Dante's Prayer

        Listening Pleasure

Video: 

Loreena McKennitt Dante's Prayer with lyrics.  YouTube, uploaded by HaveFaithNH. Accessed July 1, 2021.  This is a very popular song entitled "Dante's Prayer" written by Canadian born Loreena McKennitt.  

 

On Reflection... What the song means. 

I'm featuring this song as it personally speaks to me, enriches. Music or a song has a personal meaning for everyone.  I found a wonderful insight from my collected notes. I can't properly credit his/her name as it was only signed as 'roblel'. Thank you Roblel. 

Roblel, as I will address him (or her), was fortunate to see Loreena McKennitt in concert at Massey Hall in Toronto in the late 90's; that prior singing her songs, she would often relate to the listening audience what inspired her to write it. As best as I can recall, this, according to Roblel, was how Loreena's "Dante's Prayer" song came about. 

Loreena travels the world extensively to find inspiration for her music whereby she exposes herself to different cultures. On the occasion of her inspiration for "Dante's Prayer", she was riding on a trans - Siberian train and indeed reading Dante Alighieri's famous The Divine Comedy. She recounted that since there was no dining car on the train, it would stop at various towns along the way and the riders were given exactly 20 minutes to leave the train and buy food from the locals who lived in the town and would come to the train to greet and sell to the passengers. 

This would have happened perhaps once or twice throughout the day.

There was an attendant on the train, a woman, who would come around and seem grumpy and rather miserable. At first, Loreena dismissed her demeanor as one of culture. 

One time, after Loreena had re-boarded the train having bought food from the locals, the same attendant came by. Loreena stopped her and gave her some of the food she had bought, as a simple act of kindness. The woman remarked with a surprised smile and a countenance that reminded Loreena about the story that she was reading in the Dante's Divine Comedy.

In that moment, Loreena found her muse for the song, thought she would never forget the look of gratitude on the attendant's face, almost certain no one else had taken the time to consider the woman as she travelled back and forth, day after day, and year after year, through the dark harshness of Siberia. 

From that one kind gesture, Loreena McKennitt's song was born: "Dante's Prayer". 

Lyrics

 

When the dark wood fell before me
And all the paths were overgrown
When the priests of pride say there is no other way
I tilled the sorrows of stone

 

I did not believe because I could not see
Though you came to me in the night
When the dawn seemed forever lost
You showed me your love in the light of the stars

 

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me

 

Then the mountain rose before me
By the deep well of desire
From the fountain of forgiveness
Beyond the ice and the fire

 

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me

 

Though we share this humble path, alone
How fragile is the heart
Oh give these clay feet wings to fly
To touch the face of the stars

 

Breathe life into this feeble heart
Lift this mortal veil of fear
Take these crumbled hopes, etched with tears
We'll rise above these earthly cares

 

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me.

 

Source: LyricFind

Dante’s Prayer lyrics © O/B/O Apra Amcos

 

 

(c) July 2021. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.  

Saturday morning delight ... Mozart's lovely Trio KV 498

Listening pleasure on a cold and chilly Saturday morning down-under...


A wonderful performance by Martin Fröst, klarinet;  Roland Pöntinen, piano; Maxim Rysanov, altviool.  Recorded during Janine Jansen's International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht 2011.(YouTube, uploaded by AVROTROS klassiek. Accessed August 8, 2020.)





About this piece, and I'm quoting from a friend's insight: "The lovely Eb trio KV 498, in a crystalline and lyrical performance by Martin and friends, here with his longtime pianist Roland Pontinen and the great violist Maxim Rysanov. The KV 498 trio has been misnicknamed the "Kegelstatt" trio for over 200 years. In actuality, it was the KV 487 french duos that were composed two weeks earlier, "untern Kegelscheiben" ("while play skittles") by Mozart. This lovely Eb trio, KV 498 was not. Mozart writes on the autograph of KV 498 (now in Paris) very simply, "Ein Terzett fur Klavier, Klarinette, und Viola."- Dr. Vincent DeLuise, Mozartian and clarinettist. 


