Monday, May 31, 2010

Perhaps Love


Perhaps love is like a resting place
A shelter from the storm
It exists to give you comfort
It is there to keep you warm
And in those time of trouble
When you are most alone
The memory of love will bring you home

Perhaps love is like a window
Perhaps an open door
It invites you to come closer
It wants to show you more
And even if you lose yourself
And don't know what to do
The memory of love will see you through

Oh, love to some is like cloud
To some as strong as steel
For some a way of living
For some a way of feel
And some say love holding on
And some say letting go
And some love is everything
Some say that they don't know

Perhaps love is like the ocean
Full of conflict full of pain
Like a fire when its cold outside
Or thunder when it rains
If I should live forever
And all my dreams come true
My memories of love will be of you ...

... John Denver & Placido Domingo

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Cinema Paradiso: Love Theme


Another Ennio Morricone's masterpiece
for a sublime movie, Cinema Paradiso.

Gabriel's Oboe/Nella Fantasia

This is Ennio Morricone’s main theme for the soundtrack to the 1986 motion picture "The Mission" starring Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons. Representing the humanity, spirituality and emotion of the story, the sublime Gabriel's Oboe is the most famous part of the haunting score. The soundtrack was nominated for an Academy Award in 1986 and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. It was selected as the 23rd best film score in American Cinema according to AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores. The music was also used during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. This is the original orchestral version of Gabriel's Oboe: one of the most serene tunes in film music history.


Followed by two voice versions re-named as Nella Fantasia. The clip on the left is sang by the late Jan Werner Daniels whilst on the right is a celtic version sang by Chloë Agnew.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Come What May


The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return ...


Never knew I could feel like this
Like I've never seen the sky before
Want to vanish inside your kiss
Every day I love you more and more
Listen to my heart, can you hear it sing?
Telling me to give you everything
Seasons may change, winter to spring
But I love you until the end of time ...

... Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place
Suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace
Suddenly my life doesn't seem such a waste
It all revolves around you
And there's no mountain too high
No river too wide
Sing out this song and I'll be there by your side
Storm clouds may gather,
And stars may collide
But I love you (I love you)
Until the end of time (until the end of time)

Come what may
Come what may
I will love you until my dying day

... Come What May, Moulin Rouge
Sung by Nicole Kidman & Ewan McGregor 

Four Questions Of Value


"There are only four questions of value in life, Don Octavio: 
What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for, and what is worth dying for? 
The answer to each is the same: only love"

... Don Juan DeMarco

To Love Is To Risk


"To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing"

... Author Unknown

What Makes You Come Alive


"Don't ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. 
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive"

... Howard Thurman

Monday, May 24, 2010

Lost: The End


Locke: This place is different, it's special. The others don't wanna talk about it because it scares them. But we all know it, we all feel it.

Locke: I've looked into the eye of this island and what I saw ... was beautiful. 


Jack: Why are they here now?
Christian: There is no now, here
Jack: Where are we, dad?
Christian: This is a place you all made together so you could find one another. The most important part of your life was the time that you spent with these people. That's why you're here. Nobody does it all alone. You needed them and they needed you.
Jack: For what?
Christian: To remember and ... to let go

Find yourself ...

I Won't Be Found


Well if I ever see the morning
Just like a lizard in the spring
I’m gonna run out in the meadow
To catch the silence when it sings

I’m gonna force the Serengeti
To disappear into my eyes
Then when I hear your voices callin’
I’m gonna turn just inside out

Well if I ever get to slumber
Just like a mole deep in the ground
Hell, I won’t be found

Deep in the dust forgotten gathered
I grow a diamond in my chest
I make reflections as the moon shines on
Turn to a villain as I rest

Well if I ever get to slumber
Just like a mole deep in the ground
Hell, I won’t be found

I know there is a hollow
I need to fill it with a draft
Of all the words that I wont say
And with a quiet whisper
I send a curse upon the day
That never used the sun to see
The light

I’m gonna float up in the ceiling
I built a levee of the stars
And in my field of tired horses
I built a freeway through this farce

Well if I ever get that slumber
Ill be that mole deep in the ground
And I won’t be found

... The Tallest Man On Earth

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

If I Had A Flower For Every Time I Thought Of You ...


"If I had a flower for every time I thought of you ... I could walk through my garden forever."

... Alfred Lord Tennyson

Monday, May 17, 2010

I Guess This Is Goodbye

"As they pulled away, Susan looked out on the street she loved so much. A street where parents could raise their children, where retirees could enjoy their golden years, where good friends could share horrible secrets. Yes, Susan looked on this street and vowed she would be back"


... Desperate Housewives Season 6 Finale: I Guess This Is Goodbye

Sunday, May 16, 2010

To Be Happy


"It's a common belief that positive thinking leads to a happier healthier life. As children, we are told to smile, be cheerful and put on a happy face. As adults, we are told to look on the bright side, to make lemonade, and see glasses as half full. Sometimes reality can get in the way of our ability to act the happy part though. Your hopes can fail, boyfriends can cheat, friends can disappoint. It's in these moments, when you just want to get real, drop the act, and be your true scared, unhappy self.

