Daily Hit of Music

Kathleen Ferrier (1912 - 1953) Image source Kathleen Mary Ferrier was born in Lancashire, England. During her short career as a contralto, she went from one triumph to another, whilst maintaining humility, humour and  love for truth, people and life.  Listen to her recording of Handel's Ombra mai fu: DHM YouTube Ferrier's father was the village schoolmaster at Higher Walton. A good singer himself, he taught most of the music at the school. He then became headmaster at a school in Blackburn, where the family moved when young Kathleen was just two years old. Ferrier was a keen member of her school choir - even then she had a big voice, but was usually asked to stand at the back and sing quietly. Her mother, keen to encourage Kathleen's musical interest, arranged piano lessons for: Kathleen excelled in all her examinations.  Ferrier at the piano Image source Ferrier left school at 14 and went to work for the General Post Office in Blackburn, first in the telegrams department a

In music, 'fugue' is a compositional procedure characterised by the systematic imitation of a principal theme (the subject). Over time, these imitations sound in simultaneous melodic lines (counterpoint).  Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750) The works of J.S. Bach stand at the very pinnacle of the history of the fugue: Bach's fugues remain unsurpassed in their extraordinary variety and no other composer produced so many examples of fugues for every musical medium available to him at the time. Watch Inside the Score 's quick introduction to the concept of the 'fugue': DHM YouTube Now listen to the complete fugue from Bach's C minor Prelude & Fugue (No.2) as performed by the renowned interpreter of Bach's keyboard music, Glenn Gould:  DHM YouTube For a performance with the score, watch this (2:28 for Fuga): This blog is intended to be educational and to share knowledge about music. Daily Hit of Music does not claim to own anything contained in this pos

As well as being the prototype of the modern violin virtuoso - expanding the technical possibilities of the instrument - Antonio Vivaldi also wrote some beautiful vocal music.  Antonio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741) Image source The aria "Vedrò con mio diletto", has became a famous concert piece to sing, especially for countertenors, but was originally intended to be sung by the character  Anastasio in Vivaldi's opera 'Giustino'.  Listen to it here: DHM YouTube Italian (original) Text: Vedrò con mio diletto L'alma dell'alma mia Il core del mio cor pien di contento. E se dal caro oggetto lungi convien che sia Sospirero penando ogni momento... Text translation:  I will see with joy, the soul of my soul heart of my heart full of content. And if from my dear object I be far away I will sigh, suffering every moment...  This blog is intended to be educational and to share knowledge about music. Daily Hit of Music does not claim to own anything contained in this post and

Shreya Ghoshal Shreya Ghoshal (born 12 March 1984) Image source Take a listen to the very beautiful and highly virtuosic singing of Shreya Ghoshal: DHM YouTube Shreya Ghoshal is an Indian playback singer. She has recorded songs for film music and albums in various Indian languages and has established herself as a leading playback singer of Indian cinema. She has received four National Film Awards, seven Filmfare Awards including six for Best Female Playback Singer.  Ghoshal was on track to become a playback singer from an early age. At the age of four, she started learning music and by the age of six, she had started her formal training in classical music. Aged 16 she was noticed by film-maker Sanjay Leela Bhansali when she entered and won the television singing reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa (the title referring to notes of a 'rag'/'scale' in Indian classical music). Following that, she made her Bollywood playback singing debut with Bhansali's romantic drama Devdas (

Charles Ives was an American composer who is known for a number of compositional innovations that anticipated many of the later musical developments of the 20th century.  Charles Ives (1874 - 1954) Image source His First Violin Sonata is not necessarily his most modernist and forward-thinking work, but is nevertheless very striking, even to the modern ear. He wrote the following of his First Violin Sonata: " This sonata is in part a general impression, or kind of reflection and remembrance of the peoples' outdoor gatherings in which men got up and said what they thought, regardless of the consequences-of holiday celebrations and camp meetings in the 80's and 90's - suggesting some of the songs, tunes, and hymns, together with some of the sounds of nature joining in from the mountains in some of the old Connecticut farm towns. The first movement may, in a way, suggest something that nature and human nature would sing out to each other -sometimes. The second movement, a

Composer, Suffragette: Ethel Smyth (1858 - 1944) Image source At the age of 10, Ethel Smyth began composing hymns and chants and learnt how to play the piano. In 1877, she left home to study music at the conservatory in Leipzig, Germany. Disillusioned with tuition at the conservatory, she left after a year to study with Heinrich von Herzogenberg. Through him she met Brahms, Tchaikovsky , Grieg, Dvorak and Clara Schumann : in particular, Brahms and Dvorak encouraged her in composition.  In the 1890s, she returned to England and in 1910, she joined the Women's Social and Political Union. Ethel Smyth at a WSPU meeting, 1912. From The Womens' Library Collection, LSE Library.   Her song The March of the Women was sung by suffragettes throughout London.  Listen to it here: DHM YouTube In 1912, following a large-scale Suffragette protest, she was sentenced to two months in Holloway prison for smashing a window of a politician's residence with her friend Emmeline Pankhurst. Whilst

