Executive Mansion, Washington
Monday, 21 November, 1864
To Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Mass.
Dear Madam,
I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five (5) sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.
I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
A Lincoln.
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
— Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg National Cemetery
Thursday 19 November, 1863
“... As my eye ranges over the fields whose sods were so lately moistened by the blood of gallant and loyal men, I feel, as never before, how truly it was said of old that it is sweet and becoming to die for one’s country. I feel, as never before, how justly, from the dawn of history to the present time, men have paid the homage of their gratitude and admiration to the memory of those who nobly sacrifice their lives, that their fellow-men may live in safety and in honor. And if this tribute were ever due, to whom could it be more justly paid than to those whose last resting-place we this day commend to the blessing of Heaven and of men?”
— Edward Everett, Gettysburg National Cemertery
Thursday 19 November, 1863
< World Premiere >
CORRADO MARGUTTI : Missa Lorca
(for Baritone / SSATTB soli, & double SSATBB choir a cappella)
Saturday 18 November, 2006 – St. Jacob's Church, Stockholm
Astrum Music Publications, Slovenia, 2007 (AS 34.010/01)
Texts : Federico Garcia Lorca & the Ordinary of the Mass
< World Premiere >
ERNST PEPPING : Missa 'Dona nobis pacem'
(for unaccompanied SATB-SATB div. choir)
Wednesday 17 November, 1948 – Berlin
Spandauer Kantorei, dir. Gottfried Grote
Bärenreiter Verlag, 1949 (BA 2262)
“The choral music of Ernst Pepping occupies an interesting place within the context of choral music in the 20th century. Pepping's compositional style has deep foundations in the lineage of German musical traditions, particularly those of the Protestant church, but does not remain tied to the limitations of the harmonic language of those Romantic traditions.
... Missa 'Dona Nobis Pacem' looks back in several ways to the traditional compositions of the mass that preceded it. In addition to imitative writing, a cappella scoring, and use of double choir, this Mass echoes the compositions of Giovanni Gabrielli & Heinrich Schütz.”
– Dr. Matthew Tresler
< World Premiere >
MAX REGER : Geistliche Gesänge, Op. 110, Nr. 1
– Motette „Mein Odem ist schwach“
(for unaccompanied SSATB div. choir)
Saturday 13 November, 1909 – Leipzig, Germany
Der Thomanerchor, cond. Kurt Kranz
Ed. Bote & G. Bock, Berlin, 1909
~
< World Premiere >
PAUL HINDEMITH : Messe
(for unaccompanied SATB div. choir)
Tuesday 12 November, 1963
Church of Maria Treu, Vienna, Austria
Wiener Kammerchor, cond. Paul Hindemith
Schott Music GmbH & Co., 1963 (ED 5410)
“It is obvious that this Mass is not Gebrauchsmusik as favored by Hindemith in earlier years. It is indeed the most difficult choral work he produced, and the most intense. Hindemith's contrapuntal idol was probably J. S. Bach, and this becomes apparent in the Mass with its intricate imitative patterns. But the total concept goes farther back than the Baroque to the Renaissance ideal of the individual line, and there are even outlines of plainchant incorporated in the texture. Further asymmetric elements include rhythmical permutations within the bar line and shifts of meter within a movement which serve to heighten the natural unmetered prosody of the text.”
— Lewis Whikehart
< World Premiere >
GABRIEL JACKSON : Requiem
(for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir)
Thursday 11 November, 2008
St-Martin-in-the-Fields, London
Vasari Singers, dir. Jeremy Backhouse
Oxford University Press, 2009
“My initial idea for the piece was to combine the solemn, hieratic grandeur of the great Iberian Requiems with something more personal, more intimate, even, that could reflect the individual, as well as the universal, experience of loss. So I have replaced the even-numbered movements of the standard Mass for the Dead with poems from other cultures and spiritual traditions so as to embrace a more wide-ranging perspective on human mortality than the traditional Christian one, though in the end all the texts express a similar view of death that it is not the end but the gateway to a better world. The resulting sequence of texts is radiantly optimistic, suffused as it is with images of light.
One of the challenges for any composer writing a Requiem is to achieve the contrasts of texture and colour, of motion and stasis, that are necessary to sustain a multi-movement work when the overall mood is so restrained and reflective (and, indeed, when substantial amounts of text appear more than once). I have tried to adhere to my original inspiration in that the Latin movements are more objective, more purely architectural in construction than those with words in English.”
