Mikis Theodorakis

Brief Biography / Film Music Composers

Michael "Mikis" Theodorakis, Greek songwriter and composer, has written over 1000 songs. He is born on the Greek island of Chios, July 29, 1925 but spent his childhood years in various provincial Greek cities. His father, a lawyer and a civil servant, was from the small village in Crete and his mother, Aspasia Poulakis, was from an ethnically Greek family in what today is Turkey.  He was raised with Greek folk music and was influenced by Byzantine liturgy.

Theodorakis's fascination with music began in early childhood. He taught himself to write his first songs without access to musical instruments. In Patras and Pyrgos he took his first music lessons, and in Tripoli, Peloponnese, he gave his first concert aged 17. He went to Athens in 1943, and became a member of a Reserve Unit, and led a troop in the fight against the British and the Greek right. During the Greek Civil War he was arrested, sent into exile on the island of Icaria then deported to the island of Makronisos, where he was tortured and twice buried alive.

Apology: The video originally shared (Best Melodies, 1975) is no longer available.  Below, some listening pleasures:

Mikis Theodorakis - Strose to stroma sou & Zorba (live,2005). Accessed July 29, 2024.

The very best of Mikis Theodorakis. Accessed July 29, 2024.  

Songs of Struggle by Mikis Theodorakis. July 29, 2024.

Toselli Serenata 'Rimpianto' Op.6 No.1

Serenade / Instrumental / Down Memory Lane



Serenata Rimpianto is one of the sweetest serenades and best-known work of Enrico Toselli (1883-1926), an Italian pianist and composer who wrote operetta, chamber music, and songs. The lyrics were  written by Alfredo Silvestri.

Enjoy the video. Alfredo Kraus, one of the best tenors of the end of the 20th century brilliantly sang the song, with lyrics translated by Margaret Smythe.



Briefly, about the composer.  Enrico Toselli, Count of Montignoso, (born March 13, 1883 – died January 15, 1926), was an Italian pianist and composer born in Florence. He studied piano and composition, and embarked on a career as a concert pianist, playing in Italy, European capital cities, Alexandria and North America.

Aside from Serenata "Rimpianto" which is his most popular, his other works include two operettas: La cattiva Francesca (1912) and La principessa bizzarra (1913).  However, his fame is mainly derived from his scandalous elopement with the Archduchess Louise of Austria (the former Crown Princess of Saxony, in 1907) rather than his musical ability. His marriage ended in divorce in 1912. They had one son.  



Resource:

Enrico Toselli. en.wikipedia.org. Accessed July 29, 2017


Video Credit: 

Toselli Serenade (Rimpianto - Regret), subtitled in Italian lyrics and English translation. Youtube, uploaded by ChantYip. Accessed July 29, 2015.



(c) 2015-2017.  Tel Asiado.  Written for Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Wagner Opera Parsifal

Classical Music / Opera 

Wagner took most of the story from a medieval poem Parzival by the German poet Wolfram von Eschenbach.  Parsifal was the last opera Wagner completed.

Parsifal, WWV 111 ('WWV' denotes Wagner's catalogue of musical works in German, meaning "Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis")  is and opera in three acts by German composer Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, a 13th-century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival (Percival) and his quest for the Holy Grain (12th century). Wagner first conceived the work in April 1857 but did not finish it until twenty-five years later. It was his last completed opera.

Parsifal was first produced at the second Bayreuth Festival in 1882. The Bayreuth Festival maintained a monopoly on Parsifal productions until 1903, when the opera was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Wagner's widow Cosima (Franz Liszt's daughter), was outraged that she declared none of the singers involved in the unauthorised production would ever work at Bayreuth again.  Bayreuth only lifted the baon on January 1, 1914. Parsifal was so popular that in the first six months after the ban was lifted, numerous European opera houses staged performances.

Franz Berwald

Classical Music / Composers

Franz Adolf Berwald (23 July 1796 – 3 April 1868), was born in Stockholm, a Swedish Romantic composer. He made his living as an orthopedic surgeon and later as the manager of a saw mill and glass factory.

Berwald came from a family with four generations of musicians; his father, a violinist in the Royal Opera Orchestra, taught Franz the violin from an early age. In 1809, Karl XIII came to power and reinstated the Royal Chapel. Berwald worked there and also played the violin in the court orchestra and the opera. He received lessons from Edouard du Puy, and also started composing. On summers' off-season for the orchestra, Berwald travelled around Scandinavia, Finland and Russia. Of his works that time, a septet and a serenade he considered worthwhile music in his later years.

In 1818 Berwald started publishing the Musikalisk journal (later renamed Journal de musique), a periodical with easy piano pieces and songs by various composers as well as some of his own original work. In 1821, his Violin Concerto was premiered by his brother August. It was not well received.

