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This week we’ve been surveying the Spaniards. But today I had an extraordinary discussion with my class at Hunter College. I teach a single class in the Theater department. It is called Singing. We sing of course, but today we had a deep discussion about race and...
We’ve been in Spain, or thereabouts, all week on Song of The Day. Here is something I would call flamenco style. Or at least this arrangement is. Talk about an entrance! This is a song that Garcia Lorca loved. Our Lorca concert will be April 24th in NYC.
We at NYFOS know Jean Ritchie as the author of “Now Is The Cool Of The Day”, a song we’ve performed many times. It's a great song that reminds us we are in control of our planet. And that the day of reckoning is at hand. Did we keep the grasses green and the water...
At our last NYFOS concert we presented a huge song cycle by composer Roberto Sierra. I was drawn to this music’s dark side, and its exploration of uneasy human emotion. Maybe that’s one reason I seem to be drawn to this marvelous music from Spain. Here is some...
La Bien Pagá as sung by Miguel de Molina. A spaniard, he ended up in Argentina. These old musical films are delicious with their emotional drama. This one is about his ex- the “well paid” woman. And she seems so amused! The musical style is like an old zarzuela aria,...
This week I’ve been looking at some pretty famous songwriters who achieved fame for their populist style of singing and their unusual songs, Leonard Cohen and Joan Baez for example. Today my choice is Randy Newman. He’s one of our great American songwriters, but what...