Morricone at midnight

*NB. It may seem confusing that this was posted on Saturday but I say it is Friday; this is because I started it on Friday night, finished on Saturday morning (midnight passed) and am posting this now on Saturday.*

 Hello everyone!

 Today is Friday and I am sitting in Halls writing this and listening to "Gabriel's Oboe," the theme from The Mission. It was composed by Ennio Morricone and is beautiful.

 I heard this for the first time in a long time in a lecture yesterday  in a Spanish culture lecture, about Bartolomé de las Casas and the New World, hence the link to this song; it incorporates European music and reaches out towards indigenous American music.

 Our Spanish culture lecturer, Esther, likes to play a piece of music at the start of every lecture, which is great for me because discovering new music that I like is one of my favourite things. And I am so, so glad that she played this. It sounded so familiar to me, and words started playing in my head to it, and I knew that I'd heard it before, as some kind of song.

 I also assumed the original piece of music was an old classical piece. However, it turns out it was written in 1985/6 for a film, The Mission. I genuinely cannot believe that something so beautiful, so pure, so uncontrived (Blogger is telling me "uncontrived" isn't a word; well, I'm inventing it) could have been written so recently.

 I would have thought all the rawest of melodies; the most original and simple and perfect, had been taken by some musician or another long before 1985. But Gabriel's Oboe is beautiful and magical and comes from some natural, faraway place, from which no other music comes. And I know this is getting sentimental, but that is how much this song moves me.

 As for me putting lyrics to it in my mind... I found out later that Sarah Brightman recorded an operatic version called "Nella Fantasia" (in the Fantsay)... but listening to it I don't think that is the version I somehow know and keep remembering pieces of. There is some other song within this song that is somehow a part of my memories and yet I can't quite reach it. Maybe one day I will.

 I must add that I have listened to the version with English lyrics by Hayley Westenra, and I like it but think someone could still write better lyrics than the English or Italian ones in either of the operatic versions.

 On the other hand, maybe adding lyrics to this song is not the right way forward... it was designed as an orchestral piece and it works best as one. An oboe or a piccolo or a French horn can have a voice and sing. Words would be crude and heavy and spoil the song. It is about feeling the meaning of the song, not having it dictated to you in words. Words tell you how you should interpret a song; without them you can make your own stories, have your own visions of what this music is about and what it represents and how we are supposed to feel listening to it.

 I am speaking as someone who is a lover of popular music and country music, and who doesn't listen to as much orchestral music as maybe she should. This has enlightened me. Thank you, Esther.

 I hope you, my reader, have enjoyed this blog post and my thoughts on Gabriel's Oboe. Please give it a listen if you've never heard it (though the likelihood is that you've heard it without knowing exactly what it was. A song can have a presence in your mind before it has a title.)

 I don't usually implore people to listen to songs I like; I just comment on them and hope that maybe you consider listening to them yourself. But I strongly advise you to listen to this particular piece of music. It has had a profound impact on me, at least.

 Thanks for reading.

 Liz x

Song: Gabriel's Oboe - Ennio Morricone - 1985/6

Ireland, the Olympics, Snowdonia and Nanci Griffith

 Fáilte! Hello dear blog readers! I love you all!

 I apologise for not having blogged in quite a while, but I have been on holiday in Ireland and since then have been busy with a few things, such as a new project at Cornerhouse cinema/art gallery, about which I am very excited! More about that later.

 Firstly I will tell you about my trip to Ireland. It was lovely. I love Ireland; I have a lot of family who live there and have visited many times. It is a truly beautiful country and I really feel at home there. 

 We stayed in County Wexford, in the south-east of Ireland, where we spent time in the pretty little town of Wexford itself, at the beach, walking in the hills, and at Hook Head with its lighthouse - the oldest intact operational lighthouse in Ireland - and its spectacular coast with crashing blue waves, seals bobbing up and down and hundreds of tiny fossils all over the rocks.

 We then drove across Ireland to County Limerick, to the city of Limerick which is one of the largest cities in Ireland. We met up with family there and had a really nice time. Limerick is a lovely city - and it has the River Shannon running through it! I love cities with a river or a coastline. I just love being near water. 

 I also want to proudly point out that in one day we crossed the two longest rivers in Ireland - the Shannon and the Barrow. I think that's quite a cool achievement, especially when we didn't set out to do it; it just happened that they were both on our route from Wexford to Limerick.

 We watched the Olympic Opening Ceremony when we were in Ireland, and I was quite impressed. More than I had expected to be! I didn't have any prejudices, I just thought it would be impossible to match Beijing. But it was actually really good. I especially liked the beginning section with the choirs and then the industrial revolution and Kenneth Branagh. 

 I also liked the part with James Bond and the Queen, the Abide With Me section - Emeli Sandé is amazing - and the lighting of the cauldron. I think the petal idea was really good.

 I wasn't keen on Paul McCartney's appearance - I like his music but am a bit tired of him being treated like some kind of national treasure and featuring at every event like this. And the same for David Beckham! I think he's very overrated as a footballer. However, I understand he played a big part in bringing the Games to London, so I respect him for that. 

