by Michael Barrett | Jan 12, 2017 | Song of the Day
Hildegard von Bingen is a tough act to follow for anyone. But about 500 years later Barbara Strozzi appears in Venice (1619-1677). Another remarkable person, all the more remarkable because of her status, talent, and visibility. She published a great deal of her fine...
by Michael Barrett | Jan 11, 2017 | Song of the Day
This week we’ve been talking about and hearing from women composers. Women composers are achieving mixed success in entering the male dominated world of classical composition. I think that the quality of one’s work tends to carry the day, and help...
by Michael Barrett | Jan 10, 2017 | Song of the Day
Following yesterday’s post about Gabriela Frank and Anne Ronell, I started thinking about Clarice Assad. She is a wonderful pianist, composer and vocalist. If you hear her in concert, you will probably be swept away by her virtuosic Brazilian scat singing. But...
by Michael Barrett | Jan 9, 2017 | Song of the Day
Happy New Year Everyone. Just a few days ago I was visiting Gabriela Lena Frank at her farm in Booneville, California. Gabriela was the featured composer of a recent Nyfos Next concert at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, and we’ve become friendly over the past...
by Jack Viertel | Jan 7, 2017 | Song of the Day
On the Dorothy Fields’ website, “A Cow and a Plough and a Frau” is described as the low point of Fields’ career as a lyricist, which naturally sent me scurrying to find a recording. Luckily the original cast album CD of Arms and the Girl, from which the song comes,...
by Jack Viertel | Jan 6, 2017 | Song of the Day
Gospel music and the Civil Rights movement have often aligned, especially beginning in the late ‘50s when Reverend Martin Luther King became the face and voice of the movement. Back in the ‘40s, however, the link was not so clear. That didn’t deter lefty Jewish...
Recent Comments