Archive for the ‘Friday Soirée’ Category
Friday Soirée X: Stephen Fry is QI
I'm told that the internet is a morass, a quagmire of links into which, after just a few innocent clicks, one can disappear and never bee seen again. I'm usually much more focused in my clicking and manage to stay out of the quicksand and keep my head above water–except that tonight I succumbed. I […]
In: All, Friday Soirée, Laughing Matters
Friday Soirée IX: New Year's Supper
Okay, it clearly isn't a Friday night, but it also isn't the evening of New Year's Day when I was thinking about this program, either. I'm sure our imaginations can handle it. Hors d'Oeuvres — Astro-Weenie Christmas Tree If there's a concept that could use re-introducing for 2010, I think it's smart. That's smart as […]
In: All, Food Stuff, Friday Soirée, Music & Art
Friday Soirée IX: Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve at our house is traditionally a very quiet time, because Isaac works all night directing and playing four different musical programs for 3 Christmas-Eve services (plus one interlude). I typically stay at home and cook and read until it's time to go to friend's house for a little midnight supper. Tonight then, to […]
In: All, Friday Soirée, Music & Art
Friday Soirée VIII: Ghosts in the Snow
As I sit down to write this the snow has begun. We don't know when it will stop, of course, nor how much we might get, but forecasters seem to delight in adding up the biggest numbers they can credibly find: 18 inches? 20 inches? 26 inches? Whatever, it seems likely that this snowfall will […]
In: All, Friday Soirée, Music & Art
Friday Soirée VII: More Light Comedy
I enjoyed the humor so much last week that I thought we'd have a bit more tonight, not just because I had so many leftovers. Besides, the tone tonight is a wee bit different, although I'd be hard-pressed to say just how. P.Q.D. Bach: Iphigenia in Brooklyn (Cantata, S. 53162) If there is someone reading […]
In: All, Friday Soirée, Music & Art
Friday Soirée VI: Something Lighter
Tonight I decided I needed a bit of levity, so humor (and "humour") is the theme. We have two very special guests to spend some time with: Anna Russell and Sir David Attenborough. Anna Russell Analyzes Wagner's Ring (Part 1) I expect I first found Anna Russell in my college days, thanks to friend and […]
In: All, Friday Soirée, Laughing Matters, Music & Art, Notes to Richard
Friday Soirée V: Elizabethan Excitement
Today it was rainy and gray around here and for some reason that's put me in an Elizabethan mood for tonight's program. However, it may not be the weather since I'm frequently in the mood for Elizabethan music: music from around 1600, particularly the English Virginalists, always delights me. How fortunate we are to have […]
In: All, Friday Soirée, Music & Art
Friday Soirée IV: Eureka!
With tonight's program we're out for some thrilling exoticism and discovery — in an intimate setting: harpsichord music by one of my favorite Baroque guys and stimulating conversation with a great scientist and thinker. Soler: Sonata in F-Sharp Major Padre Antonio Soler (1729–1783) was a Catalan composer who studied music from the time he was […]
In: All, Eureka!, Friday Soirée, It's Only Rocket Science, Music & Art
Friday Soirée III: Dangerous Ideas
I'm not certain that "dangerous ideas" is exactly right, but I'm not certain that it's not, either. Tonight's program is a bit longer so let's get right to it. One of the "dangerous ideas" is due to Darwin, to use the phrase that Daniel Dennett used in his excellent book Darwin's Dangerous Idea, a book […]
In: All, Friday Soirée, Music & Art, The Art of Conversation
Friday Soirée: Mensuration Canons
Oh dear. What started as something simple again becomes complicated and a bit circular* without my intending it, but that may be suitable because the subject is the musical canon, specifically the "mensuration canon". Let's keep it simple. Perhaps you recall that a "canon" is a musical device in which one musical line, or "voice" […]
In: All, Friday Soirée, Music & Art
Friday Soirée: Feynman & Villa-Lobos
Let us have now a little soirée, a short program of ideas and music to cheer up my rather drab Friday evening. On tonight's program, Richard Feynman and Heitor Villa-Lobos. The Feynman bits are both excerpts from a BBC series called "Fun to Imagine" (1983), in which Feynman is interviewed and talks about all sorts […]
In: All, Friday Soirée, It's Only Rocket Science, Music & Art