Candide

"There is a concatenation of events in this best of all possible worlds: for if you had not been kicked out of a magnificent castle for love of Miss Cunegonde: if you had not been put into the Inquisition: if you had not walked over America: if you had not stabbed the Baron: if you had not lost all your sheep from the fine country of El Dorado: you would not be here eating preserved citrons and pistachio-nuts."

"All that is very well," answered Candide, "but let us cultivate our garden."
--Voltaire "Candide, ou l'Optimisme (1759)"

Leonard Bernstein
American composer and conductor
(25 August, 1918 – 14 October, 1990)
This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-31-2007
Lenoard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic
Overture to Candide (Bernstein)

Debussy

So when in reverie I look and listen,
Half dream-like floats, within my passive mind,
Why in the sun its branches gleam and glisten,
And harp-wise beat the wind;

Why, when the sea-waves, heralding their tidings,
Come roaring on the shore with crests of down,
In grave acceptance of their sad confidings,
It bows its stately crown;
    -- Tracy Robinson (1833-1915)

Claude Debussy
French Neo-Classical composer
(22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918)
This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-25-2007
Dan Gibson - Reverie (Debussy)

A Midsummer Reverie

Alexander Gluzunov
Russian Composer and Music Professor
(10 August, 1865 – 21 March, 1936)
This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-21-2007
Stephen Coombs, piano
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B Major,
2nd Movement, Andante (Glazunov)

The Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

--William Butler Yeats -  "The Lake Isle of Innisfree"

Victor Young
Composer and Orchestra Director
(8 August, 1900 - 11 November, 1956)
Won Best Music Oscar posthumously in 1956
'Around the World in Eighty Days'
This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-09-2007
Maureen O'Hara (1952) - The Isle of Innisfree
(Farrelly; arr.Young)

The Isle of Innisfree
The Quiet Man (1952)

Music: Dick Farrelly
Arr: Victor Young

Sung by Movie Cast: Maureen O'Hara

I've met some folks who say that I'm a dreamer
And I've no doubt there's truth in what they say
But sure a body's bound to be a dreamer
When all the things he loves are far away

And precious things are dreams unto an exile
They take him o'er the land across the sea
Especially when it happens he's an exile
From that dear lovely Isle of Innisfree

And when the moonlight peeps across the rooftops
Of this great city, wondrous though it be
I scarcely feel its wonder or its laughter
I'm once again back home in Innisfree

I wander o'er green hills through dreamy valleys
And find a peace no other land could know
I hear the birds make music fit for angels
And watch the rivers laughing as they flow

But dreams don't last
Though dreams are not forgotten
And soon I'm back to stern reality
But though they pave the footways here with gold dust
I still would choose the Isle of Innisfree

Siboney

Ernesto Lecuona
Cuban composer
(6 August, 1895 - 29 November, 1963)
This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-08-2007
Mantovani and His Orchestra (1963)
Siboney (Lecuona)

Moonglow and the Theme from 'Picnic'

Morris Stoloff
American-born composer and conductor
(1 August, 1898 - 16 April, 1980)
This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-06-2007
Morris Stoloff and His Orchestra
Moonglow and the Theme from 'Picnic' (1955)

From Classical to Musical

George Chet Forrest, American-born songwriter
(31 July, 1915 - 10 October, 1999)

Forrest was best known for his works with Bob Wright. They teamed and transformed some of the best known classical pieces into ever popular American show tunes.
This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-01-2007
Ruth Ann Swenson and Jerry Hadley
Stranger in Paradise
(Borodin; arr. Forrest and Wright)

Vincent's Starry Night

Vincent van Gogh died on 29 July, 1890. He was 37.

Red Giant V838 Monocerotis
February 2004 Hubble Space Telescope
This MP3 Selection Expired on 07-31-2007
Chloë Agnew (2005)
Vincent - Starry, Starry Night

Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)
Origianl Music and Words: Don McLean (1971)


As Rendered by: Chloë Agnew
of 'Celtic Woman'

Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul
Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now

Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue
Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now

For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left inside
On that starry, starry night
You took your life as lovers often do
But I could have told you Vincent
This world was never meant for one as
beautiful as you

[Intrumental Interlude]

Like the strangers that you've met
Ragged men in ragged clothes
The silver thorn of bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow

Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen they're not listening still
Perhaps they never will

The Art of the Nocturne

And I then: “Someone frames upon the keys
That exquisite nocturne, with which we explain
The night and moonshine; music which we seize
To body forth our own vacuity.”
She then: “Does this refer to me?”
“Oh no, it is I who am inane.”
-- TS Eliot

John Field, Irish composer and pianist
Father of the Nocturne
(26 July, 1782 - 23 January, 1837)
This MP3 Selection Expired on 07-28-2007
Bart van Oort, piano
Nocturne No. 6 in F Major (Field)

Bésame Mucho

Bob Eberly (Robert Eberle)
(Older brother of Ray Eberle)
Big Band Vocalist
(24 July, 1916 - 17 December, 1981)
This MP3 Selection Expired on 07-25-2007
Bob Eberly and Kitty Kallen (1944)
Bésame Mucho

Bésame Mucho (Kiss Me Much)
Music & Spanish Lyrics by: Consuelo Velasquez, 1941
English Lyrics by: Sunny Skylar

Bob Eberly & Kitty Kallen Duet
Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra
1944


Bob Eberly:
Bésame, bésame mucho
Each time I cling to your kiss, I hear music divine
Bésame mucho
Hold me my darling and say that you'll always be mine

This joy is something new
My arms enfolding you
Never knew this thrill before
Whoever thought I'd be
Holding you close to me
Whispering "It's you I adore"

Dearest one
If you should leave me
Each little dream would take wings, and my life would be through
Bésame mucho
Love me forever and make all my dreams come true

[Bridge]

Kitty Kallen:
Bésame, bésame mucho
Each time I cling to your kiss, I hear music divine
Bésame mucho
Hold me my darling and say that you'll always be mine

This joy is something new
My arms enfolding you
Never knew this thrill before
Whoever thought I'd be
Holding you close to me
Whispering "It's you I adore"

My dearest one
If you should leave me
Each little dream would take wings, and my life would be through
Bésame mucho
Love me forever and say that you'll always be mine