Renaissance Research

Under One Small Star

2012-02-02T06:28:00.000-08:00

My apologies to chance for calling it necessity.
My apologies to necessity if I'm mistaken, after all.
Please, don't be angry, happiness, that I take you as my due.
May my dead be patient with the way my memories fade.
My apologies to time for all the world I overlook each second.
My apologies to past loves for thinking that the latest is the first.
Forgive me, distant wars, for bringing flowers home.
Forgive me, open wounds, for pricking my finger.
I apologize for my record of minuets to those who cry from the depths.
I apologize to those who wait in railway stations for being asleep today at five a.m.
Pardon me, hounded hope, for laughing from time to time.
Pardon me, deserts, that I don't rush to you bearing a spoonful of water.
And you, falcon, unchanging year after year, always in the same cage,
your gaze always fixed on the same point in space,
forgive me, even if it turns out you were stuffed.
My apologies to the felled tree for the table's four legs.
My apologies to great questions for small answers.
Truth, please don't pay me much attention.
Dignity, please be magnanimous.
Bear with me, O mystery of existence, as I pluck the occasional thread from your train.
Soul, don't take offense that I've only got you now and then.
My apologies to everything that I can't be everywhere at once.
My apologies to everyone that I can't be each woman and each man.
I know I won't be justified as long as I live,
since I myself stand in my own way.
Don't bear me ill will, speech, that I borrow weighty words,
then labor heavily so that they may seem light.

From Poems New and Collected 1957-1997, written by Wislawa Szymborska and translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh. Copyright © 1997 by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 1997-2005 by The Academy of American Poets

Image credits: Copyright conntrolled.

"This attempt to vindicate the catastrophic austerity of Heinrich Brüning, German chancellor in 1930-1932, is horrifying" -- FT

2012-02-01T07:25:00.001-08:00

Starting Tonight, Nation's Capital Offered NSO/WETA Version Of Keeping Score Glimpses Of Bruckner And Shostakovich

2012-02-01T06:21:00.000-08:00

WETA-FM Tonight 9 PM: National Symphony Orchestra showcase (monthly)

Alexander Glazunov: Concert Waltz No.1 in D Major, Op.47
Neeme Jarvi, guest conductor

Dmitri Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No.2 in C-sharp Minor, Op.129
Kirill Karabits, guest conductor
Sergey Khachatryan, violinist

Anton Bruckner: Symphony No.6 in A Major
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor

Maestro Eschenbach will conduct the National Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner’s 9th Symphony and Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto with soloist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall February 9-11.

Image credit: Vassily Kandinsky "Winter Landscape" 1909 Oil on cardboard. The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation, Future European Union.

Copyright © 2011 State Hermitage Museum

Tonight, tonight, tonight

2012-01-31T14:31:00.000-08:00

Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 9 is “a large scale, three movement work for orchestra, and while direct in form, it will be formidable in performance with piccolos doubled, horn section fortified, and with bass brass, and timpani doubled. The Ninth promises to be, in the composer’s words ‘big and unrelenting,’ with an avoidance of solo passagework, this piece will be a real team effort throughout. Each movement follows a similar plan: an opening theme broadly stated a contrasting highly energized middle section, and a slower ending with a newer version of the opening theme. Throughout the work becomes increasingly dense and contrapuntal thereby giving the whole work its overall dramatic shape.”

From the premiere's program note.

Conundrum?

2012-01-31T12:22:00.000-08:00

"David B. Lewin made his greatest impact, however, as an analyst of music. His innovative approach to the structure of music considered not only the "things" within a composition, but also the relationships among those things. In his transformational analysis, musical space took shape in intervals of "distance" (e.g., pitch) and also of "time" (e.g., rhythm). Such study of mathematical coherence in music [based upon the higher mathematics of group theory, algebraic topology, and projective geometry] proved inclusive, breaking down conventional boundaries between genres, periods, and styles. A consummate and dedicated teacher, Lewin influenced generations of students."

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And what's wrong with conventional -- or, indeed, unconventional -- boundaries between genres, periods, and styles.

Image credit: (c) Copyright controlled.

Cloud Update: clouds of cold matter that block light from the stars behind it

2012-01-31T11:51:00.000-08:00

Currently Projected U.S. Budget Deficits Or Surpluses Fiscal Years 2000 To 2022

2012-01-31T08:24:00.000-08:00

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The deficit in 2009 was about 10 percent of GDP. The vertical line is today.

Congressional Budget Office

"CBO expects economic activity to quicken after 2013 but to remain below the economy’s potential until 2018. ... As economic growth picks up after 2013, the unemployment rate will gradually decline to around 7 percent by the end of 2015, before dropping to near 5½ percent by the end of 2017."

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Added:

"The number of jobless in the 17 countries of the single currency Eurozone bloc rose in December for an eighth consecutive month to 16.5m – roughly the population of the Netherlands."

Financial Times

The Berkeley music faculty increased to 17 in 1964

2012-01-30T12:34:00.001-08:00

The Berkeley music faculty increased to 17 in 1964 (appointments between 1950-1965: Andrew W. Imbrie, Edgar H. Sparks, Joseph Kerman, Seymour J. Shifrin, Vincent Duckles, Arnold Elston, Edward E. Lowinsky, Lawrence H. Moe, Daniel Heartz, Alan S. Curtis, David B. Lewin, Michael C. Senturia, Richard L. Crocker).

This Just In

2012-01-27T08:32:00.000-08:00

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Tonight's Debate From Davos: Eight Nobel Laureates On The State Of The World

2012-01-26T13:13:00.000-08:00

Bloomberg Editorial Board: "Western Civilization Is On The Verge Of A Catastrophic Failure"

2012-01-26T12:03:00.000-08:00

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"If billionaires, bankers and politicians extract one insight from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, let it be this: Western civilization is on the verge of a catastrophic failure to balance its short-term and long-term interests."

Davos Elite Should Put Some Substance in Their Schmooze

Photo credit: (c) Estate of Stephen deStaebler 2011. Copyright controlled.

Tomorrow Night, Swedish Youth Orchestra To Offer Outstanding Orchestral Programming In Nation's Capital Region

2012-01-26T10:18:00.000-08:00

Swedish National Youth Orchestra
Strathmore Hall, Bethesda, Maryland
Friday January 27, 2012 at 8 PM. All tickets $15.

Tõnu Kaljuste, conductor
Hugo Ticciati, violin
Johan Bridger, marimba

PROGRAM

August Söderman: Swedish Festival Music

Arvo Pärt: Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten

Tobias Broström: Samsara, Concerto for Violin and Marimba

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Sergey Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2

Photo credit: © 2009 Jan Curtis northern lights images. All rights reserved.

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On An Overgrown Path celebrated Youth Orchestras (also performing Rachmaninoff) here.

Q: How Low Can Official U.S. Unemployment Go?

2012-01-25T11:06:00.000-08:00

[Click on image for enlargement.]

A: ... "longer-run normal rate of unemployment has a central tendency of 5.2 percent to 6.0 percent."

Federal Reserve Board Press Release Issued after its January 2012 Organizational Meeting.

Adam van Breen
Skating on the Frozen Amstel River, 1611
The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund, in honor of Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr.

Image credit:
© 2012 National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

More On Sustaining Middle-Class Per Capita Incomes In Emerging Europe And Central Asia ... As Well As In The U.S.

2012-01-25T08:16:00.000-08:00

"The World Bank is committing $27 billion to keep nations in eastern Europe and central Asia from bearing the brunt of a European banking crisis, the bank announced Wednesday."

Photo credit: National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kyiv, Ukraine, Future European Union. Image (c) Kyiv-Mohyla Foundation of America 2011.