Infelix ego  ("Alas, wretch that I am") is a Latin meditation on the opening section of the Expositio upon Psalm 51, Miserere mei Deus , written by the Italian Christian preacher, reformer and martyr, Girolamo Savonarola. He was renowned for his conflict with tyrannical rulers and a corrupt clergy. After the overthrow of the Medici in 1494, Savonarola was the sole leader of Florence, successfully setting up a democratic republic.  Girolamo Savonarola (1452 - 1498) Image source Savonarola's triumph was too great and too sudden not to give rise to jealousy and suspicion. He wrote this text once he eventually found himself in prison, after being tortured on the rack. The victim's ankles were fastened to one roller and the wrists to another. As the interrogation from the corrupt authorities progressed, a handle gradually increased the tension on the chains, inducing excruciating pain. This rack would strain the ropes until the sufferer's joints were dislocated and eve

A "griot" (also known as "jeli", "jali" or "gewel"), is a West African troubadour-historian. For many griots, society's history and music go hand in hand. If you are a griot, you are either a musician, or a storyteller, or both.  A griot from Guinea Image source The griot profession is hereditary and has long been part of West African culture. Historically, only those in a family of griots were allowed to study music, but now studying music is a personal choice. The role of a griot is to pass on the histories of families and society through stories and poems - many of them use music to do this.  Watch the following on West African Griots: DHM YouTube   Many griots play the kora: a long-necked harp lute with 21 strings. This traditional instrument is now studied by many young people in music conservatoires.  Kora Image source Many griots will also play the Djembe (drum). Djembe Image source In addition to serving as the primary storytellers of

Lilli Lehmann was German soprano of phenomenal versatility. Across the span of her career, she performed 170 different parts in a total of 119 German, Italian and French operas as well as 600 lieder (songs). She left her legacy as a singer in recordings made later in her life as well as her book on vocal study: Meine Gesangskunst (1902; My Art of Singing ). (1848 - 1929) Image source Listen to a recording of Lilli Lehmann singing Verdi, aged circa 58: DHM YouTube Her first singing teacher was her mother, who had been a prima donna at the Cassel opera. After singing small parts on stage, Lehmann made her proper debut in 1870 (aged circa 22) in Berlin. She sang in the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876. The Bayreuth Festival Theatre is an opera house north of Bayreuth, Germany, built by the composer  Richard Wagner  and dedicated solely to the performance of his stage works. Lehmann was coached by Wagner in the parts of one of the Rhinemaidens and the Forest Bird for the first performances

Different Trains is a work by Steve Reich for String Quartet and pre-recorded performance tape. The basic idea of this way of composing is that selected recordings of speech generate the musical materials for the instruments of the quartet.  Album cover for Different Trains Image source Listen to it here:  Different Trains - Part 1 America Before the War : Different Trains - Part 2 Europe During the War : Different Trains - Part 3 After the War : To put things into context, this was composed in 1988 and premiered by the Kronos Quartet on 2 November at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in the same year. To put such a thing together and coordinate its performance was significantly more difficult then that it would be now with modern technology and yet the work is still considered to be novel compared to the vast majority of works performed today.  Reich's parents separated when he was just one year old, which meant that he would frequently travel back and forth: his mother lived in Los Angele

In the Soviet Union, one of the 20th century's greatest violinists and one of its greatest composers were close friends:  David Oistrakh and Sergei Prokofiev.  Listen here to Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 performed by David Oistrakh: DHM YouTube Although Oistrakh did not premiere the concerto, he did work on the piece with the composer and recorded it in 1954, a year after Prokofiev's death. As well as being legendary musicians, both Oistrakh and Prokofiev were passionate chess players.  The official announcement of the match between Sergei Prokofiev and David Oistrakh Image source  In fact, on the 9th of November 1937, they played each other in a prestigious match at the Master of Art Club in Moscow, overseen by the two chess giants at the time: Vladimir Alatortsev and Ilya Kan. The 1937 Prokofiev - Oistrakh Match Image source Prokofiev was rather more outstanding as a chess player, to the extent that in 1909 he drew with Emanuel Lasker - world chess champion for an a

