Trust me, Cicero wrote it all down

[sovay]

It has come to my attention that I do not own enough classical music. By this I do not mean Mozart, Britten, Saint-Saëns; I mean songs on classical themes, either historical or mythological, and multiple versions of "King Orfeo" do not count. I blame watermelontail for inspiring me to take inventory; I decided that I wanted to put together a mix CD of Greco-Roman stuff, and then I realized that I had a little over thirty songs, reckoned generously, and most of those were by the Mountain Goats.* So what else is out there? I know already that I need to pick up the Crüxshadows' Ethernaut (2003). I have Human Sexual Response's In a Roman Mood (1981). And I have several takes on Persephone, but who writes about Hermes or Hadrian?

There were fireworks tonight on the field between Lexington High School and the Center Playground; a carnival lit up on the grass, with fried dough and a Ferris wheel where I once walked in endless circles on a freezing May night, hot cocoa and blankets instead of stargazing and bugs. I no longer even remember what the twenty-four-hour relay was raising money for, only the cold and the conversations and the live music, because someone was fiddling "The Rights of Man." Tonight there were bats tacking back and forth between the trees, and I had never watched fireworks from the ground up before. I don't know what it is about explosions that always makes me feel better.

* Which is not any kind of aesthetic strike against them, but it does threaten the hypothetical CD with a certain lack of variety—and I don't even have quite enough to make a whole CD of John Darnielle vs. Classical Antiquity.

Comments

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Do you have any Daemonia Nymphe? I could send some of that over. Also ABBA's 'Cassandra'.

[darcydodo]

Do you have Emma Kirkby's CD "Classical Kirkby"? I presume you must have Orff's "Catulli Carmina."

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Glad that explosions happened, since they make you feel better. It sounds quite nice.

because someone was fiddling "The Rights of Man."

Good thing it wasn't "The Butterfly." That thing takes forever to get out of one's head; I can attest to this cos we played it far too much a couple of weeks ago, and I've only recently managed to free myself of it.

I'll have to remember to try starting "Rights of Man" sometime in the not-too-distant. Pity, actually--it would've been perfect for the gig my friend Bill and I were supposed to be playing on Saturday, the one that got postponed til the end of the month cos they accidentally double-booked.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

If/when you have the collection that will let you make a mix CD with a playlist that pleases you, do post the playlist--doesn't have to be links, just the titles will do! It's a great way to find new music.

[zdenka]

I have some stuff -- have to go to work, but will post later.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

I feel you must see this link. The actual relevant mention is brief at best:

http://io9.com/5021531/the-first-ever-gynoid-is-now-complete-at-last

They found the rest of Metropolis. In Buenos Aires!

[xterminal.livejournal.com]

I know YOU'RE the last person to whom I need to recommend Jill Tracy. :)

A number of the British dark folk bands do stuff with medieval themes (or, simply, medieval covers, Fire * Ice's first [and best] album Gilded by the Sun is half medieval covers and half original stuff that sounds medieval, and Sol Invictus has increasingly been going that way as well-- SI were also the band that broke Sally Doherty's career into the mainstream, for what it's worth).

You being a Jill Tracy fan, I assume you're already familiar with most of New Weird America, but if you're not, run, do not walk, to the record store and buy everything and anything Joanna Newsom. Ys is probably the album closest to what you're looking for, but you can find smatterings of it on any of her discs.

And I swear I've recently heard a song called "Hadrian's Wall", but I'm not turning anything up when googling. Maybe I dreamt it.

A bit of a lateral jump: Stephen Fearing. It's not explicit so much as inferenced, but I think it's there. Unfortunately, the album I'm thinking of, The Assassin's Apprentice, has been damned hard to find for the last five years or so. Depressing, because its title track is just... wow.

Also, there's the wonderful world of black metal, which is awash in that sort of thing, but really, you have to be able to stand black metal. That can be something of a chore. Ease yourself into it with Celtic Frost's two best albums, To Mega Therion and Into the Pandemonium, but I rush to add that I may be recommending them purely out of a sense of nostalgia; they were instrumental in my growing up to be the sociopathic asshole that I am. Once you're there, there's an entire world of Norse mythology at your fingertips-- the later Bathory albums, Gorgoroth, Enslaved, that sort of thing. Watch your step, though, because some of it can be offensive (even if only done to be "contrversial" rather than being heartfelt); steer far clear, for example, of Darkthrone and Absurd, both of whom voice strong anti-Semitic sentiment as part of the greater "all religion sucks" message. If you find yourself intrigued (or, more likely, amused) by the general feel and sound of black metal, you can get a good primer with Michael Moynihan's Lords of Chaos. And, to go full circle, Moynihan is the founder of Blood Axis, one of the bands on the fringes of the British Dark Folk movement (though he's American, and his music is on the martial end of things a la NON or early Sol Invictus, rather than the folk end).

Oh! While I'm on the subject of Moynihan, Blood Axis' touring violinist, Annabel Lee (the name should clue you in, no?) has done some solo albums that may click in, as well. She's also in about eighty-three other bands that might play. A quick check of discogs.com will steer you in the right direction, because I'mm too tired to remember any of them right now, and too lazy to look them up myself. :P (Blood Axis itself, on the other hand... how shall I put it gently... ummm, sucks. They do a mean cover-- their version of Joy Division's "Walked in Line" is phenomenal-- but their "originals", which are comprised mostly of Moynihan quoting authors at length over sampled and looped classical tunes, get really old really fast.)

I totally forgot about the gelfling!

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

I agree with Xterminal - Joanna Newsome is important for you to own. Well, her music, I mean.

[larryhammer]

I commend early Genesis to your attention, back when Peter Gabriel was their singer, in particular "The Fountain of Salmacis".

---L.

[zdenka]

Some of this may be more (musically) Classical than you're looking for, but since I know you like opera I'll include it anyway. Here's what on my Classical playlist:

-Bellini, Norma (Well, parts of it are sung by Romans. This one is Romans vs. Gauls, who both lose to bel canto)
-Berlioz, Les Troyens
-Cavalli, La Calisto
-Gluck, several operas, including Ifigenia in Aulide, Ifigenia in Tauride, and Orfeo ed Eurydice
-Handel, Acis and Galatea (in English, yet!)
-Handel, Semele ditto
-Handel, Giulio Cesare
-Monteverdi, L'incoronazione di Poppea (where else are you going to find two Poppea-Nero love duets? or a dialogue between Minerva and Seneca?)
-Monteverdi, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria
-Mozart, La Clemenza di Tito
-Mozart, Idomeneo
-Purcell, Dido and Aeneas (Mind you, historical it is not.)
-Refice, Cecilia (okay, it's pagans vs. Christians, but still . . .)
-Sullivan, The Martyr of Antioch Yes, he composed stuff besides G&S. I've never seen or heard all of this, but I have a CD with two excerpts: a Christians vs. pagans double chorus, and a gorgeous hymn to Apollo.)

That doesn't exhaust my list, but it may not be what you were looking for. Let me know if you want more along these lines. And don't forget Princess Ida's hymn to Minerva.

Finally, if you read this far, I have a marvelous CD by the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus called "Rome's Golden Poets- A Capella Settings of Latin Verse". It lives up to its name. I highly recommend it.

(re-posted for failing at html)

I almost slapped my head when it came up on the iPod:

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Tom Waits "In the Coliseum"