While we're celebrating the new year's eve

Here is a lovely rendition of Auld Lang Syne with the original melody. Tradition has it that this, not the well-known melody, is the tune Burns intended for his lyrics. Whether that's so or not, I do think this old Scottish folk tune is prettier and more fitting than the one everybody knows (which, as far as I can find, is also an old Scottish folk tune).

The Pilgrim's Song

My blessing fall on this fair world,
On mountain, valley, forest, ocean,
The clarion winds in ceaseless motion,
And heaven's blue banner high unfurled.

And bless the staff that hither bore me,
And alms that helped me on my way,
The boundless plain that lies before me
The glowing morn, the evening grey.

The very path by which I wander
Shows glorious, golden, bathed in light.
No blade of grass that glistens yonder
But seems a star in heaven's height.

O might I in my exultation
To all the world this joy impart,
Would I might clasp the whole creation,
Lovers or strangers, foes or brothers,
Would I might clasp them, the whole creation,
In fervent rapture to my heart.

- Alexey Tolstoy, with an unknown translator

Tchaikovsky composed a lovely setting for this poem, which I learned for voice lessons a couple of years ago. It's not a song that hangs around my mind a lot, but it came to me strongly today. YouTube has a beautiful recording of it in the original Russian. The best English version I can find is this one by Jerome Hines.

Radio Bookmark

WRKA - hits of the 60's and 70's
I was looking for 70's music, and this is the first one I found online. It seems to fit the bill, so I'm bookmarking it.

A Happy Birthday

The great composer was born 236 years ago today - and the world was never the same again . . .

"Life can't be all bad when for ten dollars you can buy all the Beethoven sonatas and listen to them for ten years." - William F. Buckley, Jr.

Mozart

AO's composer this term is Mozart, and, for the first time in a long time, we're taking time to really explore Mozart. We're playing Mozart music (originally using free downloads from ClassicalArchives, but more and more playing CD's as we add to our collection), we read The Wonder Boy by Opal Wheeler, and Tim and I are reading the Mozart biography by Marcia Davenport. It requires just a bit of editing for students. When we read about a piece that piques our curiosity, we go to amazon.com and buy a used copy. We bought the Six Haydn-Quartets because we read about Mozart composing them and wanted to hear them. After reading the reviews at amazon, we settled on a set recorded sixty years ago by the Budapest Quartet (a Russian group!) Tonight we read this in Davenport's biography:

" . . . the G minor quintet (K. 516) with two violas. This quintet is a glimpse into Wolfgang's soul; an epic statement; a summing up; a prophecy. The man who has been called superficial gathered all the hidden pain and passion of nine troubled years and gave them an expression that lives and will live forever in its sheer elemental truth. The piece sets and holds a keynote of intense, passionate excitement which more than accounts for the apparent absence of this in Wolfgang's visible life. It is possible to interpret the work in terms of his own misforfunes, expounded and then protested in vivid poignancy. But it is better to know that he, true artist, rose above autobiographical emotion and turned his personal passion into universal force. The tragic mood of the first four movements, culminating in the black sorrow of the last Adagio, is swept away in the supreme bliss of the final Allegro. This is no conventional happy ending, but a moment when Wolfgang opens the door to his spirit, which is clear and radiant and beautiful, and not to be extinguished by any mortal hardship. That he knew always. No biographer, no commentator, critic, or interpreter can ever reveal Wolfgang Mozart entirely. Every attempt to know him truly, to relive his life, is incomplete without his own musical revelations. Such are this quintet and his Requiem. To know them deeply is to know him."

As it turns out, that quintet is included on the Budapest Quartet CD, so Tim and I were able to hear it. I plan to listen to it once every day until it becomes familiar, and until I begin to understand what she's talking about. At first listen, I didn't think the sorrow was "black." It was just melancholy. I'd call it brown.

What We're Listening To

One of our very best friends, artist Tom Root (he and his wife Peggy helped plan out the artist rotation for Ambleside Online) has recorded a CD! We've been listening to it for the past few weeks, and we love it! And now it's for sale at CD Baby! CD Baby describes it as "Southern eclectic jazzy folk/popster; Root crafts interesting well-written songs with expressive, tasteful arrangements."

You can even hear samples of all the songs at the site. My favorite is Happy Girl. We happen to know the girl, and she's just as happy as the song says. :)

You can also see samples of his art here.

