Tonic Jukebox History
WEEK 57 - Per Ardua
This week we feature just a handful of the many composers and musicians who reached the top of their profession despite major physical and/or mental challenges. Some were born with a life-defining condition, while others acquired it during their lifetime, but this did not stop them making great music.
Monday April 12
Evelyn Glennie
Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie (born 1965) is a Scottish percussionist. Glennie has been profoundly deaf since the age of 12, having started to lose her hearing at the age of 8. This does not inhibit her ability to perform. She regularly plays barefoot during live performances and studio recordings to feel the music better. Glennie contends that deafness is largely misunderstood by the public. She explains that she taught herself to hear with parts of her body other than her ears. In response to what she described as mostly inaccurate reporting by the media, Glennie published 'Hearing Essay' in which she discusses her condition. Glennie also discusses how she feels music in different parts of her body in her 2003 TED talk 'How To Truly Listen'. I encourage you to read the short essay and watch the TED talk (30 minutes).
Here we have Glennie playing two pieces.
Vivaldi's Concerto for Flautino in C major
(Arranged for vibraphone by Evelyn Glennie)
Original with original instruments
Maple Leaf Rag
Tuesday April 13
Andrea Bocelli
Andrea Bocelli (born 1958) is an Italian tenor. His repertoire includes both opera and popular songs. He was diagnosed with congenital glaucoma at 5 months old, and became completely blind at age 12, following a football accident. His first compilation album, Romanza, was released internationally in 1997. The then newly-released CD was sent to me (from Milan) as a present, by my Italian friend Valerio. At this stage Bocelli was little known outside Italy. As we played and enjoyed the album over the coming months and years, Bocelli's career took off and now he is one of the most well-known singers in the world. Here is the title track.
Romanza
English lyrics
Wednesday April 14
Joaquin Rodrigo
Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre (1901–1999), was a Spanish composer and a virtuoso pianist. He was born in Sagunto (Valencia), and completely lost his sight at the age of three after contracting diphtheria. He wrote his compositions in Braille, and they were transcribed for publication. His most famous work, Concierto de Aranjuez, was composed in 1939 in Paris. The central adagio movement is one of the most recognisable in 20th-century classical music and a great favourite of mine.
2nd movement
Thursday April 15
Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884) was a Czech composer best known for his opera The Bartered Bride and for the symphonic cycle Má vlast ("My Fatherland"). By the end of 1874, Smetana had become completely deaf but, freed from his theatre duties and the related controversies, he began a period of sustained composition that continued for almost the rest of his life. During this period he completed Má vlast, having composed the first two movements at an earlier time, the complete cycle being first performed on 5 November 1882. You can find the second movement, Vltava, in Jukebox Week 55. Here is the final movement, Blanik. The Youtube clip should start just before the movement commences, but you may have to endure an advert first. This excerpt is conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek, a Czech conductor and a leading interpreter of Czech classical music. In addition to seven years as chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, he also served as the chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 2012. This included conducting the Last Night of the Proms on several occasions.
Performance
Friday April 16
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris (born 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. He was born six weeks premature which, along with the oxygen-rich atmosphere in the hospital incubator, resulted in a condition in which the growth of the eyes is aborted and causes the retinas to detach, so he became blind. Wonder has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He has won 22 Grammy Awards. In 1984 he won an Academy Award for Best Original Song, I Just Called To Say I Love You. I had great fun singing this song (amongst others) with a pianist and percussion in a piano bar in a 5 star hotel in Switzerland on several holidays. I found it difficult to choose one 'Wonder' song so here are two, both written and sung by today's featured musician.
I Just Called To Say I Love You
You are the sunshine of my life
Weekend April 17/18
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a German composer and pianist. Obviously, when I decided on this week's theme, Beethoven was the first name that came to mind. But the first few minutes of research showed that he was not profoundly deaf until his last few years. According to Wikipedia (where I find much of the information for Tonic Jukebox) Beethoven told the English pianist Charles Neate (in 1815) that he dated his hearing loss from a fit he suffered in 1798. During its gradual decline, his hearing was further impeded by a severe form of tinnitus. He was almost completely deaf by 1814.
Beethoven's compositions consist of over 700 works written over 45 years. His Symphony No. 9 is a choral symphony, composed between 1822 and 1824. The symphony was the first example of a major composer using voices in a symphony.
The last movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony (25 minutes)
This is from the 2012 Proms, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, and featuring the National Youth Choir of Great Britain and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. If you have not heard of the orchestra it's worth following that link.
