Debussy: Noël des enfants qui n'ont plus de maison (Christmas for the Homeless Children), L. 139

1. how you come across to it:
Discovered it while doing a random search for Debussy's vocal works.

2. why this piece?
Composed both the text and music by Debussy during the First World War, it is possibly the saddest Christmas song ever, depicting the revengeful thoughts of those miserable orphans in war.

Thinking of the hatred it may have generated, the song can be quite chilly. The effect is reinforced by the fact that it is scored for children's chorus.

The text is self-explaining:

We have neither house nor home!
Enemies took all we owned, all gone, even our own little bed!
They burned our school, they even burned the teacher too.
They burned the church and statue of the Savior.
And the old begger that could not move very fast!

We have neither house nor home!
Enemies took all we owned, all gone, even our own little bed!
Papa has gone off to war, Poor Mother dear is in heaven!
she did not foresee all this.
Oh, what shall become of us?

Jesus, O little child, don't go to their house, never go to them again, Punish them all!
Avenge the children of France!
The little Belgians, and the little polish children too!

But if we should forget, please pardon us.
Jesus, Jesus above all we want no toys!
But may we please have once again our daily bread!
For the little Belgians, for the little Serbians, too!

We have neither house nor home!
Enemies took all we owned, all gone, even our own little bed!
They burned our school, they even burned the teacher too.
They burned the church and statue of the Savior.
And the old begger that could not move very fast!

Jesus! hear now our plea, we no longer have our wooden shoes.
Give victory to the children of France!

another English translation is available here:
http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=4342

3. (and...)
Hope this kind of vindictiveness limits itself to history in the past. Let there be peace on earth.




[12]

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

1. how you come across to it:
I first learned about Wagner and his many operas from a music dictionary (written in Chinese) that I read (and sometimes, studied) as a primary-school boy.

2. why this piece?
I was fortunate enough to have the chance to attend Daniel Barenboim's debut performance at the Metropolitan Opera last week. The cast included Katarina Dalayman (Isolde), Peter Seiffert (Tristan), Michelle DeYoung (Barangaene), and Kwangchul Youn (King Marke).

3. (and...)
This is a great opera with the most trivial plot. The story is there just to provide a framework for a mood brought out by the music, for Wagner's musical study of love. Or, instead of love, should I say the feeling of falling in love? Wagner is able to capture this complex psychological state so well with his music and lyrics. This feeling is not just a maddening desire of another person, but also, a sense of guilt, a feeling of lost (in Act I, the word "verloren" is even set to the first leitmotiv in one of Isolde's lines), a craving desire to escape reality, and an intense blissfulness defying any verbal description.

I have ambivalent feelings toward this opera. To my taste, the sentimentality of the music is excessive, almost decadent, though whenever I listen to the prelude or Liebestod I could only confess my secret enjoyment of the music's hypnotic power. Wagner's music is literally like a love potion that transports his audience to the dream castle of King Ludwig, ruled not by the King, but by fantasy, visions, flickering stars, and shiny moon.

As to the performance I attended, Barenboim's interpretation is overall satisfying. Kwangchul Youn sang an extremely memorable King Marke with nuanced expression and authority. Dalayman's Isolde was also good, though I preferred slightly her Barangaene in her previous Met production with James Levine. Seiffert's Tristan was overall disappointing, though he did manage to showcase his intensity in Act III. Barenboim's tempo at the final Liebestod was not too slow (as compared with, say, Furtwaengler's in the following recording) but it sounded surprisingly calm and peaceful. Perhaps this is really the way to interpret this famous piece: could Isolde still have any agitated passion when she is dying so blissfully?

Kirsten Flagstad singing Liebestod (live), with Furtwaengler conducting:


Waltraud Meier singing Liebestod (live), with Daniel Barenboim conducting at la Scala (2007):

Fauré: Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120

1. how you come across to it:
Continual listen to the 1st movement, and then the remaining ones. It often takes me quite a while to thoroughly digest a movement by listening to it repeatedly, before I can move on to another.

2. why this piece?
The 1st movement is the piece I play on the piano most these days, particularly when the temperature drops recently, as playing piano is a way to keep myself warm.

3. (and...)
Materials used in the 1st movement transfigured in the 2nd and the 3rd are not quite obvious (at least to me), unless you get more familiarized with the melodious 1st movement.

4. (also...)
Again, it's the subtlety which captures my attention - things which are there but not obvious at the first glance, but amaze you upon further investigation; things which are deep and intense that deserve a steady gaze to unveil, which takes time (or maybe I'm slow...).

