Wayfaring Stranger

Wayfaring Stranger

Traditional folk song

http://www.flutetunes.com/tunes.php?id=347

"There are many and varied opinions about the origins of this traditional song. Some of the proposed origins are Appalachian folk, old Irish folk, and Catskills folk. One theory is that it originates from the Negro Spirituals, and there was a deliberate concealment of the song's origins. Clearly the song is of a spiritual nature, as the “Wayfaring Stranger” sings of the hardships of his temporal life passing by and refers to his journeying on to a better place.

This song has been recorded countless times, but in the 1940s it became strongly associated with American folk singer Burl Ives, who made it one of his signature songs. Ives even used it as the title of his CBS radio show and his autobiography. For these reasons, Ives is sometimes referred to as “The Wayfaring Stranger”."

- Taken from Flutetunes. com 

Orfeo ed Euridice. Euridice exists only to create the story of Orfeo.

Che farò senza Euridice, Orfeo's aria from Orfeo ed Euridice

Che farò senza Euridice  What will I do without Euridice
Dove andrò senza il mio ben. Where will I go without my wonderul one.
Euridice, o Dio, risponde Euridice, oh God, answer
Io son pure il tuo fedele. I am entirely your loyal one.
Euridice! Ah, non m´avvanza Euridice! Ah, it doesn´t give me
più socorso, più speranza any help, any hope
ne dal mondo, ne dal cel. neither this world, neither heaven.

Translation by Gabriel Huaroc (ghuaroc@usm.edu.ec)

From the flute tunes page:

According to Greek mythology, Orpheus was “the father of songs”: with his music and singing, he could charm birds, fish and wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance, and even divert the course of rivers.

When his wife Eurydice died of a snake bite, Orpheus played such sad songs and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and gods wept. On their advice, Orpheus traveled to the underworld and by his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone (he was the only person ever to do so), who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her and not look back until they both had reached the upper world. He set off with Eurydice following and in his anxiety as soon as he reached the upper world he turned to look at her, forgetting that both needed to be in the upper world, and she vanished for the second time.

It is then that Orpheus intones the lament, “Che farò senza Euridice?” (“What will I do without Eurydice?”), a sublime aria which has truly become immortal.

 http://www.flutetunes.com/tunes.php?id=236

Christmas Blogcert 2014, The Franklinoc Flute Ensemble

The Franklinoc Flute Ensemble

Deck the Halls 

Traditional Welsh. Arr. Kenneth Baird

Silent Night

Franz Gruber. Arr. Kenneth Baird

Ar Hyd y Nos
Traditional Welsh

Carol of the Bells 
Mykola Leontovych

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
Attributed to Benjamin R. Hanby 

We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Traditional English. Arr. Kenneth Baird

Painting by artist Cheri Wollenberg:

Sources

Video footage

Snowman painting by Cheri Wollenberg

Deck the Halls, Silent Night, We Wish You A Merry Christmas
Ar Hyd y Nos, Carol Of The Bells, Jolly Old St Nicholas

Crown Fountain and Sunday Morning

This is Crown Fountain.  It is located at Millennium Park, Chicago, Illinois.  The fountain is a display of two tall towers, composed of clear brick, and a reflecting pool that has a black floor.   The towers display video of the faces of Chicago residents.  The models are very still, making sudden micro-expressions after lengths of visual silence.  It ends with an explosion of water coming out of the mouth.  

I wrote this flute trio (Sunday Morning) using the MuseScore application.  It is a free music writing application with an online community.  I used a new device, the THX Certified Microphone.  It makes a pretty big difference in quality of sound.  Up until now, I have just been using my MacBook microphone to record.  

Franklinoc

About the microphone

About Crown Fountain

About MuseScore

Hello, Sue!

During a trip to Chicago, we stopped at The Field Museum to see Sue.  Here is an excerpt about him (Sue is a male.  He is named after Sue Hendrickson, palaeontologist, the female human responsible for this amazing find.  ) from The Field Museum website:

The world-famous fossil known as “Sue” is the largest, best-preserved, and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex ever found. Sue measures 42 feet long from snout to tail and 13 feet tall at the hip. She boasts 58 dagger-like teeth and cuts a fine figure as the Museum’s most popular backdrop for visitor photos. A replica skull crowns the skeleton in Stanley Field Hall, while Sue’s original skull, which weighs 600 pounds, rests within an exhibition on the Museum’s balcony, under a mural depicting this majestic creature in the flesh.

• Marvel at the size and superb preservation of Sue’s skeleton, which is more than 90 percent complete.

• Examine Sue’s original skull from all sides—even underneath—and discover what scientists suspect may have caused the holes in her mighty jaws.

• Explore the difference between fact, theory, and speculation and see clips from pop culture that show how scientific understanding of T. rex has changed over the years.

