10-11 XTRA: Wagner Lohengrin Bayreuth 1962 : Sawallisch / Thomas / Silja / Varnay / Vinay / Crass

Well... that took longer than expected.

Some things you may find of interest and/or help:

Libretto to Lohengrin

Complete Full Score of Lohengrin, Browsable Online

Gallery of Lohengrin Postcards

10-11: Complete Atomic Basie 1957 - Aborto Elétrico : Ao vivo na Funarte 1981 - Edith Piaf Olympia 1955 - Bruckner 3 & 8 / Szell - Satie : Parade | Relâche etc.

1837 – Samuel Wesley (English organist, composer & violinist)
1896 – Anton Bruckner (Austrian composer & organist)
1897 – Léon Boëllmann (Alsatian organist, composer & pianist)
1942 – Leonid Nikolayev (Russian pianist, teacher & composer, piano teacher of Shostakovich)
1961 – Chico Marx (American comedian, actor & pianist)
1963 – Édith Piaf (French popular singer, songwriter & actress)
1963 – Jean Cocteau (French poet, playwright, artist, novelist, set designer & filmmaker)
1970 – Anis Fuleihan (Cypriot-born American composer, conductor & pianist of Lebanese heritage, composed Theremin Concerto for Clara Rockmore)
1985 – Tex Williams (American western swing singer, songwriter, guitarist & harmonica player, "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! That Cigarette")
1996 – Johnny Costa (American jazz pianist & celesta player, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood)
1993 – Jess Thomas (American Wagnerian tenor)
1996 – Renato Russo (Brazilian rock singer, songwriter, bass guitarist, guitarist & keyboardist, Aborto Elétrico, Legião Urbana)
2007 – Werner von Trapp (Austrian singer & farmer, Von Trapp Family Singers)
2008 – Neal Hefti (American jazz trumpeter & arranger & jazz, film & TV composer)

Well, despite the presence of only 14 poopers on the list, this edition will once again require TWO posts to complete, because A. it's full of notable folks you just have to hear and B. I couldn't possibly let it go without one of them being Jess Thomas, and you should be able to figure out what that means! Yes, it's another opera, and not just any opera, but one that's so long you're sure to doze off at some point during it. So, look for that second post a little bit later...

And you may have a similarly sleepy reaction during one of Anton Bruckner's massive symphonies, but this is a composer you must learn to love. It is verboten for you not to! For they are magnificent works, full of a primordial energy - from the roar of the sea, to the eruption of volcanoes, to the painfully slow drift of enormous glaciers. And they all, in a way, take Beethoven's Ninth as their starting place. No, none of them has a choral finale (although Bruckner did compose a good deal of choral music - his superb masses, motets and Te Deum are another part of his output which call out for exploration), but from his 3rd symphony onward, you have very long four-movement works (save for the incomplete three-movement 9th) which contain seemingly endless adagios, often have a Scherzo placed as the second movement, and, perhaps most notably, begin the first movement with that same sort of hushed, mysterious quality you find at the start of Beethoven's, and end it with that same thundering timpani you find at its climax. Of course, all the Austro-Germanic symphonists who followed the Bee (that's what Charles Bukowski calls Beethoven sometimes - I like that) felt like they were living in his shadow, but no others were so explicit and single-minded in paying homage to that greatest symphony of them all.

The problem with Bruckner, though, is the problem with Bruckner, and if you're a Brucknerite, you know exactly the problem I mean. And that is, which edition or revision of a particular symphony is "the best," or even whether there can be such a thing. You see, if you take Bruckner's nine symphonies, and count all the different versions of them, there are actually around 60 different symphonies! Why? Well, some versions were heavily abridged, sometimes by Bruckner himself, at the urging of well-meaning friends who thought his original creations were too long, sometimes by other well-meaning people. Let's not forget that everyone meant well in this matter!

And so there are some self-styled Bruckner "purists" who will claim that Bruckner's symphonies in their very longest form (which is generally their earliest edition) are the true and correct Bruckner symphonies. But think about this, now. For any other composer, we take that composer's final thoughts on a work, his last revision of it, as the gospel truth. But for Bruckner, we do just the opposite, and say his first thoughts were the "correct" ones? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Me, I'm a pluralist in the matter; I think all those versions can have a certain validity, although some perhaps more than others. I don't want to get in a fight about it! Listen to them all, if you have the time! And then figure out which recording, by which conductor, you like the best! I'm not going to shit you, folks. Being a Brucknerite is pretty much a full-time job in itself. It's kind of like running this blog, but with louder timpani!

