Year Of Wonder - January

I mentioned in my goals post that I found a book called "Year of Wonder," which basically consisted of an annotated playlist of classical music to listen to.

This has been an interesting exercise. My first big challenge was finding the time listen intentionally (or mindfully) to the music. While I would love to get my three-year-old involved, she doesn't sit and listen as well as I do, because she's three. Some days I was really good about listening to my music, other days I ended up playing catch up. In these last couple days, I think I finally found a system that works. We'll see how it goes. 

The month of January was full of new music I've never heard before. I'm not going to go through every piece, but I will say a few words about the ones that really stuck out to me. 

January 3 - O virtus sapientiae by Hildegard de Bingen: I always knew Hildegard de Bingen wrote Gregorian chant, but I don't think I ever listened to it. This was really quite lovely, and I feel I need to listen to more of her work. 

January 6 - Violin Concerto no. 1 in G minor, op 26, 1: Allegro moderato by Max Bruch: This is apparently his most recognized work and I've NEVER heard it! I really liked this piece and went back to listen to the entire concerto. 

January 10 - Toccata arpeggiata by Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger: Have you ever seen the youtube video of how everything is Pachelbel's Canon in D? No? Here it is. The reason why everything is Pachelbel's Canon is because it uses the common chord progression I-IV-V-I. This Toccata uses the same chord progression and with it being just arpeggios on a lute, was less than thrilling to me.

January 11 - Ubi caritas et amor from Frour Gregorian Motets by Maurice Durufle: Woah! This man was arguably a 20th century musician, but his music recalls long ago styles. These Motets based off Gregorian chant are just stunning. 

January 15 - Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) mvt 5: Louange à l'éternité de Jesus by Olivier Messiaen: Messiaen wrote this as a prisoner of War in World War II. The piece is haunting in it's beauty considering just what was happening when it was written. 

January 16 - Étude in C sharp minor, op. 2 no. 1 by Alexander Scriabin: I played this in college. 

January 22 - Adagio from Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District arranged for strings by Dmitri Shostakovich: Apparently Stalin did not like this opera. Stalin had bad taste in music. I really enjoyed this piece.

January 25 - My love is like a red, red rose, Traditional: Burns poetry set to music. I spent tne entire rest of my day singing this song.

January 31 - Echorus by Philip Glass: A significantly more modern piece. It's repetitive, but I didn't mind that so much today (compared to Electric Counterpoint from January 19th). I think the instruments and harmonies of this worked better for me. My piano teacher once compared my compositions to Philip Glass, and at the time I didn't seek out any of his work. After listening to this, perhaps I will.