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GDP Per Capita (PPP) (April 2011)

Emerging Europe & Central Asia $7,214

Euro area $38,580

Russian Federation $16,840

Ukraine $7,126

China $8,289

The World Bank

春節

2012-01-24T13:33:00.000-08:00

Happy Lunar New Year/Spring Festival

Photo credit: (c) Andy Wong and Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Kennedy Center/NSO To Preview Soundworld Of Detlev Glanert's Operatic Trilogy "The Ship"

2012-01-19T12:03:00.001-08:00

"Shoreless River, a National Symphony co-commission, is a brooding tone poem evoking images of water. This 18-minute piece is an excerpt from Glanert’s Das Holzschiff (The Wooden Ship), which received its premiere in Nuremberg in 2010—the first in a series of three operas to be based on Hans Henny Jahnn’s sprawling three-part 1937 novel "The Ship."

Kennedy Center/National Symphony Orchestra

[Discounted $20 tickets available for this winter concert.]

Photo credit: (c) Gregorio Borgia and Associated Press. Via Washingtonpost.com. Copyright controlled. All rights reserved.

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Added:

Washington National Opera Announces
New Wave of Artistic Initiatives

This Looks Like Wintertime Fun! NSO To Explore Mozart, Mesmerism ... And Schubert

2012-01-19T10:13:00.000-08:00

"A certain physician named Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer, who was chased out of Vienna, found its sonority quite useful to provide the desired ambience for his controversial demonstrations of hypnotic states using magnets (i.e., "mesmerism")."

National Symphony Orchestra

Christa Schönfeldinger and Thomas Bloch are contemporary proponents of glass instruments. Ms. Schönfeldinger will be performing at the NSO concert in a work by Jörg Widmann premiered by the Vienna Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez in 2007. (Discounted $20 tickets available for this winter concert.)

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Added:

Sofía Gubaidulina - Der Reiter auf dem weissen Pferd (2002)

OK, But Where Is The Renaissance?

2012-01-18T11:53:00.000-08:00

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Dear Pan Cogito,

I just delivered my 2012 State of the State address. California is on the mend and we have a lot of work ahead of us.

I encourage you to read the speech [click for link to PDF] and share it with your friends and family.

Best,

Jerry Brown

Photo credit: California Academy of Sciences via the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

In Memorium, Gustav Leonhardt

2012-01-18T08:24:00.001-08:00

I last thought about Mr. Leonhardt a few days back, after reviewing my old treble viola da gamba parts to transcriptions of works by Josquin des Prez, Monteverdi, and J.S. Bach (informally performed under the late Bruce Hayes's father, who lent me the viola and who I helped, a bit on a few Saturday mornings, build a harpsichord, at the time of the student riots).

(Click on the second link below for a typical Leonhardt program listing.)

While I heard Mr. Leonhardt perform, once or twice I believe, in Berkeley, I never met him (as I did, once, Luigi Dallapiccola, in Aspen, Colorado, in the summer of 1969, at about the time of the Moon Landing.)

New York Times Obituary

Photo credit: Via Wratislavia Cantans, Poland, European Union. Copyright controlled.

2012-01-06T09:23:00.000-08:00

[Click on photograph for enlargement.]

Next Tuesday's evening airwaves update:

Esa-Pekka Salonen Conducting the San Francisco Symphony in:
Sibelius: Pohjola's Daughter
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Violin Concerto (feat. Leila Josefowicz)
Wagner: Exerpts from Götterdämmerung (feat. Christine Brewer)
Recorded: December 10, 2011.

Carleton E. Watkins - The View of the Golden Gate from Telegraph Hill.

Merry Christmas Wishes To My Orthodox Christian Readers In Europe And Elsewhere -- Peace On Earth

2012-01-06T07:07:00.000-08:00

Zhytomyr, Ukraine, Future European Union.

This Just In: Spanish Unemployment Hits 23 Percent; German Unemployment Dips To 6.8 Percent

2012-01-03T11:30:00.000-08:00

May You Live In Interesting Times And Be Generous (And Listen To The Music Of The Spheres)

2012-01-03T09:07:00.000-08:00

Image credit: nasa.gov

Resolved: To Grow Stronger And Better In Coming Years

2011-12-30T12:03:00.000-08:00

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Slavic New Year? Fearing Democracy, Ukrainian Authorities On Friday Move Jailed Opposition Leader Yuliya Tymoshenko To A Prison Camp 300 Miles To East

2011-12-30T07:38:00.000-08:00

Ellen Barry Ukraine Sends Opposition Leader to Remote Prison New York Times December 30, 2011

Yuliya Tymoshenko A Prisoner's Christmas December 25, 2011

Image credits: Kyiv, Ukraine's 2012 New Year Tree, with Chaikovsky National Academy of Music (or Kyiv Conservatory) in the background. The Conservatory occupies a building built in the 1890s as the Hotel Continental. Copyright controlled. Bottom (c) Associated Press/Ukraphoto 2011.

οἰκονομία: Clarifications

2011-12-28T12:53:00.000-08:00

[Click on the two images for enlargements.]

Credits: Center for Geoeconomic Studies of the Council on Foreign Relations and Wikipedia.

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Update:

"More relevant is asking how far the resurgent capitalism that emerged in the 1980s, under the leadership of Ronald Reagan in the US and Margaret Thatcher in the UK, now needs to be reformed. The answer is that it must be, for it has proved not just unstable, but, in important respects, unjust."

Lead Editorial in the Financial Times of December 27, 2011

In The Wake Of Many Wars, Another Small Appeal For Hope, Charity, Sanity, And Well-Being In The New Year

2011-12-28T11:43:00.000-08:00

'Since Ukraine became an independent nation in 1991, the country has made major strides toward achieving political and economic reforms.... Despite these successes, many challenges still lie ahead, particularly in the area of health care for older people. The average life expectancy in Ukraine is only 67 years, and those who achieve old age often live in poverty. Women are expected to retire from their professions at age 55 and men at 60. Pensions are so low that retirees are often forced to take laborious jobs on the streets. Because of deficiencies in medical education, deteriorating hospital facilities, a lack of modern medications and supplies, and inadequate physician payment mechanisms that breed corruption, many elderly people mistrust the medical system and often turn to folk medicines and Eastern medical practices to treat their illnesses.'

The elderly people of post-Soviet Ukraine: medical, social, and economic challenges [2005]

American Friends of For Survival: a volunteer organization serving 67 home-bound elderly persons in Kyiv, Ukraine, Future European Union.

Photo credit: Political reform demonstration in Kyiv, Ukraine, Future European Union. (c) Washington Post 2011. Copyright controlled.

Renaissance Research Person Of The Year

2011-12-27T08:46:00.000-08:00

Sumerian King Enmetena -- Father of Economic Sustainability Accounting and Patron of the Liberal Art of Music.

Photo credits: Via Wikipedia.

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Update:

'The CEBR predicts that by 2020, the four Brics will be the 2nd (China), 4th (Russia), 5th (India) and 6th (Brazil) largest economies, with only the US (1st) and Japan (3rd) ahead.'

Extra! Extra! New Libretti For Mid-Winter Update ('Through Text, Music Becomes Visual' Edition)

2011-12-27T07:43:00.000-08:00

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"Prospero—numinous, shamanic—could only be a countertenor"??

Photo credit: Ancient Russian fortress on Siberian Island. (c) EnglishRussia.com 2011.

Vigilia: Joseph's House And Miriam's Kitchen

2011-12-23T09:41:00.000-08:00

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Joseph's House welcomes terminally ill men and women from streets, shelters, prisons, and hospitals to its hospice in Adams Morgan, the District of Columbia, where they find a compassionate community at the end of life. For those living their last days, staff and volunteers hold vigil around the clock.

$25 provides ten meals for residents and guests

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Every weekday morning for the last 28 years, Miriam's Kitchen, in the District of Columbia, has served breakfast to chronically homeless men and women. The meal has expanded to include health and mental health services, therapeutic groups, and legal assistance; each weeknight, guests are invited back for a homemade dinner.

$25 provides a one-tenth share of supplies for therapeutic group activities

Image credit: The 14th c. CE Tacuinum Sanitatis is a medieval handbook on health and wellbeing, based on the Taqwim al‑sihha تقويم الصحة ("Maintenance of Health"), an eleventh-century Arab medical treatise by Ibn Butlan of Baghdad. Via Wikipedia.