The experience resembles how one savors tea, that you may experience a range of different combination of tastes - starting with aroma that enters the nose, followed by actual drops of tea going from the tip of tongue, to the end of throat.

This may as well serve as an excuse for my ignorance in grandiose music :p.

[8]

Schubert: Meeres Stille (Calm at Sea), Op. 3 No. 2 / D. 216

1. how you come across to it:
This is one lied included in the first CD of Graham Johnson's Complete Schubert Edition (Hyperion). I have been collecting CDs from this edition, and eventually, intend to listen to all of them.

2. why this piece?
I brought this CD along with me as I departed Boston for Washington, DC. Just now I played this amazing song on my laptop, enjoying it by myself in the hotel room.

3. (and...)

Profound calm reigns over the waters,
The sea lies motionless,
Anxiously the sailor beholds
The glassy surface all around.
No breeze from any quarter!
A fearful, deathly calm!
In the vast expanse
No wave stirs.
Goethe (1749-1832)

Music is an art defined by motion of sound across time. To represent this fearful, deathly stillness envisioned by Goethe with music must therefore be counted as one of the most difficult tasks with which the 18 year-old Schubert has challenged himself. The entire lied lasts only for a little more than two minutes; yet, it has this uncanny power of bringing the listener to a world ruled by an eternal but stifling presence. The piano accompanies the voice only with slow arpeggiated chords; yet, the chord sequence and its associated modulations magically recreate an atmosphere in which one feels a certain nervous energy quietly looming behind a peaceful and calm facade. By portraying, with music, such an abstract and subtle aspect of human experience, Schubert is pushing the impressionistic potential of music almost to its limit.

黃友棣：遺忘

1. how you come across to it:
It is on of the programme in the 2002 CU Chorus concert. I was one of the choristers.

2. why this piece?
I will conduct this piece in the 2009 CU Chorus concert.
This piece is a haunting piece. Very touching. The lyrics is heartbreaking.

3. (and...)
People love to be tortured by forbiddened love.

Fauré: Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120 - I. Allegro, ma non troppo

1. how you come across to it:
A random try-out for French chamber music.

2. why this piece?
This is the only piece of music which can surmount the predominating Brahms Clarinet Sonata/Quintet these days.

Seamlessly lyrical, the underlying strong passions are expressed in a very graceful way, without sounding too forceful or awkward - I could only wish to express/use words the way Fauré organized music notes in this movement. La-de-da.

Not knowing what exactly this piece strikes me, particularly in the last minute where the piano enters with persistent As, I have looped this movement for 2 days already.

3. (and...)
There was a time I thought I was quite immune to Brahms’ music, until recently when the wave of Brahms addiction sweep through.

It would be nice if this Brahms craving and having a little peace of mind are not mutually exclusive.

[3]

Lee Kesselman: Mbiri Kuna Mwari (Shona Mass)

1. how you come across to it:
It is introduced by Paul Hondrop at the workshop in Taipei International Choral Music Festival 2008.

2. why this piece?
MAYBE my choir will pick this piece for their Mus. Fest. competition.

3. (and...)
Primitive music is the real "international/intercultural/transcultural/cross-cultural language" (metaphor only).

J.S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier (complete)

1. how you come across to it:
Probably ABRSM syllabus. I started to appreciate it after listening to No. 13 in F sharp major and No. 18 in G sharp minor from Book II on Dino Lipatti and Maira Yudina's CD. This time, the overwhelming experience of listening to the complete WTC played by Angela Hewitt, one book for each night, in the length of over two and a half hours for each performance, as part of her Bach World Tour.

2. why this piece?
Not only it is intellectually challenging to listen to the complete WTC at a time, but emotionally intense. Thanks to Hewitt's humanistic, or at times, sentimental approach, emotions of different kinds that were wrapped in musical lines are disclosed. I am not sure if I can have another chance to listen to the complete WTC in live concert ever again in my life.

3. (and...)
Listening in the sequence of C-c-C#-c#-D-d-Eb-d#-..., it was like inspecting a whole spectrum of keys manifested themselves in carefully articulated matrixes of notes. I have an impression that a certain preludes and fugues sound like they were composed exclusively for the keys they are now in, that they should only be played in that key, but not otherwise.

4. (also...)
Being someone vulnerable to the sound of the piano, there are moments I was moved to tears in both evenings, out of joy and gratitude. I didn't expect to shed tears in an all-Bach recital.

