Friday, 30 May 2014
Brian Crain - Song For Sienna
It is fitting then that the very first musical piece on that first video is such a beautiful composition. I had no idea where I was going when I began that first video, so the natural place to start was with the piece I enjoyed listening to most at that time - Brian Crain's 'Song For Sienna.'
As with so much of Brian Crain's work, 'Song For Sienna' is a wonderful combination of piano and cello that flows so beautifully, and so naturally, that you cannot help but find your mind at ease within a few moments of the music starting. 'Song For Sienna' is one of those rare works that manages to fit your mood, no matter what your mood.
'Song For Sienna' is taken from Brian Crain's album 'Sienna,' and is available on Amazon, ITunes, Spotify, and Beats Music.
Spotify link to the album 'Sienna': https://play.spotify.com/album/7lUJnifoFIWyp338XNdg9a.
Please support the Artist by purchasing his album if you enjoy his music.
The pictures that accompany 'Song For Sienna' on the video are all pictures taken of, or near, the village of Mow Cop on the Staffordshire/Cheshire border, a place with many happy memories for me. As with so many other things in life, it was a place that I never fully appreciated the beauty of until it was slipping from the present into the past.
You can listen to 'Song For Sienna' on Sleep Peacefully Vol. 1.
Wednesday, 21 May 2014
Adagio for Strings - Samuel Barber: Relaxing Grass In the Wind
Barber finished the arrangement in 1936, the same year that he wrote the quartet. It was performed for the first time in 1938, in a radio broadcast from a New York studio attended by an invited audience, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, who also took the piece on tour to Europe and South America. Its reception was generally positive, with Alexander J. Morin writing that Adagio for Strings is "full of pathos and cathartic passion" and that it "rarely leaves a dry eye." The music is the setting for Barber's 1967 choral arrangement of Agnus Dei. Adagio for Strings can be heard in many TV shows and movies.
Nature has a wonderful ability to relax the mind, and so I found the simple images of grass blowing in the wind to set this music to. The gentle swirl of the grasses, swaying back and forward seems to turn into a dance as music begins to take over.
Originally uploaded to Youtube on 21st May 2014