Feast of Classical Music Podcasts from Germany

Check out these Classical Music Podcasts from Deutsche - Welle Television in Germany as well as from SR-Online (German Radio)

1. Beethoven Fest Podcast from Deutsche Welle Television

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2128770,00.html

2. Classical Masterpieces conducted by Kent Nagano

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,2142,9698,00.html

3. 4 of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos as a Free Download

http://www.sr-online.de/sr2/80/585925.html

Check out these Awesome and Excellent "Classical Music Podcast Series" from the United States

I thought I would draw your attention to these awesome "Classical Music Podcast Series" which are available free to download from.

They are respectively:

1. WGBH Classical Music Podcasts from WGBH Radio in Boston which is updated every week.

2. Classical Music Podcast Series from the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston also free to download to your IPOD or PC as the case may be.

3. Classical Music on the Net from "The Carnegie Mellon University Orchestra".

Here are the Links, if you wish to check them out.

I am so happy that these "Classical Music Podcast Series" have been made available.

http://www.podcastingnews.com/details/streams.wgbh.org/online/clas/clas_performance.xml/view.htm

http://www.gardnermuseum.org/music/podcast/theconcert.asp


http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~auo/recordings.html

P.S. -- This will be a feature of this Blog, to post Links to Awesome and Unique "Classical Music Podcast" Series from the United States as well as from Western Europe.

I will also be featuring on this Blog "Free Recordings" of certain Composers who are being celebrated in Europe on ocassion of their birth or death anniversary as was the case in 2006 with the 250th birth Anniversary of Mozart and the 150th Death Anniversary of Robert Schumann another awesome Composer from the 19th Century.

Belated Greetings for the New Year and Check out this Awesome Sacred Music Internet Broadcast

Belated Greetings for the New Year 2007, to all my Blogger Catholic Friends and Supporters whereever they may be.

This was recently brought to my attention that there is a "Unique and Awesome Catholic Internet Station" that is streaming "Sacred Classical Music" of various composers 24-7.

I think this is really great that the works of various composers of "Orchestral Masses and Motets" like Beethoven, Mozart, Palestrina, Josquin Des Prez, and Tomas Luis De Victoria to mention a few are being streamed whether partially or completely for the listening pleasure of souls all over the world.

Here are the Links if anyone is interested.

You can access it either through www.choraltreasure.org

or via Live365 at www.live365.com/stations/vocideltesoro

Ave Verum Corpus -- An Awesome Composition by Mozart

Today, I will be focusing on a Motet which was composed by Mozart specially for "Corpus Christi Sunday".

It is awesome, beautiful, inspiring, and soul stirring.

Although, it is short -- It has an awesome perspective on "The Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist".

Here are some Links which give a brief description on this beautiful Motet.

1) A Brief Description on this Motet:

http://members.macconnect.com/users/j/jimbob/classical/Mozart_K618.html#composition

2) Ave Verum Corpus - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

http://www.aylesburychoral.org.uk/concerts/works/mozart_aveverum.htm

3) Listen to "Ave Verum Corpus" at the following Links:

a) http://www.limburger-domsingknaben.de/mpeg-files/music/limburger-domsingknaben-Mozart4109.mp3

b) http://www.conradaskland.com/blog/2006/11/ave-verum-corpus-wa-mozart/


Enjoy and Have a Blessed Week - End.

A Blessed, Holy, Joyful, and Merry Christmas to one and all

Merry Christmas to one and all.

May the Infant King who was born in the manger at Bethlehem bless you all abundantly and your families too.

Here are some interesting links to check out on "The Solemnity of Christmas".

