Happy Birthday, Borromini

Borromini, Palazzo Spada Gallery, 1652

It has been said that idleness is the parent of mischief, which is very true; but mischief itself is merely an attempt to escape from the dreary vacuum of idleness. 

Francesco Borromini, born on this day in 1599. 

Frank Sinatra, "September of My Years"

Released.

James Taylor released New Moon Shine on this day in 1991.

"Copperline" ...

Changes.

It is the music which makes it what it is; it is the music which changes the place from the rear room of a saloon in back of the yards to a fairy place, a wonderland, a little comer of the high mansions of the sky.

Upton Sinclair, from The Jungle

Streams.

David Lance Goines on celestial navigation ...

September 18, 1994

All summer long I almost never see a clear sky that lasts the whole night through. That's because I live in the fog belt. My natural perversity has drawn me to an interest in astronomy, and I have a small telescope which I set up in the back yard on clear nights. No sooner is it set up than in rolls the fog and I go back indoors and read instead.

But when Fall comes, and late Winter, then I get my fill of clear skies. Looking through a telescope, even a small one, is to travel through time. You see light that left its natal star years, thousands of years, millions of years ago. When you look at the stars, you're really looking into the past.

If you could get a powerful enough telescope, you could watch lives being led millennia since. For you, it would be in the now, but for those who led those lives, they would have ended so long ago that there remains nothing of them whatever, except in this ancient light that streams across our heavens.

Perhaps in the vast future a sky-gazer on another planet far away will watch the light that left us when we were young, and we will live again through our shadows, though our corporeal selves have been dust so long that no memory of us remains but a flickering light that glances through an alien planet's fogless Autumn sky.

Celestial navigation, used by ships at sea and aircraft, is based on the apparent and relative positions of celestial bodies.

Be.

David Lance Goines, Rest in Peace

I just learned that legendary print-maker, David Lance Goines, passed last winter.

Time.

IVY GREEN

Oh, a dainty plant is the Ivy green,

That creepeth o’er ruins old!

Of right choice food are his meals, I ween,

In his cell so lone and cold.

The wall must be crumbled, the stone decayed,

To pleasure his dainty whim:

And the mouldering dust that years have made

Is a merry meal for him.

Creeping where no life is seen,

A rare old plant is the Ivy green.

Fast he stealeth on, though he wears no wings,

And a staunch old heart has he.

How closely he twineth, how tight he clings,

To his friend the huge Oak Tree!

And slily he traileth along the ground,

And his leaves he gently waves,

As he joyously hugs and crawleth round

The rich mould of dead men’s graves.

Creeping where grim death has been,

A rare old plant is the Ivy green.

Whole ages have fled and their works decayed,

And nations have scattered been;

But the stout old Ivy shall never fade,

From its hale and hearty green.

The brave old plant, in its lonely days,

Shall fatten upon the past:

For the stateliest building man can raise,

Is the Ivy’s food at last.

Creeping on, where time has been,

A rare old plant is the Ivy green.

Charles Dickens

'Tis Autumn.

Learned.

POET'S WORK

Grandfather

advised me:

Learn a trade

I learned

to sit at desk

and condense

No layoffs

from this

condensery

Lorine Niedecker

Telemann, Suite in C major "Hamburger Ebb und Fluth", TWV 55:C3

The Bremer Barockorchester performs the Ouvertüre, great music to accompany walking out on the deck to survey the morning ...

Longingly.

We are what the seas

have made us

longingly immense

the very veery

on the fence

Lorine Niedecker

Duruflé, Ubi caritas

Thee Choir of Kings College, Cambridge, performs ...

Van Eyck, "O Slaep, O Zoete, Slaep"

Anna Stegmann performs ...

Released.

The Stones released Love You Live on this day in 1977.

“If You Can't Rock Me/Get Off Of My Cloud” ...

Happy Birthday, Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen was born on this day in 1949.

"Cadillac Ranch" ...

It's sandwich time.

Released.

Poco released Legacy on this day in 1989.

"Call it Love" ...

Teach.

A reminder from Hemingway ...

Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk.  It'll teach you to keep your mouth shut.

Rewards.

Ari Weinzweig on mindful eating ...

In working to master this fourth step, I’ve tried to teach myself to be patient and to truly allow the flavors to play out—the finish, I’ve found, is a hugely important part of tasting that many people, rushing through their eating, are likely to miss. 

