More sheer beauty inspired by our friends the birds; they were singing long before we got here, at the dawn of this aeon.
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Hi, I’m Itzl!
Art is an act of resistance and renewal. This group (Itzl Alert Network, or IAN) is for us to check in at to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by heat, blizzards, floods, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other things that could keep us off DKos. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care! Send us a message if you want to publish a diary or have a cause to share. Head group admins FLSNMom at www.dailykos.com/… or Art Ah Zen at www.dailykos.com/… 🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶
Lovely a cappella piece by Paul Hindemith, A Swan based on the poem by Rainer Maria Rilke. Uses Quartal harmonies with Tertian root movement, which gives it a slightly Medieval feel but very beautiful. Requires good pitch control to get the modulations centered.
Wonderful live performance by Cantoria Sin Nomine: Un Cygne
Studio version by Vokalensemble Stuttgart. Listen with headphones to hear the subtle overtones: Un Cygne
Original French poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke, A Swan:
- Un cygne avance sur l’eau
- tout entouré de lui-même,
- comme un glissant tableau;
- ainsi à certains instants
- un être que l’on aime
- est tout un espace mouvant.
- Il se rapproche, doublé,
- comme ce cygne qui nage,
- sur notre âme troublée…
- qui a cet être ajoute
- la tremblente image
- de bonheur et de doubte.
Translation:
- A swan advances on the water
- surrounded by himself
- like a gliding tableau;
- just so, at certain instants
- a being that one loves
- is entirely a moving space.
- It approaches, reflected
- like this swimming swan,
- on our troubled soul...
- which adds to this being
- the trembling image
- of happiness and doubt.
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Christopher Benfield, The Hummingbird played by the very talented young Leander of LA:
An incredible performance by Leander on an old beater piano! (He now has a new grand to practice on, well-earned.) It’s a hard piece, written on 3 staves.
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Camille St. Saëns, The Swan from Carnival of the Animals. Solo piano score:
The original Le Carnaval Des Animaux was for chamber ensemble, so the solo piano version is challenging, to play all the parts clearly and cleanly (note the strings' melody here in quarter & half notes starting 2nd system; must be voiced differently than the RH pp figurations). Sometimes it's scored for full string orchestra. Either way, a remarkably witty work overall. The Swan movement is simply lovely. St. Saëns downplayed its popularity.
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By Nicholas Ryan Kelly, great choral composer from Ithaca NY, now in Canada. A beautiful modern madrigal in double invertible counterpoint, Schubertian chords, lovely harmonies - Birds' Lullaby :
Poem by E. Pauline Tekahionwake:
- Sing, sing to us, cedars,
- The twilight is creeping with shadowy garments
- the wilderness through —
- All day we have caroled, and now would be sleeping
- So echo the anthems we warbled to you.
- Sing, sing, sing to us, cedars,
- Your voice is so lowly,
- your breathing so fragrant,
- Your branches so strong,
- Our little nest cradles are swaying so slowly
- While zephyrs are breathing
- Their slumberous song.
- The night wind is sighing, is wooing, is pleading,
- To hear your reply,
- And here in your arms, we are restfully lying,
- And longing to dream to your soft lullaby,
- While we swing and your branches sing,
- To your dreamy whispering.
- Sing, sing, sing to us cedars,
- The night wind is wooing, is sighing, is pleading
- To hear your reply;
- And here in your arms, we are restfully lying,
- And longing to dream...
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By Chinese-American orchestral and choral composer Christopher Tin, from his great suite The Lost Birds, Movement V - Wild Swans , poetry by Edna St. Vincent Millay, beautiful gentle harmonies and impeccable a cappella counterpoint in 6 to 8 parts, like a modern Motet in praise of nature:
Wild Swans by Edna St. Vincent Millay
I looked in my heart while the wild swans went over.
And what did I see I had not seen before?
Only a question less or a question more;
Nothing to match the flight of wild birds flying.
Tiresome heart, forever living and dying,
House without air, I leave you and lock your door.
Wild swans, come over the town, come over
The town again, trailing your legs and crying!
