Music Monday Aug 29: Voices

There is a radio show on CBC here in Canada that occasionally does a feature called SYNTH: Songs You Need To Hear.

Now, I can’t say to someone, “You’ll like this song” (or book for that matter) because I can’t presume that others will share my taste in music (or books), so it is safer to say, “You might like this” and if they don’t like it, so be it.

Maybe you will find a new favorite.

On Sunday mornings, CBC radio has a show called Choral Concerts. There are a lot of beautiful vocal pieces out there, both very old and very new. I know what the words to some pieces are (or mean), but for me, it doesn’t really matter, it’s the mood and emotion created that’s important.

Out of the corner of my ear (can I say that?), the opening of this piece made me stop what I was doing and sit and listen.

Ola Gjeilo was born in Norway in 1978 and moved to the United States in 2001 to begin his composition studies at the Juilliard School in New York City, where he currently lives and works as a composer and pianist.

So I looked up some other pieces.

Morten Johannes Lauridsen (born February 27, 1943) is an American composer who I enjoy.

No vocal showcase would be complete without Andrea Bocelli. I chose to share the younger voice of the singer. There is another version with Sarah Brightman which is also lovely.

-Leon

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/