Category Archives: Music

Zbigniew Preisner, and the Daily News

Some slow thoughtful music, to keep things in perspective, against the daily news. And then daily news about frightened old people using their guns.

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A New Episode of The Most Beautiful Music in the World

This was an early Zbigniew Preisner score, for a Polish TV series Dekalog, with ten episodes released in 1989, each based on one of the Ten Commandments. I happened to listen to my YouTube bookmark of this as I wrote … Continue reading

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Jerry Coyne on Deepak Chopra, Alex Ross on Max Richter, and others

Jerry Coyne on Deepak Chopra And on the latest argument for the compatibility of science and faith A misleading article on the recent “paradigm” shift in the understanding of human evolution Reviews of new books by Sarah Bakewell and Sarah … Continue reading

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Theory of Mind, UFOs, and Music

Three items today. Do Chatbots have a “theory of mind”? Probably not. Why fascination about UFOs has lingered; my own brief fascination with them when I was 13; and David Brin’s current take on them; How music does not “mean” … Continue reading

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Max Richter Deconstructs and Recomposes Antonio Vivaldi

On Sunday evening, March 26th, we went a concert on the UC Berkeley Campus, at Zellerbach Hall, to see the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. The concert included an extraordinary piece by contemporary composer Max Richter, a re-imagining of Vivaldi’s ever-popular The … Continue reading

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Correction to Earlier Oscar Post

It turns out that a tune I liked, which I described as having “a relentless three note descending theme, underlying colorful violin lines,” in one of the Oscar nominated films, Triangle of Sadness, that I discussed in my post of … Continue reading

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Crosby, Stills, and Nash: Daylight Again

So David Crosby died today. I only acquired a couple three of this group’s albums over the years, and from them, this is my favorite song. Update 23 Jan 23: This post here and on Fb may strike some as … Continue reading

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Mysterious Chords

NY Times ran this piece a few days ago. NYT, Hugh Morris, ‘Everyone Wants to Hear’ This One Chord in a Christmas Carol, subtitled “A moment in ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’ is so popular, it’s printed on T-shirts. But … Continue reading

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Fiddler on the Roof

Over the past couple evenings we’ve watched the movie version of a musical I had never seen before, in any form: Fiddler on the Roof. I was aware it was a big-hit musical, back in the 1960s or ’70s, in … Continue reading

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LQCs: Preferring Simple Answers to Complex Problems

First for today, a blast from the past. From 2009. This is a song from Les Miz, which we watched on PBS last week. Susan Boyle. Watch the clip above from the beginning, until at least about 1:15 when she … Continue reading

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