In the brilliant light of May I can't even see the glass. The sun streams in like a flamboyant guest, not waiting for an invitation. No longer can I see the white vinyl frame, just the shape. I think this window is what sold me on the house, it's like an arched doorway: low to the ground and reaching high to the ceiling. Perhaps sun-bleaching of the floors and couch should concern me, but it doesn't. The rays warm the couch and lift me to notions of gardening and walking the dog. I know he needs it, I think we both do.
By Angela Abraham, @daisydescriptionari, January 21, 2015.
Will always said when a door closes another one opens but, the way I see it, when a window closes you can only see what could have been through it's transparent surface. They're devious, sly, and tricky the way they allow you to see through them, though you can't get to your past option.regret. The images that they reflect are flawless they don't come out backwards like a mirror so you can see who you really are. A real eye-opener. On rainy days they only want to shape the way you think, so they distort all on the other side. On sunny days they glare brightly so you can't see, blinding you completely, leaving you vulnerable. Sometimes it's hard to hang onto what Will said especially since he's no longer by my side.
By ratoriravenwolf, September 25, 2014.
Ryan could feel the cuffs digging into his wrists and rope around his ankles; his left cheek lay firmly in the muddy dust that coated the cold concrete floor. From a high window came rectangle of daylight, sending white beams to illuminate the grime and show the dust that swirled in the air. If he could reach it he could find out where he was. Even if he couldn't tell the exact location, even just knowing if he was still in LA would be something. He strained his ears for sounds, for cars or for ships. Were there gulls or garden birds? Was this industrial or residential? Again he focused on the window, the frame was new but it wasn't the sort you could open. There must be ventilation shafts. He knew how to get his hands free, he just didn't relish doing it. Enough pressure in the right spot would break his thumb, then it would be time to check out and report in.
The window is so large it reminds me of a store-front, but so high up who can see in anyway? The window is triple-glazed and so clear that the panorama is like a high definition screen at the movie theatre. The birds travel past, buffeted by the winds that whistle through these towers, as if to remind us that we're in their space now. This real-estate in the sky feels so futuristic, I wouldn't be surprised if Terri just beamed herself in here right from the office. The city below is so far away it's like another world, those ant-like people and all their problems are of no more consequence than temporary static on intercom. All this concrete is my cocoon and the window, well, the window shows me as much detail as I want to know.
The window is a hundred years older than the one in my house yet perfect in every way. The glass, though clear, is as thick as a beer bottle. Each rectangle, no bigger than a dollar-store notebook, is held in place with black iron. Like the stone walls it was built to last. Though it must have been so much harder to make, the top is a gentle arch rather than flat. I want to lift it from its little hole and take it home with me but I'd never get it out, and even if I did it would weigh a tonne.
The window is single pane. It's old but not attractively so. It's just the kind they threw in twenty years ago expecting it to last fifteen at the most. Even inches away it's like standing in front of an open refrigerator. No matter how much heat I pump out from that three-bar gas fire it just flees out of the window or up the chimney. Last year we bought that thin plastic stuff that's supposed to make it double glazed, this year I spent the cash on a thicker coat at the thrift store. Doesn't make the skin on my face any warmer or stop the condensation that pools on the peeling ledge, but it made more sense at the time. Now at least I don't look so poor out on the street, unless they look closely at my shoes. But who does that? Who cares anyway?
The room's one window, too high for a woman not standing on a stool to peer out of, had lozenge panes of leaded glass, thick glass bubbles and warped like bottle bottoms.
By james, April 24, 2012.
Found in The Witches of Eastwick, authored by John Updike.
The window had a lace of frost around its edges, left over from a frigid night.
Found in Goliath, authored by Scott Westerfeld.
Ancient mullioned window, sash windows, leaded windows with stain glass flower patterns or geometric designs, leaded and stain glass 16th century church window with stone frames, encrusted with dirt, grimy, filthy, grainy, shattered, broken, single pane, double glazed, sparkling, frosted glass, small, mean proportions, high and narrow, as small and mean as a jail cell, large bay window, rotting frames, aluminium framed, covered in condensation, mold and mildew around the frame, dusty metal blinds with grimy pull strings, boarded up with plywood.