Franz Berwald - Symphony No. 3 in C-major, "Sinfonie singuliere"

Gerald Finzi

Classical Music / Great Composers Dateline:  July 14


Gerald Raphael Finzi (14 July 1901 – 27 September 1956), was a British composer. He is best known as a choral composer, but also wrote in other genres. His large-scale compositions include the cantata Dies natalis for solo voice and string orchestra, and his concertos for cello and clarinet.

Gerald Finzi was born in London. He became one of the most characteristically "English" composers of his generation. Finzi was educated privately. His father, a successful shipbroker, died a fortnight short of his son's eighth birthday.

During the first World War the family settled in Harrogate, and Finzi began to study music at Christ Church, High Harrogate, under Ernest Farrar, a former pupil of Irish composer Charles V. Stanford. Finzi found him a sympathetic teacher, and Farrar's death at the Western Front deeply affected him. It was also during these formative years that he suffered the loss of all three of his brothers. These adversities contributed to his bleak outlook on life.


Suggested listening:

Finzi's Romance in E-b Major, Op. 11. Youtube, uploaded by imusiki. Accessed July 14, 2017. 


Despite being an agnostic of Jewish descent, several of Fenzi's choral works incorporate Christian texts. His music is elegiac in tone.  Below is Finzi's Magnificat. 

Oscar Hammerstein II

Musicals / Great Lyricists & Librettists

Oscar Hammerstein II (born Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II, July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960), was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and theater director of musicals for almost forty years.  He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song.

Hammerstein II co-wrote 850 songs. He was the lyricist and playwright in his partnerships; his collaborators wrote the music. He collaborated with numerous composers, such as Jerome Kern, (with whom he wrote Show Boat), Richard Rodgers, Rudolf Friml, Vincent Youmans, Sigmund Rombert and Richard A. Whiting; but he is best-known for his collaborations with Richard Rodgers, which include Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific (Pulitzer Prize), The King and I, and The Sound of Music.


Article:

Revisiting Rodgers & Hammerstein by Tel Asiado,  July 27, 2006 (edited, July 12, 2017.)




Hammerstein's sharp dialogue and ability to create dramatic movement through song helped transform the American musical theater; where musical comedies became seamless and powerful dramatic works.

Below, "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein's one of all-time best musical The Sound of Music. It is sung at the close of the first act by the Mother Abbess for Maria, in particular. In general, it is themed as an inspirational piece, to encourage people to take every step toward attaining their dreams. Beautiful and uplifting. 

Apology: Video embedding of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" is unavailable on websites. Please WATCH on YouTube.

Listening Pleasure:

Rodgers & Hammerstein -  A partnership that redefined musical theatre forever.

Music Theme from To Kill a Mockingbird

Soundtrack / To Kill a Mockingbird (Film)

The theme for Robert Mulligan's "To Kill a Mockingbird" film (1962) based on (Nelle) Harper Lee's all-time best selling book of the same name. The music, composed by Elmer Bernstein (American composer and conductor known for his many film music), is beautiful, evocative and poignant Americana theme for a great book and film.




The screenplay by Horton Foote is based on Harper Lee's 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. It stars Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and Mary Badham as Scout. To Kill a Mockingbird marked the film debuts of Robert Duvall, William Windom, and Alice Ghostley.

Scout Finch (Mary Badham), 6 years old, and Jem (Phillip Alford), her older brother, live in sleepy Maycomb, Alabama, spending much of their time with their friend Dill (John Megna) and spying on their reclusive and mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley (Robert Duvall). When Atticus (Gregory Peck), their widowed father and a respected lawyer, defends a black man named Tom Robinson (Brock Peters) against fabricated rape charges, the trial and tangent events expose the children to evils of racism and stereotyping.


Video Credit:

Theme from "To Kill a Mockingbird" film. Youtube, uploaded by Bobbengan. Accessed July 11, 2017.

(c) 2017. Tel Asiado. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Mahler Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 - Soundtrack of Death in Venice (Film)

Classical Music / Movement from a Symphony 


Adagietto, the fourth movement of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5 in C# minor, which lasts about 10 minutes, is often considered his most famous composition and is frequently performed of his works. Its orchestration is scored only for strings and harp. It was likely a declaration of Mahler's undying love for his wife Alma, that instead of a letter, the composer expressed it in this movement without a word of explanation. Aside from Leonard Bernstein's beautiful interpretation (Sorry, video no longer available), other favourite performances include those conducted by Herbert von Karajan (Mahler's "Adagietto") and by Valery Gergiev (Mahler "Adagietto"), World Orchestra for Peace, Royal Albert Hall BBC Proms Live.

