Ruby, It's You

Richard Hayman
27 March 1920 -

Harmonica virtuoso, arranger, and conductor
Renown for his harmonica solo
in the 1953 movie theme song, "Ruby Gentry"

The MP3 below expired on 04-05-2009.
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Richard Hayman, harmonica (1953) - Ruby

The Father of Music

Johann Sebastian Bach
21 March, 1685 - 28 July, 1750
This MP3 Selection Expired on 03-27-2009
James Galway, flute
Siciliano, 1st Movement - Largo
(JS Bach BWV 1017)

First Day of Spring, 2009

"I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind."

"To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

"Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And 't is my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

"The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure."

--William Wordsworth

The Eyes of March Are Upon You

Caesar:
Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue shriller than all the music
Cry "Caesar!" Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear.

Soothsayer:
Beware the ides of March.

Caesar:
What man is that?

Brutus:
A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.

Julius Caesar Act 1, scene 2, 15–19
-Shakespeare


From my 2005 post, on this Ides of March word play:

For what it is worth, Julius Caesar's cronies conspired and stabbed him to death on this day in 44 B.C.

There is a surgical procedure, an abdominal incision, for the delivery of a baby named after this Roman emperor's legendary birth; the Caesaren-Section.

One way or another, Julius Caesar was on the cutting edge of history.

Chopin and Miller Birthdays

Frederic Chopin
(1 March, 1810 - 17 October, 1849
Glenn Miller
(1 March, 1904 - December 15, 1944)

This MP3 Selection Expired on 03-15-2009
Margot Lefebvre, French vocal (1961) - Mon coeur vous dédie sa mélodie
and
Beegie Adair, jazz piano (2006) - At Last

Mon coeur vous dédie sa mélodie
Lied du film "La chanson de l'adieu" (1934)

Paroles de Albert Valentin
Musique de Frederic Chopin (Étude Op. 10, No. 3)
Interprète de Margot Lefebvre (1961)

Mon coeur vous dédie
Sa mélodie
Où mon amour vous parle à voix si tendre
Qu'il faut l'entendre
Les jours sont doux qu'on passe auprès de vous
De vous, mon chérie

Mon coeur vous dédie
Sa mélodie
Où mon amour vous parle à voix si tendre
Qu'il faut l'entendre
Les jours sont doux qu'on passe auprès de vous
De vous, mon chérie

Mon coeur vous dédie
Sa mélodie
Écoutez-le vous dire sa ferveur
Et son ardeur
Et lorsqu'il bat avec violence
C'est qu'il s'émeut de votre absence
C'est qu'il renonce à tout espoir
De vous revoir
Alors il vous chante
Cette mélodie
Que je vous dédie
Que je vous dédie

The Diamond Palladio

Karl Jenkins
Welsh-born neo-classical and jazz composer
(17 February, 1944)
This MP3 Selection Expired on 03-01-2009
The London Philharmonic (1996)
Palladio - First Movement, Allegretto (Jenkins, 1996)

An Unforgettable Valentine

Irving Gordon
American-born composer and lyricist
(14 February, 1915 - 1 December, 1996)

This MP3 Selection Expired on 02-17-2009
Teddy Wilson (1952), jazz piano
Unforgettable (Gordon, 1931)

The Look

Strephon kissed me in the spring,
Robin in the fall,
But Colin only looked at me
And never kissed at all.

Strephon's kiss was lost in jest,
Robin's lost in play,
But the kiss in Colin's eyes
Haunts me night and day.

Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933)

On Wings of Song for His 200th Birthday

Felix Mendelssohn
German-born Romantic composer, conductor, and pianist
(3 February, 1809 – 4 November, 1847)
This MP3 Selection Expired on 02-14-2009
Rudi Moosmeier, jazz piano, (2006)
Auf Flügeln Des Gesanges (Mendelssohn)

Rise up, my song! stretch forth thy wings and fly
With no delaying, over shore and deep!
Be with my lady when she wakes from sleep;
Touch her with kisses softly on each eye;
And say, before she puts her dreaming by:
“Within the palaces of slumber keep
One little niche wherein sometimes to weep
For one who vainly toils till he shall die!”
Yet say again, a sweeter thing than this:
“His life is wasted by his love for thee.”
Then, looking o’er the fields of memory,
She ’ll find perchance, o’ergrown with grief and bliss,
Some flower of recollection, pale and fair,
That she, through pity, for a day may wear.

A Greeting
Philip Bourke Marston (1850–87)

On Her Birthday - A Sunday Kind of Love

Etta James
R&B Singer
25 January, 1938
This MP3 Selection Expired on 02-01-2009
Etta James (1961)
A Sunday Kind of Love
(Barbara Belle, et al, 1946)

Wishing You A Psalm 51 New Year

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
(Psalm 51:10 KJV)
In tandem with each winter solstice and Christmas celebration, the winter nights become shorter and the days longer. Yet, our Lord, the Sun of Righteousness, reigns in unconceivable splendor even as I write:

"Bright, like a sun, the Savior sits, And spreads eternal noon; No evenings there, nor gloomy nights, To want the feeble moon." – Isaac Watts

On this side of eternity, His advent made it possible to fill us-His elect-with the promised hope and the light of day. His grace and truth poured over us. Our being is filled with an immeasurable joy; His love uplifts and preserves us far beyond the holiday season and temporal tides.

May the Lord continue to make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you in the New Year.