Monday 14 November 2011

Sailing By - Ronald Binge



From Youtube description:


Sailing By by Ronald Binge in 1963, theme tune to the BBC Shipping Forecast

Sailing By is played every night on BBC Radio 4 at around 00.45hrs before the late Shipping Forecast. Its tune is repetitive, assisting in its role of serving as a signal for sailors tuning in to be able to easily identify the radio station. It also functions as a buffer — depending on when the final programme before closedown finishes, Sailing By (or part of it) is played as a 'filler' as the shipping forecast starts at 00.48hrs precisely. The initial reason for its introduction was because of the indeterminate finish time for the preceding Midnight News, leading to filling music being played until the Shipping Forecast was due to start. Sailing By was added to allow for a clear break between the end of the music and the start of the forecast.

In the 1990s the tune was also adopted for the weekly maritime programme Seascapes on Ireland's RTE Radio 1.

Besides its intended function, Sailing By is thought of affectionately by many British radio listeners as it is considered a soothing accompaniment to bedtime. The lead singer of the Britpop band Pulp, Jarvis Cocker chose Sailing By as one of his Desert Island Discs, saying for many years he had used it "as an aid to restful sleep".

The piece featured as the second track on a single recorded by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia in a quest to save the Radio 4 UK Theme. In 1993 there was a similar reaction by BBC listeners when Sailing By was temporarily taken off the air on weekday schedules, leading to it being re-instated in 1995.

The recording used by the BBC (performed by the Alan Perry/William Gardner Orchestra) was originally only available as library music, but has since 1997 been available commercially as track 11 on the second CD of the EMI CD set titled The Great British Experience (EMI Classics CDGB50). The BBC broadcast the original stereo version for a few weeks in the late 1980s, but soon reverted to a mono version.

Saturday 12 November 2011

Ennio Morricone - The Mission Main Theme



Main theme of the movie 'The Mission'.

Lord of the Rings main theme- Howard Shore

Fidelio - Beethoven


From Wikipedia:

Fidelio (Op. 72) is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora by Ferdinando Paer (a score of which was owned by Beethoven). The opera tells how Leonore, disguised as a prison guard named "Fidelio", rescues her husband Florestan from death in a political prison.

Mozart-The Marriage of Figaro



From Wikipedia:


Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata (The Marriage of Figaro, or The Day of Madness), K. 492, is an opera buffa (comic opera) composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre BeaumarchaisLa folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (1784).
Although the play by Beaumarchais was at first banned in Vienna because of its satire of the aristocracy, considered dangerous in the decade before the French Revolution, the opera became one of Mozart's most successful works. The overture is especially famous and is often played as a concert piece. The musical material of the overture is not used later in the work, aside from two brief phrases during the Count's part in the terzetto Cosa sento! in act 1.

Friday 4 November 2011

Pietro Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana



From Wikipedia:

Cavalleria rusticana (Rustic ChivalryItalian pronunciation: [ka.va.lːeˌɾiːa ɾus.tiˈkaːna]) is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italianlibretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Since 1893, it has often been performed in a so-called Cav/Pag double-bill with Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo.

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Morning Mood (Peer Gynt), by Edvard Grieg



From Wikiepedia:

Peer Gynt, Op. 23 is the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's 1867 play of the same name, written by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg in 1875. It premiered along with the play on 24 February 1876 in Christiania (now Oslo).
Later, in 1888 and 1891, Grieg extracted eight movements to make two four-movement suites: Suite No. 1, Op. 46, and Suite No. 2, Op. 55. Some of these movements have received coverage in popular culture; see Grieg's music in popular culture.

Seven Years in Tibet - John Williams



From Wikipedia:


Seven Years in Tibet (GermanSieben Jahre in Tibet. Mein Leben am Hofe des Dalai Lama) is an autobiographical travel book written byAustrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer based on his real life experiences in Tibet between 1944 and 1951 during the Second World War and the interim period before the Communist Chinese People's Liberation Army invaded Tibet in 1950.
The book covers the escape of former Nazi SS Officer Harrer, and his companion Peter Aufschnaiter, from a British internment camp in India. Harrer and Aufschnaiter then travelled across Tibet to Lhasa, the capital. Here they spent several years, and Harrer describes the contemporary Tibetan culture in detail. Harrer subsequently became a tutor and friend of the 14th Dalai Lama.
The book shows the difference between the way Harrer thinks of the 14th Dalai Lama and the way the country of Tibet sees the 14th Dalai Lama.