Thirty years ago, my employer sent me to Zingerman's for a three-day seminar on the technique of tasting.  The methods and insights that Ari taught were fascinating (and I'm a tough study when it comes to such things), but the point that has remained with me through all these years.  When it comes to food, having patience is profoundly simple and challenging at the same time.

Slow down. Wait for things to develop.

The rewards are plentiful.

Altars.

THE SEA-CATHEDRAL

Vast and immaculate! No pilgrim bands

In ecstasy before the Parian shrines

Knew such a temple built by human hands

With this transcendent rhythm in its lines.

Like an epic on the north Atlantic stream

It moved, and fairer than a Phidian dream.

Rich gifts unknown to kings were duly brought

At dawn and sunset and at cloudless noons,

Gifts from the sea-gods and the sun who wrought

Cascades and rainbows; flung them in festoons

Over the spires, with emerald, amethyst,

Sapphire and pearl out of their fiery mist.

And music followed when a litany,

Begun with the ring of foam bells and the purl

Of linguals as the edges cut the sea,

Crashed upon a rising storm with whirl

Of floes from far-off spaces where Death rides

The darkened belfries of the evening tides.

Within the sunlight, vast, immaculate!

Beyond all reach of earth in majesty,

It passed on Southwards slowly to its fate—

To be drawn down by the inveterate sea,

Without one chastening fire made to start

From altars built around its polar heart.

E.J. Pratt

Done.

Done and done.

Spirit.

Kurt points to an excellent article exploring Shelby Foote's "aristocracy of spirit" ...

The vocation of the artist, the soldier and the statesman are accessible only to those who can honor and hunger after honor, who, drawn backward into the past and forward into posterity, disjoint themselves from our flat present and its imperatives to egalitarian political correctness or “aesthetic” harmlessness. Perhaps we would be better off without such human types. Certainly we may not want to become them ourselves. It may be too that we ought to speak candidly about them and what their fulfillment requires only in private, and in public to let them assume such guises as, for example, the gentlemanly, avuncular Southerner with a gift for stories about old times—entertaining, interesting tales that can go unnoticed as incitations to honor the teller and those about whom they are told.

Wildness.

Wyeth, Sundown, 1969

Come, pensive Autumn, with thy clouds, and storms,

And falling leaves, and pastures lost to flowers;

A luscious charm hangs on thy faded forms,

More sweet than Summer in her loveliest hours,

Who, in her blooming uniform of green,

Delights with samely and continued joy:

But give me, Autumn, where thy hand hath been,

For there is wildness that can never cloy, -

The russet hue of fields left bare, and all

The tints of leaves and blossoms ere they fall.

In thy dull days of clouds a pleasure comes,

Wild music softens in thy hollow winds;

And in thy fading woods a beauty blooms,

That's more than dear to melancholy minds.

John Clare

Hotteterre, Premiere Suitte

Heiko ter Schegget and Daniël Brüggen (yes, that Daniël Brüggen) perform ...

The Oyster Months Notebook

Home, again, to the dirges of The Oyster Months.

A Harvest Morning

The mist hangs thick about the early field

And many a shout is heard while nought appears

Till close upon the gaze so thick conseald

Are things in mornings mist mayhap her tears

For summers sad departure—silence hears

Brown harvests dittys that disturb full soon

Her rest—toils lusty brawls that daily cheers

Its ignorance of sorrows with the boon

Of pastoral tunes ere morns red sun appears

Till dreamy evenings ruddy harvest moon

Hangs its large lamp to light them home again

John Clare

REVISED September 2023 ... 

Vox Cosmica

Arianna Savall, Petter Udland Johansen and Hirundo Maris 

Renaissance Music for Recorder: Netherlands

Wiener Blockflötenensemble

Telemann: Sonate a Flauto Solo

Lorenzo Cavasanti

Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello: Parthias and Sinphonias for Solo Gallichone

Davide Rebuffa

Fasch: Quartets and Concertos

Ensemble Marsyas

Charles Mouton

Anders Ericson

Neusidler: Lute Music

Yavor Genov 

William Lawes: Consort Sets in Five & Six Parts

Jordi Savall & Hesperion

Van Den Hove: Florida, Pavanas, Fantasias and Dances for Lute

Massimo Marchese

Lawes: Complete Music for Solo Lyra Viol

Richard Boothby

Carl Friedrich Abel: Sentimental Journey

Paolo Pandolfo 

Graduel d'Alienor de Bretagne

Vox Clamantis

The Birth of the Violin

Le Miroir De Musique and Baptiste Romain

REVISED March 2023 ...

