"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
I really like this piece, but the only recordings I can find of it are just a wee tad too “bright”. The scores I have seen call for no more than 70bpm (2/2 time sig), and most take the piece at ~80bpm–or even faster. *meh* Personally, I’d prefer it a very wee bit slower than the tempo marking on the score. Just a very wee tad. *sigh* Oh, well, it’s still a nice piece.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOIhzqutZuQ
The song sung in the video below can be found here: Weihnachslieder: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. The video includes an additional work, “Über die Geburt Jesu,” by Andreas Gryphius (11 October 1616 – 16 July 1664). The song sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the video (accompanied by Jörg Demus) is, “Es senkt sich hehr und leise die heil’ge Nacht herab” by Karl Heinrich Carsten Reinecke (1824-1910).
Über die Geburt Jesu
Andreas Gryphius
Nacht, mehr denn lichte Nacht! Nacht, lichter als der Tag,
Nacht, heller als die Sonn’, in der das Licht geboren,
Das Gott, der Licht; in Licht wohnhaftig, ihm erkoren:
O Nacht, die alle Nächt’ und Tage trotzen mag!
O freudenreiche Nacht, in welcher Ach und Klag
Und Finsternis, und was sich auf die Welt verschworen,
Und Furcht und Höllenangst und Schrecken war verloren!
Der Himmel bricht, doch fällt nunmehr kein Donnerschlag.
Der Zeit und Nächte schuf, ist diese Nacht ankommen
Und hat das Recht der Zeit und Fleisch an sich genommen
Und unser Fleisch und Zeit der Ewigkeit vermacht.
Der Jammer trübe Nacht, die schwarze Nacht der Sünden,
Des Grabes Dunkelheit muß durch die Nacht verschwinden.
Nacht, lichter als der Tag! Nacht, mehr denn lichte Nacht!
Weihnachtslied
Karl Heinrich Carsten Reinecke
Es senkt sich hehr und leise die heil’ge Nacht herab,
die Nacht, die uns vor Zeiten der Welten Heiland gab;
und Orgelton und Glockenklang ertönen weit und breit
und bringen uns die Kunde: “Christ wurde uns geboren heut!”
Und Scharen sel’ger Kinder umstehn den Weihnachtsbaum,
der jetzt im Glanz der Kerzen verklärt manch schlichten Raum;
und in der Glocken Töne mischt Kindersang sich ein:
“Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehre und Frieden soll auf Erden sein!”
White Christmas as sung by Il Volo
Try here for the album (and no, I don’t get paid anything if you buy from this link)
Not my fav ever version, But Josh Groban’s performance of this piece as offered on his album, “Noel,” is quite good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRUMjvzt7Ok&list=PLD2EC27CD2C2CC84B
Working, in a somewhat desultory fashion, on my 2013 Xmas Playlist and ran across “Michael Bublé Christmas”.
Completely unbiased *cough* comment (FAIR USE!) added to the album cover art. “Michael Bublé Christmas” is kinda like a thinner-voiced Bing/Sinatra-lite Xmas album, complete with mispronounced vowels, but without the heart one would expect from Bing or Old Blue Eyes. Standard selection of pop Xmas tunes, including the execrable and much to be disdained, “Santa Baby,” and inexplicably sprinkled with a couple of genuine Xmas songs (Silent Night, Ave Maria).
(Confession: no, I did not buy the album. What, ME buy a Michael Bublé album of pseudo-Xmas music? Get outa here! I “listened” to it on YouTube, for review. Michael Bublé performances on my Xmas playlist is simply not on. Thank you, no. If it HAD been any good, I would have bought it as I did with the album below. . . )
OTOH, Josh Groban’s 2007 “Noel,” aside from a few little bobbles (“’round yon virgin –PAUSE, BREATHE– mother and child” in “Silent Night” *sigh* and a few inexplicable pure vowel and diphthong choices) is a real delight and well worth the price on Amazon ($6 mp3/$10 CD). Oh, heck, even the patented Groban melodic variations are pretty good. *heh* A few unobjectionable pop Xmas songs, but mostly real Xmas songs. Eh, besides, he has such a much, much better instrument and music sensibility to work with than Bublé. Did I say, “much”? No, more than that.
Added to this year’s playlist.
With some modification, noted in [], I’d like to start with a comment from a How to be a Hacker site:
The hacker mind-set is not confined to [a] software-hacker culture. There are people who apply the hacker attitude to other things, like electronics or music — actually, you can find it at the highest levels of any science or art. Software hackers recognize these kindred spirits elsewhere and may call them ‘hackers’ too — and some claim that the hacker nature is really independent of the particular medium the hacker works in.
I’m among those who embrace the universality of hackerdom. 😉 “What would happen if I kludged together X and Y to do Z?” is the kind of question any hacker might ask, in any medium. Basically, it’s just tinkering with stuff to make whatever it is more useful, better in its primary application or applicable to something unintended by its original creator. (And, of course, ALL these things can be done well or poorly, for good or ill.)
So, I “hack” every recipe I come across. I “hack” my car (something that was called “shade tree mechanicking” in days of yore *heh*) and I extend that tinkering to darned near everything I interact with.
Case in point, a simple “hack” performed on a very, very nice knife given to me by my Lovely Daughter and her Redoubtable Husband. A very nice Ka-Bar knife, frankly even better than the WWII version I had on hand from a great uncle who used it for many years skinning deer. This is a seriously nice knife, but. . . it had two very, very small–minuscule even–things I thought could be improved by a very, very simple hack. Lovely blade; the guard was just right; the full tang hand with stacked leather plugs was perfect; but the pommel had two extremely small flaws to my eye: a small gap where the tang and pommel joined and another very small depression where a pin passed through the pommel and tang to secure them together.
Simple, less than 5 minute hack: mixed some JB Weld and filled the very small gap and depression, smoothed the JB Weld level with the surrounding surface and I’m now a happy camper. The JB Weld is even almost exactly the same color as the pommel.
Bonus knife hack:
When you need to tune up the edge on a knife but for some inexplicable reason do not have an appropriate stone, steel or ceramic sharpener available, turn that ceramic coffee mug in your hand over (WHAT?!? You say you don’t have a ceramic coffee mug at hand? Get outa here! I have no further use for you! *heh*). There on the bottom of your ceramic coffee mug you will likely see an unglazed ring of ceramic. Yep. It’s just like a ceramic sharpening rod. Make sure it’s smooth so that you won’t create a problem on your blade and then just use that ring as though it were a ceramic sharpening rod.
There you have it: an easily tuned up edge from a coffee mug. You’re welcome.
Now, go forth and apply simple creativity to whatever little things are bugging you. Hack your life.