Maggie's Farm

Anat Navarro

"I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long..."

Well, The Voices of Ascension sang a bunch of Renaissance motets, and some Christmas carols too, in front of the Met Museum's Neapolitan Christmas tree last night. It was a sold out crowd, of course. We had the whole darn museum just to ourselves, too. Remarkable.

A 24-person a capella choir can sound just like an organ. There is nothing better. Anchoress would love this. They did Lauridsen's Magnum Mysterium of course  but not the great Palestrina's Sicut Cervus, which is one thing by The Voices which I could find on YouTube:

Here's King's College choir doing Lauridsen's transcendent version of Magnum Mysterium:

"End of the Line." Reader reminded me this one, with the then recently-late Roy Orbison's guitar in the rocking chair, and with George Harrison with his cancer growing, unknown, inside him. Dylan? Just a humble member of the group.

Good tune (not embeddable, but well-worth the effort of pushing the link). Good fellows making music. I love it. I'd guess Captain Tom would love it too.

"Well, it's all right, even if you're old and gray..."

 Gotta remember to tell Pastor that, if I get hit by a truck, he can play this tune in church. "It's all right...we're going to the end of the line."

Sipp's fine print reminded me of this one (two of these good guys now dead, alas):

Luke 1:46b-55 - the "Magnificat"

1:46b "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

1:48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

1:49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

1:50 His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

1:51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

1:52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;

1:53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.

1:54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,

1:55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

In our church, this is the opening hymn through Advent. Enya, h/t Anchoress:

The first keyboard I ever approached was an 1800s Mason & Hamlin single manual reed organ, technically a harmonium. The wind is generated by vacuum-generating bellows (hence "suction reed organ") pumped by the feet of the organist. From a technical standpoint, these are like upright accordions with an organ-like sound.

My Grandpa salvaged it when the local Congregational church bought a new organ. He kept it in his living room, and the elderly, old maid church organist would stop by, unannounced. to play the old thing until she died.

Today, old reed organs are thrown in the garbage, but I think it's a shame. They are of an era when these were all small congregations could afford. Some folks had them in their homes, too: "Parlor organs." You can find them cheap on eBay, but often people will be grateful if you will just take them away.

Did I mention that mice like to live in them? My parents finally threw the old thing in a dumpster because I failed to take it away myself in a reasonable period of time. My fault.

This fellow explains how to use the foot bellows to affect the playing of a reed organ:

The first tune I learned to play on it was the hymn Work For The Night Is Coming. It is not just a song of toil and death, but a song of toil in God's fields and pastures, and I still love it. Here's the only half-decent version I could find on YouTube (on piano, not reed organ - lyrics here):

I encountered something I had never seen before, at a Christmas party on Saturday night - a home pipe organ.

Our host's two-manual organ console was built into the wall of their roughly 24X24' foyer, with the array of pipes located under the curved staircase on the other side of the foyer. The organ had been installed when the gracious but unpretentious home was built, 1926.

I had not known that pipe organs had been a hot item for prosperous home entertainment. But if funeral parlors had them, why not? The organ in question had a player feature, and our host had boxes of player rolls for it.

Naturally, they had hired an organist to play Christmas carols with all joining in and filling the east and west hallways with merriment, projecting the words on the walls for those with dementia. This organ was manufactured by Skinner Organ Co., Boston.

This good fun prompted me to learn a little more about pipe organs. Until the invention of the telephone switchoard, the pipe organ was the most complex manufactured product. Here's a wiki history of the pipe organ. Like most things, it goes back to the Greeks, who cleverly aligned pipes with a hydraulic bellows.

Electricity made it possible to distance the pipes and their complex inner workings from the console, and to provide a steady supply of wind (fans) for the pipes without people pumping on the bellows in a closet

To my delight, I found a home pipe organ for sale on the internet. Even if I could afford it, I doubt I could afford to have it installed. Also, I can't play a keyboard worth a darn. It is called "lack of talent," and lacks of talents suck if I may say so. I know: I lack many of them

Currier and Ives' Skating in Central Park (Lots more trees there than in the 1880s but it remains rus in urba, more or less, with some of the best birding in the East in migration time as a green oasis in a sea of urbanization along the Atlantic Flyway):

Modern Jazz Quartet's Skating in Central Park:

All God's Critters Got a Place in the Choir, here done Irish but written by New Hampshire's Bill Staines:

I am grateful that Mrs. BD dragged me to see Einstein on the Beach on its world tour in 1992, at the BAM (for those of you in Yorba Linda, that's the Brooklyn Academy of Music).

Philip Glass and Robert Wilson, with dancer/choreographer Lucinda Childs, decided to call it an opera, but it really was a spectacle, and, with all of the repetition, choruses, and dancing, something like Greek theater with technology. I have grown to sort-of enjoy the Glass music in this, but it just drives some people crazy. It's a sound track, really.

The whole thing is hypnotically slow-moving (and it was over 5 hrs, no intermission, and people were welcome to come and go. We stayed, except for bathroom breaks - and they sold wine in the lobby.). There exist audio recordings, but, I believe, no video recordings of the whole thing. Video does not do justice to theatrical productions. You had to be there to be in the dream.

