Mark Your Calendars
Though our next concerts may be months away our directors and our board are still busy preparing for what comes next. Please be here for us. It is easier than ever to support the choruses of the Rockbridge Choral Society by texting SINGON to 1-844-844-6844. Or go to www.rcs.org and hit the Donate button. Thanks!
|
|
|
Are you itching to travel? This spring and summer of 2020 have certainly been tough for travelers, world and otherwise. If you are home bound through no fault of your own, take a virtual tour of the museums of Paris.
The Little(r) Museums of Paris: An Illustrated Guide to the City's Hidden Gems by Emma Jacobs takes us on a beautifully illustrated and choreographed tour of the hidden treasures of Paris. Even if you are a seasoned Paris traveler, chances are you have not visited most of the entries here. Each section of this compact 200-page gem reads like a little story, sprinkled with history, neighborhood color, the motivations of the museums' curators and founders and then rounds out the virtual travel experience with real-life suggested itineraries for daytrips in and around the city. This little book makes a perfect summer daydreaming read or gift for the Francophiles, museum lovers, and off-the-beaten path adventurers in your life.
This entry caught our attention. Phono Museum, Paris is a privately held petite museum that curates 140 years of recorded sound from the wax cylinder to the MP3 with over 300 sound-producing machines, all in working order, illustrating the evolution of the technology of sound recording. This little museum is situated at the foot of Montmartre close to the area's music halls giving a nod to the history of the 9th district from the Belle Epoch to the Roaring 20's, the Moulin Rouge to the Elyse Montmartre. The year of corona virus has limited their concert schedule, but their exhibits reopened to the public in May. Until you can get there, visit their website
Click here
So, if you are planning a trip to Paris, or only dreaming of one until the EU opens up to US travelers again, enjoy this gorgeous, little book until you can fly away to visit the Phono Museum in person.
|
A Fistful of Music
Question: What do A
Fistful of Dollars,
The Good the Bad and the Ugly,
Once Upon a Time in the West,
The Untouchables, and
The Mission have in common? Answer: Film score by Ennio Morrricone, Academy Award winning composer with 500 movie scores to his credit who died on July 6, 2020 at the age of 91. Morricone was nominated 7 times and finally won the Oscar in 2016 for his original score for
The Hateful Eight. Morricone defined the musical soundtrack for the modern American western and the spaghetti westerns of the 1960's and 1970's often by utilizing animal sounds and the human voice, which he considered a musical instrument as important to his film scores as the orchestras he conducted. Often the choir masters who worked on his films couldn't remember what if any words the choirs were singing. "They're just sounds, you know, and the human voice is used as another musical instrument". The score from
The Mission is characteristic of this technique. "What I think I have done is specified, and made clearer, what the characters were feeling." Words were superfluous.
Click here.
|
 |
|
The King of Improv
No not comedy. The versatile William McCorkle, RCS Artistic Director, and master of keyboard improvisation is still treating the congregation of Lexington Presbyterian Church to a little improv concert each Sunday as they continue to worship on-line. Enjoy!
Click here
|
|
|
