June 30, 2016

Gray Loft Gallery ~ Oakland Magazine Best Art Gallery Award 2016

Best of Oakland issue
July 2016
cover photo photographer unknown
photo by Styrous®

The Gray Loft Gallery just received Best Art Gallery in the Oakland Magazine Best of 2016 Awards, and has been referred to as a hidden gem in Jingletown.



Best of Oakland issue
July 2016
photo by Styrous®


Noted by Kenneth Baker, SF Chronicle, in his Visual Arts Don’t Miss Column as “…A space gaining prominence in the Bay Area…”   The mission of the gallery is to provide exhibition opportunities for artists in a setting that is an alternative to the traditional gallery model. We hope to inspire, engage and celebrate artists in our community and beyond.  We acknowledge the achievements of emerging, mid-career and established artists – with an emphasis on those who live and work in the Bay Area, in a non-traditional art space. 


Best of Oakland Art
July 2016
photo by Styrous®



Gallery Hours:  Saturdays, 1:00 to 5:00 pm, Sundays by appointment

Gray Loft Gallery
2889 Ford Street, 3rd Floor
Oakland, CA 94601
GrayLoftGallery@gmail.com
grayloftgallery.com
510.499.3445


Congratulations!


Styrous® ~ Thursday, June 30, 2016








June 28, 2016

101 Reel-to-Reel Tapes 121: Carl Orff ~ Catulli Carmina

Carl Orff ~ Catulli Carmina
conducted by Eugene Ormandy
reel-to-reel tape cover
photo by Styrous®


~ ~ ~

I started the Vinyl LP series because I have a collection of over 20,000 vinyl record albums I am selling; each blog entry is about an album from my collection. The 101 Reel-to-Reel Tapes series is an extension of that collection. Inquire for information here.   

~ ~ ~


Catulli Carmina (Ludi Scaenici) is a cantata by Carl Orff dating from 1940–1943. The work mostly sets poems of Catullus to music, with some text by the composer. Catulli Carmina is part of Trionfi, the musical triptych that also includes the Carmina Burana and Trionfo di Afrodite. It is scored for a full mixed choir, soprano and tenor soloists, and an entirely percussive orchestra – possibly inspired by Stravinsky's Les noces {dead} – consisting of four pianos, timpani, bass drum, 3 tambourines, triangle, castanets, maracas, suspended and crash cymbals, antique cymbal (without specified pitch), tam-tam, lithophone, metallophone, 2 glockenspiels, wood block, xylophone, and tenor xylophone




Carl Orff ~ Catulli Carmina
conducted by Eugene Ormandy
reel-to-reel tape back cover
photo by Styrous®


The piece is divided into three parts: a prelude with Latin text by Orff, the central dramatic story using Catullus' poems, and a short postlude which recalls the music of the prelude.    

In the prelude, groups of young women and young men sing to each other of eternal ("eis aiona" – "forever" – two words of Greek in the otherwise Latin text) love and devotion, along with quite explicit statements of the erotic activities they intend with each other. (In the texts distributed with programs and early recordings, such as the Turnabout (Vox) one, many lines in the translation are left blank.) A group of old men interrupts with sarcastic comments and charges the young people to listen to "the songs of Catullus".    





Carl Orff ~ Catulli Carmina
conducted by Eugene Ormandy
reel-to-reel tape cover spine
photo by Styrous®



The story proper tells of Catullus, a lovesick young man who falls in love with Lesbia, a woman who does not remain faithful to him. The tenor and soprano soloists portray Catullus and Lesbia respectively. This story is based loosely on the factual relationship between Catullus and Clodia, with a text mostly constructed from the poems of Catullus, in which he did address Clodia by the pseudonym Lesbia. Catullus wrote many poems about this relationship and the ones selected for the cantata take the audience through its several phases.    

In this listing, the poems are given the standard numbers. Subject to occasional textual variants, the poems are as written by Catullus, except for some interpolations in Latin ('O mea Lesbia' and the like, and exclamations of approval by the old men) and the curious extra words in poem 109.    




Carl Orff ~ Catulli Carmina
conducted by Eugene Ormandy
reel-to-reel tape interior w/program notes
photo by Styrous®

The piece is divided into three parts: a prelude with Latin text by Orff, the central dramatic story using Catullus' poems, and a short postlude which recalls the music of the prelude.   

In the prelude, groups of young women and young men sing to each other of eternal ("eis aiona" – "forever" – two words of Greek in the otherwise Latin text) love and devotion, along with quite explicit statements of the erotic activities they intend with each other. (In the texts distributed with programs and early recordings, such as the Turnabout (Vox) one, many lines in the translation are left blank.) A group of old men interrupts with sarcastic comments and charges the young people to listen to "the songs of Catullus".    


