Not the Weill/Anderson/Sinatra version – fine though it is – but, to end this short concert series, we have a September Song by Richard Strauss that’s nearly (or arguably, just) as famous. It’s preceded by two separate and very different musical days of high Summer, one from America, one from Bohemia; plus – in case […]
Category Archives: Classical music
On the idle hill of summer,Sleepy with the flow of streams… Concert: A. E. Housman’s dark rural world in A Shropshire Lad, with its contrasts of pastoral beauty and human tragedy, finds its musical equivalent in the work of George Butterworth; firstly, in Butterworth’s settings of Housman’s verse for voice and piano and then in […]
Five pieces for the Summer sunrise: Concert: First, Reis glorios (Glorious King), a 12th century alba by Guiraut de Bornelh, who was styled the ‘master of the troubadours’. The alba (Occitan) or alborada (Spanish) or aubade (French) is a dawn song. After the (hopeful, on the part of the singer, anyway) seduction of the evening […]
Concert: To start at a specific movement just click on its title. Samuel Barber: Four Songs, Op. 13: III.Sure on this Shining NightText by James Agee Sure on this Shining Night Sure on this shining nightOf star made shadows round,Kindness must watch for meThis side the ground.The late year lies down the north.All is healed, […]
Visit Bill Bytheway’s Flickr site Bass open strings: The continuo: Bass (=Violone) andHarpsichord (= Cembalo) Bach: Brandenburg No. 6 BWV 1051, original score … and, if you wondered about Beethoven’s double bassoon… Concert: To start at a specific movement just click on its title. A full-blooded, late Romantic concerto from a musician we associate more […]
The open strings: A bit more… Scordatura in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante: (tuned a semi-tone higher) The ultimate in subdivision… Richard Strauss: Don Quixote, Variation II Concert: To start at a specific movement just click on its title. The music of Marin Marais (1656 – 1728) has gained popularity through the advocacy of such viol players […]
The Bytheway Baritone Listen! (Don’t forget that you can consume this in situ or, by clicking on the three vertical dots on the end, use my take-away service) The written range: Concert: To start at a specific movement just click on its title. We heard the story of a Pleyel’s commissioning Debussy for their new […]
Do you remember? (As well as adjusting the volume at your end, you can also now download this file by clicking on the 3 perpendicular dots on the end!) Harp: range & pedals Pedal positions: Pedal notation: What not to do:- Chromatic scale: A pedalling nightmare! Homer nods: – Even the good and great can […]
It’s not all harp and cor anglais in heaven, you know… Give ear… (As well as adjusting my volume which I’m sure you’re now familiar with, you can also now download this file by clicking on the 3 perpendicular dots on the end!) Trombone positions: The harmonic series up to the 16th partial showing the […]
Now hear this… (If I’m whispering or shouting, don’t forget that you can turn me down or up or even – heaven forfend! – off, whenever you need to…) The ensembles: Concert: To start at a specific movement just click on its title. Going back to the days when every orchestral concert had […]