If I have to limit myself to the oeuvre of only one composer, he would definitely be Johann Sebastian Bach.

BWV 883


BWV 893
http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=jj12th02yT4

Vaughan Williams: Sea Symphony

1. how you come across to it:
- forgot

2. why this piece?
- A true choral symphony that the choir is used throughout the work and is an integral part of the musical texture
- the 70-minute music is simply a great soundtrack while the choir sings out what is going on in the motion picture

3. (and...)
- Ravel paid Vaughan Williams the great compliment of calling him “the only one of my students who does not write my music.” (Vaughan Williams studied with him for three weeks in Paris in 1908)

Richard Davy (flourished c.1490-1510): Salve Regina (from the Eton Choirbook)

1. how you come across to it:
I first learned about the Eton Choirbook (Eton College Library Ms. 178; compiled c.1500) some 10 years ago in a Renaissance music history class at UBC taught by Prof. J. Evan Kreider. He played a Salve Regina setting of William Cornysh (d. c.1502 or 1523) from the first Eton-Choirbook CD of The Sixteen (dir. Harry Christophers). I was instantly blown away by its incomparable beauty.

2. why this piece?
I loved these antiphons to the point that during my last undergraduate year, I decided to do a thorough directed study on this manuscript with Prof. Kreider. Last week, some unknown forces prompted me to reread my undergraduate thesis, motivating me also to listen to these wonderful pieces again.

3. (and...)
I regard the Magnificats and antiphons in the Choirbook as one of the most significant contributions of England to the Western classical music tradition. Most of them were composed on texts in praise of the Virgin Mary, expressing the choristers' devotion to this dedicatee of the Eton College. Written mostly in 5 to 13 voices, they have sectionalized structures alternating between full and solo sections. Different solo sections are written for different voice combinations for color variation across the antiphon. In the full sections, the highest voice tends to sound separated from the dense middle voices owing to its very high register and florid lines, resulting into a sound that is both transparent and magnificent.

The Sixteen has recently reissued their 5 Eton-Choirbook CDs under the Coro label after Collins went out of business.

Schubert: Piano Trio No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 100

1. how you come across to it:
Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, in cinema house. Later on, re-visit it on the Beaux Arts Trio webcast last month.

2. why this piece?
I found myself humming the fourth movement on the streets in India. And I still haven't had enough of it since coming back to HK! :)

3. (and...)
The unabridged version of the fourth movement contains a passage with themes from both the second and fourth movment intertwining together.

a scene from Barry Lyndon, on how Barry got together with Lady Lyndon:

Piano Trio No. 2, second movement

Piano Trio No. 1, first movement, performed by Menuhins + Gendron:

Stravinsky: Suite Italienne, for Violin and Piano

1. how you come across to it:
My violinist gave me the music one evening, and we sight-read the entire suite.

2. why this piece?
She wanted to play this in her recital.

3. (and...)
After sight-reading it, I ended up liking it very much. It is beautiful in an austere way, much like the kind one finds in, say, a beautiful mathematical proof or an elegant physical law. The music doesn't have even a trace of sentimentality or passion. In this neo-classical experiment, the Swiss-clock maker has gone so much further than Hindemith. I can only wonder how the original Pergolesi pieces (on which this Suite is based) sound like.

J. Haydn: Symphony No. 47 in G major

1. how you come across to it:
I must be in primary school when I first heard that there was this remarkable man, Haydn, who composed over a hundred symphonies.

2. why this piece?
The saga continues...

3. (and...)
In the opinion of Charles Rosen, this is one of Haydn's most brilliant symphonies before his Paris series. Mozart copied down themes of this symphony in his sketches, apparently planning on conducting it himself. The first movement opens with a line passing between the horns and unison strings: a dialogue so full of tension, and so exciting for the listener. The second movement is a variation built upon a gracious two-voice melody; perhaps not surprisingly, the voices are inverted in the theme's second half. The counterpoint employed here is not sophisticated, though it adds richness to this elegant movement. As in many other Haydn symphonies of this period, the Minuet is the most interesting: the second half of the dance is a literal, note-to-note repetition of the first half, except in retrograde motion. At the end of the first half, the downbeats are all accented so that in the beginning of the second half, the accented upbeats (as a result of the backward motion) are dramatic enough to alert the listener of this intricacy. The finale is, unfortunately, a disappointment. Neither is it substantial enough to sustain the drama in the previous movements, nor is it jovial enough to resolve any tension. But overall, this is no doubt an admirable work.