(c) August 8, 2020. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.

I am... I said

Listening Pleasure / Reveries 

The past days I've been gravitating on this old song "I am... I said",  popularised by Neil Diamond. Self-isolating and physical-distancing due to Covid pandemic crisis have been challenging to many people living especially for one living alone. 


"I Am... I Said" is a song written and recorded by Neil Diamond. Initially, it was quite unsuccessful, released as a single album (Stones)  on March 15, 1971. It slowly climbed the charts. 

Video Credit:

I am I said - Neil Diamond (with lyrics). YouTube. Uploaded by Jack Lim. Accessed August 6, 2020. Live performance at the Aquarius Theatre in Los Angeles. 1988.


Resource:

I Am... I Said. Wikipedia.  Accessed August 6, 2020.  



(c) August 2020. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.  

If I had words

When I heard Camille Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 (Finale) played over at ABC Classics this morning, I found myself filled with emotions, further aggravated by a chilly winter morning and a bit downcast from some unwelcome body aches.

For a long time I've loved Camille Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 in C minor "Symphony with Organ", written in 1886. Then came the film Babe, with its theme song, "If I had words", a short but with beautiful heartwarming lyrics. It became even more significant when my memory drifted to one of my recent years' concert with  Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, "Music from the Movies", conducted by our warm-hearted conductor Liz Scott. Babe's song was included.

Brief history of the song: "If I had words" was first recorded in 1978, sung by Scott Fitzgerald as a duet with Yvonne Keeley. The lyrics and arrangement were by Jonathan Hodge, a prolific writer of TV jingles and movie themes, who also produced the single. The backing was by the St Thomas More Roman Catholic School Choir in Chelsea, London. I have no idea, but wonderfully strange enough, the music was adapted from the finale movement of Camille Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 in C minor.

The lyrics are indeed too short and simple, but my God, they're deeply profound to me, alongside Saint-Saëns's "organ symphony" music.

Link: "If I had Words" - Here. Sung by Yvonne Keeley and Scott Fitzgerald.

If I Had Words

If I had words
To make a day for you
I sing you a morning golden and new
I would make this day

Last for all time
Give you a night
Deep in moonshine.

If I Had Words lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Music & Media Int'l, Inc

Video:  
Camille Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 “Organ Symphony” (Finale), performed by the Auckland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Thomas, with Timothy Noon on the Organ. From the concert "Organ Symphony" recorded November 2012 at the Auckland Town Hall. YouTube, accessed July 5, 2020.





Resource:

If I Had Words. en.wikipedia.org. 


(c) July 5, 2020. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.

Enjoy open-handed blessings

I hear it. I read it all over the written forms. Lots in social media too. This comparison of anything, or of some celebrities. Who is better. Who is best.

Let's enjoy benevolent blessings instead of comparing them unnecessarily - be it songs, poems, inventions, composers, musicians, writers... you know what I mean. Okay, I confess I'm a die-hard Mozartian, but this doesn't necessarily mean I don't love Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Beethoven, Mendelssohn or Bach. And many more...  


Franz Liszt's Liebestraum No. 3 ("Dream of Love")



There's hardly any day I'm not in YouTube searching for a video that I can feature in my blogs.

These strong comments relating disagreements about different renditions! We are fortunate in having so many fantastic pianist, cellist and violinists, to name few talents, and brilliantly playing the same sonata in different ways. And they're free. As to performances, for example, a Mahler symphony to that of Haydn's. Or a Chopin to that of Liszt. Or in conducting, Bernstein to that of Karajan. In a way, it's what makes a composer brilliant - when their work is subject to many views or interpretation.


Frederic Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu (Op. 66)



It's likely that even the composer himself might not have played his work the same way every time. We have heard of great composers revising their work few times. 