Well... can't say something about everybody else, but there are a couple others I wouldn't want to pass over. Legião Urbana, with singer Renato Russo, were (and still are, even though they called it quits after Russo's death 15 years ago) one of the most famous and best-selling rock bands from Brazil. Russo's first band, the punk rock group (well, really post-punk: more Joy Division than Sex Pistols) Aborto Elétrico, is also still a cult favorite in Brazil. Maybe they can be a cult favorite in your mp3 player as well!

And hey, it's another small landmark here at YiDM: I've succeeded in finding, for the first time, an image which contains two people on our list who actually died on the very same day (of completely unrelated causes), and which I was able to therefore use, because doing so would not harm the strict chronological order I follow in putting together the collage. And that, of course, is the photo, just above the painting of Jean Cocteau, of Cocteau and Édith Piaf together. The two were friends (both of them had a lot of friends in the various arts), and Cocteau wrote his theater piece Le Bel Indifférent (1940) for her. So, you see, you actually have an image of both Piaf and Cocteau separately up there, plus one of them together! That wasn't an opportunity I could pass up. But that photo of them together is awfully small, isn't it? One of the unfortunate effects of having to be strictly chronological is that images often end up being much too large or small than they really should be, as to not disturb the overall form of the collage. I do my best, but sometimes my best isn't good enough. Well, here is a bigger version of that photo for you:
 

 

Much better, non? And now, what to say about the two of them? Well, Édith Piaf is universally considered France's greatest singer of popular song. She's adored, revered, practically considered to be a saint in France. There's not much one can add to that, is there? Oh, there is one other thing. If you slow down Édith Piaf, you get Jim Nabors. Or was it, if you speed up Jim Nabors you get Édith Piaf? Seems to me it should work either way! Anyway, it was my friend Clay Allison who demonstrated that to me on his turntable many years ago. Very humorous man, that Clay Allison. And as he would probably say to that, "Yes, I'm full of blood, and bile, and I've got some melon in my Collie, too! Oh, and I almost forgot all about my phlegm! You didn't know I was Phlegmish, did you?"

And Jean Cocteau. No, he wasn't a musician himself, but he isn't here because the Cocteau Twins used his name. Cocteau worked with many different artists in different disciplines, and musicians were no exception. He, along with Erik Satie, inspired the group of Parisian-based composers known as Les Six. He also wrote some ballet scenarios, most notably for Satie's Parade (1917), which also had choreography and dancing by Léonide Massine, set design by Pablo Picasso, and a program note written by Guillaume Apollinaire, wherein he in fact coined the term "surrealism." Yes, just a bunch of two-bit hacks involved in that production! The audience was not quite so pleased with it, however. Cocteau later wrote, "If it had not been for Apollinaire in uniform, with his skull shaved, the scar on his temple and the bandage around his head, women would have gouged our eyes out with hairpins." Well, now isn't that totally not-a-coincidence? For Cocteau also contributed the libretto (which he wrote first in French, then translated into Latin) to Igor Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex (1927). That's exactly what poor Oedipus does to himself with Jocasta's hairpins near the end of that feel-good Sophocles drama, isn't it?
 

 

Cocteau drawings: L - Satie (1910); R - Stravinsky performing his Concerto for Piano & Winds (1924)

Well, that's more than enough from me. Big-ass Wagner opera coming up in just a little while...

10-10b: Solomon Burke House of Blues 1994 - Jagjit Singh : Saanwara Krishna Bhajans - Donizetti Lucrezia Borgia : Sutherland / Horne / Bonynge 1977 - Eddie Cantor ! - Boswell Sisters !!

2009 – Stephen Gately (Irish pop singer, songwriter, actor, dancer & author, Boyzone)
2010 – Solomon Burke (American R&B, soul & gospel singer & songwriter & archbishop of the United House of Prayer For All People)
2010 – Dame Joan Sutherland (Australian dramatic coloratura soprano)
2011 – Jagjit Singh [ਜਗਜੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ, جگجیت سنگھ] (Indian Ghazal, Bhajan, Gurbani & playback singer, composer, tambura player & keyboardist)
2011 – Sean Morrison (American punk rock multi-instrumentalist, singer & songwriter)

R.I.P.

