Ga Inc.

09/10/2024

Antonio Vivaldi had been an extremely productive and creative composer. Did you know this tiny little instrument???

Maurice Steeger is a true virtuoso on this instrument. It almost sounds like a bird song... Recorder...

The instrument name recorder derives from the Latin recordārī (to call to mind, remember, recollect), by way of Middle French recorder (before 1349; to remember, to learn by heart, repeat, relate, recite, play music)[9][10] and its derivative recordeur (c. 1395; one who retells, a minstrel).[11][12] The association between the various, seemingly disparate, meanings of recorder can be attributed to the role of the medieval jongleur in learning poems by heart and later reciting them, sometimes with musical accompaniment.[10]

"The English verb record (from Middle French recorder, early thirteenth century) meant "to learn by heart, to commit to memory, to go over in one's mind, to recite", but it was not used in English to refer to playing music until the sixteenth century, when it gained the meaning "silently practicing a tune" or "sing or render in song" (both almost exclusively referring to songbirds), long after the recorder had been named. The name of the instrument is also uniquely English: in Middle French there is no equivalent noun sense of recorder referring to a musical instrument

Read more here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recorder_(musical_instrument)

About Antonio Vivaldi:

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music.Along with Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel, Vivaldi ranks amongst the greatest Baroque composers and his influence during his lifetime was widespread across Europe, giving origin to many imitators and admirers. He pioneered many developments in orchestration, violin technique and programmatic music. He consolidated the emerging concerto form into a widely accepted and followed idiom.

Vivaldi composed many instrumental concertos, for the violin and a variety of other musical instruments, as well as sacred choral works and more than fifty operas. His best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons. Many of his compositions were written for the all-female music ensemble of the Ospedale della Pietà, a home for abandoned children. Vivaldi began studying for the priesthood at the age of 15 and was ordained at 25, but was given dispensation to no longer say public Masses due to a health problem. Vivaldi also had some success with expensive stagings of his operas in Venice, Mantua and Vienna. After meeting the Emperor Charles VI, Vivaldi moved to Vienna, hoping for royal support. However, the Emperor died soon after Vivaldi's arrival, and Vivaldi himself died in poverty less than a year later.

After almost two centuries of decline, Vivaldi's musical reputation underwent a revival in the early 20th century, with much scholarly research devoted to his work. Many of Vivaldi's compositions, once thought lost, have been rediscovered – some as recently as 2015. His music remains widely popular in the present day and is regularly played all over the world.

Read more here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Vivaldi

https://youtu.be/hggISFswKcw?si=zdFtP5JXUQSu6jXc

► Maurice Steger, Recorder || Amazon (http://bit.ly/2gtWo6I) / iTunes (http://apple.co/2ggzd2p)► Ca****la Gabetta || Amazon (http://bit.ly/2gGa4wd) / iTunes ...

06/05/2024

Discoveries... Of course, I had known Jean Sibelius already. But recently, I have been listening to his symphonies quite a bit.

Below is the short intro from Wikipedia. Interesting to read that Finland was trying to resist "Russification"...

Here one of his symphonies:
https://youtu.be/Bi9QiDrJJmw?si=kQrW4FGmk87pAV1J

Jean Sibelius

(forename in the French pronunciation: surname in the Finland Swedish: [siˈbeːliʉs] ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; (8 December 1865 – 20 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods.

He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often credited with having helped Finland develop a stronger national identity when his country was struggling from several attempts at Russification in the late 19th century.

The core of his oeuvre is his set of seven symphonies, which, like his other major works, are regularly performed and recorded in Finland and countries around the world. His other best-known compositions are Finlandia, the Karelia Suite, Valse triste, the Violin Concerto, the choral symphony Kullervo, and The Swan of Tuonela (from the Lemminkäinen Suite).

His other works include pieces inspired by nature, Nordic mythology, and the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala; over a hundred songs for voice and piano; incidental music for numerous plays; the one-act opera The Maiden in the Tower; chamber music, piano music, Masonic ritual music, and 21 publications of choral music.

Sibelius composed prolifically until the mid-1920s, but after completing his Seventh Symphony (1924), the incidental music for The Tempest (1926), and the tone poem Tapiola (1926), he stopped producing major works in his last 30 years—a retirement commonly referred to as the "silence of Järvenpää", (the location of his home). Although he is reputed to have stopped composing, he attempted to continue writing, including abortive efforts on an eighth symphony. In later life, he wrote Masonic music and re-edited some earlier works, while retaining an active but not always favourable interest in new developments in music. Although this 'silence' has often perplexed scholars, in reality, Sibelius was clear: he felt he had written enough.

The Finnish 100 mark note featured his image until 2002, when the euro was adopted. Since 2011, Finland has celebrated a flag flying day on 8 December, the composer's birthday, also known as the Day of Finnish Music. In 2015, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Sibelius's birth, a number of special concerts and events were held, especially in Helsinki, the Finnish capital.