 Carl Orff ~ Catulli Carmina
conducted by Eugene Ormandy
photo by Styrous®

The orchestra only plays in the prelude and postlude, whereas in the Catullus play itself, the soloists are only accompanied by the chorus, who takes the part of a Greek choros. The piece experiments with repeated phrases and syncopated rhythms even more so than Carmina Burana. Scholars have debated the reason why this is such a lesser-known work compared to its predecessor for many years. Most of them have decided that, with the fall of Nazi Germany and the depressed feeling of Europe in the aftermath of World War II, it simply did not have the opportunity to be presented to any large audience for a long time. Even now, it is one of Orff's least performed works.   

The story proper tells of Catullus, a lovesick young man who falls in love with Lesbia, a woman who does not remain faithful to him. The tenor and soprano soloists portray Catullus and Lesbia respectively. This story is based loosely on the factual relationship between Catullus and Clodia, with a text mostly constructed from the poems of Catullus, in which he did address Clodia by the pseudonym Lesbia. Catullus wrote many poems about this relationship and the ones selected for the cantata take the audience through its several phases.    

In this listing, the poems are given the standard numbers. Subject to occasional textual variants, the poems are as written by Catullus, except for some interpolations in Latin ('O mea Lesbia' and the like, and exclamations of approval by the old men) and the curious extra words in poem 109. 



 Carl Orff ~ Catulli Carmina
conducted by Eugene Ormandy
reel-to-reel tape label 
photo by Styrous®


Program notes

Carl Orff ~ Catulli Carmina
conducted by Eugene Ormandy
program notes
photos by Styrous®




























Tracklist:

    Catulli Carmina
   
A1     I — Praelusio    
A2     II — Actus I (Beginning)    
B1     II — Actus I (Conclusion)    
B2     III — Actus II    
B3     IV — Actus III    
B4     V — Exodium    

Carl Orff - Eugene Ormandy, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Temple University Choirs, Robert Page
Label: Columbia Masterworks ‎– MQ 930
Format: reel-to-reel 7-1/2 ips tape, Stereo
Country: US
Released: 1967
Genre: Classical
Style: Modern

Companies, etc.

Credits:

Notes:

2-eye "360 SOUND" label

Includes four-page libretto

"American Recording Première: The exciting sequel to Carmina Burana"



Net links:    
         
Carl Orff/Eugene Ormandy ~ Catulli Carmina  complete on YouTube       
Carl Orff ~ Carmina Burana         
           
      
           



101 Reel-to-Reel Tapes 120: Carl Orff ~ Carmina Burana

conducted by Eugene Ormandy
reel-to-reel tape cover box
photo by Styrous®


~ ~ ~

I started the Vinyl LP series because I have a collection of over 20,000 vinyl record albums I am selling; each blog entry is about an album from my collection. The 101 Reel-to-Reel Tapes series is an extension of that collection. Inquire for information here.   

~ ~ ~


Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935 and 1936, based on 24 poems from the medieval collection Carmina Burana. Its full Latin title is Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanæ cantoribus et choris cantandæ comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis ("Songs of Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magic images"). Carmina Burana is part of Trionfi, a musical triptych that also includes Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite. The first and last movements of the piece are called Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi ("Fortune, Empress of the World") and start with the very well known "O Fortuna".    


conducted by Eugene Ormandy
reel-to-reel tape cover back
photo by Styrous®




In 1934, Orff encountered the 1847 edition of the Carmina Burana by Johann Andreas Schmeller, the original text dating mostly from the 11th or 12th century, including some from the 13th century. Michel Hofmann (de), then a young law student and Latin and Greek enthusiast, assisted Orff in the selection and organization of 24 of these poems into a libretto, mostly in Latin verse, with a small amount of Middle High German and Old Provençal. The selection covers a wide range of topics, as familiar in the 13th century as they are in the 21st century: the fickleness of fortune and wealth, the ephemeral nature of life, the joy of the return of Spring, and the pleasures and perils of drinking, gluttony, gambling and lust.           




conducted by Eugene Ormandy
reel-to-reel tape box spine
photo by Styrous®



Orff was influenced melodically by late Renaissance and early Baroque models including William Byrd and Claudio Monteverdi. It is a common misconception that Orff based the melodies of Carmina Burana on neumeatic melodies; while many of the lyrics in the Burana Codex are enhanced with neumes, almost none of these melodies had been deciphered at the time of Orff's composition, and none of them had served Orff as a melodic model. His shimmering orchestration shows a deference to Stravinsky. In particular, Orff's music is very reminiscent of Stravinsky's earlier work, Les noces (The Wedding). 








Rhythm, for Orff as it was for Stravinsky, is often the primary musical element. Overall, it sounds rhythmically straightforward and simple, but the metre will change freely from one measure to the next. While the rhythmic arc in a section is taken as a whole, a measure of five may be followed by one of seven, to one of four, and so on, often with caesura marked between them. These constant rhythmic changes combined with the caesura create a very "conversational" feel – so much so that the rhythmic complexities of the piece are often overlooked.  







