a half hour in the life of my music by jtr · miscellaneous - 11 March 2005, 15:27

UPDATE: Mon Mar 14 20:55:52 EST 2005

The song titles are now links to Ogg Vorbis (.ogg) files. This should be legal since the composers are long since dead.

***

I got this idea from Dignan. He recently posted some comments about the next five songs to play in shuffle mode. I have a bunch of music queued up and so I, too, will comment about the next five songs to play.

I must admit, however, our musical tastes vary widely. I have never heard of four of the five he mentioned and the one name I recognize (the Posies) I do not recall ever hearing. I may have heard them, but I could not tell you the name of one of their songs.

On with my list:

1. Johann Sebastian Bach – Deposuit potentes
I think of this song as the laughing song. If you are a music nerd or just happen to be one of the other seven people in this country who, like me, love opera, you will get this joke.

2. George Frideric Handel – Ombra mai fu
This piece is in a language I know not. I think, though, the singer is lamenting the death of his puppy. Well, it sound like a puppy dirge.

3. Georges Bizet – Parle-moi De Ma Mère
Roughly translated, this piece from Carmen means, “talk about my mama.” I am not sure who the soprano is on this recording, but her voice is a bit too weak for the part. Still, there is a passion in her voice. It is the passion of opera that draws me. This is also why I really like chamber music. Ah…the stringed instruments speaking to me… It is a really long song. Or aria. Wait. Not aria. There is a guy singing, too. Operetta? No. Arioso? Or track? Whatever. It is some sort of duet. It is most certainly bel canto (literally). I think. Okay, okay. So I am an ignorant opera buff.

4. Georges Bizet – Au Fond Du Temple Saint
This one is amazing. It features two dudes dueting. The passion in the singing makes me want to stop and just listen. I wish I knew what they were saying. For all I know, it is a gay wedding love fest. My French is too rusty for me to know. I most certainly could not understand what they are singing, let alone the name of the piece in written form. I really enjoy how their voices weave together. This is truly a beautiful piece of music.

5. Giuseppe Verdi – Miserere…Quel Suon, Quelle Preci
This one just does not grab me. It features a woman singing with some sort of men’s chorus singing low in the background. It is actually a bit annoying. I am going to skip to the next piece.

5b. Giacomo Puccini – Vogliatemi Bene, Un Benme Piccolino
I love this duet. The stringed accompaniment alone is fabulous. The singing just makes it even greater. This is passion at its finest. Both the music and singing are delicate and even tender and yet possess an intensity of feeling that is rarely matched. Of course, if I had a clue what it is they are singing, I might change my opinion of it. For all I know, it is a series of non sequiturs. “Then my cat died and so I fried an egg. The mail came early but I already washed my clothes. If Ed stops by I will read a book,” or some such. At the end of the piece the voices crescendo (am I verbizing a noun again?) and then the music sort of fades over several seconds. Beautiful.

* * *

  1. I love good singing voices. For example, I love the duet of Dana Key and Jesse Dixon in “Destined to Win” (DeGarmo and Key album). But I greatly prefer instrumentals for relaxation, and my current favorite is “Canon in D” by Pachelbel.
    — Ed Hurst    Mar 11, 10:08 PM    #
  2. I didn’t recognize most of your listings, I’m afraid, j-t. I need to try to dig some of them up. I do recognize the first two composers (as one would hope!). As far as the compositions themselves, I’d probably recognize the Bach and Handel if I heard them, but they aren’t ringing a bell at the moment.

    Ed: Ah, Canon in D… I have an old cassette from the Nature Company that placed that over ocean sounds. It was interesting. Then there’s the story of my cousin who bought a copy of it not realizing the whole thing sounded pretty much the same for a very long time. “Wait, isn’t there more?” :)
    — Timothy R. Butler    Mar 14, 12:06 AM    #
  3. Oh, btw, really liked this idea, so I did a blog entry following my shuffling results.
    — Timothy R. Butler    Mar 14, 12:07 AM    #
  4. I’d love to try it, but I have 9G of mp3’s, all in folders by artist and album. Know a good app to generate a playlist of ALL of them? Maybe Rythmbox would do it.
    — Topher    Mar 14, 08:36 AM    #
  5. Tim, since all of the songs I listed are by dead people (and therefore copyright seems moot), I will post links to some .ogg’s tonight. My wife asked about the “laughing song” reference. I played it for her. Five seconds into it, she “got it”. :-)

    Topher, here is a link for some shell scripting for creating them. The “make-ogg-playlist” looks promising. It seems very straightforward to change it to “make-mp3-playlist”.
    — jtr    Mar 14, 09:50 AM    #
  6. Thanks jtr for posting those, I shall listen to them asap, when I can give them my full attention. Festina Lente music listening, I guess. :-)
    — Timothy R. Butler    Mar 16, 09:34 PM    #