Priére, Erik Satie – performed by Reinbert de Leeuw
A while back I featured Reinbert de Leeuw performing Liszt’s 1880 “Via Crucis”, which seems to me at any rate proto-minimalist. Here from 1893 is the most recognised precursor of…
Category: art
David Monacchi: “Fragments of Extinction”, the sounds of vanishing nature
With the prospect of mass extinction in the news, it seems a good time to reflect on the loss of soundscapes. In Ireland, the corncrake and the curlew were once…
#MarianMay – “Ave Maria Stella”, Nils Landgren trombone, Anders Bromand organ
Ave Maris Stella is an extremely versatile and influential piece of music, and moving away from the choral focus of Marian May so far, here is an instrumental version by…
“Nothing Odd Will Do Long” – Lawrence Sterne Memorial, Clonmel
Lawrence Sterne of Tristram Shandy fame was born in Clonmel in 1713. Spending only a few months of infancy there, he is nevertheless commerorated by two memorials in the town…
#MarianMay : ” O Pure Virgin”, written by St Nectarios from “Byzantine Music of the Greek Orthodox Church”
A setting of a poem written by (according to the record label site) the Greek Orthodox Saint Nectarios of Aegina , this piece was my first exposure to Greek Orthodox…
#MarianMay : “Totus Tuus”, Opus 60, Henryk Górecki, Choir of King’s College Cambridge
“Totus Tuus” was the motto of Pope John Paul II, an allusion to St Louis de Montfort’s formula of total consecration to Our Lady. Appropriately the late Polish composer Henry…
#MarianMay – “Magnificat”, Arvo Pärt
While compiling the ChoralMarch series it did strike me that an entire month of choral music dedicated to Mary was entirely possible. I am not promising daily updates but this…
Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art”, the poetry of loss, and bereavement
The poetry magazine Magma has a call for submissions for a special issue on Loss. The deadline is April 30th – so you better get writing if you want to enter…
Séamus Sweeney 