Tintinnabular

I promise this blog isn't turning into "I <3 violin music 4 eva" dot com, but I really love this song, Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in the Mirror) by Estonian composor Arvo Part. Part pioneered this stlye of composition, called "Tintinnabular," which is apparently inspired by chant. Great word!

The Lark Ascending

I heard Ralph Vaughn William's The Lark Ascending this morning while I was drinking my coffee. It was so gorgeous that I had to look it up and listen to a couple of other versions, including Janine Jansen's (above). The story of the music is pretty funny, too. Apparently the composer was watching military ships cross the English Channel while composing the first drafts of the music during the beginning of WWI.  A young kid saw him and thought he was a spy writing secret code. He called the cops and Williams was arrested! Oops.