~ Sean Morrison (1972-2011) ~

Our hearts go out to your many loved ones.

The Austin music scene lost a very talented musician this October 10th. Sean Morrison was one of those guys who could play in your rock band if you needed a really good guitar player. Or a really good bass player. Or a really good singer, or drummer. Or keyboardist, or even fiddler. But he was known mostly for being able to shred on the electric guitar. If you want to know how well, you can go to the MySpace page for Crapulence (a real word, meaning "sickness from overindulgence" - the band seem to have picked it up from Montgomery Burns' use of it in a Simpsons episode) and hear for yourself. That's also Sean you'll hear on lead vocals. And on bass, and drums, in certain songs. It seems that all three members of Crapulence play The Electric Bass on one song or another.

At the time of his passing, Sean was also playing guitar with Obnosticon. During the 90s, he was the bass player for Myra Manes. Other bands he played in since the 80s include the Mello Cats, Tabitha, the Rear Admirals, and Assnipple, in which one of his bandmates was Crapulence (most-times) bass player and electronics operant Jason Christian, himself an alumnus of the legendary Squat Thrust. (See the film Rock Opera for a closer look at them, Fuckemos, Butthole Surfers, Pocket FishRmen, Ed Hall, and several of the other infamous bands that occupied Austin's underground rock scene in the 80s and 90s.)

Sean Morrison was a family man and loved children. His day job consisted of teaching English as a second language to third graders at a local public elementary school. He led a very active lifestyle and loved the outdoors. He inspired those with whom he worked musically. He will be missed.

So... how about a whole lot of utterly amazing singing to help lift the spirits? With the soulful tones of Solomon Burke, Connee Boswell, Jagjit Singh, and Dame Joan Sutherland in your supplemental reading, you can't go wrong. And if you're more in the mood for comedy, the man who converted Sammy Davis, Jr. into a Jew, Mr. Eddie Cantor, is waiting for you there as well...

10-10a: Brahms | Schubert | Mendelssohn : Istomin / Stern / Rose - Beethoven Symphony 6 Pastoral / Paray 1934 - Catherine Collard : Haydn Piano Sonatas | Franck Violin Sonata

1676 – Sebastian Knüpfer (German composer, cantor & music director, Leipzig)
1727 – Alphonse d' Eve (Flemish composer & choirmaster)
1745 – Jacobus Nozeman (Dutch composer & organist)
1789 – Pierre-Louis Couperin (French organist, Église Saint-Gervais, Paris, great-grandnephew of Louis, 1st cousin twice removed of François)
1806 – Prince Louis Ferdinand (Prussian monarch, soldier, pianist & composer)
1836 – Jacob-Joseph-Balthasar Martinn (French composer, violist & teacher)
1843 – Karl Theodor Toeschi (German court composer & violinist, Mannheim)
1856 – Michał Wielhorski (Polish composer)
1867 – Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński (Polish pianist & composer)
1889 – Adolf von Henselt (German composer & pianist)
1964 – Eddie Cantor (American singer, comedian, dancer, actor, songwriter & humanitarian)
1964 – Russ Case (American studio trumpeter & pop, jazz & soundtrack composer, arranger & conductor)
1964 – Heinrich Neuhaus (Soviet pianist & teacher of German ancestry, teacher of Sviatoslav Richter & Emil Gilels)
1964 – František Pícha (Czech composer)
1965 – Georgy Mikhaylovich Rimsky-Korsakov [Георгий Михайлович Римский-Корсаков] (Russian composer, nephew of Nikolai)
1967 – Ervin Major (Hungarian musicologist & composer)
1976 – Silvana Armenulić (Yugoslavian folk & sevdalinka singer & actress)
1976 – Connee Boswell (American pop & jazz singer, the Boswell Sisters)
1978 – Ralph Marterie (Italian-born American jazz trumpeter & bandleader)
1979 – Paul Paray (French conductor, organist & composer)
1993 – Catherine Collard (French pianist)
1994 – Nikolai Karetnikov [Николáй Карéтников] (Soviet underground composer & pianist)
2002 – Teresa Graves (American actress & pop singer, Laugh-In, Vampira, Get Christie Love!)
2003 – Eugene Istomin (American pianist)

Okay, this edition is turning out to be a real ball-buster. I employed the progressive aspect there because I'm not even done yet! The edition will be in TWO parts, thanks to the passing on October 10 of last year of a very famous opera singer. And thus we will be having another opera a little later! Haven't had one in a while. As you might imagine, operas eat up a lot in terms of the labels, because of the names of all the damned singers. There will be some other offerings for Part Deux as well, so if you're not fond of opera there may be some other items that will be of interest to you.

