Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935) was a Russian avant-garde artist, best
known for his Kandinsky-like abstracts. Here we have an interesting
earlier painting from 1912 in the cubist-futuristic style.
Copyright statement: image in public domain.
Saturday, January 04, 2025
Friday, January 03, 2025
Was macht jede Nacht so ein kleines Baby in der Bar?
A beautiful jazz age song sheet cover from the twenties by an unknown
illustrator. The German title translates as "what is such a small baby
doing every night at the bar?". Cheers!
Copyright statement: situation unclear. Song from the 20s, but no year found. Designer unknown.
Copyright statement: situation unclear. Song from the 20s, but no year found. Designer unknown.
Thursday, January 02, 2025
Lyra Angelica by William Alwyn
Lyra Angelica is a concerto for harp and string orchestra in four movements from 1954 by the British composer William Alwyn (1905 - 1985). It is probably his best known composition, certainly after the American figure skater Michelle Kwan performed to it at the 1998 Winter Olympics. Alwyn stated his aim in writing this work as trying to sustain in the listener a "rapt mood ... by interweaving the solo harp and strings into a continuous web of luminous sound." At this aim the concerto is very successful. It is a full-length work of symphonic proportions, eminently listenable and inspiring. To my taste it is the best harp concerto ever composed. The version shown above is by Rachel Masters and the City of London Sinfonia under Richard Hickox on a Chandos CD).
Copyright statement: posting lower quality album covers is deemed fair use.
Wednesday, January 01, 2025
New Year's Day by U2
Pretty much unavoidable to pick my favourite U2 song for today. Happy New Year everybody!
About the band: U2 are an Irish rock band, formed in 1976. They have released 14 studio albums and are one of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold an estimated 150–170 million records worldwide.
About the song: it is difficult to imagine that there was a time when U2 were struggling for success, but they actually had to wait for their fourth album to make it big. Their first album (Boy) was a good collection of straightforward rock songs, but it gave no indication yet of things to come. The second album (October) was a bit mixed, with some questionable tracks, and some great songs, in particular the title song. Their third album (War) from 1983 was their artistic breakthrough, helped to a large extent by the success of the single New year's day, one of a number of my favourites inspired by the continued violence in Northern Ireland.
About the song: it is difficult to imagine that there was a time when U2 were struggling for success, but they actually had to wait for their fourth album to make it big. Their first album (Boy) was a good collection of straightforward rock songs, but it gave no indication yet of things to come. The second album (October) was a bit mixed, with some questionable tracks, and some great songs, in particular the title song. Their third album (War) from 1983 was their artistic breakthrough, helped to a large extent by the success of the single New year's day, one of a number of my favourites inspired by the continued violence in Northern Ireland.
Copyright statement: Image created by me using Bing AI. Considered fair use.
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