Today we look at a concerto that inspires humanity. Written for Paul Wittgenstein who lost his right arm during World War 1, it reminds us that music eats at us, and if something gets in the way of us doing it, we will find a way to do it no matter what. Ravel’s Piano Concerto in D Major for the Left Hand, premiered on this day in 1932. Continue reading “On This Day – January 5”
Category: Archive
On This Day – January 4
Today we look at a composer who is often over looked, but produced some fantastic works. Son-in-law and student of Antonin Dvorak, he was also a fantastic violinist and formed the Czech Quartet. Josef Suk, born on this day in 1874.
On This Day – January 3
Continuing on in the Opera tradition, today we look at an opera buffa or comic opera. One of the last operas composed by this composer, it returns to the stock characters of the commedia dell’arte. Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, premiered on this day in 1843.
On This Day – January 2
Today we look at an opera that shows early attempts of the styles that would characterise the composers later works. Inspired through a stormy sea crossing, and a retelling by Heinrich Heine in a satirical novel "The Memoirs of Mister von Scnabelewopski" this opera focusses on a ship captain, condemned to sail until Judgement Day. Der fliegende Holländer, or The Flying Dutchman, by Richard Wagner, premiered on this day in 1843.
On This Day – January 1
Welcome back to the On This Day series. We welcome the new series with a new site design, and a promise from me to have an “On This Day” post every day of the year. Today we look at one of the major works of the violin repertoire, one according to violinist Joseph Joachim that was one of the four great German violin concerti. Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major, premiered on this day in 1879.
The Fruit of the Spirit
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. – Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)
When I was doing my music degree, I was introduced to the concept of Controlled Breathing. The idea was that through learning how to control your breathing, you can control your nerves. By taking long, slow breaths, it puts more oxygen into your blood stream, which means your heart doesn’t need to work so hard, so it slows down, which will lead to you not sweating as much, and feeling calmer. Likewise, if you take short, shallow breaths, your heart rate will increase, as it’s not getting as much oxygen and needs to work harder.
I was reminded of this while attending my first Salvation Army service. I had missed being ready to head along to my church (darned 9am start time), and my girlfriend (who is a Salvo), was going to her 10:30 service. I realised I had enough time to have a shower and get down there, so I decided to see what a Salvo service is like. The sermon was on love, being the third week of advent. But the line that caught my attention was “But the fruit of the spirit is… self-control.”
Even though I’ve heard this scripture many times, I guess my thoughts kinda leant towards that if you were faithful, the spirit would bring these things out in your life. However, I realised yesterday that it is infact the complete opposite. By showing these “fruits” we actually invite the spirit into our lives, and the spirit will help us to use these gifts for God’s work.
The reason I was reminded about my controlled breathing experiences was that it showed me that we don’t need to wait for the spirit to show up in order to do these things. We can be joyful, loving, peaceful, patient, self controlled etc by making a conscious decision to do so, and by doing that, we invite the spirit to be present in our lives.
I pray that we can have the courage to be loving to the unloved, joyful in dark times, peaceful in a violent world, patient in our busy lives, kind to those who are unkind, good to the evil ones, faithful in a sceptical world, gentle in a harsh world, and self controlled where we are tempted. Amen.
The Death Penalty
My mind has been taken up with the issue of the death penalty for the last little while. It has obviously come about as a result of the reports of the death by execution of the 3 “Bali Bombers.” The problem I have been having comes in two parts – what does my Christian faith say about it, and why did the Australian Government wait until after their execution to say that they will push for an international moratorium on the death penalty? Continue reading “The Death Penalty”
What Obama’s Win could mean for music
Barack Obama is the President-Elect. This we know. But, what could this mean for music? This is what I look forward to seeing over the next little while. In this period of economic crisis, it was Obama that the musicians went to, not McCain. The Barack Obama Music Coalition includes artists such as David Crosby, Joanna Newsome, will.i.am, Morrisey, Wilco and The Greatful Dead as supporters of Obama. His policy towards music and the arts will come later. What I want to look at in this post is what musicians can get from Obama’s campaign so far. Continue reading “What Obama’s Win could mean for music”
Letter in the Australian
Yesterday, I sent letters to The Australian, the West Australian and the Age, and I know that it got published in The Australian (I don’t receive the West or The Age at home – if anyone can fill me in on whether it got published or not, I would be most appreciative.
Here’s the letter that I sent in:
Who can remember who held the world record for the 100m before Usain Bolt? What was their time?
