Alison’s Musical Presentation 09.07.12
This was a very deep and meaningful themed music programme. Based on her discussions in her Philosophy Group, Alison took us through the ages of Mankind, starting with circling the Planets to find a suitable place for life. She started with Holst Planets Suite, looking at “Mars” for men, then went on to “Venus” for women, before using Ravel’s “Bolero” to symbolise human embodiment, with the final crescendo of the piece presumably symbolising the procreation of a new being. Well, that was how it seemed to me anyway.
The next piece was Richard Strauss’s “Sunrise“, as a new birth would appear. Then, of course there was a delightful “Lullaby” for our new baby by Celia Harper, which I cannot find a version of on youtube, so I may have to contact her again to see if I can borrow the cd to record it, as it was beautiful. She had wanted to play Brahms “Lullaby”, but couldn’t find it in her collection. However, the version she played was a more than adequate replacement. This was followed by Debussy’s “Golliwogs Cakewalk” and Faure’s “Dolly Suite” to take us through early childhood.
Alison finished the first half with the first movement from Vivaldi’s “Spring” (not sure who it was by but I prefer Nigel Kennedy’s version). After our break, she continued with movements from “Summer“, “Autumn” and “Winter“, to symbolise our lives – presumably we are somewhere between Autumn and Winter!
The inevitable death was symbolised by Richard Strauss’s “Death and Transfiguration”. I’ve never heard it before, but the descriptive music was such that I could actually picture my death and passing through to the other side whilst listening to it!
Just to placate our Frank Sinatra lovers, the next stage of our eternal journey was appropriately symbolised by “Fly me to the Moon”. This was supposed to be the last piece of the programme, but there were seven minutes left, so we had the “Flight of the Eagle” to finish. (I can’t find the right version of this on youtube, so I guess I’ll have to ask Alison if I can borrow her cd of this as well) Is this the symbol of our re-incarnation, I wonder?
An inspired programme. Follow that! I was going to volunteer to do September’s programme, as they have not had a volunteer yet, but it’s a suitable theme I get stuck on. I’ll have to put on my thinking cap!
Next month it is bring your own Jazz again, so I don’t know what I will be able to dig out in that genre.
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