• Discover what a CT scan of Sue’s skull revealed about T. rex that scientists had not previously known.

http://www.fieldmuseum.org/at-the-field/exhibitions/sue-t-rex

https://musescore.com/user/850141/scores/415536

Plaisir d'amour

Plaisir d'amour

Jean-Paul-Egide Martini

Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment.

chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie.

J'ai tout quitté pour l'ingrate Sylvie.

Elle me quitte et prend un autre amant.

Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment.

chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie.

Tant que cette eau coulera doucement

vers ce ruisseau qui borde la prairie,

Je t'aimerai me répétait Sylvie.

L'eau coule encore. Elle a changé pourtant.

Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment.

chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie.

~

The pleasure of love lasts only a moment

The grief of love lasts a lifetime.

I gave up everything for ungrateful Sylvia,

She is leaving me for another lover.

The pleasure of love lasts only a moment,

The grief of love lasts a lifetime.

"As long as this water will run gently

Towards this brook which borders the meadow,

I will love you", Sylvia told me repeatedly.

The water still runs, but she has changed.

The pleasure of love lasts only a moment,

The grief of love lasts a lifetime.

The Kesh Jig

An Irish Cat

Cindy's Jane Austin tour in London, England, September 2013

"The Jane Austen tour footage is a combination of video from the Jane Austen annual parade held in Bath, England each year, some footage of a lovely gentle waterfall in a park and the swans gently swimming in Hyde Park in London, England.  All of this video was filmed in September 2013 when I was in England celebrating my 40th birthday with a much awaited 4 day Jane Austen tour and some additional time in London, England"
~ Cindy M.

The Flower Duet, from Léo Delibes opera Lakmé

Click here to listen to voice
Wikipedia entry on The Flower Duet

Sheet music for flute duet

Cheek to Cheek, Irving Berlin

This is the Atlantic Ocean, captured from the point of Bearskin Neck, Rockport, MA.

Music

Bear Skin Neck Information

Christmas Blogcert, 2013

The Franklinoc Flute Ensemble

The Coventry Carol ~ Traditional English
Silent Night ~ Franz Gruber
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing ~ Felix Mendelssohn
Angels We Have Heard on High ~ Traditional French
O Come, All Ye Faithful ~ John Francis Wade
Away in a Manger ~ James R Murray, Martin Luther
O Holy Night ~ Adolphe Adam
The Christmas Song ~ Mel Torme and Bob Wells

Sources:

Video

Quartets and Trios

Duets

A blast from my past

This is Cesar Franck's Violin Sonata in A Major, transcribed for flute.

"The Violin Sonata in A was written in 1886, when Franck was 63, as a wedding present for the 31-year-old violinist Eugène Ysaÿe.^[1] Twenty-eight years earlier, in 1858, Franck had promised a violin sonata for Cosima von Bülow. This never saw the light of day, but it has been speculated that whatever work Franck had done on that piece was put aside and eventually ended up in the sonata he wrote for Ysaÿe in 1886.^{[2]"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_Sonata_(Franck)#Background}

CPE Bach

Goliath donned the largest of his burgundy coats and stepped out onto the farmhouse porch to look up at the sky.  He noted that it was a mottled slate and umber.  An unusual day. His pale hand, rising up from a giant pocket, smoothed back angular hair, but his expression remained crumpled.  Goliath hesitated, then trudged down the rickety steps toward the crop fields.

There, he saw that the wheat had turned turquoise, likely because it was Monday.  Sometimes on Wednesdays it became the pale pink of a cherry blossom. He saw that the wheelbarrow stood empty still, at its strange up and down angle. Just as they had left it there last year. "Zelda" whispered Goliath.

She came floating from the wheat, her skin blue, her gown buttoned to the collar, a conservative ankle length navy.  A pink belt, from which hung a curious key, that unlocked some unknown thing, wrapped around her waist.  And in her pallid blue hand rested a bright silver flute.  The mottled sky mirrored on its curvature.  Goliath smiled.  She did not always appear.

With Zelda poised magically atop the up and down wheelbarrow, Goliath pushed it through the wheat crops.  Note after crystal note spun from her flute, penetrating the earth and sky while turning the wheat to bright yellow gold.  Goliath smiled, enchanted, upon Zelda.  He would have yet one more year.

Painting by Alex Dobrowsky

“The Flute Player”
Tempra on board
12” x 14” @ $820 (framed)
http://www.artpostgallery.com/musical.php

Flute music by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Hamburger Sonate in G Major Wq.133
Allegretto

PAN! Pastorale. J. Donjon. Performed on solo flute with cat accompaniment

Renée Bovet is a Canadian artist né Montreal, Quebec.  She paints on silk.

The music is PAN! Pastorale by J. Donjon.  Published in 'Concert and Contest Collection for C Flute with piano accompaniment.  Compiled and edited by H. Voxman'.  Performed by Herbert and myself.

