Musical Interludes
You may have come across this, Dear Reader.
A string quartet was busking on the New York subway, playing Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #3. Suddenly their performance was enhanced by the addition of four ballet dancers, who just happened to be passing, pirouetting and leaping. Hah! It begins to sound like yet another verse from The Twelve Days of Christmas!
A string quartet busking,
Four dancers dancing,
And a Barred Owl in a birch tree!
It also reminded me of my time in London. At one point I was commuting by London Underground. There would be the occasional busker, those Tube passenger tunnels have great acoustics. Buskers were always of a better quality around South Kensington station - due to the proximity of the Royal College of Music. Way back then busking on the tube was illegal, the buskers at South Ken would perform in the arcade over the station entrance steps. These days I think busking on the tube is legal, you just have to get a licence - which probably keeps the musical standards up. It certainly keeps the standard of performances at Covent Garden Market way up.
Writing of performances of high standard, try these. Neil Gaiman reading his short story The Sweeper of Dreams.
Followed by an opera based on the story.
The opera was composed by Alma Deutscher, a nine-year-old girl from Surrey, who is a musical prodigy. This version of her opera is in Hebrew, performed for the Voice of Music Festival in the Galilee 2013 (she was 8 then), but you can click on the 'cogwheel' and get English subtitles.
H recently came across Alma on YouTube and has been singing her praises, and showing me clips of her amazing abilities, ever since. Some have taken to nicknaming Alma Little Miss Mozart, which she doesn't like because, as she says, "Mozart was Mozart, I am Alma." Should you have the time, Dear Reader, to catch her playing some of her piano compositions you'll hear why she's so named. Some of them have a decidedly 'Mozartian'
flavour with the twiddly bits and variations.
So there you are, Dear Reader -
A string quartet busking,
Four dancers dancing,
An opera by Alma,
And a Barred Owl in a birch tree!
Y'all have a good day now!
Click to viewA string quartet was busking on the New York subway, playing Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #3. Suddenly their performance was enhanced by the addition of four ballet dancers, who just happened to be passing, pirouetting and leaping. Hah! It begins to sound like yet another verse from The Twelve Days of Christmas!
A string quartet busking,
Four dancers dancing,
And a Barred Owl in a birch tree!
It also reminded me of my time in London. At one point I was commuting by London Underground. There would be the occasional busker, those Tube passenger tunnels have great acoustics. Buskers were always of a better quality around South Kensington station - due to the proximity of the Royal College of Music. Way back then busking on the tube was illegal, the buskers at South Ken would perform in the arcade over the station entrance steps. These days I think busking on the tube is legal, you just have to get a licence - which probably keeps the musical standards up. It certainly keeps the standard of performances at Covent Garden Market way up.
Writing of performances of high standard, try these. Neil Gaiman reading his short story The Sweeper of Dreams.
Followed by an opera based on the story.
The opera was composed by Alma Deutscher, a nine-year-old girl from Surrey, who is a musical prodigy. This version of her opera is in Hebrew, performed for the Voice of Music Festival in the Galilee 2013 (she was 8 then), but you can click on the 'cogwheel' and get English subtitles.
H recently came across Alma on YouTube and has been singing her praises, and showing me clips of her amazing abilities, ever since. Some have taken to nicknaming Alma Little Miss Mozart, which she doesn't like because, as she says, "Mozart was Mozart, I am Alma." Should you have the time, Dear Reader, to catch her playing some of her piano compositions you'll hear why she's so named. Some of them have a decidedly 'Mozartian'
flavour with the twiddly bits and variations.
So there you are, Dear Reader -
A string quartet busking,
Four dancers dancing,
An opera by Alma,
And a Barred Owl in a birch tree!
Y'all have a good day now!