Sunday, May 4, 2008

Not bloody Vivaldi...!!!! FP's unashamedly jazzy spring playlist

I actually feel sorry for Vivaldi. He wrote a number of very competent, pretty pieces for chamber orchestra, using the rather nifty idea of illustrating the four seasons. The music cleverly describes "walking on thin ice" or the alarmed call of a cuckoo just before a summer storm. And you really can hear those things when he describes them via his orchestration. Little was the poor guy to know that airlines, lift manufacturers and even telephone answering services would turn his work into some of the most over-used and therefore irritating music to plague our century. Good job he didn't stick around to see that happen...

I've followed Nilpferd's inestimable lead this week and bunged a lot of very nice jazz in the playlist. Now I have a theory as to why a lot of jazz themes are seemingly preoccupied with spring and/or the month of April. Jazz musicians spend the winter in the dark cellers of jazz clubs and when the weather turns clement, they emerge, blinking into the sunlight, say "Aaaaaaaaaaaah" and are so inspired that they shoot off and write a very memorable melody...That would make sense, wouldn't it? I couldn't resist two classical pieces also - much mentioned and donded on the Mother ship. And I'm putting ALL this week's pocket money on the last track being in Maddy's list. I mean, how can she not????

This is a wee film of the gardens - allotments - round the back of our place. These are small plots of land which the local council rents out so that people can grow flowers and veg to their hearts' content. I used to see one old guy who would take a bottle of red wine into his garden and sit sipping it all day every Sunday. Not an awful lot of gardening being done but he looked blissfully happy and greeted me with a most courteous "Bonjour Mademoiselle" whenever I passed. With the spring weather, the locals are are hoeing, tilling and ploughing like mad. And yes, that is "bloody Vivaldi".....

free music

5 comments:

nilpferd said...

Tony Vivaldi certainly got the wrong end of the stick, beautiful music played to death, although I prefer Beethoven's Pastoral symphony for weather and spring imagery.
I think the jazz/spring connection goes back to the great show tune writers like Lorenz Hart and Cole Porter, using the metaphor of spring to express- well, sex, I guess. Speaking of which, very interested to know what "hoeing, tilling and ploughing" actually stand for (I presume they do the gardening afterwards- nearly as good as a Gauloise). But bravo to your locals for having the energy- no Frühjahrsmüdigkeit across the Rhine, it seems.

TracyK said...

Jings! What's that unserene shrieking at 1:02? Scared the wits out of me! The red flowery shrub is very pretty, just been out admiring my passionflowers and bluebells I've inherited with the new(ish) house and pondering when it will be best to rip out the miniature conifers and heathers. Times like this I really miss my grandad, he'd have known what to do for the best...

Anonymous said...

Certainly a hive of activity out there today! So THAT's what they do all day in their garden huts. And I'm grinning at Tony Vivaldi. Didn't he have an ice cream parlour down the road? Wonder how much his royalties would add up to....? I think it's kids shrieking around - there were lots playing as I was filming. Lordy, maybe I stood on one...????? Yikes! Giz some photos of your flowers, TracyK! They sound bonny.

goneforeign said...

"Bonjour Mademoiselle"
What a wonderful idea, we should all do it.
How do you do it?
Once you've got the images how do you get them here?
Specifically.
Was that last image of a Quince?
Last weekend I planted a large lemon tree, today an orange tree.
We're eating from the garden every day.
I have huge jam-making plans for the summer, it looks like the best harvest yet.

Anonymous said...

Evening GF - that was just a wee film I made for my mam who loves those gardens. I put it in youtube and then simply used the 'embed' function to post it. I think others have done this before me. On the quince front - if you think it's a quince, then it is. The green finger genes have skipped a generation as far as I'm concerned. Sad as my granddad, mam and sister were/are splendid garders and would know instantly if that is a quince or not. I buy a plant, it looks at me, says "Meh" and dies.