As far as this post goes, even it is not quite be finished, because I'm planning on doing something special for Eddie Cantor and Connee Boswell, but it will take some more time for me to complete that task. When I do, they'll be added to the post for "10-10b," even though Connee & Eddie's images appear in this post's collage. Does that make sense? I know it probably doesn't, but just humor me. I'm a crazy person, remember.

Sorry I can't say any more right now. I'll try to add a little more to this write-up later. I know, you've heard that one before...

10-09: Marilyn Manson Florida 1992 - Bags & Trane : Milt Jackson / John Coltrane 1959 - Jacques Brel : Olympia 64 | Infinitement (Best Of)

1769 – Marianus Königsperger (German organist & composer)
1781 – Thomas Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie (Scottish violinist, composer & Masonic Grand Master, "Fiddler Tam")
1821 – Georg Friedrich Fuchs (German composer & conductor, pupil of Haydn)
1900 – Heinrich von Herzogenberg (Austrian composer & conductor, associate of Brahms)
1907 – Romualdo Marenco (Italian composer, violinist & conductor, noted for his ballet scores)
1937 – August de Boeck (Belgian composer, organist & teacher)
1941 – Helen Morgan (American singer & actress, "Julie LaVerne" in original 1927 Broadway production of Showboat)
1949 – Viktor Uspensky [Виктор Успе́нский](Russian composer & ethnomusicologist, specialist in Uzbek & Turkmen music)
1963 – Thurlow Lieurance (American composer, associated with 'Indianist' movement, "By the Waters of Minnetonka")
1978 – Jacques Brel (Belgian singer, actor & film director)
1994 – Joan Dickson (Scottish cellist & prominent cello teacher, pupil of Enrico Mainardi)
1997 – Arthur Tracy [Abba Avrom Tracovutsky] (Moldovan-born American vaudeville & radio singer ["The Street Singer"] & actor)
1999 – Milt Jackson (American jazz vibraphonist & composer)
2007 – Enrico Banducci (American impresario, violinist & nightclub owner, the hungry i, San Francisco)
2008 – Gidget Gein [Bradley Stewart] (American alt-metal bass guitarist & artist, Marilyn Manson)

I believe I've left enough links up there for you to start learning whatever you'd like to know about some of the particularly colorful figures and pursuits represented on today's list - such as Scotland's aristocratic, talented, hard-drinking and rakish "Fiddler Tam"; Heinrich von Herzogenberg, a mostly-forgotten composer who's been assumed to be a Brahms clone, but whose music is actually quite fresh and original in sound (I linked to clips from his string trios in the list - other clips are linked to on this page); two composers who spent much time studying the traditional music of ancient cultures - Viktor Uspensky those in Central Asia, and Thurlow Lieurance those in North America; Jacques Brel, Belgian chansonnier and star throughout the French-speaking world; Arthur Tracy, the Moldavian emigré to America who, due to an exclusive vaudeville contract he was under, identified himself merely as "The Street Singer" when he first appeared on radio; Milt Jackson, known best for his work with the Modern Jazz Quartet, who remains truly the central figure in the world of jazz vibraphone; San Francisco's Enrico Banducci, owner of the hungry i club (but also a good violinist and lover of classical music and jazz), where the careers of many of the "edgy" comedians and folk musicians of the 1950s and 60s got their start (along with that of a 20-year-old singer who had a voice like buttuh); and finally Gidget Gein, who played bass in The Spooky Kids before the band hit it big and started going just by their lead singer's name.