J. Haydn: Symphony No. 46 in B major

1. how you come across to it:
Listening to this symphony is part of an ongoing project of systematically surveying Haydn's oeuvre.

2. why this piece?
Haydn's complete symphonies is too important to be omitted in such a listening project.

3. (and...)
This is a very gallant work composed during his Storm-and-Stress period. The B-minor second movement sounds like Barbarina singing in the beginning of Figaro's Act IV (i.e., melancholy over trivia). In the finale, before the theme's final statement, the middle of the minuet, played by solo strings, all of a sudden reappears. The portion of the minuet cited even happens to resemble the finale's theme. Has Beethoven learned from Haydn in his Fifth?

Czerny: "School of Velocity", Op. 299, no. 1-30

1. how you come across to it:
Bought it in Shengzhen book city

2. why this piece?
I bought it together with Op. 849 for my student. But actually I have never played them before! I have been always a lazy piano student who never practised any Czerny or Hanon.

3. (and...)
This is the missing part of my piano learning. Maybe most piano students would found Czerny uninteresting. But when I played it, I realized that although his chords are simple, but he explored many different patterns, and they could be very musical if played well. And each piece indeed helps to improve particular finger techniques. These piece can be an easier step-stone before the more difficult Chopin and Liszt etudes.

And as the student of Beethoven and the teacher of Liszt, his pieces demonstrate both the classical and early romantic style. Indeed Liszt owed a lot from him! You can find traces of Liszt's La Campella and other pieces in these exercises.

Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108 / Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115

1. how you come across to it:
Random search in HMV, dated back to my secondary school days. This violin sonata is the very first piece which drew me to Brahms.

2. why this piece?
In fact I have been trying to avoid Brahms deliberately, especially his violin sonatas, the most intimate one among his chamber music. I didn't mean to listen to him, but somehow it finds its way back to me.

3. (and...)
Brahms's music is hopelessly romantic and heart-melting as ever. He could have softened the hardest soul.

4. (also...)
If Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata could inspire Tolstoy to write a novella, sometimes I wonder why there is no literary output based on Brahms' chamber music.

Richter + Oistrach playing III. Un poco presto e con sentimento
http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=eX9mI0OdJrA

Jean Sibelius: Symhony No. 5

1. how you come across to it:
Watched a stunning concert of this piece in Shenzhen Concert Hall, played by Okko Kamu coducts Helsinki Philhamonic Orchestra. Then listen Alexander Gibson/LSO and Paavo Beglund/COE at home.

2. why this piece?
It's really a great piece.

3. (and...)
It seems that Finnish have their secret on playing Sibelius. I find that Berglund and Kamu have many similarities in what details should be brought out that Gibson didn't do so, although Gibson also did a great job in the recording.
BTW, I still think S7 the best symphony by Sibelius, and please find Berglund/COE's recording.


Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Schumann: Symphony No. 4 in D minor

1. how you come across to it:
In office.

2. why this piece?
I have never understood Schumann's music. This is the first time I realize that this is something of great passion.

3. (and...)
Thomas Zehetmair with the Northern Sinfonia. Great playing. Very lively and organic. It swept away the brick feeling that Schumann symphonies have given me.

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.3

1. how you come across to it:
I think everyone is familiar to this classics, and recently I'm trapped into this piece deeply, it simply shows all the possible capacity of a piano (from massive to delicate, heroic to intimate) in the style of Romanticism, Rachmaninov makes a perfect marriage of a piano and an orchestra (from the huge forces of the last movement ending to the chamber dialogues just after the cadenza of the 1st movement).
2. why this piece?
Apart from Classic Horowitz
we can have Bronfman
3. (and...)
Andsnes (documentary)

P.S. Ashkenazy is better for score-study listening only ...

Faure: Dolly

1. how you come across to it:
Got to know this work at a friend's studio. I find this piece like a French china vase placed in a noble household. It is lovely, intimate and of course, very French and bourgeois.

2. why this piece?
Played it with Kitty at our class concert. The more I play this piece, the more I enjoy the finely crafted subtleties in the harmony, which are constructed in a very refine way.

3. (and...)
Faure wrote this piece for the daughter of his mistress at that time, Emma Bardac, who married Debussy later. She is also the mother of Chou-Chou, whom Debussy composed Children's Corner for.

