Shortly after, he recorded the Birth of the Cool sessions for Capitol Records, which were instrumental to the development of cool jazz.
BLUE BIRD IK MUSICPLAYER PROFESSIONAL
Louis, Davis left to study at Juilliard in New York City, before dropping out and making his professional debut as a member of saxophonist Charlie Parker's bebop quintet from 1944 to 1948. īorn in Alton, Illinois, and raised in East St. Davis adopted a variety of musical directions in a five-decade career that kept him at the forefront of many major stylistic developments in jazz.
He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. I preceded it with my predecessor's own setting of Emily Dickinson's "The Moon", which ends with "her dimities of blue" and of course he set the last word to an F# major chord.Īnd a plea: I once heard it described by a critic as "the most impressionistic choral work in the English language" but can't find a citation.Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Small wonder, then, that his recording with the Cambridge Singers, albeit 10 years later, is my favorite.Īfter emigrating to the US, I included it in what turned out to be the last concert by the Microsoft chamber choir (the Microtones) in 2002. It's very likely that John Rutter was there, as he was a graduate student at the time.
I was there in either 1970 or 1971, and as they started, a bird - and I didn't see the color - flew up from behind the singers and quietly perched in a tree, as if to listen. The song traditionally started the second half, and they lit lanterns on the boats before singing it. My story: the Cambridge University Chamber Chorus used to (and still does?) include it in their May Week concert held on the river - literally, sitting in punts. I just came across this thread while researching the song. I was unaware of this even though we used to sing a lot of Stanford's choral music when I was a chorister at Worcester Cathedral 1947-56, Just heard it for the first time on ClassicFM. Sadly, the soprano is no longer with us, but I still treasure listening to the recording. The soprano soloist had an incredibly beautiful voice that soared as the rest of us provided the background. I've sung this beautiful piece with an excellent choir. Having been brought up as a chorister I have many deep rooted memories of singing Stanford works and agree there is much deemed currently out of fashion which is overlooked Brought back sweet memories of singing it at University on the river in the dark with candlelight - happy days. The Bluebird is indeed a treasure - I played it last night for friends who had never heard of it. Thank you, I just stumbled across your excellent article. "Thou art the everlasting son.") published some 13 years earlier. I wonder if the soaring motif in the soprano part was inspired by a strikingly similar one in Elgar's Te Deum (cf. Last line of both poem and song is: "It caught his image as he flew." But neither I nor we shall ever experience it except this way.
And Stanford makes it happen, with that soaring treble, a cappella-still, like the setting. This piece proposes that we accept that a bird “caught” its image, for an instant became aware of itself. I see a lone bird of palest blue fly over the water now reflecting the sky’s blue-blue and blue-and at the last instant the bird catches its image in the water-the end, no denouement. I’m sitting beside a lake beneath the sky, framed by hills. If we can get into the imagery, then we’re led to a transcendent moment. I think what the music does with the verse is sublime, and to me it’s not at all second-rate.
Thanks for the impression of Stanford and The Blue Bird. Perhaps this was potentiated by the book I’m reading – Juliet Nicholson’s Perfect Summer (about 1911).īoth works evoke for me a mix of beauty, melancholy and foreboding. I heard it on R3 last night which, not expecting it, touched me suddenly. Thank you! Your feelings about this piece echo my own.
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