying distractions unintendedly. Bach's counterpoint—often considered the most profound synthesis of the two dimensions ever achieved—is extremely rich harmonically and always clearly directed tonally, while the individual lines remain fascinating.DevelopmentCounterpoint was elaborated extensively in the Renaissance period, but composers of the Baroque period brought counterpoint to a kind of culmination, and it may be said that, broadly speaking, harmony then took over as the predominant organizing principle in musical composition. The Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach wrote most of his music incorporating counterpoint, and explicitly and systematically explored the full range of contrapuntal possibilities in such works as The Art of Fugue.Given the way terminology in music history has evolved, such music created from the Baroque period on is described as contrapuntal, while music from before Baroque times is called polyphonic. Hence, the earlier composer Josquin des Prez is said to have written polyphonic music.Homophony, by contrast with polyphony, features music in which chords or vertical intervals work with a single melody without much consideration of the melodic character of the added accompanying elements, or of their melodic interactions with the melody they accompany. As suggested above, most popular music written today is predominantly homophonic, its composition governed mainly by considerations of chord and harmony; but, while general tendencies can often be fairly strong one way or another, rather than describing a musical work in absolute terms as either polyphonic or homophonic, it is a question of degree.The form or compositional genre known as fugue is perhaps the most complex contrapuntal convention. Other examples include the round (familiar in folk traditions) and the canon.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrapuntally================================*Note:Support the artist, their families and their legacy by purchasing their music.

Author: tHEnOOSEsWINGS
Keywords: César Franck Pierre Cochereau Choral Organ
Added: June 28, 2008

Vignettes

Novice Theory performs in the Homophonic Studio

Author: homophonical
Keywords: lgbt out music novice theory vignettes at the end we listen
Added: June 27, 2008

Vignettes

Novice Theory performs in the Homophonic Studio

Author: homophonical
Keywords: lgbt out music novice theory vignettes at the end we listen
Added: June 27, 2008

Vignettes

Novice Theory performs in the Homophonic Studio

Author: homophonical
Keywords: lgbt out music novice theory vignettes at the end we listen
Added: June 27, 2008

Vignettes

Novice Theory performs in the Homophonic Studio

Author: homophonical
Keywords: lgbt out music novice theory vignettes at the end we listen
Added: June 27, 2008

Homophonic Interview with Novice Theory
Novice Theory joins Alex and Lee in the Homophonic Studio. Includes a performance of "Vignettes" from the album At the End We Listen.
http://digg.com/music/Homophonic_Interview_with_Novice_Theory

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo
"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo." is a grammatically correct sentence used as an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create complicated constructs.
http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_5

Homophonic Ep. 3: Telling on Derek!
The guys from Homophonic get an exclusive interview !
http://digg.com/music/Homophonic_Ep_3_Telling_on_Derek

‘So’ you think you can dance
When you first read the title, do you think that it’s about So You Think You Can Dance on FOX Network? I am afraid it’s not the same as what you think. Sew You Think You Can Dance is from the’ So you think you can dance’. ‘Sew’ is the homophone to the ‘ so’. [...]
http://digg.com/business_finance/So_you_think_you_can_dance_2

Homophone comic (funnier than the title makes it sound)
Funny comic I recently found at Calamities of Nature.
http://digg.com/comics_animation/Homophone_comic_funnier_than_the_title_makes_it_sound

The selling and shaping of our souls
Living in the most powerful and affluent country in the history of the world, this is not mere word play with homophones (words that sound the same but have different meanings).
http://digg.com/political_opinion/The_selling_and_shaping_of_our_souls

"Lawyer" Is Not a Homophone for "Liar", says Lexis Nexis
I thought this was a pretty interesting op-ed. Never seen someone write news from a Taoist perspective and tie in Eastern philosophy.
http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Lawyer_Is_Not_a_Homophone_for_Liar_says_Lexis_Nexis

Barack Obama: He Said, He Meant
Wanted. Translator for presidential primary contender, sleek and trendy, with unclear policy objectives. Interested candidates must demonstrate verbal aptitude and excellent grasp of synonyms, euphemisms, homographs, homophone, and especially homonyms.
http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Barack_Obama_He_Said_He_Meant

Homophones: Do you know what they are?
My licence fee has been spent educating the world. No wonder the BBC is full of repeats...
http://digg.com/educational/Homophones_Do_you_know_what_they_are

Ream Ember
Fun oronym (Homophone) with cute comic strips. See an Angry Bear.
http://digg.com/comics_animation/Ream_Ember