By the way, I'm looking for someone to play Dolly together. Let me know if you're interested.

Jaakko Mäntyjärvi: CCCX

1. how you come across to it:
I watched that in the performance of Hannu Norjanen conducts Tapiolo Chamber Choir in Taipei International Choral Festival 2008.

2. why this piece?
It's just stunning~!
You may try this in NML, search the cat. no. NCD18, the last track Herra Jeesus jun taalla vain kanssamme on is the original title of CCCX while it is as a part of the piece Salvat 1701.
The title CCCX means hymn no. 310.

3. (and...)
I am crazy for Jaakko Mäntyjärvi now!!!!!!! The eclectic traditionalist.


http://www.englishcentre.fi/mpoy/jm.htm

Arturo Márquez: Danzón Nº 2

1. how you come across to it:
from youtube
2. why this piece?
" The danzón is to Mexico rather what the tango is to Argentina, a vibrant modern dance tinged with nostalgia."
3. (and...)
Both Gustavo Dudamel and Simon Bolivar Orchestra are a legend.

Schumann: Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120

1. how you come across to it:
At work.

2. why this piece?
Schumann never gets connected to me. Just like how Brahms disconnected to me decade ago. German music isn't something that you will instantly like. But this piece ignites some more understanding -- in sound -- to the world of his. That is enlightening. Don't you think the beginning chord so Beethovenian?

3. (and...)
It's from an album of an orchestra next year. Wonderful playing -- and I know why they choose this in their album!

Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 1, Op. 38: II. Allegretto quasi menuetto

1. how you come across to it:
I can't remember it exactly. But there's something about this movement particularly appeals to me (in the past).

2. why this piece?
It gives me the impression that, some strong emotions are wrapped by the seemingly light-hearted outlook. And that people full of passions are doomed to suffer.

3. (and...)
I almost feel like I'm getting back to the old deeply-rooted cravings.

The Young Girls of Rochefort (Les Demoiselles de Rochefort)

1. how you come across to it:
introduced by others

2. why this piece?
very musical musical, all characters and passerby inside the film just talk like singing (recitative-like) and walk like dancing, all done naturally rather than artificially
life is so enchanting and cheering
3. (and...)
i am sure you will click the following videos again and again!

you can simply hum out such beautiful melody in solfège at anytime

how come can sing out a murdering news beautifully

what a charming street and charming breakdown

dreamy ballet scene inside just a piano shop!

everyone has its melody showing each of their feelings

林子祥／林振強：《零時十分》

1. how you come across to it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC9EmlEUyZE
(but of course it's not the first place that I listened to this piece.)
2. why this piece?
it's just a classic canto-pop in the 1980s. Nice lyrics.
3. (and...)

Debussy: Masques

1. how you come across to it:
At first I'm attracted by the title - usually I appeal to works exploring the theme of mask/ambiguity/disguise.

2. why this piece?
The piece is written during the escapade with his newly met lover, Emma Bardac (who was once the mistress of Faure), around the time he composed L'isle joyeuse. One may expect the piece as thrilling as L'isle joyeuse. On the contrary, it's dark and neurotic.

3. (and...)
Marguerite Long wrote of Masques:
"I hear Masques – a tragedy for piano one might call it – as a sort of transparency of Debussy’s character… He was torn with poignant feelings which he preferred to mask with irony. The title Masques represents an ambiguity which the composer protested with all his might: “It is not the Italian comedy, it is the tragic expression of existence”"

http://www.litart.co.uk/isle.htm#Masques

Bernstein: Candide, "I'm easily assimilated"

1. how you come across to it:
Re-watched Candide during some boring typing.

2. why this piece?
Also called Old Lady's Tango, very interesting words. Because it's at Act II, it's easily overlooked when watching the whole opera.

3. (and...)
Added by Leon Chu:


Lyrics

Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4

1. how you come across to it:
I'm conducting it tomorrow.

2. why this piece?
The music is well into my head during this month's preparation. Though I am still on my way to understand it, to hear the simplicity out from the complex texture, and to learn the emotion within. Still getting there, but already it's a great experience.

3. (and...)

Sibelius: Kullervo, Op. 7

1. how you come across to it:
First met it when typing information of this BIS box set Sibelius Edition - Vocal & Orchestra in naxos. Now met it again in monthly assignment from Hi-fi Review

2. why this piece?
It is really an overwhelming experience to be absorbed in this 80 minutes long choral symphony, with the dark and haunting Sibelius sound.

