We close this week with one of my favorite Mariachi songs ever. I heard this song at a friend’s party once a long time ago and completely fell for the words and the show stopping quality of the vocals. It’s almost always sung by a woman and it requires so much control and agility from the female voice.
Read MoreOkay, so I may be on a bit of a Sondheim/Company kick. But this is one of my favorite shows! Or maybe it’s the fact that I’m inching towards 30 this year that I’m starting to get much more of what Mr. Sondheim was trying to get across. Either way, this is one of my favorite pieces of the whole evening.
Read MoreI love this number from Company by Maestro Sondheim. The revival cast now features some gender switches and I’m hoping I can catch it in NY. It’s everything you want in a broadway show, plus a little bit of (okay a lot of) subtext. But it’s a good old broadway romp and I love every minute of it.
Read MoreFor my second selection I’ve chosen “Dear Someone” from the album Time (The Revelator) by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. They are both credited for writing this song, but some internet digging actually revealed that they actually were not the original writers of the tune, which was written by Ry Cooder.
Read MoreWe start this week on a very easy, light hearted note. Originally written in 1951 by Louis Alter with words by Milton Drake, I discovered “I love the way…” with this exact performance. Not only are the words and music wonderfully quirky, I think Rachael Price is one of the best voices I’ve heard.
Read MoreThis week we’ve been surveying the Spaniards. But today I had an extraordinary discussion with my class at Hunter College. I teach a single class in the Theater department. It is called Singing. We sing of course, but today we had a deep discussion about race and music.
Read MoreWe’ve been in Spain, or thereabouts, all week on Song of The Day. Here is something I would call Flamenco style. Or at least this arrangement is. Talk about an entrance! This is a song that Garcia Lorca loved. Our Lorca concert will be April 24th in NYC.
Read MoreWe at NYFOS know Jean Ritchie as the author of “Now Is The Cool Of The Day”, a song we’ve performed many times. It’s a great song that reminds us we are in control of our planet. And that the day of reckoning is at hand. Did we keep the grasses green and the water pure? But Jean Ritchie was known more as a folk singer and dulcimer player. Here she is in an old American tune.
Read MoreAt our last NYFOS concert we presented a huge song cycle by composer Roberto Sierra. I was drawn to this music’s dark side, and its exploration of uneasy human emotion. Maybe that’s one reason I seem to be drawn to this marvelous music from Spain. Here is some flamenco as sung by Pepe Marchena.
Read MoreLa Bien Pagá as sung by Miguel de Molina. A spaniard, he ended up in Argentina. These old musical films are delicious with their emotional drama. This one is about his ex- the “well paid” woman. And she seems so amused! The musical style is like an old zarzuela aria, complete with orchestral interludes between verses, and even a spoken verse toward the end. But it’s Molina’s strange tenor voice, full of melismas and pain that makes this song so interesting to me.
Read More