1. An Awesome Directory on Christmas (This Site is my favorite Catholic Site)

http://www.catholictradition.org/Christmas/christmas.htm

2. Awesome Homilies on Christmas Day by a Holy Priest

a. http://www.desertvoice.excerptsofinri.com/text/2001/Alti122501.htm

b. http://www.desertvoice.excerptsofinri.com/text/2002/Alti122502.htm

c. http://www.desertvoice.excerptsofinri.com/text/2003/Alti122503.htm

d. http://www.desertvoice.excerptsofinri.com/text/2004/Alti122504.htm

e. http://www.desertvoice.excerptsofinri.com/text/2005/Alti122505.htm

3. Listen to The Third Mass for the Nativity of Jesus Christ Chanted by the Benedictine Monks of the Abbey of Saint Martin Beuron, Bavaria in Germany (Gregorian Chant)

http://kparker.org/MP3/Chant/Third%20Christmas%20Mass%20-%20Benedictine%20Abbey%20of%20St.%20Martin.mp3

The Rosary Sonatas of Heinrich Von Biber

Today, I will be focusing or talking about the "Rosary Sonatas" also called the Mystery Sonatas of Heinrich Von Biber -- a Baroque Composer of the late 17th Century.

He was renowned for his Sacred Compositions.

Here is some information on Heinrich Von Biber from a couple of links.

1) http://www.aam.co.uk/features/biberm.htm

"Biber Mystery Sonatas"

by James Clements

In 1676 Heinrich Biber wrote of his ‘faith in stringed instruments (fidem in fidibus)’, demonstrating his love of rhetoric, probably imbued in him by his Jesuit education. Of all Biber’s seven collections of music, however, the expression ‘faith in stringed instruments’ is most evident in the Mystery or Rosary Sonatas, which survive in a beautifully-written manuscript, compiled in the early 1670s, and now housed in the Bavarian State Library. The manuscript contains fifteen compositions for violin and bass, and a concluding Passacaglia for unaccompanied violin. In the absence of a title page, the various titles in use today derive from the fifteen engravings in the manuscript, one placed at the start of each of the first fifteen compositions depicting, in turn, the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary. Similarly, the Passacaglia is accompanied by a drawing of a Guardian Angel holding the hand of a child.

The engravings were probably cut from a Rosary psalter, the name given to the hundreds of devotional books published by Rosary confraternities active in central Europe at this time. These books contained detailed instruction on praying the Rosary, and frequently included biblical quotations, meditations, prayers, and engravings depicting the mysteries. Such books were produced by the Jesuits — a religious order who influenced education and devotional practices more than any other religious group in seventeenth-century Europe — and who were known for advocating Rosary devotion with music. One such confraternity existed in Salzburg during the seventeenth century. It met in the lecture hall — the Aula Academica — of Salzburg’s University, which still contains fifteen paintings depicting the mysteries. The Rosary Sonatas were probably performed in this room.

As Biber mentions in the Latin dedication of the Rosary Sonatas, Rosary devotion was promoted most ardently by the dedicatee of the collection and Biber’s employer, Archbishop Maximilian Gandolph von Khuenberg, who may have attended meetings in the Aula Academica. The paintings in the Aula Academica, the engravings in Biber’s manuscript and Rosary psalters exemplify the importance of imagery in Rosary devotion in the region at this time, which correlates with a principal concept of Jesuit devotion, namely, the use of all five senses when praying. Thus, by contemplating the image, reading the texts, and hearing the music, individuals were supposed to create a mental picture of the mystery, often in minute detail and at great length.

Read more at: http://www.aam.co.uk/features/biberm.htm

2) Check out more on "The Rosary Sonatas" at this Awesome Link

http://www.jsbchorales.net/biber.shtml

If anyone wants a link to listen to 3 of the 15 Rosary Sonatas composed by Biber, Contact me via email.

Online Catholic Classics Advent and Christmas Special

Today, I am focusing on two Catholic Classics which are extremely helpful and insightful specially for us -- Catholics during Advent and Christmas.

The Two Catholic Classics are:

1) Bethlehem by Father Frederick Faber

2) The Birth, Incarnation, and Infancy of Jesus Christ by Saint Alphonsus Ligouri

Both of these Catholic Classics can be read at the following links:

"Bethlehem by Father Faber" (An Excerpted Work)

A) http://www.catholictradition.org/Christmas/bethlehem1-1a.htm

The Birth, Incarnation, and Infancy of Jesus Christ by Saint Alphonsus Ligouri

(An Excerpted Work)

B) http://www.catholictradition.org/Advent/advent-meditation1.htm

A Blessed Advent and Merry and Joyful Christmas to all.