Expanding, Modernizing, And Democratizing Europe During Time Of Global Financial And Economic Crisis And Austerity

2011-12-22T10:35:00.001-08:00

"The man responsible for Ukraine's Euro 2012 football championship has said Uefa is doing more than the EU institutions to modernise the country.

Markiyan Lubkivskyi, Ukraine's former ambassador to Bosnia and Croatia and football authority Uefa's man in charge of preparing for the games said the decision where to hold them was political.

"It was a decision of Uefa to bring Ukraine closer to Europe. Uefa wanted to bring us closer to the EU. It is doing the job of the European Commission," he told EUobserver in Kiev [Kyiv] on Tuesday."

Source

The Death Match: European soccer in Nazi-occupied Kiev (Kyiv) during the Second World War (Great Patriotic War) in the summer of 1942.

Photo credits: Kyiv, Ukraine's new Olympiysky Stadium. English-made seats, Slovak grass, and a German roof and toilets. (c) EUobserver.com 2011.

Jews marching on their way out of the city of Kyiv to the Babiy Yar ravine to be murdered pass corpses lying on the street. Yelena Brusilovsky Collection, courtesy of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives.

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Close to End of Presidency, Medvedev Urges Reforms

Winter Commencement Update: Summer GDP Growth Rate Slower Than Expected, But Daylight Now Gradually Increasing Promising Greater Happiness

2011-12-22T05:55:00.000-08:00

Winter Solstice Post: Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Clean-Up Could Take 40 Years

2011-12-21T07:04:00.001-08:00

Winter Solstice greetings to my faithful readers.

Image credit: A newly discovered planet the same size as Earth traverses in front of a distant star in the evening sky (greatly magnified). nasa.gov

Clarification: the Higgs, the missing piece

2011-12-15T09:53:00.000-08:00

Physicists at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland may have finally found the Higgs, the missing piece from particle physicists' Standard Model that explains why all other particles have mass.

A diagram summarizing the tree-level interactions between elementary particles described in the Standard Model. Vertices (darkened circles) represent types of particles, and edges (blue arcs) connecting them represent interactions that can take place. The organization of the diagram is as follows: the top row of vertices (leptons and quarks) are the matter particles; the second row of vertices (photon, W/Z, gluons) are the force mediating particles; and the bottom row is the Higgs boson.

Source: Diagram from Wikipedia.

No Silent Night: Olivier Messiaen’s "La Nativité du Seigneur" At Washington National Cathedral This Sunday

2011-12-14T09:26:00.000-08:00

"Olivier Messiaen’s La Nativité du Seigneur (The Birth of the Savior) is arguably one of the most important organ works of the twentieth century. Its devotional nature is remarkably direct, for Messiaen possessed a deep-rooted faith and a penetrating theological insight which both illuminated his creativity and gave a strongly spiritual dimension to all his work. Although not initially a part of the Parisian organ tradition, Messiaen grew up artistically within it and came to explore the organ’s sonorities and tonalities in a radically different way; only Jehan Alain, whose life was tragically cut short in 1940, displayed comparable vision and originality."

Photo credit: Moon Rock Window at Washington National Cathedral by Pgmark at en.wikipedia. 2009.

"I'd Like To Speak To The Captain Of This Spaceship"

2011-12-14T08:51:00.000-08:00

"Amartya Sen, the Harvard university professor and Nobel laureate, has sharply criticised European governments for embracing austerity measures to cure their economic difficulties, describing fiscal tightening policies in the UK as premature and “oddly confused”... Mr Sen said the rush to impose austerity plans across Europe was a “spiralling catastrophe,” and was even threatening to drag the US in the same direction. ... "Many countries in the west seem to be doing their best to go straight into the mouth of a fairly hefty snake."”

Financial Times

Photo credit: CERN at work. CERN and (c) Reuters 2011.

At 11:55 a.m. ET, President Obama to mark End of War in Iraq ....................The meteors, made up of the debris from near-Earth ..................

2011-12-14T05:16:00.000-08:00

The meteors, made up of the debris from near-Earth asteroid 3200 Phaethon and ejected from the constellation Gemini, could appear anywhere in the sky

2011-12-13T13:22:00.000-08:00

[Click on images for enlargement.]

Matter + Spirit: The Sculpture of Stephen De Staebler

"For more than 50 years, De Staebler created figurative sculptures from clay—a medium that derives from the primordial earth. Drawing inspiration from childhood experiences with nature, a transformative adolescent encounter with human mortality, and adult studies in the history of art and religion, he explored and extended a tradition of human representation that includes the religious monuments of ancient Egypt, the Renaissance humanism of Michelangelo’s finished and unfinished figures, and the modern existentialism embodied in the works of Alberto Giacometti."

Photo credits: © Estate of Stephen De Staebler 2011.

An Audio Shadow Of A Near-Forgotten Musical Ancestor: Chicago Lyric Opera 29.XI.1978

2011-12-12T12:09:00.000-08:00

[Click on image for enlargement.]

Act 1
Act 2

Sometimes/Once On Sunday

2011-12-09T13:39:00.001-08:00

Golden Rose Synagogue, Lviv, Ukraine, 1941
Золота Роза синагога у Львові
בית הכנסת טורי זהב

[The Golden Rose Synagogue was the oldest synagogue in Ukraine.]

Free performance by the Rose Ensemble at the National Gallery of Art on Sunday at 6:30 PM

The Rose Ensemble Program

From the Land of Three Faiths
Voices of Ancient Mediterranean Jews, Christians, and Muslims
Traditional Sephardic (Morocco)
Cuando’l Rey Nimród
Juan del Encina (1485 – c. 1530)
Pues que tú, Reyna del çielo
Traditional Sephardic (Morocco/ Turkey)
Una matica de ruda
Porke yorash
Plainchant (Twelfth-century Italian)
Cives caelestis patriae
Anonymous (Fourteenth-century English)
Iudea et Ierusalem
Traditional Sephardic
Sette hijos tiene Hanna
Traditional Sephardic (Morocco)
Koplas de las flores
Anonymous
Rey a quien reyes adoran
From Cancionero de Upsala (Fifteenth century)
Anonynous
¡O Reyes magos benditos!
From Cancionero musical de palacio (Fifteenth century)
Francisco Guerrero (c. 1528 – 1599)
Niño Dios d’amor herido
Arab-Andalusian (In the Az’zaidan mode)
B’tayhi-M’saddar
Traditional Sephardic
Hazeremos una merenda
Quita’l tas, mete’l tas

Intermission

Thirteenth-century Spanish
Cantiga no. 424
From Cantigas de Santa Maria
Hispano-Arabic muwashaha (In the kurdī mode)
Ayyu-hā s-sāqī ’ilay-ka l-muštakà
Traditional Turkish
Arabaya Taş Koydum
Traditional Sephardic (Salonika)
Morena me llaman
Traditional Bedouin
Two Simsimiyya Songs
Arranged for instrumental ensemble by The Rose Ensemble
Sephardic Piyyut (Libya)
Et Sha’are Ratzón
Traditional Sephardic (Balkan)

Concert Notes

Photo source: 1941 photo by Janusz Witwicki from the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture, Kyiv, Ukraine -- via Wikipedia.

Blocked

2011-12-08T06:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday noon, my bus and I could not make it to the National Gallery of Art in time for this short retrospective by Thomas Hrynkiw of largely 20th century Ukrainian classical piano music due to inequality protest marches weaving in and out of central downtown Washington, D.C. I hope the program will be broadcast at a later date.

Here was the program and program notes:

Program
Iosyf Vytytsk’kyi (1813 – 1866)
Ukrainian Maiden

Lev Revuts’kyi (1889 – 1977)
Sonata in B Minor

Mykola Lysenko (1842 – 1912)
Dream

Viktor Kosenko (1896 – 1938)
Poem
Revuts’kyi
Prelude
Canon

Vasyl’ Barvins’kyi (1888 – 1963)
Prelude in E Minor
Prelude in F-sharp Major

Stanislav Liudkevich (1879 – 1979)
Paraphrase on the Ukrainian Folksong “What Raven Caws over the Sea”
Humoresque

Program Note

Program Note to the upcoming free Sunday evening performance at the National Gallery of Art by the Rose Ensemble, from Minnesota, singing Arab, Sephardic, and Christian music from the Middle Ages and preceded by a lecture on Sephardic music by Jerome Barry.

