Monday, April 27, 2015

MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2015

QUOTE:
"You learn a lot about people when you listen
  to the songs that mean something to them."
AUTHOR: Unknown
MEANING OF THE QUOTE:
"A person's choice of art gives you
  a glimpse into their inner soul."

COMPOSER
BERNSTEIN
CANDIDE OVERTURE
Leonard Bernstein, Conductor
London Symphony Orchestra, 1989
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=422-yb8TXj8
http://www.8notes.com/tunes/1139706645940.asp
Oh Happy We - Theme from Candide
Oh Happy We - Theme
Glitter and Be Gay - Theme (It plays 3 times)
Candide was Bernsteins's third Broadway
musical. It was not a commercial success
when it opened in New York in 1956. The
overture, which incorporates tunes from the
songs "The Best of All Possible Worlds,"
CANDIDE
"The Best of All Possible Worlds"
Marin Alsop, Conductor
New York Philharmonic, 2005

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmc72fCJivA
Cover to Broadway Cast Recording
"Battle Music," "Oh, Happy We,"
CANDIDE
"Oh, Happy We!"
Marin Alsop, Conductor
New York Philharmonic, 2005
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF9IjzXHuA8
Cover to Broadway Cast Recording
and "Glitter and Be Gay"
CANDIDE
"Glitter and Be Gay"
Marin Alsop, Conductor
New York Philharmonic, 2005
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5liuHR6wug
Cover to Broadway Cast Recording
as well as melodies composed specifically
for the overture, have become a performance
concert staple. A Bernstein trademark, much
of the music is in odd time signatures
including 6/4 and 3/2, which are furthermore
combined with 4/4 and 2/2 to make
5/2's and 7/2's in places.
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EXCERPT TAKEN FROM:
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/literature/resource/4432.html
Candide by Voltaire(Voltaire's 18th-Century Satire on Blind Optimism)
Candide is the story of an innocent young man
embarking on a series of adventures during which
he discovers much evil in the world.
Quentin Blake: Illustrator
Throughout his journey Candide
believes in and adheres to the philosophy
of his teacher, Pangloss, that
Pangloss
"all is for the best
in the best
of all possible worlds."
This philosophy was prevalent during
Voltaire's day, and Candide is Voltaire's
scathing response to what he saw as an
absurd belief that for its followers, the
Optimists, was an easy way to rationalize
evil and suffering. Candide was composed
mainly as an attack on Gottfried Leibniz,
Gottfried Leibniz
was also written in opposition to
Alexander Pope
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2013/04/quasi-unintelligibility-part-1-2/
which espouses that "partial evil" is for the
"greater good." Though he was by no means
a pessimist, Voltaire refused to believe
Optimism-vs-Pessimism.png
https://ontheroad29.wikispaces.com/Optimism+versus+Pessimism
that what happens is always for the best.

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Voltaire
STORY OF CANDIDE
Based on the Novella by Voltaire
By: Leonard Bernstein
http://www.wmea.com/index.php?module=cms&page=691
Based on a satirical novel by Voltaire,
Candide tells the story a young man,
Candide, a youth from the
Westphalian province of Germany