By angela, April 6, 2012.
Double glazed with a plastic veneer, the window is sealed shut. Terrified neighbours gather outside.
By Gragsy, January 21, 2015.
Show me a window and I will show you where your heart yearns to be. Is it a view to the ocean and the playful hearts whom dwell there? Is it of a meadow adorned with rainbow earth-given wings? Is it window to the stars, one to show how they give of their brilliance, an ever-present part of the passing night? For what you see is yourself also, the beauty reflected within as joy. This is connection to our world, our universe, and our belonging too.
By Angela Abraham, @daisydescriptionari, May 17, 2018.


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Classical music: Sonata à Quattro does justice to the spiritual piety and beautiful music in Haydn's "Seven Last Words of Christ"
Here is a special posting, a review written by frequent guest critic and writer for this blog, John W. Barker. Barker (below) is an emeritus professor of Medieval history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a well-known classical music critic who writes for Isthmus and the American Record Guide, and who hosts an early music show once a month on Sunday morning on WORT 89.9 FM. For years, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison. He also took the performance photos.
Marika Fischer Hoyt's newest ensemble is called Sonata à Quattro (below), using the Italian Baroque expression for instrumental works scored for three upper parts and basso continuo. That idiom was the background to the more integrated balance of the string quartet.
It was Franz Joseph Haydn (below) who really consolidated that transformation, and so it was appropriate that the new group should at this early point in its development pay a major tribute to that composer.
Responding to a commission from a Spanish prelate, in 1786-87 Haydn composed a set of seven orchestral adagios — plus opening and closing pieces — to be played in a Good Friday ceremony celebrating the seven final statements by Christ from the cross (below, in a painting by Diego Velazquez) that are cumulatively reported by the Gospel writers.
At the same time, Haydn made a reduction of those orchestral movements into the string quartet format. That version he published outside his regular sets of string quartets, which had opus numbers.
Especially in the quartet form, this music achieved wide circulation, so much so that several attempts were made by others to create an oratorio out of this music, prompting Haydn himself to make his own oratorio version in 1795-96. Along the way, someone else made a keyboard transcription of the music that Haydn sanctioned.
It was, of course, the string quartet version — The Seven Last Words of Christ — that the Sonata à Quattro performed. It did so, first as part of a Good Friday church service in Milwaukee on April 19, and then as an independent one-hour free and public concert at the Oakwood Village West auditorium last Thursday night.
Fischer Hoyt (below), the group's founder and violist, gave an introductory talk about the group's name and about its decisions as to instrumentation. (It usually plays on period instruments, but chose this time to use modern ones with period bows.) Cellist Charlie Rasmussen added some comments about the music and its history. Violinists Kangwon Kim and Nathan Giglierano were happy just to play.
Haydn's music was written in the deepest piety and sincerity, and that comes through in the individual components, which cost him much effort. (You can hear the second half of the work in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The seven Sonatas are framed by a solemn Introduction and a furious evocation of the "earthquake" that we are told followed the death of Jesus. Each successive Sonata is cast in very tight and concentrated sonata form. Haydn makes the Latin form of each statement or "word" the theme of each sonata. In all, the cycle makes the most deeply absorbing combination of spirituality and ingenuity.
The players brought out both those dimensions in a performance of rapt beauty. This score has quite a few recordings, but it is not heard in concert all that often, so it was a treasure to be given this wonderful presentation.
And now we know that Sonata à Quattro has great possibilities to develop.
