May Our Blessed Mother watch over and protect us all!!
Monday, August 15, 2011
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Mary: The Milk and Cookies of Catholicism
Many Kudos to Fr. Z for linking through to this from his blog.
It resonated particularly with me, as I've been calling upon Our Lady through her various titles a lot recently, and I'm also working through the preparation to renew my Consecration to Mary for the Feast of the Assumption. It really was well timed, and sums up quite well how I feel about my devotion to Our Blessed Mother.
USCCB Media Blog: Devotion to Mary: The Milk and Cookies of Catholicism
It resonated particularly with me, as I've been calling upon Our Lady through her various titles a lot recently, and I'm also working through the preparation to renew my Consecration to Mary for the Feast of the Assumption. It really was well timed, and sums up quite well how I feel about my devotion to Our Blessed Mother.
USCCB Media Blog: Devotion to Mary: The Milk and Cookies of Catholicism
Friday, August 5, 2011
Eric Whitacre and Opening Your Ears
Eric Whitacre is one of the world's greatest living choral composers, in my humble opinion. I was first exposed to his work in my freshman year of University, when our Chamber Choir studied his piece entitled "Water Night." It was also my first exposure to singing modern choral works, as prior to that my experience had been limited to Renaissance/ Sacred Polyphony.
Technically, this is one of the more challenging pieces I've worked on as a chorister. Whitacre's changing metre, long and demanding legato phrasing, and dense harmonic washes are difficult enough to master, but in this piece what was more challenging were the moments of perfect unison between the voice parts. When achieved, it takes the listener's breath away.
Whitacre's music also taught me something besides the technical challenges. This piece taught me to open my ears and to realise that there is so much beautiful music that works well outside of the traditional harmonic structures I'd been used to singing and listening to. "Water Night" isn't a difficult piece to open your ears and mind to, simply because of its transcendent beauty, but it still challenges the listener and served as a good stepping stone to the rest of the realm of modern music.
In addition, "Water Night" also introduced me to the wonderful poetry of Octavio Paz.
Praise God, that there is so much that is beautiful in this world!
Enjoy!
Technically, this is one of the more challenging pieces I've worked on as a chorister. Whitacre's changing metre, long and demanding legato phrasing, and dense harmonic washes are difficult enough to master, but in this piece what was more challenging were the moments of perfect unison between the voice parts. When achieved, it takes the listener's breath away.
Whitacre's music also taught me something besides the technical challenges. This piece taught me to open my ears and to realise that there is so much beautiful music that works well outside of the traditional harmonic structures I'd been used to singing and listening to. "Water Night" isn't a difficult piece to open your ears and mind to, simply because of its transcendent beauty, but it still challenges the listener and served as a good stepping stone to the rest of the realm of modern music.
In addition, "Water Night" also introduced me to the wonderful poetry of Octavio Paz.
Praise God, that there is so much that is beautiful in this world!
Enjoy!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Debussy: Ballade slave
Some more gorgeous and soothing music that I've come across: Debussy's Ballade slave (1890) for piano solo. It's the only 'ballade' that Debussy wrote, and it is evident even in this early composition that he had mastered the art of composing rich, lyrical single movement pieces.
Debussy hated to have his compositions described as "Impressionist," but I don't think the term can really be avoided, as his music almost instinctively evokes in the listener's mind images of Impressionist paintings. Even the harmonic structures are "impressionist" with their parallel chords and the seeming lack of tonality in the moving passages... Indeed, they are the aural equivalent of the out-of-focus painting technique of the period. Both the music and the visual art strove to obscure details/strict harmonics, allowing the audience to appreciate the art's poise and colour and to more directly affect their emotions.
But I digress... technical prose aside, this is, quite simply, beautiful music.
Debussy hated to have his compositions described as "Impressionist," but I don't think the term can really be avoided, as his music almost instinctively evokes in the listener's mind images of Impressionist paintings. Even the harmonic structures are "impressionist" with their parallel chords and the seeming lack of tonality in the moving passages... Indeed, they are the aural equivalent of the out-of-focus painting technique of the period. Both the music and the visual art strove to obscure details/strict harmonics, allowing the audience to appreciate the art's poise and colour and to more directly affect their emotions.
But I digress... technical prose aside, this is, quite simply, beautiful music.
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