Orff developed a dramatic concept he called "Theatrum Mundi" in which music, movement, and speech were inseparable. Babcock writes that "Orff's artistic formula limited the music in that every musical moment was to be connected with an action on stage. It is here that modern performances of Carmina Burana fall short of Orff's intentions." Although Carmina Burana was intended as a staged work involving dance, choreography, visual design and other stage action, the piece is now usually performed in concert halls as a cantata. A notable exception is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra version which features strobe lights and what appears to be flames engulfing the stage, wings and balconies, pulsing intensely in time to the music. A danced version choreographed by Loyce Houlton for the Minnesota Dance Theatre in 1978 was prepared in collaboration with Orff himself.  




reel-to-reel tape box interior
photo by Styrous®




Program notes

Program notes
photos by Styrous®


Carmina Burana is structured into five major sections, containing 25 movements total. Orff indicates attacca markings between all the movements within each scene.   

Much of the compositional structure is based on the idea of the turning Fortuna Wheel. The drawing of the wheel found on the first page of the Burana Codex includes four phrases around the outside of the wheel:  
"Regnabo, Regno, Regnavi, Sum sine regno". (I shall reign, I reign, I have reigned, I am without a realm). 
Within each scene, and sometimes within a single movement, the wheel of fortune turns, joy turning to bitterness, and hope turning to grief. "O Fortuna", the first poem in the Schmeller edition, completes this circle, forming a compositional frame for the work through being both the opening and closing movements. 









Orff's style demonstrates a desire for directness of speech and of access. Carmina Burana contains little or no development in the classical sense, and polyphony is also conspicuously absent. Carmina Burana avoids overt harmonic complexities, a fact which many musicians and critics have pointed out, such as Ann Powers of The New York Times.  









Carmina Burana is scored for a large orchestra of three flutes (second and third doubling first and second piccolos), three oboes (third being English horn), three clarinets in B-flat and A (third doubling piccolo clarinet in E-flat, second doubling bass clarinet), two bassoons, one contrabassoon, four horns in F, three trumpets in B-flat and C, two trombones, one bass trombone one tuba; a percussion section with 5 timpani, two snare drums, bass drum, triangle, cymbals, suspended cymbal, antique cymbals, ratchet, castanets, tambourine, sleigh bells, tam-tam, tubular bells, three bells, three glockenspiels, gong, xylophone; two pianos, one celesta; strings; two SATB mixed choirs (one large and one small, although a subset of the large chorus may be used for the small chorus) and one boys' choir; and soprano soloist, tenor soloist, baritone soloist, and short solos for three tenors, baritone and two basses.   










A reduced version for soloists, SATB mixed choir, children's choir, two pianos and six percussion (timpani + 5) was prepared by Orff's disciple, Wilhelm Killmayer, in 1956 and authorized by Orff himself, to allow smaller ensembles the opportunity to perform the piece.   









Some of the solo arias pose bold challenges for singers: the only solo tenor aria, Olim lacus colueram, is often sung almost completely in falsetto to demonstrate the suffering of the character (in this case, a roasting swan). The baritone arias often demand high notes not commonly found in baritone repertoire, and parts of the baritone aria Dies nox et omnia are often sung in falsetto, a unique example in baritone repertoire. Also noted is the solo soprano aria, Dulcissime which demands extremely high notes. Orff intended this aria for a lyric soprano, not a coloratura, so that the musical tensions would be more obvious.    









Tracklist:

Side 1:
A     Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi / Part I - Primo Vere; Uf Dem Anger / Part II - In Taberna (Begining)     28:52

Side 2:
B     Part II - In Taberna (Conclusion) / Part III - Cour D'amours; Blanzif Et Helena / Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi     29:18

Label: Columbia Masterworks ‎– MQ 368
Format: reel-to-reel tape, 7-1/2 IPS, Stereo
Country: US
Released: 1960
Genre: Classical
Style: Modern

Credits:

Notes:

The release came with a custom inner sleeve and a four page Informational program.
   
         


 Net links:    
       
Carl Orff/Eugene Ormandy ~ Carmina Burana complete on YouTube                     
Carl Orff ~ Catulli Carmina     
        

           











June 27, 2016

20,000 Vinyl LPs 59: Dark Shadows @ 50








Dark Shadows TV soundtrack
vinyl lp record
front cover photos
by ABC-TV
and Gloria Stavers
photo of album cover by Styrous®




Fifty years ago today, on June 27, 1966, the quirky soap opera, Dark Shadows, made its appearance on the TV sets of unsuspecting Americans and nothing was ever the same.      