Ask most people what they want out of life and the answer is simple: to be happy. Maybe it's this expectation though of wanting to be happy that just keeps us from ever getting there. Maybe the more we try and will ourselves to these states of bliss, the more confused we get - to the point where we don't recognize ourselves. Instead we just keep smiling: trying to be the happy people we wish we were. Until eventually it hits us: it's been there all along. Not in our dreams or our hopes - but in the known: they're comfortable, they're familiar."

... Grey's Anatomy, Season 6: Shiny Happy People

Saturday, May 15, 2010

It Lights Up The Whole Sky


Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth:
‘You owe Me’

Look what happens with
A love like that:
It lights up the Whole Sky

... Hafiz of Shiraz

Friday, May 14, 2010

She


She may be the face I can't forget
The trace of pleasure or regret
May be my treasure or the price I have to pay
She may be the song the summer sings
May be the chill the autumn brings
May be a hundred different things
Within the measure of a day ...

... She who always seems so happy in a crowd
Whose eyes can be so crowded and so proud
No one's allowed to see them when they cry
She may be the love that cannot hope to last
May come to me from shadows of the past
But I'll remember till the day I die

She may be the reason I survive
The why and wherefore I'm alive
The one I'll care for through the rough in many years
Me, I'll take her laughter and her tears
And make them all my souvenirs
For where she goes I've got to be
The meaning of my life is she

... She, Elvis Costello

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

First Day Of My Life


... Yours is the first face that I saw
I think I was blind before I met you
I don't know where I am
I don't know where I've been
But I know where I want to go

So I thought I'd let you know
That these things take forever
I especially am slow
But I realized that I need you
And I wondered if I could come home

I remember the time you drove all night
Just to meet me in the morning
And I thought it was strange
You said everything changed
You felt as if you just woke up

And you said,
This is the first day of my life,
I'm glad I didn't die before I met you
But now I don't care I could go anywhere with you
And I'd probably be happy.

... Besides maybe this time it's different
I mean I really think you like me ...

... First Day Of My Life, Bright Eyes

La Mamma Morta


La Mamma Morta is an aria of the 1896 opera Andrea Chénier by Umberto Giordano, sung by the role of Maddalena di Coigny (soprano).

... sung by Maria Callas, 
from the film Philadelphia

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Parting Glass


But since it falls unto my lot,
That I should go and you should not,
I gently rise and softly call,
Good night and joy be with you all.

Just Feeling


"The skin is the largest organ in the body - it protects us. Holds us together. Literally lets us know what we are feeling. The skin can be soft and vulnerable. Highly sensitive, easy to break. Skin doesn't matter to a surgeon. We will cut right through it, go inside, find out the secrets underneath. It takes delicacy and sensitivity... No matter how thick-skinned we try to be, there's millions of electrifying nerve endings in there. Open and exposed and feeling way too much. Try as we might to keep from feeling pain, sometimes it's just unavoidable. Sometimes that's the only thing left - just feeling."

... Grey's Anatomy, Season 6: How Insensitive

Sunday, May 9, 2010

The Way You Look Tonight


Some day, when I'm awfully low,
When the world is cold,
I will feel a glow just thinking of you...
And the way you look tonight.

Yes you're lovely, with your smile so warm
And your cheeks so soft,
There is nothing for me but to love you,
And the way you look tonight.

With each word your tenderness grows,
Tearing my fear apart...
And that laugh that wrinkles your nose,
It touches my foolish heart.

Lovely ... Never, ever change.
Keep that breathless charm.
Won't you please arrange it?
'Cause I love you ... Just the way you look tonight.

Those Who Don't Feel This Love


Those who don't feel this Love
pulling them like a river,
those who don't drink dawn
like a cup of spring water
or take in sunset like supper,
those who don't want to change,

let them sleep.

This Love is beyond the study of theology,
that old trickery and hypocrisy.
If you want to improve your mind that way,

sleep on.

I've given up on my brain.
I've torn the cloth to shreds
and thrown it away.

If you're not completely naked,
wrap your beautiful robe of words
around you,

and sleep.