Yuri Ilyenko: Ballad of Ukraine

Photo credit: (c) artukraine.com 2011. Copyright controlled.

“Statistik, Presse und Organisationen des Judentums in den Vereinigten Staaten und Kanada, 1944”

2011-12-07T12:20:00.000-08:00

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"It would be best if the Kloss report were acquired by an individual or institution willing to donate it to a public collection, ideally, the Rare Books and Manuscripts Division at the Library of Congress. There it could join 1,200 other surviving volumes from Hitler’s private library and not only be readily accessible to scholars and historians but also occupy appropriate shelf space with an equally sinister companion book from Hitler’s private book collection, a 1925 German translation of Madison Grant’s “The Passing of the Great Race,” bearing a personal inscription to Hitler."

Timothy W. Ryback in the New York Times

Photo credit: Kestenbaum & Company.

Attempting To Raise Its Profile, National Symphony Orchestra Tonight Takes To Traditional Airwaves In Program Ranging From Beethoven To Prokofiev

2011-12-07T08:05:00.000-08:00

[Click on image for enlargement.]

Robert Schumann: Overture to Die Braut von Messina, Op. 100
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor

Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58
Nikolaï Lugansky, pianist
Thomas Dausgaard, conductor

Leó Weiner: Serenade, Op. 3
Iván Fischer, conductor

Sergei Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6 in E-flat minor, Op. 111
Neeme Järvi, conductor

NSO Showcase on Classical WETA at 9 PM EDT

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Photo credit: Kyiv, Ukraine, The National Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War (of 1941-1945) (Ukrainian: Національний музей історії Великої Вітчизняної Війни 1941-1945 років, Russian: Национальный музей истории Великой Отечественной войны 1941-1945 годов). Marianivka at en.wikipedia.

The museum was established on May 9th, 1981. On June 21, 1996, the museum was accorded its current status of National Museum by a special decree signed by Leonid Kuchma, then the President of Ukraine.

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We also, unlike the National Symphony Orchestra or Classical WETA, remember Pearl Harbor.

An American Child Born Today In Poverty Will Only Have A One-in-Three Chance Of Making It To The Middle Class; Down From One-in-Two

2011-12-07T06:33:00.000-08:00

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And for those preferring a more literal approach:

Remarks by the U.S. President on the Economy in Osawatomie, Kansas

Democracy For Great Nations Update: Introducing Occupy Moscow

2011-12-06T12:19:00.000-08:00

[Click on image for enlargement.]

"The [Russian parliamentary] election was expected to be predictable, and voters apathetic. Instead, Putin’s United Russia Party won slightly less than half the vote — enough to retain control of the Duma, but far less than in previous years, and a sign of vulnerability for Putin’s formidable political machine."

Photo credit: (c) Reuters 2011.

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Human Rights Center "Memorial"

Euro 2012: Poland-Ukraine World Cup

Sochi, Russian Federation, 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games

Great Art For Great Nation Update! NEA Awards Washington National Opera $45,000 To Stage New Production Of Verdi's Nabucco

2011-12-05T13:18:00.000-08:00

[Click on image for enlargement.]

Washington National Opera
Washington, DC
$45,000
CATEGORY: Art Works FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Opera
To support a new production of Verdi's Nabucco. The creative team (sic) will comprise director Thaddeus Strassberger and music director Philippe Auguin, and will feature Italian baritone Franco Vassallo (King Nabucco) and Hungarian soprano Csilla Boross (Abigaille).

FY 2012 NEA Grant Awards: Nation's Capital Listing

FY 2012 NEA Grant Awards: California Listing

Image credit: (c) Thaddeus Strassberger 2011. Copyright controlled.

Free Noontime Classical Music Live Listening Opportunities In The Nation's Capital

2011-12-05T09:47:00.000-08:00

Noontime Cantata
Washington Bach Consort
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 at 12:10 p.m.

J.S. Bach: Cantata: Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes (BWV 40)
Harpsichord Concerto in D Major (BWV 1054)
Soloist: William Neil

New York Avenue Presbyterian Church
1313 New York Avenue, NW

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Noontime Recital
Concerts from the National Gallery of Art
Wednesday, December 7, 2011 at 12:10 p.m.

Thomas Hrynkiw, pianist
December 7 at 12:10PM

National Gallery of Art, East Building Auditorium
Music by Kevich, Revutsky, and other Ukrainian composers

Presented in conjunction with the upcoming NGA film series “Yuri Ilyenko (1936-2010): Ballad of Ukraine”

Image credit: (c) Philip Ilyenko 2011. Copyright controlled.

December 1: Day Of Ukraine Declared In Nation’s Capital Celebrating And Affirming Twenty Years Of Ukrainian Independence

2011-11-30T08:51:00.000-08:00

[Click on images for enlargements.]

Ukraine 2020, an initiative of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation in Washington and the Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy in Kyiv, is designed to support Ukraine's European integration which President Yanukovych has declared as a priority goal for Ukraine.

Ukraine 2020 has three important components – Policy Dialogue, Advancing Ukraine’s Image and Competitiveness, and People-to-People Exchanges.

The Ukraine 2020 - Policy Dialogue is a collaborative and integrated action plan that brings together government officials, public policy experts, business groups, non-profit organizations and individuals interested in Ukraine’s European future.

This Policy Dialogue program is modeled after the Foundation’s highly-successful U.S.-Ukraine Policy Dialogue Project which was funded by the U.S. State Department in 2004-2006.... Similar to the previous project, Ukraine 2020 will also be comprised of Task Forces, namely: Business & Economics, Democracy & Governance, Education & Culture, Energy, Foreign Policy & National Security, and Information & Media.

The Task Forces will bring together experts from institutions throughout the world to share their expertise, provide regular commentary and undertake activities that support policy recommendations for Ukraine's European integration. By bringing together the work of these experts, most of whom are already working on Ukraine issues, a stronger cumulative impact in support of Ukraine’s direction toward European integration will occur.

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On December 1, 1991, more than 90 per cent of the people of Ukraine voted for Independence from the Former Soviet Union.

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Ukraine is the first nation in history to voluntarily rid itself of its huge nuclear weapon arsenal.

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"Joint Statement of the Second Session of the United States-Ukraine Partnership Commission." U.S. Department of State (July 3, 2010)

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Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski: Ukraine knows what to do to have EU-Ukraine summit on December 19, 2011 (Kyiv Post November 29, 2011)

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Image credits: Worldmap.com and via Wikipedia (Kyiv at dusk). Map is copyright controlled (c) 2011.

The Lost Pleiad -- Lost No More?

2011-11-30T07:08:00.000-08:00

The Lost Pleiad by Randolph Rogers under normal light and under UV light. The statue is now on display on the second floor of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Antebellum Art galleries.

Image credit: (c) Copyright controlled 2011.

Six major central banks have agreed to lower the pricing on existing temporary U.S. dollar liquidity swap arrangements by 50 basis points until 2013

2011-11-30T06:30:00.000-08:00

Russian And Swiss Federation Embassies Present Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale; While Swarthmore College Presents Three Tableaux From "Sadko"

2011-11-29T12:43:00.000-08:00

Tonight's Stravinsky The Soldier's Tale presentation at the Russian Federation Embassy is sold out; however, the Post-Classical Ensemble will also be staging Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale, expertly paired with Manuel de Falla's El Amore Brujo, this coming Saturday and Sunday at Georgetown University.