All great musicians are good and listening to them and their versions is certainly a pleasure.  Let's enjoy and savour each note that vibrates into the air!  




Video Credit: 

Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu (Op.66). Uploaded by Rousseau. Accessed May 30, 2020.

Franz Liszt's Liebestraum ("Dream of Love"). Uploaded by Rousseau. Accessed May 30, 2020. 




(c) April 2020. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.   

Tchaikovsky Symphony 5 in E minor, "Andante cantabile"

Listening Pleasures / Reveries

My memories seem to live through music. As time goes by, it's becoming more pronounced.
   

Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza

This heart-warming "Andante cantabile" is the second movement of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's loved Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64, in four movements (I. Andante – Allegro con anima II. Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza, III.  Valse, Allegro moderato, and IV. Finale: Andante maestoso).


Below video, Maestro Leonard Bernstein conducts Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5 in E minor - II Movement, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.



Through the years, Pyotr's "Andante cantabile" remain in my heart amongst my other favourite and best loved romantic music. It was composed by Tchaikovsky between May and August 1888 and was first performed in St Petersburg at the Mariinsky Theatre on November 17 of that same year with the composer himself conducting.

There's a poignant love song "Moon Love" popularised by the late Frank Sinatra actually adapted from Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, lyrics written by Mack David, Mack Davis and Andre Kostelanetz. It was recorded by Frank Sinatra twice, first in 1939 with Harry James, and in 1966 in the album “Moonlight Sinatra“, arranged by Nelson Riddle (Reprise Records). If I remember right, I think Glenn Miller Orchestra also made recording of  this wonderful "Moon Love" piece.




Moon Love (Lyrics)

Will this be moon love, nothing but moon love
Will you be gone when the dawn comes stealing through
Are these just moon dreams, grand while the moon beams
But when the moon fades away, will my dreams come true

Much as I love you, don’t let me love you
If I must pay for your kiss with lonely tears, say it’s not moon love
Tell me it’s true love, say you’ll be mine when the moon disappears.



Video Credit:

Frank Sinatra: Moon Love. thefranksinatra.com. Accessed 17 November 2019.

Harry James & His Orchestra, featuring Frank Sinatra. Accessed 17 November 2019.

Leonard Bernstein - Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5 in E minor - II Movement. Uploaded by Nelson Zapata. Accessed 19 February 2020.  Boston Symphony Orchestra.


Resource:

Symphony No. 5 Tchaikovsky (Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64). Wikipedia. Accessed 17 November 2019.



(c) 17 November 2019.  Updated 14 February 2020. Tel. Leaves from my Musings.  All rights reserved.

Mahler's "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen"

Reveries / Music to Reflect on

Jessye Norman sings "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" (O garish world, long since thou hast lost me ) - from Rückert Lieder

Rückert-Lieder (Songs after Rückert) is a collection of five Lieder for voice and orchestra or piano by composer Gustav Mahler, based on poems written by Friedrich Rückert. The songs were first published in Sieben Lieder aus letzter Zeit (Seven Songs of Latter Days). 

This is recorded at Avery Fisher Hall with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic. Performed at the opening of the 1989-90 season. (Note: In Wikipedia, Ich bin der Welt adhanden gekommen is the third song and not the fifth, as mentioned in the caption.)

Lyrics:
(Source: Musixmatch)

Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen,
Mit der ich sonst viele Zeit verdorben,
Sie hat so lange nichts von mir vernommen,
Sie mag wohl glauben, ich sei gestorben!

Es ist mir auch gar nichts daran gelegen,
Ob sie mich für gestorben hält,
Ich kann auch gar nichts sagen dagegen,
Denn wirklich bin ich gestorben der Welt.

Ich bin gestorben dem Weltgetümmel,
Und ruh' in einem stillen Gebiet!
Ich leb' allein in meinem Himmel,
In meinem Lieben, in meinem Lied!

