He is Risen! Alleluia!

The Resurrection of Christ, Tintoretto 1565

The hymn "Ye Sons and Daughters"by the Franciscan Jean Tisserand who died in 1494. The original Latin is O Filii et Filiae.

Variations on the same melody by Jean Francois Dandrieu (1682-1738). The melody was well over 200 years old when Dandrieu composed these variations. (And now Dandrieu's composition is around 300 years old!) The "Offertoire sur les grands jeux pour la fête de Pâques" means the piece was composed as an offertory, that is, to be played during the Offertory of the Mass on the loud reed stops (grand jeux) for the feast of Easter.

I wish all my readers a blessed and joyous Easter!

Shred of the Week

Channel that inner male destructiveness.....
 
Tires

Mattress & boxspring

Mountain bikes

Pool table

And finally (you get the idea), the hippie VW bug

Goodness Has an Anniversary This Week

I've always admired elaborate, traditional decorations and statues on churches and public buildings. The fine details are often invisible from the street but their presence testifies to the dedication of the sculptor. Here's a beautiful, larger-than-life set of statues which represent sixteen different virtues. They are allegorical representations in various male and female forms, placed in eight pairs. The statues aren't that old - slightly over 100 years - but done in a pleasing, traditional style. One of the statues has an anniversary this week. Let's take a look at them in the order they are placed on the building:

 Strength and Sacrifice

Courage and Perseverance

Faith and Loyalty

Mercy and Piety

Love and Hope

Vigilance and Prudence

Justice and Truth

Wisdom and Goodness

There's Goodness, on the right.  Do you recognize it? Take a closer look. It has an anniversary this week. Do you know what it is? Scroll down for a view of the statue from a different angle and for the answer.

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Goodness, after February 13th, 1945

That's the statue of Goodness gesturing towards a bombed-out Dresden, Germany. The sixteen Virtues circle the Dresden city hall tower at the observation deck level 220 feet (68 meters) above the street. The bombing of Dresden took place 70 years ago, between February 13th and February 15th, 1945 and it remains one of the most despicable acts of the American and British air forces.

The war at the time was essentially over. The reason it wasn't, was due to the demand for unconditional surrender announced at Casablanca in 1943 by our psychopathic president, Franklin Roosevelt. Even the other members of the Big Three alliance (Britain and the Soviet Union) did not want to demand unconditional surrender because they knew it would prolong the war.

In addition, Dresden had almost zero military significance and was flooded with refugees from Eastern Europe who were fleeing the advancing Soviet troops. The majority of the countless killed were civilians; the exact number will never be known. During the bombing raids, there was little to no flak since the city was essentially defenseless. There were few fighter planes and most of the anti-aircraft artillery had been withdrawn to the eastern front.

The bombing has a personal significance to me. My mom lived through that hell-hole of an atrocity. By the grace of God, she survived and I came to be a decade later after she emigrated, married and started a family.  Mom was a 20-something student nurse at the time at a hospital complex outside of the city center. The complex consisted of multiple structures interconnected underground by a subbasement. It's in the subbasement where the staff and patients took refuge during the bombings. There were red crosses painted on the roofs, but of course the bombers weren't looking for buildings to avoid because they weren't given directions to avoid anything. While only one hospital building suffered a direct hit, all the windows of the other buildings were blown out. Being winter, the severely ill and weak, including newborns, who survived the bombing died shortly thereafter due to the cold. 

When I was a cocky teen, I spouted some self-righteous Murika propaganda I had picked up in school regarding the Allied bombing campaign in WWII. My parents responded with a simple "There are two sides to every conflict. You only know ONE side."  That got me to thinking and I had the curiosity which spurned me to do the research to learn about side TWO. It wasn't easy in those days. There was no Internet and libraries (even at the university level) only had books with the Allied point of view. I had to save my pennies and buy the books which were difficult to locate and often only available through what society would consider 'unsavory' sources. My eyes were opened. Additional research and the opening of government archives during the last 20 some years reveal that I was even too cautious in my reassessment back then.