Personal note: I sang this at the reopening of the Royal Festival Hall in June 2007. The Philharmonia Orchestra was conducted by Paul Daniel and I was one of more than 1,000 voices. I am not sure my voice ever recovered.
Evelyn Glennie
Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie (born 1965) is a Scottish percussionist. Glennie has been profoundly deaf since the age of 12, having started to lose her hearing at the age of 8. This does not inhibit her ability to perform. She regularly plays barefoot during live performances and studio recordings to feel the music better. Glennie contends that deafness is largely misunderstood by the public. She explains that she taught herself to hear with parts of her body other than her ears. In response to what she described as mostly inaccurate reporting by the media, Glennie published 'Hearing Essay' in which she discusses her condition. Glennie also discusses how she feels music in different parts of her body in her 2003 TED talk 'How To Truly Listen'. I encourage you to read the short essay and watch the TED talk (30 minutes).
Here we have Glennie playing two pieces.
Vivaldi's Concerto for Flautino in C major
(Arranged for vibraphone by Evelyn Glennie)
Original with original instruments
Maple Leaf Rag
Tuesday April 13
Andrea Bocelli
Andrea Bocelli (born 1958) is an Italian tenor. His repertoire includes both opera and popular songs. He was diagnosed with congenital glaucoma at 5 months old, and became completely blind at age 12, following a football accident. His first compilation album, Romanza, was released internationally in 1997. The then newly-released CD was sent to me (from Milan) as a present, by my Italian friend Valerio. At this stage Bocelli was little known outside Italy. As we played and enjoyed the album over the coming months and years, Bocelli's career took off and now he is one of the most well-known singers in the world. Here is the title track.
Romanza
English lyrics
Wednesday April 14
Joaquin Rodrigo
Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre (1901–1999), was a Spanish composer and a virtuoso pianist. He was born in Sagunto (Valencia), and completely lost his sight at the age of three after contracting diphtheria. He wrote his compositions in Braille, and they were transcribed for publication. His most famous work, Concierto de Aranjuez, was composed in 1939 in Paris. The central adagio movement is one of the most recognisable in 20th-century classical music and a great favourite of mine.
2nd movement
Thursday April 15
Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884) was a Czech composer best known for his opera The Bartered Bride and for the symphonic cycle Má vlast ("My Fatherland"). By the end of 1874, Smetana had become completely deaf but, freed from his theatre duties and the related controversies, he began a period of sustained composition that continued for almost the rest of his life. During this period he completed Má vlast, having composed the first two movements at an earlier time, the complete cycle being first performed on 5 November 1882. You can find the second movement, Vltava, in Jukebox Week 55. Here is the final movement, Blanik. The Youtube clip should start just before the movement commences, but you may have to endure an advert first. This excerpt is conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek, a Czech conductor and a leading interpreter of Czech classical music. In addition to seven years as chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, he also served as the chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 2012. This included conducting the Last Night of the Proms on several occasions.
Performance
Friday April 16
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris (born 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. He was born six weeks premature which, along with the oxygen-rich atmosphere in the hospital incubator, resulted in a condition in which the growth of the eyes is aborted and causes the retinas to detach, so he became blind. Wonder has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He has won 22 Grammy Awards. In 1984 he won an Academy Award for Best Original Song, I Just Called To Say I Love You. I had great fun singing this song (amongst others) with a pianist and percussion in a piano bar in a 5 star hotel in Switzerland on several holidays. I found it difficult to choose one 'Wonder' song so here are two, both written and sung by today's featured musician.
I Just Called To Say I Love You
You are the sunshine of my life
Weekend April 17/18
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a German composer and pianist. Obviously, when I decided on this week's theme, Beethoven was the first name that came to mind. But the first few minutes of research showed that he was not profoundly deaf until his last few years. According to Wikipedia (where I find much of the information for Tonic Jukebox) Beethoven told the English pianist Charles Neate (in 1815) that he dated his hearing loss from a fit he suffered in 1798. During its gradual decline, his hearing was further impeded by a severe form of tinnitus. He was almost completely deaf by 1814.
Beethoven's compositions consist of over 700 works written over 45 years. His Symphony No. 9 is a choral symphony, composed between 1822 and 1824. The symphony was the first example of a major composer using voices in a symphony.
The last movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony (25 minutes)
This is from the 2012 Proms, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, and featuring the National Youth Choir of Great Britain and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. If you have not heard of the orchestra it's worth following that link.
Personal note: I sang this at the reopening of the Royal Festival Hall in June 2007. The Philharmonia Orchestra was conducted by Paul Daniel and I was one of more than 1,000 voices. I am not sure my voice ever recovered.