(bit more English translation) 

I am lost to the world,  
Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen,

With which I used to waste a lot of time,  
Mit der ich sonst viele Zeit verdorben,

It hasn't heard from me for so long  
Sie hat so lange nichts von mir vernommen,

It may think that I died! 
Sie mag wohl glauben, ich sei gestorben!

I don't care at all  
Es ist mir auch gar nichts daran gelegen,

Whether I'm thought to be dead  
Ob sie mich für gestorben hält,

I also can't say anything against  
Ich kann auch gar nichts sagen dagegen,

Because I really died in the world. 
Denn wirklich bin ich gestorben der Welt.

I died in the middle of the world,  
Ich bin gestorben dem Weltgetümmel,

And rest in a quiet area!  
Und ruh' in einem stillen Gebiet!

I live alone in my sky  
Ich leb' allein in meinem Himmel,

In my love, in my song! 
In meinem Lieben, in meinem Lied!

***

I am lost to the world  
with which I used to waste so much time,
It has heard nothing from me for so long
that it may very well believe I am dead!

It is of no consequence to me whether it thinks me dead;
I cannot deny it,
for I really am dead to the world. 

I am dead to the world's tumult,
And I rest in a quiet realm!
I live alone in my heaven,  
In my love and in my song!

Video Credit:

Jessye Norman "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" Ruckert Lieder 5/5.  Uploaded by Gr8hopio. Accessed January 17, 2020.

Resource:

Rückert-Lieder. Wikipedia. Accessed January 17, 2020. 


(c) January 17, 2020. Leaves from my Musings. Tel. All rights reserved. 

Somewhere in Time

Listening Pleasure / Reveries 

Not all those who wander are lost...  


Somewhere in Time is a 1980 American romantic fantasy drama film directed by Jeannot Szwarc. It is a film adaptation of the 1975 novel Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson, who also wrote the screenplay. The film stars Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, and Christopher Plummer.  Reeve plays Richard Collier, a playwright who becomes obsessed with a photograph of a young woman at the Grand Hotel. Through self-hypnosis, he wishes himself back in time to the year 1912 to find love with actress Elise McKenna (portrayed by Seymour), but comes into conflict with Elise's manager, William Fawcett Robinson (portrayed by Plummer), who fears that romance will derail her career and resolves to stop him.

The film is known for its musical score composed by John Barry. The 18th variation of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini also appears several times.





Video Credit.

Maksim - Somewhere in Time. Uploaded by Mattyb2001uk. Accessed December 30, 2019.


Resource:

Somewhere in Time (Film). Wikipedia.  Accessed December 30, 2019. 



(c) Dec 2019. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved. 

Jacqueline du Pré plays von Paradis 'Sicilienne'

Listening Pleasure / Reflections 


Jacqueline du Pré (1945-1987) plays "Sicilienne", composed by Maria Theresia von Paradis. Accompanied by Gerald Moore on the piano.  (Note: Sicilienne in E-flat major for violin and piano is ascribed to Paradis. However it is dubious and possibly composed by its purported discoverer, Samuel Dushkin. [Wiki]

For this page, I'm not really after a debate on the actual composer, but I've created this page for my mood's listening pleasure and for reflections.   

Lonely is not being alone, it's the feeling that no one cares.



Uploaded by Jake. Accessed December 6, 2019. 



(c) Dec 6/2019. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved. 

Try to Remember

Listening Pleasure. Reveries.


30 Sept 2019. As September sunsets - a farewelling of my birth-month of ups and downs, sadness and joys, disappointments and realisations. And welcoming a new month. October. Second chances... new beginnings.

"Try To Remember", sung by Nana Mouskouri.

This song is about nostalgia from the musical comedy The Fantasticks. Lyrics written by lyricist & librettist Tom Jones.