One snippet of video - you can search on YouTube it to hear more of Glass' music for the show:

Addendum, by complete coincidence I see that the Met is celebrating Glass' 75th birthday with  “Satyagraha.”  Wierd coincidences: I posted a Tagore poem this morning, mentioned Robert Wilson in a photo post yesterday, and stumbled on the news of that Philip Glass/Tagore opera today after preparing the above post.

The more you get out and about, the more fascinating life gets. Everybody needs to get out more, I guess. Possessions are expensive: cool life experiences are cheap by comparison.

I forget where I found this:

h/t, our intertunnel pal Bob at Black and Right:

More at YouTube

Buddy wanted y'all to hear this sociopathic one about blaming others: Crisis Site 13 (wait for the metal intro to end). "I can kill you and never go to jail, cuz I'm 13 and I'm cute and I hope you die."

That's interesting, but this is Terry Allen Country:

Was on the phone with my Mom this morning, and we got on the subject of the convenience of exterior cellar doors. She asked me whether I knew the old children's song about "slide down my cellar door." I didn't, but I found out.

For the filthy-minded, you could hear the song in a non-innocent way, but it is a child's ditty. Katie Herzig added some lyrics to alter it a bit, and used the old kids' song for the refrain:

Here's the old tune:

Attended a wonderful Chopin recital last night, perfomed by Benjamin Hochman.

Among other pieces, he performed Chopin's Barcarolle, Op 60. It's a mind-blowingly charming piece, and there is something about the relatively-rare key of F# Major that works for me.

Here's Rubinstein's version, 1928:

One more from Gene Pitney -

Rev. Gary Davis

Sipp sets the scene for you. This is ein kleine nachtmusik:

Piano Quintet, Op 44, ll. I remember when I used to confuse Shubert and Schumann. Love 'em both, but it doesn't get any better than this. My brain is semi-music retarded, and I have to hear a whole piece many times before I begin to get it. I do like piano quintets, but sometimes feel they need a little drum. (Yes, I know that pianny is a percussion instrument.)

Leon Botstein with an appreciation of Sibelius.

Movement 3 of his Violin Concerto in D minor:

Amusing fellows:

I am no big Eagles fan, but I have always liked this one:

It's been a long time since I have heard this one. It takes me back...so innocent. ""Kathy, I'm lost,' I said, though I know she was sleeping. I'm empty and aching and I don't know why..."

I was fortunate to recently hear a noted quartet play one of Brahms' masterpieces, his Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op.25, in an intimate setting. I am fortunate to live where there is plenty of live chamber music, and I am always happy to go listen.

I love chamber music as much or more than orchestral (too bad chamber music didn't have drum sets, though) but, with my tin ear and my slow brain, it takes me several hearings to get the structure, intent, and the direction of a composition unless I have studied it in advance. (Folk, blues, and pop are easy for my brain.) I mentioned this disability to Mrs. BD in reference to the G minor, and she replied "What do you mean? This is as clearly structured, developed, and disciplined a chamber piece as I have ever heard. The structure is transparent."

Listen to the whole piece for a day or two, if you need that as I do. It's a musical journey. 

Here's just the familiar Finale, Movement 4 - the Rondo alla zingarese - a dance piece if there ever was one:

 In rounds, as it is meant to be.

Near-holy perfection for a dear pal who died a week or so ago. We expect our friends to stick around forever, but they do not. I have been losing too many, lately.

A sweet and gentle fellow, a true gentleman, who always would lend a hand despite his many life struggles and sorrows. Devoted to doing for others, and never doing enough for himself. A true humble child of God, and everybody who knew him could see that in him and loved him for it. He touched many people with his gentleness and relentless generosity of spirit. His warmth and humility came from God, I believe.

Too young. I'll smoke a good ceegar for ya, dear friend, and raise of glass of semi-decent Cabernet for ya as I know you would like me to do, and as we have done many times in the past.

He would appreciate this tune. If heaven has internet, Bob will hear this. I hope so.

My kids are also gonna see these guys next weeK - Toots and the Maytals - another favorite of some Maggie's readers. These guys were doing ska in the early 60s, before reggae was invented -

Yesterday's post on marriage reminded me of this tune by this famous Southern crooner. "Just Molly and me, and baby makes three..."

A Youtube commenter notes "Gene Austin's My Blue Heaven was the biggest selling single until Bing Crosby's White Christmas came along in 1942."

Here's my Harry Lauder's Walking Stick this week, in full catkin-bloom:

Here's Harry Lauder:

Cute love song, but shut up and sing, John:

I didn't realize that Ricky Skaggs wrote this tune. We made friends with Ricky back when he was playing in bars in Kentucky. In fact, Mrs. BD hired him for a few performances. Dylan used a rousing rock version as his opening tune for a year or two, which I have from a bootleg on my iTunes.

Never too late to get right with Jesus!

"Favorite" is not a helpful word. Let me ask our scientific poll questions a better way:

1. What 3 Dylan tunes have you listened to most often in your life, or which have touched you the most?

2. What 2 Dylan albums do you tend to listen to most?

My answers below the fold -

h/t reader:

With two of my favorite gals:

My shrink pal Nathan emails me that he is using this piece for his violin audition:

Saw him perform, as a lad. Bridgeport, Ct., in that stadium behind the county jail. Wrote the review for the local paper too. I am too dumb to write reviews anymore about anything. You have to be young to know what to say. Older you get, the less you have to say about anything: you just say what it is. I think that's wisdom, but maybe it's brain cell death.