“Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons. You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body.” –Oliver Wendell Holmes
We are in the dog days of summer and hopefully you have had a chance to take your own music bath by attending local summer concerts. See the last Quarter Notes Blog for venues on Long Island to attend. Our very own Northport Community Band started their summer season July 2 with a full crowd in attendance at the beautiful Northport Harbor Park Robert W. Krueger Band Stand. Be sure to come down each Thursday in July with your chairs, blankets and picnic dinners. Downbeat is at 8:30 p.m. for your musical bath. You will not be disappointed!
Summer is a good time to curl up with a good book but also to continue learning musical terms you might not be familiar with. In a prior Quarter Notes post, I shared a few with you. Here are a few more thanks to The Naxos Website: The World’s Leading Classical Music Group:
mesto: (Italian: sad) used in directions to performers to indicate the mood. The slow movement of the Horn Trio by Brahms is marked “Adagio mesto”
nonet: a composition for nine performers
ondes Martenot: an electronic instrument invented by French musician Maurice Martenot which produces single sounds via a keyboard that controls the frequencies from an oscillator. It became popular among French composers including Milhaud, Honegger, Ibert, Messiaen and Boulez, among others.
passacaglia: a baroque dance variation form on a short melodic formula usually occurring in the bass. A famous example of a passacaglia is Johann Sebastian Bach’s C minor Passacaglia for the organ.
quadrille: one of the most popular ballroom dances of the 19th century, generally in a brisk duple meter. Click on the term to find a DVD which includes the quadrille from Die Fledermaus, performed by Andre Rieu and his orchestra in a live performance from Vienna. Come to the Library and check it out!
quodlibet: (Latin: what you please) is a light-hearted composition generally containing a combination of well known tunes. An example may be found in Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations, where the composer combines the theme of the variations with two popular songs of the time.
Our Did You Know? composer for today, Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, was born this month on July 26, in 1791 and died July 29, 1844 from stomach cancer. Hopefully you recognize the name: he was the last of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s six children. Only two, both sons, survived infancy. Franz’ father died before Franz was six months old. He started his first piano lessons when he was five years old. One of his teachers later on was Antonio Salieri who stated the boy had “rare talent” and predicted a career “not inferior to that of his celebrated father”. Franz, who was always called Wolfgang by his parents learned to play both the piano and violin, composed mainly chamber music and a few orchestral works, including two piano concertos. The following epitaph was etched on his tombstone: ‘May the name of his father be his epitaph, as his veneration for him was the essence of his life.’ Watch our Library’s catalog for a CD of the second piano concerto of Franz Mozart which we are ordering!
Expand your musical repertoire and come to the Library for a wonderful Friday Night Concert on July 24 at 7 p.m. The centennial birthday of ‘Ol Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra, will be celebrated by the musical group Two Guys. Tickets are limited to 2 per cardholder and are going fast, so come in soon to get yours to hear your favorite songs performed.
Enjoy and remember “Stay tuned to the Quarter Notes Blog and in tune with all the music in your life.”
E. Susman, July 10, 2015
The Quarter Notes 