Show 135: A Retrospective

[Added on 2015/7/18:  This used to be called Show 35.  I've renumbered the shows, so that this one is Show135.  The first digit will indicate which series the show is from: 1 for the first cycle, 2 for this second cycle, and so on.  For instance, the July 4^th show for this year will be numbered numbered Show201, and so on.  If you didn't figure this out yet, my first show aired the week of July 4th, 2014.]

Notice that our web page cover art already incorporates the Rainbow theme: the five Adirondack chairs are all colored brightly!  This is a great week for people of alternate lifestyles, and I'm sure that very soon that phrase: "Alternate lifestyles" will stop being so useful.  I am a little uncomfortable with all the crowing that is going on; it is quite unnecessary to present the triumph of the LGBT community as a massive defeat for gender-conservatives, to coin a phrase.  Jesus loves and forgives everybody, just as he has forgiven countless TV evangelists for their adultery over the past several decades.

It has been just about a year since I started hosting this show, so I'm going to play one track from each of the 34 original shows I put together.  (I can hardly believe that I did not provide original shows on 17 occasions!!  Some weeks, it was just too much to do, to come up with 112 minutes of material.  In the early weeks, where the shows were actually much more ambitious than the last several shows, I put in more than 10 hours for the two-hour show.  Obviously I could not keep that up.  In the later shows, I essentially put each show together in about 6 hours.)



Here's a list of the themes for the 34 original shows, and links to representative cuts:

Introduction
Show 01: Trios.  We featured trios in both classical music, and pops, ranging from Bach, to Wagner, and The Beatles.  Here's a Trio from the Christmas Oratorio by Bach
Show 02: Songs.  All Things must Pass
Show 03: Patriotic, Nationalistic and Folk music.  Finlandia Hymn
Show 04: Dance music, especially Baroque dances used in classical forms. I'm not at all in love from Pajama Game
Show 05: Warhorses, or the highly popular classical pieces that everybody knows.  The Mozart Sonata in C, K 585
Show 06: Muzak, the beautiful music we hear in elevators and box stores.  This is a very popular tune: the Méditation from Massenet's Thaïs
Show 07: Animals!  We featured funny songs by Flanders and Swann, and The Carnival of the Animals, etc.  Here is The Waltzing Cat by Leroy Anderson
Show 08: Miscellaneous.  In particular, I described the origins of the sign-in tune, basically a Bach fugue; BWV 543 in A minor (an organ fugue), and this march, which I still use as my sign-off tune, and which sounds as though it could be by Haydn, but almost certainly isn't.  I have expanded the 30-second tune to a minute-long piece.
Show 09: Romance.  Dies Bildniss ist bezaubernd schön from Mozart'sThe Magic Flute
Show 10: Concertos.  These are orchestral works with a featured soloist, and are some of the most tuneful and accessible classical pieces you can find.  This is an uncommon sort of concerto: it is for Flute and Recorder, by Telemann
Show 11: Duets.  We played the Lakme duet, and also Lennon and Maisy singing "That's what's up"
Show 12: Variations.  Among the variations we included, are the Goldbergs, the Mozart variations by Chopin, and the St Anthony Chorale variations of Brahms.  Here are the Harmonious Blacksmith Variations, from Handel's Sonata in E
Show 13: Overtures.  Fingal's Cave, and Fidelio were played, among others.  This is a fragment from the overture to Candide, by Leonard Bernstein
Show 14: Halloween.  Lots of scary music for All Hallow's Eve.  Monster Mash
Show 15: Chamber music.  Quartets, quintets, trios, etc.  This is the Trio Sonata in E Flat of J. S. Bach.  It really isn't chamber music, because it is a trio for an organ.  Here it is played by a guitar trio.
Show 16: Magic.  Wagner's magic fire music, the Magic Flute, etc.  This is from the Magic Flute, two numbers, referring to the magic flute, and the magic bells
Show 17: For my mother, who died around Thanksgiving, we played music she liked. This is Old Man River, from Showboat, sung by Paul Robeson
Show 18: Death and Mourning.  This is the closing chorus from the Matthew Passion: Wir setzen uns.
Show 19: Odds and Ends; no theme for this show.
Show 20: Christmas and Holiday music, while I was traveling home to visit the family. This is the final chorus of the Christmas Oratorio of Heinrich Schutz
Show 21: Switched On Bach, a celebration of the famous album by Wendy Carlos. Here are the two-part inventions of Bach
Show 22: No theme; the only thread running through this one was Raise the Region.
Show 23: Rhythm and Blues.  We played a lot of what I thought was R 'n' B, but turns out not to be what everybody else things it is. This is a song by the Seekers with a strong gospel feel: We shall not be moved.
Show 24: Spring, and J. S. Bach's Birthday.
Show 25: Contrasting versions; sometimes two performances of the same piece, or two pieces, one of which was the origin of the other.
Show 26: Good Friday.  Some excerpts from the Matthew Passion, and some nice Bach stuff. This is a highly identifiable chorale from the Matthewpassion
Show 27: World Music; music from all over, especially non-Western Style music. Here's Three Little Birds, from Jamaica
Show 28: Close Harmony, and Barbershop. Here's Delia, by the Yale Whiffenpoofs
Show 29: Another non-theme show, where I tried out a different format. This is I'll follow the Sun, by the Beatles
Show 30: A medley of random pieces from my collection.
Show 31: Swinging Bach, from Bobby McFerrin in Leipzig, and The Entertainer, from Scott Joplin.
Show 32: Again, contrasting versions. Here's a Weird Al Yankovic take on a popular tune
Show 33: The Quiz.  You had to name the piece (and the composer, and the composer's nationality) based on a bar or two of the music. I did not make the filenames very obvious, so I have no idea about this one.
Show 34: In celebration of parents, and also Papa Haydn, and Papa Bach. This is a piece my father liked: The Minute Waltz, by Chopin.