 I loved the fact that they had Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, in the ceremony. The Web really does shape the way we live in the western world in this day and age. I hadn't known he was British. Now he is a national treasure!

 On the way back from Ireland I spent some time with a good friend of mine in Wales, which was lovely. We also got to explore some of the Welsh countryside and Snowdonia. I had never been there before and it was very beautiful and striking; I would love to go back there some day. It was brilliant to see Mount Snowdon, even if most of it was shrouded in mist!

 Since getting back I have been working on a new project at Cornerhouse; I am one of a team of young curators who are curating our very own exhibition of artists' work. I did something similar in January when I was on the curation team for the exhibition Lost is Found, and I really enjoyed that, so it's lovely to have the chance to do it again.

 I have been listening to a great deal of music from the amazing Nanci Griffith. I will do a full post on her very soon, but for now here is a selection of some of her very best songs.

 I Knew Love, which is a simply stunning love song - and very sad too. I learnt the lyrics to this when I was little and used to sing it all the time.

 More than a Whisper; this is a live version which I only recently discovered and which I love. I have listened to the album version all of my life on the Last of the True Believers album (pictured below as the thumbnail for the next two songs which are also both from that album). All the images of the winter and the snow and needing to be woken up always made me think of a badger curled up asleep for the winter.

 Goin' Gone; this was one of my favourite Nanci songs, and probably my favourite from this album, when I was younger. I then went though a stage of not liking it very much, and then I started liking it again! Ah well, there's no accounting for tastes! The lighthouse imagery is a bit top-heavy, but the sentiment is very real and beautiful.

 Fly by Night is a Nanci song I didn't used to really appreciate because it is the second-last song on its album, and I used to listen to Nanci albums going to sleep, and so I'd usually be half asleep by the time this was on, and although I liked it, it never really stood out for me as a favourite. 

 I then rediscovered it years later on YouTube and realised I really love it; it is a really strong, gutsy song about someone who is not taking any nonsense any more, and I love that. The musicality is gorgeous too, as in all Nanci songs. The woman is nothing short of a genius.

 She is so fantastic; she has a beautiful, unique voice, and is a simply stunning songwriter. She is one of the best musicians I have ever known. 

 In other news, I have found out that In Your Eyes by Niamh Kavanagh was the reigning Eurovision winner when I was born, and I am very chuffed about that because I love that song.

 I'll sign off for now.

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

 If you enjoyed this post I recommend: My top songs lyrics-wise, Mountains and memories: Nanci Griffith and Tina Turner, The Songbird from Bouth and Amazing news and the Kennedys ♥.

Songs: I Knew Love - Nanci Griffith - 1988

More Than A Whisper - Nanci Griffith - album version released 1986, this live version released 1988

Goin' Gone - Nanci Griffith - 1986

Fly by Night - Nanci Griffith - 1986

♥ I've Been In Love Before ♥

 Bonjour!

 Today is the 4th of July which for some people will mean fireworks and celebrations, so I hope that if it concerns you, you are enjoying this special day. For me, however, this date is important for another, more personal reason: it was the 4th of July last year when I first posted my finished Montpellier trip film on YouTube. Here it is:

 We went on this college trip in March/April 2011 and I really loved it. It opened my eyes to the culture of the south of France, where I had never been before.

 I really got the chance to practise my French, and I could feel it improving more and more during the nine days we spent in Montpellier and Carcassonne. And I really enjoyed making the film of the trip - it was hard work but was truly a labour of love. I am so happy with the final result.

 I had such a good time in Languedoc-Roussillon (the region of France we visited) that I went on the trip again this year, and again I had a lovely time. And again, I am making a film so that we can look back and remember the great times we spent together in such an amazing place.

 I'm really pleased with the way this year's film is coming along, and hopefully it will be up on YouTube soon.

 A song I have been listening to a lot recently is I've Been In Love Before by Cutting Crew.

 As well as being incredibly beautiful, this song brings back lots of memories for me: I remember around the first time I started listening to it was on a lovely family holiday in London, and I remember driving down leafy green lanes listening to this in the car. 

 It also brings back memories of another enjoyable trip I went on around the same time; a school trip to Belgium. I remember listening to this on my MP3 player in the coach and being moaned at for having my music too loud! I love this song ♥

 I hope you enjoy it too.

 Thanks for reading, 

 Liz x

Song: I've Been In Love Before - Cutting Crew - 1986/7

Alison Moyet

 Hello my dear readers (whom I love very much),

 I am currently in the middle of a busy exam period at college, so I have been doing lots of work and revision. But I have also tried to find time to listen to some music as well, to help me stay as relaxed as possible and not get too stressed by all the extra work.

 At the minute I am listening to a lot of music by Alison Moyet; I have already mentioned her in this blog a while back because her song "Is This Love?" is one of my favourite songs of all time.

 It is just so happy and can always make me smile, and the video is lovely as well because it is a group of people having a really good time together (in Cornwall apparently; I've just looked it up) without too much of the melodrama, acting and posing that you get in a lot of music videos, especially ones from the 80s which was when this song came out. (I do love the 80s though! And 80s videos. I just like this one particularly for daring to be a bit different.)