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"The Swarthmore College Orchestra and Chorus, under the direction of Alfred J. Swan, presented, this year, three tableaus from the complete Russian Opera " Sadko, " by Rimsky-Korsakow. The performance was given two nights, April 11 and 12, 1931, at Swarthmore, and was acclaimed one of the best productions ever undertaken by the two organizations. It was quite a distinction that the world-famous Kedroff Quartet took part in the opera on April 11, the members singing the roles of the three merchants in the cast. Musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra helped with accompaniment, which is always a large factor in operatic production. Part of the proceeds from the performances was turned over to two organizations caring for Russian children, who emigrated from Russia during and after the Revolution of 1917, while the rest was used to defray staging expenses. Such a tremendous undertaking with such a definite purpose other than giving pleasure to Swarthmore audiences, is a credit to the recently developed musical organization, and its success in this third year of existence indicates that it is appreciated and has fulfilled a need in student life."

Alfred Julius Swan and His Contribution to Russian Orthodox Music by Dr. Marina V. Ledkovsky

Alfred J. Swan Musical Manuscript Papers in the Manuscript/Special Collections of the Music Library of the University of Virginia [Guide funded, in part, by the National Endowment for the Humanities.]

The Muse and the Fashion: being a defence of the foundations of the art of music by Nikolai Karlovich Medtner. English translation by Alfred J Swan 1951

Image credit: 'All-Sufferers' by Oleg Kudryashov (c) Oleg Kudryashov 1998. Copyright controlled. All rights reserved.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy cancels evening visit to the Phillips Collection citing the deepening crisis in Europe

2011-11-28T14:14:00.000-08:00

[Click on image for enlargement.]

LOUIS M. EILSHEMIUS (1864–1941)

Approaching Storm, 1890

American Art at the Phillips Collection: 150 Years of Ameircan Art

Image credit: (c) Phillips Collection 2011. Copyright controlled.

White Friday

2011-11-25T07:51:00.000-08:00

[Click on image for enlargement.]

Library of Congress -- American Memory

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Happy pre-Solstice festivities to my faithful readers.

There are over 11,000 children of pre-school age in orphanages in Ukraine

2011-11-23T11:13:00.000-08:00

More On Threat Or Intimidation

2011-11-23T10:46:00.000-08:00

“The California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, which advises police agencies and officers statewide, says pepper spray "can have very serious and debilitating consequences," and "should only be generally used as a defensive weapon" and never to intimidate or retaliate. …

"Using pepper spray on persons who are wholly passive seems like excessive force," said Rory Little, a law professor at UC Hastings in San Francisco. But if officers testify that they felt threatened, he said, "it's going to be a jury question" as to whether they overreacted.”

Life On Earth At Thanksgiving Time

2011-11-22T12:51:00.001-08:00

IMF announces that it is revamping its lending facility to better serve "crisis-bystanders"

2011-11-22T10:46:00.000-08:00

My Life As An Economic Dog: From Nixon In China To The Great Chinese Housing Boom Bust (And Clinton In Myanmar)

2011-11-18T12:28:00.000-08:00

"People are more negative about economic changes than they have been since our records began in 1946"

2011-11-18T09:51:00.001-08:00

Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party to contest future elections

2011-11-18T06:49:00.000-08:00

Amnesty International

Photo credit: (c) Karsten Moran for the New York Times 2011. Copyright controlled.

Voices From Beyond Wall Street, The White House, The Pentagon, And West Point: Method In The March Madness?

2011-11-17T13:58:00.000-08:00

[Click on images for enlargements.]

"The head of the New York Fed continued his push for more aid for homeowners Thursday, stressing the central bank is not yet "out of ammunition."

"We cannot be satisfied with the current state of the economy or the outlook for the next few years," said William Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in a speech at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.

Dudley stressed that helping the housing market may be the best way for the Federal Reserve to intervene in the economy." ...

Photo credits: Occupy DC tents, July 1932. (c) Copyright controlled.
Occupy march in Los Angeles, November 2011. (c) Associated Press 2011.

“Being part of creating stuff for the universe is awesome”

2011-11-16T14:54:00.001-08:00

RIP

On Western Classical Music, The San Francisco Symphony, Chinese New Year, "Día de los Muertos" And Classical Music Education

2011-11-15T13:58:00.000-08:00

[Click on image for enlargement.]

"Asked to identify the proudest achievements of his tenure, [retiring San Francisco Symphony President John D.] Goldman cited first the artistic growth of the orchestra - which, he conceded, was the work of Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas and the musicians.

"My humble opinion is that they can take on anything and do it exceptionally well. And the recognition we're getting, on tours in Europe and elsewhere, confirms that we are now a world-class orchestra and being recognized as such. That goal has always been out there, and now we're there."

The $25 million "Keeping Score" project, which he called a "seminal achievement," remains one of the key initiatives of his presidency. Goldman also pointed to the community outreach programs, including the orchestra's concerts for Chinese New Year and "Día de los Muertos."

Still to do, he said, is the task of "establishing the relevance of classical music to the next generation and the generation after that." ...

Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle Music Critic

Photo credit: Totonac ritual dance. The rope unwraps itself 13 times for each of the four fliers, symbolizing the 52 weeks of the year. SpyridoulaDellaPhotography via Wikipedia. With thanks.

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The Ritual Ceremony of the Voladores of Papantla has been recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) by UNESCO in 2009.

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I saw Los Voladores de papantla in the summer of 1968 and the Hopi Snake Dance in the summer of 1969.

On Remembering What It Is That Makes Us Humane And Civilized

2011-11-15T12:42:00.000-08:00

[Click on images for enlargement.]

Source: Eurostat.

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My sincere thanks to Google for restoring my blog after its recent outage.

Mornings, Noons, Evenings, And Midnights In America: 1973 to 2011

2011-11-09T10:58:00.000-08:00

[Click on photos for enlargements.]

"Do you think things in this country are generally going in the right direction or do you feel things have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track?"

Date of...... Right Wrong
Poll........... direction track
11/3/11 22 74
9/1/11 20 77
6/5/11 32 66
1/16/11 38 60
12/12/10 31 67
10/28/10 27 71
6/6/10 37 60
3/26/10 38 60
1/15/10 37 62
11/15/09 44 55
10/18/09 44 54
8/17/09 44 55
6/21/09 47 50
4/24/09 50 48
3/29/09 42 57
2/22/09 31 67
1/16/09 19 78
12/14/08 15 82
10/25/08 13 85
10/11/08 8 90
9/22/08 14 83
8/22/08 19 78
6/15/08 14 84
5/11/08 16 82
1/12/08 21 77
11/1/07 24 74
6/1/07 25 73
1/19/07 26 71
11/4/06 39 59
10/22/06 30 68
10/8/06 32 66
5/15/06 29 69
11/2/05 30 68
10/24/04 41 55
4/18/04 42 57
4/30/03 52 46
9/26/02 43 53
2/21/02 54 42
2/14/99 55 41
11/1/98 55 43
8/21/98 57 40
7/12/98 50 45
4/4/98 55 41
1/31/98 61 34
1/30/98 61 34
1/19/98 44 50
8/27/97 39 57
6/8/97 37 60
3/9/97 34 62
10/17/96 40 55
10/16/96 42 53
10/15/96 43 52
10/14/96 44 51
10/13/96 44 51
9/04/96 40 54
8/21/96 28 67
6/30/96 26 70
3/17/96 27 70
1/21/96 27 66
1/3/96 21 77
4/5/95 23 73
1/4/95 27 68
10/31/94 27 69
7/20/94 26 70
3/27/94 28 69
1/23/94 31 60
11/14/93 25 69
8/8/93 26 71
6/20/93 26 71
4/26/93 27 71
3/11/93 36 57
2/28/93 37 59
1/17/93 31 63
12/14/92 35 60
10/27/92 22 76
10/4/92 18 78
6/7/92 14 83
4/9/92 16 81
3/11/92 18 79
1/15/92 19 78
11/10/91 24 72
10/29/91 26 71
8/27/91 31 60
7/28/91 30 67
6/2/91 39 57
4/9/91 42 51
2/26/91 58 39
1/27/91 49 48
10/14/90 19 79
9/9/90 36 60
8/20/90 35 60
7/24/90 37 60
5/21/90 39 60
3/26/90 44 53
2/4/90 49 48
1/16/90 48 49
5/23/89 42 55
3/16/89 46 52
1/16/89 51 46
10/25/88 49 46
9/27/88 48 44
7/11/88 40 56
5/25/88 35 59
3/21/88 40 56
1/23/88 39 59
12/13/87 49 47
12/2/87 35 61
9/23/87 43 54
6/29/87 35 62
4/13/87 37 60
3/9/87 38 58
1/18/87 39 56
9/8/86 50 48
1/26/86 45 47
7/29/85 52 43
1/16/85 59 36
5/22/84 47 48
12/13/83 43 51
11/7/83 51 44
4/12/83 41 54
3/2/83 43 53
10/11/82 35 57
1/30/82 39 56
2/80 20 70
2/78 34 53
2/77 41 44
10/75 19 71
10/74 15 75
10/73 16 74

Source: Washington Post/ABC News Polls.