— Gabriel Jackson
< World Premiere >
MAX REGER :
Motette „O Tod, wie bitter bist du“, Op. 110, Nr. 3
(for unaccompanied SSATB div. choir)
Sunday 10 November, 1912 – Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany
Kirchenchor St. Lukas, dir. Georg Stolz
Edition Bote & Bock, 1912
< World Premiere >
EDWARD ELGAR : Violin Concerto, Op. 61
Thursday 10 November, 1910 – Queen's Hall, London
London Symphony Orchestra, cond. Edward Elgar
Fritz Kreisler, Violin solo
“The solo part is one of the most exhausting in the repertoire – a veritable compendium of bravura violin techniques, in which Elgar, despite all his inside knowledge, sought the help of W. H. Reed, later to become Leader of the London Symphony Orchestra. Reed and Elgar (at the piano) gave a run-through to a select group of listeners before the first performance proper. Kreisler also made small suggestions that were incorporated in the published score.
In his interview, Kreisler had ranked Elgar with Beethoven and Brahms. Elgar met the challenge, and his 'Violin Concerto' combines the singing quality of Beethoven’s with the symphonic drama of Brahms’s.”
— Adrian Jack
< World Premiere >
FERRUCCIO BUSONI : Piano Concerto, Op. 39
Thursday 10 November, 1904 – Beethoven-Saal, Berlin
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, cond. Karl Muck
Ferruccio Busoni, Piano solo
Breitkopf & Härtel, 1906
< World Premiere >
THOMAS DANIEL SCHLEE : Carnet poétique, Op. 39
(for unaccompanied SATB div. choir)
Tuesday 6 November, 2001
Chapelle Notre-Dame-des-Anges, Paris
Ensemble Vocal Français, cond. Gilbert Martin-Bouyer
Editions Henry Lemoine, 1997
Texts: “Gabardine de l’Hymette” by Patrick Frégonara
SVEN DAVID SANDSTRÖM : Drei Rilke Gesänge
(for unaccompanied SSATBB div. choir)
Sunday 5 November, 2017 – Christians Church, Copenhagen
Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir, cond. Mogens Dahl
Germans Musikförlag, AB, 2017 (GE13236)
< World Premiere >
ERNST PEPPING : Der 90. Psalm
(for unaccompanied SSATBB choir)
Sunday 4 November, 1934 – Wuppertal, Germany
Bachverein Barmen, dir. Gottfried Grote
B. Schott's Söhne, Mainz, 1934 (BSS 34061)
< World Premiere >
THEA MUSGRAVE : By the River
(for unaccompanied SATB div. choir)
Sunday 1 November, 2020 – Snape Maltings, Suffolk
National Youth Choir of Great Britain, cond. Ben Parry
Text: Mary Ursala Bethell (1874-1945)
Novello & Company, Ltd. 2019 (Nov297479)
“Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
< World Premiere >
WERNER WOLF GLASER :
Motette über Sprüche des Angelus Silesius
(for unaccompanied SATB div. choir)
Wednesday 1 November, 2006 – Tjernigov, Ukraine
Dmitri Bortnjanski Chamber Choir, dir. Otfried Richter
Edition Suecia, Stockholm, 1990 (SUE 367)
“... In his extensive output, Glaser developed a modernist tonal language, based on his studies under Paul Hindemith. His confident handling of melody and his inspired treatment of form bear witness to the fluency of his inspiration and to his attainment of a personal style of craftsmanship. Momentum and elaboration techniques were among the guiding starts of his imagination. His distinctive characteristics also included a sense of expressionist gesture. He prefered to achieve the expressive quality of his music by short, strict means instead of allowing the tonal material to overflow. Glaser greatly valued the capacity of the musical language for conveying intensity in pared-down, controlled figures.”
< World Premiere >
PETER MAXWELL DAVIES
Strathclyde Concerto No. 10 : Concerto for Orchestra
Wednesday 30 October, 1996 – City Hall, Glasgow, Scotland
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, cond. Peter Maxwell Davies
Boosey & Hawkes Ltd., 1997 (HPS 1312)
"The Concerto for Orchestra ends the cycle of ten 'Strathclyde' concertos, which I have written for the principals of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra over a period of several years. It extends virtuosity to all members of the orchestra — even back-desk players find themselves suddenly spotlit, playing chords alone in the first movement." — Peter Maxwell Davies (1934–2016)
Wake The Fuck Up America!
Oakie's Blog
Sunday 20 August, 2023
The attendants started to arrive taking their seats in the large amphitheater. Pretty soon they were all seated. The man takes a good look at the class composition, and says, "This is a Gen Ed HSI class so if you are looking for A&C that's two buildings down." The inevitable three or four dickheads discretely got up and left the room.
