The World's most beautiful music: Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, Adagio

Three years ago today, Steph and I were being filmed in around various places in Vienna--atop of one of the spires of St. Stephan's, inside the apartment where Mozart lived when he composed, "Le Nozze di Figaro", in the building where Mozart lived when he died, (which is now a department store), and finally at the place which once was the front of the customs house near the Karinthian Gate where he and Anna Storace bid one another a tearful good-bye as she prepared for her return trip to her home in London.

Today I feature the Adagio movement from Mozart's Clarinet concerto, composed in the summer of 1791, only months before his death in early December of that same year. Some claim it to be one of Mozart's most beautiful compositions. Listen for yourself and decide. Featured is Andrew Mariner, clarinet, and the London Symphony Orchestra.

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Three years ago today...

Steph and I were in Vienna, Austria, filming at Laxenburg. The memories are so fresh that it's hard to believe that it was three years ago!

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Just exactly what does the VP do?

Well, Sarah, if some of the qualifications were "hunting and eating buffalo burgers", I suppose you'd be at the top of the list of the most qualified, but I don't think that those things are listed among the qualifications for the second in command of our country. I'm still trying to figure out just what qualifications you have that would appeal to all those disgruntled Hillary supporters. In fact, if I were one of them, I'd be rather insulted by McCain's choice of you for his running mate. You're no Hillary Clinton, that's for sure!

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Dawn

Every morning, when we wake up we have twenty-four brand new hours to live. What a precious gift! We have the capacity to live in a way that these twenty-four hours will bring peace, joy and happiness to ourselves and others.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Kindness counts

When you have the choice between being right and being kind just choose kind.

~ Wayne Dyer

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Wake-up call!

I've just finished reading a powerful book entitled, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America by Chris Hedges. This book exposes the agenda of people like James Dobson, Timothy LaHaye, Pat Robertson and the like and brings to light their push for power and how they have become bedfellows with conservative, right-wing politicians, as well as with mega corporations like Wal Mart, large industry, big oil corporations, and manufacturing to form a base so powerful as to take over the entire structure of this nation and usher in a totalitarian, theocratic, government.


It is a must-read for anyone who is concerned about the direction in which this country has been heading under the current administration and a wake-up call to all who are dedicated to the preservation of liberty, equality, and freedom in this land we call "America".

Click here to see the Amazon.com link

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The World's most beautiful music: Jacques Brel _ La Chanson des Vieux Amants

song of the old lovers

in spite of all we're still together
so many years of smiles and tears
how many times we'd part forever
and i would leave for parts unknown
a day a week and i'd feel terror
and crumble on the telephone
and then in bed we'd play confessions
and tell the truth what truth we knew
that's how it's been with me and you
and then we'd start upon a new digression

oh my love
my old, my sweet, my gentle love
from year to year as all the seasons fall
i love you more, you know i love you

in spite of all we're still together
so many years of smiles and tears
how many times i found another
but you loved others too my dear
a day a week and i'd need a pardon
and fumble out the key for home
and take a wound that went unhealing
for you'd forgive without forgiving
but of course we went on living
our sorrows locked in christmas seals

oh my love
my old, my sweet, my gentle love
from year to year as all the seasons fall
i love you more, you know i love you

and sometimes we were almost open
and sometimes we would almost touch
i think we wanted very little
but that always seemed tot much
and did we say we wanted children
i really cannot quite recall
what we wanted was our freedom
to dance through life
i think that's all
we are just surrealist pilgrims
melting clocks in marble halls

oh my love
my old my sweet my gentle love
from year to year as all the seasons fall
i love you more, you know
i love you ... still.

(translation: eric blau, mort shuman)

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It's about the change in me

Do not change people; they are only messengers telling you who you are. Revalue yourself and they will confirm the change.

~ Neville Goddard

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On reaching milestones

I went to work this morning without even giving it a second thought. When I got to work, I saw the school bus go by and it dawned on me that today was the first day of school. And then it hit me--"I didn't take anyone to school today!" With Lauren starting at OU in 10 days and Heather starting at OSU on Monday, (my son lives with his dad in Oklahoma City), I've entered a new phase in my life.

Today I started collecting boxes for Lauren to pack her things in. She's moving out. She now has her own apartment, and in less than two weeks she will be out of the nest. I'm not really sure how I feel about it yet.

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On slowing down

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

~ Lao Tzu

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The law of giving

In our willingness to give that which we seek, we keep the abundance of the universe circulating in our lives.

~ Deepak Chopra

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The World's most beautiful music: The Grande Adagio from the Ballet, "Sparticus"

Spartacus, or Spartak, is a ballet by Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978). The work follows the exploits of Spartacus, the leader of the slave uprising against the Romans known as the Third Servile War, although the ballet's storyline takes considerable liberties with the historical record. Khachaturian composed the ballet in 1954. It was widely acclaimed by the critics as a masterpiece with Leonid Jacobson's choreography in Moscow in 1956. Khachaturian revised the ballet score in 1968 and it was choreographed by Yuri Grigorovich. It remains one of his best known works and is prominent within the repertoires of the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre and other ballet companies in Russia and the former Soviet Union. (Information source: Wikipedia)

I first heard this music from the Third Act, the "Grande Adagio" when it was played on one of my favorite classical music stations on my way home from a Chamber Singers rehearsal not too long ago. I was mesmerized.

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