I was working at the time with a regular 9 to 5 job so I didn't get to catch it from the beginning. It aired during regular soap times, 11 am to 3 pm, but I was hearing about it from my friends who didn't work and my curiosity was peaked. By the time I finally did get to see it, Jonathan Frid (aka Barnabas Collins) had made his appearance on the show. He was perfect in the role of the 175-year-old vampire.   
 

Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid)
photographer unknown


The show was a blend of sex, romance, mystery and occult with its ghosts, werewolves, zombies, man-made monsters, witches, warlocks, and even verged on Sci-Fi with time travel and a parallel universe. All of it guaranteed to titillate the audience. The show depicted the lives and loves, trials and tribulations of the wealthy Collins family of Collinsport, Maine. Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) was the head of the family.     

The acting was melodramatic, hammy and, I suppose, even dreadful but most of the soaps of that period actually were. I really thought it was a take-off, parody or satire on them. 


Dark Shadows TV soundtrack
vinyl lp record
back cover photos by Holly Cobert 
photo of album cover by Styrous®


The music for the series was composed by Robert Cobert. The music is totally weird, eerie and frightening with an ethereal (what else?) theremin soaring over and through the music (link to music on YouTube below).   

Cobert was later to compose the music for the TV mini-series The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. Together, the scores for these constitute the longest film score ever written for a movie.

His early work included the score for the 1972 TV movie The Night Stalker, together with The Night Strangler, which became the pilots for the TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. His other scores include the horror film Burnt Offerings (1976), and the TV movies The Norliss Tapes (1973), Dracula (1973), Scream of the Wolf (1974), Melvin Purvis: G-Man (1974), The Turn of the Screw (1974), Trilogy of Terror (1975) (Karen Black was sensational in three different roles), Curse of the Black Widow (1977) and Trilogy of Terror II (1996).       



Dark Shadows TV soundtrack
vinyl lp record, side 1
photo by Styrous®


Dark Shadows was distinguished by its vividly melodramatic performances, atmospheric interiors, memorable storylines, numerous dramatic plot twists, adventurous music score, broad cosmos of characters and heroic adventures. The original network run of the show lasted for nearly five years to amass 1,225 episodes.    



Dark Shadows TV soundtrack
vinyl lp record, side 2
photo by Styrous®






Tracklist:

Side 1:

A1     Opening Themes: 1. Dark Shadows 2. Collinwood - omposed by Robert Cobert - 2:44
A2     I'll Be With You, Always - composed by Charles Grean, Robert Cobert,  
                                                   Narrator [Narration by] Jonathan Frid - 2:22
A3     Josette's Theme - composed by Robert Cobert - 1:19
A4     A Darkness At Collinwood - composed by Robert Cobert - 3:25
A5     Meditations - composed by Robert Cobert, Narrator [Narration By] Jonathan Frid - 2:29
A6     Night Of The Pentagram - composed by Robert Cobert - 2:42
A7     When I Am Dead - composed by Robert Cobert - 1:42
A8     No. 1 At The Blue Whale - composed by Robert Cobert - 2:22

Side 2:

B1     Shadows Of The Night (Quentin's Theme) - composed by Charles Grean, Robert Cobert,       
                                                    Narrator [Narration by] David Selby - 2:06
B2     The Secret Room - composed by Robert Cobert - 2:29
B3     Epitaph - composed by Robert Cobert Narrator [Narration by] Jonathan Frid - 1:56
B4     Seance - composed by Robert Cobert - 1:18
B5     I, Barnabas - composed by Charles Grean, Robert Cobert,    
                                                     Narrator [Narration by] Jonathan Frid - 2:12
B6     Back At The Blue Whale - composed by Robert Cobert - 2:10
B7     The Old House - composed by Robert Cobert - 2:21
B8     1. Epilogue 2. Dark Shadows - composed by Robert Cobert - 1:56

Companies, etc.

    Record Company – Mercury Record Corporation
    Produced For – Curtis Records, Inc.
    Copyright (c) – Curtis Records, Inc.
    Published By – Curnor Music Publishing Co.
    Recorded At – Regent Sound Studios

Credits:

    Arranged By, Conductor – Robert Cobert
    Engineer [Recording Engineer] – Hal Dreeben
    Photography By [Cover Photos] –
Gloria Stavers    
    Photography By [Other Photos] – Holly Cobert
    Producer – Charles R. Grean*

The Robert Cobert Orchestra* Featuring Jonathan (Barnabas) Frid* And David (Quentin) Selby* ‎– The Original Music From ABC-TV's Dark Shadows

Label: Philips ‎– PHS-600-314
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 1969
Style: Soundtrack
 




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpr6IfYW5Lg








Net links:         
         
Dark Shadows Storylines         
Dark Shadows theme on YouTube           
Dark Shadows episodes on YouTube


Styrous® ~ Monday, June 27, 2016