... Rumi

Mercy


I don't know what this is but you got me good
Like you knew you would
I don't know what you do but you do it well
I'm under your spell

You got me begging you for mercy
Why won't you release me
You got me begging you for mercy
Why won't you release me
I said you better release me

Now you think that I will be something on the side
But you got to understand that I need a man
Who can take my hand, yes I do

I don't know what this is but you got me good
Like you knew you would
I don't know what you do but you do it well
I'm under your spell

... Mercy, Duffy

Eternity In An Hour


To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

... Auguries Of Innocence, William Blake

Saturday, May 8, 2010

The City Where My Sweetheart Lives


ONCE a beloved asked her lover: "Friend,
You have seen many places in the world!
Now - which of all these cities was the best?
He said: "The city where my sweetheart lives!"

... Rumi

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Looking For Your Face


From the beginning of my life
I have been looking for your face
but today I have seen it

Today I have seen
the charm, the beauty,
the unfathomable grace
of the face
that I was looking for

Today I have found you
and those who laughed
and scorned me yesterday
are sorry that they were not looking
as I did

I am bewildered by the magnificence
of your beauty
and wish to see you
with a hundred eyes

My heart has burned with passion
and has searched forever
for this wondrous beauty
that I now behold

I am ashamed
to call this love human
and afraid of God
to call it divine

Your fragrant breath
like the morning breeze
has come to the stillness of the garden
You have breathed new life into me
I have become your sunshine
and also your shadow

My soul is screaming in ecstacy
Every fiber of my being
is in love with you

Your efflugence
has lit a fire in my heart
for me
the earth and sky

My arrow of love
has arrived at the target
I am in the house of mercy
and my heart
is a place of prayer

... Rumi

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85


Sir Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 was his last notable work, and is a cornerstone of the solo cello repertoire. The piece was composed during the summer of 1919 at Elgar's secluded cottage named "Brinkwells" near Fittleworth in Sussex, where during previous years he had heard the sound of the artillery of World War I rumbling across the Channel at night from France. In 1918, Elgar composed three chamber works, which his wife noted were already noticeably different from his previous compositions, and after their premiere in the spring of 1919, he began realising his idea of a cello concerto. The piece represented, for Elgar, the angst, despair, and disillusionment he felt after the end of the War, and an introspective look at death and mortality. It was a significant change in his style, as he wrote much of his previous works in a noble and jovial style, inspired by the English way of life and the pre-war renaissance of European art. The concerto opens with a dramatic recitative in the solo cello, immediately followed by a short cadenza. The viola section then presents a rendition of the main theme, then pass it to the solo cello who repeats it and then modifies it into a stronger, more painful restatement. The orchestra reiterates, and the cello presents the theme a final time before moving directly into the lighter-hearted and lyrical middle section. This transitions into another presentation of the main theme, now cold and distant and a mere echo of the original theme. The slower first movement moves directly into the fast, light-hearted second movement (acting as a scherzo although it is not in triple time) without a pause.


Excerpt from the first movement above is played by the young and talented Andreas Brantelid (left) and the legendary Jacqueline du Pré (right).

Born in 1987, Andreas Brantelid is already one of Scandinavia’s leading cellists and is quickly establishing an international reputation. He is currently a member of the BBC’s New Generation Artist scheme and in 2009/10 joins the prestigious Lincoln Centre Chamber Music Society in New York. He was nominated by the European Concert Hall Organization for their "Rising Star" recital series last season, and performed in many major venues including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikverein Vienna, Palais des Beaux Arts Brussels, Philharmonie Cologne and Stockholm Concert Hall.

Andreas made his solo debut with orchestra at the age of 14 with the Royal Danish Orchestra, Copenhagen playing this very same Elgar's Cello Concerto. Since then he has appeared as a soloist with all the major orchestras in Scandinavia. This season his performances include the Gothenburg Symphony, Hamburg Symphony, BBC Philharmonic and Vienna Chamber Orchestras. He will also give the world premiere performance of Rosing-Schow’s Cello Concerto with the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

He is the first Scandinavian to win 1st Prize in the Eurovision Young Musicians Competition (2006) and the Paulo International Cello Competition (2007). In addition he has won a number of local competitions in Denmark and Sweden. Andreas Brantelid was Danish Radio's "Artist in Residence, 2007". He has received many grants and prizes and is a scholarship holder of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust 2008.

Jacqueline Mary du Pré (26 January 1945 – 19 October 1987) was a British cellist, acknowledged as one of the greatest players of the instrument. She is particularly associated with this very same Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor; her interpretation of that work has been described as "definitive" and "legendary". Her career was cut short by multiple sclerosis, which forced her to cease performing at the age of 28, and led to her premature death. Following her death, her older sister Hilary du Pré and younger brother Piers wrote a book about their family life, A Genius in the Family. It was the basis for the movie Hilary and Jackie, and both aroused fierce controversy.