Does it matter? After all, it was 70 years ago. Veterans of World War II are very advanced in years and have little to no influence anymore. Yes, it does matter, for two very important reasons:

1. World War II was a disaster for Western Civilization and National Socialism is a stick that continues to be used to beat down the legitimate rights of White people. The war was not a clear cut black and white, right and wrong scenario. The standard history taught in schools and propagandized by Hollywood is a lie. A society and a nation which is built upon a lie cannot survive. A point to remember as we witness the decline of the West.

2. American ignorance of what their government has done and is doing in their name is astounding. The Dresden bombing is one example from World War II and it carries forward in the Korean War, in CIA machinations to topple governments, in the Vietnam War and continuing to the present day. Our ruling elite hide behind "precision bombing", which is a myth. Countless numbers of civilians have been killed in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the rest of the Middle East in our name. Don't get me wrong. I am no apologist for Islam. The questions that should be raised are what are we doing in the lands of Islam and who brought Muslims to the West?  In the mean time, we continue indiscriminate slaughter which raises more hatred and enemies against us. 

Western Man will eventually wake up and see the truth, but I doubt if  "Americans" will. By the time the sins are acknowledged, I fear there will be no remaining nation called "America", at least, not as we know it today.

Dresden civilian bombing victims, killed where they sat

Heaps of the dead awaiting cremation, placed on grates 

made of i-beams pulled from destroyed buildings

Open air cremation of victims, February 25, 1945

Deer Rescue

Exhausted in the middle of a frozen lake, a father and son team come to the rescue.....

Muslim Call to Prayer to sound from Duke University Chapel Tower

From DukeToday:

Members of the Duke Muslim Students Association will chant a weekly call-to-prayer from the Duke Chapel bell tower beginning Friday, Jan. 16. 
....
“This opportunity represents a larger commitment to religious pluralism that is at the heart of Duke’s mission,” added Christy Lohr Sapp, the chapel’s associate dean for religious life. “It connects the university to national trends in religious accommodation.”

All religions are the same after all, no doubt. Duke University is a private university which was founded by Methodists and Quakers in the early 1800's. Why would anyone bother attending 'worship' services in these secular university chapels?

Bitter Cold Weather, Bach & Funerals

Brrrrr!  It's cold out there. The forecast is for temps around -12 (that's around -24 C) in northwest suburban Chicago tonight. Whenever it gets nasty cold, I have to think about J.S.Bach and his comment about mild winters. In Bach's day, an organist or choir director would be commissioned to compose a funeral motet when a prominent citizen died. In an extant letter, Bach complained about a mild winter and people taking their time to die which resulted in fewer commissions. To our ears that sounds flippant but in the 18th century death was always a very present and acknowledged reality. It certainly was so for Bach. He was orphaned at the age of 10. His first wife died unexpectedly while Bach was traveling with his employer. He married a second time and all together fathered 20 children of which only 10 lived to adulthood.

Only six of Bach's funeral motets survive. My favorite is the longest (20+ minutes) and most musically complex, based on the hymn "Jesu Meine Freude"  (Jesus My Joy). It was composed for the funeral of Johanna Maria Käsin who was the wife of the Leipzig postmaster. (Speaking of cold weather - not in this case. Her funeral was on July 18, 1723.)

The motet is written with five vocal parts - two soprano lines, and alto, tenor and bass. I like to listen to it and just let the complex harmonies flow over me, without even paying attention to the words. I think my blood pressure must drop a few points and all stress drains away. It's sad that so few people today can appreciate such a masterpiece - one of the glories of European art. 

Hi-Fi, Stereo, Audiophile and Happy New Year!

Adoration of the Magi, Jaume Huguet (1412 - 1492)

January 1st is the Octave Day of Christmas and the Feast of the Circumcision of Jesus. (Yeah, I know that's a picture of the Epiphany, celebrated on January 6th.) Let's keeps the celebrations going with an offering of some more music for Christmastide.

One thing I don't understand about young men today is their (as I perceive it) lack of interest in all things audio related.  They seem to be totally content listening to music through ear buds connected to an iPod.  Back in the 1960's through the 1980's, audio reproduction technology had a big following with men, even if one couldn't afford a decent system. Speakers were always a weak link in any system and there was always a lot of heated discussion on which ones sounded better or presented a more realistic sound stage. The only way headphones (or ear buds, for that matter) can present a realistic sound stage is with a binaural recording. With a normal stereo recording, the performers are placed inside the listener's head with headphones.