For more about Renée Bovet, and her sweet art, visit:

https://reneebovet.com/modules.php?name=History

Arranged for two flutes and one metronome

Note, the metronome sounds like dripping water.  Played from inside a cave? I am actually just pretending that the metronome is intentional.  It isn't.  This is the first time I've attempted this and haven't yet figured out how to put parts played separately, together electronically, without the use of a time keeper.

Cupid, draw back your bow...

Why not let Valentines Day come early this year? It might warm some hearts in this "feels like" - 20 ºC weather.

In the spirit of urban romance, I've posted a picture of the 'cadenas d'amour', or in English, 'love locks'.  Symbols of romantic love, padlocks like these ornament foot bridges in cities like Paris, Rome, London, Cologne, Moscow, Vrnjacka Banja.  But in Toronto, city officials cut down all but three locks from the Humber River Footbridge back in December 2011.  The remaining trio hang strong, alone, no reinforcements forthcoming.

The footage for the video was taken during a walk around the Yonge and Eglinton area.  The man with his dog is near Mount Pleasant Cemetery.  The bridge overlooks the TTC subway tracks that enter Eglinton station.  If you watch, you'll see both classic and modern models of train.  Young and old, grumbling past one another on a bright white afternoon.

I used Finale NotePad, a free downloadable music notation software (http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/default.aspx), to notate the song.  The software allows you to play back your music as you write it, which is both handy and fun. And, it's free.

Sources:

http://www.bonjourparis.com/story/padlocks-paris-love-incarcerated/
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1099596--city-snips-all-but-three-love-locks-from-humber-bridge
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2011/09/thousands-of-love-locks-on.html

Photo: http://www.daringcoco.com/2011/12/love-locks.html

The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is a silent giant.  Visiting this place, I felt that I should be afraid.  Sometimes, we humans come face to face with raw Nature, and it indifferently reminds us that our flimsy creature comforts can be destroyed as and when it pleases.  There is no mothering here.

While I walked as close to the edge as I dared, the wind pushed at my back.  Chunks of rock littered the ground beneath my feet, and gaps in the big stones were dark and deep.  Somehow, these tripping hazards didn't discourage the other tourists.  People walked right up to the edge to take their pictures.  They may not have known that the rock surface at the rim could be unstable and ready to crumble under their feet.  Erosion.  According to mygrandcanyonpark.com 53 people have died from accidental falls over the canyon since 1925.

It is theorized that the colorado river carved out the Grand Canyon about 70 million years ago.  Before that, the river would have lain atop level land.  You can see lines along the walls of the canyon, tell-tale signs of where the river would have travelled.  If you look for it, you can find the lines and the river in this video.

The music that accompanies this clip is a celtic tune named 'Nyth Gwcw'.  The sheet music is published in a book titled "Celtic Music for Flute & Guitar, Allan Alexander & Jessica Walsh".  The book can be ordered online at http://www.fluteandguitar.com/celtic.html.  It comes with a CD on which Allan and Jessica perform the content of the book (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE_9EBY0oU8).

Sources:

http://grandcanyoncvb.org/about-grand-canyon/
http://www.mygrandcanyonpark.com/2010/03/falling-to-death-grand-canyon/
http://geology.com/articles/age-of-the-grand-canyon.shtml

Here is a link that describes Supai, Arizona. People actually live in this remote place, located within the Grand Canyon. Accessible only by helicopter, hike, or mule!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supai,_Arizona

Christmas 2012

Silent Night... in Las Vegas?

This clip's footage is taken inside the Lobby of The Bellagio Hotel, situated on 'The Strip' (Las Vegas Boulevard) in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Unbreakable Cat Nap

Meet Dr. Herbert West, Re-animator.

He wields the power of the Unbreakable Nap.  Sleeping an average of 15 hours a day, the doctor rests relentlessly.  He conserves his energy.  He is patient and he is steadfast in The Nap.

And when the Night draws tight a blackened curtain about the Earth, Herbert rises with the moon to begin the hunt.  You think you are so safe as you sleep smugly in your little bed.  Take heed, Hairless Ape, the Doctor might be stalking.

Unless you give him a treat, of course. Then he'll be your best friend and will stay by your side forever.

This is Annie's Song by John Denver.  According to the Wikipedia entry, John Denver was inspired by his love for Annie Martell Denver, his wife.  He wrote the song in ten minutes while on a ski lift to the top of Ajax Mountain in Aspen, Colordo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie's_Song

Lift Locks

This is a shot of the Peterborough Lift Locks.  These are the world's highest hydraulic boat lifts.  They will lift you and your boat up 65 feet into the sky.  You'd best pray that the locks don't give way, as they've been known to do.  According to our tour guide, the locks gave way twice when the lock mechanism was switched from manual operation to automatic.  But you can sleep soundly, as there were no deaths or injuries.

After two mishaps under electronic control, the method of good old manual labour was re-inforced, and there have been no more premature unlockings ... yet.

This is a simplified version of Beethoven's Sonata No. 8, Movement II, A flat Major.