Music Monday : The Cultured One

Five bits of music, a common theme to string them together, that's how we fly. This week we are using the tenuous and slightly simplified theme of 'Orchestral' to bring you the wonder...and wonder you will. I'm not hitting up any gimmicks, not gonna 'Shatner' you, this week we are all about the wonderful.

Lets stop prattling and smash the doors off this weeks selection with something to make your heart sore! A huge piece! A massive sound! Jump on your horse and charge!


CARMINA BURANA composed by Carl Orff

Obviously this has that massive beginning and rises to incredible highs but it also has a quiet, hyper dramatic quality to it as we build to those big moments. Perhaps it's just me that has 'Excalibur' fixed in my head when I hear this, my mind goes to blossom trees casting their petals across a path as Arthur and his knights ride at full gallop towards a waiting Mordred... But I doubt it.

Its a worthy opener to be sure but its also not classical music, this was composed in the thirties I believe and in fact Mr Orff didn't leave the planet till 1982! So this is as twentieth century as The Kinks, the Stones or even Glen Miller. In my brain the two don't mix but they occupied the same time period, so who knows, perhaps they shared a drink and congratulated each other on their incredible achievements or fought a drunken brawl over who should command the most respect musically?

How cool would that be?!




MUSIC OF THE SPHERES by Mike Oldfield

You may have worked out that I have a thing for Mike Oldfield's work, I admit it, I love the dude OK? Good. Anyway, here we have an album that was compared to Holst's The Planets, and I have to agree, it has a modern planets feel. The opening is all strings and is super cool but sadly I couldn't find it on Youtube in the short time allotted, bummer, but as a sacrificial offer I have 'Aurora' instead.

This is gentler, less urgent and lighter in tone, still wonderful but just not quite as ear catching. I love it all the same.





ADAGIO FOR STRINGS by Samuel Barber

No words can prepare you for this, for the raw emotion of this incredible music. It is a piece so arresting, so emotional I defy you not to feel moved.

Nothing more to be said. Be inspired.





THE SABRE DANCE

This is crazy, silly, awesome, iconic and so much fun I couldn't possibly not leap up and dance like a Cossack to it! I don't play an instrument but if I did I couldn't see myself keeping up with the pace of this bad boy. It's just amazing, and wonderful and that's what we are all about this week... So Enjoy.

(Make sure nothing is close to you that could be knocked down by flailing arm before you press play; drinks, the t.v remote, one of the kids, some dinner or even Granny)






Finally we have one of my favourite pieces of music of all time. I can listen to this and just get completely lost. To interrupt this is to risk making me all grumpy and once disrupted I have to start from the beginning all over again, that's the way it is!

When you click this you may think 'what the hell? There's nothing going on!' But wait, this is something that takes time to build. I normally turn it up quite loud and let that sound consume me slowly like the creeping shadows of the final hours of the day till I am in darkness, absorbed by its power.

Henryk Gorecki Symphony 3 (Symphony of sorrowful songs)

There are three movements here but this first one blows me away every single time. One of the best ways to spend twenty five minutes you could ever find.





Well I hope you enjoyed that, I know I love each and every single one of these slices of sound. Next week? Who knows? Maybe T.V. theme tunes or Oscar winning songs? It could be the masters of the eighties or a pick from each decade starting with the seventies? If you have a suggestion just let me know.

Thank you for reading and listening.