who believes fervently in the teaching
of his tutor, Pangloss, that
"Everything that happens
must be for the best."
Even after being banished from his homeland,
captured by Bulgarians, beaten and left for dead
by the Spanish Inquisition,
Quentin Blake, Illustrator
robbed of everything he owns,
and torn repeatedly from the woman
he loves, Candide still clings to the philosophy
that everything is for the best in this,
"the best of all possible worlds."
Candide journeys with his sweetheart Conegonde and Pangloss to Lisbon,
Paris, Buenos Aires, and the legendary El Dorado, only to encounter
social reality in the crime, atrocity, and suffering he observes.
He and his friends eventually find them-
selves in a cave in Turkestan, seeking
guidance from the "Wisest Man in the World"
who, quite luckily, is rumored to live in
a nearby cave. There they find Candide's
tutor, Dr. Pangloss, miraculously
unhanged, and, having abandoned his old
"best of all possible worlds"
philosophy, spouting a new one:
"the work ethic."
When Candide returns to Venice with Conegonde,
he is stripped of his idealism. His ultimate emotional
maturation concludes in the finale with the lyrics:
"…And let us try before we die
To make some sense of life
We’re neither pure nor wise nor good
We’ll do the best we know."
Candide, still quite commited to the good
doctor, decides to follow this new creed,
buy a little farm, grow a garden, and milk
the cow, which they have managed to
acquire. Even as everyone agrees that
this is, of course, a splendid decision,
the cow falls dead with the pox.
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Candide_3.jpeg
https://ontheroad29.wikispaces.com/Candide
candide-by-barry.png (550×847)candide-cunegonde-by-barry.png (550×847)candide-pangloss-by-barry
CANDIDE
(Complete)
Live on Broadway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO6I0G6kKz0
In the revised 1974 production the Overture begins
with Voltaire (the author) on stage.  A servant wakes
him and he begins reading his manuscript of Candide.
As he continues to read he takes on the role of Dr.
Pangloss (the teacher) and the students join him in an
18th century style classroom complete with chalkboard
and desks. The lesson begins with the song "The Best
of all Possible Worlds." As the production continues the
Voltaire character takes on several different roles.
ACT ONE
Orchestra
Candide, Cunegonde, Maximilian, Paquette
Dr. Pangloss, Candide, Cunegonde, Maximilian, Paquette
Orchestra
Candide, Cunegonde
Orchestra
Candide
Orchestra
Chorus
Orchestra
It Must Be So
(reprise)
Orchestra
Orchestra
Cunegonde
Orchestra
Dr. Pangloss
Chorus, Inquisitors, Judges
Candide
Candide, Cunegonde
Orchestra
Old Lady, Dons, Chorus

Candide, Cunegonde, Old Lady, Businessman
ACT TWO
Orchestra
Candide
Governor, Maximilian
Orchestra
Chorus
Orchestra
Sheep, Lion, Paquette, Candide
Orchestra
Governor, Chorus
Old Lady, Paquette, Candide
Old Lady, Candide, Paquette, Sheep
Orchestra
Prefect, First Gambler, Second Gambler (Police Chief)
Candide, Cunegonde
Candide, Cunegonde, Entire Company
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CANDIDE
CONCERT PERFORMANCE
CANDIDE
Leonard Bernstein, Conductor
Concert Performance
(Full Operetta: Unstaged)
KSU Wind Ensemble
Doctor Pangloss, Voltaire's satirical portrait of the
philosopher Gottfried von Leibnitz, tutors his
Wesphalian pupils. (Candide and Cunegonde among
them) in the finer points of optimism, refined by a
classical education. The music alternately enjoins
the pupil's responses with Pangloss's pendanic free
associative explanations that the ills of the world are
somehow all for the best. The refrain is, of course,
that this is the best of all possible worlds.
The devout Westphalians sing a chorale prasing the
integrity of their homeland, after which they are
massacred by the invading Bulgarian army. The Battle
Scene adroitly juxtaposes major and minor modes of
material familiar from the Overture.
Candide and Dr. Pangloss find themselves is Lisbon,
where, being free thinkers (and optimists), they are
prosecuted as heretics by the Spanish Inquisition. The
handing of heretics was meant to prevent earthquakes,
and the joyous music depicts the happy crowd celebrating
the deliverance. However, the earthquake happens
anyway, and Candide and Doctor Pangloss escape.
Cunegonde, Candide’s true love, has become the reigning
madam in Paris, France. In a parody of "Jewel Songs,"
(such as that in Gonoud’s Faust), she sings of how the
endeavors to maintain a brilliant, carefree exterior, while
she may (or may not) be tortured inwardly by self-doubt.
At the conclusion of the musical, and of Voltaire's novella,
Candide realizes that the only purpose of living is to
cultivate the earth, and to create a garden. He enjoins the
others to assist him in bringing things to life, and even
Cunegonde proposes to bake a loaf of daily bread.
Optimism is transformed into practical necessity, and the
entire casts of characters join in a hymn full of hope.
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