3. (and...)
Sibelius!

John Adams: Grand Pianola Music

1. how you come across to it:
i think in HKPO concert a couple of years ago

2. why this piece?
a pure sentimental piece, u can clear all things in your mind

3. (and...)
Part II On the Dominant Divide "was an experiment in applying my minimalist techniques to the barest of all possible chord progressions, I-V-I." - John Adams

Stockhausen: Stimmung

1. how you come across to it:
From various sources, but first on a certain contemporary music programne many years ago on Radio 4. Excerpt of it is used as the intro music to this programme. When I finally able to hear this entirely on the Hyperion CD, it can't escape my ear.


2. why this piece?
not simply about overtones, etc. It's a piece of art which let the sacred and the erotic sit together comfortably. Sexual fantasy in calmness, evocation within meditation.

3. (and...)
listen, listen, listen

Orchestral excerpts from Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

1. how you come across to it:
Okay, this is a repeat, but because of work, I cannot escape from it in a short period of time. Although not obliged in my job, I keep repeatedly listen to those excerpts that are purely orchestral -- the act I sex scene, the act III interludes, etc. They are so colourful and exhilarating, even the stage may be empty, your ear will not have rest!

2. why this piece?
This is obsessive, huh?

3. (and...)

Trisdee na Patalung: Eternity

1. how you come across to it:
I found that piece in my net-friend's (the composer) Youtube account.

2. why this piece?
It's sooooooooooo moving, that's all. So bad that I can only watch an except, I believe if I listen to/watch the whole piece, I must cry.

3. (and...)
The combination of Pi Java (a Thai traditional double-reed wind instrument) and string orchestra is interesting. And the music itself borrowed traditional Buddhist funeral music, since the piece is composed in memoriam HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra (1923-2008), a nice multi-cultural piece.




Somnuek Saeng-Arun, Pi Java

Siam Philharmonic Orchestra

Conducted by the composer

Schnittke: Trio Sonata (orch. Yuri Bashmet)

1. how you come across to it:
simply forgot, but I can remember the first hearing didn't give me strong impression until later hearings.
2. why this piece?
Schnittke is a master of 'dark' music. And this is a masterpiece of such desperate darkness.
3. (and...)
DO NOT listen to this when one is extremely depressed.

Ravel: Introduction et Allegro = Om Shanti Om

1. how you come across to it:
Watched Om Shanti Om at mouse (and cats)'s place one Sunday. The melody popped up in my brain for a few days afterwards.

2. why this piece?
At first I couldn't figure out where this melody came from. Later my inner ear heard some harp sound get mixed with some shots from the bollywood blockbuster - then I'm shocked to find out I got both Ravel and Om Shanti Om mixed in my brain, playing together! That's how I figured out they actually resemble each other.

3. (and...)
Mouse suggested Ravel's exotic use of his favourite Phrygian mode may explain that. What about this - maybe the film score is a reincarnation of Ravel? They are even in the same key/range!

goodmorninggloria: black coffee & broom candy (CD album of 10 songs)

1. how you come across to it:
逛阿麥書房時聽到覺得很好聽，買下了。是一隊本地的 band，主音和作曲的叫 gloria tang 。

2. why this album?
Simple yet good music arrangement, very comfortable and relaxing.
With some jazz flavour, sometimes the chord change are just astonishingly refreshing.
And I like bossa nova, and coffee!
When pop songs touch me, usually it is the lyrics, and the lyrics are just touching.

3. (and...)
The brown coffee-colour CD cover design is simple but effective.
With just a small icon (like a road-sign of no U-turn), you get the basic idea of each song.

Brahms (orch. Schoenberg): Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor

1. how you come across to it:
First time in Munich, when I've decided to kill time with my travelmates, before the night train to Berlin, by attending a concert of Munich Philharmonic and never knew the programme nor conductor. They played, then fell in love with this piece.

2. why this piece?
It's Brahms but heavily made up by Schoenberg, and it's a good piece of orchestral exam. Every instrument, from violin down to xylophone, clarinet to trombone, has chance to shine. Horn's melody in 2nd movement must be a nightmare for all horn players in the world.

3. (and...)
I think de Waart likes this piece very much, otherwise he won't squeeze HKPO to play the thing with their utmost effort. Darkly brilliant.

Ai: Believe

1. how you come across to it:
In the NDS game Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 (燃えろ!熱血リズム魂 押忍!闘え!応援団2)

2. why this piece?
Simply lovely and moving. It suddenly pops up recently out of nowhere. AI possesses a unique and charming voice.