Try to remember the kind of September when life was slow and oh, so mellow
Try to remember the kind of September when grass was green and grain was yellow
Try to remember the kind of September when you were a tender and callow fellow
Try to remember and if you remember then follow

Try to remember when life was so tender that no one wept except the willow
Try to remember when life was so tender that dreams were kept beside your pillow
Try to remember when life was so tender that love was an ember about to billow
Try to remember and if you remember then follow

Bridge Over Troubled Waters

Comfort.

Composed by Paul Simon and performed as a solo by Art Garfunkel, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” is a song about providing comfort for someone in need. 

Even when clouds are clearing and we are feeling better, a crisis may overwhelm. There are times when "friends just can't be found". When this happens I breathe deeply, look to my higher power for strength, keep faith and listen for nudges or messages that are coming through... it could be a help from someone unexpected or a situation that turns out as a blessing-in disguise. 

This song is a great comfort. 

Bridge over Troubled Water

By Simon & Garfunkel

"When you're weary, feeling small
When tears are in your eyes, I'll dry them all
I'm on your side, oh, when times get rough
And friends just can't be found
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.

Twilight Reverie with Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 "Adagio un poco mosso"

Reveries, Listening Pleasures


I found this music by piano music by Beethoven soothing and calming for quite a dreary twilight winter. 

Sometimes feeling alone and lonely heightens fears of inadequacy. We need that sense of belonging:  belonging to a group we call friends.  Knowing that we belong fosters inner warmth that accompanies well-being... security that somehow melts fears of the unknown. 




Video Credit:

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 Adagio Un Poco Mosso. Youtube, uploaded by Ibakaya. (Apology, I'm not sure of the performers.) Accessed June 25, 2019.

Another link - here.

Note:  The Piano Concerto No. 5 in E♭ major, Op. 73, by Ludwig van Beethoven, popularly known as the Emperor Concerto, was his last completed piano concerto. It was written between 1809 and 1811 in Vienna, and was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, Beethoven's patron and pupil. The video above contains the second movement, "Adagio un poco mosso" which I listen to in one of my reflective moments... where B major forms a quiet nocturne for the solo piano, muted strings, and wind instruments that converse with the solo piano. Beautiful!


(c) June 2019.  Tel. Leaves from my Musings.  All rights reserved.

Starry, Starry Night

Listening Pleasure / Reverie

"Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, 
they're not listening still
Perhaps they never will."




"Vincent" is a song written by singer-songwriter Don McLean as a tribute to famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. It is also known by its opening line, "Starry Starry Night", a reference to the Dutch post-impressionist painter Van Gogh's 1889 painting The Starry Night, an oil on canvas. 

Keeping with his reputation as a crazy artist, Van Gogh was committed to a mental health asylum in Arles after the ear incident with Gauguin. History has it that Van Gogh painted Starry Night while in the mental hospital, and that the landscape in the painting depicts a dreamy interpretation of the view Van Gogh had from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise, with the addition of an ideal village.  

In Starry Night painting, contoured forms are a means of expression and they are used to convey emotion. Many feel that van Gogh´s turbulent quest to overcome his illness is reflected in the dimness of the night sky. The village is painted with dark colors but the brightly lit windows create a sense of comfort.


Don McLean wrote the lyrics of this famous song in 1971 after reading a book about the life of van Gogh. It's poignantly beautiful.

Starry, Starry Night 

Artist: Don McLean, Singer-Songwriter

American Pie Released: 1971

Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and grey
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul
Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land.

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now.

Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue
Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now.

For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night
You took your life, as lovers often do
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you.

Starry, starry night
Portraits hung in empty halls
Frameless heads on nameless walls
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget
Like the strangers that you've met
The ragged men in the ragged clothes
The silver thorn, a bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.

Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they're not listening still
Perhaps they never will.

Songwriters: Don McLean

Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Video Credit: 

Don McLean - Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) with Lyrics. Uploaded by wysty67. Accessed June 10, 2019.

Resource:

Vincent (Song). en.wikipedia.org.  Accessed June 10, 2019. 