"Very well, welcome to Histories, Societies, Individuals class, today's subject is both an introduction and a wake up call, so get your notebooks ready, and for fucks sake try to learn something today.", looks at one particular blonde placing a book on her retractable tray. "What the fuck is that?" She stopped and said, "The end of histo...", he cut her off, "Never mind, just put it away. Take fucking notes." He sat on the desk and looked at the audience, taking a deep breath. "Let us begin."
America, today, is faced with a serious challenge that threatens her very existence as a free and democratic society, and before any of you even THINK about the Republic argument, just know that ALL the so called "Western Democracies", to name just those, are democratic republics, with the exception of a few monarchies, which themselves are democratic parliamentary systems. So you can take the "this is a republic, not a democracy" bullshit and shove it back in your asses. Now, what threatens us the most as a functioning democracy is not some stupid orange moron, that can easily be defeated through elections, or thrown in prison by virtue of the excellent work of the likes of Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis, or Jack Smith, who are making sure he spends the rest of his miserable existence locked in a box, watching the banks seize all he used to own. No. That's not the real threat.
The real threat today is indoctrination. The wilful, relentless, focused effort to substitute what we used to call History, and reality itself, by a doctrine based in fiction, lies, and unadulterated Nazism. They started it by warping the significance of facts. Suddenly facts could have alternatives, like mirror images that were nothing like the real fact, but actually a complete distortion, a fake, a lie, an illusion. It's a kind of magic, only dark magic. That's how it started, and as the plot suggests, this was aimed at "mature audiences", and don't laugh at the sarcasm. Sure, most of those willing to believe these warped figures are just plain dumb bastards who have no idea why the Sun keeps showing up in a different place on the horizon every morning, and believe that if they keep walking long enough they will fall off the flat Earth they live in; but disabuse yourselves of the notion that they and ONLY they were the targets.
People like you. People supposedly better positioned than you, college graduates, highly skilled professionals, politicians, lawyers, doctors, you name it. They all bought it. Are they stupid? No. But they saw the opening, and went for it, like a damn seagull trapped in a stairway, seeing an apartment door open. That was their way out. Out of the closet they had been hiding in for years, out from under the rock they were rotting at, out of the fucking bushes nobody bothered to trim anymore. Suddenly it was alright to be who they really are. Nazis. Out of the blue, as part of the "enhanced reality" program, there were good people on both sides! There was a case to be made for the Germans who believed in the final solution, lets hear them out, please, because "freedom of speech". Why not? What harm could come of normalizing the alternatives to the end of Nazism? What if Hitler had won the war? Is there not a case to be made we would all be better off today? Lets hear "both sides", why don't we.
The program went on to deny any election result that was not suitable to the needs of the patriotic citizens, AKA Christo-Fascists, AKA Christian Nationalists, AKA fucking Republicans. We are fighting this fight in the courts right now, and whether the results will impact the future in a constructive way or just throw more shit on the pile of dung that is today's American political landscape, it's too soon to tell. What we do know, is that the circus is in town, and lo and behold, the long lines of precognition endowed liberals waiting to buy popcorn for the expected spectacle the greatest show on earth provides are growing. Why didn't P.T. Barnum think of this? Oh, wait, he did! So here we are, happy as can be, in anticipation of the fucker’s mugshot, we will place as screensaver on our computers and phones. What the fuck are you giggling about? I got news for you, folks. This is a distraction! Wake the fuck up!
The idea that all these brainless maggots, that fill reels and reels of news, and make great candid camera reality episodes, see Trump as their savior and lord, and that they will die for him, and give him all their money, are the be-all and end-all of our problems is just another illusion. They are not. They are just the vessel, at the moment directed to "save their president". Do you believe that if Trump had a chance in hell of making it through his current ordeals, the fuckers that really matter, the ones with the real power and money, wouldn't provide him the best legal council in the world, along with the best doctors to cut his edge and make him behave, and push through this thing like a breeze? The reason they don't is because this is exactly what needs to happen, so that the real agenda can be pushed under the radar, while the news cycles revolve around a sad, pathetic, washed up fuck who has zero power and only has words to say. Sure, dangerous. Sure, let's not forget to cage him for life. But hold on a minute. What's that?
That's the problem.