Walton: Henry V - A Musical Scenario after Shakespeare (complied by Christopher Palmer)

1. how you come across to it:
It was performed in the HKPO concert last night.
It is originally from the music for the film directed by Laurence Olivier in 1944.

2. why this piece?
Splendid orchestral painting, and modern rendition of English Renaissance melodies which Walton quoted.

3. (and...)
"Both Sir Malcolm Sargent (in 1945) and the man who originally conducted the music on the film’s sound track, Muir Mathieson (in 1963), made concert suites from Walton’s complete score. However, in 1988 the Canadian music scholar, Christopher Palmer, one of the leading authorities on British music during the 20th century and a close friend of Walton, went one step further and, as he put it, “restructured the Henry V score as a piece for speaker, orchestra and chorus”. He incorporated “about 90 percent of the complete music. A few small or fragmentary sections refused to fit in, and some cuts had to be made in the battle music”. - notes by HKPO

Bartok: Violin Concerto No. 2

1. how you come across to it:
From a sampler CD…

2. why this piece?
Famous for its opening 12-note tune, it has a tonal outskirt, and forever exciting.

3. (and...)
Why seldom anybody perform this here?

Bach: Passcaglia in C minor, BWV582

1. how you come across to it:
A disc in office.

2. why this piece?
Not every piece of Bach attracts wandering attention. This passcaglia is always a killer. The subject is epic, emotion steadily unfolds with constant counterpoint activity.

3. (and...)
Ton Koopman isn't a secret, right?

The Heart Sutra (as sung by Plum Village sangha)

1. how you come across to it:
In a retreat organized by Plum Village.

Apart from the mantras, Plum Village sangha often chant in English during the retreat. The tunes they use in chanting are different from those in Tibetan, Chinese or Japanese tradition. I'm not sure if those tunes are Vietnamese in origin, or written by their own.

2. why this piece?
Their chanting is consolatory. Despite the understanding that the disastrous situation will subside eventually, tears often swelling up last week.

3. (and...)
Morning chant sung by Plum Village sangha:
http://www.spokanebuddhisttemple.org/Audio/MorningChant.wma
The Heart of Prajna Paramita Sutra in English(with Annotation):
http://ctzen.org/sunnyvale/enHeartSutraWithAnnotations.htm

Messiaen: Trois petites liturgies de la Présence Divine

1. how you come across to it:
from a radio broadcast on Radio 4. don't know why - I like it from the first hearing.

2. why this piece?
one can't imagine it's a religious piece, with such a strong primitvistic flavour in the 3rd movement.

3. (and...)
I like de leeuw's recording in the Asko/Schoenberg Ensemble edition. Do not buy the Wand recording on Profil.

Janáček: Taras Bulba

1. how you come across to it:
Preparing upcoming HKPO concert.

2. why this piece?
This is mysteriously splendid. Amazed by the use of organ, trumpets and snare drum.

3. (and...)
The Decca 5-disc anthology is quite a good start if you got no Janáček. Orchestral works played by Charles Mackerras.

Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 4 & 5

1. how you come across to it:
Sight-reading them.

2. why this piece?
Lots of challenges: for both sonatas, they are more like orchestral reduction than piano writing. The chords are very colorful. The sudden changes of tempo / mood are quite fascinating.

John Adams: Violin Concerto

1. how you come across to it:
finally borrowed the score which i've suggested CU lib to buy some years before
and 1st time to listen the music with score already.

2. why this piece?
a landmark piece by John Adams, "it is commonly accepted as more sophisticated than conventional minimalist works".



3. (and...)
Kremer+Nagano+LSO

Brahms: "O Tod, wie bitter bist Du?" from Vier ernste Gesänge, Op. 121/3

1. how you come across to it:
It keeps running in my head. "O Tod, O Tod."

2. why this piece?
This is what you see when you switch on the television recently.

3. (and...)
Youtube.com has a version sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau running with the score.

Poulenc: Quatre motets pour le temps de Noel

1. how you come across to it:
Partly intentional, partly by chance - I'm trying to learn more about sacred music by the French composers.

2. why this piece?
The 1st movement, O magnum mysterium (Oh great mystery) is most appealing to me among 4, for its aura of mystery and tenderness.

3. (and...)
The lyrics for the 2nd movement Quem vidistis pastores dicite (Whom did you see, shepherds? Tell us.) are actaully question and answer. The music is beautifully incorporated into the intonation of question and answer.

