Sunday Playlist - 3/7/21
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzrVlXh4mc1MmHYD9_4jsXWLZR2Wz1xmp
In searching for a setting of “Wade in the Water” to include on this week’s list, I had the good fortune to come across a video by a group of young men from Albany State University. They sing an a cappella medley of spirituals, and their arrangement and harmony are magnificent.
Next we have more harmony, this time in the form of a part song by English composer Charles Villiers Stanford. “The Blue Bird” is a setting of a poem by Mary Coleridge, great grandniece of Samuel Taylor (if you don’t know her work, see also her haunting “The Other Side of a Mirror”). Here is the lyric to follow as you listen:
The lake lay blue below the hill,
O’er it, as I looked, there flew
Across the waters, cold and still,
A bird whose wings were palest blue.
The sky above was blue at last,
The sky beneath me blue in blue,
A moment, ere the bird had passed,
It caught his image as he flew.
Harmonically, this setting bears some resemblance to the Pärt that we heard on Wednesday evening. The resonance of the soprano line and the lack of resolution in the final measures bring out the sense of something fleeting and beautiful that Coleridge’s poem offers.
In the piece by Selda Bagcan,“Walking on Thorns,” we hear the baglama, a long-necked lute of various names found in many Mediterranean and Central Asian cultures. I haven’t located a reliable translation of the lyrics, but the plaintive mood of the piece comes through in the voices and instruments.
In contrast, we next have the adagio from Beethoven’s “Pathetique” sonata. For years, this melody served as the introduction to a public radio show called “Adventures in Good Music,” hosted by Karl Haas. Listening to that show on a transistor radio is how I first became acquainted with classical music, so this adagio has a particular place in my heart.
Finally, we close with “People Get Ready” performed by Curtis Mayfield, who wrote the song. You may be more familiar with other performances, but it’s a treat to hear it from Mayfield himself