See, now... that was a nice, easy day. If I had more days like this one, maybe I wouldn't be three weeks behind. :/

Oh, there was something else I wanted to mention. It has nothing to do with either music or death. It has to do with comedy, and while I do know a lot about certain kinds of music, I know almost nothing about comedy (which should hardly be news to any of you who've been reading this blog), and so this information is something I hadn't been aware of before. You know how when you see someone doing a standup routine, on television, or at the Laugh Factory, or wherever, and they're standing in front of a brick wall? That's something that comes directly from the interior decor of the hungry i:

The above appears to be an art installation featuring one of Phyllis Diller's getups. Anyway, I thought that was kind of interesting, and demonstrates the importance of this particular venue, in having had such a subtle but unmistakeable influence on the very conventions of standup comedy. And come to think, this observation isn't entirely unrelated to the subject of death. It's when someone has just such a wall behind them that they're heard to whisper "Come on! I'm dyin' up here!" to someone in the wings...

10-08: Mahler 4 | Kindertotenlieder : Walter / Halban / Ferrier - Procol Harum 1967 expanded 1997 - Iry LeJeune Cajun's Greatest - Mondonville Violin Sonatas : Leonhardt / Fryden 1968

1683 – Philipp Friedrich Böddecker (German court organist & composer)
1728 – Anne Danican Philidor (French composer & conductor, founder of the Concert Spirituel)
1772 – Jean-Joseph de Mondonville (French violinist & composer)
1834 – François-Adrien Boïeldieu (French composer, known for his operas, "the French Mozart")
1842 – Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse (Danish composer & organist)
1865 – Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst (Moravian violinist, violist & composer)
1895 – Charles Oberthür (Alsatian harpist & composer, active in England)
1897 – Martin Plüddemann (Pomeranian composer & conductor, active in Germany)
1912 – Wilhelm Kuhe (Czech-born German pianist, teacher, composer, conductor & concert promoter, active in England)
1953 – Kathleen Ferrier (English contralto & pianist)
1955 – Iry LeJeune (American Cajun accordionist)
1962 – Solomon Linda [Solomon Ntsele] (South African Zulu singer & composer, "Mbube")
1971 – Johanna Bordewijk-Roepman (Dutch composer)
1975 – Alberto Hemsi (Turkish composer, pianist & ethnomusicologist of Sephardic Iberian ancestry, active also in Greece, Egypt & France)
1977 – Giorgos Papasideris [Γιώργος Παπασιδέρης] (Greek folk singer & songwriter)
1978 – Tibor Serly (Hungarian violist, violinist, composer & teacher, pupil of Kodály & Bartók, completed posthumous Bartók Viola Concerto)
1988 – Ernst Hermann Meyer (German composer, musicologist & writer, teacher of Hanss Eisler)
1990 – B.J. Wilson (English rock drummer, Procol Harum)
1993 – Manke Nelis [Cornelis Pieters] (Dutch levenslied bassist & singer)
1995 – Christopher Keene (American conductor)
1996 – Harold Watkins Shaw (English musicologist, teacher & writer, editor of 1965 critical edition of Handel's Messiah)

Well, I was excited that we had two women composers on the list, but I was a bit premature. Turns out the only one we have is Johanna Bordewijk-Roepman (that's her just above Alberto Hemsi). Anne Danican Philidor, phrom that phamous phamily of Philidors, was in phact not a phemale... that's right, Anne was a man! However, there's another lady on our list who gives us an opportunity to once again remember Gustav Mahler during this, his death centenary year, and that's the gorgeous Kathleen Ferrier, certainly one of the finest contraltos of the past century, who excelled in so much concert and lieder repertoire. 

And we also remember Iry LeJeune and Solomon Linda, each an important master in the formative years of his respective genre. LeJeune was one of the most important Cajun accordionists in the period before there was even such a thing as zydeco music, and Linda wrote a song which by itself spawned an entirely new kind of music.

Mbube music actually took its name from the title of Linda's song, which means "lion" in Zulu; the mbube vocal genre was later to develop into the smoother isicathamiya (pronounced with a dental click on the 'c') style of singing, typified most notably by the group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The song "Mbube" is actually world-famous, and you would recognize it in an instant, in the version with English lyrics which became a number one hit for doo-wop group The Tokens in 1961 (and which has become a big hit again since 1994 thanks to its use by Disney in The Lion King and its spin-offs), under the title "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." The song had previously been recorded under the title "Wimoweh" by other artists in the 1950s, such as The Weavers, Jimmy Dorsey, Yma Sumac, and the Kingston Trio, and Miriam Makeba had recorded it under Linda's original title in 1960. But the original recording, made by Linda himself with his group The Evening Birds, was made, believe it or not, in 1939!