All Mozart

I promised a friend I'd post this. I still haven't listened to it yet. They boast 24 hours of Mozart.

http://www.live365.com/stations/mozartmp3

Top Ten Desert Island Christmas Albums

Queen Shenaynay from the Beehive posted her favorite albums here, and, after I do a little shopping at amazon.com for one or two from her list, I'll be posting our own list. :)

Our tastes are pretty basic, we like traditional carols and we don't need our carols gussied up to make them palatable for modern listeners. Last year I wanted to buy a couple of new CD's to play at our church services, so I sampled quite a few current selections at the Christian bookstore and couldn't like any of them. Instead, I went online and looked for old favorites - Bing Crosby, Julie Andrews, Nat King Cole, and liked those much better. I didn't learn to like classical music until we'd been homeschooling a couple of years, so we're only beginning to discover what's out there in that genre. I expect our top ten list will change when we find more classics to love.

Here's our list --

A Christmas Album (Amy Grant) It never seems like Christmas until we play this. I haven't been as thrilled with her later Christmas albums, but I love this one, it never gets old.

Light of the Stable (Emmylou Harris) especially the song Beautiful Star of Bethlehem, which the Judds popularized recently

The Nutcracker (Tchaikovsky) We have three copies of this. We sometimes listen to the whole thing, and sometimes just highlights.

Nine Lessons & Carols (The Choir of King's College, Cambridge) A new tradition for us that just started a couple of years ago.

Greatest Christmas Songs and Christmas with Julie Andrews - We love both of these, and can't pick between them, so I just included both of them

Handel's Messiah (Our copy is conducted by John Eliot Gardiner) The Messiah has been growing on me over the years.

Christmas Day in Hawaii Nei (Makaha Sons) Mom's addition: "This isn't the only Hawaiian Christmas music I have, but it's my favorite."

A Christmas Carol (Focus on the Family Radio Theater Drama) We listen to this every year, I prefer this to any of the movie versions

Merry Little Christmas (Linda Ronstadt) I just picked randomly from a few others that we like to make it an even ten. (Tim wants to replace this with a favorite of his own)

What I'm Listening To

The guys took off, they went to a costume store to buy boots for their Narnia costumes, and, with Halloween so close, I don't want Miss M exposed to the scary things they have in the store. So we stayed home, looked at books, ate (she insisted, 'I want to do it myself.' I said, 'Can you say in-dee-pen-dant?' and she did!) and now we're listening to music.

I made a compilation of upbeat, fun songs to play with Miss M on the rare occassions that I want to hear something other than classical music. I used all songs that I never get tired of. Richie Furay used to be in the 70's band Poco, and my favorite band, the short-lived Souther Hillman Furay band. Then he became a Christian, and now pastors a Calvary Chapel-ish church in Colorado. He released an album of Christian music a few years ago, and it's almost the only Christian music that I don't get tired of. I keep waiting for another album, but I guess he retired from music. I have enough James Taylor songs to make me think that I really ought to spend some time discovering the rest of his music. All I know are his pop hits.

Anyway, Miss M loves the music. She can dance to these. And she does! :)

01 Everyday - James Taylor
02 Give Thanks To The Lord - Richie Furay
03 Hele On To Kauai - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
04 Whenever I See Your Smiling Face - James Taylor
05 Home - Karla Bonoff
06 Hawaiian Rollercoaster - Lilo and Stitch soundtrack
07 Hallel - Richie Furay
08 Up On The Roof - James Taylor
09 Lei Hana I Ka Makani Ualau'awa (a chant) - Keali'i Reichel
10 Wake Up My Soul - Richie Furay
11 He Mele No Lilo - Lilo and Stitch soundtrack
12 E Ala E - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
13 Peace That Passes All Understanding - Richie Furay
14 Pupu A'o 'Ewa (Pearly Shells) - Keali'i Reichel
15 You've Got a Friend - James Taylor
16 Aloha O'e - Lilo and Stitch soundtrack
17 Ulili E - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
18 Lahainaluna - Keali'i Reichel (sounds like the Makaha Sons in the background)
19 If He's Ever Near - Karla Bonoff
20 Kamalani - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
21 E Pili Mai - Keali'i Reichel
22 Falling - Karla Bonoff

I might have included a Jackson Browne song (I could easily have used Everywhere I Go for this particular collection), Julie Andrews songs from musicals, and songs by Lamb. And Uptown Girl by Billy Joel, Top of the World by The Carpenters, Paper Roses by Marie Osmond, Drums of the Island by the Makaha Sons, Heartache Tonight by the Eagles, Silver Threads and Golden Needles by Linda Ronstadt, a couple of Hall and Oates songs. Maybe I need to start a second collection!

Prelude in C Major by J.S. Bach

I apologize for the static. And yes, there is a skip in the audio file; I'm not sure why.