To continue celebrating the Spooky Season, here’s the second movement from “Nevermore”— “Annabel Lee”, based on the Edgar Allan Poe classic poem! Did you know this was the final complete poem Edgar Allan Poe wrote before he died? Seems appropriate somehow…. 🤔

Listen to it on your favorite platform now!

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) - Fantasia & Fugue for Harpsichord in a-minor, BWV 944. Performed by Pierre Hantaï, harpsichord.

Tracklist:

The Dead Flag Blues • East Hastings • Providence

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For fun; what is your favorite form/genre?

"And the Sun"

New track, inspired by Kazuo Ishiguro's novel "Klara and the Sun". Chamber strings, piano, guitar, harp.

Buy the track on Bandcamp: https://sleepynoonradio.bandcamp.com/track/and-the-sun

Afternoon Gloria

Kronos Quartet, "The Funky Chicken"

The leadoff cut from their debut album. Which I'd never even heard of until last Friday. Very good, to start, plus it's the first branches of the musically ecumenical tree that the Kronos crew would grow over the last 50 years.

Mendelssohn: Chamber Symphony op 80a mov. 4

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was born on this day 215 years ago. His 80th opus 'String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor' is one of Mendelssohn's greatest contributions to the chamber music repertoire. Probably it is also the most tormented work he ever composed as it sings out of his symbiotic relationship with sister Fanny Hensel, a fine composer who died at age 41. Here is an excerpt from my orchestral arrangement of this work also known as 'Requiem for Fanny'. https://youtu.be/VAQ6I4-hrzQ Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Chamber Symphony op  80a 'Requiem for Fanny' (String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor) IV. Finale: Allegro molto Sinfonia Toronto / Nurhan Arman, Conductor String orchestra version by Nurhan Arman. Recorded live in CBC Glenn Gould Studio on January 25, 2019.

Tumblr rated 9.04/10.

Erhu, piano, and violin, performing 江河水 (Jianghe Shui; "Yangzi and Yellow River Water") (黄海怀 arrangement for erhu) and Csárdás (Vittorio Monti)

Astrid Sonne’s Great Doubt

Frédéric Chopin (1810-49) - Nocturne for Piano in B-Major, Op. 32 No. 1. Performed by Kevin Kenner, 1848 Pleyel piano.

Tracklist:

Broken Chords Can Sing A Little • Sit In The Middle Of Three Galloping Dogs • Stumble Then Rise On Some Awkward Morning • Movie (Never Made) • 13 Angels Standing Guard 'Round The Side Of Your Bed • Long March Rocket Or Doomed Airliner • Blown-out Joy From Heaven's Mercied Hole • For Wanda

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Franck - String Quartet in D Major (1890)

It's been a long time since I updated this blog with a new post. Too long. And to be honest it's been a tough year for me personally. I've gone through different kinds of losses and had lost enthusiasm for this hobby of writing about music. Today was a pretty rough day emotionally and, if I'm allowed to use cliches, music "saved" me. At least this quartet brought me back into a music mindset, and I don't write about Franck that often here. Main reason is that, despite his esteem as a major or great composer of the later 19th century, his reputation relies on a handful of works from much later in his life. This String Quartet was his last completed work and it shows the hallmarks of his self-realized style; very lyrical and melancholic, constantly modulating and flowing through a stream of tonality. He had completed this after studying quartets by Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms. Especially from Schubert is where we get unexpected modulations. Ironically this last work was the first to get him praise during his lifetime. And as with his other major works, the quartet is cyclical, with themes from each movement returning in the finale. And I hope this music lifts your spirits as well to end off 2023

Movements:

Poco Lento, Allegro

Scherzo: Vivace

Larghetto

Finale: Allegro molto