Flower Power

Here's some pictures my little brother Tim took in our backyard:







Lovely!

Two birds with TWO days - Bird #2

Well. I was planning on doing the "Two birds with one day" reviewing sequence in one day, but my day simply wasn't long enough...so here's Birdie #2 on the second day.

Yesterday, in my review of "50 Great Classical Masterpieces", I mentioned one piece which I had discovered, "A Dance of Clowns", by Mendelssohn. This piece is part of a set of music for Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which I purchased from Amazon and listened to over and over and over and over and over...

Overall sound quality: Good. I didn't notice any weak spots.

B

Selection: As the selection and organization was predetermined (well, when you order music to A Midsummer Night's Dream, how badly can they screw it up?), I'm not going to give a grade on either of these points.

Interperetation: Excellent. I was madly in love with this set of music from the first moment on. Within the first few seconds, you can see the fairies scurrying around and messing around in others' lives. ^_^ Some particular favorites of mine were tracks 7,8, and12 (the Intermezzo, Nocturne, and Marcia funebre). Lovely, lovely music, and Judi Dench (as narrator) did an excellent job. One of the reviewers on Amazon said that Ms. Dench didn't do a very good job. I think he said her voice was "sing-songy". So I was a little wary of how she would do - but that fear was dispelled from the first line she says. Cheers for Ms. Dench and the Boston Symphony Orchestra! I was kind of disappointed in how Mendelssohn handled the fairy singing, as I would've like something a little more wild and fey, rather than so classical, but it was bearable. Just a personal preference. Of course, that part was Mendelssohn's responsibility, so it doesn't really affect my grade for interperetation...just thought I'd mention it.

A+

Presentation: The cover (which you can see here) was good enough. I think they could've done better. Maybe if they had skipped the butterflies and had a picture of a fairie? Really, though, that's just a matter of personal taste...I guess...

B

Overall grade: B+

Grading Scale: A = Superb! B = Good enough C = Leaves something to be desired D = Are you blind? F = Idiots.

Random Quote of the Day:

"...but there is a kind of grace that comes / when tears revive a proud old house..."
-Aeschylus, The Libation Bearers, 326-327, Fagles

Two birds with one day - Bird #1

This is going to be sort of a two part review - one of "50 Classical Masterpieces", and one of the "A Midsummer Night's Dream" recording with Judi Dench and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I found a two CD set of "50 Classical Masterpieces" out in our garage. Disregarding the question of how they wandered into our garage, I popped the CD's in my trusty CD player, and listened to them while doing some housework.

Overall sound quality: Eh...survivable. It's not so bad that one is immediately impelled to bang your head against the wall, but it does leave something to be desired.

C

Selection: Decent. I would've liked to have seen a better selection of Schubert (maybe the Ave Maria?), more Bach, better Mozart (the exclusion of Eine Kliene is...stupid), and definately some Saint-Saens. I did find some new pieces that I hadn't heard before (and that I liked), so all is well. One example is the Dance of Clowns, which is part of Bird #2.

B

Organization: My main beef with this set is in this catagory - why do they have all the composers spread out? For example, Mozart has one piece at the beginning of the first CD, and one piece at the end of the second CD. Why not just all the Mozart together? (Presumably) a composer would be in just one time period, and the people compiling the CD could just arrange the pieces within the composers, or just arrange the composers so that it flowed well. Freaks.

F

Presentation: The set's slipcover has the same picture as the actual CD covers, which is that of a tree silhouetted against a moon sitting in a red sky. In my opinion, it's not particularely brilliant or original. But that's just my personal opinion.

C

Overall grade: C-

Grading Scale: A = Superb! B = Good enough C = Leaves something to be desired D = Are you blind? F = Idiots.

Random Quote of the Day:

Light came from the east, / bright guarantee of God, and the waves / went quiet; I could see headlands / and buffeted cliffs."
-Beowulf, 569-572, Heaney

And thus it began...

I wonder what dandelions think. I wonder if Joseph was compassionate to Mary after he found out she was pregnant, or if he taunted her and treated her like the dirt under his shoe for the rest of his (or her) life. I wonder. Sometimes how, sometimes why. Perhaps too much. I'm a kid who is going to be a junior in high school this next September, and whom is currently pursuing her education at home. I like classical music. I enjoy reading. I have a particular fondness for mythologies themselves, and good retellings of the mythologies. The Bible is my favorite collection, in particular the books of Job and 1 John (currently). I am planning on using this blog as a channel for me to say what I think about music, books, and (possibly) life in general. The Maid of the North Speaks.

Random Quote of the Day:

You dawn of darkness, you turn night into day - I see the light at last."

- Agamemnon, lines 25-26