Italian folk songs are often performed using an artistic technique the Italians have perfected. They call it “Bel Canto”, a name that literally means beautiful song or music. The Harvard Dictionary of Music describes the vocal technique as placing “emphasis on beauty of sound and brilliance of performance rather than dramatic expression or romantic [...]
Have you ever found yourself so transfixed by the beauty of something that you become totally absorbed in it, or found yourself listening to a single piece of music over and over because it speaks so deeply to your heart and soul? That is what happens to me each time I listen to the [...]
Can a secular dance routine be a sacred window? It’s a fair question, and if I were a lawyer (or a Jesuit) I’d answer with a resounding, “It depends.” The key notion in discerning transcendent values in our world is not so much whether something is religious or secular – although the former has [...]
[This article follows the article of August 8, 2021, “Were These Brothers the Greatest Tap Dancers of All Time?” See also the email newsletter version.] “I think it's pretty safe to assume the Nicholas Brothers were superhuman,” was what one commentator had to say to the Nicholas Brothers’ performance in the 1943 film, Stormy [...]
Switzerland is like a hidden jewel in the middle of Europe, a mountainous land with a highly secretive banking system and a tradition of remaining neutral during wars. The Swiss culture has given the world exquisite chocolates, precision watches, cuckoo clocks, the Swiss Army knife, and even the modern marvel of Velcro! What an [...]
The Sheep English choirmaster, John Rutter, established the Cambridge Singers in the early 1980s for the purpose of producing musical recordings. They have been amazingly prolific with nearly forty albums in their vast repertoire. In The Lord is My Shepherd we hear a mixed choir of men’s and women’s voices intertwining effortlessly with the [...]
The Shepherd English composer, choirmaster and conductor, John Rutter, sets the most famous of all psalms (Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd”) to music in an exquisite piece of art that incorporates voice, orchestra and vivid musical imagery. This commentary is the first of two on Rutter's piece. Part 1 focuses on the [...]
[This article is a follow-up to the Sacred Windows newsletter about George Frideric Handel’s amazing burst of artistic inspiration that led him to compose the entire masterpiece of the Messiah in just twenty-four days. The newsletter is archived on this site for those who wish to access it.] The video clips below display just [...]
During the Advent season, we bring you an inspirational piece of Renaissance music that is based on a quote from St. John’s gospel. Nearly five hundred years old, this hymn has a timeless beauty that will be a gift to our world for as long as there are voices to sing it. But first [...]
The life of the magnificent young jazz/blues artist, Eva Cassidy, was sadly cut short by melanoma in 1996 at the age of 33. Her rendition of “Over the Rainbow” was recorded just nine months before her death, when she was battling the illness that would soon take her life. That fact makes this brilliant [...]