In the simmering tumult of the Fifth Symphony, the fourth movement, Adagietto ("little Adagio"), is calm, with its gentle sound and restrained mood of sustained string notes and a bit of harp. It has full of longing - beginning quietly with graceful melody before it gradually rises to a soaring climax, then ends peacefully. Likely so, Adagietto is featured in the film Death in Venice, in 1971. In this French-Italian film adaptation of Thomas Mann's novel of the same name directed by Luchino Visconti, Dirk Bogarde stars as avant-garde composer Gustave Aschenbach (loosely based on Gustav Mahler), travels to a Venetian seaside resort in search of repose after a period of artistic and personal stress. Instead of finding peace there, he soon develops a troubling attraction to an adolescent boy, Tadzio (Björn Andrésen), on vacation with his family. The boy embodies an ideal of beauty that Gustave has long sought and he becomes infatuated. However, the onset of a deadly pestilence endangers them both physically and represents the corruption that signifies threats and destruction to all ideals.





Some people have labelled this film as a gay movie. I think it is not. It's a film about an artist who is convinced that beauty does not exist in nature but is created by man. The film exquisitely demonstrates the nature of beauty and not the nature of sexuality. The artist, as he is dying, recognizes beauty in nature in the form of a beautiful teenage boy.  The conflict in the artist is perfectly represented by Gustav Mahler's music in the soundtrack. Beautiful! 


Mahler's Symphony No. 5 


One problem for Mahler's early audiences lies in his long symphonies, scored for huge orchestra. Mahler composed his Fifth Symphony during the summers of 1901 and 1902, spent at his new summer-house in central Austria. At its premiere in Cologne in 1904, the symphony was a complete failure with an audience unprepared for its dramatic power and scope. Yet a century later, the Fifth has become one of Mahler's most popular symphonies.

Mahler's "Adagietto" for Choir:

Mahler's "Adagietto" for Choir.  Arranged by Gerard Pesson. Accentus Chamber Choir. Conducted by Laurence Equilbey.  So beautiful!  Accessed May 10, 2018.



Video Credit:

Death in Venice - G Mahler, Adagietto from Symphony No. 5. YouTube, uploaded by Thomai Pavlidou. Accessed July 7, 2017.

Luchino Visconti Morte a Venecia 1971. (Death in Venice). YouTube, uploaded by Slava Batareykin. Accessed 7 July 2017.

Gustav Mahler-Film "Mort a Venise"-"Morte a Venezia"-"Death in Venice"-Luchino Visconti-(1971).  Youtube, uploaded by bilitis131313. Accessed 7 July 2017.


Resources:

Symphony No 5.  www.laphil.com.  Accessed July 7, 2017.

Symphony No. 5 Mahler.  en.wikipedia.org.  Accessed July 7, 2017.


(c) July 2010. Updated July 7, 2017.  Tel. Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved.

Jean Sibelius Finlandia

Classical Music / Symphonic Poem

Finlandia, Op. 26 is a tone poem by Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer. Written in 1899 and revised in 1900, the piece was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian Empire, the last of seven pieces performed as an accompaniment to a tableau depicting episodes from Finnish history. Finlandia was first performed on 2 July 1900,  in Helsinki, with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus. A typical performance takes between 7½ and 9 minutes.




To avoid Russian censorship, Finlandia had to be performed under alternative names at various musical concerts. Titles under which the piece masqueraded were numerous—famous examples include Happy Feelings at the awakening of Finnish Spring, and A Scandinavian Choral March.

The piece is taken up with rousing and turbulent music, evoking the national struggle of the Finnish people, however, towards the end, a calm comes over the orchestra, and the serenely melodic Finlandia Hymn is heard. Initially composed for orchestra, in 1900, Sibelius arranged the work for solo piano. Lataer, he also reworked the Finlandia Hymn into a stand-alone piece. This hymn, with words written in 1941 by Veikko Antero Koskenniemi, is one of the most important national songs of Finland.  It is also sung with differient words, as a Christian hymn (Be Still, My Soul; Hail, Festal Day, and in Italian evangelical churches: Veglia al mattino.)


Video Credit:

Jean Sibelius - Finlandia. YouTube, uploaded by Tarja M. Accessed July 2, 2017.
Wild Scandinavia / Wildes Skandinavien / (2011), Director: Oliver Goetzl, Writer: Oliver Goetzl, Cinematography: Ivo Nörenberg, Jan Henriksson and Rolf Steinmann. Gulo Film Productions


Resource:

Finlandia. en.wikipedia.org. Accessed July 2, 2017. 



(c) July 2017. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.