Word: songs
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...play, some changes in direction are advisable. For one thing, a prison-camp killing is placed not only on stage, but down-stage, the body lying like a sack of potatoes, almost in the first row. This is done largely for the sake of ironic contrast with the song "California, here I come," which the prisoners sing to prevent the guards from hearing. If the killing were withdrawn slightly into the upstage darkness, the ironic effect could be retained, and an unnecessary awakwardness would be avoided. In matters of dramatic death, one inclines to feel that, after all, the Greeks...
Penance for a Flat. Gregorian Chant, or plain song, is a flowing unaccompanied chant that originated in the Greek, Roman and Hebrew melodies used by the first Christians. Thousands of these chants were composed by unknown authors; according to tradition, it was not until the 6th century that they were collected and edited under St. Gregory the Great, who was Pope from 590 to 604. Gregorian Chant, the music of the church, was practically the only written music in Europe during the early Middle Ages, but with the Renaissance, a new flamboyance began to corrupt the ancient Latin prayer-songs...
...11th century priory at the village of Solesmes in western France. "The principal concern of the brethren," he wrote, "will be the celebration of the divine office." First they set to work to find how the divine office should be celebrated. The result was the rediscovery of Gregorian plain song. And so compelling was the force of their meticulous research and meticulously conducted services that by the time Abbot Guéranger died in 1875, almost all the churches in France were following the liturgy of Solesmes...
...Mees" rose from flower girl to become the most luminous star of the French music hall of her time. The peak of her long career came early in the century when she played at the Folies-Bergère, the Casino de Paris, the Moulin Rouge, made famous the song Mon Homme, and made an international hit of the apache dance, which she did with Maurice Chevalier ("He was more than just a partner. He was my whole life"). Through all the glitter of her days of fame, she held on to her native French bon sens, acquired a heap...
...holds his readers, it is because he gives his characters, even in the midst of death a rage to live. Sky and sea, bread and honey, woman and song, all are celebrated on "the fields of praise." Lying with his paramour Captain Polyxygis thinks: "There's nothing in this world above to equal woman." A young Greek asks Captain Michales' centenarian father: "How has life seemed to you during those hundred years. Grandfather?" "Like a glass of cool water, my child." replies the old man. "And are you still thirsty, Grandfather?" "The graybeard raised his hand...