Gershwin – Summertime
Today’s happy music is apparently self-explanatory, but there is a story to go with it.
8 Apr 2020
When my musical world ground to a halt because of coronavirus, (about a week before the announcement of full lockdown), I decided to console myself by posting a piece of music every day that makes me happy. Friends and family chipped in with ideas too, and I’ve been thrilled at how many people have told me they’ve been following it. As time wore on, I realised that I wouldn’t be able to keep it up forever, so I decided to stop at fifty, and hopefully that will give me and others plenty to dip back into in emergencies.
Today’s happy music is apparently self-explanatory, but there is a story to go with it.
Continuing the theme of calmer music for Holy Week, Brahms’ horn trio is a warm musical embrace that always soothes me if I’m feeling a bit blue.
Shine on! Shine on! Thou bright and beautiful star! – music to bring hope in dark days.
The final movement of Ravel’s Mother Goose suite offers a glimpse of a world drenched in beauty.
Another choice by my son, for both piece and performance, and they’ve sparked off several trains of thought that have made me smile.
My obsession with this song goes back to a children’s poetry book at my grandparents’ house.
This Bach fugue always made me want to skip out of the choir stalls whenever our organist played it as a voluntary.
Something a little calmer today: a wistful image of a vanished world on Rachmaninov’s birthday
Handel makes me happy. Baroque trumpets make me happy. So this is happiness squared.
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