My new life mission is to bring as much Orlando Di Lasso music to life. At least this week.
https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Lasso-Orlando.htm
Here are the five songs I have transcribed so far. It is hard to believe they were written over 400 years ago.
The music player at the bottom of every page has most of the songs I have made in the past 2 years. But enough about me.
Here is another take:
Here is the final cut of Orlando Di Lasso’s “Bonjour et Puis Quelles Nouvelles,” which as you know, means “Hello and Then What News!”
This song was written over 400 years ago. That’s almost as old as my laptop.
For more on the composer: https://genius.com/artists/Orlando-di-lasso
Sheet music:
https://musescore.com/user/17829001/scores/7016064
These three songs bring us up to number forty-one in the countdown of 101 Bach Chorales, for those of you keeping score at home.
And by the way, if you haven’t seen the show “Halo” on Paramount Plus, I highly recommend it. But be prepared to have your mind blown.
https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/halo/
The Countdown of Bach Chorales continues. You probably have noticed that the final chord is major, instead of minor, in most of these songs. When that happens it is called a “Picardy Third” because the third note on the final chord is raised a half step.
For more on that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy_third
As promised, more of those Bach Chorales everyone has been talking about, along with a work of art that is just as old as these songs.
Here is something to brighten your day
Just sit back and then press play
It’s not too long so you can bear it
And when you’re done be sure to share it
Here is another song for you
To make you happy if you’re blue
It’s quite laid back and very mellow
And the opposite of blue is yellow
It is an original 12-bar blues that I am sure you have never heard before.
And here are two more Bach Chorales. Only 88 more to go….
Here are some chorales by Bach
They aren’t quiet, they almost rock
Each song has horns, and trumpets too
It will cheer you up if you are blue
I made some changes to it yesterday
Instead of going out to play
It’s too hot out there anyway
I wish that it would rain today
Every day I learn something new. (Did you notice how I made this all about me in the very first sentence?) According to Webster’s Dictionary, Adagio means “at a slow tempo —used chiefly as a direction in music.”
Today’s song is number 59 on the big countdown of 100 Classical Masterpieces, and is entitled Adagio in G Minor. It is credited to Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751), but it is thought to have been written by Remo Giazotto, a 20th century musicologist and composer, who was a cataloger of the works of Albinoni. My version is a bit faster than the original, so not very adagio at all, really.
For more on the composer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomaso_Albinoni
And here is Number 60 – Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Major by Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827).
It’s Beethoven’s Fifth Concerto.
Today’s entry is song #35 from the Big Book of Classical Music. It is used as the theme song to PBS Masterpiece Theater. The composer is Jean-Joseph Mouret (1682-1738), and it is entitled “Rondeau.
According to Wikipedia, Mouret’s father was a prosperous silk merchant of Avignon, an amateur violinist who recognized his son’s precocious musical abilities and provided him with a fine education. The elder Mouret generously supported his son’s decision to pursue a musical career. As a youth, Mouret proved himself a talented singer while also earning success for his compositions.
Around the age of twenty-five, Mouret settled in Paris. News of his arrival did not take long to spread and he was introduced to Anne, Duchess of Maine, whose salon at Sceaux was a center of courtly society in the declining years of Louis XIV. His genial character strongly assisted him in securing the patronage of the Duchess, who made him her Surintendant de la musique at Sceaux about 1708. At Sceaux he produced operas and was in charge of the sixteen bi-weekly Grandes nuits in the season of 1714–1715, for which he produced interimèdes and allegorical cantatas in the court masque tradition, and other music, in the company of the most favoured musicians, for the most select audience in France.
His opéra-ballet Les fêtes, ou Le triomphe de Thalie [“Festivities, or The Triumph of Thalia”] with a libretto by Joseph de La Font was presented at the Opéra on 19 August 1714. In the prologue, in a scenic design which represented the stage of the Opéra, Thalia, the muse of Comedy, triumphs over Melpomene, the muse of Tragedy. This dramatic conceit resulted in a succès de scandale, obliging La Font to immediately prepare a revised opening entitled “La critique des fêtes de Thalie” (presented on 9 October). In the 1720 edition the title was changed to Les fêtes de Thalie, and in 1722 a new opening was added, “La provençale”, which featured regional costumes, instruments, and well-known melodies sung in the Provençal dialect. The 1722 version proved to be more acceptable and very popular, and continued to be performed up until 1778.[1][2]
Also in 1714 Mouret received an appointment as the director of the orchestra of the Opéra, a post which he held until 1718. From 1717 to 1737 he directed the Nouveau Théâtre Italien for which he composed divertissements that accompanied, for example, the tender comedies of Marivaux, and which, printed, fill six volumes. At court Mouret maintained a post as singer, and directed the grand divertissements offered by the Regent, the duc d’Orléans at his château of Villers-Cotterêts on the occasion of Louis XV’s coming-of-age in 1722. Concurrently, he was director of the concert series established by the orchestra of the Opéra, the Concerts Spirituel (1728–1734), positions which provided a public outlet for his own music and which permitted him to live in affluence.
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