(c) 2018. Updated June 10, 2019. Tel Asiado. Leaves from my Musings.  All rights reserved.    

Through the Eyes of a Child (revisited)

Inspired Pen. Musings.


"We could sometimes see our days,
as through the eyes of a child."

We all love children's innocence, laughter and giggles through their no-cares-of-the-world pranks. And most of all, look through their eyes. How we miss those years, those wonderful childhood fond memories that Mark Twain talked about in his famous children's books.


I've loved this song Through the Eyes of a Child many moons ago. I posted about it five years back - here. In recent years, the song started creeping within after I felt affinity with a toddler I've spotted in his wonderful mother's loving arms on her online profile. Little by little, this kind of 'kinship' from a distance has been slowly unraveling. Now, he has grown up to be a winsome child and my soft spot remains... for you, Ned. (29 April 2019)

THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD

Performed by Percy Faith & Female Chorus 

Music by: Émile Stern,  Lyrics by: Eddy Marnay 

The wide eyes of a child

Look upon a world reborn

See the glory of a rose

That never bears a thorn.

The wide eyes of a child

Can invent a laughing moon

And the orange sun leaps high

Just as a floating toy balloon.

He clearly sees

The flower and the bird

Whose thoughts he knows

Without needing any word.

And any child can hear

Ringing laughter from a stream

Hear the music of the heart

To us a half-forgotten dream.

(In sleep he hears

The star's distant song

Oh, may its wonder last

For his whole life long...)

If we had vision too

As we stumble on our ways

We could sometimes see our days

As through the eyes of a child.

(Originally recorded by Frida Boccara in French, "Un Jour, Un Enfant". )

Video Credit:
Through the Eyes of a Child. Percy Faith and Female chorus. Youtube uploaded by Jokarilon. Accessed 29 April 2019.          


Photo Courtesy:
Ned Williams  by Liz Scott.  April 29, 2019.


(c) April 29, 2019. Tel / Inspired Pen. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved. 

Peace Piece (Piano Music)

Music / Reveries


Bill Evans's "Peace Piece" is an unrehearsed modal composition that he recorded for his "Everybody Digs Bill Evans" LP in 1958. It is hailed as one of the most beautiful and evocative solo piano improvisations ever recorded.  Virtual Museum Exhibit: Pasos Peace Museum.




Video Credit:

Bill Evans' "Peace Piece".  YouTube, uploaded April 14, 2019. All rights reserved.
Visit: www. pasospeacemuseum.org.




(c) April 14, 2019. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.

Ladies in Lavender

Listening Pleasure / Reveries 

We are never too old to dream a new dream. Imagination has no age. Dreams are forever.  After all, it's not the years in a life that counts, but how these years have been lived.  


A romantic and beautiful music poignantly played by violinist Joshua Bell. It's from the film Ladies in Lavender starring Dame Judi Dench (Ursula Widdington) and Dame Maggie Smith (Janet Widdington), with Daniel Brühl as Andrea Marowski. The film's original soundtrack was written by Nigel Hessby (Nominated for Classical BRIT Awards) and all performed by Joshua Bell and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, including compositions by favourite composers F. Mendelssohn, N. Paganini, J. Massenet, C. Debussy, P de Sarasate and J.S. Bach.





Video Credit:
Ladies in Lavender - Joshua Bell, Violinist. YouTube, uploaded by xyCuriosityxy. Accessed August 4, 2018.

Resource:
Ladies in Lavender (Film). en.wikipedia.org. Accessed August 4, 2018



(c) 2018. Tel Asiado.  Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.  

Plaisir d'Amour

Listening Pleasure / Reverie

What am I doing? What am I living behind? Each time I relate with someone is important because the interaction I have with them could change me or them in a way we may not be aware of.

Thinking through.

Letting go. The"cargo" I've been hanging on to that has been bringing unnecessary pressure.

Plaisir d'Amour. The joys and pains of love.





