Oh what bliss, what rapture, what Ellington. It’s snowy here in DC and today is going to be filled with brunch and hanging out with friends. I’m going to ask the Duke if he’d like to come, too. This piece swings and grooves and croons and is mellow without being limp. He truly is the Duke for a reason.
Salubrious Saturday
Salubrious Saturday: “Mo Ghruagach Dhonn,” Julie Fowlis
StandardThis is such a lovely song. Julie Fowlis is from the tippity-top of Scotland, a place called North Uist in the outer Hebrides (look for it on Google Images – it’s just gorgeous). Her music always makes me happy and homesick at the same time, and as it’s cold and windy in D.C. today, it puts me a Scottish frame of mind. A good day for bundling up and venturing outside with a hot beverage and some good tunes.
—
Hi ho ro, mo ghruagach dhonn,
S ann ort fhèin a dhfhàs an loinn:
Dhfhàg siud acaid na mo chom,
An gaol cho trom s a ghabh mi ort.
Fhuair mi do litir Dimàirt,
Dhinnseadh dhòmhsa mar a bha:
Gu robh thu a tighinn gun dàil
A-mach air bàta Ghlaschu.
Nuair a leugh mi mar a bha,
Ghabh mi sìos am Brumalà:
Chunnaic mi a tighinn am bàt
S an t-àilleagan, an ainnir, innt.
Nuair a shìn mi mach mo làmh,
Thionndaidh thu le fiamh a ghàir
S labhair thu facal no dhà
Dhfhàg iomadh tràth gun chadal mi.
S ann ort fhèin tha ghruag a fàs –
Cha dubh s cha ruadh is cha bhàn,
Ach mar an t-òr as àille snuadh,
Gu buidhe, dualach, camalagach.
Dhèanainn sgrìobhadh dhut le peannt,
Dhèanainn treabhadh dhut le crann,
Dhèanainn sgiobair dhut air luing,
Air nighean donn nam meall-shùilean.
Meòir is grinn thu air an t-snàth
No cur peannt air pàipear bàn,
Ach ma chaidh thu null thar sàil
DhAstràilia, mo bheannachd leat.
Cha bhi mi tuilleadh fo leòn,
Glacaidh mi tè ùr air spòig –
Solamh bu ghlice bha beò,
Bha aige mòran leannanan
Hi ho ro, my brown-haired lass,
whose beauty becomes more beguiling.
The deep love I have for you
has left me sorely wounded.
Your letter arrived on Tuesday
Telling of what was to be.
It told that your ship would arrive
in Glasgow without delay.
When I read this,
I immediately headed for the Broomielaw.
I saw the ship carrying the jewel,
the maiden, approach.
When I held out my hand
you turned with a slight smile and
uttered a couple of words
which left me sleepless many nights
You have the lovliest hair,
neither black, nor red nor fair,
but the colour of the most beautiful gold,
yellow, braided and curled.
I would write for you with a pen.
I would cultivate for you with a plough.
I would captain a ship for you,
brown haired lass of the deceiving eyes.
You are skilled at working wool
and at writing on blank paper.
But if you have gone overseas, to Australia,
goodbye to you.
I will no longer be in despair.
Ill grab a new one by the hand.
Solomon, the wisest man who lived,
had many sweethearts.
Salubrious Saturday: “Beggar in the Morning,” The Barr Brothers
StandardHi there, Tune-Up fans. Yankette here. It was an absolute monster of a week, with long, long days and very little sleep. So I am doing as little as possible this weekend. It’s cool and rainy here today so I am spending the day holed up in my apartment playing geeky board games in my PJs. Then I’m going to a best friend’s house for dinner. I may or may not be spending the rest of the weekend doing some combination of napping, staring off into space, and reading. I’m only leaving the house if provoked. Here is a nice, mellow song to accompany the nice, mellow activities you’ll be getting up to this weekend. “I think I’ve come a long, long way to sit before you here today.”
Salubrious Saturday: Duet for Two Violins and Orchestra, Steve Reich
StandardI adore Steve Reich. Adore him. He is one of my top ten favorite composers, and has influenced my life enormously. This blog will feature some of his other work later on. There are, however, a fair number of people I know who don’t enjoy Steve Reich at all. (Hi, Mom. Oh hey there, third ex-boyfriend on the left.) It’s more than understandable. There isn’t a discernible melody, for starters, nor an easily explainable rhythm, which leads some to conclude that Reich’s music is pretty pointless. When I play this piece, however, some of them warm up to the idea. (Hi again, Mom. Smell you later, third ex-boyfriend on the left.) Though it keeps to the general Reich-ian aesthetic of repetitive minimalism, it’s also beautifully – and accessibly – lyrical. It sounds like Vaughan Williams’s lark when it was still young and went cruising with its best friend, before it grew up, went to Groton and Yale, got its medical degree, and became an elegant, staid, and entirely boring lark that ate a light dinner and retired early with some Tennyson poems. (Yes, yes, “Better not be at all than not be noble,” good for you.) This piece makes me feel like I just took in a lungful of fresh air on the first day of spring. Speaking of lungfuls of air, I am hoping to go for my first long training run today to prepare for the half-marathon I foolishly signed up for, and perhaps this piece will convince me it’s warmer than 20 degrees outside. Happy Saturday!
P.S. I took the photo in the video in Kiev, Ukraine. What a wacky place, Ukraine. More on that in a later post.
P.P.S. I am of course in no way maligning Groton or Yale. As they say, some of my best friends went to Groton and Yale.
Salubrious Saturday: “Do Your Thing,” Basement Jaxx
StandardIt’s Saturday. By now, you’re probably back from wherever you spent the holidays, or your family has finally left your house. You’ve woken up, with great relief, in your own bed, in your own living quarters, with no one to deal with and no one’s agenda to fulfill but your own. Maybe you’ll go to a yoga class wearing one of those low-cut tank tops that make your grandmother sad! Maybe you’ll build that Lego set all wrong! Maybe you’ll finally unleash your inner Caligula and diligently plow your way through the food and booze leftovers in your underwear as your blissfully ignorant parents spend their drive home discussing how great it is to see you looking so put together! Whatever you decide, today is all yours, my friend. You do you. So here’s a song to celebrate your liberation from forced happiness over dippy presents (“A ‘festive’ red and green cheese grater! Wow!”) and ossified holiday traditions that no one really enjoys but everyone keeps up because, well, it’s the holidays.
The Daily Tune-Up 