Photo credit: Berkeley, California November 9, 2011. (c) Lance Iversen and the San Francisco Chronicle 2011. Copyright controlled.

Turning Free Lunches And Lunch-Hours Into Help For Children, The Poor, And The Homeless

2011-11-08T11:25:00.000-08:00

[Click on image for enlargement.]

Hi Pan Cogito,

I am a volunteer at Miriam's Kitchen, a small kitchen for the homeless in DC. I'm reaching out to let you know about a one-day fundraising event taking place in greater Washington DC on November 9, 2011 - Give to the Max Day. This is to support local nonprofits in raising millions in donations and grants in just 24 hours. I'm hoping that you'll share this upcoming event with the readers of Renaissance Research. Miriam's Kitchen is one of the participants in this event so I decided to volunteer to try to get some online support - that's why I'm asking for your help.

I've put together a microsite with information about the Give2Max event, Miriam's Kitchen, Homelessness in DC as well as Homelessness in America, so please feel free to repost any of it:

www.miriamskitchennews.org

Please let me know if you have any questions and if you are able to help. Thank you so much.

Chris Abraham
On behalf of Miriam's Kitchen
www.miriamskitchen.org

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Photo credit: Peter Paul Rubens 'Abundance/Abundantia/Абунданция' [1630] currently in the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Japan, designed by Le Corbusier.

Variabilità e mutabilità

2011-11-08T10:57:00.000-08:00

[Click on images for enlargement.]

Gini coefficients

World Bank Poverty and Inequality databank

John Rawls's social contract account of justice and concept of original position

Source: World Bank and CIA: The World Factbook 2009.

The Charles Ives Project Begins In North Bethesda, Maryland

2011-11-03T06:45:00.000-07:00

Post-Classical Ensemble: An experimental musical laboratory

Strathmore: At the Intersection of Art and Life

Featuring American pianist Jeremy Denk performing Beethoven's Hammerklavier and Ives's Concord Piano Sonatas on the same program.

Photo credit: Pumpkin flower. Vishalsh521 via Wikipedia. With thanks.

Wanted: Worldwide Jobs, Economic Development, And Social Fairness

2011-11-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

[Click on images for enlargements.]

Image credits: Top. New Lviv Sports Stadium (Lemberg) 2011, Lviv, Ukraine, Future European Union. Bottom. Primorsky (Potemkin) Stairs [1837-41], Odesa, Ukraine, Future European Union.

© 2009–2010 Euro 2012 News; and United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID ppmsc.03866.

The Dreaded 'D' Word: Spain's Unemployment Rate Rose To 22.6 Percent in September 2011

2011-11-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

Support cultural,ecological, and sustainable tourism.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Photo credit: Lugo Roman Walls, Province of Lugo, Autonomous Community of Galicia, Spain, European Union.

© Historvius 2011. Copyright controlled. All rights reserved.

Between Palau And Panama: Palestine Seated In UNESCO

2011-10-31T12:55:00.000-07:00

"Unesco on Monday became the first United Nations organisation to admit Palestine as a full member state, prompting the US to immediately announce it was cutting a planned $60m budget payment to the cultural agency.

In defiance of fierce diplomatic pressure from the US and Israel, 107 members of the UN body for education, science and culture backed the Palestinian request."

Financial Times

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Photo credit: Copyright controlled.

Scary And Uncertain Times: Conservative Classical WETA-FM To Broadcast Piano Music Of Liszt, Scriabin, And Berg At 9 PM

2011-10-31T10:41:00.000-07:00

Franz Liszt
La lugubre gondola
Richard Wagner
Piano Sonata in A-flat Major
Franz Liszt
Nuages gris
Alban Berg
Piano Sonata, Op.1
Franz Liszt
Unstern! Sinistre, disastro
Alexander Scriabin
Piano Sonata #9 in F Major, "Black Mass"
Franz Liszt
Piano Sonata in B Minor
Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)

Photo credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Neither Summer Soldier, Sunshine Patriot, Nor Limousine Liberal

2011-10-31T10:29:00.000-07:00

Photo credit: (c) Copyright control 2011.

Economic Mobility and the American Dream

Cold Weekend To Do Liszt

2011-10-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

LECTURE-RECITAL: "Gray Clouds: Late Chamber Music of Franz Liszt"

TAMÁS ZÉTÉNYI, cello
wirh Sabrina Tabby, Scott Moore, violin / Dávid Tóth, viola / Anna Bikales, harp
Zsólt Balogh, piano

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2011 at 2:00 pm - Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. FREE

Tamás Zétényi presents a program developed in a year-long residency as Visiting
Hungarian Fellow at Bard College, through research in the Library of Congress’s Liszt collections.

Harmonically visionary transcriptions and chamber works – elegies, prayers and
meditations – that stretch the boundaries of tonality and foreshadow music written a century later.

LISZT: transcriptions of Angelus!, R.W. - Venezia for piano trio; and Am Grabe Richard Wagners for string quartet; and, for cello and piano, Unstern: sinister, disastro; Die Zelle in Nonnenwerth (Elegie); Nuages gris; Schaflos, Frage und Antwort; Wagner/Liszt, La lugubre gondola I and II; and O du, mein holder Abendstern.

Image credit: Wikipedia.

Great Performances

2011-10-27T08:57:00.001-07:00

State Of The Nation's Dreaming

2011-10-27T07:53:00.001-07:00

“embracing the logic of the global common good”

Photo credit: (c) Nathaniel Brooks for the New York Times 2011. Copyright controlled.

Independent Lens: Two-thirds of Independents Say The Distribution Of U.S. Wealth Should Be More Equitable

2011-10-26T09:25:00.000-07:00

[Click on graph for enlargement.]

U.S. Census Bureau (Department of Commerce) Poverty Data

You've Read And Heard The Theory; Now Hear The Music -- Fred Lerdahl String Quartet #3 World Premiere At The Phillips Collection

2011-10-25T13:29:00.000-07:00

Daedalus Quartet
April 22, 2012 at 4 pm
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Fred Lerdahl (b.1943)

First String Quartet

Second String Quartet

Third String Quartet (World Premiere)

"The Third Quartet, a Pulitzer Prize finalist written for the Daedalus Quartet, has its world premiere at the Phillips, rounding out a cycle of three works written over the course of more than thirty years intended both as individual pieces and as a unified set to be performed together.

"The Daedalus Quartet has won plaudits for its adventurous exploration of contemporary music, most notably the compositions of Elliott Carter, George Perle, György Kurtág, and György Ligeti. Among the works the ensemble has premiered are David Horne’s Flight from the Labyrinth, commissioned for the quartet by the Caramoor Festival; Fred Lerdahl’s Third String Quartet, commissioned by Chamber Music America; and Lawrence Dillion’s String Quartet No. 4, commissioned by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts. Daedalus will premiere a new quartet from Joan Tower, commissioned for it by Chamber Music Monterey Bay, in April 2012."