Tags: #AmericanRecordGuide, #BaroqueMusic, #BassoContinuo, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BlogReview, #BooksoftheBIble, #ChamberMusic, #ChamberMusician, #CharlieRasmussen, #ChoralMusic, #ChristianChurch, #CommissionedMusic, #ConcertHall, #DiegoVelazquez, #EmeritusProfessor, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FranzJosephHaydn, #GoodFriday, #HistoricallyInformedPerformancePractices, #InstrumentalMusic, #IsthmusNewspaper, #ItalianBaroque, #JesusChrist, #JohnW.Barker, #KangwonKim, #MadisonEarlyMusicFestival, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MarikaFischerHoyt, #MedievalHistory, #MilwaukeeWisconsin, #MusicCritic, #MusicReview, #NathanGiglierano, #OakwoodVillageWest, #OrchestralMusic, #PeriodInstrument, #PianoTranscription, #RadioHost, #SevenLastWordsofChrist, #SonataaQuattro, #StringQuartet, #WORT-FM89.9, absorbing, adagio, American Record Guide, Arts, audience, background, basso continuo, beauty, Bible, blog, bow, celebrate, cellist, Cello, ceremony, Chamber music, Charlie Rasmussen, choral music, Christ, Christian, church, circulation, Classical music, classicalmusic, closing, comments, commission, Compact Disc, component, composer, concentrated, concentration, Concert, concert hall, consolidate, cross, crucifixion, cumulative, cycle, death, deep, develop, development, Diego Velazquez, dimension, Early music, earthquake, Easter, effort, emeritus professor, ensemble, evocation, expression, Facebook, final, form, forward, founder, Franz Joseph Haydn, furious, Good Friday, gospel, historically informed performance practices, History, host, hour, idiom, independent, individual, ingenuity, introductory, Isthus, Italian, Jacob Stockinger, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John W. Barker, Kangwon Kim, Keyboard, Latin, lecture, like, link, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Marika Fischer Hoyt, Medieval, Milwaukee, modern, movement, Music, music review, name, Nathan Giglierano, new, number, Oakwood Village West, opening, opus, oratorio, painting, performance, performer, period instruments, photo, piety, player, possibilities, possibility, prelate, presentation, professor, Radio, rapt, recording, reduction, reported, review, service, Seven Last Words of Christ, share, sincerity, socre, solemn, Sonata, Sonata à Quattro, Spanish, spirituality, statement, String quartet, Sunday, tag, talk, tight, transcription, transformation, treasure, tribute, upper, Viola, Violin, violinist, violist, wonderful, word, WORT-FM 89.9, Writer
Classical music: ECM Records finally streams its entire catalogue of award-winning artists and recordings
The critically acclaimed and award-winning independent label ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) was founded in Munich, Germany, in 1969 by the Grammy-winning producer Manfred Eicher (below).
Known for its penchant for the contemporary and even avant-garde, Eicher's label was nonetheless a conservative hold-out when it came to the newer technology of digital streaming.
The old technology has its points besides superior sound quality. When you got an ECM CD, you usually also got one of their terrific black-and-white photographs, often a square-format landscape, as a cover. (ECM even published a book of its photographic covers.)
But as of this past Friday, ECM finally gave into the inevitable and streamed its entire catalogue. Its rationale was that it was more important for its music and musicians to be heard than to remain loyal to certain platforms.
ECM also cited the pressure from unauthorized uploads to YouTube and bootleg versions of its recordings as the reason for the decision.
So as of yesterday, ECM, which has won many awards for individual titles and artists, will be available on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, Deezer, Tidal and other streaming services.
ECM is known for its popular and critically acclaimed jazz artists including pianist Keith Jarrett (below, of "The Köln Concert" or The Cologne Concert) and saxophonist Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble ("Officium"). But it also included classical chamber music groups such as the Keller Quartet, the Trio Medieval, the Danish Quartet and others.
ECM is also known for championing contemporary classical composers (Arvo Pärt, below, who is the most performed contemporary composer, as well as Tigur Mansurian, Lera Auerbach, Gyorgy Kurtag and Valentin Silvestrov among others) and some outstanding crossover classical musicians, including Jarrett, a jazz great who has also recorded Bach, Handel and Shostakovich on both piano and harpsichord.
The Ear especially likes violist Kim Kashkashian and Harvard pianist Robert Levin (a frequent performer at the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival) in sonatas of Brahms. He is also fond of Alexei Lubimov in various piano recitals as well as the many recordings of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Janacek and Robert Schumann by the superb pianist Andras Schiff (below). In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear Schiff in a live performance of the Gigue from Bach's Keyboard Partita No. 3.)
And there are many, many more artists and recordings worth your attention. Here is a link to an extensive sampler on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ECMRecordsChannel
Who are your favorite ECM artists?
What are your favorite ECM recordings?
What ECM downloads do you recommend?
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