Dies Irae (the plainchant)

1. how you come across to it:
In history lesson, perhaps?
The music is quoted in Berlioz, in Liszt, in Rachmaninov, in Sondheim. The text is used in most requiem.

2. why this piece?
I were teaching some music students yesterday, and this seems to be a must-listen-to example.

3. (and...)
I've been overwhelmed by news which make me too angry these days. The words "Dies Irae" just keep hanging in my head.

Respighi: Pines of Rome

1. how you come across to it:
Testing of the reinstalled hi-fi system.

2. why this piece?
It's one of the piece in Walt Disney's Fantasia 2000.

3. (and...)
After playing it repeatedly on the hi-fi, this piece still fails to impress me.

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber: Battalia

1. how you come across to it:
Another conductor of my orchestra pick it and I have to conduct it in a coming concert.

2. why this piece?
It has certain special effect by strings instruments.

3. (and...)
What a cool piece! Feel like Tan Dun. (ok, ok, I still remember Biber is a composer BEFORE Bach)

Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon

1. how you come across to it:
A friend plays the CD in car.
Recently a student need to take A.MusTCL exam, and this is the set work.
So I bought a DVD of it, with interview of the band members.

2. why this piece?
The lyrics touch me deeply. The electronic music and effects are simply fascinating that still sounds attractive after 35 years. The idea of a CD album with all the songs linked as a whole and recurring motifs is very wagnerian to me.

3. (and...)
It sticks in my brain and disturbs me from writing things that I need to hand in this week...

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor, Op. 16

1. how you come across to it:
HKPO concert with Yundi Li & de Waart (RTHK TV broadcast)

2. why this piece?
It digs deeply into your soul and your heart. Once you started listening the opening, you will listen to it until the end and then replay again and again in CD player / computer speaker / in your mind for a long period of time.

3. (and...)
Though I don't like Prokofiev (even hate), the piece can become one of my top favourites. Can't you be stunned by the following cadenza?

Remember Yundi Li rendition but no more (at this moment)

Derek Bermel: Kpanlongo

1. how you come across to it:
My iPod

2. why this piece?
It's the programme of our last concert.

3. (and...)
This piece is the symbol of our hard work since last September. From singing in a mess even with the music in hand, till we can do it nicely (sorry, still not perfect) by memory in the concert.

Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

1. how you come across to it:
In office.

2. why this piece?
It's the next year's programme.

3. (and...)
It's still not disclosable which production I've watched. Trombone glissandi in sexual ecstasy, so real.

Debussy: L'Enfant Prodigue, L 57

1. how you come across to it:
"Composer of the Week", BBC Radio 3

2. why this piece?
I fell for the refreshing "distant land" atmosphere in this early Debussy piece right away.

3. (and...)
Orfeo's recording is said to be the only complete one in the market. Will check it later.

First things first,

we’ll take a snapshot every 1 week (preliminary); no more, no less (hmmm...).

This is how the snapshot works:-

Step 1: Answer the following 3 questions literally and subjectively*. Q3 is optional:

Put name of the piece to the title: [composer: work]

1. how you come across to it: [e.g. overheard someone’s iPod on MTR / in a concert / my niece sang it on my lap]

2. why this piece? [e.g. I’m running out of inspiration / to steal some ideas from / mo liu / would like to expand my repertoire]

3. (and...) [e.g. It has to be Celibidache. No Karajan. Best for sleepless nights.]

Step 2: Tag freely as you like. It will be nice if you tag the composer, genre, instruments, notable artists, and CD labels. You are welcomed to include something personal. Remember to tag your name. So you’ll get what you’ve listened to by clicking your own name after some time.

Step 3: If you feel the urge to elaborate or discuss certain aspects of that piece, please feel free to add 4. (also...), or do it in "comments".

Step 4: Do share with us good recordings you find on youtube. You are welcomed to upload your own too!

What is being said above are not meant to be "instrutions" to be followed strictly, but rather some ideas for reference. It would be interesting if the blog itself evolves in its own way organically, or arrive to a point that it becomes… Who knows?

*you don’t think you can be objective on music matters, do you?

FAQ

Q1: What if I got too many pieces to note down this week?
Answer: Pick the one most frequently played in your head.

Q2: Why limit to those questions? Why every single week, but not otherwise?
Answer: For the beauty of ostinato

If you are still not very sure how to write, read the posts.