Culture to Consume: W.H. Auden, James Bond boxed set, standing desks, French Jazz albums...

• I've been kind of crazy about reading the work of W.H. Auden lately. Not sure what opened this door for me, but I've been slowly reading his Collected Works, reading a biography of the poet, and listening to an audiobook of Alexander McCall Smith about his work. Where do these literary paths come from? So many of his poems I want to write about...later.
• After seeing the fairly terrible James Bond film, Spectre, over the weekend, I'm kind of thinking about buying this. Once, many years ago, my friends bought me the entire boxed set of all James Bond movies that had been made (this was around the year 2000) and I spent an entire week at home on vacation watching every single one of them. It was a week when I realized that most things in life can be found in a James Bond film (none of them profound). Not sure what happened to that boxed set (it was an old format that doesn't work anymore, I think) but it might be time to rewatch the entire oeuvre... at Christmas, we won't go anywhere and I can lay around on the sofa and watch all 23 films!
• I've been listening to these Jazz albums recommended by Les Inrocks. So far I've listened to more than half of them. I am loving Panorama Circus, Eric Seva and Virginie Teychene. For me, it's classical music in the morning and Jazz in the evening (with beer).
• I started using a standing desk a few years ago at work. Fewer headaches. More energy. No back pain at all. Also, when I have to sit for a meeting or something, it's so nice and feels so relaxing. Down side: I can't sit for more than 15-20 minutes now (anywhere) before getting restless and uncomfortable. Now that I am used to it, maybe it's time to spring for this version of the standing desk.

He's not as popular as Connery but I like Timothy Dalton as James Bond (I'm a child of the 80s)

Spotify Canada : changing the way I listen to music

I have to say that Spotify has radically changed the way I listen to music. More than that, I listen to a lot more music now that I have it.

For years, I've dutifully bought my iTunes singles like most people, rarely buying entire albums. But keeping up with each device and which song is on which is not always easy and since all my devices are full, I was constantly having to delete X music from Y device but then later I'd want it back there. Oy. First world problems. (It's amazing to me that people once could only listen to music at home!)

Enter Spotify: I can listen at home, in my office, in the kitchen, while walking the dog, on the metro. I love it.

And I've discovered some excellent albums on Spotify. Some of my recent favorites include:



Beck: Morning Phase
Marianne Faithfull: Give My Love to London
Justin Rutledge: Valleyheart
Mary J. Blige: The London Sessions
Matt Alber: Wind Sun Stars
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal: Shoka Japanese Children's Songs
The Shanghai Restoration Project: The Classics
Shigeru Umebayashi: Come il vento (Original soundtrack)
Zbigniew Preisner: Dekalog
Ólafur Arnalds: Living Room Songs

Plus they have lots of contemporary Mando-pop, great playlists (I like the Intensive Studying one at work and the 80s Dance Mixes for the gym).

I hope this is the future of music because it's working for me...

One note: I don't use their program on my computer: it's too big and takes up a ton of memory so slows everything down. I just use the website and 95% of the time, this works fine. I do use the app on my phone, though, which works well.

Arvo Pärt, our sins, and Für Alina

Doing research this week, I came across this really wonderful piece from a few years back on the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, in discussing his perhaps best-known piece, Für Alina :

I replied that this suggested another metaphor, because the tintinnabuli style - especially in the simple form in which it exists in "Für Alina" - consists of two lines. The melody, which proceeds mainly in steps up and down the scale, might be compared to a child tentatively walking. The second line underpins each note of the melody with a note from a harmonizing triad (the fundamental chord of Western music) that is positions as close as possible to the note of the melody, but always below. You could imagine this accompaniment to be a mother with her hands outstretched to ensure her toddler doesn't fall.

Pärt grabbed my own hand with excitement. "This is the whole secret of tintinnabuli," he exclaimed. "The two lines. One line is who we are, and the other line is who is holding and takes care of us. Sometimes I say - it is not a joke, but also it is as a joke taken - that the melodic line is our reality, our sins. But the other line is forgiving the sins."

Blue Met and I Musici: The Transfigured Night

In our constant attempt to try new things, we've partnered with I Musici Montreal to present a concert tonight on the work of Benjamin Britten and Rimbaud. Preceded by a talk between I Musici Director, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, and our own Marie-AndréeLamontagne, the evening will present works of the night:

Rimbaud in La nuit transfigurée

Captured in four masterpieces! The first, one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's most amusing serenades, was composed as a conversation of sorts between two small orchestras. Courtesy of Dominique Labelle, the music of Benjamin Britten then meets the poetry of Rimbaud. In the third work, by Ralph Vaughan Williams, the flight of the lark that heralds the dawn is magnificently rendered by violinist Julie Triquet. And finally, love carries the day in Arnold Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht, from the groudbreaking composer's tonal period.

We're thrilled to have this chance to work together to bring Montreal the power of words through music.

La nuit transfigurée shows tonight at the Beaux Arts Museum at 8pm. The causerie starts at 7pm and will be in French.

Check out I Musici's website for all their events this seasons and to find out more about tonight's concert.