Creativity(click to enlarge)
Saturday morning classical music is a MacDonald family tradition that dates back to the large console Magnavox (?) radio in my parent's dining room - the one with the lighted horizontal tuning dial and bakelite push buttons. Now it comes out of our 5.1 surround sound system, but I still think it's a great way to start the weekend.
This morning the playlist for the classical station here included the slow movement from Sergei Rachmaninoff's second symphony. I'd never heard it before and couldn't believe my ears.
Do you know the song, "Never Going to Fall in Love" - sritten and originally performed by Eric Carmen, but more famously covered by Paul McCartney? (If I hummed it....) Total rip-off of Rachmaninoff! Who let Carmen get away with that?!
A few minutes later I was reading about Rachmaninoff on Wikipedia, learning a lot about an interesting man. The last of the great Russian composers from the classical tradition, he was 6'6" tall, probably had Marfan's Syndrome, and was described as a "very tall scowl." Died of melanoma, a diagnosis his family kept from him for years, four days before his 70th birthday.
Steve pointed out to me today that the spring version of the triathlon is scheduled for March 8, and that's a Sunday. Bummer!! I'm going to have to find another one. Redemption is required!
I'm disappointed Tebow didn't win the Heisman again. He wasn't the favorite of the three finalists so I wasn't surprised, but he's such a good guy....
This dog has more class than most New Yorkers:
Hero Dog
Tonight I'm finally feeling almost normal. I've felt sluggish and in a mental fog. I wouldn't have guessed it took this long for anesthesia to clear out of my system. Shhhh. Don't tell my family, but I may try a little light exercise Monday. Maybe just the treadmill or exercise bike at the gym.
It's called "The Magnificat" because the opening phrase of Mary's prayer in Latin begin with that word, in the KJV translated "My soul doth magnify the Lord" (Luke 1:46). It forms an interesting parallel to Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 2. An aged Hannah desperately wanted a child, a juvenile Mary was shocked to hear she was pregnant. Both praise God for his sovereignty, and both cite as proof that God exalts the humble and brings down the proud. The structures of the two songs are different; there appears to be no conscious intent on Mary's part to echo Hannah's prayer. Instead, Mary's prayer is the spontaneous expression of a godly young woman that parallels Hannah's because both see God's good hand at work.
If you were going to write a Magnificat, what event from your past would motivate the composition?
This morning the playlist for the classical station here included the slow movement from Sergei Rachmaninoff's second symphony. I'd never heard it before and couldn't believe my ears.
Do you know the song, "Never Going to Fall in Love" - sritten and originally performed by Eric Carmen, but more famously covered by Paul McCartney? (If I hummed it....) Total rip-off of Rachmaninoff! Who let Carmen get away with that?!
A few minutes later I was reading about Rachmaninoff on Wikipedia, learning a lot about an interesting man. The last of the great Russian composers from the classical tradition, he was 6'6" tall, probably had Marfan's Syndrome, and was described as a "very tall scowl." Died of melanoma, a diagnosis his family kept from him for years, four days before his 70th birthday.
Steve pointed out to me today that the spring version of the triathlon is scheduled for March 8, and that's a Sunday. Bummer!! I'm going to have to find another one. Redemption is required!
I'm disappointed Tebow didn't win the Heisman again. He wasn't the favorite of the three finalists so I wasn't surprised, but he's such a good guy....
This dog has more class than most New Yorkers:
Hero Dog
Tonight I'm finally feeling almost normal. I've felt sluggish and in a mental fog. I wouldn't have guessed it took this long for anesthesia to clear out of my system. Shhhh. Don't tell my family, but I may try a little light exercise Monday. Maybe just the treadmill or exercise bike at the gym.
It's called "The Magnificat" because the opening phrase of Mary's prayer in Latin begin with that word, in the KJV translated "My soul doth magnify the Lord" (Luke 1:46). It forms an interesting parallel to Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 2. An aged Hannah desperately wanted a child, a juvenile Mary was shocked to hear she was pregnant. Both praise God for his sovereignty, and both cite as proof that God exalts the humble and brings down the proud. The structures of the two songs are different; there appears to be no conscious intent on Mary's part to echo Hannah's prayer. Instead, Mary's prayer is the spontaneous expression of a godly young woman that parallels Hannah's because both see God's good hand at work.
If you were going to write a Magnificat, what event from your past would motivate the composition?
3 comments:
I guess church attendance on March 8th will be pretty low. Maybe we could do church on bikes with a baptism at the end in the pool.
josh
I've found that a LOT of tri's are on Sunday...that is a bummer!
Eric Carmen also lifted the melody to his song "All By Myself" from the second movment of Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto. Rach's 2nd and 3rd Piano Concerto's (concerti?) are two of my all time favorite works of music. If you are interested in a good cross-section of his piano works (for which he is famous) get ahold of the two-CD set of his work performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy. Simply amazing.
Mike
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