 Another song of hers which I adore is "Invisible." I first heard this on the radio and was surprised when at the end they said that the song was by her - I had thought I would have recognised her voice, but I just hadn't. I'm not saying it doesn't sound like her; I just didn't make the connection.

 The first twenty seconds of this record are so exquisitely beautiful - the musicianship is amazing, and it justs sounds sublime. One of those musical moments that has been toned absolutely perfectly. Just fantastic. And the song goes on to be lovely as well - a very sad story, with a bitter-sweet melody; they just match so well while managing to still form quite an upbeat song. 

 "Like a merry-go-round, I'm going up; going down..."

 I must also mention "Only You," a gorgeous song she sung as one half of the duo Yazoo (the other half being Vince Clarke, who wrote the song). There was also a famous cover by the group, The Flying Pickets, which was sung a capella, and is truly amazing. But I still prefer the original, because I adore Alison ♥ 

 There are various versions; I like this orchestral one but there are more synth-based versions so I would give them a listen to as well.

 I remember being set a task in art at high school; to produce a piece of art based on a piece of music; as Kandinsky did a lot. I chose this song, and my picture was a pastel drawing of circles and dots and swirls of pink and blue and red. I just find the sound so magical, yet peaceful. I love it. The bit where she sings, "And I need you..." and she sounds like she really means it. That's my favourite lyric.

 So, I hope this has been nice for Alison Moyet fans to reminisce - and also to celebrate her, as she has until recently still been producing new material, so she is by no means a singer of the past. She is a singer of the past, present and maybe of the future - and certainly her songs are timeless and the themes in them - mainly different views on love - will always be relevant. 

 And if you are new to this singer and her music, I hope I have provided a good introduction to her, and that I have done her justice. The three songs I have chosen to highlight are only the tip of the iceberg; she has so much great music out there, so I recommend you have a listen and see what you think. You may find you have a new favourite singer.

 Thanks for reading.

 Liz x

Songs: Is This Love? - Alison Moyet - 1986

           Invisible - Alison Moyet - 1984

           Only You - Yazoo - 1982                                 

Roxette and others

 Hi!

 I am back at college after the long summer, and I am enjoying it.

 Recently I have been listening to a lot of music by Deacon Blue, as well as by Céline Dion.

 I also like some of the music that is in the charts at the moment, my favourite songs in the current Top 40 being Set Fire To the Rain by Adele, and The Edge of Glory by Lady Gaga.

 I have started to appreciate the sad but quite beautiful The A Team by Ed Sheeran; I didn't think a lot of it at first, but the I went to a party where I heard it a lot. I'm not complaining; I have really come to like this song.

 And, of course, there is always Roxette. They are probably my favourite band, and I will never grow weary of hearing their amazing songs such as Almost Unreal, Dangerous, It Must Have Been Love, How Do You Do, Neverending Love and Soul Deep.

 There are also the forgotten album tracks that I think are amazing and often better than their big hits.

 These include: Turn To Me, From One Heart To Another and Secrets That She Keeps from their first album Pearls of Passion and Dance Away and Half a Woman, Half a Shadow from their second album (and arguably their breakthrough album) Look Sharp!.

 There is also Small Talk and Perfect Day from Joyride and Bringing Me Down To My Knees from their 2001 album Room Service.

 Here is Turn To Me; probably my favourite Roxette song of all time. It is so chirpy and hopeful, and Marie Fredriksson's voice is stunning, as always.

 It's strange to think that this song was left off the original album of 1986, and was only included as a bonus track when Pearls of Passion was re-released in 1997. 

 I personally believe that Turn To Me is the best song on the album - a strong accolade from me, as I believe this whole album is a true gem, forgotten for too long. 

 It mixes the classic synth sounds and strong beats of the 80s with the unique Roxette sound, and in my opinion it may well be Roxette's finest album.

 That's not to say I don't love the others! Roxette went from strength to strength, and are still doing so to this day. Here is one of their recent songs, wheich I love, especially the official video.

 As you can see, I love Roxette, and I will probably tell their whole story on this blog sometime. For the time being, though, I'll sign off.

 Back to work!

 Adios.

 Thanks for reading.

 Liz 

 Songs: Turn To Me - Roxette (1986)

            Way Out - Roxette (2011)

Probably my all-time favourite song!

I love this song!

I first heard someone singing it on Stars In Their Eyes, and I liked the song but could only ever remember the chorus as I had only heard the song that once.

A long time passed and I forgot about it, then I heard it on the radio and I loved it and I looked it up and found the video on YouTube.

And what a lovely video! I adore seeing musicians enjoying themselves in music videos; just having a laugh and making you, the viewer and listener, smile with them.

And it goes without saying that Alison's voice is just sensational.

A lovely song, an adorable singer and a band who look like they are a great lot to hang around with, judging from the video.

Long live Alison Moyet! She is just amazing.

I hope that you enjoy this song as much as I always have done.

Liz x

Song: Is This Love? - Alison Moyet