Sadly, Linda lived long enough to see his song become a big hit, but died many years before he would get the credit he deserved for it. In 2000, Rolling Stone featured an article by South African journalist Rian Malan in which he estimated the song had earned $15 million from its use in The Lion King alone. This piece prompted filmmaker François Verster to make his Emmy-award-winning 2002 documentary A Lion's Trail, which tells Linda's story and exposes injustices within the corporate music publishing industry. Finally, after many years of legal wrangling, Linda's descendants successfully reached a settlement with the song's publisher in 2006, and are finally benefiting from royalties they should have been receiving decades ago.

Well, I think we'll leave it there.

10-07: Ornette Coleman This Is Our Music 1960 - Dixie Dregs Atlanta 1982 - Morales : Missa Si Bona Suscepimus / Tallis Scholars - Mario Lanza EP : Granada | Lolita | 2 Rigoletto Arias

1553 – Cristóbal de Morales (Spanish composer)
1766 – André Chéron (French keyboardist, composer & conductor, teacher of Jean Marie Leclair)
1887 – George James Webb (English-born American composer)
1890 – John Hill Hewitt (American songwriter, playwright & poet)
1915 – Samuel Prowse Warren (Canadian-born American organist, choirmaster, music editor, composer & teacher)
1918 – Sir Hubert Parry (English composer, teacher & musicologist, "Jerusalem")
1925 – Hubert Platt Main (American teacher, publisher & hymn composer)
1959 – Mario Lanza (American tenor & movie star)
1966 – Grigoris Asikis [Γρηγόρης Ασίκης] (Turkish-born Greek rebetiko singer, songwriter & outi & bouzouki player)
1966 – Smiley Lewis (American R&B singer, songwriter & guitarist)
1976 – Nikolai Lopatnikoff (Estonian-born American composer)
1981 – Wouter Paap (Dutch composer, keyboardist & writer)
1988 – Billy Daniels (American pop singer & actor)
1992 – Ed Blackwell (American jazz drummer)
1998 – Arnold Jacobs (American tuba player & teacher, Chicago Symphony Orchestra)
2002 – Pierangelo Bertoli (Italian folk singer-songwriter, guitarist & political activist)
2003 – Arthur Berger (American composer & writer)
2006 – Abraham Afewerki (Eritrean pop, jazz, R&B & reggae singer, songwriter & guitarist)
2010 – T Lavitz (American jazz & rock keyboardist, reed player, composer & producer, Dixie Dregs, Jefferson Starship)

Cristóbal de Morales, a composer of sacred music, is regarded as the greatest Spanish composer of the Renaissance prior to Tomás Luis de Victoria. You'll recall, of course, that this year marks the 400th anniversary of Victoria's death, and thus we've been trying to pay particular attention to him.

Hubert Parry is best known for his setting in 1916 of a short poem which appears in the preface to William Blake's Milton, A Poem, first printed in 1808. Here is that preface as it appears in Blake's own illuminated version:

This of course is the anthem everyone knows as "Jerusalem." It's a song that's used for a number of particular occasions in England - it's sung, for example, at the end of the annual Labor Party conference, in some Anglican cathedrals on Jerusalem Sunday, and as the recessional music on St. George's Day, and by all those gathered each year as the closing music (save for the national anthem and the traditional "Auld Lang Syne") on the Last Night of the Proms, using an orchestration Edward Elgar made of the anthem in 1922.

Now, if you don't happen to be British, or Anglican, you may not know what Blake is talking about in the little poem set by Parry. He's making a reference to an old legend (whose veracity he does not take for granted - note that it's stated in the form of questions) that Jesus actually visited England, in Somerset, as a child or young man, in the vicinity of where Glastonbury Cathedral now stands, along with his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea. It's one of several legends, Christian, Arthurian, and Neo-Pagan in nature, that surround this particular part of southwestern England, and made it one of the most popular tourist destinations in the British Isles many years before they started having a music festival there! What, exactly, Blake meant in his reference to the legend has been the subject of debate. But regardless of your status as regards citizenship, religion, or political affiliation, I think there's something in the combination of his words and Parry's music that really stirs the soul.

(More later... on Mario Lanza, Ed Blackwell, Pierangelo Bertoli, and Abraham Afewerki...)