…..Balthazar rode for seven long years, eastwards and far,he followed his star, and it brought him here.To a stable in ruins in some backwater town,to a virgin defiled, no king but a child, too small for a crown. He sang “I could have lived with my Gods as a Persian prince,I could’ve played safe,but in… Read More “Journey Of The Magi” – Frank Turner
Bruce Springsteen, the famous American singer-songwriter and guitarist, was born on 23 September 1949- “The Boss” nickname was given to him long before he ever became a big star, in his club days, when he was assigned the task of collecting the band’s pay from club owners and then distributing it to the members of… Read More Happy Birthday, Boss
At the end of the post “White Lead & Ceruse” I wrote that in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut there is a reference to the “cerussa”. Manon Lescaut is an Italian-language opera in four acts composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1889 and 1892. based on the 1731 novel “Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux, et de Manon Lescaut… Read More Manon Lescaut’s Ceruse
This night’s full moon, the closest to the September equinox, is the Harvest Moon. Our friend Pat (e-Quips) published a lovely poem about it: you can read it here In the Northern Hemisphere the Harvest Moon is astronomically significant because even though the time between one moonrise and the next becomes shorter (typically, the Moon… Read More Harvest Moon 🌕
Yesterday Freddie Mercury would have turned 75. In November 1995, four years after his death, the posthumous album “Made in Heaven” was released. It contains the song “Mother Love”, co-written with Brian May and the last vocal recording made by Mercury before his death.May stated; ” Freddie at that time said ‘Write me stuff… I… Read More Mother Love 🎶
The Night of the Tarantula (La Notte della Taranta) is a music festival that takes place every year in Salento, Apulia, (Italy),and one of the most significant manifestations on popular culture in Europe.Since its beginnings in 1998, the event, which celebrates the importance of the folk music tradition of Tarantella and Pizzica, has grown exponentially… Read More Notte della Taranta 🕷️ Night of the Tarantula
Today is the anniversary of the birth of Dorothy Parker, one of the most famous American writers of the twentieth century, born on 22 August 1893.She wrote poems, short stories writer, articles for newspapers, best known for her spirit and her caustic comments on urban phenomena and foibles of the timeShe published about 300 poems… Read More Birthday Inventory
As I’ve already written (here) “Barbara Allen” began as a ballad in the seventeenth century or earlier and was published and performed under many different titles, in a vast array of tunes and narrative details.The earliest text was published in London in 1690, under the title “Barbara Allen’s cruelty: or, the young-man’s tragedy”. It appeared… Read More Barbara Allen/2
Originally posted on la regina gioiosa:
Anonimo (sec. XVII): Barbara Allen, ballad di origine scozzese. Alfred Deller, controtenore; Desmond Dupré, liuto. In Scarlet town where I was born There was a fair maid dwellin’, Made ev’ry youth cry «Well-a-day.» Her name was Barbara Allen. All in the merry month of may, When green buds they…
Last week our friend Paola Pioletti shared some songs by Cat Stevens (see here), and that proposal gave me the joy of listening to a song that I loved very much: “Lady D’Arbanville”, written by Stevens when he was just 21, and released in April 1970. He had already issued two albums, and was recovering… Read More “Lady D’Arbanville”
words and music and stories 