The Swedish term "kulning" (pronounced "coolning") is a contraction of the words "Kuh" (cow) and "lock" (to call or coax).  Along with the cowhorn and lur (long horn), kulning was an important part of the pastoral herding traditions that has existed in Scandinavia for centuries. It has its origins in ancient Norse culture and has been passed on in an unbroken oral tradition up to the present day, where it has been assimilated into modern folk music.  Jonna Jinton Image source Kulning is powerful and beautiful, considered by musicologists to be the essential sound of the Nordic folk music tradition. Since the forest is the original environment of the song, this tradition belongs in the natural world. The kulning song is a loud call, using the head tones of the voice, so that it can project over long distances: the call rings and echoes against the mountains. The animals, a number of whom wear tuned bells, begin to respond to the call. The sound of

Amy Beach is considered to be the earliest American female composer of enormous success. She wrote over 150 works which include piano pieces, chamber music, a piano concerto, an opera and a symphony. Her work was held up as a beacon of American accomplishment. Although she was valued by the press and society as a symbol of women's progress, she herself did not speak very openly about this aspect of her career.  Amy Beach (1867 - 1944) Image source At the age of 17 she performed Chopin's  Piano Concerto in   F minor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The next year, aged 18, she married Dr. Harrison H.A. Beach - an eminent surgeon, Harvard University professor and devoted amateur musician. Her husband objected to the idea of her pursuing a career as a concert pianist, but did encourage her to compose. So Amy embarked on a rigorous course of self-instruction in musical theory and composition. This was unusual, given that most American composers travelled to Europe to study furthe

The Lamentations [of Jeremiah] is an Old Testament book belonging to the third section of the biblical canon, known as Ketuvim, or Writings.  In the Hebrew Bible, the Lamentations is part of the Megillot - the five scrolls that are read on various festivals of the Jewish religious year. In the Jewish liturgical calendar, Lamentations is the festal scroll of the Ninth of Av, a day commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples of Jerusalem. Some of chapters consists of an acrostic poem with the each verse beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The letters follow, starting with ALEPH, the second starting with BETH. The poems are laments over the destruction of Judah, Jerusalem, and the Temple by the Babylonians in 586 BC.  Robert Dow Tudor Partbooks Image source Listen to Robert Whyte's musical setting of the lamentations (Chapter 1, verses 8 -13). Verse eight begins with HETH and notice how Whyte sets even the simplest word - a letter of the alphabet - in the

Kate Anna Rusby is an English folk singer-songwriter from Penistone, Barnsley (South Yorkshire). Rusby was born into a family of musicians and after learning to play the guitar, the fiddle and the piano (as well as to sing) she played in many local folk festivals as a child and adolescent, before joining (and becoming the lead vocalist of) the all-female Celtic folk band 'The Poozies'. Known as the "Barnsley Nightingale", she has headlined various British national folk festivals, and is one of the best known contemporary English folk singers.  Kate Rusby Copyright Andrew Sanderson Image Source 1995 saw the release of her breakthrough album, Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts, a collaboration with her friend and fellow Barnsley folk singer Kathryn Roberts.  Listen to Hunting the Hare from that album - the tune is the traditional Welsh Hela'r Ysgyfarnog and the English words are from A.P. Graves' The Celtic Song Book (1928): DHM YouTube Playlist - Hunting the Ha

"Harold in Italy" is a symphony in four movements with solo viola, composed by Hector Berlioz in 1834. Hector Berlioz was a French composer, conductor and critic.  Hector Berlioz (1803 - 1869) Portrait by Pierre Petit  Image source Berlioz wrote Harold in Italy as a commission from the virtuoso violinist  Niccolo Paganini , who had just purchased a Stradivarius viola. However, having seen the first movement of the work, Paganini found the piece to be insufficiently flashy for his own performance and therefore never played it. He did, nevertheless, confess to admiring it and still paid the agreed fee.  Listen to it here: DHM YouTube Playlist Berlioz explained his inspiration for the work in this way: "My idea was to write a series of scenes for the orchestra in which the solo viola would be involved as a more or less active character, always retaining its own individuality. By placing the viola in the midst of poetic recollections of my wanderings in the [Italian] Abruzz

Rock 'n' roll is a style of popular music that originated in the United States in the mid -1950s. By the mid-1960s it evolved into the more encompassing international style known as 'rock' music. Some describe rock 'n' roll as a merger of country music and rhythm and blues, but this is an oversimplification and were it so, it would have existed long before it burst into the national consciousness. The roots of rock 'n' roll had been in place for decades, but the genre flourished in the mid-1950s when nourished by a volatile mix of black culture and white spending power.  Heralding this new sound were disc jockeys such as Alan Freed of Cleveland who created rock-and-roll radio by playing hard-driving rhythm-and-blues and raunchy blues records that introduced white suburban teenagers to a culture that sounded more exotic, thrilling, and illicit than anything they had ever known. It was Alan Freed who popularised the phrase "rock 'n' roll"