High fidelity (hi-fi) technology became available to the home market in the early 1950's. Gradual improvements continued with the release of stereo recordings on phonograph records around 1959 with increased variety and availability through the 1960's. The improved recording technology and its associated reproduction equipment resulted in some awesome recordings of Christmas music that haven't been surpassed after half a century. (Pretty amazing, when you consider the improvement in technology in 1960 compared to fifty years before.) I'd like to share four of my favorites, in the order in which they were originally released. These recordings are all still available today on CDs and probably downloadable from Amazon.

The Glorious Sound of Christmas was released in 1962 and features the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Eugene Ormandy along with the Temple University Concert Choir. A playlist of the entire album is located here.  This is mainly an orchestral recording with the choir in only six of the selections. All arrangements are by Arthur Harris and feature large dynamic ranges with all the colors of the orchestra. The musical style is what I'd call typical mid-century American. It's a definite classic that set the benchmark for orchestral Christmas music.

The Many Moods of Christmas was released in late autumn 1963. It features the Robert Shaw Chorale, the RCA Symphony Orchestra and Organ under the direction of Robert Shaw. The arrangements are by Robert Russell Bennett and are made up of four suites with each suite containing 4 carols except for the last which has 5 carols. Bennett composed this music specifically for the Robert Shaw Chorale and, as such, the choir is in each selection. The recording also features a large dynamic range (exaggerated on the CD remastered recording) with which to demo that home audio system.  Bennett was mainly an arranger of Hollywood and Broadway music, so the music is also in that mid-century American style. Historically, the album has an interesting place. As it was perhaps given as a Christmas gift or played on Christmas Day, 1963, Americans had still on their mind the assassination of President Kennedy only a month before.

I haven't been able to find a playlist, but the complete recording is available on six separate YouTube videos. (The four suites are spread across the six videos.) Here are the links: Suite 1(partial), Suite 1(remainder) and Suite 2(partial), Suite 2(remainder), Suite 3(partial), Suite 3(remainder) and Suite 4(partial) and Suite 4(remainder). If you search on YouTube, you'll find recent recordings by various choirs and orchestras (colleges, etc.). These arrangements remain popular to this day and this recording is considered a classic.

Wishing You are Merry Christmas was released in 1965. While not a famous classic as the previous two, this album holds a special meaning to me. I still recall my dad taking me to our Wieboldt's department store in December of 1965 where we bought this album as a father & son Christmas gift for my mom. I asked my dad years later why he picked this album. He said because the blond kid in the front with the red pants on the album cover looked exactly like me then. (It's true; almost an identical twin.) This recording features Andre Kostelanetz and his orchestra, soprano Phyllis Curtin and the St. Kilian Boy Choir. Kostelanetz was a conductor and arranger of popular music while Curtin is a classical soprano who was active from the 1950's to the 1980's. She just turned 93 this December. St. Kilian church is in Farmingdale, New York and its boy choir was well known for decades. Of course, with the liturgical destruction of Vatican II, the boy choir is no more.

The arrangements on this album vary, some with orchestra only, and some with combinations of voices. The arrangements are, again, in that American mid-century orchestral style. The recording is available in four parts on YouTube, transcribed from a record, so there are some pops and scratches. You'll find them here:  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. What I like about this album is the powerful brass section which Kostelanetz features in some of the selections, for example O Come All Ye Faithful, the second selection in Part 1.

This album is available as a CD titled "A Christmas Festival" which also contains another album of Christmas music with E. Power Biggs, the Gregg Smith Singers and the New York Brass & Percussion Ensemble. This other album is also nice and I might comment on it in a future Christmas post.

A Festival of Carols in Brass was released in 1967 and features the Philadelphia Brass Ensemble. The Ensemble is made up of brass players from the Philadelphia Orchestra. This is another classic album which has been continuously available since it was released almost 50 years ago. It's my go-to recording for Christmas music played by brass instruments. The variety of tone and mood is amazing - definitely not all the same throughout. You'll find a play list of the entire album located here.

I'd like to wish all my readers a happy and healthy New Year 2015!