In many red states around the country, legislative initiatives are taking place by the thousands. You heard me right. Thousands. Many of them already in place. And they cover everything under the Sun that can possibly affect the interests of the few who seek to control us. And they tell you who they are when you look at their wish list: transgender bans, gay bans, LGBTQ+ bans, voting rights bans, environment action bans, regulation bans, Union bans, democratic rules bans, establish procedure bans, precedent bans, anything but Christianity bans, migrant bans, abortion bans, and the cherry on top: Book bans. The same exact list, with some chronological adaptations, the Nazis had in the 1930s. They even go as far as using the same projection tactics the Nazis used in Germany back then. They accuse you of wanting to ban free speech, democracy, freedom, country, religion, the fucking guns. And when they achieve their goal, they will turn around and do all those things themselves. This is all too familiar and it's no joke.
People like Marc E. Elias, and others, are doing what they can on the legal front to stop them, but they are thousands, everywhere, all at once. We could use a little help from Michelle Yeoh on this one. Then, of course, we have a fascist Supreme Court, that is not reassuring, even if some cases they will either not touch or, if they have to, decide more favorably to the old rule of law. But that is not going to last long. The minute they have full cover from the White House and Congress they will go ballistic on us, and may God have mercy on our souls. But we have some time. We can still make changes in the Supreme Court, if the 2024 elections work out really well for the Democrats and the people that will actually do something about this are elected. But again, this is just the low hanging fruit.
Since forever, elites in power have tried to keep the populace educated to a minimum degree, so they can control the field. This started with the Bible, and you probably have a small idea how the Church reacted to the printed version of the thing, but let's just say Gutenberg was not in the invitation list to Vatican parties. Through the ages, advances in education have been met with discreet but resolute attempts to make them stall, if not stop. The idea of private schools where the illuminated elites could learn, while the plebeians were reduced to broken public schools are but echoes of the time when the Bible was only accessible in Monasteries and the good word was transmitted down stream by selected few. Both Democrats and Republicans have delved in these efforts in the past, from voucher schools to no child left behind, the purpose was always the same. Keep the lower classes dumb.
Well, welcome to the XXI Century in America, where dumb is no longer enough.
Now they are after the real deal. The conversion en masse of public schools into Hitler-Jugend like factories. What is happening today in Florida is not the product of the Nazi genius of Ron DeSantis, don't make me laugh, he is but a schmuck. The ones funding all these public school conversion programs are the problem. They are cunning and focused and they provided the country with exactly the right kind of distraction for them to execute the plan: the Trumpian Circus. And it is a master plan. It starts with pokes. Poke, don't say gay. Poke, no transgender sports. Poke, no gender neutral bathrooms. Poke, the ten commandments in all schools. Did it work? Are we really allowing this to happen? Awesome, they say. and POKE, and POKE. And poke by poke, they arrived at the banning of books. The crown jewel of Nazism. And that went through as well! They lost their shit.
For once, they jumped the gun and now we can all see what they are really after.
Organizations like Moms For Liberty and PragerU are pushing hard to have their own approved material adopted in public schools as the norm, teaching scores of children things like slavery had its benefits and better enslaved than dead, and the environmentalists are communist extremists who want to terminate your way of life, and other crap that makes any educated person vomit. But herein lies the problem. If they succeed in turning public education into a broad spectrum homeschooling steroid enhanced system, soon the "educated people" will be "them". What you know as an educated person today is already an endangered species. If this program succeeds, it will disappear from the face of the Earth, starting right here in America. The new Motherland, with millions of indoctrinated morons attending college, and yes, our military academies too.
This is it, people. Close your fucking books and take a good look around. The answer to your questions is not written yet. You must write it yourselves. So stop reading so much, start observing more and write it down, what you know must be done, and share it. Warn everyone. This is the fight of your lives. And nobody has written about it yet. It is up to you now. Make it count, or we are all fucked.
Class dismissed.
< World Premiere >
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVITCH : Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 77
Saturday 29 October, 1955 – Philharmonic Hall, Leningrad
Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Yevgeni Mravinsky
David Oistrakh, Violin solo
Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd., 1957
< World Premiere >
AARON JAY KERNIS : Glorious Majesty
(for unaccompanied SATB div. choir & soli)
Sunday 27 October, 2013
Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, MN
VocalEssence Ensemble Singers, cond. Philip Brunelle
Associated Music Publishers, 2013 (AMP 8278)
... this 9-minute setting of Psalm 104 is described by the composer as “overflowing with the glories of creation, earth, and the heavens.” 'Glorious Majesty' is a work of contrasts, with sections performed by both large and small groups of singers, as well as shifting moods and harmonies, “to highlight the distinction between passages in the text that praise God and those that praise God's creation.”