Image credit: Matter + Spirit: The Sculpture of Stephen De StaeblerJanuary 14, 2012 - April 22, 2012 © 2011 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

The Smithsonian and New-York Historical Society Race to Preserve Occupy Wall Street's Art and Artifacts

2011-10-25T11:40:00.001-07:00

aide-memoire

2011-10-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

Opera

Topics in late 18th c. to early 20th c. music

Contemporary music

Analysis of 20th c. music

Topics in medieval and renaissance music

Baroque music performance practice

Early 19th c. musical romanticism

More 'Life Is Elsewhere': Bela Bartok, Western Art Music, Eastern European (Magyar) Folk Music, And Ethnomusicology

2011-10-25T09:53:00.000-07:00

... "A chance encounter with the folk music of his country – having overheard a Transylvanian-born maid singing a folk song while working in an adjacent room – awoke within Bartók a profound desire to explore the indigenous music of his own culture. (His efforts differed markedly from those of Liszt, whose concept of Hungarian music – i.e., as exemplified in his Hungarian Rhapsodies and other “nationalistic” works – was erroneously based on that of the Romani, or gypsies, and only rarely on actual Magyar folk music.) The exhaustive research undertaken by Bartók in this area had a profound affect on the compositions that he began to produce, which fused the precepts of Western art music with the indigenous music of Eastern Europe, resulting in an original and vital means of musical expression. Had Bartók not proceeded to produce one of the most significant bodies of musical compositions of the twentieth century, he would nevertheless still be remembered as one of history’s greatest ethnomusicologists, and one whose depth of scholarship remains a revered example even today." ...

All-Bartok evening of music at the Library of Congress October 25, 2011 [Program in .pdf file]

"Grab The Great Recession By The Horn And Give It A Spin ..." (Back To The Future Edition)

2011-10-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

In 2011, Cambridge (U.K.) - educated baroque violinist and classical conductor Andrew Manze (right) received the prestigious Rolf Schock Prize for Music, in Stockholm. Previous winners include Lidholm, Ligeti, Kagel, Saariaho, Panula, Gidon Kremer, Anne Sofie von Otter, and the Kronos String Quartet. The Rolf Schock Prizes were established and endowed by bequest of philosopher and artist Rolf Schock.

Photo credit: (c) The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2011. Copyright controlled.

cumulative loss of GDP from the Great Recession of 2007-16 will amount to $5,900 billion, of which about $2,200 billion is to come in the next 5 years

2011-10-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

Gavyn Davies in the Financial Times Great Recession may cost US economy $5,900 billion

Photo credit: (c) Audubon Canyon Ranch 2011. Copyright controlled.

Live From Farragut Square!

2011-10-21T12:06:00.001-07:00

Washington National Opera:
A View From the Bridge

October 22, 2011, 1:00 pm

Classical WETA-FM: NPR World Of Opera And American Life

With:

John Del Carlo (Alfieri), Kirk Eichelberger (Louie), Greg Warren (Mike), Kim Josephson (Eddie), Christine Brandes (Catherine), Catherine Malfitano (Beatrice), Robert Baker (Tony), Gregory Turay (Rodolfo), Richard Bernstein (Marco), Harvey D. Fort (1st Immigration Officer), Tim Augustin (2nd Immigration Officer)

Photo credit: (c) Washington National Opera of the Kennedy Center 2011. Copyright controlled. All rights reserved.

Friended Too Late

2011-10-21T08:30:00.001-07:00

Fed Matters: Because A Great Nation And Its Artists And Scientists Deserve An Honest, Intelligent, And Functioning Financial System

2011-10-20T06:36:00.000-07:00

... "The [Government Accountability Office] made four recommendations to the Fed. It urged the Reserve Banks to broaden the pool of candidates it considers as directors, including those who are not senior executives of private organisations; to clearly document the role and responsibilities of their directors; to have a clear process for granting waivers to ethics and eligibility policies for directors; and to make public governance documents such as bank bylaws.

In a letter responding to the GAO, Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Fed, said that all four recommendations had merit and that the central bank would work to implement them."

Financial Times

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A New Look: Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre
Through July 8, 2012
West Building, Main Floor

Known today primarily for his role in the development of the electromagnetic telegraph, Samuel F. B. Morse began his career as a painter. One of his most important works is on loan from the Terra Foundation for American Art — the newly conserved Gallery of the Louvre (1831–1833).

Image credit: Copyright © 2011 National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Washington's National Symphony Orchestra To Give New Classical Orchestral Music Autumn Try-Outs (But, Alas, No Shostakovich Opus 135)

2011-10-19T09:07:00.000-07:00

... "In an interview about the piece before its performance by the Chicago Symphony last year, [British composer Anna] Clyne pointed out that she originally found the challenge of approaching her first work for a large-scale orchestra to be "overwhelming." In frustration, she began pounding away at a cluster of notes on the piano but then made the liberating discovery that this could serve as the kernel for the entire piece....

A number of Clyne's works incorporate taped soundscapes and elements from electronica-her chamber piece 1987, for example, hauntingly mixes live players with the recorded crunching of feet on the sea shingle-but << rewind << relies on the fully acoustic resources of the orchestra, with a brief optional part for tape and playback system in which a "pre-recorded rewind of the work" is controlled by one of the percussionists at the very end; the score provides for an entirely acoustic "alternate ending" as well. At the same time, Clyne incorporated some chance sounds she encountered while working on the piece in her student days in New York City. The fading siren of a passing ambulance, for instance, became translated into falling pitches on the horns. The result, in the present context, is a fresh reworking of the age-old pattern of a rousing curtain-raiser for an orchestral concert."

(c) Thomas May 2011 for the National Symphony Orchestra. Copyright controlled. All rights reserved.

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Also:

The Invention of Glory: Afonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries
September 18–January 8, 2012
East Building, National Gallery of Art, East Building, Upper Level

'One of the finest sets of Gothic tapestries in existence will be on view for the first time in the United States. Depicting the conquest of two Moroccan cities by the King of Portugal, Afonso V, in 1471, the four recently restored monumental masterpieces teem with vivid and colorful images of knights, ships, and military paraphernalia set against a backdrop of maritime and urban landscapes.'

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Also:

The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy
August 20, 2011 - December 31, 2011
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco - Legion of Honor

37 Mourners in 3D

Image credit: Detail from the Pastrana Tapestries Copyright © 2011 National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Visionary Artists And Scientists Are The ...

2011-10-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

Making Classical Music Work: What's Past Is Prologue - Opus 135 Premiere In San Francisco

2011-10-18T10:17:00.000-07:00

James M. Keller on Opus 135 (D. Shostakovich)

Joshua Kosman on the San Francisco Symphony's first ever performance of Opus 135 (1969)

Enrico Chapela, Brahms, Shostakovich, José Juan Tablada, and Li Bai with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra on October 27, 2011 in Zellerbach Hall.

Image credit: Li Bai chanting a poem, painting by Liang K'ai (13th century CE).

Music Matters: Berkeley's Matías Tarnopolsky On Marrying Treasures Of Civilization With The Highest Calibre New Classical Music

2011-10-18T06:53:00.000-07:00

"When Matías Tarnopolsky took the reins of Cal Performances two years ago, one of the projects that was high on his to-do list was to establish an annual residency in Berkeley for some of the world's leading orchestras as part of the regular schedule.

He didn't waste any time doing it, either. In February, as part of Tarnopolsky's first planned season, the Vienna Philharmonic set up shop on the UC campus, not only giving orchestral concerts but also playing chamber programs, giving master classes and meeting with undergraduate members of the UC Symphony.

This weekend brings a follow-up, as Valery Gergiev leads the Mariinsky Orchestra through a three-concert cycle of the six Tchaikovsky symphonies. Tarnopolsky took the opportunity to talk about recent presentations and his plans for the future.

Q: Bringing in the big-name orchestras - including the Vienna Phil, which hadn't been in the Bay Area in more than 20 years - has been one of your signature projects. How do you foresee these residencies figuring in Cal Performances' coming seasons?

A: Our programming is always in a constant state of evolution, and there are many pieces of the mosaic that need to be put into place. But I think the Vienna residency showed how powerful it can be to have an orchestra here in concentrated doses.

