And of course I got off to a late start. For reasons having to do with my own nonsense, I thought it would be darker during my usual morning spatiamentum whereas, as I realised the instant I left the house, the opposite is the case. Tsk.
Sequéntia +︎ sancti Evangélii secúndum Matthǽum.
R. Glória tibi, Dómine.
Matt 5:1-12
In illo témpore: Videns Jesus turbas, ascéndit in montem, et cum sedísset, accessérunt ad eum discípuli ejus, et apériens os suum, docébat eos, dicens: Beáti páuperes spíritu: quóniam ipsórum est regnum cœlórum. Beáti mites: quóniam ipsi possidébunt terram. Beáti, qui lugent: quóniam ipsi consolabúntur. Beáti, qui esúriunt et sítiunt justítiam: quóniam ipsi saturabúntur. Beáti misericórdes: quóniam ipsi misericórdiam consequéntur. Beáti mundo corde: quóniam ipsi Deum vidébunt. Beáti pacífici: quóniam fílii Dei vocabúntur. Beáti, qui persecutiónem patiúntur propter justítiam: quóniam ipsórum est regnum cælórum. Beáti estis, cum maledíxerint vobis, et persecúti vos fúerint, et díxerint omne malum advérsum vos, mentiéntes, propter me: gaudéte et exsultáte, quóniam merces vestra copiósa est in cœlis.
R. Laus tibi, Christe.
S. Per Evangélica dicta, deleántur nostra delícta.
~~~
The squirrel was waving its front paws back and forth, I suppose intimating to me that it was planning on catching the peanut. Which did, however, roll between its hind legs. The confused rodent looked to the left, looked to the right, looked down, looked over the edge of the (presumably empty) disused cooler that's outside the window; have often thought of looking inside but in the back of my mind I'm afraid I might find one of the landlady's unwanted children or some horror equally terrible. This latter effort required it to move four or five inches to its right. Only after it turned about again did it realize that the peanut was sitting beneath its haunches. Sometimes they, the squirrels, seem quite intelligent; sometimes they seem even denser than I am.
~~~
Noticed in the Guardian earlier this article about a composer with dementia. Unfamiliar to me of course-- he, Paul Harvey, seems to be most famous for having composed a little piece that is used for examination purposes in England. Maestro Harvey's is certainly a sad situation and I'll remember him when I say the rosary later on.
Music can help relieve depression, anxiety and other problems associated with dementia, according to professor Helen Odell-Miller, director of the Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research at Anglia Ruskin University. Even those in the most severe stages of the disease, who could not speak or dress themselves, could still improvise music, she said.Researchers believe music helps because it taps into memories of sounds that we hear as babies.Mothers were naturally musical when they interacted with their babies, so before they learned to understand words, they could understand their parents’ expressions through rhythm, pitch and tempo, Odell-Miller said. “It is this natural hard-wired element of the brain and the social interactions and musical language that result and build up from this, which lead to procedural musical memories.“The start of a song triggers the memory of the whole song, which is owing to the natural pre-language flow of expression. Songs involve patterns and we learn to communicate through patterns and these patterns become embedded in our ‘musical brain.’”
One doesn't know how creditable Professor Odell-Miller's theorizing is (e.g. "the natural pre-language flow of expression") but, eh, maybe. I was going to mock the four note composition (recorded by the BBC Philharmonic!) but since I've not heard it that would be rather mean of me. It is available on Radio 4 but I went there without the proper VPN settings and can't listen from Oregon. I will restart the laptop and try again later with the right buttons clicked, if I think of it.
~~~
The Berlin Philharmonic is livestreaming a performance of Camille Saint-Saëns's Le Carnaval des animaux in an hour or so; the Karajan Academy (a music school whose students are taught by members of the Berlin Phil, founded by von Karajan in 197- something), two pianos and a narrator. The program is aimed at children but I'll give it a listen for a bit, anyway, although Vespers of All Saints is ongoing and the service will be longer than usual today because Vespers des morts is also being sung, beginning tomorrow's, November 2's, Commemoration of All Souls.
~~~
Just heard two Steller's jays make a series of clucking or quacking sounds at each other, like chicken or ducks only on a deeper tone and more resonant, pretty much into each other's faces-- although I suppose those fowls make lower and higher pitched sounds than what I have in my head at the moment; I don't know whether they were fussing or simply 'talking' to each other.
~~~
It was pointed out anonymously in the Times the other day that the Metropolitan Opera is streaming Philip Glass's Satyagraha until about 1530 tomorrow (the Met has been streaming a daily opera for a couple of months at least). I've never listened to the entire work so will seize this opportunity, I reckon: I've put it in the calendar at 1030 tomorrow (there's no way I'm undertaking this adventure in what remains of today). The San Francisco Symphony concert that Dr Townsend noticed in his Friday Miscellanea is on the list; I've put four or five of the items in the calendar: the real challenge is to remember to open up the calendar and look at it. The only other one I can recall by name is Joseph Boulogne's chamber opera The Anonymous Lover at the Los Angeles Opera.
~~~
The Fundacya inCanto folks in Poland pointed out earlier that this video premiered last night over there; the composer is Mariusz Kramarz (Facebook and YouTube). New works of polyphony centred around praise of the Most Holy Virgin, Comforter of the Afflicted; eventually there is an album but I haven't translated all of the texts on the webpage and in the emails so am not sure when that happens (but it may have done). Monday, ante Sextam. There is evidently the premiere of a song by Mariusz Kramarz happening each day until, well, am unsure until when. His Alma Mater Redemptoris is lovely!
***
Comments
Post a Comment