Finger: The Complete Music For Viola Da Gamba Solo

Ensemble Tourbillon 

Hameln Anno 1284: Medieval Flute Music On The Trail Of The Pied Piper

Norbert Rodenkirchen

REVISED December 2022 ...

Nicola Matteis: Most ravishing things (Music from the Books of Ayres)

Theatrum Affectuum

The Art of Resonance: Archlute & Theorbo Music of the Italian Seicento

Luca Pianca

Figures of Harmony: Songs of Codex Chantilly c. 1390

Ferrara Ensemble and Crawford Young

Schmelzer: Violin Sonatas

Gunar Letzbor & Ars Antiqua Austria

Zelenka: Sonates pour Deux Hautbois et Basson

Ensemble Zefiro

La Bella Minuta: Florid Songs for Cornetto, ca.1600

Liuwe Tamminga & Bruce Dickey

Brade, G. Gabrieli & Scheidt: Tuba mirum

Les Sacqueboutiers and Renaud Delaigue

REVISED October 2022 ...

A Meeting Place: Medieval & Renaissance Music for Lute & Ud

August Denhard and Münir Nurettin Beken 

Notker Balbulus: Sequnezen, Tropen & Gregorianischer Choral aud dem Kloster St. Gallen

Ordo Virtutum and Stefan Morent 

Johann Rosenmüller in Exile

Acronym and Jesse Blumberg

Thomas Morley: Fantasies to Two Voices

Jonathan Dunford & Jérôme Chaboseau

Biber: Harmonia artificioso

Musica Antiqua Köln and Reinhard Goebel

Joseph Bodin De Boismortier: The Complete Opus 37 Trio Sonatas (1732) for Flute, Viola da Gamba and Chamber Organ

Flauti Diversi

Die Weisheit des Alters: Ars moriendi im Minnesang

Ensemble Für Frühe musik Augsburg

REVISED September 2022 ...

Philipp Friedrich Buchner: Plectrum Musicum

Parnassi Musici

Le Secret de Monsieur Marais

Vittorio Ghielmi, Luca Pianca, Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra

Telemann: Sonate for Oboe, Bassoon, and Continuo

Sans Souci

Johann Jakob Walther: Hortulus Chelicus

Sills, Dirst, Dirst, and Wang (no offense)

Thomas Lupo: Fantasia

Fretwork

Fürchtet Euch Nicht: Bassoons & Bombards Music from the German Baroque

Syntagma Amici, Vox Lumini

Johann Georg Weichenberger: Lute Works 

Joachim Held

REVISED March 2022 ...

Fantasia! Dialogue for One

Pauline Oostenrijk

February 2022 ...

Jacon van Eyck: Der Fluyten Lust-hof

Erik Bosgraaf

Marin Marais: Pieces de Viole de Cinq Livre

Jordi Savall, Ton Koopmann, Hopkinson Smith, Christophe Coin, Anne Gallet

The Cosmopolitan: Songs by Oswald von Wolkenstein

Ensemble Leones, Marc Lewis

Toys for Two: Dowland to California

Margaret Koll and Luca Pianca

REVISED January 2022 ...

Scheidt: Ludi Musici

L'Acheron, Francois Joubert-Caillet

Handel: The Complete Sonatas for Recorder

Marion Verbruggen, Ton Koopman and Jaap ter Linden

Buxtehude: Complete Chamber Music

Ton Koopman

Songs of Olden Times: Estonian Folk Hymns and Runic Songs

Heinavanker

Ockeghem: Requiem; Missa Mi-Mi; Missa Prolationum

Hilliard Ensemble

REVISED November 2021 ...

Masters of the Baroque Hurdy-Gurdy

Matthias Loibner

Weiss: Sonatas for Transverse Flute and Lute

Duo Inventio

Holborne: Pieces for Lute

Federico Marincola

THE ORIGINAL COLLECTION (Autumn 2020):

Holborne: Pavans and Galliards, 1599

The Consort of Musicke & The Guildhall Waits, Anthony Rooley & Trevor Jones

Purcell: Sonatas Of 3 Parts, 1683

Pavlo Beznosiuk, Rachel Podger, Christophe Coin, Christopher Hogwood

Telemann: Trio Sonatas

Erik Bosgraaf (recorder), Dmitry Sinkovksy (violin)

German Lute Music of the 18th Century

Alberto Crugnola