Video Credit: 
Plaisir d'Amour - Main theme from the film "Man, Woman and Child."  YouTube, uploaded by Francisco Lopez. Accessed July 21, 2018.  (Film sountrack composed by George Delerue)



(c) 2018. Tel Asiado. Leaves from my Musings.  All rights reserved.    

Tchaikovsky Melody Gems

Listening Pleasures & Reveries


Sometimes our struggles with circumstances take their toll on us, the barriers that get in the way... including relationships, decisions to make, and health issues. They push us to behaviours not of our liking ...  What then?

To let go and back off,  to not be thwarted by people or by situation.  I'm grateful for music that appeases. You're right, Piotr.

“Truly there would be reason to go mad were it not for music.” ... Tchaikovsky





Above is Tchaikovsky's "Serenade Melancolique, Op26" played by Itzhak Perlman.
YouTube, uploaded by ballettheatre. Accessed August 7, 2018.   




(c) 2018.  Tel Asiado.  Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved. 

Mozart's Adagio and Rondo in C minor, K.617

Listening Pleasures / Reveries

Adagio and Rondo for glass harmonica, flute, oboe, viola & cello in C minor, K.617 (1791)

This splendid quintet, scored for glass harmonica, flute, oboe, viola and cello was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus in Vienna, May 23, 1791, less than seven months before his death. This work was composed for Marianne Kirchgäßner. It was first performed in concert at the Burgtheater on August 19, 1791.

Another version I've included: 'Adagio and Rondo for harp, flute, oboe, viola, cello' performed by Ensemble Wien-Berlin, uploaded by Night Visitor. Refer to 'video credit' below.) 




Video Credit:

Mozart's Adagio and Rondo for Glass Harmonica in C minor, K. 617. YouTube, uploaded by ComposersByNumbers.  Accessed May 28, 2018. (Composed in Vienna and dated May 23, 1791. For Marianne Kirchgäßner. First performed in concert at the Burgtheater on August 19, 1791. Performers: Bruno Hoffmann, glass harmonica; K. H. Ulrich, flute; Helmut Hucke, oboe; Ernst Nippes, viola; Hans Plumacher, cello.).

Mozart's Adagio and Rondo for harp, flute, oboe, viola and cello, in C minor, K.617.  YouTube, uploaded by Night Visitor. Accessed May 28, 2018. (Mozart's ADAGIO & RONDO from Ensemble Wien-Berlin: Suss (harp), Schulz (flute), Schellenberger (oboe), Christ (viola), Faust (violoncello). Parts: 1- Adagio 2-Rondo:Allegretto.)




(c) May 2018.  Tel a.k.a.  Inspired Pen. Leaves from my Musings.  All rights reserved.

Goodbye Again

Down Memory Lane / Soundtrack

An all-time favourite piece of music, Brahms Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op.90 - III. Poco allegretto, has just been played at Fine Music 102.5, a radio station I often listen to. So poignant. So heartwarming. Memories came creeping into my otherwise quite turbulent mind.

This piece is used as soundtrack of a 1961 classic romantic drama movie entitled Goodbye Again, starring Ingrid Bergman, Anthony Perkins and Yves Montand. It was released in Europe as Aimez-vous Brahms?, adapted from a novel by Francoise Sagan, first published in French in 1959, and published in English the following year.

Incidentally, today, 7th of May, marks the birthday of Johannes Brahms, as well as Pyotr Tchaikovsky, two favourites.  


Below is a video of Brahms Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op.90 - III. Poco allegretto, with Maestro Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic.  (YouTube, uploaded by Nathaniel Adams. Accessed 7 May 2018.) 

"Say no more it’s goodbye
As before it’s goodbye
Every move, every sigh
Seems to prove it’s goodbye again."

Timely reflections through this piece of music as I decide to take an indefinite break from Facebook, a place I've freely given my time and efforts. Overly...  Distanced silences greatly help get things get into perspective.  

(c) 2018.  Tel Asiado. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.