Happy Feast of the Assumption!!

May Our Blessed Mother watch over and protect us all!!

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

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!

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.

Handel's Messiah: How Beautiful Are the Feet

The past week has been a little more than hectic here, but I wanted to share one of the pieces of music that came up on my shuffle and was very calming. Handel's Messiah seems appropriate to listen to at any time of the year, especially when sung by the impeccable Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson, whose voice was silenced far too soon. God grant that she's among the Choir of Angels...

 

EDIT- I almost forgot that I also wanted to acknowledge some of my readers. In the last week I've had readers from the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia, Ireland and the Netherlands. Thanks all for visiting!

More Bel Canto!

And now for the same aria, sung by Spanish Mezzo-Soprano, Teresa Berganza. She's absolutely the best Rosina, in my opinion. She successfully blends impeccable acting with her effortless coloratura, and the results are breathtaking. She truly captures the effervescent joy of Rosina after she learns that Lindoro loves her. I can't help but to smile whenever I watch this!

Bel Canto- Beautiful Singing at its best

I don't think there are any words necessary for this:

When is it enough?

When is suffering enough? Or too much, for that matter?

There is redemptive suffering, for certain, but what do you do when that suffering adversely affects other people? And there is a possible way to relieve said suffering?

Is there ever a time when you're carrying the "wrong" cross, in a certain sense? Especially if your own stubbornness and pride have got you into the situation you're in?

*SQUEE*

Note: Please excuse my inner fangirl as she relates the most recent happenings... Your patience is appreciated.

So, last week I had one of the most awesome experiences of my life!!! My Mom and Dad took me to see Michael Bublé in concert!!!

First off, I just have to say that he puts on a FANTASTIC concert and encourages the audience to dance and sing along. Let me tell you, my Mom and I didn't need to be told twice, especially after having enjoyed a few pre-concert pints. *wink*

Anyway, we started off on the floor in Row M, which was pretty close, but still very far away from my perspective. So, when presented with the opportunity, my Mom and I rushed to get closer. Our caper pulled off, because he moved to a stage in the middle of the arena, and we ended up less than 5 feet away from him!!!

Michael singing only feet away!!

 

 

Michael posing dramatically during the bridge of Home.

 He ended up so close to us that I TOUCHED him!!!! *sudden fainting spell*

....

....

....

*revives*

After that, we followed him right back up to the mainstage and we were front row for the rest of the concert, dancing and singing our hearts out!!!

Michael's very cool stage set-up

The coolest shot ever!!!

*sigh* He is sooo amazing!!

 All of our dancing and singing paid off, because.... *deep breath, anticipatory pause* Michael sang right to us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Michael coming over to sing to us!!! *swoon*

 We even caught the attention of the camera guy and ended up on the big screen!!!!

My Mom rather cleverly took a picture of the camera guy... before realising that he was photographing her, too!!

 The concert was over far too soon for my tastes, as I could have listened to him all night long. *sigh* However, all good things in moderation, I suppose.

Before it was all over, though, he showered us all in confetti and sang a song full voice with NO MICROPHONE to the whole arena. *wide-eyed admiration and amazement* It was breath-taking...

Soooo much confetti!!!

 *contented sigh* I don't think I've had so much fun since... well... I'm not sure when... All I know is I won't be washing the hand that touched him for a looong time... *dreamy sigh*

PS- I mustn't forget to credit my Mom for all the awesome pictures... I was too busy dancing and singing along to worry about photographs. ;)

Finally a New Post!

This time, I have no honest excuse for not posting sooner, especially since I've not got a job for the summer.

So, to make up for my long absence, I'm going to post some of the promised pictures from my trip with the Chamber Choir. I'm rather pleased with how a lot of them turned out, as I'm only an amateur photographer and my camera is quite old. However, that doesn't seem to have interfered with luck.

First off on the tour, we went to Philadelphia, PA. It was very nice to re-visit the city in less dire circumstances, and we had great fun sight-seeing.

Part of Independence Hall- The main façade was covered in scaffolding for restoration work.

The Liberty Bell

 Along with going to Independence Hall and seeing the Liberty Bell, a small group of us decided to do a rapid tour of the city in the time remaining to us. We stopped in for the noon organ recital in Macy's, which has the world's largest pipe organ in the store. It was nothing short of amazing! We also walked all the way to the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and visited the rooftop garden. Then we walked down South Street to Jim's Steaks for the best Philly cheese-steaks in Philadelphia (they were!).

Next on the itinerary was Colonial Williamsburg, VA, where we had a three-hour guided tour. It was fascinating and very beautiful. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery, so I was only able to take a small handful of photographs, like the one below.

A sheep at Colonial Williamsburg keeping cool in the hot Virginia weather

 Close by was the historic Maymont estate. We didn't have time to visit the house, but we did wander through the extensive gardens.

A view of the gorgeous rose garden

The arbour looking out over the rose garden

One of the garden's many roses.

Peonies

 

 

 Finally, we went to Washington D.C. where we did a lot of walking. Our first day there we went to the Supreme Court building and toured the U.S. Capitol.

Dome of the U.S. Capitol building as seen from the Supreme Court building.

 Our next day, we visited almost all of the monuments- Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, WWII Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Washington Monument- and then did some museum perusing. We were permitted to go off and choose what museums we wanted to go to, so I chose to go to the Holocaust Museum. It was a very moving exhibit, and I was glad to see that the museum gave a fair representation of what happened, even devoting a fair amount of space to the persecutions of the Catholics by the Nazis. It took some time to get through everything, but it was well worth spending the time there.

The next day, we started at Washington Cathedral, which is an Anglican cathedral. The exterior was quite beautiful, although the interior left much to be desired. It was pretty and spacious, but the mix of architectural styles was a bit off-putting for me.

St. Peter outside Washington Cathedral's main doors.

 After that, we had another free afternoon for sight-seeing, so I opted to see the Gem and Minerals exhibit at the Smithsonian (amazing!!) and then went on to the National Gallery of Art. I was as happy as a clam there, as I spent much time in the Impressionist exhibit, viewing Monet, Manet, Picasso, Van Gogh, Renoir, Matisse... *happy sigh* I also wanted to see the Pre-Raphaelite paintings the museum had on offer, but as it was Sunday, that gallery was closed for cleaning. Instead, I wandered through the Renaissance art, and was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon Botticelli's famous Madonna and Child, as well as numerous Tintorellos and Titians... I really could have spent all day there.

The last stop was the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, and I didn't take any pictures, as I was there for Mass. All I can say though is that one should certainly make time to go to the Basilica of they are ever in Washington D.C. It is absolutely spectacular, almost rivalling some of the great Basilicas I've seen abroad.

Overall, the trip was a great success. We had a lot of fun, gave some very fine concerts, and learned a lot of interesting things at all of the places we visited.

I hope everyone enjoyed the photos!!