Who was the guy that took 7 gold medals in the Olympics? Does it matter any more now that Phelps has 8?
Sports records tumble all the time, and we only remember who has the fastest time, the most medals. We don’t remember who came second. We don’t care. Yet despite the temporary nature of sporting success, Australia is willing to pour $168 million dollars into the AIS, where as the longer term investments in our nations culture, that of music, is cut from a paltry $2.5 million to 0.
Music and the Arts is what makes up Australia’s culture. Even in sports! Imagine if there was no music. We wouldn’t be able to proudly sing “Girt by sea” – even if we could remember the rest of the words. We wouldn’t be proudly singing our footy team’s club song. We wouldn’t have Kylie, or Barnsey. Without music, I’m sure Peter Garrett wouldn’t have had an opportunity to get into Parliament. Peter, please reconsider your decision, and prove to us that you don’t hate the Arts.
And the Aus’ edited version:
Who can remember who held the world record for the 100m before Usain Bold? What was his time?
Who was the guy that took seven gold medals in the Olympics? Does it matter any more now that Michael Phelps has eight?
Despite the temporary nature of sporting success, Australia is willing to pour $168 million into the Australian Institute of Sport, where as the longer term investement in our nation’s culture, through funding for music education is cut from $2.6 million to zero.
Music and the arts is what makes up Australia’s culture, even in sports.
Imagine if there was no music. We wouldn’t be able to proudly sing “Girt by sea” – even if we could remember the rest of the words.
Without music, I’m sure Peter Garrett wouldn’t have had an opportunity to get into parliament.
Peter please reconsider your decision, and prove to us that you don’t hate the arts.
I Also got a cartoon, with an athlete holding his olympic gold medal, and an orchestral violinist holding a symphony orchestra cd, the violinist saying “Mine’s bigger than yours.” Did very well to pick up that I’m a violinist. Perhaps he googled me and found my website?
Remember to sign the petition, and write to Peter Garrett, and keep the letters coming into the Aus, and other newspapers. We need this to not disappear from the public eye. Let’s make Peter Garrett come out and say something, as opposed to hiding in his office.
On This Day… Save ANAM
I’m taking a slightly different tack for this post. I’m calling everyone to help spread the word. The “Honorable” Peter Garrett, AM, MP, former lead singer of Midnight Oil and now Federal Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, as announced that the Federal Government will cut all funding to the Australian National Academy of Music. ANAM is Australia’s Premiere training institution for classical musicians. It is to classical musicians what the Australian Institute of Sport (which has produced many of Australia’s greatest athletes) is to sport. After being established in 1994 under Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating, over the years the federal government has given unchanged financial support to the effect of $2.5 million over a number of years. For the year ending 31 December, 2005, ANAM received a total income of $2.9 million. For the financial year 2005-2006, the Australian Institute of Sport received $168.6 million from the Federal Government alone, with a total operating income of $190.5 million.
It makes me sick. The AIS operating income for 2005-2006 could run ANAM for 65 years, on its 2005 income. From just 1 year!
ANAM feeds its musicians into Australia’s orchestras. Of the 7 major Symphony orchestras in Australia, ANAM Woodwind players hold 7 principal positions. Without this training institution, Australia’s musicians will look elsewhere for their training, elsewhere being overseas, where they are more likely to remain. If there is no training institutions in Australia, the quality of Australian orchestral playing will also drop.
What can we do?
We need to let Peter Garrett know that this decision is a disasterous one, and is not a decision the Australian people will stand for. I have already written to Peter Garrett, voicing my opposition and asking him to reconsider, and I encourage you to do so as well at his Parliament House page. You can also E-mail the Shadow Minister for the Arts, Steven Ciobo. You can also sign the online petition started by ANAM. If you Have Facebook, you can join the groups “I Support the Australian National Academy of Music” or “Save ANAM” Getting the word out there is also important. I encourage anyone who has a blog to write about this. If you’ve got Twitter, or facebook, write about it. Link back here – I will add a link to the post below. Get as many people as we can knowledgeable about this.
For the next week, the first paragraph of every “On This Day…” post will be linking back to this one, encouraging everyone to read about this issue, and to take action.
For a couple of videos, we have a documentary about ANAM, so you can understand a bit more about this fantastic institution, and also a video blog about this topic by Perth Musician Alex Millier.
Links
Alex Millier has written two posts about this issue, and I’m sure will write more. He’s also the one that created the video above.
Ben Clapton 