Those concerts and master classes were transformative for people who were in the audience and the students who got to take part. And I really do want to keep those going. The Vienna Philharmonic will certainly be back, and next year - this hasn't been announced publicly yet, but here I go - we're going to bring the Philharmonia Orchestra with Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Q: What kind of ancillary activities will accompany the Mariinsky residency?

A: There will be coaching sessions with young students, and a public interview with Gergiev about Tchaikovsky....

Q: What state are things in for next season?

A: We're putting the finishing touches on that right now. One of the things you're going to see in future seasons is more thematic moments, where we focus on a particular subject and look at it in different ways. I also want to expand our new music programming - that will take another couple of seasons - and broaden our collaborations with leading artists and ensembles around the world."

Joshua Kosman in the San Francisco Chronicle October 13, 2011

Header credits: New covered courtyard of the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum (c) museumlab.org and Susan Biddle and the Washington Post.

Human Capital Update: 250 Million Unemployed People Around The World -- Mainly Young People -- Demand Recognition Of Their Human Capital

2011-10-17T14:09:00.000-07:00

"If I had never dropped in on that calligraphy course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts"

2011-10-06T13:29:00.000-07:00

As The World Turns And Sleep-Walks, Fourth Young Tibetan Monk Immolates Himself In The Past Nine Months

2011-10-04T10:31:00.000-07:00

FREE TIBET

Fourth Tibetan Monk Self-Immolates in Anti-China Protest

Nebula credit and copyright: (c) Brad Moore 2011.

Music Composition, Music Theory, Cognition, Music Theory, Music Composition: Ernest Bloch Lecture Series, Fall 2011

2011-09-28T08:56:00.001-07:00

Fred Lerdahl, Bloch Lecture Series, Fall 2011

University of California at Berkeley, Morrison Hall, Select Fridays at 4:30-6PM

I From Composition to Theory (9/19)
II The Theory Illustrated: Tension and Expectation in a Schubert Song (9/30)
III On the Musical Capacity (10/14)
IV Cognitive Constraints and the Aesthetics of Disorder (10/28)
V From Theory to Composition (11/4)

Composer and music theorist Fred Lerdahl is Fritz Reiner Professor of Music at Columbia University. His music has received many awards and commissions and has been performed by major orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the United States and abroad. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His writings, which complement his work as a composer, model musical listening from the perspective of cognitive science. He has written two books, A Generative Theory of Tonal Music (with linguist Ray Jackendoff) and Tonal Pitch Space.

Tickets not required. Concerts@berkeley.edu, 510-642-4864

Image credits: Copyright (c) Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology and Regents of the University of California 2011. All rights reserved.

Pan Cogito And His Latest Musical Conundrum

2011-09-27T12:11:00.000-07:00

Choose from one of the following three two-semester Western music history survey courses required – or once required - of all undergraduate music majors at the University of California (Berkeley), Swarthmore, and Yale:

1. History of Musical Style: 400 to 1800 and 1800 to the present (1971-72)

2. Topics in Medieval and Renaissance Music History; and Topics in Music History 1760 to 1911 (Haydn and Mozart to Mahler and Verdi) (1972-73)

3. Music History 1600-1800; and Music History 1800-1960 (2011-12)

Don't the second and third options devalue Baroque, Medieval, Renaissance, and Contemporary Classical Western music?

Photo credit: (c) Copyright controlled.

BEYOND THE BEAR'S REACH: 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE UKRAINIAN FREE UNIVERSITY

2011-09-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

90TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE UKRAINIAN FREE UNIVERSITY (MUNICH, GERMANY):

The 90th Anniversary of the Ukrainian Free University (UFU) will be celebrated. The program will be primarily in Ukrainian with some introductory remarks in English.

Introduction:
Bohdan Futey (UFU Professor)

Ukrainian & American National Anthems:
Solomia Maria Dutkevych

Greetings:
Ukrainian Ambassador Oleksandr Motsyk
Metropolitan-Archbishop Stefan Soroka
Zbigniew Brzezinski, Center for Strategic & International Studies
Bohdana Urbanovych, Head of Branch of НТШ-А in Washington, DC

Speakers:
Yaroslava Melnyk, Professor - Lviv National University (UFU rector: 2012- ) - “90 years of UFU”
Leonid Rydnitskiy (UFU rector: 1998-2003) - “UFU in the Service of Ukrainian Science and the Nation”

Musical Presentation:
Solomia Maria Dutkevych - soprano & bandura

Closing:
Professor Albert Kipa, President - УВАН, (UFU rector: 2003-2007)

Exhibit - Selected UFU Publications

Reception

Saturday, October 1
2:00 pm
Embassy of Ukraine
3350 "M" Street, N.W.
Washington, DC
Free Admission

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Contact Andrew Sorokowski at: amboritanus@hotmail.com

Works And Days And The Palestinian Spring

2011-09-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

"Never cross the sweet-flowing water of ever-rolling rivers afoot until you have prayed, gazing into the soft flood, and washed your hands in the clear, lovely water. Whoever crosses a river with hands unwashed of wickedness, the gods are angry with him and bring trouble upon him afterwards."

Hesiod: Works And Days

Photo credit: (c) Associated Press 2011.

Cogito The Fearless

2011-09-23T06:48:00.000-07:00

The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy
August 20, 2011 - December 31, 2011
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco - Legion of Honor

37 Mourners in 3D

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Pictured:

Mourner with an uncovered head, holding a book with his right hand
Pleurant la tête découverte, tenant un livre de la main droite
Jean de La Huerta (Daroca, ? - ? After 1462) and Antoine Le Moiturier (Avignon, c. 1425 - Dijon, 1494)
Mourner No. 67
1443 - 45
Alabaster
16 5/16 x 8 11/16 x 4 3/4 inches
41.5 x 22 x 12 cm
(c) Cleveland Museum of Art 2011. Copyright controlled.

"Vissi d'Arte" In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction (And Sans The "Free Opera In The Ballpark" Fad)

2011-09-22T14:48:00.000-07:00

[Click on image for enlargement.]

"Last year, a record of more than 2.6 million "The Met: Live in HD" tickets were sold to opera lovers across the globe - including Russia, Israel, China, Cyprus, the Dominican Republic, Morocco, and Slovenia - effectively quadrupling the Met’s paying audience (approximately 800,000 people attend performances in the opera house in a Met season)."

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"The Czech Republic has also a rich cultural heritage. Prague was a major European musical center in the 18th century, represented by classical composers such as Josef Myslivecek (1737-81), Jan Ladislav Dusek (1760-1812), friend of Mozart. 19th century Czech music was created by Bedrich Smetana, who, using folk sources and his own inspiration, almost single-handedly created a modern Czech musical style and Antonin Dvorak, whose work combined cosmopolitanism with nationalism, emerged as one of the most renowned composers of his day. Leos Janacek, whose creative period came after 1900, had a unique style based on the speech patterns of his native district of Moravia. Also in the romantic nationalist tradition were Zdenek Fibich (1850-1900) and, somewhat later, Josef Suk and Vitezslav Novak (1870-1949).

During the 1920s and 1930s many Czech composers, notably the atonalist Alois Haba (1893-1973), were attracted to avant-garde music. A more conservative figure from this period was the French-influenced cosmopolitan Bohuslav Martinu."

Image and Text credit: (c) 2002 Kuska House and Galance Web Services. With thanks.

Problems In Contemporary Corporatist Civilization

2011-09-21T10:04:00.000-07:00

[Click on images for enlargements.]

Onshore U.S. corporate liquidity has reached a record $13 trillion.

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Image credits:

David Nash - Cube, Sphere, Pyramid: Mosaic Cuts, 2008 Redgum on artist's charred shelf

David Nash - Black Dome, 2009 Charcoal on paper in artist's charred ash frame

(c) David Nash 2011. Copyright controlled. All rights reserved. Via, respectively, the Haines Gallery, San Francisco, and the Robert Brown Gallery, Washington, D.C.