In March 1961, at age 16, du Pré made her formal début, at Wigmore Hall, London. She made her concerto début in 1962 at the Royal Festival Hall playing the Elgar Cello Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Rudolf Schwarz. She performed at the Proms in 1963, playing the Elgar Concerto with Sir Malcolm Sargent. Her performance of the concerto proved so popular that she returned three years in succession to perform the work. Du Pré performed with the most prestigious orchestras and conductors, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, New Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. She regularly performed with conductors such as Barbirolli, Sargent, Sir Adrian Boult, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, and Leonard Bernstein. Her friendship with musicians Yehudi Menuhin, Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta and Pinchas Zukerman and marriage to Daniel Barenboim led to many memorable chamber music performances.

Du Pré received several fellowships from music academies and honorary doctorate degrees from universities in honour of her contribution to music. She was the first recipient of the prestigious Guilhermina Suggia Award, at age 11, and remains the youngest recipient. In 1960, she won the Gold Medal of the Guildhall School of Music in London and the Queen's Prize for British musicians. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1976 New Year Honours. At the 1977 BRIT Awards, she won the award for the best classical soloist album of the past 25 years for Elgar's Cello Concerto. After her death, a rose cultivar named in her honour received the Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society. She was made an honorary fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford, whose music building bears her name. In this memorable performance, the orchestra was conducted by Daniel Barenboim - whom she eventually married but had a short and challenging life together. They were eventually divorced.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Map Of The Problematique


Life
Will flash before my eyes
So scattered and lost
I want to touch the other side
And no one
Thinks they are to blame
Why can't we see
That when we bleed we bleed the same?

... Map Of The Problematique, Muse

O Son Of Adam!


"Verily, God will say to his servant on the Day of Judgment, 'O son of Adam, I was hungry and you did not give me food.' He will answer: 'How could I feed you? You are the Lord of the worlds!' He will say: 'Did you not know that my servant was hungry, and you did not feed him. Alas, had you fed him you would have found that reward with Me.' 

'O son of Adam, I was thirsty and you did not give me water.' He will reply: 'How could I quench your thirst? You are the Lord of the worlds!' He will say: 'Did you not know that my servant was thirsty and you did not give him a drink. Alas, if you had given him water, you would have found that reward with me.' 

'O son of Adam, I became sick and you did not visit Me.' He will answer: 'How could I visit you? You are the Lord of the worlds!' He will say: 'Did you not know that my servant became sick and you did not visit him. Alas, had you visited him, you would have found Me with him.'"

East Of Eden


"I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one ... Humans are caught - in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too - in a net of good and evil ... There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well - or ill?"

... East of Eden, John Steinbeck

After Many A Summer Dies The Swan


"Pleasure cannot be shared; like Pain, it can only be experienced or inflicted, and when we give pleasure to our Lovers or bestow Charity upon the Needy, we do so, not to gratify the object of our Benevolence, but only ourselves. For the Truth is that we are kind for the same reason as we are cruel, in order that we may enhance the sense of our own Power."

"But then every man is ludicrous if you look at him from outside, without taking into account what’s going on in his heart and mind."

... After Many A Summer Dies The Swan, Aldous Huxley

A Single Man


"Waking up begins with saying am and now. That which has awoken then lies for a while staring up at the ceiling and down into itself until it has recognized I, and therefrom deduced I am, I am now. Here comes next, and is at least negatively reassuring; because here, this morning, is where it has expected to find itself: what’s called at home."

"But now isn’t simply now. Now is also a cold reminder: one whole day later than yesterday, one year later than last year. Every now is labeled with its date, rendering all past nows obsolete, until — later of sooner — perhaps — no, not perhaps — quite certainly: it will come.

"Do you think it makes people nasty to be loved? You know it doesn’t! Then why should it make them nice to be loathed? While you’re being persecuted, you hate what’s happening to you, you hate the people who are making it happen; you’re in a world of hate. Why, you wouldn’t recognize love if you met it! You’d suspect love! You’d think there was something behind it—some motive—some trick."

"Letʼs just talk about fear. Fear, after all, is our real enemy. Fear is taking over our world. Fear is being used as a tool of manipulation in our society. Itʼs how politicians peddle policy and how Madison Avenue sells us things that we donʼt need. Think about it. Fear that weʼre going to be attacked, fear that there are communists lurking around every corner, fear that some little Caribbean country that doesnʼt believe in our way of life poses a threat to us. Fear that black culture may take over the world. Fear of Elvis Presleyʼs hips. (Well, maybe that one is a real fear.) Fear that our bad breath might ruin our friendships... Fear of growing old and being alone."

"A few times in my life I've had moments of absolute clarity, when for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think, and things seem so sharp and the world seems so fresh. I can never make these moments last. I cling to them, but like everything, they fade. I have lived my life on these moments. They pull me back to the present, and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be."

... A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood